#is playing a high school sophomore
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poor carlos having to run rehearsal without miss jenn when he's the only one who knows she's getting fired. bro's like 15
#like he and natalie bagley are both sophomores. who put children in charge.#every time i see natalie bagley on screen i have a crisis because i know she's canonically a sophomore#but like#the actress graduated high school class of 2017.#it might have been 2018. but i’m pretty sure 2017.#(the actress went to my high school)#but like when the first season came out#i was a junior right?#and alexis nelis who is a college sophomore or junior#is playing a high school sophomore#like i know it's the norm to age up characters#but it's really weird to see someone you know by only one degree of separation doing it#i never knew her but like my teachers did#if you go back far enough on her instagram i see comments from older siblings of my classmates#it's weird#hsmtmts rewatch#hsmtmts
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happy disability pride month to disabled folks who were medically neglected as children.
happy disability pride month to people who were disabled as kids, but told their disabilities weren't "really disabling" or enough to stop them from reaching their "potential".
happy disability pride month to people who were never taken to the doctor as kids, never given adequate care for their disabilities (even when it was accessible).
happy disability pride month to people who were only taught about their disabilities as a method of fear mongering. "that kid over there, who obviously has it worse? that could be you."
happy disability pride month to people who were told as children that it was their own fault they were disabled.
happy disability pride month to the people who sat alone in the nurse's office at school when their disability flared.
happy disability pride month to the people who could have had a wildly better quality of life as children, if only their guardians had bothered to care.
#i still forget sometimes that my asthma counts as a disability#it was so drilled into my head as a kid that it wasn't a *real* disability#but in the same breath i would be forbidden from running and playing#when i found out about IEPs in college and how it could have meant i could have been excempt from high school gym class... i'm still so mad#sophomore year no one bothered to take me to the doctor#and that was the year the gym teacher had us running miles 3x a week#i had to use my (expired of course) rescue inhaler almost daily#i remember being so afraid that it was going to keep getting worse and never get better#it did. but not until i got old enough to take my medical care into my own hands#and all of this is just about my asthma. not even touching on the painfully obvious neurodivergence and trauma that went untreated#disability#disability pride month#mine
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whump prompt wooo
I am Going through it rn. which means I am in fact writing a LOT of whump, but very little of it is coherent. and also I hate typing so most is handwritten and it's a pain to type it out after I write it. however! I did write a thing! so yeah.
anyway Whumpee/Caretaker movie night :3333
~
All of these are pretty much Whumpee being scared of Caretaker without having reason to be.
TWS: none as far as I'm aware but lmk if I need to add any!
Whumpee would never take popcorn from the same bowl as Caretaker. They know better than that. But Caretaker keeps saying they can't finish it on their own and they don't mind sharing, so maybe just this once...
Whumpee staying on the opposite side of the couch from Caretaker. If they start to pay attention to the movie, they'll get distracted and let their guard down-and they don't want to know what will happen if that happens.
Whumpee getting distracted by the movie and forgetting to be scared of Caretaker. Caretaker sees them genuinely relaxed for the first time since before Whumper :)
Hot cocoa. That's it that's the prompt
I am aware that this is not many, but anyway give your whumpees some movie nights, they deserve it
#caretaker#whumpee#caretaker x whumpee#rainbow's whump#rainbow's prompts#whump#istg i leave for a couple months and suddenly forget i have a tagging system#also i only write fluff when i'm as stressed as i am rn so. i'm sorry that's all this is.#yall. my drama teacher wants me to dye my hair for a part he cast me as. i did not even audition for the part.#he assumed i'd be okay with dying it cuz it's pink rn?? no i'm gonna damage it if i bleach it again this soon#it's a sophomore high school friends and family play? i'm not dying my hair for that ffs#and the part he gave me has 3x as many lines as the one i auditioned for. i do not have time for this#anyway! whump
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watched bocchi with loretto it was cute
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sometimes i forget how old this blog is until a piece of art from 2015 status circulating again
#which of you is digging up my art from sophomore year of high school#i hope you’re having fun learning I have always been this weird about fallout#i was just more cringe about it at 15#but like. teenager cringe. not hyperfocus cringe. which is Good Cringe.#and ok to clarify#I’m just playing im very flattered to see people interacting w my old fallout art
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is it weird to be so extremely uncomfortable with paragraphs with lines that are unequal or lacking a consistent, harmonious transition in length that you have to edit what you write specifically to create a less aesthetically jarring presentation bc it bothers you. or is it normal
