#fun fact most of the meta that's getting reblogged again tonight is from like

[minnarr]

I wouldn't trust the netflix subs if I were you since they're infamously bad, I can double check but I'm pretty sure youku has "nearly two years" or something like that in their subs

oh, I don't trust them anymore, but I didn't have an alternative ready at the time I made the spreadsheet (sometime last year maybe?).

looking at them now, episode 1:

首领久未出手 The chief hasn't fought anyone for a long time

今次只怕又是牵动了内伤 It must have aggravated his injuries this time.

这几日正在闭关疗养 He has been resting in isolation these days.

ǐ自从他为了秦九霄之死 Ever since he spat blood and fainted

吐血晕厥之后 at the news of Qin Jiuxiao's death,

他这内伤多久了？how long have his injuries lasted?

一年多了吧？About a year, right?

which seems to mean more than a year, actually.

we're going to very quickly work through the math again because anon, i am so bad at visualizing math, you would not believe.

3 months per nail x 6 nails = 18 months. another 3 to the moment this line is said, 21 months. +3 to yue, so yeah, 2 years is a good shorthand for the sheet. I'll update accordingly.

[justalittlebluetiefling]

After tonight, how do you think Jester's feeling? Honestly, I wasn't so sure before, but after their conversation, I'm again very certain Fjord is the one she has feelings for

All right, anon. This is a fun question for me, because we talk about Fjord’s feelings a lot, but not Jester’s. I’m going to say a few things that I never thought I’d say in this ask. For example: Fjord’s feelings have been much more obvious in the last 60 episodes than Jester’s have been. If you had told me I would say that 100 episodes ago, I would have laughed so hard. But here we are.

TLDR? Jester’s in love with Fjord and has been for a while. I’ve been going off about this occasionally since her second playlist was released. But that is what really convinced me that she had moved from ‘crush’ into ‘love’. And episode 117 helped me be even more confident in saying that.

I also wanted to put some episode 117 receipts in here, but tags in Tumblr are tricky sometimes, so I just made a companion gifset instead. (If this link messes with the tags, I’ll take it out and put it in a reblog.)

Anyway. Let’s get a cut in here so I can get carried away with the why. 2436 words of carried away.

So, like I mentioned above, Fjord’s feelings have been much more obvious than Jester’s lately. For a while, I guess. Pardon me while I just quote Laura from Talks for second. And that’s mostly because Jester backed off when she thought her advances were unappreciated. It was all part of Jester realizing that smut novels aren’t what real relationships are like. A very integral part of her development and how she’s more than her crush(es). 

The funny thing about all this... I think about this sometimes... is how Fjord didn’t actually not appreciate it. He’s just got low wisdom and didn’t realize that it meant that she like-likes him. He thought they were just goofing off. Because. Sorry, I’m briefly hopping into Fjord meta and then I’ll hop right back, I promise. But yeah. He thought they were just goofing off and I’m realizing as I type this paragraph that it never occurred to him, because “You know when someone makes you feel a way that you don't think you have any right to feel or you never thought that you might?”. Yeah. So, it wasn’t just his low wisdom. It just didn’t occur to him, because he didn’t think that he deserved to feel that way about anyone or have anyone feel that way about him. Okay. Hopping back now.

The other hilarious thing about this is that things between them weren’t awkward until she backed off and stopped overtly flirting. Which also correlates with the end of the pirate arc and how Beau, during that arc, pointed out to Fjord that Jester was jealous of Avantika.

But yeah. Jester backed off, which really threw their relationship into a whole new dynamic. I have a lot more complicated and layered feelings on the pirate arc that require a rewatch for me to properly articulate, but we know that Jester was scared during this time. She was a little scared that she didn’t really know Fjord (Re: Somebody Else being on her first playlist). But that was only temporary. That whole time made Jester start to question her feelings for Fjord. Which in turn made most of the fandom start to question them as well. But I do think that she eventually landed on “my friendship with him is more important to me than a potential relationship and if I keep acting like this, I’m going to lose him”. This is partially her realizing that life isn’t a romance novel, but I think it is also a direct result of her realizing how uncomfortable he was with the idea of being used as bait to distract Avantika. He did it, but he was not comfortable the whole time they talked about it. 

But also, Fjord was her first real friend outside of Artagan. He trusted her right away with things he didn’t tell anyone else in their group for months. She knew he was hiding his accent. She knew what happened on the Tide’s Breath. He told her before he told anyone else about how he lost his powers. They promised to protect each other and help each other on their way to their individual goals and they’re still holding up that promise every day.

