#and doesn't know how to math a piece of meat

[neo-admin]

Never been good at math before, but somehow still knows how to calculate with a calculator the right way

[wasawattpadkid]

Housewife

Part - 2

Summery: Billy and Stu have been planning these murders for quite some time. Everything is going to plan until you show up. What happens when they meet someone who is just as mentally deluded as they are?

Pairing: poly!ghostface x fem!reader

Warnings for this series: murder, blood, smut (will be more in depth on smut chapters), power dynamics, a dash of sexism, knives, stalking, perverse behavior, cheating,

Part 1

If you heard the names Casey or Steve one more time you might go insane. Stu ran up behind you wrapping his arms around your waist. "Boo!" The binder you held in your arms unceremoniously hit the floor. "Let go of me weirdo." You struggled but he didn't let go. "Did ya hear about Casey and Steve?" You could scream. The heel of your Mary Jane shoes made contact with his toes making him lose his grip. With a huff you picked up your belongings. "Why is everyone so obsessed with them?" Stu cocked an eyebrow at you. "Uh because they were slit open like pigs in a butcher shop?"

"I get that trust me thats all anyone can talk about. But you can't act all sad like you've lost a loved one and then talk in great detail about what organ fell out where. It's inhumane." He leaned back on the lockers listening to you rant. "Yesterday was a complete shit show. That Steve guy was a prick to me and he didn't even know my name yet. So he can't be the saint everyone's making him out to be. Murders happen everywhere all the time these two aren't going to change anything."

"Interesting take from Marry Poppins. What's got your panties in a bunch today?" You opened your locker putting away your things for lunch. "Some asshole started talking to me in 2nd period about how in a movie I'd be a prime suspect because the murders started when I got here." Randy. Stu knew the moment you brought up movies. "Well you did say Steve was an asshat, that's motive Y/n." He was right but let's be real here. You couldn't take on an athlete if you were paid. You rubbed your face in frustration. "Relax I know it's not you. You'd cry if you got blood on that cute little dress of yours." It really wouldn't matter you knew how to take practically any stain out of a piece of clothing.

"You'd be surprised." Just as the words left your lips a kid bumped into you knocking you into Stu. His hands conveniently found your hips. "Watch where you're walking asshole!" Stu shouted with a laugh. You pulled yourself away from him trying to straighten your dress with your hands. "Hey I'm meeting Tatum and everybody by the water fountain, you in?" The idea of being around more people wasn't ideal. Stu could see on your face you didn't want to. "Oh come on Billy's going to be there." He wasn't dumb. Billy was an attractive guy, he was well aware of that. All the girls had a thing for Billy, you were no exception.

"If I go you can't just completely ignore me because I only know you two." Stu shut your locker for you as you continued to walk. "Ignore you? I could never. You could sit on my lap if you wanted to." You fake gagged making him laugh. "I don't think your girlfriend would like that." He just shrugged his shoulders. "Eh I do what I want." This doesn't surprise you. "You are a peace of work." The doors opened letting the light bombard your skin. "Picasso baby!" Stu shouted as he grabbed your hand pulling you towards the fountain.

"Fresh meat everybody!" He declared as you stood uncomfortably in front of everyone. Billy looked more than unamused at your appearance. "Y/n right? You're in my math class?" You nodded at the girl with brown hair. She stuck out her hand for you to shake. "I'm Sydney Prescott." Billy shook his head with a smile. "Nice to meet you Sydney." She smiled up at you and returned the sentiment. "She's the killer I'll bet anybody 10 bucks." If looks could kill he'd be six feet under. "Randy knock it off. You think this adorable face could murder?" Stu pinched your cheeks with a grin on his lips. "Not a chance." He let go and found a seat next to Tatum. "Plus there's no way a girl could've killed them."

"Scoot over let her sit down." Billy huffed but did what Sydney told him. "That is so sexist. The killer could easily be a female, Basic Instinct." You nodded in Tatum's defense. "That was an ice pick. Not exactly the same thing." Stu looked over at all of us before looking at Tatum. "Yeah Casey and Steve were completely hollowed out. The fact is it takes like, a man to do something like that." Sydney looked down at the ground uncomfortable with the conversation.

"I don't know feminine rage is pretty scary. Do you know how many cheating husbands get stabbed to death or fed to the dogs by the wife. The fact is women know how to get a job done quickly and quietly. Men get cocky and want to play around that's how they get caught." Randy snapped his finger point at you. "See what I mean!" Stu laughed and Billy just looked at you with intrigue.

"How do you gut someone?" The honest tone of Sydney's voice made everyone quite down. "You take a knife and you slit them from groin to sternum." Billy sat up seemingly done with the gorey details. "Hey, it's called tact fuckrag." Billy looked at Stu his eyes once again saying more than his words did.

"Change of subject, I like your dress it's very Hepburn." Tatum spoke up. You cleared your throat trying to shake off that uneasy feeling. "Thanks I made it myself." She sat up in shock. "No way! You should totally make me one." If only it were that simple. "You think I'd look good in something like that babe?" She asked Stu and if you knew anything about him he'd give a smartass answer. "I think it'd look better on my bedroom floor but hey." She smacked his arm as everyone shared a laugh.

Stu continued rambling on about the murders with Randy. You were sick of hearing about it and it appeared so was Sydney. Her hand rested on Billy's knee as he whispered something to him. He nodded as she left a kiss on his cheek. The moment she left his demeanor darkened even more. He looked truly angry at this point. You assumed it was because Stu had upset her. Billy leaned next to you just enough to hit Stu's arm. "Ow man what gives? I was joking!" Billy was the next to get up followed by Randy.

"Hey Y/n? Are you doing anything Saturday? Me and Syd were going to hang out this weekend you could totally join." You knew Stu and Billy had plans to hang out with you and by the look on Stu's face he'd be upset if you said yes to Tatum. "Can't. My dad's going to be gone this weekend so I have to house sit." The smile on Stu's face was far from innocent. "You think with a killer on the loose you should be home alone?" She had a point but you doubted there was a serial killer running around. "I know how to lock my doors I'll be fine. Promise."

The school day went by fast thankfully. But once again everyone crowded around your car. "I'm not giving you a ride today." You shook your head. "I was thinking we could all go riding around maybe go to the mall? Someone's got to give you a tour." Stu said gesturing to the friend group you know found yourself a part of. "You don't have to of course." Sydney chimed in. She was probably the nicest one out of the group. "Who's got money for gas?" In an instant Stu handed you a crumpled up 100 dollar bill. "That should cover it and don't ask where its been." He noticed the shock on your face. "Don't worry there's more where that came from." He winked at you and Tatum rolled her eyes. You shoved the bill in your purse snapping it shut.

"Ive got work today so I'll catch you all later." Randy said as he walked away. You felt a little bad you were relieved at his absence. "Okay I've got bench seats so three people can sit up front and three in the back. "I call back seat with Stu." Tatum pulled at his shirt dragged him to the back. "No doing anything weird back there this is my dad's car." Tatum just laughed and Stu stuck his tounge out shaking it at you in protest. "Oh shit I forgot I've got to study for that exam tomorrow. I have to get home." Stu started to boo and Tatum echoed her boyfriend. "We'll only be gone a couple hours Syd."

"I have to pass this test Billy. You go ahead and go. You guys have fun!" She grabbed her bag and headed off towards the busses. Billy sat in the passenger seat again same aggravated look on his face. "Would it kill you to smile?" You asked lightheartedly. He turned to you flashing the fakest smile you'd ever seen. "See was that so hard?" Sarcasm dripping off your words. "Incredibly."

The mall wasn't hard to find after Tatum gave you some directions. You weren't sure how this little outing would go. On one hand it was nice having friends and spending time with people but on the other you and Billy were third wheeling. You had only been through half the stores and Stu already managed to spend an egregious amount. "Ooh help me pick out a set." Tatum said pulling Stu into the Victoria's Secret. Billy followed them in so you had no choice but to follow suit. "Do you have a boyfriend?" Billy asked as he touched the lace fabric on a teddy. "Odd question to ask considering you have a girlfriend."

"Fuck me for trying to make conversation." You laughed and decided to play along. "I do. We're trying the whole long distance thing." Billy found it hard to make eye contact with you. Choosing to play with and pick up anything around him to keep his hands busy. "He's probably cheating you know? Teenage boys do that." You're beginning to think both him and Stu have absolutely no filter. "Probably but it's not the like the guys around here are any better. I mean look at you and Stu." You're eyes flickered over to Stu holding up a bra to his chest declaring he was a girl. With a shake of the head you turn back to Billy. His eyes met with yours and for the first time he didn't advert his gaze. "Do you wear anything like this?" He gestured towards the thongs and see through bras.

"Nah I'm more into ropes and whips." You joke thinking if anyone would find it funny he would. His eye grew just a tiny bit wider surprised at your response. His lips quirked upwards a small smirk playing at his mouth. "I'm kidding!" Your face grew hot as he looked back down at what you were wearing. "No you're not. You're a freak. It's always the nice girls." Scoffing at that you wiped your hands down your dress trying to pull it further down your legs.

He smiled knowing he was making you uncomfortable. "You're a real creep you know that?" He held up in hands in fake surrender. "You caught me." Tatum shouted your name from across the store. "That's my que." You had no idea where she was or what she was doing. "She's in the dressing room I offered to help but ya know." He raised his eyebrows suggestively as if you didn't already know what he meant.

"Tatum it's me." You knocked on the door and it opened immediately. Her arm stuck out grabbing you and pulling you in. "You've got to stop doing that." You said in a hushed voice. "Opinions?" She said as she spun around practically naked. The red lace nightie left little to the imagination. "Um I think it looks cute. It doesn't cover much does it?" You ask and she laughed. "That's the point silly. You don't think it makes me look fat?" She was so skinny you worried about were her organs were let alone be over weight. "You look fine hun. I'm gonna go check on the guys." She said alright and let you slip out of the dressing room.

"We got you something." Stu shook the bag in front of your face startling you. "He got it." Billy spoke up as you took the bag from Stu. "No you grabbed it and said it would-" A swift punch to the ribs shut the blonde boy up. "Don't open it till later." Billy said and for some reason you agreed. "Is she about done in there?" The door opened and Tatum eagerly ran to the checkout desk. Stu like a puppy followed right behind her leaving you and Billy alone again.

"What did you get me?" Once again his eyes were on the floor. "Wouldn't you like to know?" He quipped his eyes finally reaching your face. "I would. That's why I asked." You both smiled at the small reenactment. "You didn't have to get me anything especially from here." He grabbed the bag from you tying the ribbon strings together. "Don't get too excited it's not a ball gag or anything." You smacked his arm snatching the bag back. "Plus I didn't pay for it. Rich boy over there did." He pointed at Stu.

"I'm hitting up Spencer gifts who's coming with me?" Going into that store with Stu was probably the dumbest thing you could do. "I'm in." You said mentally regretting it. "I'll go where you go." Tatum said as she hugged his arm. The last one to go was Billy. "Let's just get this over with." Stu practically ran to the opposite end of the mall with Tatum tossed over his shoulder. "There's no way your feet aren't killing you." Billy said looking down at your heels.

"I grew up in high heels mister. I could run in these bad boys if I had to." You weren't kidding. Growing up in a household where you had church every Sunday and you only had one pair of sneakers, you could run in heels. "I doubt that." He was getting more comfortable around you. Billy didn't even realize it. He used to be fun. He used to screw around and let loose like Stu does. Since his mom left and the world seemed to collapse around him he just had one to many stabs in the back.

"Wanna race?" He looked at you with a childlike curiosity. He would win he knew that much. Considering his murderous tendencies he could beat you in ten seconds flat. "I run to the store and if you catch me before I get there you win. What do you say?" Before he could answer you took off running. It was supposed to be fun for the both of you. A little game of cat and mouse. What you didn't realize was how seriously he would take it. The simple sound of his boots gaining up on you was terrifying. Your laughter stopped as you sped up.

You ran around people, who were then pushed out of the way by Billy. This was no longer a game. He was trying to catch you. The click of your heels got faster and faster till you ran into someone. "Woah there what's going on?" You looked up and saw Stu waiting at the door of Spencer's. You won. Billy was just two steps behind you the entire time. "Damnit!" He exclaimed appearing genuinely pissed that he didn't grab you. Tatum chimed in asking him what the hell was going on. After all to them it seemed like something horribly wrong had happened. "We were just playing. I told him we'd race each other." You looked back at Billy trying to catch his breath.

"Billy Loomis playing a game? Now that's unheard of." Stu gasped as he walked in the store. You approached Billy deciding to check on him. Your hand touched his shoulders as they heaved up and down. "Are you okay?" His hand wrapped around your wrist tighten enough to bare pain. "I'm fine." He flung your hand away, leaving you behind as he walked in the store. So much for that. It was hot and cold with him. You couldn't figure it out and you weren't sure if you wanted to.

Stu and Tatum were over in the novelty section making dirty jokes and just getting on each other's nerves. You didn't know where Billy went. You walked to the back of the store ignoring the adult toy section. You looked down at your stockings noticing the big rip on your right leg. "Shit!" You cursed picking at the hole. Going through the short selection of stockings they had to offer you finally settled on a pair. They were thigh highs which is something you usually didn't wear. Victoria's secret bag and stockings in hand you walked up to the cashier and paid.

