#seriously this website still confuses me daily

[ward-en]

I haven't a single clue why I can suddenly boop people, but I'm sure as hell booping everyone I come across

[lowcalheavyweight]

Tw: vent, personal meanspo? (Seriously these thoughts don't apply to anyone else, I don't think any other people have measurable worth, i love you)

They won't care

They will never care and they have never cared, even when they thought you were sick.

You tried kindness and sincerity

They didn't like you

You tried being smart and helpful

They didn't want to talk to you

You tried making yourself interesting with hobbies and style

They didn't want to be your friends

You tried dressing pretty&sexy

They didn't care about you

Now you are trying being petite and fragile

They won't attempt to reach out to you

"You are too intimidating," "You're self-sufficient," "Independent,"

Wha-I'M LONELY.

TO THE POINT I'M STRUGGLING TO FUNCTION

I will beg for scraps of your friendship that you deny me for these excuses

My attemps to bond and reach out have left me with anxiety so crippling I can't talk to people without being convinced they hate me

I'm obsessing about my worth as a human being, desperately holding onto my "worthy" parts and crisis panicing when I accidentally got a burnscar cause that means my stock value just went down, right?

I use my body as a barganing chip and I'm too scared to do what i want with it cause my "possible worth" will be higher if I'm still able to become anything they want me to be, for the person who finally picks me up

My brain tells me I will be worthier if I lose more weight

My brain tells me they will just contine to look past you

I'm already on 24/7 sale, they will never pick you up

Never choose you

I've been reflecting on the past recently (can you tell?!??haha) and remembered middle school.

I was already eating quite disordered(without realising - in a soft binge cycle and missing hunger and fullness ques) and we had a schoolwork to "mark on this website your eating habits-food etc for a period of time and submit to the teacher"

If I remember correctly i think it didn't let me log a empty breakfast so I asked, in front of the while class "what if you eat irregularly?" and was then openly pressed until I revealed I mostly only ate once a day and sometimes missed days (once again, I didn't even really try to hide it, I ate a lot when I did and didn't think about food much, I just wanted to do my schoolwork properly)

My teacher then told me to eat something for meals to log them and I just got frustrated cause before, they had extra told us not to change our habits for this assigment

I forgot about it soon and only long after realised my whole class thought I had a full blown ed at that time

And all they did was - ONE person told me once, randomly to eat breakfast every morning, at least a sandwich (at least?? dude that's a whole MEAL) and report to them every day what I ate.

Honestly, at that point I was just confused but happy someone seemed interested in having a daily conversation.

They never once talked to me again.

And honestly, I was actually super sick at that time, not with an ed but severe depression and disassociation due to family trauma. Staying up 72h straight REGULARLY, fevers and sick all the time, severe memory loss

I was visibly sick,

with what they thought was an ed

And noone cared

They will never care, you will never reach anyone or anything else exept your ugw

Your worth will still drop cause your health, skin, mental capacity and wellbeing will drop it lower than your weightloss could ever regain

You will die alone, anxious and fuking pathetic cause it is all your fault anyways and noone feels bad for you "being so lonely boohoo"

You are the real evil anyways, otherwise you'd be worthy of love at this point.

Die like you deserve

Xoxo ♡

[the-halfling-prince]

fuck it, more Harlow Tumblr but post series

🐲 daily-dragon-facts

Did you know:

Amber-Winged Wyverns are more likely to be colorblind than any other dragon!

🐈 housecat-lookin-mf

Okay now I kinda wanna know how we know this. Did someone ask them lol

🐲 daily-dragon-facts

Yes.

#Dont question me again. #daily dragon facts

19 notes

🪕 battlebard

Callout post for @ fish-and-fear-monger

He's kinda cringe.

🔪 fish-and-fear-monger Follow

Me: Not another call-out post... Me: Oh it's just my loser sister

🪕 battlebard

ANOTHER???

#we love a problematic king? #Top Ten leaders of our archipelago. Yikes.

36 notes

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

Guys help I tripped on my cape today my gf thinks I'm a loser

🏹 careless-whisper

Sorry dude my gf has thought I was a loser since we met I can't help you

📜 mari-the-mari-lwyd

Skill issue I'm the coolest bitch my gf knows.

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

MARI-ELIE???????

#at this point I need to change my URL to not just be my name because #people I know IRL keep finding my fucking tumblr #like y'all remember the uhhh my dad incident #anyway hey mari I hope u forgot about me tripping over my cape today

482 notes

🗡️ best-alavanikian-royalty

Propaganda:

Harlow: She's literally the king... Enough said.

Mari-Elie: She may not be an heir, or a chief, or a king... But consider: She's cooler than you. And also the main advisor to the king if that counts for anything.

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

I can't believe this is even a competition. Guys. Mari-Elie sweep or I'm stepping down as ruler.

#marisweep

1264 notes

😎 deactivated10451218

Is it just me or is the king kinda... you know... fruity?? Like have you seen the way she looks at Advisor Jonson....

👩🏻‍🦰 just-daliah

I can't believe I have to say this but it's super not cool to speculate the sexualities of real people.

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

Yeah I'm fruity✌️

🐄 trickstercow

Seriously? Someone on this Odin forsaken website basically forced the king to out herself? Yikes.

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

Guys what.

⚔️ harlow-stormrage

Can't come out when you were never in. Rainbow attack 🏳️‍🌈🌈🌈🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🌈🏳️‍🌈🌈🌈

🐅 that-one-ginger-kid

Happy 3 years to this fuckin post 🤦

#like ngl I was confused when the situation first happened and everyone talked about it because I #deadass thought everyone knew???? #anyway Happy 'cant believe the king got outed' 'rainbow attack' day #fuck dude #tumblr holidays

8463 notes

📜 chief-stormrage

Everyone, I would like to officially announce my retirement as Chief of Drakenvel. The new chief is the talented Hagen Freyrson, and I hope you all treat him with respect.

🐈 housecat-lookin-mf

Thanks, sir. Anyway...

@ best-alavenikian-royalty any way we can add me to the polls?

#theres no way I'm beating marielie jonson but it's worth a shot

756 notes

📜 mari-the-mari-lwyd

Guys reminder that the Royal Alavenikian Library is open to everyone stop trying to sneak in you look dumb.

📔 drakenvellian-public-library

Nooo dude you're gonna put me out of a job.

📜 mari-the-mari-lwyd

Bro your island has five people and the only one who used the library lives here now if you still have that job now, I don't think it'll go away. Be fr.

🏹 careless-whisper

No because Inkwell Björnson has the best job security in alavenik, Harlow would sooner die than let the library close down 😂

#also Drakenvel has way more then five people. There's like... ten

85 notes

🪕 battlebard

"The average Alavenikian has one dragon" is a statistical error. The average Alavenikian has no dragons. Dragons Harlow, the king of the UnNamed Kingdom who befriends a hundred dragons daily is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

790278 notes

🍂 zamenwellwellwell

I wish I could get a cute farmer to date me :(

🐅 that-one-ginger-kid

Me too...

🐄 trickstercow

Hey

🐅 that-one-ginger-kid

Omg cute farmer girl

🍂 zamenwellwellwell

GET YOUR OWN POST

#the straights have hijacked my post :( #and by the straights I mean specifically those two. #'that one ginger kid' who even are you????? #... Actually that sounds disrespectful sorry Tiger sir. #sorry about that time you got tortured by that guy. Hope you and your farmer gf are happy.

23 notes

[lindwurmkai]

Mastodon is nice, btw. I already gave it a try once before, about 5 years ago, but lost interest because not enough of my mutuals were on it. Now I'm actually using it daily, so let me tell you some pros and cons

+ high chance of perfectly benign comments from random friendly strangers. seriously it's ridiculous how many times that has happened by now

+ no need to censor words because only hashtags are searchable, so you decide whether you want people to find your posts or not

+ interface is reasonably similar to Twitter on mobile; on desktop you can enable an "advanced interface" that looks a lot like tweetdeck

+ if you're struggling to find people to follow, you can follow hashtags related to your interests!

+ no algorithm, but you can still check out popular posts and trending hashtags if you're bored

+ per-post privacy settings (alas, not as extensive as Twitter circles or what Pillowfort is planning to eventually introduce tho)

+ built-in trigger warnings functionality

+ you can edit posts and everyone who's boosted the post will be notified that it's been edited

- choosing a server can be difficult if you understand enough to have any standards

- there will be drama. no matter which server you choose, sooner or later some other server will decide to block it for reasons that may seem unfair, and you can only hope it won't be one you have mutuals on*

- the "official" mobile apps suck and won't let you access all features; there are some better ones out there but I do not personally like any of them and will keep using the mobile website for the time being

- not well-suited for direct messaging

And this one's more of a neutral comment: if you mostly want to talk about random stuff like your life, hobbies, media etc., you're probably going to have a good time. If you want to talk about politics or are simply a marginalised person venting about their marginalisation, it may depend on the size of your audience and how well-moderated your server is.

Trolls, bigots and Reply Guys exist over there, too. People who are used to having no audience may find that their posts are seen more over there, whereas those who have a relatively large audience elsewhere may feel like Mastodon is comparatively awful at things like awareness raising. I've heard that negative/critical content generally spreads less, which is great for avoiding discourse but not so great for making marginalised voices heard.

Personally, since all I talk about is language learning and random nonsense, I've been having a great time. I just wish I could find more accounts to follow since it's still a bit slow at times.

*I keep getting the terminology confused but there are several levels of restriction that may all be referred to as "blocking" or "defederating" and only the highest level means you can't follow/be followed by people from there. Don't ask me to explain because idk

[heavensturtle]

Day 16: Veggies

A short fic for day sixteen of the YOI 20+ Club’s Daily Art Challenge!

- - -

Note: There. Is. No. Plot. No plot whatsoever. You’re welcome.

Also Note: Post-canon Victuuri, plus Seungchuchu (if you haven’t, go read Feathers on the Ice by Kiranokira)!

- - -

Yuuri has been warned that Seung-gil doesn’t like vegetables, but it’s still surprising to watch him carefully transfer his peas, one by one, from his own bowl of katsudon to Phichit’s without even an attempt at politeness.

At one point, Phichit opens his mouth like a baby bird and Seung-gil pauses in his transfer, looks for several seconds at Phichit’s invitation, and pops the pea into his waiting mouth.

His expression doesn’t change until Phichit smiles squinty-eyed at him, and then it softens ever so slightly and the edges of his lips quirk into the barest hint of a smile.

