#problems at school

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Chapter 4: Twinkling Stars

Narrated by Nikki.

Narrator: The setting sun casts a soft glow over the village. My long shadow stretches out on the cobbled path.

Narrator: The duck, tired from the day's activities, falls asleep in my arms, while Momo naps in the basket on my back.

Narrator: Night finally falls, the stars glowing bright in the sky. I've never seen anything like this in the city.

Narrator: This is much better than neon lights.

Narrator: The neon lights in the lively city overshadow the flickering light of the stars, making it impossible to see a starry sky.

Narrator: I gaze up at what feels like the entire galaxy, feeling the heaviness in my heart easing bit by bit.

Choose either "The starry sky is the reward for your hard day of work" or "Are you in a good mood now?"

If "reward," ...

You: You've had a busy day. These stars are your reward.

Narrator: Yeah. In fact, the whole town is my reward.

If "good mood," ...

You: You're feeling better, Nikki?

Narrator: Yeah. I've been a bit stressed these past few days, so I felt kind of down...

Narrator: I had no design inspiration... School was hard, and I had no one to vent to...

--

Narrator: Anyway, now that I'm here, all my troubles seem to have just vanished. Perhaps none of them really mattered.

Narrator: At daytime, I look at flowers and gather turnips. At night, I stargaze. And there's a cute duck following me around.

Choose either "Life in the countryside is idyllic indeed" or "Do you want to stay here?"

If "idyllic," ...

You: Life in the countryside is idyllic indeed.

Narrator: Yeah. Makes me not want to leave.

If "stay," ...

You: Do you want to stay here forever?

Narrator: Not really. I'll continue with my life after I get my energy back.

--

Narrator: Just... let me enjoy this a bit more before I have to leave.

Narrator: The gentle night breeze caresses my cheeks, bringing the delicious smell of rice dumplings. Momo swallows even in his sleep.

Narrator: I see Grandma looking in our direction from the door. The warm yellow glow behind her softens the lines on her face.

Grandma: Nikki!

Nikki: Grandma! We're home!

Grandma: Hurry, it's time for dinner!

Nikki: Okay, we're coming!

Narrator: The whole cottage smells warm and delicious.

Narrator: Grandma keeps adding portions from the dishes on the table into my bowl, not wanting me to go hungry.

Nikki: But I can't eat that much, Grandma!

Grandma: You're barely eating anything! You need to eat more!

Narrator: Grandma gazes at me, grinning.

Grandma: Feeling better now?

Nikki: Huh?

Narrator: Grandma...

Narrator: Turns out Grandma knew since the very beginning. I suddenly feel like crying.

Grandma: Come on, eat up!

Grandma: I love this village... That's why I live here! It's safe... comfy. I can play mahjong with my friends and enjoy gardening.

Grandma: If you ever feel tired, just come see me. I'll always be here.

Nikki: Sure! I wish I could stay for a long, long time.

Narrator: I don't stay, of course. But the starry sky tonight will always remain in my heart, lighting my way toward the future.

Narrator: Grandma's words, too, will remain in my heart. When I'm tired, I know there's a safe place I can always go to.

Narrator: It's late.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

[melxhunter]

I feel like there are a lot of people out there who needs to hear this:

If you dropped out of school because of diagnosed (or undiagnosed) ADHD, Autism, ADD, OCD, Dyslexia, Anxiety, Depression, Bipolar disorder, psychotic disorders, schizophrenia etc… You did not fail. The education system failed you.

[lazylittledragon]

i feel like social media has warped people’s perception of conflict in relationships by making you think that any minor fuck up is the end of the world and everyone is secretly a narcissist manipulator with sinister motives, because actually in real life you just say “i’m sorry, that was a bad thing, i shouldn’t have done that” and the other person says “thank you for apologising” and then that’s the end of it

[starry-bi-sky]

do yall ever think about bruce/batman!clone danny standing in front of his bathroom mirror after finding out he was a clone and silently tracing his face. The slope of his jaw and point of his chin. The high angle of his cheekbones and the shape of his eyes, the curve of his brow bones and the shape of his nose. The volume of his hair and the way it curls and gets fluffy when it gets too long.