Afterwards you met up with Stu and Tatum who were as equally ready to leave as you were. "Where's Billy?" She asked. "I have no idea." Stu leaned over trying to peak into the Spencer bag. "You get something from the back?" You did but you weren't going to be honest about it. "I did. I got it for Tatum though. She deserves at least six inches." She started to laugh as Stu acted all dramatic. "Ha ha really funny. Go ahead laugh it up. I'll have you know she's perfectly content with what she's got." Tatum shook her head making you laugh even harder. "You guys ready to go?"

"Where'd you go?" You asked Billy as he shoved his hands in his pockets. "Bathroom." You're not sure what you did to piss him off. Is he butthurt that you beat him in a race? That can't be it he's not 5. He shouldn't be upset by such a small thing. "Let's go bitches!" Stu and Tatum walked hand in hand once again leaving you and Billy to talk. "Did I do something wrong?" You ask gingerly not to upset him further. "No." Another one word answer.

"We can race again. I'll let you catch me this time. I'll play dead and everything if you'd like." You laughed trying everything in your power to make him tolerate you again. "You would?" You weren't being serious but if that's what it took so be it. "If you'll stop being mad at me I will." That somehow put a smile on his face. "Should I start running?" You joke and he actually chuckles. "No no. We'll save that for later."

Everyone makes their way to your car getting in the same seats as before. "I know where Stu lives where do you two live?" You sit your bags in the floor next to Billy's black combat boots. "I'm going to her house before I go home so you can take me there. She's going to take me home before they pick up Sydney." She proceeds to giggle at the admission. "Just drop me off at Stu's" Billy says as he slicks his hair back. "Do you live at Stu's place?" You start the car leaving the mall in your rearview mirror. "Stu's parents are never home so they practically live together."

Billy looked out the window not making eye contact with anyone in the car. "Means I throw the best damn parties our school has ever seen." Stu and Tatum rejoiced in the back. That fact left more questions than answers. It made sense why Stu seemed to be so flippant with money. It even explained his overall behavior. Billy's case however was different. How bad was it at his house that he needed to live with Stu? In all honesty you felt bad for both the boys.

"Hey Billy open the glove compartment and play something." He did as told until he saw the contents of the glove box. "What the hell?" He said as he pulled out an 8 track. "Listen my dad had an 8 track player put in back in the 70s so that's all I got." With a smile on his face he dug through all the boxes.

Pushing the tape into the car AC/DC blasted through the speakers. "How'd I know you'd pick that one?" He carefully put all the tapes back where he got them. "I have good taste what can I say?" He shrugged. First stop was Tatum's house. She gave you the directions which you quickly found out she lives on the same street as you. "Your lights on upstairs is your dad home? I saw your car in the driveway this morning." Tatum asked pointing at your house. Fuck. "So this is where the mysterious Betty Crocker lives." Stu laughed putting on his best Vincent Price voice. Billy was just satisfied in knowing where you live. "Yeah my dad is. He's probably sleeping though he's got to get up early in the morning which means I've have to get home so scoot." You waved the couple out of your car quickly.

You pulled away getting just a couple houses down the road before your car began to stall. "What's wrong?" Billy asked as you look around. "I don't know it hasn't done this before." You turned the car off and on again but nothing happened. "Does it have gas?" You didn't get gas. The crumpled 100 was still shoved in your purse. "Son of a bitch." You cursed as you hit the steering wheel. "Hop out I've got to go get the gas can out of my garage."

"Do I get a house tour?" You stayed quiet genuinely upset at your ignorance. "Listen when we go inside I want you to be quiet. Okay?" Billy nodded as you unlocked your front door. "Holy shi-" You immediately covered his mouth. "I told you to be quiet." Slowly you pulled your hand away and he stepped into the house. "What year do you think it is?" You shut the door as quietly as possible knowing your dad could get up at anytime. "Oh shut up." Billy looked around at the old pictures, the old decor, really the old everything. Billy didn't come from rich parents like Stu. Your house was definitely bigger and better but it didn't have the rich person feel. Billy's house wasn't the problem for him, it was the people in it. It used to be a happy home but all that was waiting for him now was alcohol and fights.

While you sat your bags down he looked around the place. It looked like no one had bought anything new for the place since the 70s. The TV in the living room was 90% wood and the kitchen was a tacky yellow. All the appliances on the counters had to be at least 20 years old. Hell the phone on the wall was a rotary dial phone. Billy felt like he was walking into the Myers house.

"Let's go!" You whisper yelled at him the heavy gas can pulling on your arm. "Give it to me." Billy grabbed the can with ease helping you out the front door. He went ahead and filled the car up for you so you could run the empty can back inside. "Thank you." You said with a huff throwing yourself in the driver seat. "It's nothing." He replied already ready to go. Before you did anything you peeled the heels off your feet tossing them in the back seat. The next to come off were your ripped stockings. Billy watched as your upper thigh was exposed. He could see the hem of your pink underwear before you caught him.

"Perv." You smiled knowing he had to be a little flustered. He just shook his head looking at the ceiling. You threw the stockings in the back seat with your shoes. Billy cleared his throat trying to start up a conversation."Your house is nice." You breathed out a laugh as you started the car. "You don't have to lie."

Billy's demeanor changed once again. Now that it was just you and him he had one leg bent on the seat so his body could face towards you. Even though your eyes were on the road you could feel his burning holes in you. "I mean it. It's different. Better than all those rich bitches we go to school with." He wasn't lying. It was hard to find anyone who had an actual personality these days.

"I know it's not everyone's cup of tea. My dad doesn't really care what I do with the house as long as there is food on the table when he gets home." Billy bit his lip in thought. "So you did all of that?" He found it impressive to say the least. "Not really. I haven't messed with much since my grandparents passed. The way the kept things always seemed nice as a kid. And I don't see the sense in wasting money on new stuff when I've got perfectly good old stuff that works." He saw the way your eyes grew wide when Stu handed you that hundred. You're not a money person. You were modest. Going through the mall you only bought one thing for yourself while Tatum begged for everything she saw.

"How often is your dad gone?" He asked. A dangerous question to answer if Billy's asking it. "He can be gone for weeks at a time. He's a truck driver. He goes where his boss tells him to go." The car goes quiet for a little while. Luckily for you it's comfortable. "What about you? How's your mom and dad?" You meant nothing hateful by it and he knew that. "I live with my dad too. My parents split up." You could feel him putting those walls back up. It was night and day with Billy. Slowly you car came to a stop in Stu's driveway. "My mom isn't in the picture either. You know if that shit ever starts to bother you, you can call me. As long as your girlfriends okay with it that is." You grabbed a pen out of the glove compartment gently pulling Billy's hand towards your lap.

His hand sat on top of your right thigh as you touched the tip of the pen to your tongue. Carefully your wrote down your phone number where the numbers were visible. Billy for the first time in awhile, he was the one who was scared. Scared of moving even the tiniest bit. A simple harsh breath would ruin whatever this was. Softly you brought his hand up to your face blowing cool air on the drying ink. "There ya go." You tossed his hand back, your gentle nature now gone. "But um yeah if you ever need to talk you can call me."

Funny enough he didn't want to call you. "Sure." Was all he could muster up. Billy finally decided he didn't want you dead like the rest of them. You were kind enough not to piss people off but you were sure of what you wanted. Too trusting, yes but it definitely helped his case. He'd have to make a new plan one that doesn't get you hurt. Well, one that doesn't get you killed.

Part 3

[nothorses]

So have you ever like. Talked to people that were homeschooled? Or did you just read one story online about a cult homeschooling their kids and went "fuck this is awful public school is so much better"?

I was homeschooled until 5th grade and then sent to public school. I lasted until 7th grade before I had to fucking beg my parents to homeschool me again. I was literally waking up for school in the mornings and immediately having a mental breakdown. I was constantly trying to fake being sick so I didn't have to go.

Homeschooling was SO much fucking better. I didn't have to sleep in jeans and a bra and t-shirt so that I was already dressed when I woke up, just so I had time to eat a small bowl of cereal before being forced to leave.

I didn't have to worry about classmates making fun of me behind my back, or my "friends" insulting me or going out of their way to embarass me in front of my crushes.

I didn't have to worry about having a cold or the flu or my period and being forced to go to school and be miserable all day covered in blood and snot.

I didn't have to worry about being given lunch detention because I forgot one book (probably because I have memory issues from severe ADHD)

I didn't have to worry about being overwhelmed with homework. I didn't have to worry about my teachers or classmates making me feel like a fucking idiot because I couldn't do math (wow turns out I have a severe learning disability that somehow no one noticed).

I didn't have to worry about being forced to run the pacer test in gym and not being allowed to rest, resulting in me throwing up.

You can't tell people "omg just because YOU had a bad time in school doesn't mean you're allowed to dislike it!!! Not all public school is bad!"

and then turn around and go "Homeschooling is awful it's just a bunch of religious bigot cultists teaching their children how to be bigots and children never getting to go out and socialize with their peers!!!"

All I learned from public school was:

Keep my fucking mouth shut, do not speak unless spoken to

Don't do anything "weird" or "different" (AKA show signs of having autism)

If you don't stay in school and go to college (AKA put yourself in thousands of dollars of debt in exchange for a piece of paper that doesn't actually guarantee you a job) then you'll die in a ditch somewhere

Don't even bother trying to make friends, they'll just treat you like shit

I was never taught anything useful that I couldn't have just learned by myself at home. I was never taught how to pay bills or what a mortgage is or how to grow my own food or raise my own animals for meat or how credit cards work or how to take care of myself after my parents die.

Public school is there to terrorize children and destroy them mentally until they conform to what society wants, so that they become the perfect unquestioning unthinking cogs in the machine that will work until they die.

It's there to make money for colleges because kids are never taught about trade jobs or making their own businesses/companies, they're taught that college is the be all end all and if you don't go there (and give them your time and money) then you'll become homeless and die.

It doesn't teach you how to think for yourself, it teaches you to shut the fuck up and obey or be punished.

I'm sorry you had that experience with public school, genuinely- and I know you aren't the only one, and this is honestly something I feel really passionate about. Like, actually; a big motivator for getting my Master's in Ed- and likely my Ph.D in Ed after this- has been that it positions me to get involved in a way that I can make larger changes than most classroom teachers might be able to influence.

I'm also really glad that homeschool was a positive thing for you! And I don't believe in outlawing homeschool or anything either; I do think it needs more regulation and resources, and I think there needs to be a wider array of options overall, but like. Given how education has historically been weaponized against indigenous communities to carry out cultural genocide (in the form of boarding schools), I think any laws against homeschooling would just end up repeating that same history.

But like, you can't ignore that homeschool has absolutely been used as a tool of abuse, too. And you can't ignore that abusive families and home environments exist, and you can't just... refuse to acknowledge the push from the conservative right to de-regulate homeschooling & break down public ed in order to further empower them to isolate and brainwash kids.

Hell, you wanna talk about how kids are taught to stop thinking, stop talking, and follow orders? Take a little day trip to a fundamentalist homeschooling network sometime.

You talk about public ed like it's this homogeneously evil entity designed for, and only capable of, abusing kids. But you wanna know what?

My family is abusive! My upbringing was abusive!

And sure, there's a chance they may have been able to pay for private school or something if public school had not been an option- for a few years, anyway. But that's because my grandparents have money, and because my mom was just neglectful enough to want me out of her hair.

I went to three elementary schools, two middle schools, and four high schools. All of those were public schools. Some of them sucked more than others, but all of them offered me:

An escape from home that I needed so desperately that, for a long time, I extended by hiding out at the public library for an extra 3+ hours.

Reliable lunches, even when my mom wouldn't pay for them.

Adults that I could trust, and did trust.

Adult role models and examples of a better future, especially in the queer adults that taught me.

Social connections, one of which was with a current roommate and my best friend.

Directly applicable knowledge and skills: cooking, online research and internet safety, everything I know about safe sex, finances, how to do my taxes, basic governmental structure, local, national, and world history, basic court proceedings, how to navigate colleges/university, (some) critical literacy & critical thinking skills, social-emotional learning, (some) critical race theory...

An array of options for different paths into an adult career: understanding (some) options like trade schools, community college, university, and the military (gross), and why I might choose one of those options vs. going straight into work.

Examples of and exposure to different & diverse ways of being, from home lives, to cultures, to queerness, to experiences I would never have firsthand.

Like, I have definitely grown up in pretty progressive areas & school districts, and that's a big part of it (though the conservative-leaning school I went to was also the school where my creative writing teacher read us a short story that he wrote about some gay star-crossed truckers).

These schools exist, and these experiences exist, and it's silly to dismiss them out of hand because your one stint into public school once was a nightmare.

And it's worse to dismiss the resource that these places are to so many families & kids. It's free childcare, it's one sure meal every day, it's community, it's exposure to diversity.

The practical alternative to that, for a lot of poor families, is child labor.

You don't have to like public education. I certainly have mixed feelings on it, and understanding & addressing the deep-seated problems in it are, like, the cornerstone of my life's work at this point.

What you should do, imo, is learn to recognize when you might not have all the context and information you need to make a judgement call like "destroy public education forever", look around at the people saying what you're saying & why they might be saying it, and perhaps consider listening to the people who have already been doing the work you've assumed is impossible.