#probably to delete but.#just realizing exactly how much i cannot let a paragraph be gross to look at#like. writing my thesis conference paper and realizing im spending so long on each paragraph just so there's no weird gaps of space#minor discrepancies are fine-ish although they still bug#but like. i worry that im spending a not insignificant amount of time on it#it's not even about other people seeing it its just me and me feeling like its wrong to leave it like that#like i do it with non-academic work including personal stuff that only i see#i like physically cant leave a paragraph with a major gap in it (unless like. its poetry or a specific writing choice or something)#(said remembering when i was a sophomore in high school and thought i was so so so so so clever playing with font style in my assignment)
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I knew I'd put an absurd number of hours into Twilight Princess but jesus christ I didn't realize I had over 75+ hours in just my first play through
Also I started that playthrough in 2006. That playthrough is 18 years old. It's legally an adult. It's older than I was when I started it. It's older than some people on this webbed site
#2012 JESUS CHRIST I was a sophomore in high school the last time I played that file#time isn’t real#twilight princess#legend of zelda#mineminemine
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@rabblerauser
reblog and put in the tags when and where you met your best friend
#My memory is horrible and I might be getting things mixed up and out of order but this is roughly what I remember#I believe the first time we met was near the end of freshman year of high school right after finals#I was really obsessed with tf2 at the time and would even bring in my laptop to play video games during lunch.#I believe they saw me playing TF2 or some type of game but I don't exactly remember what we said to each other.#We didn't interact too much after that and went our separate ways until the end of summer#Cut to sophomore year and we have the same class together in English this time#I noticed they brought their handmade TF2 Archimedes plush sitting on their shoulders and I asked if I could pet him#A bunch of things happen afterwards: I get invited to hang out with their friend group during lunch I start getting to know them better.#I won't go into all the details but now we've been best friends for 9 years and still going strong :)
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This just took me BACK😭😭
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second to last ep of s2 today ,,,
#more of moth#dndads#actually kind of crazy cause it’s named after good riddance (time of your life) which is a song i associate a lot with my childhood#cause it’s a song i played on the guitar for a grade school talent show when i was in like 6th grade#and s2 is ending right as i’m about to graduate high school#and it started during my sophomore year#i heard good riddance on the radio a few weeks ago and i got really sad that this chapter of my life is ending#it’s kinda crazy#anyways yeah vic ramble of the day#something about feeling like i’m growing up side by side with the teens#yeah
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tagged by @clatoera thanks bestie!!
i’m over 5'5 / i wear glasses or contacts / i have blonde hair / i often wear sweatshirts / i prefer loose clothing over tight clothes / i have one or two piercings / i have at least one tattoo / i have blue eyes / i have dyed or highlighted my hair / i have or have had braces / i have freckles / i paint my nails / i typically wear makeup / i don’t often smile / resting bitch face / i play sports / i play an instrument / i know more than one language / i can cook or bake / i like writing / i like to read / i can multitask / i’ve never dated anyone / i have a best friend i’ve known for over five years / i am an only child
@vesteneris @useragarfield
#technically i did learn to play the violin for 4 years but gave up after freshman year of high school#my parents taught me to speak marathi because they're both from india and i got very poor spanish-speaking skills from Spanish i and ii#in freshman and sophomore year of high school#i have written more fic recently but I'm a reader girlie first and foremost
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I suppose it makes sense that many of the people blogging about Astarion right now are the kind of people who like Phantom of the Opera but it is giving me a very weird feeling of gender dysphoria.
#experience that i now look back on like hmm. gender:#me sophomore or junior year of high school. theater kid adjacent. obsessed w poto. desperately wanting to Play The Phantom.#still do tbh. all queer poto community theater production that i could audition for when.
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i have finished henry iv, part one, the nineteenth shakespeare play i have read out of all 38 extant ones
#progress: 50%#the seventeenth one that i've read by myself#the only plays i ever read in school were r&j as a high school freshman and macbeth as a sophomore#both of those were within six months of each other now that i think about it... spring and fall 2014#wow it's been a long time#i think of those periods as very different tho bc i had a lot going on in my life. school years really have a way of metabolizing in memory#as if they're entirely separate novels#perhaps not even by the same author#tales from diana#i can't believe i've read that many plays but at the same time i can#it sounds like a lot but there's a lot i haven't read
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.
