#ill do a proper intro someday maybe

[gaymergirlie]

The LDB I mainly play with Tally is Helena, full name Helena Adelaise Mede. She’s the granddaughter of Titus Mede II and is also related to the Carvain dynasty of Bruma. However people began to grow more and more disillusioned with the Empire, particularly after the Great War, and Helena decided to renounce her title and seek something else for herself. She initially headed for Bruma, however ended up deciding not to stay and instead traveled to Skyrim.

Idk I wanted to play around with the concept of someone belonging to the Emporer’s bloodline being named Dragonborn. I feel like there’s a lot of untapped potential there.

What kind of backstories do players have for their Dragonborn?

Currently working on a future script and would like some input if anyone is willing to share their stories.

[jadeyarts]

Ngl, I think Chloe was done dirty in the show

She should've had her own fairy godparent then share with Timmy. Plus she was introduced when the show was dying and was used as an attempt to revive it.

I want a Chloe redemption, give her what she deserves.

agree! like, her introduction was awful and actually truly failed to introduce her character sincerely or accurately it was so baffling. i watched season 10 twice, first in reverse order then in proper order and it was actually absolutely wild how absolutely nothing in her introduction episode was really that indicative of her character??? it doesn't truly capture any of chloe's quirks and complexities, or even really why she would need godparents, and barely anything in the episode actually carries into any episode beyond that besides, like, the turners being rich for the rest of the season? which is not a decision i liked, and it really only served as a half-hearted reason for the carmichaels to hate the turners inexplicably, but they really didn't need to be rich for that. the turners being rich could have been interesting if they actually brought back remy, though, since the turners literally bought the country club that remy's parents owned. whatever.

i mean, i think i understand what they were trying to do - setting timmy up as being jealous and frustrated with her and then forcing him to have to try being cordial, to force them to have to work in tandem, makes sense as a narrative and stakes. and revealing that she isn't actually as perfect as he initially believes her to be also narratively makes sense! but sadly the execution of these ideas is very disjointed and shallow. not to mention the way they tried to explicitly spell out its themes was extremely forced. it's kind of a retread of both imaginary gary (the episode) and the boy who would be queen in those aspects, but lacking cohesion. it feels like maybe a first draft that wasn't revised nearly enough, or something. maybe it was! maybe they hadn't truly figured out what they really wanted to do and by the time they did it was too late. i dunno, but whatever it was, the end result is the same: a lot of people barely make an effort to understand chloe as a character and instead parrot whatever reviewers said about her intro a decade ago. and i get it, i'm not innocent of that either, i did the same thing years ago. but then i decided i wanted to come to my own conclusions. and i ended up loving chloe's character, she would have been a great addition to the series if she just came in at a better time. she was a great foil for timmy! and their chemistry as friends was actually great!

and... to that second point... i guess i think you're objectively right, a lot of viewers would likely have an easier time accepting chloe if she had been introduced with her OWN fairies, separate from cosmo and wanda, while just coincidentally becoming friends with timmy... or even being the protagonist of a sequel would have been less controversial... but i also kind of disagree. the fact they were forced to share cosmo and wanda was actually one of the more interesting aspects of the season to me, even if the actual reasoning behind it was dog water. but i really liked the dynamic that formed as a result. this sort of allegorical stepsibling, blended family dynamic. i like the way that cosmo and wanda specifically both represented different attributes and values they needed in their lives! i like what this specific set-up added, even if i find the execution of most of its episode ideas to be um. well. season 10. i honestly think a better way to introduce chloe and incorporate these dynamics i found so interesting would have probably been to make them actual, literal stepsiblings and not just allegorical fairy god-stepsiblings. not sure who would have been into that besides me, though.

sighs loudly. maybe someday ill rewrite season 10 or something. i have a lot of story ideas for chloe.