His hair is black the same way a crow's wing is black. His dad's hair is black the same way a black bear's fur is black. His dad's eyes are blue like the ocean is blue. Danny's eyes are blue the same way a glacier is blue.

His dad has a square jaw and straight flat hair, and he tans and gets a face full of freckles when he's out in the sun for too long. Danny burns like a lobster and his face remains untouched. Danny has a sharp jaw and tall cheekbones, and Sam says when he's not smiling there's almost something regal about him. You would never call Jack Fenton "regal" when he's not smiling.

Sam says when he's not smiling he looks scary the same way a stone statue is. Jack Fenton when he's not smiling looks scary the same way that german shepherd staring at you across the street is.

Do you ever think he grew up wondering if he was adopted. Because of course, he has black hair and blue eyes like his dad. But having the same color doesn't make you someone's child.

Or, worse, things he's heard from the other kids and the other parents and even some of his teachers growing up; that he was the product of an affair. And that his dad was just too stupid to notice. And Danny would defend his parents until the day he died, because Jack Fenton wasn't an idiot and Maddie Fenton wasn't a cheater.

But doubt comes in with fickle tongue. his parents swear up and down that he is their child when he asks about either. That Danny just had his grandparents' features, but he was their son and they loved him.

But Danny doesn't look like either of his parents. His mom's eyes are blue like an aquamarine and Jazz's too. And they burn like lobsters in the sun too, but Jazz gets freckles on her face and so does Maddie. And as Danny grows up he doesn't bulk up or get stocky like his dad did, and when he hits puberty he doesn't shoot up like a tree like Jack Fenton did.

He stays small, and they say he's a late bloomer (and he is), or that he just has his mom's height. But he's fast and has good stamina, and some days it feels like he's built entirely different from his family. That the things they went through growing up just didn't apply to him. Jack and Maddie Fenton both had acne and breakouts when they hit puberty, and Jazz inherits it and he's seen the amount of skincare products she keeps on her side of the bathroom.

And then he hits puberty and breaks out maybe once or twice, but his skin stays clear for the most part and the problems and changes his dad went through just don't happen to him.

And the truth is worse than all of the lies.

How horrifying.

[choccy-milky]

finally drew clora and seb's kids!!🙌🙌

Celeste Sallow: OK THIS IS THE NAME IM SUPER PROUD OF BAHAHA because not only does the name celeste relate to the stars (in typical ravenclaw fashion...clora picked the name) but celeste sallow is also an alliteration. BUT, its an alliteration that begins with a C, which means clora gets to match with celeste in the form of both of their names starting with a C, whereas sebastian gets to match with celeste because both of their names are an alliteration/they're alliteration allies🥹ITS THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!🥳

Lewis Sallow: as for lewis, if you've read my fic then you know that seb has a vendetta against names that start with an L bahaha, but 'lewis' was actually HIS idea. when celeste was born, seb wanted to find a muggle story to read to her, since clora's favourite story is ALSO a muggle one (sherlock), and he wanted to stick with tradition. so he ended up finding alice in wonderland, which he loved because of how adventurous and clever alice was and of how much she reminded him of clora and celeste (both personality and looks wise). it became his favourite for those reasons, to the point that when they had lewis, sebastian overcame his L-name hatred by naming their son after lewis carroll.

Houses: celeste could have been sorted into either gryffindor or slytherin, but ultimately ends up in slytherin because she wants to be like seb. kinda like how clora also probably could have been in gryffindor, tbh. as for lewis.....him being 10000% in ravenclaw doesnt need any explanation BAHA, just look at him.

Appearance: since clora has a tiny bit of veela blood in her, thats obvs passed down to their kids, too, and so they mostly take after her as a result of it. but there's still little bits of seb that shine through in each of the kids: for lewis its his brown curly hair, and for celeste its her complexion/freckles. and the fact that celeste looks so similar to clora only doubles up sebastian's stress/protective instincts when he watches her BAHAH. he's ofc still proud that she takes after him so closely, but seb also cant deny that he wishes it had been their SON that had taken after him instead, to keep her out of danger.