#deep abiding disquiet#four days left of high school (!)#and still two ap tests to go (woefully unprepared) plus cs and english projects#and maybe part of what’s disquieting is my conviction that there’s no work at the end of senior year fighting with the fact that there is#and maybe it’s anxiety about college (did i choose the right place etc)#i’m sure both of those play a part#but i think mostly i don’t want to go#i’ve loved it here. i’ve screamed and cried and hated everything and had terrible times but throughout it all i’ve loved it here#i don’t want to go#i was happy to leave my elementary school and thrilled to leave my middle school. so even though it’s my third school i’m so unprepared#i’ve never had to leave somewhere i liked#most of my friends are my grade they’re coming with me to college (in a figurative sense; only one actually is)#but one of my sophomore friends doesn’t really have friends other than us. and i don’t want to leave him alone#things are so hard for him already#and i don’t want to leave my computer science teacher behind#he’s been so much more to me than just a cs teacher#though he’s a great one#he taught me i could enjoy actually learning cs/coding instead of thinking it’s cool but hating the action itself#i have him to thank for any success in calc 2 this year#he encouraged my interest in philosophy and has been endlessly willing to answer my aristotle questions#he holds himself to true catholic values and so helped me forgive the grudge i held against catholicism after middle school#and (though i’m lutheran if i’m anything) through that started me down my own path of seeking god#he’s provided guidance and reassurance so often over the past two years#in him i saw an adult able to juggle stem (math/cs) and humanities (philosophy/theology) which i didn’t know could be done#i saw an adult who has friends which i didn’t know could be done#what he’ll readily confess to when discussing philosophy is this belief that love is central to everything#theres a hopeful and beautiful world he’s revealed to me through that. i don’t want to go
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Back and Forth - Art Donaldson x Reader
A Stanford!Art Donaldson and Stanford!Reader fic :) Kinda slow burn, very soft very sweet.
Word Count: 3.9k
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The California summer sun beamed down on the court, making the colors of the advertisements and signs around you appear almost neon. Upbeat music flowed through speakers that you couldn't quite place, embodying the feeling of the tennis matches that surrounded you, the back-and-forth beat pulsating through your head. It was almost overstimulating, but this was your normal.
You were pre-med at Stanford, volunteering at some local tennis camp to fill your summer and add fodder to your resume. You didn't do much, occasionally helping some rich, pompous kid stretch out their wrist, or their knee, or their ankle, or whatever. The days blurred together, they all spoke to you in the same condescending way. For most people, it would be mind-numbing.
But it was exhilarating. You had this intrinsic love for tennis, you always had. Perhaps it was that love that led you to signing up for this gig, and not the resume experience. But you would never admit that to anyone. You had played tennis for fun your whole life, with your family growing up, with your friends in high school. It was only when you shattered your wrist sophomore year that you had to stop.
It sucked. It sucked at the time, and it sucked now. You weren't professional-level at tennis, not like these people, but it was nice to have a hobby unlike anything else people expected you to do. The pre-med thing, the reading, the studying, it came naturally to you. And it wasn't like you didn't enjoy it, and it wasn't like you weren't good at it, but you loved tennis. And every now and again, you missed it.
So here you were. Your head followed all the heads in the crowd in a practiced, synchronized, subconscious back-and-forth. There wasn't really ever a crowd, the games at the program were often informal, the audience often consisted of coaches and other players. But this was a unique match, Stanford's players engaged in a captivating display of athleticism. It was almost like a dance, the way they seemed to know the moves of the other before they made them. You could feel the intensity from your tent by the end of the bleachers.
Stanford's star player (well, one of them)—Art Donaldson. You'd half-watched him play from your tent whenever you weren't working. He was elusive, but undoubtably one of the best there. You had never spoken. He was enigmatic, focused on his training and on helping others. He had perfect technique, people said. Now, you had the chance to really see how he was. And he was. Top of his game.
Usually.