[flyingcookierambles]

study plans?

recently i feel like my friend going to japanese college has motivated me to try to start studying japanese again. plus some spontaneous chinese here and there, more vocab/pronunciation/tone focused rather than grammar right now.

ended up a kinda long ramble lol, ill cut it up into two pieces.

i literally do daily: 1 duolingo so the owl doesnt hunt me down like the weak prey i am (any language)

i try to do once a day: 1 or 2 anki decks for vocab. for japanese i use many: JLPT N4, Genki 1 & 2 Including Genki Supplementary Vocab,  Core 2k/6K Optimized Japanese Vocabulary, 2500 Most-Used kanji. For Chinese I use the HSK level 1/2/3 word list. these are seperate, just a pain to type lol. i dont use wanikani actually lol. the renaming of radicals annoyed/confused me, who was forced to learn the names of the very proper strokes in high school chinese lol. plus having no assessment test and having to start over from the very beginning and then getting the simplest kanji wrong because i remember the radical by its shape or a stroke by its proper chinese name and not a silly american name (no i did not learn this character is actually wearing a hat or a pot lid. thats weird.), i just got kinda annoyed and went back to simple anki flashcards lol.

3-4 times a week: going over 2-4 grammar concept from genki 2 so far. partly because when i was studying with my 2 friends over the summer we were doing a cramming thing for our friend to to get up to standards of the college they were transferring to, now attending. as a result, we uhh. kinda skipped over basically all vocab. only did the grammar, and sometimes not even all the grammar. we skipped over really simple stuff (ie the volitionary form which is just slapping a ~ou/おう at the end of things) and the stuff that was just -te form + some extra words. so i’m finally properly going over that stuff in full, alone. plus im rewriting/digitizing my notes in onenote bc pencil and pen kinda smear/fade over time so this will just be better if i want to go to my notes for reference in the future. the ease of searching by control+f is also nice compared to flipping thru pages in confusion. i also feel like my learning style is def repetitive related, so going over things a second time works for me. (for japanese im using using genki 2/the genki 2 track on bunpro.jp. (this website is incredible and for the most part free. even if you want the premium sub version, the cheapest sub plan is $2 a month! while i dont have it, i did do the free trial when i first signed up and it was ok and you can totally do the free version and get all the barebones japanese grammar explanations from like 4 different textbooks) when/if i ever finish genki 2, ill just check out the minna no nihongo track on bunpro, more to see if there’s any grammar that gets covered in that one that genki doesnt have. if they’re just the same but a different order or something, ill just move on to the tobira track since its the intro to real intermediate japanese grammar.) i might check out the free textbook irodori, more out of curiosity than seriousness honestly. iroiro uses a different fluency grading system than the common JLPT N5-1 levels, iroiro uses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, or CERFL. Since im focusing on the JLPT N level standards and these are totally different curriculums and stuff, im not sure how helpful irodori will be to me at this point but ill look at it because its a free textbook. when i try to relearn chinese again ill dig out my integrated chinese textbooks (goodreads), only intermediate since i seem to have lost my beginner editions somewhere in my house between moving from college dorm to house every summer ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . i might check out the all set learning site, it seems to both HSK and CERFL. ill probably review the HSK 1-2 stuff real quick since thats basically what i learned in high school/college and i kinda forget a lot since its been like 6 years now. then ill maybe hopefully finally get to HSK 3. ill try to watch videos from yoyochinese on youtube too. she explains things really clearly and helpfully to native english speakers in a way that my previous teachers havent been able to. ill stick to the youtube tho since ive heard that the actual courses from her website are very expensive for online self study tho, and purchasing a regular textbook would be cheaper lol. 

once a week: try to use words from anki decks + whatever grammar i learned in practice sentences/make up sentences yourself. this is a bit hard bc since im self studying if my sentences end up wrong/sounding awkward to a native speaker i am not really sure how to check lol. i’m on polyglot.city (a mastodon instance focused on language learning/blogging) and i post there sometimes and people have helped me/rated my sentences every now and then but recently its been very slow. (japanese, altho i hope that i regain enough of my mandarin skills to do this again sometime)

every 2 weeks: after accumulating grammar for a bit, i try to read a grade/language level appropriate short story in the language. (hint: the level of a toddler probably lol.) for japanese i started using satori reader, altho other short story apps exist. for chinese there’s du chinese and tcb/the chairman’s bao. honestly i use du chinese just because im too lazy to make an account for tcb, altho i may finally make an account and use it one day. one day..... (japanese and chinese)

for japanese i just want to get to tobira right now and then long term is simply reaching what is probably jlpt n3, the typical not quite fluent but still ok enough to conduct business or ask a native speaker for help in a convenience store. kinda eh, a good middle intermediate level. from that point, i should be ok enough to try to read a YA novel. no not a light novel (might try it tho) but like a regular novel for middle schoolers. or maybe doremon? ill see where it goes from there. i hope to at least be able to understand some of the things an average person would like a weather forecast on the nhk or a short newspaper article. maybe ill take the actual jlpt test someday.....not sure how to sign up/where to find it in my city tho....

for chinese, i just want to know more vocab and improve my tones/pronunciation right now. 