[sillyclowncircus]

Oh no, silly brain rot

@o-i-w-u come get some gore

Au where the tsams characters all work at a school- but ya know me, murder murder murder- so uhm- everyone has a small twinge of evil- or a lot

And all the kids are orphans to explain why no one notices kids missing

Ack- murder school

Uuuhm- gore mention besties

Tw: gore, murder, death, children death, esting flesh, EVERYONE IS MURDERERS

Sun does art classes :D he really enjoys painting the most, and red just happens to be his favorite color! And who else but those misbehaving students to provide him with that red paint his loves so much? Whats a little loss of a misbehaving student for the cost of art after all? Besides, hes been teaching these kids for 3 months now! If their art hasnt improved yet, what use are they to him but paint providers?

Moon! Going with that basic bitch science teacher for him. He enjoys science and loves it even! It's such a nice pass time for him, something he can relax while doing! Thats why its so annoying when one of the students have to mess up his relaxation time! How could a student be so stupid to mix ammonia and bleach!? Some students just have to learn by being the victim of their own failed experiments... even if it results in a little death sometimes.

Killcode is a gym teacher. After all, who but the fast predator to be one? Kill code is well aware that he scares the students, and he thrives on that terror. He loves to give students difficult tasks. What does he care that you're getting ropeburn from climbing that 20 foot(about 6 meters, i think-) rope? If you fall, then you best get up and run and keep running til someone else falls, or you're going to find yourself torn to pieces to feed his family and other students.

Earth does both cooking and gardening! She loves planting things! Especially things like Castor Beans, Winter Daphne, and Dendrocnide moroides! She has a love for plants that are dangerous and well... dont be surprised if a Castor Bean seed ends up in your food if you happen to be rude to one of her favorite students. Earth may not like killing, but she does like knowing punishments have been given, even if it results in death. She pften cooks the meat of dead students so it doesn't go to waste. It is a shame to waste such good meat after all... and meat is good plant fertilizer.

Lunar does zoology! He brings animals into the school and lets the students meet them! Who cares if last weeks wolf killed a kid? Not Lunar, he's metal. The wolf couldn't hurt him! The raccoon had rabies, and it bit you? Well, the only way to tell with animals is cutting their head off and sending it to the lab, so say by to your head and off to Moon's lab it goes! And if he so happens to take you outside and into the woods within the schools the 3 miles of fencing? He's just there to feed the animals he keeps, and you happen to be the meal.

Bloodmoon does anatomy! If a body comes in whole, they'd use it to carve ooen and show their class, maybe eat an organ or two. When there's not one? Well... no one is gonna miss that short kid in the back, right? It would be fun to cut open a live one and let their students see a heart pumping, lungs drawing their last breaths.

BM1(Bloody) he especially loves the gore, he personally loves the live students to work on, finding the dead ones boring since they don't squirm and scream. He prides himself in making the students both terrified but intrigued

BM2(Harvest) prefers working on the dead bodies. The struggle of the live ones annoys him, too squirmy, too wriggly. Tho he does hate the cold feeling of the dead bodies, so sometimes he just kills a student the moment they walk in class to have a warm cadaver to work on.

SolarFlare teaches both math and reading. Personally, he doesn't like killing that much... but someone getting answers wrong irks him. He's worked so hard with these students for months, and that can't spell something simple that 'Knowledge' correctly? Or what 2544 ÷ 48 is? It's 53! They aren't worth his time, and he doesn't feel that another teacher should waste their time either. So he kills them, his go-to method being to break their necks so its quick and not too messy.

Solar is the janitor and technician. He's just... tired. There is too much cleaning to do, too many dead kids, and most of all... ugh, Eclipse is annoying. But he doesn't break his role of janitor, knowing that he really has nothing outside this school anyways, so whose gonna judge him for snapped and punching a student who annoys him? No one. At least he's not killing... or if he is, no one noticed... It's amazing what hydrogen peroxide can clean out of clothes after all.

Eclipse is the principal. He doesn't mind all the killing, but he prefers not to get his hands dirty. It's enertaining to watch students come complaining to him, though. He will kill, tho. A student breaming too many rules, making too many messes, out with no hall pass... those who break rules have no place in his eyes. So a quick death should do fine. But if there's one he just particularly hates... He's happy to take his time to peel off someone's skin

[caleism-1]

Sometimes it just doesn't make sense. The man walking down the street in a banana suit. The llama standing in the middle of the road. The fairies dancing in front of the car window. The fact that all of this was actually happening and wasn't a dream.

There was something in the tree. It was difficult to tell from the ground, but Rachael could see movement. She squinted her eyes and peered in the direction of the movement, trying to decipher exactly what she had spied. The more she peered, however, the more she thought it might be a figment of her imagination. Nothing seemed to move until the moment she began to take her eyes off the tree. Then in the corner of her eye, she would see the movement again and begin the process of staring again.

Out of another, I get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf belonging to the estate. There is a beautiful shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy I see people walking in these numerous paths and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and habit of story-making a nervous weakness like mine is sure to lead to all manner of excited fancies and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try.

Debbie had taken George for granted for more than fifteen years now. He wasn't sure what exactly had made him choose this time and place to address the issue, but he decided that now was the time. He looked straight into her eyes and just as she was about to speak, turned away and walked out the door.

Betty decided to write a short story and she was sure it was going to be amazing. She had already written it in her head and each time she thought about it she grinned from ear to ear knowing how wonderful it would be. She could imagine the accolades coming in and the praise she would receive for creating such a wonderful piece. She was therefore extremely frustrated when she actually sat down to write the short story and the story that was so beautiful inside her head refused to come out that way on paper.

There was a reason for her shyness. Everyone assumed it had always been there but she knew better. She knew the exact moment that the shyness began. It had been that fateful moment at the lake. There are just some events that do that to you.

The alarm went off and Jake rose awake. Rising early had become a daily ritual, one that he could not fully explain. From the outside, it was a wonder that he was able to get up so early each morning for someone who had absolutely no plans to be productive during the entire day.

She's asked the question so many times that she barely listened to the answers anymore. The answers were always the same. Well, not exactly the same, but the same in a general sense. A more accurate description was the answers never surprised her. So, she asked for the 10,000th time, "What's your favorite animal?" But this time was different. When she heard the young boy's answer, she wondered if she had heard him correctly.

One can cook on and with an open fire. These are some of the ways to cook with fire outside. Cooking meat using a spit is a great way to evenly cook meat. In order to keep meat from burning, it's best to slowly rotate it. Hot stones can be used to toast bread. Coals are hot and can bring things to a boil quickly. If one is very adventurous, one can make a hole in the ground, fill it with coals and place foil-covered meat, veggies, and potatoes into the coals, and cover all of it with dirt. In a short period of time, the food will be baked. Campfire cooking can be done in many ways.

Sleep deprivation causes all sorts of challenges and problems. When one doesn’t get enough sleep one’s mind doesn’t work clearly. Studies have shown that after staying awake for 24 hours one’s ability to do simple math is greatly impaired. Driving tired has been shown to be as bad as driving drunk. Moods change, depression, anxiety, and mania can be induced by lack of sleep. As much as people try to do without enough sleep it is a wonder more crazy things don’t happen in this world.

Debbie knew she was being selfish and unreasonable. She understood why the others in the room were angry and frustrated with her and the way she was acting. In her eyes, it didn't really matter how they felt because she simply didn't care.

The boxed moved. That was a problem. Peter had packed the box three hours before and there was nothing inside that should make it move. The question now was whether or not Peter was going to open it up and look inside to see why it had moved. The answer to that question was obvious. Peter dropped the package into the mailbox so he would never have to see it again.

His parents continued to question him. He didn't know what to say to them since they refused to believe the truth. He explained again and again, and they dismissed his explanation as a figment of his imagination. There was no way that grandpa, who had been dead for five years, could have told him where the treasure had been hidden. Of course, it didn't help that grandpa was roaring with laughter in the chair next to him as he tried to explain once again how he'd found it.

Should he write it down? That was the question running through his mind. He couldn't believe what had just happened and he knew nobody else would believe him as well. Even if he documented what had happened by writing it down, he still didn't believe anyone would still believe it. So the question remained. Was it be worth it to actually write it down?

The house was located at the top of the hill at the end of a winding road. It wasn't obvious that the house was there, but everyone in town knew that it existed. They were just all too afraid to ever go and see it in person.

Waiting and watching. It was all she had done for the past weeks. When you’re locked in a room with nothing but food and drink, that’s about all you can do anyway. She watched as birds flew past the window bolted shut. She couldn’t reach it if she wanted too, with that hole in the floor. She thought she could escape through it but three stories is a bit far down.

Wandering down the path to the pond had become a daily routine. Even when the weather wasn't cooperating like today with the wind and rain, Jerry still took the morning stroll down the path until he reached the pond. Although there didn't seem to be a particular reason Jerry did this to anyone looking in from the outside, those who knew him well knew exactly what was going on. It could all be traced back to a specific incident that happened exactly 5 years previously.

Her hand was balled into a fist with her keys protruding out from between her fingers. This was the weapon her father had shown her how to make when she walked alone to her car after work. She wished that she had something a little more potent than keys between her fingers. It would have been nice to have some mace or pepper spray. He had been meaning to buy some but had never gotten around to it. As the mother bear took another step forward with her cubs in tow, she knew her fist with keys wasn't going to be an adequate defense for this situation.

There are only three ways to make this work. The first is to let me take care of everything. The second is for you to take care of everything. The third is to split everything 50 / 50. I think the last option is the most preferable, but I'm certain it'll also mean the end of our marriage.

It really doesn't matter what she thinks as it isn't her problem to solve. That's what he kept trying to convince himself. She was trying to insert her opinion where it wasn't wanted or welcome. He already had a plan and even though that plan didn't correspond with what she wanted him to do or what should be done, it wasn't her decision to make. The question now became whether he would stick to his convictions and go through with his plan knowing she wouldn't approve.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow in more detail at our meeting, but I think I've found a solution to our problem. It's not exactly legal, but it won't land us in jail for the rest of our lives either. Are you willing to take the chance?" Monroe asked his partner over the phone.

It had been a simple realization that had changed Debra's life perspective. It was really so simple that she was embarrassed that she had lived the previous five years with the way she measured her worth. Now that she saw what she had been doing, she could see how sad it was. That made her all the more relieved she had made the change. The number of hearts her Instagram posts received wasn't any longer the indication of her own self-worth.

There was a time in his life when her rudeness would have set him over the edge. He would have raised his voice and demanded to speak to the manager. That was no longer the case. He barely reacted at all, letting the rudeness melt away without saying a word back to her. He had been around long enough to know where rudeness came from and how unhappy the person must be to act in that way. All he could do was feel pity and be happy that he didn't feel the way she did to lash out like that.

They had always called it the green river. It made sense. The river was green. The river likely had a different official name, but to everyone in town, it was and had always been the green river. So it was with great surprise that on this day the green river was a fluorescent pink.

It wasn't that he hated her. It was simply that he didn't like her much. It was difficult for him to explain this to her, and even more difficult for her to truly understand. She was in love and wanted him to feel the same way. He didn't, and no matter how he tried to explain to her she refused to listen or to understand.

It had been a late night. To be more correct, it had been an early morning. It was now 3:00 AM and George was just getting home. He wasn't sure if it had been worth it. He was supposed to have been finished by 10:00 PM, but his boss had implored him to stay and help when it was clear they weren't going to meet the 10:00 PM target time. So, he had stayed an extra 5 hours and lost a good night's sleep for something he didn't really believe in, but he did anyway because he was afraid if he refused he might lose his job.

Her mom had warned her. She had been warned time and again, but she had refused to believe her. She had done everything right and she knew she would be rewarded for doing so with the promotion. So when the promotion was given to her main rival, it not only stung, it threw her belief system into disarray. It was her first big lesson in life, but not the last.

Brenda never wanted to be famous. While most of her friends dreamed about being famous, she could see the negative aspects that those who wanted to be famous seemed to ignore. The fact that you could never do anything in public without being mobbed and the complete lack of privacy was something that she never wanted to experience. She also had no desire to have strangers speculating about every aspect of her life and what each thing she did was supposed to mean. Brenda was perfectly happy with her anonymous life where she could do exactly as she wanted without anyone else giving a damn. Thus, her overnight Internet celebrity was not something she was thrilled about as her friends told her how lucky she was.

The red glow of tail lights indicating another long drive home from work after an even longer 24-hour shift at the hospital. The shift hadn’t been horrible but the constant stream of patients entering the ER meant there was no downtime. She had some of the “regulars” in tonight with new ailments they were sure were going to kill them. It’s amazing what a couple of Tylenol and a physical exam from the doctor did to eliminate their pain, nausea, headache, or whatever other mild symptoms they had. Sometimes she wondered if all they really needed was some interaction with others and a bit of the individual attention they received from the nurses.

They had made it to Las Vegas, wide-eyed and with so much hope and energy. They had planned the trip for more than a year and both were so excited they could barely control themselves. They still hadn't realized that Las Vegas promised a place where dreams come true, it was actually the place where dreams came to die.

The kids were loud. They were way too loud for Jerry, especially since this was a four-hour flight. The parents didn't seem to be able, or simply didn't want, to control them. They were yelling and fighting among themselves and it was impossible for any of the passengers to concentrate or rest. He thought about politely tapping on the parents' shoulders and asking them to try and get their kids under a bit more control, but before he did he came up with a better idea. Sure, it was a bit sinister, and he'd probably end p in a lot of trouble, but he really didn't care at that point.