This, Phichit has informed Yuuri, is Seung-gil’s version of Victor enveloping Yuuri in his arms and swaying them both around in circles until Yuuri is giggling and out of breath.

Fascinated, Yuuri points out that there are still onions in Seung-gil’s bowl, to which Seung-gil replies, very seriously: “Onions are acceptable.”

Victor goes to the kitchen to get some wine but mostly to hide his snorts of laughter, Yuuri suspects. Yuuri nods and ‘oh’s’, trying to maintain his composure, but then Phichit breaks out into a grin and pokes his boyfriend and Yuuri can’t help the laugh that escapes him. Seung-gil looks confused at the mirth in Phichit and Yuuri’s eyes, but then seems to just accept it, even leaning in so Phichit can give him a peck on the cheek.

“He has a list of acceptable vegetables taped to the fridge,” Phichit explains, “We’re slowly working him out of being a complete carnivore.”

The look he gives Seung-gil is impossibly fond. Seung-gil lets him take his hand then and they finish dinner like that, fingers intertwined on Phichit’s knee.

Yuuri thinks to himself, not for the first time, that Phichit must be magic.

The guilt is overwhelming at times, when he thinks back to how he so selfishly ran away from his failures and left Phichit alone in Detroit. But Phichit has never let him wallow in these thoughts.

The conversation meanders from skating, to the weather in Seoul, to dogs (where it inevitably turns when either Victor or Seung-gil is involved). Seung-gil is showing Victor a list of websites that review organic dog treats when Yuuri catches Phichit’s eye and the two of them, smiling at their single-minded partners, stand to clear the table and then go make up the bed in the guest room where Phichit and Seung-gil will be staying the next few nights.

“Yuuri,” Victor purrs into his ear later that night when they’re in bed, causing Yuuri to shiver. Their limbs are intertwined under the covers and he can feel Victor’s foot trailing up his calf, “You know you can always feed me any vegetables you don’t like. And you don’t have to bother with the chopsticks.”

“Victor!” Yuuri means to sound scolding, but it comes out more like a whine, “You already steal food out of my hands all the time!”

Though he would never admit to it, Yuuri actually loves this about Victor. The fact that at any moment Victor might publicly proclaim yes, I get to do this because we’re married by taking bites out of his food directly over the spot where Yuuri had just taken a bite, or nibbling little things directly from Yuuri’s fingers.  

He’s pretty sure Victor already knows how much he loves it.

Victor laughs joyfully, the rumbling from his chest vibrating through Yuuri and making his heart hurt with the most agreeable sort of ache.

God, he thinks, moving one leg farther up Victor’s thigh so he can shift even closer, how can I ever deserve this?

Then he hears Victor’s breath catch, feels his slight tremble as he moves his hands down to pull Yuuri flush against him, and he remembers that Victor feels exactly the same way. The thought still makes Yuuri giddy.

“Victor,” he warns when they break apart from their kiss, “Phichit and Seung-gil are-”

“Not going to notice. Did you see how they were looking at each other?”

Yeah. He had.

He only takes a second to consider before he’s kissing Victor again.

[muffinsandpages]

Fairy Oak

My first ever Tumblr review! It was kinda long for instagram, and I wanted to get started on here anyways, so here we are!

I'm just gonna start off by saying that I am a sucker for good worldbuilding. And this series, right after the Lord of the Rings, made me realize that. Seriously, though: you could build a perfect, amazing world and set there the most ugly, annoying story; I would still read and love the heck out of it.

Anyway, in this case not only the worldbuilding is amazing, but also the plot makes the series one of the best fantasy sagas I've ever read.

The author of this series is Elisabetta Gnone, mostly famous for writing the W.I.T.C.H. comics saga

One note before I start: I read the book in Italian, so some names and terms might not be accurate to the English translation (I think that Pervinca is called Lavander and Felì Feliz). I don't know if the people who are reading this are actually English or use another main language, so to avoid confusion I figured it would be better to keep the original Italian names/terms

THE STORY

For obvius reasons I'm not going to get into detail, I'm just giving a general idea of the plot.

The story is set in Fairy Oak, a village located in a valley in an unspecified part of the world. This village has something special: there live, in (almost) peace both magical creatures, such as fairies, witches and wizards, and non-magical creatures, humans. The books are told from the point of view of one of the fairies, Felì, who, like many others of her kind, works as the nanny of two youg twin girls who are set to become witches.

Now, there are two kinds of witches and wizards: those with the power of the Dark and those with the power of Light. Those powers are inherited through one's family. Everyone expects the twins, Vaniglia and Pervinca, to inherit the power of Light, like their mother and aunt before them. However, surprisingly, while Vaniglia indeed becomes a Light Witch, Pervinca inherits the power of Darkness.

In the same days, an ancient Enemy attaks the valley. He doesn't have a name, nor a face; all the villagers know is that He wants to destroy all the beauty of the valley, and for Darkness to prevail. In order to do that, He needs to separate the twins: He wants Pervinca to betray her sisters and turn her back to her family.

The main story is told trough the course of three books. In the same universe the author set five other standalone novels (plus one which should come out in autumn 2021), which focus more on side characters and are a little bit more lighthearted.

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

This is perfect for young kids who want an easy introduction to fantasy books. The plot structure is extremely simple, and yet the story that comes out is one of the most amazing I've ever read, one that I come back to every one in a while to fall back into that familiar, relaxing world.

Granted, it isn't perfect: there are a few bits where the plot does't flow as smoothly as it should; for example, side characters that in one book are Light Wizards become Dark Wizards in the next, bits where two people talk for half of a page and then they realize that four hours have passed... Things like that, which I realized only after reading the books a few times, and probably wouldn't bother a kid who reads them for the first time.

If the setting and the plot aren't interesting enough to tempt you, please take a look at the amazing illustration that I left throught the post, made by the amazing Alessia Martusciello. Every book has about 20 pages filled with those coloured illustrations, mostly not related to the plot, but just snapshots of the daily life in the village, family photos, the twins' magic lessons notebooks... Those alone are worth the price of the books!

(PS: here's the link to the website, where you can check out everything about the saga and more illustrations!)

[anxiousstark]

S2 02 | Shape Shifted

BIG MASTERLIST | TW REWRITE

Stiles Stilinski x Reader! Half-sibling!Mccall Word count: 2736 Warnings: Mentions of dead bodies, injuries, blood, angst, swearing (always). A/N: I’m not really proud of this chapter. It is fast and not too long. At first, I thought about skipping it, but I totally needed it to be able to introduce Isaac Lahey. Furthermore, the black backpack it’s truly important for Y/N’s past with her mother, and for her relationship with Scott!

↪ PLEASE RESPECT MY WORK. DON’T COPY, TRANSLATE OR CLAIM THEM AS YOURS. NOT ON THIS WEBSITE OR ANOTHER. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED.

"Scott told me you weren't coming today." Allison stared at me, concerned.

"What's the point of staying at home?" I chuckled. I didn't remember anything about last night. I had this uneasy feeling, but I couldn't recall anything. I remembered running after Lydia when she escaped from the hospital's window, and the next thing I was lying down on my bed after being found in the woods. "Melissa will kill me when she finds out I'm not home." I laughed.

"Oh, she will kill you." My half-brother's girlfriend smiled, clutching her books against her chest. "Stiles told me that you guys are better than ever." She blushed, nodding. "I hope you guys stay like that. Scott glares at me less when you guys are together." I smirked. It was true. Scott seemed to be calmer when he was in good terms with Allison.

"I need to go grab some books from my locker." She kissed Lydia's cheek, who had been quiet most of the time. "See you guys later." She side-hugged me.

"They called it a fugue state, which is basically a way of saying ‘We have no idea why you can't remember running through the woods naked," Lydia said while I opened the door for her. "But personally, I don't care. I lost nine pounds." She giggled.

"We were out there for almost an entire day," I answered back. "Isn't it crazy that we don't remember anything that happened during the time we were wandering around?"

"As I said before," She retouched her lipstick. "I lost nine pounds." I saw Jackson a couple of meters away from us, Lydia was walking directly to him. But his eyes were fixed on me while he smirked. 

"Do your ears and nose bleed a lot?" 

Fuck you, Jackson.

I walked to the bleachers, sitting down behind Scott and Stiles. Again, I was surprised that Scott was a werewolf because he hadn't noticed me as he was too busy talking to his friend. I got closer to them. "Boo." Both boys jumped, terrified. Their screams were so high pitched that half of the lacrosse team were staring at us. They both turned around to look at me. "Oh god, that was so fucking fu-"

Two arms wrapped around me, Stiles. Now, I was almost sitting on his lap, arms wrapped tightly around my waist, his face hiding on my neck. At first, I didn't know how to react, but I ended up wrapping my arms around him too. My right hand rubbed his back while the other rested on the back of his neck, pulling him closer to me, which seemed almost impossible. "I'm sorry." He whispered.

"For what?"

He sighed, his warm breath caressing the side of my neck, making me shiver. "I'm sorry for leaving you at the dance just to go with Lydia." His voice cracked.

"Stiles, we talked about this." I rubbed his back in circles. "It was your opportunity to get close to Lydia." Forming those words made my heart throb, but I continued. "You don't have to apologize for something your heart was telling you to do."

"My heart was confused." He whispered. "And because of that, you got hurt."

"It wasn't your fault." My fingers caressed his buzz-cut hair. "You didn't hit me, Chris Argent did."

"He could have killed you if he wanted. He didn't do it because you are of value. Because you are something that interests him." He clenched his jaw. "He could have killed you if he wanted to." Stiles paused. "And I never thanked you for saving me from Peter Hale back at the hospital."

"Anyone would have done that for you, Stilisnki."

We heard someone cough, and we decided it was time to part ways. Even though I didn't want to. Stupid Scott.

You know when you shower and wear clean clothes. You get inside your bed with fresh sheets. The smell and freshness embrace you, and you feel safe. That's exactly what I felt in Stiles's arms.

"Uhm. So what about the plan?" Stiles stopped looking deeply into my eyes to glance at Scott, who had interrupted us.

"What plan?" I curiously asked, sitting next to Stiles.

"There seems to be another wolf in the lacrosse team." The Hazel-eyed boy explained to me. "I told coach you're switching with Danny for the day."

"But I hate playing goal."

"Remember when I said I had an idea? This is the idea."

"Oh." He didn't understand. "What's the idea?"

"I seriously don't understand how you survive without me sometimes." He shook his head. "McCall's will always need me."

Coach called the entire lacrosse team. Stiles was the first one to go back to the field while Scott stopped to look at me. "Uhm, I hope you feel better."