ANYWAY I’M GETTING DISTRACTED I’M SORRY.

Okay, where are her feelings now. Now. She’s in love with him. When she backed off from the flirting and started focusing on just being there as a friend, it deepened their relationship. I mean, to be fair, it was already pretty deep. I promise I’m not getting off track this time, but he really did tell her things he told no one else. Sometimes it takes him longer to get around to it, because of the group, but he always ends up telling Jester everything. And that opens the door for Jester to be open with him, too, in a way that she isn’t with anyone else. 

I mean, okay. Gosh. How do I even word this? 

Jester doesn’t actively seek anyone out to talk about her feelings. There are two times I can think of off the top of my head that she’s broached the subject first. One: when she was looking for Beau and ended up talking to Veth about how she felt about the kiss that wasn’t a kiss. And Two: the Jellyfish talk, when she asked Fjord if he ever gets sad. But Jester keeps everything buried pretty deeply. So, the fact that Fjord is constantly going out of his way to ask her if she’s okay and the fact that he pulled her aside to tell her that if she ever needs to talk, she can talk to him. That’s a huge deal. And I think she’s still scared to take him up on it, because on top of all these things is that layer of awkwardness. Fjord and Jester are just awkward with each other right now. And their feelings for each other are what makes it awkward.

If the awkwardness was one-sided and only coming from Fjord, I’d say that her feelings had gone away. But it’s not. It’s always two-sided. There’s so much tension in all of their conversations, because while they talk about everything else, there’s one thing they haven’t talked about. Or... I guess it’s a couple things at this point. But they’ve never talked about the kiss that wasn’t a kiss. That’s what I mean specifically at this point. It’s just never been brought up. Which is so weird, because the other times (I think it’s two? Maybe it’s one. I’m doubting myself.) that Fjord’s saved Jester’s life with a potion, she brought it up. She made a production about it. But the kiss was different, because she didn’t know if it was a real kiss. I think she’s come around to it not being a real kiss, but it’s got to still bug her. 

But that’s planted this seed of awkwardness in all their solo interactions that hasn’t gone away. Jester’s been pushing her feelings for Fjord aside. Or trying to. But he keeps doing things that make her have hope again and it’s getting to a point that she can’t ignore that feeling. Like... He wanted her to be the one to go with him into the wreckage of the Tide’s Breath. The whole day after the blue dragon encounter, he was hovering. He wanted her to have a potion so that she could be safe and he said that he wasn’t being awkward he was disarming her. He dove off the side of a tree when she fell to save her. He tells her how much her help has meant to him in Kravaraad. He makes sure they go visit her dad. He runs after her to go rescue her mama and then he tells her that he’ll wear a stupid hat if she wants him to and that she looks lovely while implying that he’d like to look at her in that dress all the time. And then he asks her if she’d like to get dinner with him instead of go look for their friends. AND THEN he tells her that he likes it when she’s feeling his stomach looking for the orb. He was constantly checking in with her during Travlercon to make sure she was safe and comfortable. He launched himself into the air over an active volcano and begged her to let go and stay with them. AND TO MAKE MATTERS MORE CONFUSING FOR HER. He hugged her twice and then he willingly danced with her even though he didn’t know how AND THEN he gave her this tiny unicorn statue, because he knows how much she loves things like that. And now he’s given her the necklace that was meant to protect him, because he’s more concerned about her safety than his own. He told her that he’s having a hard time focusing on his future, because his past keeps getting in the way and he wants to deal with that before........ AND THEN HE SAYS he’s going to be thinking about how she helped him all night.

LIKE.

I got a little carried away again, sorry.

Here’s the deal.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. There has been nothing in canon to make me think that Jester’s feelings have gone away. Everything I can see implies that they’ve deepened. But she’s scared. She’s never really been in love before. It is absolutely terrifying (or it is for me) to admit when you’re in love. Especially when you don’t know if your feelings are reciprocated. Or if you think they’re unwanted. And she thought hers were unwanted. But she’s still been doing little things this whole time. She’s still shown signs of jealousy. She still thirsts over him, just not as openly as she did before. She gets super shy whenever they have one-on-ones and that makes her get awkward in the cutest way. Jester started to be careful with how she was around Fjord, but he’s been making it pretty clear that he doesn’t want her to be careful with him and I think she’s starting to realize that. It’s giving her hope that maybe her feelings are wanted. 