The time had come for Nancy to say goodbye. She had been dreading this moment for a good six months, and it had finally arrived despite her best efforts to forestall it. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't keep the inevitable from happening. So the time had come for a normal person to say goodbye and move on. It was at this moment that Nancy decided not to be a normal person. After all the time and effort she had expended, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

He swung back the fishing pole and cast the line which ell 25 feet away into the river. The lure landed in the perfect spot and he was sure he would soon get a bite. He never expected that the bite would come from behind in the form of a bear.

It all started with the computer. Had he known what was to follow, he would have never logged on that day. But the truth was there was no way to know what was about to happen. So Dave pressed the start button, the computer booted up, the screen came alive, and everything Dave knew to be true no longer was.

He couldn't remember exactly where he had read it, but he was sure that he had. The fact that she didn't believe him was quite frustrating as he began to search the Internet to find the article. It wasn't as if it was something that seemed impossible. Yet she insisted on always seeing the source whenever he stated a fact.

The cab arrived late. The inside was in as bad of shape as the outside which was concerning, and it didn't appear that it had been cleaned in months. The green tree air-freshener hanging from the rearview mirror was either exhausted of its scent or not strong enough to overcome the other odors emitting from the cab. The correct decision, in this case, was to get the hell out of it and to call another cab, but she was late and didn't have a choice.

Dragons don't exist they said. They are the stuff of legend and people's imagination. Greg would have agreed with this assessment without a second thought 24 hours ago. But now that there was a dragon staring directly into his eyes, he questioned everything that he had been told.

There was nothing to indicate Nancy was going to change the world. She looked like an average girl going to an average high school. It was the fact that everything about her seemed average that would end up becoming her superpower.

The water rush down the wash and into the slot canyon below. Two hikers had started the day to sunny weather without a cloud in the sky, but they hadn't thought to check the weather north of the canyon. Huge thunderstorms had brought a deluge o rain and produced flash floods heading their way. The two hikers had no idea what was coming.

It was hidden under the log beside the stream. It had been there for as long as Jerry had been alive. He wasn't sure if anyone besides him and his friends knew of its existence. He knew that anyone could potentially find it, but it was well enough hidden that it seemed unlikely to happen. The fact that it had been there for more than 30 years attested to this. So it was quite a surprise when he found the item was missing.

Sarah watched the whirlpool mesmerized. She couldn't take her eyes off the water swirling around and around. She stuck in small twigs and leaves to watch the whirlpool catch them and then suck them down. It bothered her more than a little bit that this could also be used as a metaphor for her life.

Matt told her to reach for the stars, but Veronica thought it was the most ridiculous advice she'd ever received. Sure, it had been well-meaning when he said it, but she didn't understand why anyone would want to suggest something that would literally kill you if you actually managed to achieve it.

There were only two ways to get out of this mess if they all worked together. The problem was that neither was all that appealing. One would likely cause everyone a huge amount of physical pain while the other would likely end up with everyone in jail. In Sam's mind, there was only one thing to do. He threw everyone else under the bus and he secretly sprinted away leaving the others to take the fall without him.

It was a simple tip of the hat. Grace didn't think that anyone else besides her had even noticed it. It wasn't anything that the average person would notice, let alone remember at the end of the day. That's why it seemed so unbelievable that this little gesture would ultimately change the course of the world.

Debbie put her hand into the hole, sliding her hand down as far as her arm could reach. She wiggled her fingers hoping to touch something, but all she felt was air. She shifted the weight of her body to try and reach an inch or two more down the hole. Her fingers still touched nothing but air.

I'm so confused by your ridiculous meltdown that I must insist on some sort of explanation for your behavior towards me. It just doesn't make any sense. There's no way that I deserved the treatment you gave me without an explanation or an apology for how out of line you have been.

Greg understood that this situation would make Michael terribly uncomfortable. Michael simply had no idea what was about to come and even though Greg could prevent it from happening, he opted to let it happen. It was quite ironic, really. It was something Greg had said he would never wish upon anyone a million times, yet here he was knowingly letting it happen to one of his best friends. He rationalized that it would ultimately make Michael a better person and that no matter how uncomfortable, everyone should experience racism at least once in their lifetime.

He was aware there were numerous wonders of this world including the unexplained creations of humankind that showed the wonder of our ingenuity. There are huge heads on Easter Island. There are the Egyptian pyramids. There’s Stonehenge. But he now stood in front of a newly discovered monument that simply didn't make any sense and he wondered how he was ever going to be able to explain it.

At that moment he had a thought that he'd never imagine he'd consider. "I could just cheat," he thought, "and that would solve the problem." He tried to move on from the thought but it was persistent. It didn't want to go away and, if he was honest with himself, he didn't want it to.

There were a variety of ways to win the game. James had played it long enough to know most of them and he could see what his opponent was trying to do. There was a simple counterattack that James could use and the game should be his. He began deploying it with the confidence of a veteran player who had been in this situation a thousand times in the past. So, it was with great surprise when his opponent used a move he had never before seen or anticipated to easily defeat him in the game.

[the-massive-simp]

♡Class 1A random headcanons because yes♡

todoroki learned how to braid hair and now all the girl have amazing hairstyles

denki is dyscalculic

^bakugou at first didn't know that and he got very mad when denki wasn't able to do math even after he explained it many times, but when he acknowledged his learning disability he got softer (as soft as bakugo can be-)

ochako is mochi-addicted (kinda canon but who cares)

if someone doesn't feel like eating, sato makes them their favourite dessert

karaoke nights

denki starts singing quite good, but the more the party goes on, the worse it gets

mina and hagakure can sing any black pink song even if it was while walking on their hands with their hair on fire

if someone is sad because someone rejected them

oh boi

you can BET that denki will go to that person and start to flirt

"yo wassup my sweet lil baby gurl"

"damn you're hotter than bakugou's mom"

an shitty pickup lines like "is your father a butcher? because you're a fine piece of meat"

bad mood is gone in seconds for that person

when the class started to have film nights and bakugou still went to bed at 8pm mina said

"if bakugou doesn't come to the film night, the film night will go to bakugou"

then they all went to his room and forced him to watch titanic

three ours later aizawa went check why they were doing so much noise and he found twenty teenagers crying

[concubuck]

((May I ask what your headcanons are for sinners coming back after getting killed in hell? How long it takes, if they're regenerating from their remains or fall out of the sky or just wake up somewhere, what it's called, etc?))

((I think they regenerate from the largest piece, OR the largest piece that's connected to a, for lack of a better term, "core" body part.

"Core" body parts are the brain or the heart, because of their symbolic "this is where the soul/identity of a person is housed" value.

So if a sinner is mashed into pulp except for one arm and one leg, then the body regenerates from the leg because it's the biggest piece; while the arm (and the rest of the pulp) rots like any other dead meat.

On the other hand, if they're mashed up except for the head and the leg, the sinner regenerates from the head because it's still got a brain inside.

If they're TOTALLY shredded then the biggest shred wins, good luck regrowing from that.

They don't "wake up" until they've healed enough that their body would actually support life.

I haven't decided whether a whole brain or a whole heart takes precedence because I've never written a scenario where I've needed to consider it lol.

I also haven't decided just how much the brain/heart need to be destroyed before they're no longer viable, and/or how big the size imbalance can be between the biggest piece and the biggest-"core"-body-part piece before the rules of the universe go "ok this is silly, I'm letting that brain/heart die and letting the bigger chunk over there regenerate instead."

I'm sure there's a mad scientist somewhere in Hell who's carved out other sinners' brains and hearts, laid them on separate tables from their bodies, and sat and watched to see whether the brain, heart, or body would regrow. But I'm not that mad scientist so you'll have to go ask them about the results of their research.

If the cause of temporary-death is a matter of missing flesh/blood loss/whatever, the body will just sorta magically regenerate the missing matter somehow. idk how. Maybe the matter teleports into place from the rest of the body as it decays. I haven't blown a character to chunks yet so I don't need to think about the whole "conservation of matter" issue yet.

If I wanted to be scientific about how long this takes, I'd probably be like, what's the fastest rate human tissue grows at? Probably the 9 months during which a baby grows right? Whatever that growth rate is is how fast a temporarily-dead body can regenerate flesh without any other complicating/helping factors. But don't actually hold me to that because I haven't done the math and someday I might find that doesn't work with a story I'm trying to tell.

If the cause of temporary-death is injury or illness or organ damage or whatever, then the body will just kinda,, casually ignore the fact that it should be dead, and the cells will scurry around repairing the damage. The more damaged it is, the more time it'll take. Doing things like pumping a dead body full of medicine WILL help it beat the disease and wake back up faster.

(Imagine if you were part of an army invading a city and you successfully killed the whole population but then the population rose up as zombies and killed you and a month later the next invading army sees that the city's healthy and everyone's alive again. Would that be messed up or what. That's the viewpoint of a virus in an Osmosis Jones movie in Hell.)

I haven't worked out the exact math for how long this would take on any potential causes of death bc there's too many things a body can die of and I'd have to look into various specific things like "but why don't cells just keep doing their thing for several days after the heart stops beating until they slowly run out of energy to power them? Yes i know the answer is oxygen but WHY oxygen—" in order to make up a BS fantasy explanation for how cells operate in the absence of what they need to operate.

The only thing I've decided is "roughly the maximum amount of time you can drink yourself to death is about a week and a half, MAYBE two weeks." That doesn't mean that's the maximum brain damage POSSIBLE, just that if you're some kind of professional alcoholic who knows how to drink fast enough to maximize the alcohol in your body without getting drunk so fast you throw it back up before you pass out, "enough damage that it will take a week and a half to undo" is as much damage as you can get into your brain all by yourself.

No science went into this specific decision. I decided this because "you drank yourself to death for ten days??" struck me as a number that was big enough to be horrifying but not so big it starts to lose its impact. "Ten days" hits harder than "one month" because 10 is bigger than 1. See? Logic.

I don't have a Specific In Universe Term for the whole process yet, out of universe I just call it "regenerating" and in universe I usually just have them say things like "you died for two days" or "after that headshot I woke up in a friend's room" bc it sounds more natural & casual. Terminology's gonna vary between characters based on what fits them; someone who died recently & plays video games will be more likely to pick up "respawn" for example.

If I were to make up a Specific In Universe Term I'd probably dig a bit through old school Christian ideas around resurrection and/or the soul after death to see if any medieval scholar's already thrown out some esoteric idea that fits the bill; if not, I'd probably pull out something Latinate.))

[everyhowlmarksthedead]

EZEKIEL ‘EZ’ REYES x READER ⨟ HEADCANON

Anon asked: Hi! I hope you are still taking some requests! Can I have an imagine or a hc of making out with ez pls 🥺🥺

Word Count: 808

Author comments: This work wasn't re-edited, so I'm sorry if you find grammar mistakes! I hope you all enjoy. Gif isn't mine, credits to the author.

Tag list: @starrynite7114 ​ @chibsytelford ​ @dazzledamazon ​ @mara-mpou ​ @sammskellington ​ @gemini0410 ​ @1-800-imagines ​ @briana-mishell24 ​@sassymox @whyisgmora @aquamento @sadeyesgf @viviansafizada @samcrobae @jade770 @witchy-wish @rebel-without-cause-x @xx--day-dreamer--xx @spiced-reads @tita127 @ifoundmyhappythought @enamouravecleslivresetlechocolat @angelxshiba @destynelseclipsa @sheeshgivemeabreak @abbiesthings @knowles-morgan ✨ (if you wanna be tagged, send me a message!)

EZ is happy to have you in his life.

He loves everything about you.

You make him a better person.

His family and friends adore you.

He loves you with all his heart.

Kissing you is his favorite way to show you how much. But he has different ways to do it.

Forehead kisses.

After a long day at work, the only thing you want to do is lie down on the sofa, wearing one of your boyfriend's shirts and drink a cold beer; waiting for him to come from the clubhouse, in the middle of the night. You usually fall asleep, until he wakes you up. But when you leave your bag at the entrance, hearing the tv on but with the lights off, you frown somewhat confused.

When you reach the living room and find him there, you feel more lucky than never. He quickly gets up, so focused on the tv that he didn't know you were there. EZ hugs you tightly after seeing the look in your face, kissing your forehead trying to comfort you.

“Hey, baby, welcome home”.

Hand kisses.

Spending time at the fair of Santa Madre is always amazing. You usually go with part of the crew and your boyfriend. It's like they're normal guys that don't do what they really do. EZ and you are holding hands, swinging them while you talk about your day at the hospital and the crazy people that go to the Urgencies. For some reason you don't care, silence is installed between you, but it's not uncomfortable. Taking the advantage that the guys are a few meters ahead of you, your boyfriend stops his steps pulling you gently. When he has you right in front of him, he holds your free hand with his, taking them to his lips. And he kisses them softly.

“I love you, mi amor. I just want you to know it, and to not forget it”.

Temple kisses.

Waking up sweaty in the middle of the night, barely breathing, you sit up on the bed curling your knees against your chest. Another nightmare. And you can't even remember what you were dreaming about, but it's something usual on stormy nights. Without expecting, EZ surrounds your body with his strong arms, leaning over you to press his lips on your temple, slowly kissing it. Taking his time.