"Did Melissa tell you to say that?" I jokingly asked.

"Actually, yes." He grinned when he saw how my face went back to a serious one. "I'm kidding. I really hope you feel better."

I nodded, smiling. "Thank you." I looked at him directly on the eyes. "And thank you for finding me."

"It wasn't me." He pointed at Stiles when he saw my confused expression. "It was him." Then he sighed. "And please, I can smell you guys."

"Smell what? I got showered so you can't joke about me smelling or something because I promise you I will kill you."

"No," He chuckled. "I smell Stiles." He paused. "And you, you know."

"No, I don't." He groaned, going back to the field, murmuring something about it 'not being his job'.

It seems like Stiles's plan was for Scott to throw every lacrosse player to the ground, smelling them to make sure that they were not a werewolf.

I was confused when in the distance, I saw Sheriff Stilisnki marching towards the field.

The match had been stopped by the police. "His father's dead. They think he was murdered."

"Are they saying he's a suspect?" Noah Stilisnki softly grasped Isaac's arm, letting him know that he had to go with them to the station. He was a major suspect. "Because they can lock him in a holding cell for 24 hours." Scott was still trying to understand what Stiles was trying to say. "During the full moon."

"How good are these holding cells at holding people?"

"People, good. Werewolves, probably not that good."

Isaac followed the sheriff's orders, but before completely disappearing from our sight, he turned around, looking at the other werewolf boy. "Stiles, remember when I said I don't have the urge to maim and kill?"

Stiles nodded.

"He does." I interrupted Scott. I could also feel it. I could feel the rage. He was going to explode.

After what happened in the field, we had to go to class with Mr. Harris. I didn't fancy that man, he made me feel quite uncomfortable, and his subject was monotonous.

"Why would Derek choose Isaac?" I heard Scott whisper. Both boys were sitting in front of me while I was sitting behind them, in front of Danny boy.

"Peter told me that if the bite doesn't turn you it could kill you. And maybe teenagers have a better chance of surviving."

"Doesn't being a teenager mean your dad can't hold him?"

"Well, not unless they have solid evidence. Or a witness. Wait." Stiles turned around, he offered me a little smile, making my heart beat like crazy. "Danny. Where's Jackson?"

"In the principal's office talking to your dad." My interest peaked when I heard what he had said.

"What? Why?"

"Maybe because he lives across the street from Isaac."

The hazel-eyed boy who only liked to get into trouble glanced at Scott and me. "We gotta get to the principal's office."

"How?"

I saw Stiles ripping a blank page from his notebook, shaping a not-so-round ball with it. "Everyone please turn to page 73." Mr. Harris was writing on the blackboard when the paper ball hit the back of his head. "Who in the hell did that?" Both troublemakers pointed at each other. Oh god.

Gosh, Mr. Stilisnki was right. I would only be into trouble if I went along with Scott and Stiles. But I couldn't let these two fools get themselves killed. I quickly made a paper ball, throwing it at Mr. Harris, hitting him directly on the nose. Classmates started snickering while Scott and Stiles glanced at me perplexed, but with grins on their faces. "Damn guys, I thought you said we were throwing them at the count of three." I winked at them.

However, Mr. Harris didn't seem to find it hilarious as he sent the three of us to detention. We were sitting outside when Stiles's dad came out. He hid his face behind my back, in hopes that his father wouldn't see him. Stiles under pressure was as dumb as Scott in his daily life.

"Scott." Sheriff Stilisnki greeted him. Then, he looked at his son, letting a sigh of defeat leave his mouth. "Y/N," He also greeted me. "How is that wound?"

"What wound?" I smiled, letting him know that I was feeling just fine.

He grinned back. "Good. I'm happy for you." He crossed his arms, telling his coworkers to go ahead. "I suppose you three are here to go into detention." I bit my lower lip while Scott nodded. Stiles still hiding his face behind my back. "Well, Y/N, you aren't going."

I gazed at him, utterly confused.

Stiles finally decided to stop using me as a shield. "Oh, wow-Dad! What a surprise!" Mr. Stilisnki, Scott, and I rolled our eyes. Sometimes, Stiles could be a complete fool. "Why isn't she going?"

I swallowed. I could feel both boys gazing at me.

"It isn't an interrogation, don't worry." Noah intervened. "But we need you to come back to the station. It is quite important, Y/N." I couldn't help but glance at Stiles, my anxiety going up as seconds when by. Why did they need me at the police station?

Stiles smiled at me, but I could see that he was as nervous and bewildered as me. "You are lucky," He punched me lightly on the arm. "You skip this stupid long detention." He moved a strand of hair away from my face. "And you are going to be with the coolest Sheriff of the city." He winked at his dad.

"We will still talk about this at home, Stiles." He smirked. "Come get her at the station when you finish whatever you did."

The hazel-eyed boy pouted, conducting his gaze to me. "Seems like it's going to be a long day for both of us." He muttered.

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?" Noah Stilinski took a seat in front of me. We were separated by a metal table. I shook my head while placing my hands on top of the cold surface. "I know you must be nervous about me taking you here without giving you any hint."

"And I'm in the interrogation room, so I'm even more nervous." I chuckled. "Please, go directly to the reason that made me be here."

"Do you remember Sheriff Posey? Back where you used to live?" He slid a picture of said Sheriff so I could see at him.

I nodded my head. I didn't remember much of him, but he saved my life a couple of times and did his best to snap Alice back to real life. Of course, it didn't work. "He was the one who 'took care' of Ali- my mom's situation."

Noah nodded. "He is gonna retire due to some health inconveniences."

"I hope he is okay," I sincerely expressed my feelings. "But what does that have to do with me?"

Sheriff Stilinski sighed, pulling something that was under the table, letting it fall on top of it. A black backpack. "Do you recognize this bag?" I shook my head. "Sherrif Posey had it for a long time, he wanted to wait until you were older." His eyes searched deep in mines. "This is the bag your mother took to jail. It was given to Sheriff Posey when-"

"When she killed herself." I finished for him. No tears. But my hands were full of sweat.

"Inside the bag, there are items she took to jail, and the ones they let her keep." He sighed. "Of course, those who work in jails must be strict about what inmates can keep. There won't be much, maybe a couple of pictures, something that reminded her of the outside world. Sheriff Posey thought you should be the one deciding what to do with all of this."

He slid the bag towards me. "I don't want it." I was surprised. My voice didn't creak. "You can throw it away."

He sorrowfully smiled. "I had a feeling you would say that." He coughed a little. "I've been following your case since my friend Posey told me about you. I know how much you went through, from an outsider point of view." I nodded, he was the first person who talked to me that way. It was nice, and it made me think of Stiles. "I'm still gonna give you this bag. Do whatever you want with it." I glanced at the bag, nodding. "You can take your time with it. It isn't a decision you must take right away."

My eyes glistened while I peered at him. "They re-opened the case, right?" My voice came out in a whisper. "Her family re-opened the case, right?"

Noah nodded. "It wasn't your fault, okay? They are a heart-broken family. What they went through...nobody should have to experience that. But it wasn't your fault, and the judge gave you the reason." He grabbed my hands, his thumbs caressing the back of my hands. "You have all of us now."

After the conversation with Mr. Stilinski, he made me wait in his office, telling me to feel comfortable while I waited for Stiles to come for me. I was sitting on a couch, my eyes examining the black bag that used to be the most precious thing that my mother ever had. Funny, right?

The door opened, and I was met with Stiles. He smiled when he saw me, and I did the same. "Finally!" I got up from the couch. "I'm so tired. I want to go home."

When I saw his nervous laugh I concluded that we weren't going home yet. "I need to grab the keys of every cell in the station. There's a dude dressed as an officer who wants to kill Lahey. Also, seems like Isaac was being abused by his father, Scott is in his old house, trying to investigate and Derek is flirting with the receptionist. Well, distracting her, you know."

"Okay, so where are the keys?"

Stiles walked to a little grey box that was on the wall, introducing a code. But when it opened, it was empty. "Fuck, someone already got to them." Stiles ran out of the office without waiting for me.

"Yo, wait." I grabbed the backpack, throwing it over my shoulder. When I heard the fire alarm, I started running. "Stiles! Stiles?"

In a couple of seconds, I was able to find him. His back was against the wall while he looked ahead. Isaac Lahey has escaped from his cell, and he was fighting with a man that was dressed as an officer. Isaac grabbed the head of the fraudulent officer, slamming him against the wall. Then, he turned around, looking at Stiles. He moved to get closer to him, stopping when I firmly hissed at him. Nails coming out, ice-blue eyes and scales decorating from my wrist to elbow. He felt threatened but still tried to attack me until Derek appeared.

"How did you do that?"

"I'm the Alpha."

Derek left, taking Isaaw with him before the other officers came to the room due to the alarm. Stiles rushed to me. "Are you okay?" I nodded. "You need to calm down. The scales are still out."

I glanced at my arms. "I don't know how to control it. It just happens." He nodded while talking his plaid off, helping me wear it. We were interrupted by coughs. Uh oh, Sheriff Stilinski and other officers were looking at us.

I peered at Stiles while he looked at the man laying on the floor. "Uh," He pointed to the man. "He did it."

.

.

TAGLIST: @og-baby-ob14 - @savemypostcards​ - @cas-loves-pizza​ - @used-avocado​ - @mvrylee​ - @bilesxbilinskixlahey​ - @honeydoll-stark​ - @arieltheworldisamess​ - @softpeteparker​ - @kit-kat-katie99​​ - @thatsuperherosidekick​ - @bexbetterxthanxwords​ - @big-galaxy-chaos​​ - @littlemiss-forgotten - @enchantedcruelsummer​ - @coldfreakeggsexpert​ - @merla123​ - @sammypotato67​​ - @weirdowithnobeardo​ - @maggiesblogsblog​ - @itskindyl​​ - @bobo-bush - @moongoddesskiana​​ - @multifandxm353​​ - @irwxnhugsx​​ - @xoprincessmel - @iclosetgeek​​ - @andreagf956 - @niawoods​​ - @anerroroccurrrrred​ - @perrytheplatypus11​ - @trustfundparker​ - @nmriia - @steve-harringtonnn​ - @trustfundparker​ - 

People in black means it doesn’t let me tag them.

[acupforslytherin]

Highlighter and lipgloss

Okay, I'm really bored in this lockdown, so I decided to make a little drabble. It was inspired by my daily random thought of damn Draco Malfoy is fucking beautiful.