[jilyyall]

Animal Magnetism Ch 3.

Edward Cullen was not a normal teenager; of that I was certain. But knowing that did nothing to stop the pull I felt towards him. And if what he was saying was any indication, he felt some strange pull towards me, too. It was like we were magnets struggling against hope to stay apart. I only wondered what would happen when we inevitably collided.

Chapter 3. Singularity. Fanfiction.net /  AO3 Intro/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/

I was already seated at my table in Biology when the bell rang, heart still racing, stomach and fists clenched with nerves. He hadn't been rude to me at all in the music room, hadn't looked angry or murderous in the slightest, but I couldn't erase the image of his eyes, predatory and black as pitch, on me in the cafeteria a week ago. I was terrified to spend an entire hour next to him, close enough to reach out and touch him.

What could I do but sit and endure it, though? Groaning, I put my head down on my folded arms and hid my face.

It wasn't long before students began to file into the room. I heard chairs scraping and bags dropping as people took their seats. I felt someone come and stand near me and knew it wasn't him, but Mike before he even spoke.

"You okay, Bella?"

"Yeah. I just have a headache," I told him, and turned my head still cradled in my arms to peer up at him with one squinting eye.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want me to walk you to the nurse's office?" Ah, Mike, ever the helpful friend. Too bad that wasn't enough for him.

I paused before I could tell him no simply out of habit. Did I want to go to the nurse's office? Maybe I could play up my fictional headache enough that I could miss out on the entire hour, buy myself one more day.

Frowning, I shook my head. "No thanks, Mike. I'll be okay."

I wouldn't be a coward. I wouldn't just run and hide because I was scared of a boy I hadn't even had a proper conversation with yet. I couldn't even be sure that I saw what I thought I had back in the cafeteria last week. He was perfectly polite earlier, and had smiled at me more than once. Sure, they weren't the biggest, most genuine smiles, but you took what you could get.

"Well, at least you've got Cullen for a lab partner," Mike said ruefully, his tone not quite matching the words he'd clearly meant to be helpful. I realized he was still upset that Edward Cullen had apparently been looking at me at lunch. "He won't talk your ear off."

"That's good. I could use some peace and quiet," I said.

Luckily, Mike seemed to catch my not-so-subtle hint. He nodded, smiled, then patted my back in a bolstering gesture and took his usual seat in the front of the room next to Lee. I bent down to pull my notebook out of my bag, flipped it open to a fresh page, and began to doodle.

I heard the chair next to me scrape the floor, heard a body settle into it, felt his presence impossibly close to me. It took everything in me, but I managed to keep my focus on my notebook, and not look up at him.

"Hello again, Bella."

My gaze snapped up, straight to his. The melodic nature of his voice was irresistible, such that I stood no chance of ignoring him.

"My name is Edward Cullen," he said with a wry smile, as if he knew that I already knew his name, though he hadn't told me before. "I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet last week. I was ill."

For several seconds, I could only stare at him. When I was finally able to open my mouth, I couldn't control myself. "Did you get contacts?"

His eyes were the color of molten gold. Back in the music room, all I had noticed was that they weren't full of murder, but now I could see how light and beautiful they were.

"No," he said, the barest hint of a bemused smile on his lips.

"But your eyes…" I stammered, and my head shook back and forth of its own accord. "They were black. Last week at lunch."

"Yes. My eyes shift in color sometimes. It's… hereditary," he said, chuckling slightly like it was nothing. "When I'm not feeling well, they darken. All of my siblings share the same strange trait."

I didn't believe him, not really. But what could I say?

"Is your head feeling alright?" He asked.

"Yes," I said, confused. He hadn't been here when I'd lied to Mike about my headache. Unless… I shook my head. "Why?"

He frowned, and I saw frustration creeping into his expression. "You had your head down when I walked in. I thought maybe you weren't feeling well."

But I was drawing in my notebook when he walked in. Mike had been the one to see me with my head down. Suspicious, my eyes narrowed on him just as Mr. Banner walked in wheeling a cart full of microscopes and slides.