The air was thick with humidity. Your gaze flickered between the players, boredom warring with the gnawing anxiety that always hummed beneath the surface during matches. Then, a sound sliced through the rhythmic thwack of the tennis balls—a sharp cry of pain.
Your head snapped left like a whip, your heart leaping into your throat. There, sprawled on the opposite side of the net, lay Art. His face was contorted in agony, one hand clutching his ankle at an unnatural angle. His racket lay a few feet away, as forgotten as the polite pleasantries that had filled the air before the match.
The shitty plastic chair beneath you creaked in protest as you scrambled to your feet. Ignoring the surprised yelp from the equally shitty excuse for a supervisor you'd been assigned for the summer tennis program, you sprinted across the court. Dust billowed in your wake, blurring the vision that was already swimming with a mix of dread and the adrenaline rush that always came with seeing someone hurt.
You skidded to a halt beside him, kneeling. His eyes, usually bright with playful competitiveness, were screwed shut, teeth clenched as he fought back a string of obscenities you knew all too well.
"Hey," you said, forcing your voice to remain calm despite the tremor running through your body. He flinched at the sound of your voice, a flicker of something akin to fear crossing his normally confident expression.
"Hey," he managed to rasp out, opening one eye a sliver. He tried to push himself up, but his face crumpled again as a fresh wave of agony shot through him.
"Don't move," you ordered, the calmness in your voice surprising even you. You reached out, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. His skin was slick with sweat, and you could practically feel the heat radiating from his injured ankle.
"'S bad, huh?" he breathed, a flicker of vulnerability in his voice.
The concern in his eyes sent a jolt through you. It wasn't just the pain; it was the fear.
"Don't worry," you said, your voice softer now, "We'll get you checked out. Just...hold still."
Ignoring the sting of sweat in your eyes, you carefully slipped your arm around his waist, offering what little support your slight frame could provide. Heaving him halfway onto your leg, you began the slow, agonizing walk towards the medical tent. Each step sent a spike of pain through Art's leg, reflected in the way he gritted his teeth and winced with every movement.
The supervisor, finally spurred into action, scurried behind you, muttering something about ice packs and paramedics. But your focus remained solely on Art, on getting him to help as quickly as possible.
You knew what it was like. Maybe that's what spurred your immediate action, your need to help him recover, to keep playing. You knew what it was like.
The antiseptic sting of the medical tent assaulted your nose as you hovered beside the injured player. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he clenched his jaw with each prod from the trainer.
"Think they all saw that?" he finally rasped, a hint of amusement battling the pain in his voice. You blinked, surprised by his oddly timed humor.
"Doubt it," you played along, a small smile tugging at your lips. "'S not like you're Art Donaldson or anything."
A sheepish grin replaced his grimace. "Thank god."
The trainer finished his work, leaving you and the injured player alone in a tense silence. He cleared his throat, his gaze meeting yours for the first time.
"So," he began, trailing off as he stared into the ceiling of the tent. There was something in his expression, the physical pain, the fear that comes with injury, the odd quiet of an unfinished game.
"So," you mimicked, sitting next to him in another shitty chair.
Something hung in the air, something all too familiar to you. He turned his head to look at you, to make eye contact, keeping his body flat on the cot. You realized then how close you were. Close enough to see his eyes, the sharp point of his jawline, the strawberry blond of his curls.
You averted your gaze, looking out into the brightness of the tent entrance. The typical ambiance of the outside seemed to be drowned by the odd intimacy you'd created together, the silence between you and Art seemed to be the only noise you could hear. His shoddy breathing, despite his attempts to pretend he was okay, only brought you back to when you felt the same way he did, all those years ago.
A blush crept up your neck. You fumbled for something, anything, to break the charged silence in the tent. "I, uh, broke my wrist sophomore year," you blurted, surprised by the words leaving your lips. "Tennis, ironically. One minute I'm playing—probably terribly—and then I'm in the ER holding a bag of frozen peas. And, I don't know, I guess I'm just saying... I get it. Sort of."
"You trying to distract me?" he asked, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
"Yeah," you admitted, a hesitant smile mirroring his. "Is it working?"
"Yeah, actually," he conceded, leaning back on the cot. "Tell me more."
You felt a genuine laugh bubble up from your chest, the first since the moment you saw him crumpled on the court.