“I'm here, baby. Look at me. Everything's alright, okay?” You nod in silence, letting him hug you. “Do you want me to recite you a poem?”

You look at him smirking, trying to make you feel better.

“Antonio Machado”.

“Okay, come're”.

Kissing your temple again, he urges you to lay with him, resting your head on his chest.

Lips kisses.

Ez doesn't need a concrete moment to kiss you. He doesn't care who is around, or where you are. He's kissing your lips the whole time. Sometimes to make you feel loved, sometimes to make you feel desired.

Neck kisses.

“Stop marking your territory like a dog in heat, Ezekiel”. You complain chuckling, when your back meets the hood of your car.

“Shit, no”. He growls against your skin, wrapping your throat with a hand so he can twist a little your neck, finding more space to lick and suck.

Whenever you assist a Mayans party, he feels insecure because of the ridiculous fact that he's not fully patched yet. So the riders of Stockton don't give a shit if you have a boyfriend or not. They're not going to bother you, but look at your body like a piece of meat? Every. Damn. Second. And it doesn't matter how many times Bishop told them not to do it.

“Fuck, Ez…” You whimper feeling his teeth closing around your skin, stretching it softly and pressing his tongue in the center, before sucking it with his lips. So slowly that it's killing you.

Your hands were narrowing his shoulders, until you raised them to the back of his head, pulling him closer. You know that you're going to need to do some hard work to cover it tomorrow, but you also know how good his bruises look on you.

Bonus: booty kisses.

“So, will you help me?” Leti sounds desperate with her next maths exam.

“For sure, baby. I'll ask for a day off”. You say hugging her, leaving a kiss on her head.

“You're the best friend I could ever ask, serio—”.

“LOOK AT THIS BOOTY! HEY! HEY! HEY, ANGEL! ANGEEEL! LOOK AT THIS BOOTY”. EZ is kneeling behind you, surrounding your legs with his arms and his cheek resting against it.

“I'm not gonna look at your gi— DAMN, MAMI, LOOK AT THIS BOOTY”.

“Yeah, and it's only mine”. He replies leaving short kisses all around it.

“EZ, could you please stop?” You ask blushing, hearing the crew laughing at his childish mood.

[testingcheats0n]

Chapter 7 (?)

> Missing food as conflict = pog

> They all immediately assumed it was Gen lmaooo

> He beat Pol, and was about to clock the Magus lmaooo

> Good drama, I approve.

> Bet it was the goody-two-shoes, uhh name starts with s, greek-sounding?

> Pol is like "I know I beat you with a whip, but imma try to be nice"

> SOPHOS!! BET IT WAS SOPHOS!!

> OR that other cunt, Ambiades, the uhhh pauper prince

> He said it! "I could walk away" good lad.

>Keep forgetting it's a y/a book and I was honest to god expecting Magis to cripple Gen and like... leave scars and such by whipping him 50 times. Like he would be horse-bound, then it would infect and other typical grimdark medieval fantasy. Eh.

> Oho, finally an explicit desire to kill the Magis. Who is a pussy, as expected.

> Don't know if it's obvious, but I don't think it was Gen who stole the food. Like... it wasn't.

> Sophos is feeling guilty? 👀👀

> warm, sweaty, pieces of cheese- wonderously disgusting description 👍🏻 Also Sophos said he was hungry, he defo ate that shit last night.

> So uh, they could have fished this whole time? Geniuses.

> I soooo hope Gen gets some kind of revenge on these doods. Even Sophos isn't doing much for me, like... uh, he's not even pitifully spineless- he's just spineless period.

> Bet these two don't know how to fish. Ambiades certainly doesn't know how to tie a single rope.

> Mind you I believe that Gen doesn't even know that the food dissapeared, so from his pov these people certainly decided to beat him, make him a quadruple tourniquet and threaten him to keep quiet, just because. Wild.

> Gen shouldn't have so much sympathy for Sophos. Just tell him and get them all killed, they're all terrible, Gen my man. Even Pol is a weakling. Weak morals, weak man, weak honor.

> Nooooo Gen, fuck Sophos!! Don't fall for the bs!!!! Pol wants to get that bag, he doesn't really care about Sophos.

> "Sophos was visibly relieved" ugh, he's a filthy rat. A parasite surviving on others' pity. A Samwell Tarly, but dislikeable and isn't actually trying to be brave.

> "Pol is your father's man?" Duuuuuuuuhh. There is 0 reason for Pol to be there instead of some random grunt.

> olivesolivesolivesolivesolivesolives

> Plague - Drop of population in Attolia - 30 years before Gen (math checks out, thought author had an oopsie) - From traders of the "Middle sea" - I assume it's a case of the bubonic plague, which leaves out world set into a medieval age interval or somewhere of the sort.

> Honestly there should be people profitting from all the unowned land with grown olive trees that give fruit every year. Missed opportunity imo, do you know how expensive is the meat of animals that eat olives (if you can't be bothered to harvest them)? Very!

> oho? So Magis' family died in the plague? Deserved. He's a terrible person.

> Gen pleaseeeee don't talk to these people about your family

> ...I thought Sophos was supposed to be the smart one... it's literally his only saving grace...no one would leave the cities to go back to the fields. Unless the authorities will it. Obviously.

> So the food thievery won't be mentioned again??

> Is it me, or does the Dystopia name not work at all?

> If I were Gen I wouldn't breathe a word to any person of this group. Don't tell them your ancient myths!!

> Woman in white = Queen.

> Two berries at a time, as if two would hold the same ammount of chemicals as modern world pills lmfao

> Ambiades is about to kill Sophos... and himself.

> Okay, but whyyyyy did the Magis take those two deadweights? They're neither thieves or guards, they have 0 usefull skills and are more a burden than help. They cause unrest among the ranks, are politically valuable and also are two more mouths to feed. No benefits at all?

> Good on Gen for trashtalking the king and saying some pretty pog anti-war speaches. Also loyalty and feudalism are trash, serving someone is trash, fuck the queen and fuck the king.

> No wonder that the Magis is giving so many lectures about this or that with such pride. He's literally singing praises to the homeland, like a traitor. Off with his head plese?

> Are they gonna sacrifice Gen? Lmao??? There's nothing to steal!? Magis, are you on drugs? Are you on fucking drugs??

÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷

Huh, that was... a fun chapter!

It had misunderstandings, more lore, more violence and whump... I like that. I like these things and I like the tension and the stakes too. Good chapter, one of my favorite ones, actually.

[blackrabbit-megapig]

Hey i know this is super random but could you talk a bit about why you did not like dark rise? i was about to buy it when i saw your reply to an old post and now im like... very curious. money's tight rn and i dont want to spend it on a book that might disappoint me :(((

Hello,,,

I would like to apologize in advance if this response feels a bit off. I haven't communicated with anyone via Tumblr for a good long while. Hence, I just noticed this question sitting in my DMs. Again, sorry!

You asked about Dark Rise. I want to be fair to C.S. Pacat because I like her and I think her stories can be fun. However, Dark Rise... just wasn't my thing.

I'll start with the characters by saying that I didn't particularly care about any of them. Pacat introduces a large number of characters right off the bat but doesn't really give the reader time to become attached before she starts killing them off. The book shifts POV chapter to chapter, but even that doesn't rectify this problem. In fact, there's a character that felt like they only existed just to be a mouthpiece for the plot, listing off exposition when necessary before he's killed rather abruptly.

The main character, Will, is rather bland in my opinion, and doesn't fit the great, tragic destiny that's bestowed upon him. In the last two (?) chapters, he goes nearly full Sauron and it feels weirdly out of character. Maybe his development in the next two books will flesh him out for the better, but I don't believe Pacat did a good job of setting him up.

I will not speak on James. I liked James. Pacat certainly liked James. Will DEFINITELY liked James. James probably has the most potential for a good, satisfying character arc out of everyone in this series. However, the way he's written makes it seem like Pacat only really knows how to do ONE archetype of character with a compelling backstory. That's why I agreed that her fixation on bitchy, slightly cruel blond men is starting to feel off. It's very much giving one-trick pony.

The pacing was also an issue for me. The training the characters go through happens so fast, and then people just start dropping like flies. Everything about the world is given to you before the second half of the book and gives you zero opportunity to discover and speculate. Will's full descent into his villain arc feels like it should've happened later than it does. I don't think we should've discovered his true heritage in the first book, nor do I believe that we should've learned the truth of his parentage as early as we do.

I know this setup exists probably to cut the fat and get to the meat of the story, but it makes everything feel so rushed and sudden in the last half. What's the point of a good fantasy story if you don't slow down and bask in the world you've created? It doesn't have to be go-go-go from start to finish!

Now, my ultimate beef with this book: the world-building. Look, the math isn't math-ing in my head and despite having this premise of taking place years after this great, magical war, the world feels so...empty? I know people make the joke that if a fantasy novel gives you a map at the beginning of the book, then you know it's going to be good. Dark Rise is not that book. If anything, the map makes the story even more confusing and disappointing. Characters hop around the map like it's nothing, arriving at destinations within sentences. As I said, why was Pacat rushing? Why didn't she take any time to flesh the universe out?

There's randomly this whole lore piece about unicorns that only exists to explain ONE character and one scene. Now, I wouldn't have an issue with this if it didn't feel so janky and bloated.

I've been pulled through the high fantasy genre's asshole so many times that I've become accustomed to a certain level of finesse. I expect so much effort to be put into world-building because I figure that if you're going to tell this epic tale with fantasy creatures and magic and all this really cool stuff, why wouldn't you spend the time to make sure that all of it makes sense? Why wouldn't you make sure that locations and creatures and people feel tangible? I know that Pacat did the best she could with this first book, but it reads like so much of the world is missing. Dark Rise's world-building feels like it was created after the premise of the story was drafted out rather than the other way around. It feels like this world only exists to tell this specific story rather than existing as a setting where these characters and events could just so happen to exist and occur.

Even the made-up ancient language is baffling and makes me want to grind my teeth. I don't know if it's based on an actual language, but Pacat didn't do it justice.

As I said, this book just wasn't for me. I think it might have something to do with me going into it with high expectations and all these ideas about what a good fantasy novel should be, but my opinion is my opinion. I'm an adult now, and YA fantasy is a genre that I think is starting to just feel too juvenile for me in general.

I will say that if you're into cliche, chosen one narrative YA novels, this book is certainly for you.

Also, if money is an issue, I will say that there are ways of getting ahold of free ebooks online without surrendering your computer to malware. You can also download those books onto a Kindle now (who knew?! Not me!). I just checked a certain website and Dark Rise is on it. I'm not saying I'm explicitly endorsing pirating books, but it is an option you can consider until you're in a financial situation where you can start buying books again.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: I came back to this and added some non-spoiler examples for the points that I was trying to make. Please take my opinions with a grain of salt and read whatever books are interesting to you and make you happy!

[pensaremyweapon]

Nico doesn't know what food nutritional values are a d that's why he only eats McDonald's. He also doesn't know about the Moon Landing.

Nico knows basically nothing about food. He doesn’t remember much of his early childhood, his memory being wiped in the Lethe. But I do like to think over time he does remember some things, because his past is talked about to him and he saw scenes (like his moms death), and any small memories of what he ate in his early childhood would probably be 1940s Italian food. Now from my (very little) research of Italian food and Italian food in the 1940s I learned, food was being greatly rasioned because of the world war currently taking place, so things like meat were a rare delicacy, so many people made meals consisting heavily of vegetables, or they found a way to use very little meat in a dish like meatballs, but they did continue to have an array of pastas. The takeaway from that is that almost everything you ate was home cooked and was healthy and filling, there was no “fast food” yet invented.

After his time in Italy Nico spent time in the lotus hotal, and people don’t comprehend time there, they are simply told to play the games and have a good time, I’m not sure how exactly they handle food, but I imagine they simply eat something that is there quickly and go back to playing games, not quite focusing on the food. And when Nico and Bianca get out they don’t remember almost anything of what happens in there, except they’d stayed somewhere for a couple months. So Nicos only real memories of eating are probably healthy home cooked meals consisting of lots of vegetables. And he’s still very young, and hasn’t been in anything like a health class I don’t think yet, so no, he no idea what a calorie is, and that certain foods can be very unhealthy for you.

So now we have Nico in a totally different time and country, he know nothing about the food here, he doesn’t know about any of the food of this time. Imagine you’ve eating vegetables and pasta your whole life and you discover McDonald fries and chicken nuggets, would you not try to eat that for every meal. Nico was, and I believe still is obsessed with fast food, because he’s never eaten something as greasy and unhealthy before, and no, he has no idea that they’re incredibly unhealthy, nobodies explained to him what calories or carbs are. He is basically a 10 year old from 1940s Italy in a 14 year olds body now, he doesn’t have good handwriting, he doesn’t know what Algebra is, he has missed a lot of major world events. Like the moon landing, 9/11, the fall of the Soviet Union, the last time he probably heard about US states, there was only 48 of them.

I do have a personal headcanon that he picked up a lot of different weird pieces of information from the people at the lotus casino, and maybe even some different languages. But what I really want is a book of what Nico did after he ran away from camp, we hear he shadow traveled to China, and all over the US. Imagine the foods he’s tried, the customs he’s picked up, he may not know how to do complex maths, but he has eaten real Kentucky fried chicken, and that’s what’s important.