"Can I get a volunteer to help hand out our equipment for the day?" Mr. Banner called from the front of the room.

Edward and I just kept staring at each other – I couldn't break his gaze – until Mike put a microscope on our table rather more roughly than I thought strictly necessary. Edward smirked briefly, a flash of amusement, and averted his eyes to reposition the microscope between us. I looked down at my notebook once again, waiting until Mr. Banner began to explain the lab to look up again. It was one I'd already done back in Phoenix, and Edward knew all of the answers even quicker than I did, so we were finished before any of the other tables had correctly identified a single slide. It took us less than two minutes.

"Do you play the piano?" He asked quietly after a moment.

I turned my head to stare at him. "Um. No. I don't."

"Oh." His brow furrowed in frustration and I frowned, confused until I realized he was probably wondering what I was doing in the music room earlier.

"My mom tried to get me to learn," I offered, "when I was a kid. It didn't work out."

"I see," he said, nodding. Then, "Would you like to learn?"

I stared at him for a long moment, trying to figure out what he meant. Was he offering to teach me? Or just asking a question?

"Um. I don't know. Maybe someday," I shrugged uncomfortably. "Maybe it's something I wish I would have stuck with."

"Why didn't you?" he asked, his eyes blazing with frustrated curiosity.

"Well, I was eight I think, and we were living in Reno at the time. I obviously wasn't very good at it," I said truthfully. Back then, I only wanted to do the things that came easily to me. Like reading. I still liked reading, but I was getting better at getting out of my comfort zone. Marginally better. "And I wasn't improving very quickly, so I just stopped."

"You lived in Nevada." He seemed surprised.

"For a couple years. Then California. Florida. We were in Phoenix last," I said. All warm, all sunny, all beautiful. Nothing like here.

"Why did you move to Forks?" Edward asked, seeming to be on the same wavelength.

"My parents got back together." I shook my head and took a deep breath, unable to look away from him. "I'm supposed to be happy about it, and I am, you know? It's great that my mom and dad are finally together… I've never really been able to see it before… I was just a baby when my mom and I left. It's just…"

I trailed off with a sigh and a halfhearted shrug.

"You miss your friends," Edward supplied with an understanding nod. "Of course."

"Yeah."

"Do you have a boyfriend, Bella?" he asked.

I stared at him, open-mouthed until I remembered what Jessica had said last week. He's totally gorgeous, but he won't date anyone. There was no way he was interested in me. He was just curious, I reminded myself. A strange, curious boy.

"No," I finally said.

"Anyone you wished would be your boyfriend?" he prompted.

"N-no," I forced out, heart hammering. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

I meant it as a joke, or maybe to flip the tables on him and make him feel uncomfortable. It didn't occur to me until the words were out that it may have sounded flirtatious. Edward smiled, and shook his head.

"No, Bella," he said in that quiet, musical tone of his. "I don't have a girlfriend."

We fell into silence as Mr. Banner came around to check up on us, surprised to see that we had finished so quickly and gotten everything correct. He walked away to check in with the rest of the class and I turned back to the doodles in my notebook.

"Am I annoying you?" Edward asked suddenly.

"No," I said. "It's just a lot of questions. I'm not… used to it."

"I apologize, Bella," he said with a smile. "I just find you very difficult to read."

"You must be good at reading people, then," I said with a grimace. He'd certainly picked up on why I didn't want to be here pretty quickly, and hadn't seemed to assume I was trying to flirt with him just now.

Edward flashed another privately amused smile and inclined his head. "Usually."

I turned my gaze to the front of the room when Mr. Banner called the class to order and tried to pay attention to the lesson he presented explaining the lab Edward and I had just flown through. I found it difficult, however, to keep my mind from wandering to the conversation we had just had. It was only a week ago he'd looked at me with such undisguised rage, but only moments ago, he'd seemed so genuinely interested. And now, he was leaning into the aisle, as far away from me as he could possibly get without leaving his seat.

When the bell rang, Edward was standing, books in hand, and was out the door before the chime had even finished. I watched his back until he slipped out the door, then let out a long breath. Hadn't Mike said Cullen won't talk your ear off before class started? I shook my head. I had never been asked so many questions in one sitting before.