---
And that was really the last time you saw Art. Suffice to say you hadn't forgotten about the encounter. It was actually stupid, how often you thought of it. He didn't even know your name, but you remembered the timbre of his voice, the softness of his gaze.
In your defense, he was hard to avoid. Now that the spring semester had started, tennis season was in full swing. His picture was plastered around the most of the facilities you frequented, future NCAA champion Art Donaldson.
The scent of freshly cut grass and blooming jasmine hung heavy in the crisp California air as you hurried across the bustling Stanford campus. The semester had sprung with a vengeance, bringing with it the usual flurry of activity—overloaded backpacks, animated discussions about last night's party, and the ever-present anxiety of looming deadlines.
Today, however, an extra weight sat on your shoulders. Your pre-med advisor dropped a last-minute surprise: mandatory tutoring for a struggling athlete. Juggling med school coursework with a part-time job at the campus health center was already a tightrope walk, and adding this felt like a precarious extra step. But you managed it, as you did most things. How you had some semblance of a social life was a mystery. And maybe your very obvious lack of a love life was why you thought about Art so often. You didn't have time to psychoanalyze yourself, though. You barely had time for whatever this tutoring session was about to be.
Reaching the designated classroom, a small, windowless space usually reserved for last-minute group study sessions, you took a deep breath before pushing open the heavy door. The sterile light inside momentarily blinded you, but as your eyes adjusted, a sight unfolded that caused your breath to hitch in your throat. Sprawled across a cluttered table, papers piled haphazardly around him, was a man who you'd spent the better part of the last few months thinking about.
There, unmistakably, was Art. His signature strawberry blond hair, slightly longer than you remembered, covered with a backwards baseball cap, curled at the edges, framing his face. A deep furrow creased his brow, a testament to the frustration radiating from his hunched form as he focused on a massive biology textbook. An unsettling warmth bloomed in your chest, a reaction entirely too potent for a tutoring session.
The memory of him sprawled on the opposite side of the tennis court last summer, his ankle twisted at an unnatural angle, flickered across your mind. The panic that had gripped you then seemed almost comical now. The sterile environment and the way his eyes had held a curious blend of pain and something else—gratitude, maybe?—all formed a vivid memory you hadn't realized had imprinted itself so deeply.
His presence filled the small room, unexpectedly stealing your breath and injecting a jolt of something entirely different into the monotonous routine of your day. A shyness spread across your face, tinged with an unfamiliar nervousness as you cleared your throat, the sound echoing awkwardly in the sudden silence.
A slow smile took over his features as he looked at you, crinkling the corners of his eyes in a way that sent a shiver down your spine. For a moment, you were caught in that smile, a memory resurfacing from the hazy days of summer.
"Hey," he said softly, his voice warm. He reached a toned arm, pulling out a chair for you.
"Hi," you blinked, momentarily flustered by the gesture and the echo of familiarity in his voice. There was a moment of tension in the air, of uncertainty, of a strange sense of reconnection. Finally, you managed to force out the words, "How are you?"
"My ankle's a lot better now, if that's what you're asking," he replied with a playful glint in his eyes. His gaze lingered on you for a beat too long, making you hyperaware of the way your heart hammered against your ribs.
"You remember me?" you blurted out, the question leaving your lips before you could stop it.
"Course I remember you," he said, his voice laced with amusement. You couldn't ignore the way his eyes flickered from your face down to your body, and back up. Blatantly checking you out. And you could hear his smile in the way he spoke, warm and genuine, sending a familiar flutter through your stomach. The memory of his teasing laughter in the sterile medical tent resurfaced.
"Right," you replied, your voice barely above a whisper. You shifted in your chair, suddenly hyperaware of the weight of his gaze on you.
The next hour or so unfolded in a way that surprised you both. Art's initial confusion melted away as you hovered next to him, animatedly explaining each concept. Social life, love life, Art Donaldson, you couldn't explain. Biology, medical stuff, sports, you understood.
And he was beginning to as well. Time became a forgotten entity, measured only by the turning of pages and the occasional frustrated groan from Art. He wasn't the cocky athlete you'd half-imagined, but someone with a genuine curiosity about the world around him and some kind of depth hidden beneath his confident facade on the court.