Also, the fact that there’s no in-between for these two? They’re either incredibly emotional when they talk to each other or incredibly awkward or BOTH. They are radiating “in love with your best friend” energy. The difference is that Fjord isn’t afraid of ruining the friendship and Jester is. Or... well... yeah. Actually, that’s what I mean. I think Jester’s coming around to not being afraid. She’s got hope again that they might be something more. And I think that hope is starting to be fun for her again instead of scary.

OKAY I’m almost done. I want to very briefly talk about that gifset that I made, because I made receipts for a reason, damn it. Let’s talk ONLY about the conversation in 117.

Gif 1: This one is right after this exchange. Jester: I mean... it's worth a try. He's met all of us, so he could potentially scry on anyone, I guess, now. But maybe it'll keep me from being seen if I scry on him. I don't know how it all works. // Fjord: I guess we'd find out the next time we did it. // Jester: Yeah. Like, she looks down at the necklace and just smiles, because Fjord has literally just told her that his safety doesn’t matter as much as hers. Fjord went out of his way to do this thing for her and she just looks so touched.

Gifs 2 and 3: These are both just Jester laughing over Fjord talking about her face when she’s scrying. They’re goofing off and being silly. And gif 3 in particular is just... again. She’s having fun! With Fjord! And she likes that. 

Gif 4: Jester just asked Fjord “how are you?” and he started up with that big, goofy grin. And she can’t even get through calling her question stupid without smiling. Like, she’s reacting to his smile. And it’s kind of funny, because I think she doesn’t understand why he’s smiling so much in that moment, but she still can’t help but smile back.

Gif 5: I feel like I need to close all of that before.... That’s such an interesting reaction and SO TELLING. Like, that small smile and then she kind of takes a breath and then she still can’t not smile over it. SHE KNOWS. She really hopes that it means what she wants it to mean. And she wants it to mean something. 

Gif 6: She’s once again reacting to a Fjord smile. You can see the way the corners of her mouth keep trying to smile. Because Fjord is just touched and telling her that yeah, she should send a message to Kotho. And then it’s the things she’s doing with her hand there, too. She’s all nervous energy and can’t really hold still. There’s that hope again.

Gif 7: She’s SO HAPPY because she’s helping him. SO HAPPY. And again with the hands! So much nervous energy.

Gif 8: It's just a spell! It's easy to do. Again with the hands!!! I mean, okay. Speculation and projection. I’m aware. This is just something I do and I see it in Jester a lot. Where, she’s got to do something with her hands so they don’t do what she really wants them to. I mean, SERIOUSLY. And the way she smiles at him at the end of it. There’s a lot for her to process about this exchange and I think it’s starting to hit her. How much this means. What this might mean. And she’s happy. She’s excited.

Gif 9: I will think about that all night. Still the nervous energy. I won’t repeat that paragraph. But like. Fuck. Fjord told her that he was going to think about that all night. I kind of want to yell right now. In a good way. My heart just hurts in a good way over this moment. I can’t even speculate on her emotions here because that’s like... huge. There was so much tension here. Jester hasn’t had anyone say anything like this to her before. She doesn’t know how to react. And Fjord is also holding himself back. Uh, this is Fjord HOLDING HIMSELF BACK. What the fuck. I mean. Okay I have to move on. I have nothing productive to say here.

Gif 10: I guess I was wrong. This isn’t only about the conversation, but also about the moment later. Where he thinks she’s going to scry when she’s going to send and she realizes that he was going to do what she asked him to before. She is just so pleased that he intended to follow through. I choose to believe this is 100% what Jester’s face actually did in the moment. And I love this because it’s only awkward on Fjord’s end this time. Jester is just happy.

I’ve gotta end this thing, guys. Why are you even still listening to me ramble???

I guess what I ultimately want this whole answer to be: Jester’s in love with Fjord. Fjord makes her so happy. And she is starting to let herself hope that he’s in love with her, too. She can see the possibility of a future with him again and finally letting herself believe that it might happen. So, yeah. That’s where I think Jester’s feelings are. 

Hope you enjoyed my mini breakdown over Jester and how much Fjord’s support has meant to her! 

[novantinuum]

Fandom: Steven Universe

Rating: General Audiences

Words: 1.6K~

Summary: The question— incomplete, and yet bursting with long-held curiosity— emerges from thin air while he’s about to tuck Steven into bed in the back of the van one night.