The week that followed was much the same. The days passed without event until lunch, when Jessica would nudge me and gesture as subtly as she was able towards the table in the corner. Every day, it was just Edward Cullen staring at me. He wouldn't bother to look away when our eyes met, but neither did he smile or wave; he always just continued to look at me until I forced myself to look away.

Every time Mike and I walked into Biology, Edward was already there sitting at our table. Mike would frown and walk to his seat when I took mine. As soon as the day's lesson was complete and we had time to ourselves, the inquisition would begin: did I play any sports? What were my friends like back in Phoenix? What were some things I liked to do when I got together with my friends? Did I miss the sun? Did I mind the rain?

It was dizzying, and I was more than a little mystified by his curiosity, but I answered all of his questions. And then, the moment the bell rang, he was gone again without a parting word. I just didn't understand what game he was playing.

The Wednesday morning of my third week in Forks, I pulled into the school parking lot much earlier than I meant to. When Renee was driving me to school, it was always a struggle to get her out the door on time and we usually pulled up right before the first bell rang. Ever since my parents had given me the truck, though, I'd been timing my arrival for about fifteen minutes before the first bell.

That morning, I was talking to Madison on the phone, and Charlie had already left for the police station and Renee had headed into town to sign the lease for her art studio. Alone in the house and distracted on the phone, I'd been practically on autopilot, dressing, eating my breakfast, and heading out without even paying attention to the time.

There were only a few cars in the lot when I parked, and no one standing around outside, so I stayed in my car and let Madison finish talking about her latest date with Conner. Finally, just as she was winding down, the parking lot started to fill up. A glance at the flickering clock on the dashboard told me that first period would begin in ten minutes. Restless, I got out of the car, my phone pressed between my ear and my shoulder, and headed around to the back of my truck, fumbling with the strap of my bookbag. For once, it wasn't raining, though the heavy grey clouds promised rain to come later in the day.

"He asked me to be his girlfriend," Madison was saying. "Obviously, I said yes."

"Wow, that's great, Mads," I said, sparing a greeting nod for Mike, who was waving me down from under the metal awning in front of the office. I looked around to see if any of our other friends were here yet. All I saw, though, was Edward Cullen standing near a silver Volvo a few spots away from me. He was looking at me with that same neutral expression he always had at lunch. I didn't even needed Jessica to point it out to me anymore, though she did so every day without fail.

I averted my gaze, pretending to be fascinated by the drawstring of my jacket.

"Bella?" Madison said.

"Sorry, what?" I said, realizing that she'd been talking while I was zoned out staring at Edward.

"I was saying how I wish he had worked up the nerve to ask me out before you moved away. I wish I could tell you all about it in person," she said.

"Oh, yeah," I said, distracted by the feeling that he was still watching me. I looked up again and saw that I was right. I was trying to work up the strength to look away, but I was transfixed by the force of his gaze, so I saw when his expression shifted to one of horror.

Then I heard the tires squealing. Turning, I saw a blue minivan skidding on a patch of ice headed straight for the back of my truck, right where I was standing.

Oh, shit, I thought, but I didn't have time to actually articulate the thought. I wasn't going to have time to move out of the way.

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die. All I saw was Edward, every time I'd ever caught him looking at me, every little half smirk that had quirked his mouth, the odd way he sometimes looked at me, like he was trying to see inside my head, whenever he asked me a question.

Something hit me in the side hard, knocking me to the ground and stealing my breath. My head hit the asphalt with a sharp crack just as the van hit my truck with the sickening crunch of metal on metal. Two strong and slender pale white hands stood out in a large fresh dent in the side of the blue minivan. It hadn't hit me yet, but it was still coming, the tires still squealing.

A familiar voice cursed imaginatively, barely more than a whisper in my ear. He swung me then, with one hand like I was nothing but a ragdoll. The other hand caught the van and lifted the front of it a full six inches off the ground. My feet dragged on the asphalt until they hit the rear hubcap of the tan car next to mine. There was a jarring thud as the wheels of the van settled right where my legs had just been.

There was silence, deafening silence, for a split second when it was over. Then, everyone started to scream. It was the low, insistent voice in my ear that caught my attention, though.

"Bella, are you okay?"

Edward Cullen was leaning over me, his face mere inches from mine, his hand holding me in place next to him so I couldn't try to get up. I stared up at him, and saw nothing but concern in his eyes.