Harry knows Draco loves all things pretty and shiny, that posh little git. But he didn't think it would ever come to this.

Honestly, Harry didn't expect many things to happen in his already very eventful life--one of them is befriending the one and only Draco fucking Malfoy. And here he is, sharing a flat with his ex nemesis because oh, we're both aurors now it's just convenient, don't you think?

Harry refuses to take the blame, though, because they got along surprisingly well after recovering from the fact that both were only victims of an evil war none of them ever asked. Draco is still a snarky, sarcastic wanker, but an extremely interesting one at that. He's genuinely funny, intelligent, and always curious about things he doesn't know.

And with him being raised in a traditional pureblood family, he does have a whole lot of muggle world to discover.

It started when Draco came home from his work trip to the US on an international wizarding case.

"Harry, do you know what a beauty guru is?" Draco asked him out of nowhere.

Harry frowned at him from where he sat on the couch. "Isn't that a muggle term for experts in makeup? Why you asked?"

"Well," Draco gingerly sat down to join him. "I went undercover as a muggle when I was in the US. A girl said my hair reminds her of Jeffree Star. When I asked her who that was, she only said he's a beauty guru." Draco explained with a shrug. "She gave me an impression that I should've known him, though. Is he famous?"

Harry stared at his hair for a moment. His shoulder length, white blonde hair which fell so naturally around his pointy face. He once asked Draco why he grew his hair so long and wouldn't it be too noticable for an auror? That twit only rebuked with let's have a discussion when your own hair isn't attracting birds from all around England, mop head.

"Logically, you couldn't have known him," Harry said eventually. "I might have heard of the name, but I'm not sure."

"Can we look up his name? On that ghoul internet thing?" Draco looked up at him expectantly.

"It's goo-gle, Draco, and yes, I guess we can," Harry said and left to find his laptop because Draco would not shut up until his unending curiosity is satisfied.

And that's why Harry and Draco sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch watching a YouTube video that evening. Draco seemed to be very fascinated, asking Harry about all foreign icons on the website (what do you mean we don't get owls if we subscribed to this?). When the video started, he became even more unbearably annoying, pausing every ten seconds to ask questions Harry couldn't answer.

"What is a concealer, Harry? What will it conceal?" Draco asked after pausing the video for the 14th time--and they're only two minutes in.

Harry gave a long suffering sigh. "I don't know, Draco, do I look like someone who wears makeup?"

Draco shrugged unapologetically but decided to remain silent for the rest of the video. When it finally ended, he looked at Harry with a thoughtful expression.

"You know what?"

Harry arced his eyebrow. "What?"

"I think my hair is better than his," Draco replied solemnly.

Harry had to laugh at that. "That you are right."

Draco gave him a satisfied smirk, but an unreadable glint of his eyes told Harry that something else was afoot.

A couple of weeks later, Harry has been thinking that there's something different from Draco. Subtle, but Harry notices nonetheless. And that's definitely not because he pays too much attention to the man. Definitely not.

He comes to a realization today. They are sitting across each other in a cafe for their lunch break when Harry finally realizes.

Draco is shining.

More than usual, his thought offered helpfully.

Harry stares hard at the blond's face and his gaze inevitably focuses on his thin, shiny lips. No, it's not shiny, it's glossy. Draco applied lipgloss on his lips. Of course he did.

"What?"

From the tone, Harry assumes Draco is lifting a single eyebrow in question, like he always does in a very captivating way. But Harry can't tell because his eyes are locked to the movement of those pretty, glossy lips.

Those lips are moving again, likely to scoff Harry in annoyance for not answering, but then a waiter comes to their table and places their order. Draco looks away to face the waiter and say his polite thank you, and then suddenly another shine catches Harry's attention.

The way Draco angles his face slightly makes the afternoon sunlight from the glass wall fall softly on his cheek. And his high, well-defined cheekbone is fucking shining. The glow is not blinding or anything, but it's certainly unmistakable. Especially now when Draco grins at the small banter he's having with the waiter. His cheekbone is raised with all its shining glory.

When the waiter leaves and Draco looks back at Harry, still dumbfounded, he frowns. "Seriously, Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry is losing it. "You're shining," he whispers.

Draco tilts his head in confusion. And the light catches both his cheekbone and lips, making them shining as if challenging Harry. "Huh?"

"I said," Harry said while his fingers reach out to touch that shiny cheekbone. He definitely lost it. "You're fucking shining, Draco."

Draco's frown deepens for a second before he breaks into a brilliant smirk in understanding. Brightening his already glowing little pointy face. "Oh, you mean--"

Harry doesn't let him finish as he captures those glossy lips with his own. They're softer than they look, Harry thinks absently. And, Merlin's beard, they're so fucking sweet. Like candies and chocolates and a hint of fruits. Maybe that's the lipgloss. Or maybe that's just Draco.

Maybe that's just the shiny Draco Malfoy.

They let go of the magical moment and Draco bursts into a loud, bubbly laugh. Harry can only stare with an awestruck expression.

"Salazar, Harry," he says, eyes glinting fiercely with mirth, slight surprise, and pure delight. "If I knew that a bit of highlighter and lipgloss is all it takes to seduce you, I'd have put them on much sooner."

[liquid-luck-00]