In retrospect, no parenting book could’ve ever prepared him for this one.

A Greg and Steven focused fic, set when Steven is freshly four. This is one of those I had on the poll a month or so back, ahah! Finally finished it. Apologies for the wait. The good news is that my list is now whittled down to three non-Crack the Paragon WIPS! Woo! That’s rather exciting.

There’s some brief meta rambles on the AO3 version. If you read this and enjoy, I’d greatly appreciate your support through reblogs here, or kudos/comments on AO3. Thank you! <3

____

“Where’s yours, Daddy?”

The question— incomplete, and yet bursting with long-held curiosity— emerges from thin air while he’s about to tuck Steven into bed in the back of the van one night.

In retrospect, no parenting book could’ve ever prepared him for this one.

“My...?” Smiling encouragingly, he lets the word dangle unfinished in the air for a moment, and gestures to try and prompt the little tyke to continue. “My what, kiddo? My... pajamas?” he says, pointing towards each item his kid bears in succession. “My... stuffed tiger? My very own... tickle monster?!”

In the spirit of good-hearted mischief, Greg tousles his boy’s dark, flyaway curls. When he then moves his hands to tickle his sides, Steven breaks into delighted peals of laughter, squirming nonstop.

“Noooooo,” he giggles breathlessly, batting his small pudgy hands at him to stop the affectionate onslaught. “No tickles, your gem! Like mine! You ‘aven’t never showed it.”

In an instant, the small universe encapsulated inside their van freezes, and he goes momentarily slack-jawed as he struggles to process the words that just came out of his son’s mouth.

“My- w-where’s my gem?”

He lets out a low chuckle at the absurd thought— imagine that, him, having a gem of his own! Where on Earth did his kid acquire this notion? And then... his memory can’t help but drift back to a few hours earlier, when Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl spent a mission-free day with Steven on the beach, surrounded by all manners of summer tourists. Humans coexisting amongst Gems, most entirely nonplussed by their otherworldly appearances. Steven was eagerly padding across the shore in his brand new swim trunks— the pair he received for his birthday just a week ago— the quartz gem at his navel on proud display. Midway through the afternoon, though, the kiddo seemed to become strangely preoccupied by all the human beachgoers. He’d glance at people’s faces, their sternums, their exposed navels, and then scowl in confusion. At one point he excitedly ran up to a dark skinned young woman with hair like Garnet’s to give her a high-five, and returned puzzled, his lips pressed in a thin line. At the time, Greg didn’t understand what all of his bewildered, curious gawking was about, and quietly instructed him not to bother other people. But now, given this latest comment, a theory builds in his mind... oh stars, was he looking for their gems?

Did he somehow assume both from his own and from his frequency of interaction with Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl that everyone had one hidden somewhere?

Swallowing, he deliberately makes it a point to mask his nervousness about this topic in front of his impressionable four-year-old child as best he can. Oh, boy. They haven’t had this sort of conversation yet. He always kinda feared it was coming, coursing towards him like a tidal wave faster and faster with each passing moment, but never in a million years did he imagine this moment would be tonight. And now, his tongue dry as a stone in his mouth, he finds himself at a complete loss for words. As best he knows, there’s no one else even remotely like Steven in the entire universe. How does one even convey this concept to their child in terms they’d understand?

Because even if he— ignoring the rose quartz gemstone embedded flush with his skin where a typical kid’s belly button would be— looks the part, Steven isn’t human. That much is obvious. That’s simply a fact. Humans don’t glow as babies. They don’t grow so ramrod still while sleeping that they appear like they’re not breathing at all. They can’t casually lift double their body weight at the tender age of four. Not to mention, in all his years of life thus far, he’s never gotten sick. Never gotten a scrape or cut that didn’t heal up completely in less than an hour. Not once. There’s no way that’s by mere coincidence, Greg muses, there’s gotta be another reason. He’s gotta have some sort of mega-boosted immune system or something, or magically healing cells. No branch of human science can successfully justify the alien nuances of his son’s existence. He just... is. He’s a walking miracle, the light of his life.

Steven’s never been a normal child, that’s for sure.

But how is a father supposed to lovingly and sensitively explain this to innocent ears?

“I, erm- I don’t have one of those, bud,” he says slow, still desperately sorting through his thoughts to figure out what else to say about this.