"How did you get here so fast?" was all I could think to say. I heard footsteps as everyone rushed towards us, but we were completely enclosed on all sides as the tan car next to my truck had been knocked forward by the force of the collision and struck the front end of my truck.

He looked bemused, but I could see the farce in his expression now. He shook his head. "I was standing right next to you, Bella."

The lie was so smooth that I would have believed him if I hadn't been looking right at him a second before it happened.

"No, you were next to your car," I insisted, trying to shove his hand away so that I could sit up, but it was like he was made of stone; he didn't budge. "How did you do that?"

"Bella, I was standing right next to you," he said again, moving his hand so that I could sit up if I wanted, but he looked ready to push me back down if I tried to stand, so I stayed where I was. "I was going to ask if you had any trouble with the Biology homework."

Ignoring how absurd the idea of Edward Cullen talking to me about homework was, I shook my head, and winced at the sharp pain.

"How did you stop the van?" I whispered. There were people all around us; I didn't think they could possibly hear us through the pandemonium, but I didn't want to risk it and get him in trouble.

His face went carefully blank and he looked away. Suddenly, my cellphone was in his hand, the screen cracked from when I must have dropped it. "I think your friend is concerned for you."

"Bella? Oh my God, Bella! What's going on?" I could barely make out her words as Edward held my phone out to me, but the edge of hysteria in her voice was obvious.

"I'm okay, Madison," I mumbled, taking the phone from him. "But, um, I'm gonna have to call you back later."

"Bella! What just happened?" I heard her say, but I was already ending the call.

Edward was still watching me closely. I didn't know what he saw in my face, but whatever it was must have convinced him that I wasn't going to let this drop. He frowned and sighed. "Please, Bella," he murmured as people started trying to move the van.

"Fine," I said. "But you owe me an explanation."

"Fine," he snapped and leaned back as far away from me as he could in our little cage of crushed vehicles.

The nearly half hour it took for the paramedics and several teachers to move the van enough to get to us passed in utter silence as Edward took it upon himself to pretend I didn't exist. I spent the time inspecting the scene around me. There was a large dent in the side of the van that perfectly matched the size and shape of Edward's hands, but it was the tan car next to me that fascinated me more. There, in the passenger door, was an even bigger dent that looked, to me, like it might be from someone bracing their shoulders against it. Perhaps when he had been lifting the van so that it wouldn't crush my legs? The dent certainly wasn't caused by the van itself.

I looked around, expecting to see Edward still pretending I wasn't sitting less than a foot from him, and jumped. He was watching me again with a distrustful frown.

"I won't say anything," I whispered just as the adults created a big enough gap between the front of the van and the back of my truck. "I just want to know the truth."

All I saw before paramedics flooded us was disbelief on his face, and that now-familiar curious frustration.

Edward, of course, talked his way out of a stretcher. I didn't have the same luck, considering Edward told the paramedics that I had hit my head pretty hard on the asphalt. They wheeled me in alongside Tyler Crowley, who had been driving the van and lost control on a patch of ice. His windows had shattered from the force of the impact and he had a myriad of shallow slices all over his face and hands. It would likely take a while for nurses to extract every little shard of glass from his flesh.

To my horror, both Renee and Charlie met me at the hospital.

"Oh my God, Bella!" Renee cried out.

"Bella!" Charlie shouted.

"I'm fine!" I assured them quickly as I was wheeled past them into an examination room. I was sure I looked a lot worse than I actually felt, thanks to the neck brace the paramedics had put me in, much to my chagrin.

The nurses had barely left the room when the door opened again and a doctor walked in. He was young with sleek, gleaming hair so blond it was almost white and his skin was paler even than mine. He was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. I could have guessed who he was even before I saw his strange, amber eyes though he didn't look nearly old enough to be the father of a teenager, much less five of them.

"Hello, Bella. I'm Dr. Cullen," he said in a soft, smooth, soothing melody.

"I figured," I muttered, averting my gaze.

"I'm sorry?" he said, pausing at the foot of the bed the nurses had transferred me to.

"Nothing," I said, flushing and shaking my head.

Edward, I was certain, would have asked me to explain myself, curious and demanding as he was. His father, however, nodded, and walked forward.

"I hear you took a nasty fall," Dr. Cullen said. "You hit your head?"

"Yes," I said sullenly, crossing my arms over my chest. "Your son has a big mouth."

Dr. Cullen's lips quirked up in a small amused smile, but he didn't otherwise acknowledge my quip.