Partners

Day 4 of SuperChat September 2020

This is what I did for Boss and Assistant

@superchat-september2k20 @zambie-trashart @loveswifi @wannajointhecrabcult

Ao3

~~~~~~~~~~

Adrien walked into the office where he would be assisting in for the summer. His father thought it would be best so he could take over the buisness aspect of the Gabriel brand. What his Father failed to mention was that he would be in Metropolis, even more at the Daily Planet.

Well getting to know the PR side to the buisness would be smart. After all fashion is built on the perception of the population on the brand.

So Adrien walked up to the desk to figure out where he had to go for the next month and a half. The woman told him to wait as someone was going to come and get him. Someone took him up the elevator and they then showed him to an office on the fourth floor from the top.

What he wasn't expecting was for the room to have so many people inside, granted there were four people inside before he and his guide entered. His guide introduced him and promptly walked out.

"Perry White, Editor-in-chef of the Daily Planet" he introduced himself "So your the intern we are hosting?"

"Yes Sir" he answered as if he were speaking with his father.

"Why don't we do a trial for the two of you?" Perry said with a smile and turned to the other three! What do ya say Lois? Clark? Let them get their feet wet by throwing them in."

"Wouldn't see why that wouldn't be a problem" the woman Lois answered, wait Lois. Daily Planet, that is Lois Lane and Clark Kent so who is?

That was when he truly noticed the other boy in the room. He looked to be around his age but was taller than him. But what blew him away were his eyes they were an amazing electric blue, almost like they were balls of lightning, pitty they were hidden behind his glasses.

"Then it's settled Kent and Agreste your partners. I hope you will have something to offer by the end of the week." Perry stated and the three reporters and model walked out of the room.

"Sorry for the test by fire, but Perry does n't like to waste time" Lois said once they were at a pair of desks with a third empty one next to them. "Im Lois Lane-Kent, sorry for the late in troduction. That is Clark Kent" she pointed at the man, who gave him a smile and wave when addressed, and that she pointed at the boy setting things up on the empty desk. "Is Jonathan Kent."

The boy looked up and gave him a smile "Jon is fine."

with introductions aside the two left the building in search of a story.

By noon they hadn't found anything completely news worthy, but they did stop at a little cafe for lunch. Jon set down the two bays he was carrying and placed the smaller one on the table which he began fiddling with. He opened it, and to Adrien's surprise inside was a camera. Jon was fiddling with it at took a few pictures but in the end set it down dis a pointed.

"What's wrong?" Adrien asked.

Jon huffed, "I may be a decent reporter but I am at a loss with a camera" then he looked at him his blue eyes shining. "You wouldn't know would you?" He had leaned forward and was staring at him hopefully.

Adrien was lucky he didn't turn into a blushing stuttering mess. In fact he wore a cheshire grin "In front or behind the camera, because I can do both." Adrien was a model, yes, the face of Gabriel Brand, yes, future buisness executive of said brand, yes.

What many don't know is that he is the infamous photographer who is the only one who is allowed to shoot for M.D.C. both for her website or any publication, known simply as A.N..

Jon's face lit up, by this time Adrien already had the camera set up, positioned, at took the picture.

---

By the end of their internship Jon was signed as a reporter and began working alongside his

parents. But what had surprised him the most was when he first met the supers.

He and Jon were about to call it quit for the day when a meta attacked the store near them. Jon had excused himself, something about an emergency text from his brother when Superman and Superboy. Adrien hoped that Jon was still

nearby because Superboy had the situation handled before the man of steel. So, Adrien did what any good photographer did, he took photos. Jon was still close and that turned into their first featured article.

Luckily or well actually unluckily, thank you Plagg, Adrien and Jon were always near an attack and that was something. Yet every time Superboy went to him to ask if he were alright.

---

As Adrien was getting ready to board a plane back to Paris Jon greeted him at the airport. Jon asked him out and that confused him, apparently he was going to be working in Daily Planet's sister location in Paris for a white, TVi. So after a month and a half he learned about the inner workings of the press and how to run it with some time with Perry. But the best part was that for the whole flight back he got to stay with his boyfriend.

Bonus:

Once in Paris Adrien developed his favorite photo of Superboy, he was helping someone unseen out of the rubble of a collapsed wall. And the photo he took of Jon on the first day.

Once he looked at the photos side by side many of his excuses and disappearances suddenly made a lot more sense.

Bonus 2:

To say that Jon was surprised when a guy dressed like Catwoman came into his appartment would be an understatement. One how the hell did he not see or hear him. Two why, wait what did he say.

"Okay I totally understand why you didn't tell me but seriously, Superboy" the cat guy said to him. "I'm not! Your wrong. I can't be Superboy"

A flash of green filled the room and there stood a

Adrien and he did not look convinced, "Want to try that again?"

"How?"

"Magic artifact." he said "but really just glasses won't work forever" he smirked. An explosion sounded and glitter flew past the window. "Well guess that's my cue"

In another flash of green there he stood again in all black looking like a blonde Selina. "Wait then why don't you need a disguise?"

"Magic, duh" he smirked "glamour that is only broken when revealed" he gave a salute and left.

[zacc-attacc]

Nature: A Javid Oneshot

A/N: My first ever oneshot on this website! I hope y’all enjoy!

Word Count- 1.2k

Jack loved the open sky. He loved the stars, the sounds of nature, and everything in between. But, more than anything, it calmed him, something that not many things were able to do. As a kid, he had always dreamed of falling asleep under the stars every single night. And when he was bounced around in foster care, the night sky had been the one common variable. Always there, like a blanket. Luckily for Jack, Some of the Newsies had put together a camping trip in the woods near campus. They had tents (from the Dollar Tree, probably), a bunch of marshmallows, some hotdogs, and a whole lot of energy. And Jack? Jack an invite and a limited will to live. At least Davey would be there, which, to be honest, had its ups and downs.

Ups, because Davey was single-handedly the sweetest human alive and a fun dude to hang out with. And downs, because Davey was Mom Friend Supreme™ and also had an annoying tendency to make Jack’s normally stoic heart do a tap dance in his chest. Which really was inconvenient because Jack’s last relationship had ended only four weeks ago. It wasn’t a nasty breakup, he and Katherine were actually still friends, but the boys still expected him to be depressed about it. But Jack didn’t like to linger. He was upset for a few days, but now he was over it. Katherine obviously was as well, since she was seen going on a few coffee dates with some girl. 

But tonight, none of that mattered. Tonight, he could be whoever he wanted to be because that’s just how it was with the Newsies.

Tonight, he could eat bargain hot dogs and s’ mores, and avoid the fact that he was hopelessly in love with the only man he couldn’t have; because god forbid David Jacobs dated a mess like him. 

Jack knew exactly where he lay in David’s mind. He was a close friend, maybe a sort of Uncle to his future children with his perfect little life with his husband in the suburbs. David liked him well enough, but he would likely never love him. And Jack had tried to accept that, even though, thus far, it had only made it much worse.

“Ay! Jack! You packed?” Crutchie yelled from his lower bunk. Jack was stretched out on the top bunk, staring at a half-finished political cartoon for his class. 

“Yeah… What time’d the guys say to be there?” Jack sat up, hitting his head on the low ceiling. He wasn’t even that tall and it managed to injure him on a daily basis. 

“...In five minutes.”

“Shit-” Jack muttered, scrambling to jump down the bunk, only succeeding in hitting his head yet again on the ceiling. After hitting the floor in the heap, all Jack could hear was Crutchie’s cackles. 

“Just kidding, It’s actually in 20- I just wanted to see your reaction,” Crutchie wheezed, wiping a tear from his eye. 

“Yeah, real funny, Crutch,” Jack mumbled, rolling his eyes and smiling. As much as he loved his little brother, he, unfortunately, knew exactly how to get Jack riled up quite easily, which normally ended in Jack running into a wall or stabbing himself in the arm with a pen in a panic.

“S’funny to me,” Crutchie choked out, still laughing. Jack pushed himself to his feet, brushing off the assorted chip crumbs that had migrated from the shitty shag carpeting of his dorm onto his shirt.

“I know, I know,” Jack muttered, grabbing Crutchie’s crutch from the wall and handing them to him. Looking at his laughing face, Jack couldn’t help but crack a smile. 

“Alright, let’s get a move on… You ready?” Jack shook his head while still grinning, snatching his duffle bag and Crutchie’s backpack from beside the door. 

“Ay! I can carry that!" Crutchie protested, making a grab at the bag. 

“Wow, brother dearest, won’t even let me carry a bag,” Jack joked, sticking out his tongue and popping into a dead sprint down the hallway. 

“NOW THAT’S JUST UNCALLED FOR!” Crutchie yelled from the hallway. 

“LET ME TAKE CARE OF YOU, STUPID HEAD!” Jack shouted back, slamming open the door for the stairs and sliding onto the railings down the flights. Once he reached the bottom, he pulled out his phone.

“Text RaceyBoi.” 

“What would you like to say?” that stupid automated voice asked back, not fully human or robotic. 

“‘Can you go walk Crutchie to the campsite? Left him for CPS reasons.’” CPS was not, in fact, Child Protective Services, but instead Crutchie Protection Squad.

Smiling to himself, Jack started walking towards the woods on the outskirts of campus. He thought he saw Kid Blink and Spot at one point, Heely-ing towards the woods. He couldn’t help but wonder how the wheels would hold up amongst all the vegetation, and quietly hoped he wouldn’t have to call an ambulance tonight. 

“Hey, Jack!” came a familiar voice from behind him. His heart automatically deciding to kick into overdrive, Jack turned around to see none other than David Jacobs, grinning and clutching a duffle bag. 

“Whaddup, Dave,” Jack grinned back, clapping the taller boy on the shoulder. Seriously, who gave him the right to be this tall? He was like a noodle with a head and arms. 

“You heading down to the campsite?” Davey asked, falling into step with Jack. 

“That’s the plan. Race is taking Crutchie so that idiot won’t try to carry his backpack again.” 

“...You realize he can carry it perfectly fine, right?” Davey said, looking slightly confused.

“Yeah, but I just feel like doin’ something nice for him, y’ know?” 

“You may be stupid at times, but you are a good brother, Jack Kelly,” Davey chuckled, taking off his hat and flipping it backward. 

“Ey, now don’t get to tellin’ the boys that, I have a reputation as a jerk to keep,” Jack couldn’t stop smiling. Why couldn’t he stop smiling? He felt like someone had turned him into the fucking sun from the Teletubbies. 

“I don’t think you could pass as a jerk if you tried,” Davey shrugged, looking into Jack’s eyes so he could get the point across. God, his eyes were brown. Beautiful, chocolatey, perfect brown. 

“You would be surprised,” Jack said, tearing his eyes away. 

Don’t let yourself get attached, dammit. 

“Hey,” Davey stopped. Jack stopped too, staring at him. He put his hand on Jack’s shoulder. 

“Don’t… Don’t talk like that. I know you, Jackie. Okay? And you aren’t an asshole.” 

“Jeez, David, only a few minutes into the trip and you’re already on the late-night talks-” Jack turned away, hoping Davey couldn’t see that he was blushing. 

“I need to hear you say it, okay?” He turned Jack around, forcing him yet again to look into his eyes. 

“Fine. I… I ain’t an asshole. Ya happy?” Jack bit his tongue forcefully. That almost physically pained him to say. 

“Yeah. I… I’m sorry Jack,” Davey said. Jack still wasn’t looking at him. 

“Don’t apologize for caring, Davey.” 

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was late. The shitty fire that had taken them almost a full hour to make was burning low, and Jack had to keep prodding it with a random stick to keep it lit. Most of the boys had already retired to their tents and sleeping bags, and Davey was fast asleep on his chair. Race was the only one still out. 

“Do you think we should wake him up?” Race said, tossing the remains of his s’more into the fire. 

“What? Oh, nah, I’ll wake him up when I head in. Poor kid, being a pre-med student probably never sleeps,” Jack pointed out. 

“How long do you think you’ll be staying out?” Race asked, standing up and stretching. 

“‘Till I get tired,” Jack prodded the fire again, before throwing in another stick. 

“Then he’ll be out here all night,” Race joked, cracking a smile.

“I’ll wake him up before then. Wouldn’t want him to get hypothermia or some shit.” 

“It’s the middle of April, I highly doubt he’ll get hypothermia, Jack.” 

“...Did Racetrack Higgins seriously just say an educated statement?”

“Goodnight-” Race turned away suddenly, seeming intent on changing the subject. 

“YOU CAN’T CHANGE IT NOW, WE KNOW YOU’RE SMART,” Jack whisper-shouted, not wanting to wake any of the boys up (especially not Davey). 