The kid stubbornly wriggles free from his arms, lifting up the bottom hem of his baggy pajama shirt to showcase the glittering pink gemstone resting at the center of his belly. “But I got one, an’ Amethyst an’ Pearl got one, an’ Garnet, she- guess what,” he says in an attempt at a whisper, wide eyed as if he’s about to impart some sacred knowledge. “She even got two gems!”

“That’s right, she does have two gems!” he nods, only barely holding back his chuckle at the hilarious solemnity of his kid’s proclamation. “But Steven, not everyone has ‘em like you and them. It’s something unique to the four of you. Y’see, they are Gems, just like me and everyone else in town are humans. It’s, um—“ his speech falters as he struggles to find words someone so young could possibly begin to understand— “it’s sorta just who they are.”

The corners of Steven’s mouth turn downwards in an exaggerated pout, and it’s immediately obvious that this blind, clumsy attempt at an explanation didn’t satisfy him one bit. Greg leans back against the inner siding of the van, gently tugging at a strand of his hair as he scours his mind for any potential solutions to this parenting quandary.

Think, think, think... How does one connect this topic to things such a young kid might understand?

“Listen, uh...” he begins again, marked hesitation tinting his voice. “Pearl’s been teaching you about bugs lately, right?”

However, if Steven— bless his heart— happened to notice his heightened nervousness, he sure doesn’t let it show on his face, instead enthusiastically jumping to answer his question.

“Uh-huh!” he nods, and then proceeds to happily babble about what he’s learned, flapping his hands in front of him as he does so. “She tells me all about bumble bees an’ stick bugs, an’ these...” His brow creases as he pauses, combing his memory for the right words. “...fuzzy worms? But they aren’t worms, ‘cause they sleep for really super long and then, then they get wings and fly away!”

He can’t help but smile at his son’s animation about this subject. He soaks up knowledge like a sponge, that’s for sure. Between Pearl and him, they’ve been trying to introduce him to some of the basics lately, stuff kids his age should know. Like reading, and writing, and counting, and music, and basic science. Pearl does the math and science, (those classes were never his wheelhouse in school), and he takes care of everything else. Given, erm... given their kinda strained history, they don’t exactly collaborate on lesson plans, but so far the arrangement seems to be working out okay. Steven’s having fun, at least, which is all that matters in the end.

“Oooh, caterpillars and butterflies, huh?” he says, reaching for the thick blanket folded up against the side wall of the van. “Well, y’wanna learn a cool new thing?”

His son bobs his head, his eyes glittering.

“All those bugs you named?” he begins, unfolding the blanket for the two of them as he goes. “They’re each types of completely different creatures, or, different species, we call ‘em. And humans and Gems, they’re types of species too. And every species has something that makes them unique, different from everything else. You know how all those bugs have special things the others don’t have, like the bumble bees and their stripes, and those caterpillars’ fuzz?”

“Yeah!”

“Well, that’s what it’s like for humans and Gems, too! Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl and you, you all have gemstones, just like yours right here,” he says, tapping a gentle finger over the rose quartz embedded at his midsection. Steven lets out a small giggle at the contact. “That’s your special thing as Gems, something humans don’t have.”

“What’ve humans have?” he asks in curiosity, tilting his head.

Greg purses his lips, his fingers subconsciously massaging the blanket’s rough, time-worn surface as he considers the elements that— from personal experience— he’d consider essential to human life. “Hmm. Well, let’s see... I guess... humans eat, and sleep, and grow from babies all the way until they’re adults. Gems don’t age. They don’t really... do any of that.”

“But I can do that!” he whines, brows creasing.

“Hm?”

“I thought you jus’ said I’m a Gem?”

Greg’s breath stills upon the deliverance of this pointed question, spoken with such youthful innocence, and yet wholly capable of penetrating through every layer of his ill-formed logic. He swallows hard. Once again, he is not prepared. He likely never could be.

His son... oh, his beloved Steven. Without meaning to, he keeps ignoring the inherent humanity that sets this boy apart from the rest of the Gems. He’s similar to them in many respects, yes, but he’s also not. He’s both, but...

He’s also neither.

He’s unique from everyone, his own thing altogether. Something entirely new.

Quite honestly, the best word he can grasp at to describe him is hybrid.

And while at this present moment he has no idea if he’s doing his son a disservice, othering him from the rest of humanity at such a tender age, he figures that he at least deserves to know the truth.

“You’re kinda- uh, both, at once, actually,” he clarifies, these very words acting as a beacon to clarify a wide range of once deep-seeded assumptions in his mind. “Gem and human. You’ve got special things from both sides, how funky is that?”