Finally, Art leaned back in his chair, a satisfied smile playing on his lips. "We should probably call it," he declared, stretching his arms above his head with a satisfied groan. He thanked you, looking into your eyes as he said your name, the syllables dancing off his tongue in a way that made you feel like it was more than a word you had offhandedly mentioned to him.
"Yeah, sure," you replied, your voice softer than you intended.
The study sessions became a regular occurrence. The two of you exchanged numbers, only to arrange meetings, you reminded yourself.
But whenever he called, you found yourself talking about so much more than biology. It started with him asking how you were, a simple courtesy that somehow felt more genuine coming from him. Yet, as you replied, a comfortable ease would settle in. You'd find yourself laughing at inside jokes, dumb stories, the kind that wouldn't be particularly funny to anyone else, would mindlessly tumble out, fueled by the comfort you felt in his presence. It was a kind of nonsense, a space where you could just be yourself, and somehow, it felt like everything and nothing all at once.
---
Now, it was late, and it was finals week.
Papers and textbooks were scattered across your desk, a battlefield of scribbled notes and highlighted passages. You were in the trenches, neck-deep in the intricacies of biochemistry, desperately trying to cram information into your sleep-deprived brain.
Suddenly, the familiar buzz of your phone cut through the silence of your cramped dorm. You fished it out of your pocket, a flicker of annoyance battling with the ever-present hope that it might be a break, a distraction from the relentless onslaught of scientific jargon. Gratefulness shot through you when you saw Art Donaldson's name on the screen.
You answered the call. His voice crackled through the phone, laced with desperation. "I need your help," he blurted out, completely unlike his usual easygoing self. "What the fuck is molecular cell biology?"
You couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "In general?" you replied, already picturing the hours that it would take to explain the subject. Finals be damned, apparently.
"Can you just come over?" he groaned. "If you aren't doing anything."
You glanced back at the flashcards on your desk. "I'm not doing anything."
So here you were, knocking on the door of Art Donaldson's dorm. You heard rustling from the other side, making you wait just a beat longer in the dimly lit hallway. You rocked back and forth on your heels, chewing the inside of your cheek and rethinking your current appearance. The oversized Stanford hoodie, mess of your hair, and lack of makeup now seemed ill-fitting for a meeting with the boy who had somehow winded his way into becoming your crush. You felt like a kid again, back in high school.
You were starting to worry you had the wrong room until the door swung open, bathing the hallway in a golden, hazy light. There stood Art, moving his large frame out of the way to gesture you into his room with a short greeting and a "thank god." You didn't know what you expected, really, but there you were, slinking a little too closely past him as he stood in his doorframe. You felt his breath on the back of your neck as he stood behind you, guiding you to his tiny desk in the corner of the room. His hands ghosted over the small of your back, and you felt his warmth, despite him not actually touching you.
The room itself was small. It wasn't unlike yours, or any of the others on campus. But it somehow felt smaller with Art next to you, burying his face in his hands every time you patiently explained a concept you'd gone over already. His face. He was so close to you now, the quiet of the night and the room only making you feel closer.
The energy of this study session felt so different from all your others in the past. You weren't in a classroom, or meeting him after practice in the library. You were seeing another side of Art, the part of himself he didn't publicize. Every freckle, the stretch of his faded t-shirt over his body, the curls he brushed out of his eyes every now and again, the way he flexed his callused hands as he cracked his knuckles, a nervous fidget.
It felt like time slowed down. You labored over the biology textbook, finding practice questions and asking him some of your own. You were gentle, cautious. Maybe it was the weird intimacy of the moment, maybe it was the lack of air in the cramped dorm. Your voice was soft, and you couldn't help but notice how the tension Art held over the phone and when you entered the room melted away. Did you do that? You felt this reciprocation, possibly imagined. But whenever you cracked a dumb joke, he'd laugh and put a hand on your arm. The contact always made you freeze. The touch was a reminder he was real, he was tangible. Every fleeting gaze, every smile in your direction.
You had almost reached the end of the chapter, and Art was getting almost every practice question right. You fidgeted with a sheet of his messy notes, reading it over to continue some rant you were on about RNA.
"...made up of nucleotides, which are ribose sugars attached to nitrogenous bases and phosphate groups..." You trailed off, looking up from the papers only to find his gaze already on you. How long had he been looking at you? And the way he looked at you...
"Do you want to take a break?" He tilted his head.