Race replied with his silence. 

Sighing, Jack sat back in his chair. Not having any will to sleep, and nothing more to do, he grabbed out his sketchbook. Nature was always good for inspiration. 

Well, it could’ve been nature, or it could’ve been Davey. Because, without even realizing it, Jack had started to sketch the sleeping boy’s figure. His right fist was supporting his cheek, his hat was half-tipped onto his face, shading it slightly. His legs were crossed, and his left arm was set on top of them. 

Behind him was a backdrop of pine trees, and, even though that wasn’t the actual view, a full moon, and stars. So many stars. All spelling out little words of love in Spanish, Jack’s first language. 

Precioso. Bonita. Perfecto. 

His hair was mostly tucked under his cap. His eyes were softer when he slept. A ghost of a smile played at his lips. 

Increíble. 

Perfect. 

Just as Jack was signing his name and dating the piece, Davey began to stir. 

Quickly shutting the book, Jack simply stared up at the stars he could see despite the light pollution and thick trees. 

“Hey, Jack, saw you drawing there,” Davey said, quietly. 

“Oh- uh- yeah, just… lookin’ through some old pieces,” Jack stammered. 

“Can I see?” 

“Uh- no, this isn’t my graded stuff, it’s all just sketches-“

“Y’know, for an art student, you really don’t like showing your art.” 

“Uh- Fine.” Jack gave up and strode across the fire to hand him the book. It was mostly drawings of the boys, maybe he wouldn’t look that far. 

...Spoiler alert, he looked that far. 

“...Is this me? Right back then, when I was sleeping?” 

“Uh-“

“You really made me look better than I’ve ever seen myself.” 

“Well, that’s how I see you,” Jack said before he could think about his words. Y’know, like a normal person who is trying to hide a massive crush that could end one of his best friendships. 

“Th-that’s… how you see me?” Davey was blushing now. Blushing. Not disgusted. 

“Uh… yeah. Y’see here, th-the moon behind ya, the way it… it focuses on you.” Jack said, kneeling by his chair and pointing to it. 

You are digging your own grave, Jack Kelly. 

“Jack, I… that’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me,” Davey was still blushing. He turned his face to Jack’s. He was so close… 

“Well… I draw what I think, Dave, ‘cause words… they ain’t my strong suit,” Jack chuckled, pulling back. But Davey leaned forward. 

“Your drawings don’t need words, Jack. But the artist of them… That is a man that deserves millions of words said about him.” 

“D-Davey… Don’t. Please, don’t do this,” Jack shook his head, standing back up. 

“Did I make you uncomfortable? I- I’m sorry, I thought that we-“ 

“No, David. You didn’t. That’s the exact issue! D-d’ya really think I want to end up breaking your heart? We… We can’t do this, ‘cause it’ll end with me hurting you just like I have a million people! And you don’t deserve that fate! You’re too good for me, David,” Jack might’ve been crying. He wasn’t sure. But he sure as hell was ranting. 

“Jack-“ 

“Don’t Jack me, don’t try to act like it could be any different. We know exactly how this is going to end, and I- I can’t stand losing you, Dave.” 

There was a moment of silence. It was obvious Davey was picking his next words carefully. 

“You won’t.” 

“How could you possibly know that?” 

“You won’t because I won’t let it, Jack Kelly. I won’t let you lose me as a friend, ever. You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.” 

“Da-“ 

In two strides, Davey crossed the circle of chairs and shut Jack up with a kiss, half-crushing him with how tightly he was holding him. 

He did this… this thing that made it obvious this wasn’t his first kiss. The way he moved his head up and down just a little bit. The way he seemed all in but ready to pull away if they needed to at any second. 

But more than anything, there was a definitive Davey-ness to him that made it all perfect. 

So Jack had found one more reason to like nature. It was where he shared his first-ever kiss with his boyfriend, David Jacobs.

[honeypoticns]

i’ve been going back and forth for almost a year trying to decide whether this is a story i want to be made public, but between a message i got and what i’m seeing on the dashboard, i think i should share my experience with simvicii and oliveandoak. 

i won’t go into too much detail, and i want to preface this by stating that i only heard about the second server a couple months ago, as my experiences with them lasted for three-ish months at the end of 2019 and ended shortly before christmas.

i will also say in advance that i don’t have any screenshots because this happened almost a year ago and i frankly didn’t think to screenshot anything at the time. you’ll have to just take my word for it, or not at all. either way, here it goes.

i made my simblr in september if i’m not mistaken and nicole was one of my first followers, always super nice and engaging with my content. meg was also my mutual, and i messaged her once i believe telling her i enjoyed her content (i used to just randomly dm people a lot then, something i’ve stopped after my interactions with them). i happened to reblog one of their ‘squad posts’ once and apparently they found my tags amusing because meg dmed me and out of nowhere invited them to their server, and i said sure. there were only 5 people including me, and that stayed the same for the majority of my time there (towards the final days i spent in the server a few more people joined, but we didn’t interact much).

i didn’t witness any racism, ableism, homophobia or antisemitism in my time in that server, but it didn’t shock or surprise me that they were capable of that sort of behaviour.

what i did witness was a series of toxic behaviours. they talked shit about other content creators and their posts and then i saw them interacting with them and praising them on the dashboard, for what i can only assume was “”simblr clout””. they viciously critiqued anything that wasn’t stereotypically “beautiful” and had no issues about it. they were extremely two-faced, but at the time i ignored it because they’d been nothing but extremely nice, considerate and supportive of me and for that i apologise.

a couple weeks after i was in the server, the mood shifted and i was made to feel like an outsider – the people there were friends, i was just tagging along. they had group projects and talked about doing things on simblr together and that conversation didn’t include me. i started doing timezone reblogs and they liked the posts while talking on the server about how trashy it was. i enjoyed my content more on the warm side and they talked about how ugly it was when posts were brown/pink tinted. it was a weird give and take that didn’t make a lot of sense and made me feel discouraged and embarassed about my content, but every time that happened they would turn around and compliment something else i did so it evened out.

the falling out we had was something that to this day has confused me and it seriously affected my mental health as at the time i was dealing with untreated anxiety, i was in the process of grieving my mother and had undiagnosed ocd, which in short means i wasn’t alright at all. i won’t go into what happened, but i will say that i was dropped without a second thought for virtually nothing (i accidentally called meg nicole and apologised a thousand times) with not even an explanation as to what the fuck was going on. i removed myself from the server because i could tell that meg was uncomfortable and i wasn’t going to stay there when it was first and foremost her space. i thought i’d hurt her, it was my fault, i had to leave.

what i find more telling is the experiences i had afterwards. i stayed active on tumblr for a month or so after this, but i began to be so anxious to even come online because of their presence and before i could talk myself into calming down i was blocked by meg out of the blue and softblocked by a few people i had no issues with, and who seemingly had no issues with me. after that i left and stayed away for a month or two (i don’t really recall).

when i returned, a friend invited me to a server and i met some really nice, supportive people who took the time to message me privately and apologise for ever thinking poorly of me because of what they’d been told by meg and nicole. that’s the sort of people they are – they’ll take a situation that held no drama, no confusion, no apparent casualties and talked absolute shit about me to people daily. i’ve been told that they talked about how they’d taught me everything i knew and then was a bitch towards them and how much they hated me. 

when meg left tumblr i was comfortable being on again, and when nicole returned i left again. my interactions with them weigh heavily on me and still affect my mental health to this day.

i know i should’ve said something earlier, but at the time that i interacted with them i was afraid that i was going to get run out of this website because before the meg situation went down, heaven forbid anyone said a word about them. i still wish i had, as i know they hurt a lot of good people and perhaps i could’ve prevented that. i’m always gonna be sorry i didn’t say something, but i can’t change it now.

this has nothing on what’s come to light about meg and nicole’s behaviour, and it’s miniscule in the grand scheme of things but i’ve been holding this shit in for close to a year and i really have nothing to lose at this point by saying something. they’re manipulative, two-faced bullies and you can add that to their long rolecall of bullshit.

[0ffgun]

Alright so!! I got some requests from people for me to make a post with tips on how I self-study my languages, so here we are! It’s not perfect and everyone studies differently, but I hope some of these tips can help you out.

Personally I study Korean & Thai so this list is aimed at those but a lot of the study tips are pretty general and can be applied to whatever language you’re learning. 

I’m an energetic puppy in human form - I simply CANNOT sit still and study for longer than 20 minutes before getting insanely restless and distracted, so I tend to only actually sit down and actively study once a week. If you’re expecting something clever and insightful this is absolutely the opposite of that... I basically trick myself into learning! So here is my silly little guide, let’s go!

General Tips:

★ Get ridiculous with sticky notes. Seriously, do it. If you’re just starting out and don’t know the words for all of those household objects then go ahead and scribble them down on those post its and stick them EVERYWHERE. It might drive your family members/roommates crazy but hey... you’re doing it for a good cause, right?

★ Don’t rely on romanization too much - if your language has its own writing system, focus on that using as much as you can. Romanization seems helpful but in the long run you’ll rely on it too much. It’s better to get familiar with the native writing system asap!

★ Pick out a word/phrase of the day and write it somewhere you’ll see it often. I have a whiteboard in my room that I’ll scribble a few phrases onto and then every time I walk past it, I’ll say them. Or if I’m not gonna be home all day then I write something on my wrist and glance at it throughout the day! This one is the most fun because when people see it they’re like “ooh that looks pretty!” or “ooh does it mean something deep and profound?” when in reality you have the phrase I like cheese written on your arm and it never stops being entertaining. Bonus points if someone native to that language reads it and looks at you like you’re crazy.

★ Say the words in silly voices. It sounds weird but if you’re sitting there repeating words (like the word banana, for example) from an app in a monotone voice you’re definitely less likely to remember it than if you’re yelling out “BANANA!!” in an opera voice or squeaking out “b an a n a” dramatically as you let go of Jack’s hand and let him sink into the ocean. 

★ Don’t isolate vocabulary. Learning new words is great, but it’s useless and you’re more likely to forget it if you don’t learn to use it in a sentence. 

★ Keep a diary! One of the absolute best ways to practice your writing and improve your skills is to just jot down a few things every now and then. It’ll be rusty and you won’t have much to say at first and will definitely keep needing that dictionary every 2 seconds, but after a few weeks you’ll really notice the difference. Buy pretty pens and stickers to motivate yourself to write in it! It’s also fun to do this around people who can’t speak it as they’ll look at it in awe and you can show off when in actual fact your writing is usually a clumsy scribbled “today I snacks eat and go sleep” but hey what they don’t know can’t hurt and it’s always fun to look like a genius.

★ Talk to your pets in that language. They’re not going to judge you, they actually don’t even care what you say as long as you say it in that entertaining pet voice. I don’t have any friends that speak Korean or Thai so the majority of my speaking practice is hurled at my dog. If you don’t have a pet, then plants or stuffed animals work perfectly too!

★ Listen to language podcasts while you do household chores, heck if you’ve gotta do something boring, might as well yell foreign words while you do it!

★ Change your phone settings to your target language. That way you’re literally forcing yourself to use it, and it becomes second nature and you pick up key words so quickly. Only do it if you know how to get back into your settings and change it back if you have to... or else you’re stuck and lost. 

★ Listen to music and sing a lot. Just scream those lyrics! A little off-key screeching never hurt anybody!