“Huh.” Steven mulls this new information over, and then flashes a toothy grin. “That's cool!”

[perspective-series]

Meta Perspective (12)

By: @arc852 and @hiddendreamer67

Warnings: None

(Check the reblog for the links to any future chapters)

————————————————————————————————–

“I’m uh, I’m going to finish up dinner,” Patton said, heading back into the kitchen. 

 Virgil sighed as he turned to sit on the couch. “So, how are you doing after all that?” Virgil asked.

“I’m...alright.” Amanda glanced towards the kitchen doorway. “A little concerned that Patton’s going to just let Roman waltz in here while I’m sleeping. And I’m still reeling over the fact that Allison actually went back to humans, let alone the fact she got caught in the first place.”

 “Yeah...It is a little strange you both got caught at the same time.” Virgil admitted. “Especially since it, you know, doesn’t happen often.”

“No, and we were taught that if it did happen we would probably die.” Amanda tilted her head. “Why were our parents so intent on making us constantly fear for our lives?’’

 “I mean, I get it. They were just trying to watch out and protect you.” Virgil sighed. “There are some...bad humans out there. You two just happened to get lucky with us.”

“Yeah, and I guess I just got more lucky, then.” Amanda paused, looking down at her wrapped leg. “...sorta.”

 Virgil winced. “Yeah...it seems like you got physically injured and Allison got mentally hurt, by the looks of things.”

“Oh good, that sounds fine.” Amanda rolled her eyes. “Wait, did you see Allison when you went over there? How was she?”

 “No, she wasn’t there. I guess she really did go back home, like she said she was going to.” Virgil explained with a shrug. “I was glad she wasn’t there though, I wanted to speak to the two of them alone.”

“Just to lecture them about being bad humans?” Amanda guessed.

 “Yep.” Virgil had no problems admitting. “They were wrong and they needed to know that.”

“It’s nice to know you’re willing to call humans out like that.” Amanda teased. “Now all I’ve got to do is keep you in line and I’m golden.”

 “Please, I do what I want.” Virgil teased.

 “Dinner’s ready!” Patton called from the kitchen. Virgil smiled and offered a hand to Amanda.

“I’m sure I can tame even a wild spirit like you.” Amanda threatened, climbing on.

 “I would love to see you try,” Virgil smirked, taking her into the kitchen and letting her off on the already set table. Patton was sitting down already, smiling.

 “Bon appetit guys! I made us some homemade pizza!”

“Oh, thank you!” Amanda gave the human a larger grin than normal, taking up a tiny section of pizza and looking to Virgil with a quirked eyebrow. “See? I already tamed Patton.”

 Patton blinked, a little lost. “Huh?”

 “That doesn't count. Patton’s like that with everyone.” Virgil said, grabbing his own slice.

“Patton, who are you more loyal to, Virgil or me?” Amanda asked, taking a bite.

 Patton froze. “Uhh…” Virgil turned to face Patton.

 “Yeah, Pat. Who?” Virgil asked.

 “Well uh...I refuse to answer.” Patton decided.

“Say Virgil tried to keep me,” Amanda suggested, raising an eyebrow. “Do you listen to him, or do you let me go?”

 “I’d let you go,” Patton said, barely even thinking about it. 

 Virgil frowned. “Hey!”

 Patton turned to him with a shrug. “Sorry kiddo, but it would just be wrong to keep someone like Amanda and you know it,” Virgil muttered under his breath as he crossed his arms but he couldn’t help but agree.

“I win,” Amanda said smugly, tearing into her food with a grin.

 “Yeah, whatever,” Virgil muttered, taking another bite.

 “Anyway,” Patton spoke up, wanting to change the subject. “Amanda, what do you want to do after dinner?”

“Um, I’m not sure.” Amanda admitted, having not thought that far ahead. “Something fun, I guess.”

 “Well...you’ve played a video game, maybe you want to play a board game?” Patton asked.

“What sort of board game?” The borrower asked, already looking eager.

 “Oh, we’ve got a ton!” Patton stood up and headed towards the hall closest, getting down a bin full of board games. “Let’s see...we have Life, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Clue, Battleship, and a couple of other ones.” Patton listed.

“Once again, uh...I know what none of that means.” Amanda wiped her hands off on her pant leg. “But I’ll play whatever you think will be fun.”

 “Life could be interesting.” Virgil pointed out. He turned to look at Amanda. “It basically lets you go through a human life and make choices and stuff like that.” He figured the borrower would at least find it interesting.