Celeste & Lewis: for celeste and lewis’ relationship, celeste is a super proud big sister, and treats lewis kinda like how seb treats clora. if there's anything that needs to be done, she offers to do it for him. and although she doesn’t have the patience to read stories herself, she loves playing outside and having lewis read to her in the background, and loves to act out/use his stories to fuel her imagination. and lewis makes sure to pick stories that he KNOWS she’ll like (which mostly involve heroic and daring feats of adventurers or pirates. he's tried to read more classic fairytales and romances to her a few times, but celeste always gets bored). she loves to draw though, so sometimes when lewis reads books that have no pictures, she'll draw them herself.

Celeste & Seb/Clora: celeste is a daddy's girl LOL and always tries to impress seb with the stuff she does, especially after hearing how HE was at her age, and so its half to impress and half because shes competitive that she wants to do the same/be just as good. and seb always gets a kick out of hearing her feats in the crossed wands club, or in defense against the dark arts class, and he also goads her on, telling her she'll have to do better than that if she wants to be as good as HE was. and whenever celeste gets detention, clora always stresses and asks why, whereas seb just tries to keep the smirk off his face. as for celeste and clora, clora also reads to celeste, and bakes and cooks with her, which is something celeste actually likes doing. not only because it keeps her busy and she likes to help and get messy in general, but also because she likes the fact that it results in good food afterwards LOL, and constantly asks when things can be taken out of the oven. also, for as tomboy-y as celeste is, she honestly doesn't mind/likes the clothing that clora puts her in and likes when clora dresses her up, bc it makes her look like one of the princesses from the storybooks, and it just amuses her more than anything else. once she enters hogwarts, though, its mostly trousers. but she still DOES like the occasional girly clothing.

Lewis & Seb/Clora: lewis is a momma's boy LOL and unlike celeste, doesnt care about duelling or of proving himself or anything like that, and is only concerned with stories and his future studies. so ofc clora had to show him sherlock, which he naturally loved. it even inspired lewis to want to write his own stories, so that he could challenge his own skill and see if he could, but also because he wants his mom to read them, and likes the idea of writing his own sherlock-esque story with equations and mysteries to be solved that he can offer her. lewis also wants to write a book for celeste as well, bc although he wont admit it, he basically wants to write a story tailor-made for her and her interests. one that he thinks will have everything she’d love in it. and part of it is genuinely because he WANTS to do it for her, but the other part of it is also for his ego, and to see if he CAN write a compelling story, and write something that would actually get THE hyperactive celeste to sit down and read it in its entirety (not to mention of her own volition). as for with seb, lewis looks up to him more than anyone else, due to how well-rounded he is and how hes so good at practical stuff AND studying, and he kinda sees seb as a main character/protagonist from one of his books, and uses sebastian as inspiration for his own stories. if hes stuck on what he thinks the dashing main character should do next, he'll ask his dad what HE would do, which results in seb getting very weird questions that he nonetheless is always happy to answer. also, when lewis is older and finally learns the full story of what happened with clora and seb and ranrok and rookwood, he writes their story in novel form, except he just changes their names/some of the details, and it becomes a best seller LOL. and i didnt know where to put this, but the four of them all read a story before bed every night, with lewis in the middle and seb and clora on either side of him. though celeste stands at the foot of the bed, basically doing a charade/mime show of what theyre reading, and putting on a little play to go along with it BAHHA.

OK thats all i can think of for now ive yapped enough😩 if youve read all of this ur a real one.... ive also considered giving them a 3rd (and last) child, which would be a boy that looks exactly like seb, and seb would just be praying like please.....let this son take after me🧎‍♂️🙏 BAHHA

[morganbritton132]

Eddie’s immediate response to finding out that the guy in their living room was Tommy was to say, “Let’s have sex.”

Steve: Right now? We have a guest!

Eddie: No, we have the guy that beat me up in high school in our living room and I am married to the guy that he had a massive crush on. Tell me that wouldn’t make you a little horny.

Steve: Tommy did not have a crush on me

Eddie: He did. He convinced you that it was totally heteo to make out with your male friends when you were alone

Steve: I mean, Carol was there sometimes

Eddie: That’s - fascinating, I did not know that and we’ll circle back to it but right now… let’s get naked.

Tommy, from the bottom of the stairs: You do know that you’re still live-streaming, right?