★ Get comfortable with numbers. They’re something that is dominant in ALL languages and you’re going to use them on a daily basis. Start with learning how to count to ten and get comfortable with it, and then go higher. Once you’re used to numbers individually, make it harder. I used to get my mum to write out 10 random numbers between 1 to 10,000 in the morning and I would translate them, and then I would do the same for myself in the evening. After a while you get quicker at them and before you know it you don’t have to awkwardly translate them in your head anymore, the numbers are just there ready in your brain.

★ Don’t only watch dramas! Watch more natural stuff too - variety shows, vlogs, instagram lives... anything where people are just chatting like they normally would do. That way you’re subconsciously learning more casual speech patterns and casual language too!

★ Don’t just study at home! Always make sure you have a dictionary handy (like on your phone, for example!) and keep your brain busy while you’re out and about. Buying some groceries? Try to name everything in the fruit and vegetable aisles and if you don’t know the name of something, look it up! You’re more likely to remember vocab this way as your brain has a situation to associate it to.

★ Be mean and make yourself work for things you normally do - check your horoscope on a regular basis? Read it in your new language instead! Want to check out the weather forecast? Do it the hard way.

★ Don’t feel like studying? Not in the mood? Then don’t do it! Instead put on your favourite show in your study language of choice. Not every study session has to be a hard one. Just relax and watch a foreign movie! You have no idea how much your brain picks up without you even noticing, chilling out and watching a drama absolutely counts as studying. Don’t force yourself to study if you’re not feeling it, you’re more likely to learn if you’re having a good time.

Advanced Tips:

★ Get keyboard stickers - if your new language has a different alphabet and you use your laptop to study it a lot then you’re definitely gonna need these! You can buy them SUPER cheap on ebay!

★ Change the language on your Netflix account and get ready to binge watch your faves! If you change your profile language to the one that you’re studying, you’ll notice that a lot of the shows available will now show subtitles in that language too. If you’re pretty advanced then now is probably the time to drop your native subs and start watching with the original subtitles in the original language.. good luck! 

★ Play Pokemon. When the latest Pokemon games started coming out with Korean language options I JUMPED at the chance - what better way to study than to just laze around playing video games? This is great for any other kinds of games you can snatch up in your target language too.

★ Read a favourite book in your new language. A common one is Harry Potter! It’s pretty much available in every language at this point and it’s a story you probably already know, which means you never get too lost because you know the plot already.

Resources:

Here are a bunch of apps and things that I use for studying that I find super helpful (and all of these are free!)

Drops (for Thai and Korean - available in both the apple store and the google play store)  - I use this app every single day without fail. It’s brilliant for expanding your vocabulary (there are TONS of languages available on there too!) HOWEVER: It only lets you study for 5 minutes and then you have to wait around 9-ish hours before you gain another 5 minutes to work with unless you want to pay for more. But honestly? That’s a good thing. You only need 5 minutes of vocab study before your brain wants to dissolve into mush anyway. I get up, do my morning stuff (usually just involves rolling around and blinking in confusion before grabbing a coffee) and then sit and do 5 minutes of drops, and then by the evening my 5 minutes have replenished and I do it again. Rinse and repeat, and you’ll be learning more words in a week than you even realise!

Duolingo (I use this for Korean, there is currently no Thai option) - This app is fantastic. I don’t recommend it for beginners as it should be used as more of an aid alongside your natural studies, rather than as a study resource itself. This app expects you to already know the basics so I’d dig into this one once you’re starting to get a little comfortable with your language!

Naver Dictionary (for Korean) - I use this every single day! Not only does it help me when I need to find a certain word, it also gives me lists of example sentences which is PERFECT and super helpful when I’m trying to memorize words!  And for Thai I use Thai-English Dictionary (I can only find it in the Apple store sadly) and that’s incredibly handy too, I wouldn’t be able to cope without it! I also use this website as a Thai dictionary when I’m not on my iPad!

Talk To Me In Korean (for Korean) - This has been a core element to my Korean studies. They have tons of lessons available on their website, they do regular YouTube videos (usually only 5-10 mins long, perfect for just a mini casual study session!) and they also sell textbooks and do podcasts too. If you learn best from textbooks then these are by far my favourite ones I’ve found, give them a try! They’re not too pricey.

Lingodeer (for Korean) - It’s cute, it’s friendly and it’s helpful!! I learned a bunch of new phrases using this one and it’s perfect for casual study!

Memrise (for Korean) - Fantastic if you’re a beginner! There are tons of languages available on here too. Although, there are only 3 levels in Korean so I got through this one pretty fast. 

Eggbun (for Korean) - An app that encourages you to learn using a texting format! I haven’t really used it much but I have friends that have said it’s really useful!

Ling (for Thai and Korean) - This one was pretty good, once again though I wouldn’t use it if you’re a beginner, it’s probably a lot more helpful if you know the basics before you attempt this one! I’ve only used it for Thai but there’s a Korean option you could try checking it out!

Mondly (for Thai and Korean) - This app is cheeky and it wants your money. You get a bunch of free lessons to start with which are GREAT but that’s it. Then it reduces you to one free lesson a day but honestly? Still useful so go ahead and use it. They also have speaking practice available too!

Thai2English (for Thai) - This website is an absolute LIFESAVER!! If I’m ever browsing and come across a sentence that just throws me, I simply copy and paste and this legend of a website just breaks it down for me word for word.

Extra Korean links:

Children’s books in Korean

Learning Korean through fairytales - a textbook used in Korea for children who are learning to read, it’s helpful as a Korean language learner too! You get a little story and then it’ll ask you questions about what you just read. 

TOPIK previous exams - these are so good for practice and if you want to get a general idea of what academic level your Korean skills are at. 

Learning to type in Hangul - this one was fun and I now type Korean pretty comfortably on my laptop so if you know you’re gonna be typing a lot, I recommend this program!

[miraculouscontent]

Could we know More about this completely hypothetical situation, please?

Ah, yes, of course. *ahem* Well, in this completely hypothetical situation…

After Marinette opens the blog to fan submissions (it’s a subpage, so only people who subscribe to it get daily updates), Trixx is put in charge of accepting/rejecting.

Trixx is also aware of how Marinette downplays Chat’s behavior to Fu to keep the peace, along with the fact that people are quick to make fun of and mock Chat’s behavior. Thus, the Chat memes fill up the queue for approval and Trixx lets the funnier (and sometimes more critical) ones slip.

(Just to give you guys a scope of how frustrated people get with Chat, the beginning of “Weredad” happens after “Oblivio” in this AU. Won’t talk specifics, but I’ll just let anyone who remembers what happened there imagine how the public would react to Chat’s casual behavior during a certain part of it.)

Chat doesn’t follow the blog actively after a while, only checking back every now and then. However, he eventually catches wind of what’s happening and goes to Ladybug about it.

Ladybug really did think it was going to be a normal patrol.

She was wrong.

She’d just been standing there, waiting for Chat to arrive for patrol. She pulled out her yoyo, opening it to check on LadyBugOut.

But, before she could even touch the yoyo’s screen, a black, gloved hand had slapped it away. Her yoyo careened across the flat rooftop, stopping a solid distance away. It sat there pathetically, screen still opened.

At first, Ladybug could only stare at her fallen yoyo, in complete disbelief that someone had honestly just come out of nowhere and done that.

And that wasn’t even taking into account who’d done it in the first place.

After a few seconds, Ladybug finally looked up, staring blankly at a very angry Chat. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could even get a syllable out, Chat unleashed all of his frustration.

“Do you think this is funny?! Is this some sort of joke to you?!”

Ladybug blinked, confused and startled by the outburst. “I–I’m sorry?”

“Sorry doesn’t cut it!”

Given his current emotional state, she wasn’t going to bother explaining that she wasn’t actually apologizing and was just confused.

Chat, still fuming, turned his attention to one of his pockets. Unzipping it, he reached inside and pulled out a phone. After doing what looked like unlocking it, he shoved it into Ladybug’s hands.

“Explain this!” he demanded.

She gave him a look, vaguely wondering how he could just go up to her, knock her yoyo away, and then order her to do something, but she went along with it.

Looking down at the phone, Ladybug noted that it was the LadyBugOut website. Specifically, the fan submissions page.

She stared blankly, even squinting a bit as she tried to figure out what he was so angry about.

“I… don’t–”

“These!” Chat yelled, pointing at the screen.

He was pointing to an assortment of memes of all things; memes that people had made of him.

Some were admittedly a little mean, but they were mostly harmless. Even a screenshot of her destroyed bedroom (thanks, Gigantitan) was followed by a fake Chat caption of, “I could go check on the creator of m’lady’s blog, but my jokes are a full-time job.”

Ladybug glanced back up at him. “Chat, they’re just–”

“They’re mocking me!” Chat interjected. “They all are! Ever since LadyBugOut started, everyone wants to get on my case for every little thing!”

“…We’re heroes, Chat,” she gently reminded him. “That’s why I take heroism very seriously–”

“Is that why you did this then?!” He pointed an accusing finger at her. “You let people post this stuff just to try and prove me wrong?!”

“Wha–no,” she replied bluntly. “I don’t approve these. Someone else does.”

Chat huffed, turning away with a scowl. “It’s just never your fault, is it?! It’s always someone else’s!”

Ladybug ignored his comment and continued, “I can’t run everything on LadyBugOut myself. I have a lot of people helping me out.”

A hiss followed. “Not me.”

She sighed. “We’re the two most active heroes, Chat. It’s a lot of work maintaining the blog. We usually have to split up right after a fight, so I knew it’d be weird having you on video inconsistently.

“Plus, you said you’d support my blog. You didn’t say that you wanted to help.”

Chat spun around, hand on his chest. “You didn’t ask!”

She gave him a flat, knowing look. “You’re always so quick to invite me out to places. I figured you’d insist on helping as soon as I mentioned it, if you’d really wanted to help.”

Chat opened his mouth, but stopped as her words caught up to him. His fake cat ears pointed up in surprise and he even let out a strangled noise.

“Y-you–!”

Ladybug shrugged. “I know you’re mad Chat, but I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Still seeing her yoyo laying sadly nearby, she moved towards it.

Before she could even take two steps, she felt a hand grab her arm. The pull had more than enough force to make her look back at Chat.

He clearly wasn’t done talking.

“Chat–” Ladybug glanced back at her yoyo, about to ask him if she could at least put it back on her waist.

Then, her eyes fell upon the screen, which wasn’t the same as it had been before it’d initially hit the rooftop.

Her eyebrows rose in shock.

Immediately, she turned back to Chat. “Look, Chat–it-it’s okay. Calm down–”

Chat bristled, looking offended by the request. “Calm down?! You want me to be calm after all this?!”

“Chat, please, the yoyo–”

“What did I do to you, Ladybug?!” he asked.

Ladybug, now tense, tried to raise her voice so she couldn’t be interrupted again. “Nothing! Seriously, Chat–”

“Why are you trying to ruin what we have together?!” He pulled her closer, his hand still tight around her forearm. “We’re meant to be! The ladybug and the cat! Ladybug and Chat Noir! What do you have against destiny?”

Ladybug was about to respond, but paused, momentarily brought out of her panic by what he’d just said. “I–I just–wait–what?”

“How am I supposed to believe that some other guy can just come between us after everything we’ve been through? We flirt, we kissed twice, and we end up on each other all the time. We’re partners; special partners! We were chosen! We’re soulmates! What’s so hard about that?”

It was like the world had come to a halt. Ladybug felt a fire flaring up in her chest, and her free hand tightened into a fist.

She stepped back, pulling her arm free from Chat’s grip. She’d done it so abruptly that he jerked forward, even letting out an annoyed, “Hey!”

She didn’t listen, standing straight and firm. “First off, the world does not revolve around you, Chat! I never told anyone to come after you and I am not in charge of what people have said. Not everything I do has to do with you or our relationship!

Speaking of which, our relationship does not exist. We are not a couple. You kept that idea going for people and you are the one who’s upset that it’s not going how you want!”