“How does that work?” Amanda tilted her head. “I thought we were just going to play a game.”

 “I think it’s better if we showed you!” Patton exclaimed. He took the game out and started to set it up on the coffee table. Virgil looked down at Patton’s half-eaten slice of pizza and rolled his eyes before finishing up his own and offering a hand to Amanda.

Amanda climbed on, noting vaguely how much better her leg was doing. It was amazing how a day of rest could do wonders on such an injury, especially given how fast borrowers usually healed. She might be able to unwrap it entirely tonight.

 Virgil walked over and set her down on the coffee table and then went to sit on the floor. Patton had already managed to set everything up and was now pointing at the wheel in the middle. “Okay! We’ll let you go first. Just spin this wheel and move the number of squares that it lands on!” Patton explained.

“Um, okay.” Amanda followed the instructions as best she could, spinning the wheel with a grunt. Amanda peered over the edge, glancing at the number before picking up her piece and walking to the correct spot.

 “Oh! Okay, so this is where you have to choose. Do you want to go to college or just get a job?” Patton asked.

“Why does that matter?” Amanda asked. “What’s the difference?”

 “Well, if you go to college you can get better jobs.” Virgil pointed out. “But if you get a job, you start making money earlier and you don’t have to worry about loans.”

“Why do I need money?” Amanda remembered hearing the term once or twice, but to a borrower, things like currency had no value. “And what are loans?”

 “Wait, you don’t know how money works?” Virgil asked eyebrow raised.

“No, why?” Amanda looked between the humans, feeling she was missing something. “Should I?”

 Virgil turned to Patton. “Maybe we should play something else. Not involving money.” He suggested and Patton frowned but nodded.

 “Okay, um...battleship?” That should be fun and relatively easy, right?

“No, we don’t have to stop!” Amanda waved her hands. She didn’t want them to give her some sort of handicap game just because she was a little behind on human culture. “I can learn money!”

 “...Alright. Patton?” Virgil handed the floor to him and Patton bit his lip.

 “Well, we use money to buy things. Food, furniture and in this case, we buy the ability to go to college and learn in order to get a degree to get a job and earn more money.” Patton did his best to explain.

“Wait, so if you have money, you can just get stuff?” Amanda said. 

 “Well, if you have enough.” Patton continued. “Everything has a price and if you don’t have enough money you can’t get something.”

 “But that’s where loans come in.” Virgil picked up. “Though, loans are only used for huge expenses like college or buying a house. Basically, the government gives you money to pay with but then you have to pay it back in monthly amounts.”

“So why is money so valuable?” Amanda asked, beginning to get the idea. It was like trading. “What does it do? Why do people want it?”

 “The more money you have, the more things you can get. The nicer the things you can get.” Virgil shrugged. “But also it’s essential for humans to live and buy things you need, so that’s mostly why people want it.”

“No I get that, but why is money itself worth anything?” Amanda rephrased her question. “If it’s worth so much in trading, it must be quite useful indeed. Otherwise, why collect it at all?”

 “Uhh...well...it’s useful for buying things. That’s it. That’s it’s only purpose.” Virgil tried to explain.

 “Yeah, I think it’s worth has something to do with how much our government has in gold? Not sure.” Patton jumped in.

“...sounds fake, but okay.” Amanda shrugged. Perhaps there really were some human concepts she would never understand.

 “So, college or job?” Patton asked again.

“It sounds like a job is better.” Amanda pointed out. “Because then I get money and I don’t get loans...right?”

 “Well, for some people yeah. Others though, think it’s better to go to college to get a better job and even more money.” Patton explained.

 “Despite the fact they’ll be in debt for the rest of their lives.” Virgil muttered.

“Okay, well I’ll do job.” Amanda decided, pushing her piece into place.

 Patton nodded and went ahead and drew three cards from the job pile. He laid them out in front of Amanda. “Alright, so now you get to pick one! Looks like your choices are retail worker, artist or a flight attendant!”

“What are those? Does it matter?” Amanda asked, inspecting the cards.

 “Well, they all have different salaries under them, so you should probably take the one that gives you the most money. And that seems to be the flight attendant.” Virgil pointed out. 

 “Oh, that’s a fun job! They basically get to be in an airplane all day, going all over the place!” Patton chimed in.