And I got carried away again, these are just topics I love writing about so much, this isn’t really a headcanon but a rant and a lot of different information. Still, hope you liked it.

[live-laugh-lesbian80083]

La Vie en Rose

1 - Don't Forget About Me

Summary: Everything about her is perfect. Her grades, her looks, her personality, everything. Desiree Hale is known as little miss perfect all throughout middle school. But when she makes the transition from being in eighth grade to being a freshman, everything changes. Not because of the change in her surroundings, but because of a girl. A girl with gorgeous brown locks and stunning eyes to match, with a voice that sounds like an angel and a smile that could melt anyone's heart. The moment Desiree laid her eyes on the girl, she knew there was something different about herself.

Word Count: 3,205

Warnings: None

Please do NOT copy, rewrite, or translate onto another site. Permission will not be given if asked for it.

Water splashes on the light gray concrete, soaking the people nearby. Meat sizzles on the grill, sending a delectable aroma through the air. Adults and children cover the lawn, chatter fills the surrounding space. The Sun's rays beat upon everything it can reach, making anything hot to the touch. This is what a Fourth of July party looks like. People having fun interacting with each other and forming relationships with people they had just met.

But not me. I've been sitting in the corner underneath an enormous oak tree with my journal full of short stories and other random notes. No one has bothered talking to me. It's not like anyone would want to talk with the girl who has her face buried in a journal. They're too busy enjoying the sun and partying. I'm not a big fan of the sun. Or parties. I'd much rather sit inside and read or write all day.

I turned the page in my notebook and began jotting down random thoughts that pop into my mind. As I looked up to relax my eyes, I noticed a girl my age approaching me in a bright blue two-piece swimsuit with a bright smile on her face. I smiled back and watched as she sat next to me on the grass.

"So, what brings you to this miserable party?" She asked, her smile not fading.

"My parents are friends with the hosts." I deadpanned. "You?"

"My parents are the hosts." She chuckled.

Silence. We stared into the distance and watched my little sister -who's only six years old- jump into the pool with a bright pink ring sitting around her waist as my dad caught her. I smiled when I heard her screams of joy.

"What's your name?" The girl said as she cleared her throat.

"Oh, it's Desiree." I stuttered, clearly being thrown off guard by the sudden question. "What's yours?"

"Zoe." She replied.

More silence. That's enough of our conversation. It's obvious neither of us gets out there or talk to others often. We've only said six things to each other. And every time we try to converse, it always starts with her asking a question.

"Wanna come to the pool with me? I think it's a lot cooler than sitting out in the sun." Zoe comments. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"Actually, that sounds nice. I'll be right back." I said, standing up as my arms naturally spread to the sky to release tension.

"If you're changing, I could show you where the bathrooms are." She commented.

"That's alright. Your mom told me where they were when we got here." I replied, grabbing my bag and hurrying into the house and towards the bathroom.

Once I was inside, I quickly stripped off my clothing and changed into my black two piece. I turned to look at the mirror and pulled my dark brown hair into a high ponytail to prevent it from getting wet. Smiling, I made my way out of the bathroom and found Zoe standing by the door, waiting for me.

The two of us ran to the pool and dove into the deep end with grins spread across our faces. Fully submerged in the water, I opened my eyes and looked to my right to see Zoe watching me. I smirked and began swimming to the surface. As I broke the fine line between the water and air, I felt my lungs gasp for air and my wet hair stick to the back of my neck. There was no point in that ponytail. I quickly stroked to the edge of the pool where I met with Zoe and got greeted with a splash of water to the face. I let out a dramatic gasp and pushed water towards her as well. Before we knew it, we made our way back out to the middle of the pool again in a huge water war. The two of us looked up to see my dad running towards us from the surface. I took in as much air as possible into my lungs and dove under the water just before he got to the pool. Zoe continued swimming in place and tried to protect herself from the oncoming tidal wave, but it was no use. Dad hit the water, and I felt myself get pushed towards the other side of the pool. As I felt the water calm down, I quickly resurfaced and swallowed a breath of fresh air.

"Dinner's ready, girls." Dad laughed as he swam over to us.

"That wasn't necessary." I said, brushing loose strands of wet hair behind my ears.

"I know. I just wanted to make sure you heard me." He replied as he stepped out of the pool. "I was also extremely hot."

Zoe and I glanced at each other and laughed, making our way out of the water. We hopped in line and draped brightly colored towels around our shoulders to dry off a bit. I grabbed a paper plate and collected a hotdog, some condiments and a small bag of Doritos. I thanked the man standing by the grill for the meal and scanned the yard for Zoe to find her sitting under the tree we met at. Smirking, I rushed to the grass. Standing at her side, I placed my food onto the ground and lay the towel flat next to where Zoe had done the same. I then sat criss-crossed on the fabric and dug into my meal.

"Tell me something about yourself." I prompted, breaking the silence.

"Oh, I uh, I play guitar and bass. I'm planning on trying out for the Jazz Band at my high school at the beginning of the year." She replied simply.

"What school are you going to?" I questioned.

"James Madison. You?" Zoe answered.

"Wait, no way, me too!"

"Really? What classes are you taking?"

I told Zoe almost every single one of my classes. Art, choir, French, and theatre for my electives. Earth science, honors language arts, secondary math one, and world geography for my core classes. Zoe's classes were a lot more complex than mine. Band, creative writing, and debate for her electives. Earth science, honors language arts, secondary math two, and AP human geography for her core classes. Not to mention if she makes it into the jazz band she'll have an extra-curricular.

We talked about our friends and lives in middle school. How I was perfect with grades and had little to no issues while she had to deal with drama and barley passing classes. Why we both made such big changes for high school is a significant question that neither of us know the answer to. The conversation dragged away from school and ventured into our home lives. Zoe told me about her brother Connor, and I told her about my little sister Brooke. She talked about how Connor has changed. How they used to be friends and would play with each other when they were younger and how they've drifted over the years. How much she wishes they could be close again and how it can't happen because of things he's done.

Zoe has dealt with so much shit throughout her life. From fights with her brother to being ignored by her parents, all she wants is to be seen. Usually I'd say the two of us are different people, but in reality, we aren't. After Brooke was born, I felt lost. My life took a sharp turn I didn't see coming. But yet again, doesn't everyone who has younger siblings been through the same thing I went through? I bet it doesn't last as long for them as it did for me. The rejection, I mean. It's been six years. Six damn years and my parents still give Brooke the attention they gave her when she was born. And what have I been doing? I've tried getting them to notice me, but it never works. I learned how to paint and made them something for their anniversary. It ended up in the basement. I drew my dad something for his birthday and it ended up in the basement. I learned how to sculpt things out of clay and made a sculpture for my mom and it ended up in the basement. Everything Brooke makes gets hung up or put on display. Everything I make gets put away. On the outside, we appear as a happy family. On the inside, we appear as a happy family. But it doesn't feel like it.

I finished eating quicker than I had expected and offered to throw Zoe's trash away for her. After many tries, she gave in and let me, telling me to grab her a Dr. Pepper while I was by the drinks. I complied and grabbed myself one.

"Thanks." She said as she popped the tab on the can, sending small droplets of the soda into the air.

"It's no problem." I replied, doing the same.

Everyone at the party had resumed their activities before the meal in no time, which meant Zoe and I had returned to the pool. We were floating on a raft together, chatting about anything that came to mind, when we suddenly felt someone flip the raft, throwing us into the water. I screamed and accidentally swallowed a bit of water. Zoe did the same. We both resurfaced, coughing the liquid out of our lungs while diabolical laughter rang through the air.

"What the hell was that for, Connor?" Zoe yelled, continuing to cough.

"Your screams were hilarious!" He laughed, falling dramatically into the water.

I eventually caught my breath and finally got a glance at what this Connor character looks like. He has pale white skin and unruly dark brown hair. He's incredibly slim with little to no meat on his bones. I brushed loose strands out of my face and tucked them behind my ears. A wave came from behind me, water splashing across Connor's face. I turned to see a wicked grin on Zoe's face. I know exactly what's happening. A water fight. I quickly dove under the water as the fight began, the siblings splashing each other with water. Reaching the concrete wall of the pool, I swung my leg onto the ground and popped myself out. I cautiously ran over to a bucket of water balloons and grabbed one, chucking it at Connor's back. He turned around with a playful glare, paddling himself towards me.

"Shit, shit shit shit shit." I muttered under my breath, grabbing as many balloons as I could, sprinting onto the grass.

I heard Connor leave the water and his wet feet against the concrete. I turned around to see Zoe climbing out of the pool herself, rushing to the pool house. Getting distracted with Zoe's actions, I felt a balloon hit the back of my thigh. My head whipped around to see Connor running in the opposite direction.

Zoe ran up next to me and handed me a super soaker, saying, "Those balloons aren't getting you anywhere."

I gladly took the gun and searched the yard for her brother when I saw an arm disappear behind a bright green bush. Pointing at the bush, we nodded at each other and sneaked up on the boy. I verged left while she went right. Slipping into the groups of people, we approached the bush with smirks on our faces. Zoe held up her fingers, silently counting us down from three. Three, two, one! Both of us blindly fired our super soakers at the bush, hoping we hit Connor. Swifter than we expected, he emerged from the bush and threw his hands into the air in surrender.

"Okay! I surrender!" He yelled.

"We'll forgive you if you get us popsicle." Zoe said, not putting her gun down.

"That's not how surrender works." Connor fought.

I squirted him with water. "Well, it's how it works around here."

"Jesus, fine." he replied, walking over to the cooler with his hands remaining in the air.

"Keep your hands where we can see them." Zoe called out.

"I am." Connor said. He grabbed three rocket pops and headed back over to us. "Have we made peace?"

"Yes." Zoe and I said in unison, each of us taking one popsicle.

As all of us peeled the wrapper off the cool treat, Connor and Zoe's dad approached us. "We're starting fireworks in the front if you'd like to join us."

"We'll be there in a minute." Zoe smiled.

She snatched the wrappers from all our hands and tossed them into the trash. I hurried over to my bag and slipped on my pair of blue shorts, completely disregarding my shirt. No one will care if I'm wearing a swim top and shorts. And besides, it's way too hot. She held out her arm to me to which I took, hooking my arm around hers. For only knowing each other for a few hours, I think we're getting along well. I've never clicked with anyone so easily before so this feels too easy. Maybe Zoe's being forced to hang out with me. It doesn't feel forced, though. Or maybe our personalities function perfectly together. Whatever it is, I don't think it matters. The bond we have is like a friendship that started many years ago. But it's only been hours. And hopefully, it lasts much longer than hours. Maybe we can have what those friendships that last for years have.

Skipping towards the gate that separates the backyard from the front, I grinned and started humming the theme to The Wizard Of Oz to myself. Zoe must have heard me, for she began singing the song. I laughed and sang along as we joined the rest of the party. Glancing around the area, I found an empty spot on the grass. I pulled Zoe to the spot with me and noticed it was right next to my family.

"So that's where you went." My dad commented, throwing a handful of glow sticks at me.

"Did you not just see me chasing Connor around with a squirt gun?" I questioned, taking a seat on the grass, pulling Zoe down with me.

"Apparently not." He replied.

Zoe, Connor, and I each grabbed a handful of the glow sticks off the grass and cracked them in one snap. Light illuminated in our hands and I took one of my red sticks and poked Zoe's shoulder. She poked me back with a blue one. And the war began. We poke each other back and forth with the glow sticks, breaking into a fit of giggles.

"How about you two use the glow sticks for something other than poking each other?" My mom recommended.

"No, I don't think we will." I replied, continuing to poke Zoe.

"Yeah, this is a lot more fun." Zoe added, poking my arm.

After poking each other for way too long, we tired of it and grabbed those plastic connectors and connected the ends of the glow sticks, forming bracelets just in time for the sun to set, putting us into darkness, the glow of streetlights illuminating our surroundings. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a bright white light appear. My head snapped to look at the light to find it was someone handing a sparkler to a small child. I smirked and turned to Zoe to find her looking at me. Her cheeks dusted with a light shade of pink as her gray eyes flickered away from my blue ones.

"Hey, wanna go get some sparklers?" I asked.

"Sure!" She smiled.

We headed over to the table that held all the fireworks and grabbed a few sparklers. A man neither of us knew lit them up for us, and off we went into the middle of the street. We waved the sticks around in the air, creating patterns with the sparks. I tried spelling my name in cursive, but spelling Desiree in cursive isn't the easiest thing, and neither is Zoe. Instead, we drew pictures like hearts, stars, and cats. Yes, we drew cats in the air with sparklers. Why would we not? Is that not something that everyone does? Eventually the flammable portion of the sparkler was no more, and we had to toss them into a bucket of water on the curb.

The rest of the night was full of laughter and pure joy, something I sadly haven't experienced in a long time. Fireworks were exploding around every corner you turned. People were running in the street with explosives in their hands, with no fear in their eyes. Zoe and I quickly tired of the noise and went inside. Zoe dragged me upstairs to her room. And it looks exactly what you'd think it would look like. Periwinkle bedding with pink decorative pillows and a white chunky knit blanket displayed across the foot of the bed. The walls are a lighter shade of blue with pink flowers painted on top. White panels cover the bottom half of the walls, creating a sense of contrast. Above her bed sits a display of all the pictures she's taken with her friends and boy, is there a lot.