Eddie, looking down at the phone in his hand like he’s seeing it for the first time: Yes

[eff-plays]

You can wizardsplain at a bard, but watch out

[incognitopolls]

This is about academia, so programs for art/sports/etc don't count, only studying.

A program for gifted kids would be separate from most of the other kids, and only be open to certain students.

The "highest level" is referring to classes where you learn differently based on your academic levels. Unlike being a part of a separate program, you would still be in the same class as your peers, you would just be the "best" among them.

–

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[specialagentartemis]

Genuinely: For people who are angry and frustrated at the limited number of movies and shows available for streaming, at the way streaming services pull or cancel movies and shows at will, at the way every media corporation under the sun is pulling their stuff onto their own streaming service and balkanizing access to things behind a dozen different monthly subscriptions? For people who miss Blockbuster and want to be able to just rent a DVD again?

See if your local library has a DVD collection.

If I want to watch The Mummy (1999) with Brendan Fraser? I can't stream it on Netflix, but I can borrow it from my local library.

If I want to watch The Mummy (1932) with Boris Karloff? I can't stream that pretty much anywhere, but I can borrow it from my local library.

I want to watch Star Wars or Iron Man or my favorite Disney movie but I refuse to sell my soul to pay for Disney+? I can borrow these from my local library.

Do I want to finish watching Star Trek: Deep Space 9 or check out Star Trek: Picard but resent that it's all on yet another streaming service I don't want? I can borrow season box sets of DVDs from my local library!

Obviously, available circulating collections vary a lot between library systems. (My hometown's library has all of Star Trek DS9 on DVD, for example, but my college town's library only has TOS, Picard, and Discovery.) And of course it depends on whether things are released in physical media form at all, and you won't be able to keep up with new episodes of new series - it takes a while for many things to come out on DVD.

But there can be a lot of good stuff there too. For example, I missed Nope in theaters, but I still really want to see it. So I have it on hold from my local library. I'm 73rd in line on 50 copies, so it'll be a while.

So check to see what DVD collections your library does have - it might surprise you what you can get access to, for free, in a manner that no greedy corporation can yank away.

And by checking out DVDs, you are telling the library that you use and want them to maintain and grow their AV media collection. Which is an encouragement we could really use these days.

[reynoldsnbauer]

our flag means death season 2 is going to be incredible because how often do you get to see an enemies to lovers story where only half the couple knows they are enemies

[notherpuppet]

I KNOW YOU USUALLY DRAWING RADIOAPPLE BUT I JS WANNA SAY I LOVE HOW YOU DRAW ALASTOR AND HUSKS RELATIONSHIP THE TOXIC OLD MAN YAOI IS AMAZING!!!!!11

I’M MULTISHIPPER AF

I know the majority of my fanart is radioapple (I just think of too many antics for them haha) but I like to travel on many ships 🚢

I am limited by my drawing hand and the hours in a day 😭

[jesncin]

(Don't Call Me Super-) Boy Meets (Martian) Girl part 2! Here's the first part where kids sneak out for a night in National City.

This is me trying to bring together some things in canon about them-M'gann struggling with social cues and Conner struggling with school life- into something they could potentially connect on!

[mythology-void]

the only reason i'm in academia is for those perfectly incandescent moments when you've been staring at the same problem for 3 hours and then you finally, finally connect the dots (all on your own!) and you are instantly suffused with that shivery golden kind of pleasure because you did it! you figured it out. and maybe life is worth something because look at the beauty you're creating

[leclercskiesahead]

Did Carlos go to law school or did he don’t didn’t go to law school

from landofmotorsport

[lookstairs]

I think one of the most realistic parts about Baby Reindeer (2024) is how much Donny downplays the abuse he faces

I know everyone wants to hate on him for being “stupid” and blame him for everything that happened because yes from an outsiders perspective he made questionable choices but isn’t that what HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE DO?

I know so many people who’ve “played nice” or tried to downplay abusive behavior. You try and tell yourself “It wasn’t that bad”, or that it was just some crazy experience that should be forgotten. It seems so much easier to stay silent and just try to move on.

You don’t wanna start problems

You don’t wanna be mean

You don’t wanna be the bad guy

[sofiisx]

Fr