"I'm going to check for a concussion," he informed me, gently lifting my chin with one hand as he reached into the pocket of his jacket for a flashlight. He shone the light in my eyes and had me stare at the finger he held up as he looked me over. He inspected the tender spot on my head and frowned when I flinched.

"Pain?" he asked.

"Not so bad," I said with a shrug. I had suffered worse. Mom had briefly put me in soccer as a kid. I'd somehow managed to clobber myself in the head with my own cleat. That was definitely more painful than this.

"Well, you don't have a concussion," he said, smiling when I nodded because I already knew that. "You should take some Tylenol when you get home, though, to help with the pain."

"I can't go back to school?" I said, frowning. I didn't particularly want to go home and deal with my frantic, hovering mother.

"Tomorrow, but I advise you to take today to recover," Dr. Cullen said. When I only frowned even more despondently, he smiled at me again. "If it makes it any better, Mr. Crowley will be out for the rest of the week."

"That does help. Some," I mumbled.

When Dr. Cullen glanced at something over my head, I turned to see Edward standing in the doorway.

"What's the verdict?" he asked. His tone was off, like he already knew the answer and was only asking as a formality, or for my benefit.

"No concussion," I grumbled, but he looked only at his father.

"She's fine," Dr. Cullen assured his son.

"Can I talk to you?" I said, narrowing my eyes on Edward. He frowned and sighed. I thought he was about to refuse, but his father had already stepped to the door.

"I'll go speak to your parents," he told me, then glanced at his son and laid a hand on his shoulder as he passed him.

Annoyed, Edward glared at his father's back as Dr. Cullen walked swiftly towards the waiting room. He took several steps forward and then stopped in the middle of the room, glaring at me.

"What?" he demanded harshly.

My heart rate kicked up in response to his hostility, but I wasn't going to back down so soon. Edward could be intimidating, but I knew now that he didn't want anything bad to happen to me, not after all the effort he'd put into keeping me alive today. And he came to the examination room to check up on me, after all. He certainly wasn't about to hurt me.

"It's later," I told him.

He kept his mouth shut in an obstinate scowl. For a long moment, all we did was stare at each other expectantly. He was expecting, I was sure, for me to yield and stop demanding an explanation, and I was expecting him to cave and speak. After a full minute of silence, it became clear to me that neither of us would leave satisfied.

Closing my eyes, I sighed. "Look, I told you I wasn't going to tell anybody. I meant it. I'm not going to say anything. But I have to know what happened."

"I don't know what to tell you, Bella," he spat out through gritted teeth.

"Like I said before. I just want the truth," I said.

"You think I lifted a van with one hand?" His tone was infuriatingly condescending and I felt my face begin to flush as my rage built.

I frown at him, and felt my chin jut out stubbornly. "You also crossed the lot faster than humanly possible, and I saw you push the van away from me."

"I didn't," he insisted, and I could hear the anger simmering in his voice. "I just pushed you aside and we both were lucky with the rest."

"Fine. You don't want to tell me the truth? Fine! Just don't lie to me!" I snapped, shoving at my disorderly hair and standing. Lightheaded from the sudden change, I stumbled.

Edward caught me by the elbow, steadied me, and then released me quickly.

"I'm fine!" I snapped again and brushed past him.

"Bella," Edward said when I reached the door. I paused, but he didn't speak until I turned to look at him. His beautiful face was completely blank. "Perhaps it would be better all around if we just didn't speak at all."

Stung, and feeling foolish for it, I blinked at him, and then scowled and stomped away towards the waiting room without responding. We weren't friends, I knew that, but I had to admit to myself that I was just beginning to enjoy his attention.

ffn / AO3

[heavenlysinss]

Avemi lioheart

Avemi is an Ave and is friends with Ethan and Cheria. As a little girl Avemi had two siblings and her mother and father. she grew up mostly a happy child until some human soldier unit found her and her siblings as they were hunting. And Bassicaly her parents tried to come to the rescue but got killed along with Avemi's siblings. After a few years she becomes an alcoholic and is severly deppressed. She decides to finnaly to go and fight or kill these humans cause revenge. She comes across Ethan in the process, at first she hates him but friendship happens eventually.

So i was gonna do a good description for her but halfway i got lazy... Sorry maybe ill be bothered for a proper intro for all of my children someday