"Sorry, it's kind of messy right now." Zoe apologized.

"It's alright. My room is in worse condition right now." I laughed. She laughed too.

She began explaining to me how she discovered her bedroom was the perfect place to view fireworks. By simply flicking off the lights and pulling up beanbags to the window, it gave us a front-row seat to a firework show with no noise. You can see the explosions of bright colors for miles and miles across the city. Some are mere specs of light, while others are large bursts of color that illuminate the room. The sounds of the explosions are small pops, some being more powerful than others. The two of us sat in a comfortable silence for quite a while before a pair of feet came down the hallway and towards the bedroom.

"Des, it's time to go." My mom said, cracking open the door.

I groaned and stood up. "Thanks for making this party a lot more tolerable." Zoe said.

"It's no problem." I replied. "So, maybe I'll see you at school?"

"Yeah, maybe. It was nice meeting you." Zoe stood and followed me out of her room.

"You too." I smiled.

Once downstairs, Zoe joined a group of people in the backyard while I headed out to the front door behind my family. I slid into the backseat and pulled my phone out of my backpack to see multiple texts from my friends. I responded to them one by one and quickly resumed my quiet and reserved personality I had at the beginning of the day. Eventually all my notifications had receded, and it left me staring out the window of the car, watching as buildings and fireworks sped past us in blurs. Suddenly I gained the feeling you get when you think you forget something somewhere, but you don't know what it is. After sitting and thinking about it for a bit, I realized what I had forgotten. I forgot to ask for Zoe's number.

[border-spam]

Leech Lord: Allies

Troy

Gar is about as native as a Pandoran can get, and has for years had a very soft spot for the bratty King.

He's old colonist, thinks his parents might have been with Atlas on one of the many failed corporate town setups that plagued Pandora 30-ish years ago. He was too young to remember who's banner they flew under when his family stepped out of the shuttle and onto the dust planes they’d been instructed to settle, just that things went wrong fast and anyone still alive 18 months later had needed to adapt quickly to what constitutes living on this planet.

He was drawn to the Holy City for the same reasons as most survivalists, it was an opportunity for safety and a roof over your head. Not needing to fight to eat or scrabble to stay alive is a blessing for most Pandorans, and he's one of the thousands who live within the walls who don't quite worship the twins as Gods, but praise them as holy... because the twins gave them a chance to have a home. Wether they are deities or not isn't a factor in the loyalty they've’ earned.

He's skilled with food. Knows how to spice spoiled flesh to hide the rot, pickle cactus root and delicate rock blossoms for long storage, or how long rakk wing needs to be slow roasted to turn from gamey string to meat that melts in the mouth.

Like most in the HC, he ended up where his skills have value and has ran the kitchens in the Grand Cathedral since its founding bricks were set.

It didn't take very long for him to find Troy in it one night - picking through ingredients and half finished dishes in the early AM.

While he'd expected to need to drop to his knees and grovel, the God King had seemed more embarrassed than anything, awkwardly explaining he hadn't eaten that day and asking if there was anything left from the after sermon banquet. 

His eager politeness had hit Gar hard, but his reaction to finding out the leftovers had been destroyed was what left a lasting impression.

Gar had thought the twins affluent spoiled little shits who'd hit things lucky on Pandora and been clever enough to know how to use their wealth to culture worship, so when Troy was genuinely upset to the point of disgust that food had been wasted like that? It changed his perception immediately.

This wasn't the reaction of some egotistical little shitbag from a wealthy background, this was the visceral panic and anger of someone who'd starved before, who understood the insult of food being destroyed when there were so many hungry... when he'd known hunger.

It took less than 24 hours for the kitchen policies to be changed and Gar's team to find out nothing was to be wasted. Uneaten and unused stock was to be transported at end of day to the Slums from now on, where it would "Bolster the flesh of the faithful."

Every time he finds Troy hunting through his kitchen at 4 am over the years, their chats grow a little longer.

By late COV, Gar's meals delivered to his sanctum are some of the only things God King Calypso still trusts enough to eat.

Tyreen

Xanshi Ur-Vendit is obsessed with the God Queen.

As her Saint of Marketing, he's got both her ear and a position of high authority within the organisation that he covets viciously, and takes great personal offense towards newer Saints he doesn't deem worthy of the title.

His pedigree speaks for itself, the man had quite a reputation on Promethea among the media departments of the high corporations. An expertly trained and cut-throat money maker that was the exact kind of egotistical, nasty piece of work that would be drawn to the God Queen's side.

Has direct tie in's with the esteemed Katagawa family, something he's used to his benefit throughout his career.

He fawns over her, she can do no wrong around him, and he spends as many hours of the day as he can trailing behind her heels like a lapdog, reaffirming her beauty and intelligence and infallibility with every breath he can manage between the underhanded threats he aims towards anyone possibly about to draw her attention away from him.

Hates Troy. Fucking hates him.

Too much of a hole-sucking little coward in his $60k three piece suit to actually do anything about it of course, but he takes plenty of his vitriol out on Troy's departments instead.

Marketing has such massive reach within the internal structure of the COV that he's able to throw his weight around far more than some of her other Saints, and regardless of if they actually like him, they tend to back Xan and his opinions automatically.

A huge amount of the conflict between departments and heads is driven by this imagined competitiveness, that Troy's people, Troy's chosen, must in some way be inferior to Tyreen's.

Xan is her right hand in his own mind, he's her holy knight. If she holds too much misplaced love for her brother to see how pathetic he is in comparison to her radiance, then it's up to Xan to keep Troy's people in place...

In reality? Tyreen isn't even invested in him enough to remember Xanshi's full name.

Seifa

Sei makes friends in low places far easier than higher ones, always has. People at the bottom of the ladder, folks who have struggled? They recognise each other. Doesn't matter where on the scales they currently stand, there's an unspoken nod, a side glance. You see your own - even if who you are has been lucky enough to change over time.

While she's never been in one place long enough to set up a friend network before that was tangible and not based on e-comms and data feeds, she's woven one since settling in the HC without really even noticing it was happening.

One-hand Jim in the King's Call, that high end rave bar near the cathedral grounds. Not so gruff now he's not drowning in debt, few more smiles while he's mixing cocktails.

Cleo in munitions stocks, breathing a bit easier since her son landed that underling role in the Mechanica, more food on the table with less worry.

Feliz and Irgo running deals in the western slum backstreets. Not competing against the HammerClaws for territory anymore since JK "got wind" of the shit they were cutting their gear with and had Vanguard waiting at their quarters for a polite discussion about unspoken laws. What Fe and Iggy are selling isn't exactly high quality but at least it won't rot your brain inside the skull.

Sei will tell you she's a lone wolf. She'll insist she’s a one woman show, runs shit on her own and doesn’t need others.

But watch closely when out with her in the city, check how often she buys a drink, how often it's not on an invisible tab the barstaff nod knowingly about as they hand her glass over with a smirk.

She's never asked to pay.

That should tell you plenty.

Seifa and Tyreen

- Early COV

"Ty, you ever wish you were born a guy?"

Of all the things Tyreen had expected to hear from Sei tonight, that... wasn’t it. She stopped reading the same piece of nonsensical math in the sheet she was holding to gawk at Seifa instead, staring at the other woman’s back as she continued to work on the data records they'd been passing between them all evening.

"No.. god. What, and look like Troy?" she snorted with a wince. "Nooooo thanks" Ty sighed as she leaned back and heard her stiff spine pop, waiting for a response that didn't come. She felt a pang of concern as Sei's shoulders sank a little lower in front of her, deflating.

This wasn’t normal, where was the bitchy retort, or joining in on insulting her brother? She shuffled together the files and stood, walking to her friend's side and sitting slowly next to her in the quiet of the twin's shared office. Sei still hadn’t responded, pretending to be completely absorbed by the notes she stared at. Ty cleared her throat with a cough.

"Uhhh.. why?"

Seifa silently reached to her side to take the offered files from Ty as she sat, pointedly not making eye contact, though the younger woman picked up on the redness in them easily enough.

"Sei, I need to have someone's hands cut off?" 

Ty pouted, hitting her mark as Seifa failed to completely hide a smirk in response.

"I need to have someone thrown into a pit? Huh? C'mon Sei, talk to me. You always tell me I need to talk more about things that me down, right?" she weedled, hands clasped over her heart as she faux whined, earning a quiet laugh from her companion.

"Oh god Tyreen SURE, if you'll shutup." Sei groaned, leaning back in her chair and running hands over her eyes. She was tired. Beyond tired, really. Always said she knew how to not outstay her welcome but had been wondering recently if that had ever been true. Day to day in the cult, managing people she’d never meet and holding the weight of more responsibility than she’d ever wanted was eating at her. Had been for some time. Nights like this helped, shooting shit with Tyreen, bitching, sometimes gently bullying Troy together if he’d decided to grace them with his janky presence, but still.. it was heavy, and Seifa was tired. 

"Ahh.. just the usual shit" she whispered, thumbing through the papers as Tyreen leaned a little closer, as much of a comforting presence as she could muster all things considered. An arm around the shoulder or gentle stroke of hair wasn’t an option. All Ty had was words and honestly, they weren’t exactly her forte.

“It's just like. Sometimes when I'm talking, and it's about something they think I shouldn't know shit about, like how Burgess is spending too much of your budget on expensive, low grade gear-assemblies when if we went off brand I can prove it would be better, they just zone out."

"It's like.. if they thought I had a cock, if I was 6'4, they'd be listening. " she added, eyes burning again.

She groaned, leaning over the table and resting her cheek across her folded arms.

"I got so angry. I'm used to dealing with it, it's always happened, but I just boiled over. This week has been.. long, I guess." she whispered, pinching the bridge of her nose as Tyreen watched quietly. "I ate into him in front of like, 6 other people Ty, couple of heads were there. That doesn't help my reputation does it.. that's just making shit worse. I'm sabotaging myself. They think I'm a bitch already without me starting a fight and stirring the pot."

Tyreen shifted in her seat, eyes thoughtful as she rested her chin in her hands, elbow propped on the table edge.

"Nah. "

"Just sounds like they're dumb. I keep telling Troy we need people with actual brains leading this shit Sei, if you're getting ignored cause you have tits? Haha. Wait till they meet me in person. " she grinned, a genuine act peeking through her usual haughty persona as Seifa chuckled.

"I mean my rack is way bigger than yours, you're flat as a fuckin' plank in comparison."

Asks are Open!

[freedom-barricades-bighero16]

I want you to answer this question from me.

I know I have vented about my mum for many times on main for her being mean to me. However, I have been thinking that what kind of things has she been doing and if I'm actually exaggerating things or lying. So I'm gonna tell y'all what happened in one post and let you see for yourself. I'll try to explain it from a neutral perspective as my intent is to inform, not persuade.

What my mum did/does

Started since childhood:

Spanks, and grabs me to keep me from going somewhere within the house for no reason (she has been doing this for as long as I can remember. I only started feeling uncomfortable with this in early 2020 and it took a few months to get her to completely cut it out.)

Yells at me for simple mistakes in school, such as taking very long to understand math. One time she slammed my workbook down on the table she tried to teach me how to do homework. (stopped when I reached secondary school)

Yelling at my sister loudly, in front of me or not. Either way I can usually hear her words clearly, or at least I can always hear or see my sister cry. This still kind of happens, because my parents never yelled at either one of us that way anymore, but my sister still cries whenever mum or dad doesn't give her what she wanted or tries to talk to her about anything serious.

Suddenly saying that she wants to bite me or prick me with a needle. Now, this has always made me feel uncomfortable even as a small kid, and I told her to stop many times. She claims that she bites me because she loves me, and if I'm mature enough then I would let it happen.

Rejects me when I tell her about being bullied at school, saying that my classmates were playing with me, or were joking.

Throws a fit when I refused to give her a piece of meat from my bowl of rice, saying I'm selfish and keeps telling me she hates selfish people until I apologized. (one-off incident)

Made angry comments about little kids in front of me and my sister. For a while, I wondered if she hates children because of the stuff she said.

Started in my early teens:

Rejects me when I tell her that I have been harassed by boys at school. She says that they do that because they have feelings for me.

I think this is also the time she started saying I'm a selfish/self centered person on a regular basis.

Saying I'm not that important when I tell her about feeling that everyone hates me and wants me to go away. She could possibly mean something else, according to my dad and current school counselor, but to me it always came off as saying that I'm selfish or I don't matter.

Started in my late teens/recently:

Saying that other people have it worse than me when I tell her that someone has been mean to/bothering me (happened two times. One is when I vented to her about a really whiny girl at school that wouldn't leave me alone, and the other time is about my sister) and that I should leave things as it is.

Saying I'm not mature enough.

Blares republican media or suddenly brings it up when talking to my dad.

Starts telling me off for saying 'no'. When I tell her to not to touch me, she says that its a friendly gesture, other people also do this, and that she's just playing with me. If I react the way I did then my friends will get away from me/no wonder I have few friends.

Gets mad when I talk to her about my disabilities or if she knows I'm seeking help. Just yesterday I went to get a pair of noise cancelling headphones to block out noises that made me anxious, but didn't because while she said she doesn't have an opinion, her demeanor was cold, and later she was visibly annoyed and told me and my dad to forget about her when we told her about how said headphones work for the second time.