“What’s an airplane?” Amanda asked, lifting up the card. The art was pretty, in its own way. Amanda would certainly try on an outfit like that if she found the right doll clothes. Of course, that was the same for most human outfits.

 “Uhh...have you ever seen anything other than a bird flying in the sky? Something that looked like metal? Or maybe you’ve heard the sound of something loud in the air?” Virgil tried.

“Um…” Amanda tried to think back to if she had ever seen such a thing. “Well, sometimes the stars move. Is that the same thing?”

 “Yeah! That’s a plane!” Patton exclaimed with a grin. “It’s like this big metal ship with wings that humans control and fly through the air with. That’s how humans get to far away places sometimes.”

“Oh that is so cool.” Amanda’s eyes widened. “So you made your own birds? I’ve always thought that would be fun, but Allison would never let me try and ride one.”

 Virgil winced. “Um...yeah, I think I can see why.” Sure it sounded cool but the execution could be very dangerous. 

 “Basically! It’s just a faster way to get around. Hey! Maybe we could bring you on one sometime!” Patton said with a large grin. Virgil frowned.

 “Uh...Maybe not. TSA would find Amanda in a heartbeat.” Virgil said and Patton frowned.

 “Oh, right.”

“Who is TSA?” Amanda asked, trying not to feel deflated. She would have loved to ride the metal bird.

 “Security. They have things that can see inside bags and stuff, so I’m sure they would spot a tiny person.” Virgil said. “So, not a good idea, sorry. We could always take you on some more car rides though.” Virgil said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I guess.” Amanda shrugged. “I mean, it’s no sky, but it would be cool to be in a car and actually see what’s happening.”

 “Oh! And maybe we can take a trip somewhere! That could be fun, right?” Patton exclaimed. He had been bummed about not being able to fly too but the idea of taking a vacation with the borrower sounded even better.

“Ooh, that could be fun!” Amanda clapped her hands excitedly, thrilled at the idea of how far she could travel with a human’s help. After all, she had already gone over several blocks away with them when traveling to school, and that was further than Amanda ever expected to go in a lifetime. “Where should we go? And when?”

 “Well, we would have to wait until the semester ends but uh...we could go to disney?” Virgil suggested. It was the place to go for vacations after all.

 Patton’s eyes lit up. “Yes! We could go to Disney! Oh, that would be so much fun!”

“Yes! Disney!” Amanda found herself caught up in the excitement, only to slowly take a step back when she remembered she was out of her element. “...what’s Disney?”

 “Oh, don’t let Roman hear you say that,” Virgil said as Patton decided to take out his phone and look it up, their board game all but forgotten. He held the phone in front of Amanda.

 “This is Disney.” Patton said with a grin.

Amanda’s eyes widened, looking at the image on Patton’s phone. “You’re telling me that’s an actual place?” The castle looked like it came straight out of one of the fairytales from Amanda’s childhood.

 “Oh yeah.” Virgil said with a smirk. “They’ve got rides, so much food, some live shows, etc, etc.” He said. 

 Patton grinned. “It isn’t called the happiest place on earth for nothing, you know.”

“Yes, yes I want to go there.” Amanda pressed her finger into the screen eagerly.

 “Then I’m sure we can make it happen.” Virgil chuckled. “Though it will be another two months before we can go but I guess it’s good to plan ahead.”

 “Yeah! Though uh, fair warning, if we go I’m thinking Roman and Logan are going to want to come with us.” Patton said. Knowing Roman wouldn’t miss the chance to go to Disney and Logan wouldn’t want to be left behind. Besides, he liked disney just as much as the rest of them.

“...oh.” Amanda hadn’t really considered that.

 “But you shouldn’t let that deter you!” Patton was quick to say. “Like I said, they aren’t bad people...and if you really want you don’t have to be anywhere near them. You can just stick with me or Virgil.”

“Mhm.” Amanda had to also remember that it wouldn’t be for several months. That was a long time; Amanda couldn’t be sure she would even still be living with Patton and Virgil. After all, by then her leg would have certainly healed. And there was Allison to consider, who may want to move because of the same humans who now wanted to piggyback on Amanda’s Disney adventure. 

“Well, I suppose we can always figure it out later.” Amanda shrugged.

 “Right, yeah, we have plenty of time.” Patton agreed. He put his phone away before noticing the board game and remembering they had been playing. “Oh, right! The board game!” He turned to Amanda. “Still up to play?”

“...yeah.” Amanda snapped out of her thoughts, turning to the game at hand. “Let’s play.”