You quirked an eyebrow, unable to fight your smile. "Sure."
He got up with an over-exaggerated sigh and stretched his arms over his head, exposing the bottom of his toned abdomen. For a moment. He reached under his desk, pulling out a box of some cheap canned beer. He popped the tab of a can, taking a long draw and passing it to you.
You looked away from his watchful eyes as you took a sip. Your face heated as you took into account the fact you were drinking from the same can he had.
You winced. "God, that tastes like ass."
"Sorry." He laughed, taking the can from you. Warm, callused fingertips brushing against yours.
"I didn't take you for a Steel Reserve kinda guy."
"What did you take me for?"
"I don't know. Gatorade?"
"Okay." He shook his head. "No more for you."
"Wait, wait, okay, I take it back."
He held out the can for you again.
"Mhm."
"Still taste like ass?"
"It tastes like what I imagine WD-40 tastes like."
You felt your heart swell as he laughed at that. You hadn't noticed how the two of you now sat impossibly closer, thighs brushing, shoulders sending sparks whenever they met. The half-empty can of beer felt like a nervous talisman being passed back and forth between you. Dumb jokes tumbled easily from your lips, punctuated by laughter that echoed weirdly loud in the quiet room. Finals week stress had completely evaporated, replaced by a warmth that had nothing to do with the shitty beer.
It was so easy, talking to Art. Easier than it should have been, considering you were explaining the intricacies of cellular respiration to a man who once thought mitochondria were a type of pasta. But he listened, truly listened, his eyes locked on yours. You caught yourself getting lost in their depths, a dizzying kaleidoscope that mirrored the nervousness in your stomach.
He leaned in, as if to hear you better, and you mimicked the movement unconsciously. The space between your faces shrunk, the air thick with unspoken words. His gaze did its familiar dance—right eye, lips, left eye—and this time, it lingered on your lips a beat too long.
A sudden self-consciousness washed over you. Should you pull back? This wasn't your intention. But before you could overthink it, Art's lips were hovering over yours, a question in the way they hovered, hesitant but hopeful.
"This okay?" His voice was impossibly low, breathy, quiet. His eyes raked over your features, eye contact shifting from left to right, back and forth. His hand, warm and calloused came up to cup your cheek, grounding you in the moment.
"Yeah." You breathed.
The kiss, when it came, was soft and unexpected. More of a tentative exploration than a passionate assault. It tasted of desperation and relief, of unspoken feelings finally finding a voice.
Your hands moved from your sides to toy with the curls on the back of his head, earning a barely audible groan from Art. His thumb brushed over your cheekbone, his other hand moving down to pull you impossibly closer by the small of your waist. His touch was shy, tender.
After what felt like forever (and you wouldn't have minded had it been), you pulled away slowly, breathless, a blush painting your face. His eyes searched yours for some unknown answer. For a long moment, the only sound was the ragged rhythm of your breath.
A slow smile spread across his face, mirroring the one blooming on yours. "God, you're so pretty."
Leaving Art's dorm room felt like navigating a dream. Your head spun, a mix of the cheap beer and the potent aftertaste of the kiss. Your lips still tingled where his had been, a brand new sensation that sent shivers dancing down your spine. Relief, sweet and unexpected, washed over you. Months of stolen glances, late-night calls disguised as study sessions, and a simmering tension that had threatened to consume you—all of it had culminated in that single, electrifying kiss.
As you walked down the quiet hallway, a giddy smile stretched across your face. It wasn't just the kiss itself, though that replayed in your mind in a loop—hesitant, searching, then deepening with a shared sense of discovery. It was the way he'd looked at you afterwards, his eyes soft with unspoken emotions, mirroring the whirlwind in your own chest. A nervous flutter remained in your stomach, a delicious mix of excitement and uncertainty.
But beneath it all, a quiet confidence bloomed. He felt it too. This wasn't just some fleeting moment, a stolen kiss in the dead of night. It was a turning point, a bridge crossed, and the future, once shrouded in the haze of exams and unspoken feelings, now shimmered with possibility.