The last time I went to get said headphones she gave me the silent treatment the entire trip. When my dad wasn't with us, she was yelling at me for all sorts of different things and ended with her saying that she and my dad had been putting up with my tantrums, and she is sure that my teachers and classmates are too. This incident had me interrupting my chemistry lesson to ask my teacher if she hates me the day after.

Tries to pit therapists against me by saying "this is what therapists would also say!" after making comments about the way I am as a person or how I'm overreacting to things. This happens even after I have been officially diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

How I feel or behave around her:

I almost never talked to her about serious issues anymore in fear that she would reject, rebuke, belittle or invalidate me.

Started to dread going home after school or a day of work. Became especially obvious since last Thursday, the day after she told me why everyone in Hong Kong supports the annoying orange after I said I won't watch a video of him speaking at Buckingham Palace when she tried to talk to me about it.

Am never truly happy around her most of the time.

And that's all I can think of. I have no idea if what she does counts as abuse or not, mostly because she never actually hit me or anything. That and she's not always like this. So please tell me what you think.

I'm also telling my counselor this when I see her tomorrow.

[muggle-writes]

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better.

tagged by @elizabethsyson

Nickname: Muggle is my nickname, but when I went by Muggle in person for more than a month at a time, it naturally got abbreviated, usually to Mugz

Zodiac: Aquarius

Last movie I saw: into the spiderverse (same answer as last time. I don't watch that many movies tbh except around Christmas. unless YouTube counts in which case... music of some sort? idk links for the next answer)

Favorite musician: changes by the day. I've kinda been in an acapella and/or folk music mood recently so the Maccabeats and Peter Hollens are in my YouTube and Spotify history a lot recently. also I'm eternally in awe of Forte Handbell Quartet (eta a longer video; i recommend skipping to the techno piece or the Jurassic Park theme)

Last thing I googled: "vine why are you buying clothes at the soup store" (my wife hasn't seen it; also i can't find the vine because apparently it's a much bigger meme than I realized). before that it was "chgrp not root" because work and group permissions are useful when they work

Song stuck in my head: well for most of the day when I haven't been actively listening to something, it's been the Pokemon RSE route-walking music. (but that somehow happens frequently when I'm in the no-music-no-internet room at work, as I was for most of the day, and I don't know how I accidentally trained my brain to make that connection). right now, surprisingly, I don't have any background music playing in my head. I think it's because the humidifier provides just enough white noise that my brain doesn't feel the need to provide its own

Other blogs: my main is @muggle-the-hat and I'm a mod on @why-do-neurotypicals but we've gotten one ask ever so that blog has been dormant for a while. I have a bunch of other sideblogs, but they're all small and I use different screen names on each of them (enby life: no idea which name suits me best so I may as well try them out) so i feel like it would just confuse things to link them.

Following: blogs matching all the themes of my sideblogs, (including this one, which is writeblr), korean langblr, jumblr, assorted fandom blogs, authors of my more favorite fanfictions (some overlap with other categories), and irl friends and acquaintances (including one fandom blog turned irl friend)

Do I get asks: on my main if at all, which isn't really surprising because i have hundreds of followers there and maybe 60 followers combined among the rest. but I get asks far less often than I reblog ask memes so... I'm always happy to get more. I do get tagged in ask games more on this one, but writeblr is actually vaguely organized about tag lists so that makes sense. also I used to get tagged a bunch on my main and I rarely could find the posts again to follow up when I had time to answer.

What I’m Wearing: pajamas. staying warm and cozy

Lucky number: I don't remember what I said last time, but I like a lot of numbers. 64 is a good number. recently I've been debugging software in which 0x3E is my lucky status number and 0x0E taunts me. (um, decimal 62 and 14). Also my other favorite number i can't share until it's no longer the combination to the lock to the Secret Room. (or realistically never because opsec and i shouldn't make public the types of parents we use for that combination lock), honestly I aim to be like.... ah, I'm sure the anecdote involves G.H. Hardy but i don't remember on which side. anyway one mathematician remarked to another about how the id number of the taxi he rode in was sadly uninteresting, and the one I aspire to be like, argued "what are you talking about, this number is interesting because ______" and I'd like to be able to do that for any arbitrary number thrown at me. (hi yes math is good, history is hard, math history is interesting yet i still forget the people even if i remember the math. except when things are named after people, but that tends to be, like, Euler and LaGrange and other people who did lots of cool science things so i remember the methods and the names of the methods separately which never helps)

Amount of sleep: ....depression both screws with my sleep schedule and means I always feel like I need more sleep except when I wake up at 5pm and feel like I've wasted the day. so yeah. I can never get enough sleep

Favorite food: yes (why do I have to pick a favorite?) uh, chocolate in most forms, many other sweet things, red meats (especially if served with potatoes), curry (especially if it has "too much" ginger), fresh-baked bread, chai the way my favorite local Indian restaurant makes it (spicier with just a little bit of sweet, which is the opposite of what i can get from the mocha machine at work which is wayyy sweet with a hint of spice but that inferior chai is still superior to coffee so i drink too much of it). also vegetables which I really don't eat enough of: sauteed zucchini and onions, roasted broccoli

Dream trip: dreaming requires creativity and tbh I funnel that mostly into my writing instead. I wouldn't mind going back to Korea for another visit though

Dream job: my current job is pretty good when I feel productive and when my debugging tools actually produce data maybe??? (they were not being helpful today. but i still mostly like my job.) dream job is probably this but with seniority and confidence and double the salary (while living in a similar area of the country; I wouldn't want to double my salary by moving to work for Google in California and having less available after rent than I do now)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things:

the smell of old books

the first glow of sunrise (the sunrise painting the mountains pink and gold)

a rainbow in the spray from a waterfall

the flicker of distant lightning (watching a thunderstorm fade into the distance)

this picture

Random fact: about me or about the world?

how about a combination answer: when we got our new handbell music this season, we only looked at half the pieces our first rehearsal and afterwards I tried to look up one of the pieces we hadn't gotten to on YouTube because it's got a weird time signature and I wanted to get a feel for how fast it would go and how strict the counting is...... except it turns out we're the first group to ever play the piece. it was commissioned recently but seeing my conductor's name on the page didn't tell me how new it was because he's super prolific. (the fact that it was on printer paper without the publisher's graphics should have been a giveaway but it's only the second time I've been among the first to play one of his pieces so I think I can be excused for not realizing)

Languages: mostly just English, but I took Spanish for years, so I can hold simple conversations in it. I can almost read sound out Hebrew fast enough to keep up in services, and I know some random Hebrew vocab but comparatively no grammar. and I took Korean in college, enough that I can recognize sentence structure but I can really only speak tourist-Korean, though I can sound anything out (if it's typed. handwriting is hit or miss.) in both Hebrew and Korean (and Spanish tbh but i don't often listen to Spanish music) I'm very proud when I can separate the words enough, listening to a song, to translate them without looking up the lyrics. also I tried to learn Japanese from Duolingo when it was new, but I still hadn't gotten the kana straight when it started progressing to kanji so that was a rough time and I went back to Hebrew.

tbh I "dabble" in "language learning" which really means I start a million courses on Duo and stick with none of them. with the notable exception of French, which I acknowledge is super common and probably a good idea to learn but the spelling and pronunciation seem so arbitrary I'm scared to look close enough to learn it properly, and I've never particularly considered starting the Duolingo course for French

I think I lost a few questions, because that's only 18 answers. whoops.

um... who to tag

@abluescarfonwaston if school hasn't drowned you in work yet and @copperscales I'm interested in both of your choices for lucky numbers especially.

... wow I'm blanking on other mutuals I haven't tagged recently. as usual lmk if you'd like to be edited in, or just answer the questions and tag me back, that's great too.

[heniareth]

This literally made me go !!!!!!!!!

More than okay to tag me ^^ I love these kinds of worldbuilding intricacies. Putting a cut in halfway through so it doesn't get too long, and warnings because I'll be discussing poverty and mentioning pregnancy in this text.

I'm personally working off of Dragon Age Origins and very specifically the Tabris origin. Money comes up in this origin three times: 1) when Tabris gets a wedding present of 15 silvers, 2) when Tabris can offer 3 silvers to a family to travel to Highever or 10 silvers to stay in Denerim (which involves the renting of a new home and the possibility of opening a shop per this wiki entry), 3) when Vaughan Kendells offers Tabris 40 sovereigns if they leave him alive. Building up on the fact that 10 silver covers rent with something to spare to start a business and 3 silver covers a journey of 162 miles or 2 days of travel, we can conclude that 40 sovereigns is more money than Tabris would ever expect to see in their life. To put some math into this (one gold coin (sovereign) is worth one hundred silver and ten thousand copper):

40 sovereigns × 100 = 40.000 silver

10 silver is roughly rent and opening/sustainment of a small business for a month.

With 40 sovereigns, aka. 40.000 silver, you'd be able to pay rent and maintain your business for 4.000 months, without counting the income generated through said business. 4.000 months are (4.000 ÷ 12 = 333.33) 300 years and four months. This is an absolutely insane amount of money and I'm thinking of going back to that chapter and correcting Astala's reaction to the offer. You, your children and your grandchildren would be set for literal life (at the level of life quality the city elves "enjoy". If you want better housing and food the number of years you could live off of 40 sovereigns gets reduced).

So, basically, take the shittiest apartment where you live and see how much rent costs a month. Then put on top of that what you'd pay in electricity and materials to start a small business (say it's weaving, for which you need yarn and a loom). That's the equivalent to 10 silverpieces. This puts the wedding gift Tabris receives in a whole other light: fifteen silver would cover roughly two months of rent for a whole family. It's the perfect gift for a couple who's starting out, who might at some point be expecting children and have one partner not be able to work, and it blows my mind to imagine how long Dilwyn and Gethon (the giftgivers) would have to be saving to be able to personally give Tabris this gift. They're not from the Alienage as far as I understand, so they had enough money to get there, give the gift, and go back. That's an insane amount of money for an elderly couple to give. Holy cow. Back to the topic at hand.

Knowing what exactly can be afforded with those silver pieces and sovereigns, I extrapolate the pricing for other things, partially based on common sense and partially based on what I would like things to be like for my story. Produce and other foodstuffs would cost coppers. Meat would be a bit higher in price but probably not get up to a silver (I'm thinking double digits coppers here depending on bulk and quality of the meat). Normal work clothes would definitely be double digits copper also (or maybe more? I know too little about late medieval/early rennaissance cost of clothesmaking).

In my story, I wanted to show that money was tight even for the Tabris family. If all for members of the family work, that's around 8 silverpieces they have to make a month just to cover rent (I'm discounting 2 silverpieces from the original 10 because the Tabris family is neither opening nor maintaining a small business). Therefore I established that Astala earns around 100 copper or 1 silver a month working night shifts at a tavern. She's also a dockhand and earns about 150 copper or 1,5 silver there. That's 2,5 silver earned just to cover rent. If the rest of the family (Cyrion, Shianni and Soris) earns about as much, that means that at the end of the month they'll have a grand total of 1200 copper or 12 silver at their disposal for rent, food, clothes, medicine and heating if it's winter. It's not much, but they survive. This also means that, with the addition of Nelaros/Nesiara and Valora (the people who are supposed to marry into the family at the start of the origin), provided their earnings were similar to that of the other members of the family, the money at their disposal would go up to 1700 copper or 17 silver a month, which would be a lot more for them. Marriage wouldn't only be a sign of adulthood in the Alienage, but also a very necessary step to secure the family's finances. Cyrion will be too old to work at some point. They need more people to support the family once his wages fall away.

Long story short bc I'm rambling and getting excited about money in fictional cultures and demographics: based on these three instances in which money comes up in the Tabris origin, I've decided that in the Alienage, coppers is what you use for everyday life: food and utilities, maybe clothes, medicine depending on how rare it is. Silver is what you use for rent and big monthly expenses. Gold coins or sovereigns are absolutely unheard of and would be the equivalent to being handed a bar of gold. I imagine 40 sovereigns was expendable enough for Vaughan, but not too little (especially since Tabris gets stripped off the money after leaving the arl's estate; Vaughan likely promised them more than he normaly would have because he knew that he could just send his guard after them to get the money back). So if we're talking social tiers, it's the nobility who deals in sovereigns, the knights, successful merchants and craftsmen (middle class) who deal in silver and the lower class who deal in copper. All of this is kept general and vague since economics are not my forte, especially when dealing with real life. I have no idea what things cost. But for now those have been solid enough guidelines to satisfy the detail gremlin in me.

Hope this was interesting to read ^^ It sure was fun to write it all out and I will save this for when I invariably deal with Astala freaking out because Everything Costs So Much Money. She'll be in charge of keeping a dozen people well-fed and cared for, not to mention the cost of armor and weapons and medicine and ingredients for poultices, poisons, and potions. Everybody else will be pointing at things going "this is pretty! :D" and Astala will be sweating and counting the coins in her pouch. I love her

So this is super out of nowhere, but what do y’all think about DA currencies potentially being transferred into irl money? I’ve been super curious about it tbh, but it seems kind of a weird thing to convert, especially since a lot of irl countries have some serious individual pricing discrepancies. I generally settle on equating silvers to bucks, historical availability and relevance be damned XD

Do u have any rules of thumb when it comes to such things?

@bumblerhizal-art @wild-houseplant @icy-warden @siriskulksnerding @heniareth

Hopefully it’s ok to tag y’all :D