#art donaldson x reader#mike faist#challengers#art donaldson#art donaldson x you#challengers movie#challengers 2024#art donaldson fic#art donaldson imagine#mike faist x reader#mike faist x you#mike faist imagine
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So, I know people are really desperate for Sandra Lynn to have hooked up with Pamela Dawn instead of Bobby Dawn, and I completely understand that!* Bobby Dawn is slimy and awful and we don't know much about Pamela, so maybe she's better? But it is 100% Bobby Dawn for two very clear reasons:
Sklonda literally said it was him
Bobby Dawn has always been a predator
The first thing we learn about Sandra Lynn's affair during Spring Break Sophomore Year was that she had just left Aguefort (she dropped out her senior year and got a diploma later on) and she was very young. She was asked to join an established adventuring party of people who were older than her and that had lost one of its members. She fell in love with another member of the party that was already in a relationship, they had an affair, and then when the affair was discovered, Sandra Lynn was blamed, kicked out of the party, and her name was smeared as far and wide as possible by the person who had taken advantage of her so that person could absolve themselves, likely in the eyes of their partner and the party.
So what we can immediately deduce from this is that Sandra Lynn was an outsider to her new adventuring party, likely looked down on as "just a kid", maybe disdained for being a dropout, and most definitely resented for taking the place of the (presumably) dead party member. She was in actively dangerous and stressful situations while questing with the party and she probably had little support from the group during that time.
Sandra Lynn was very very vulnerable.
When he met Sandra Lynn, Bobby Dawn would have been about 20 years younger than he is now, likely in his late 30s/early 40s.** Probably still handsome, still a "dashing" active adventurer. He was married to Pamela already (not just in an established relationship), since he had a child by then that was close to grown and I don't think the Church of Sol would be very happy about a child out of wedlock. He would have been a cleric of Sol and probably still preaching "the good word of Sol" but it likely wouldn't have been constant. You can't give sermons while fighting monsters. I'm sure he even saved Sandra Lynn's life a few times!
The thing about Bobby Dawn being a televangelist now, but not then, is that when he was young, he was probably just as good at persuasion, at finding vulnerable people and exploiting their weaknesses to get what he wanted, and yet he hadn't made a name for himself as a televangelist, so people wouldn't know to be wary of him trying to convert or manipulate them.
The scene between Bobby and Kristen, when Kristen is pretending that Cassandra died shows exactly what kind of terrible person Bobby really is. He is happy to find Kristen devastated, that she is having "a real dark night of the soul" and needs guidance. He refuses to help Kristen stay at Aguefort (something that's within his power), despite knowing how beneficial that would be to her well-being, because that goes against his own goals. He is smug and condescending and cruel. He is preying on Kristen's devastation and vulnerability (not knowing it's an act), to draw her back into the fold of the Church of Helio/Sol.
The person who did that to Kristen, is the exact same person who took advantage of Sandra Lynn when she was still basically a kid, just out of high school. He took advantage of her feelings for him, her inexperience and isolation. And then, when they were discovered, he threw her away and made her the villain so he could get away with it.
He ruined Sandra Lynn's life. Yes, she's happy now with her daughter, her partner, and the beautiful home they've made at Mordred Manor with Adaine, Kristen, Lydia, Ragh, Tracker, Zayn, Aelwyn, Boggy, and 15 cats. But Sandra Lynn ended up with self-esteem and relationship issues that she is still dealing with to this day. Those issues ruined her marriage, could have ruined her relationship with Jawbone, and likely played a hand in the difficulties between her and Fig in Freshman Year, as Sandra Lynn saw her daughter take her first steps into the world of adventuring.
Because Sandra Lynn first wanted to be an adventurer and Bobby Dawn took that away from her, just like he tried to do to Kristen.
Bobby Dawn has shaped his career as a high priest of Sol and as a televangelist by portraying himself as the epitome of righteousness. He is rotten to the core, a predator in a job where he is meant to help people, and I CANNOT WAIT to see the Bad Kids take him down.
*I don't really understand it. Pamela Dawn is likely just as bad as Bobby. She's the chief paladin of the church of Sol, her husband is a televangelist and a High Priest of Sol, and she would have been around the same age as Bobby and having an affair with a vulnerable young girl who she then kicked out of the group and slandered. It being Pamela would still be awful!
**Even with the assumption that both Bobby Dawn and his child had their kids at a young age, the math still has to take into account that Sandra Lynn's daughter is the same age as Bobby Dawn's GRANDSON.
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