Chat went to speak up, but Ladybug spoke first, the strength in her voice ensuring that he wouldn’t cut her off this time.

“Secondly, if I’d known that that’s how you saw all that banter, I never would’ve done it. I’m not flirting with you, Chat. Even I know that things get tense and it helps to lighten the mood with some banter, but clearly, that went right over your head.

“Thirdly, you seem to keep forgetting how those kisses happened, and that’s exactly because you never remembered in the first place. The first time, you were under Dark Cupid’s spell and I kissed you to save you. I didn’t want to do it, but I did to break the spell.

“Neither of us had our memories for Oblivio, and yeah, maybe something special happened. But, all that happened without us knowing about our experiences, our relationships with other people, and even who we were. That doesn’t sound very real to me. If I was going to kiss you, I’d rather have everything already be on the table.”

She stepped forward. Chat stepped back, still tense but too shocked to say anything.

Ladybug continued, “You want to know what you did wrong? Maybe it’s because, after all this time, you still can’t read me. Not on Face-to-Face, not when my voice was gone, and not when I needed you most. If you could’ve understood me, you would’ve seen when I was uncomfortable, known when I needed you to be serious, and–oh, yeah–”

She took a deep breath, not giving him a moment to respond before shouting, “–you would’ve noticed that I was trying to get your attention before because my yoyo has been RECORDING AND STREAMING EVERYTHING.”

The wind stilled. The world around them was silent. Neither of them even moved. They just stood there, staring at each other.

Chat’s eyes wavered. The anger from his face turned to dread. His fingers twitched.

Ladybug closed her eyes, wordlessly turning away from him and stepping towards her yoyo. Part of her expected him to grab her arm again, but he didn’t.

She picked up her yoyo, shutting it to stop the recording. She stroked along the surface, which was still unharmed, then let out a breath.

When she turned back around, Chat was gone.

[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. 

[beckinblack61]

One Year of Daily Blogging?

I’m watching the Unus Annus livestream right now, (may they R.I.P. by the way, hope I don’t fall asleep before the the end of it all,) and Mark and Ethan have inspired me to commit to doing something for one year in hopes of personal growth and to prove to myself that I can finish things if I simply put my mind to them (because procrastination is a b***h.) So... I might try blogging daily/online journaling starting tonight?

I don’t know if this is going to stick, or if at the least that this will stay on tumblr and not migrate to either a physical journal or something else, but I hope this will. I only started my tumblr account merely days ago, and I’m still unaware of whether or not tumblr is truly “dead” or not, as many people have suggested. I was half expecting that the website wouldn’t even work, so there’s that.

I have no plans for this. This may devolve into extremely stupid, short posts that I only make to fulfill my goal of journaling daily, or maybe (hopefully) I take this more seriously. Either way, here goes nothing.

Here is my last-minute idea of writing down my possible goals for this endeavor:

Improving my writing, vocabulary, grammar, etc. (I might pursue a career in English, but who knows as I surely don’t.)

Learning about myself/recording my advances in figuring out my gender, sexuality, identity, and other cliché things to say.

Helping my sanity through expressing myself during this pandemic and presidential election mess (oh lovely America, what a time to be alive.)

Mimicking Veronica from The Heathers (the first musical I ever saw, albeit illegally uploaded to YouTube) and having a “diary” so-to-speak during my senior year of high school. Maybe one day I can look back on this and laugh or cry or both or neither.

… And now my clock reads midnight. Staying up until 3AM is probably not a great decision, given I have a bowling match tomorrow. It’s not until 1PM though, so I should have ample time to sleep in. Sleeping from 3-9AM results in around 6 hours of sleep, which should be alright (although I know I won’t fall asleep that fast; I never can.)

This might not be the only thing I commit to doing for a year, as I have a lot of other ideas, though this is likely the one I am most likely to stick to. I would like to draw daily. I used to draw far more than I do now, which I regret leaving behind. I used to post my attempts at what some would call art on Instagram, which I quickly abandoned. I would also like to stay more on track with reading, another thing I recently have fallen behind on. My collection of the BNHA manga is staring me down from my bookshelf out of the corner of my right eye, alongside my book one of the newly released Fangirl manga, which I need to read soon to lend to my best friend that I unapologetically got hooked on Rainbow Rowell.

Is this getting too long? Quite possibly so. But if I stop doing something I fear I will fall asleep and miss the end of Unus Annus, so I will continue.

Let me get some things off of my chest to start, as I plan on being brutally honest to myself here as an outlet and to help figure out myself more easily. I may or may not be doing so as also inspired by Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin. I highly recommend you read the book if you are in need of some new literature to feed on. That book likely opened my eyes to my own gender exploration.

But as I was saying, about getting things off of my chest. I currently identify as genderqueer, under the non-binary umbrella. I’m fairly unsure of my gender, and am open for it to continuously change, so I am inclined to refrain from labeling it. If I were to try and clarify further, I might go with demi-boy, genderfluid, or gray-gender. I think I lean more masculine than anything, though I’m not certain. I feel fairly unattached to the idea of gender for myself, personally. The lines are blurred for me as far as what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl”. (Side-note: I need an Unus Annus tattoo.)

Something that adds to this confusion is my sexuality, in an odd way. Is this TMI? I don’t know. No one is likely seeing this anyways. I’m either pansexual or bisexual, depending on your definition of either. I think I can love anyone of any gender identity, if I simply love them as a person. I may have a strong bias for men. And, I think I prefer the thought of a guy who refers to me with male pronouns? So who knows, I may be trans and also gay. Or entirely queer, both in the sense of sexuality and gender. I’m still figuring things out and may never will. Is that slightly terrifying? Yeah, maybe.

But, the catch is that I’m not out yet IRL. One person in my life, my best friend, knows I am pansexual. I’ve been considering telling them about being genderqueer and leaning masculine. I haven’t yet. I don’t know if I should bring it up yet? Because I don’t know my gender fully, I’m concerned about telling someone one thing and then deciding that I’m not that the next day. Is this technically imposter syndrome or something? I don’t know. I feel like I’ve heard somewhere that if you’re worried about not being trans, you’re likely trans as a comfortably cisgender person wouldn’t be worried about not being trans. Who knows if that’s true.

So. I’m genderqueer and bi/pan and in the closet basically about all of it to basically everyone. Lovely.

Also, as you could probably guess, Briar is a name I only recently chose to go by. Recently meaning in the past few days. I hope Briar leans masculine, though I’m unsure of whether it truly does or not. I just think it fits me better. I’m AFAB (assigned female at birth.) Only some of my social medias have received the name change: my Instagram, my Reddit, and my Pinterest. My Instagram technically hasn’t fully been changed yet, as I am currently locked from changing my name for 2 weeks for no reason, but my technical username has changed. I need to change my google account name, but, being tied to my YouTube, which my brother is subscribed to, I don’t want to set off any possible alarms just yet.

Why “BriarInBlack61″ then? Well, black is one of, if not my only, favorite color. It makes up the majority of my closet. (Yes, so originally edgy, I know.) The number 61 is in reference to what is arguably the best chapter of Carry On by Rainbow Rowell, another book I highly suggest you read. Carry On is likely my favorite book I’ve ever read. I adore Simon and Baz with all of my heart and am very curious as to what Anyway The Wind Blows brings.

Again, I apologize for the length of this post. Alas, it has only reached 1:19AM now. Should I retire this post?

I probably should, in hopes of leaving something to elaborate on tomorrow. Good day or good night to whoever has stumbled upon this book of a post. May I hopefully not fall to sleep before 3.

Sincerely, 

               Briar

Saturday, November 14, 2020, 1:26 AM

[for-a-better-life]

Our lifestyle during Covid-19

Yes. you, me and every single human being agree that the global pandemic is challenging. We struggled, but it fortunately made some positive impact around the world to a certain extent.

 However, since Covid-19 started to diffuse rapidly worldwide, people were overly pessimistic and were thinking about how boring and hard their life will be. In addition to the spread of social media rumors regarding Corona virus that made people get confused, stressed and anxious.

 Positive side of Coronavirus

 Individual’s lives has been transformed from the way they live to the daily tasks they accomplish. It spontaneously, took them out of their comfort zone. people started to rely more on themselves, rather than paying for some goods or services. In terms of hobbies, people spent their free time practicing their skills and abilities to improve them. Perhaps, to start their new business by taking advantage of their hobbies which will be their source of income.

Psychological and cognitive effect

Despite the ongoing threat that we face nowadays, exploring and learning odd things during corona virus lock down does not only help in acquiring more knowledge and new skills, but also relieve stress, boost self-esteem and energy level. Just like you strengthen your body by exercising, your mind can also be trained, particularly when learning a new skill or language, and disseminating what you learned to others flex your memory muscles. Research emphasized the importance of  keeping our mind active as we get older, as it can result in a better life satisfaction and optimism.

Practicing skills

 During my long vacation, lockdown was taking place from 6 AM to 8 AM. Personally I was at home all the time, scrolling through Instagram and I found many inspirational videos about Art which really encouraged me to buy acrylic colors and brushes via online store. I was really surprised by how amazing my drawing and painting was. I usually use only black pencils to sketch. But luckily Covid-19 persuaded me to use colors.

    Image credit:  Ohood

Cooking healthy food

These days, during Corona virus,  many people prefer to cook at home because it is  healthier, low in calories and safer. Whilst eating or ordering from outside food is not recommended , because some restaurant’s environment are contaminated while the staff may not adhere to preventive measures which will increase the spread of the virus and it will affect people’s health because fast food are high in calories and hydrogenated fats.

A student from University of Sharjah, Noora Hassan said:” It is very important to stay healthy during the global pandemic”. She added, “Pancakes is my favorite meal, but during lockdown I cooked it by replacing white flour with oats and banana it was healthy and tasty”.

Image credit:  Noora Hassan,UOS student 

CDC emphasized the importance of eating dark leafy greens, tomatoes and oranges because they are rich in vitamins, fiber and minerals. As a result, if someone catches the virus, his body will be able to fight against the virus efficiently and effectively.

However, since many private and public sectors were closed during the beginning of the global pandemic, some people, got affected negatively, where they stopped exercising because they only get motivated in the gym and thereby, they became extremely lazy and  obsessed with junk food ! which unfortunately, lead one in 3 individuals in the UAE to gain weight,whereas,38.5%  of residents claimed that they never exercised since the beginning of the global pandemic according to a survey conducted in April in the UAE.  

 Remote working

“Working from home was bittersweet , I love what I do and was ready to get back into it, so being told to work from home felt odd.” said Ms Jensen, 35.

 Although some people barely accepted and adapted to remote working, but it actually helped in boosting their skills and knowledge regarding technology. Thus, they will more likely to be confident in their technical abilities. Fortunately ,it has been found by Stanford study that employees who work from home are 13% more productive thereby, perform better than if they were in their work office.

Thanks to the global pandemic, it is saving the money of companies who shifted to remote working, where they don’t have to pay for office rent nor its resources or utilities. In addition, cleaning services and offering free snacks will not be required. In terms of taxes, the amount of money they will have to pay will significantly decline. 

Kids distance learning

When the global pandemic spread in the UAE in March 2020 , they implemented distance learning for all students in the UAE in private and public schools and  universities.For adults it may be easy for adults to use websites and applications for online classes.

However, kids in grade 1 or 2, might find it challenging at the beginning to use the computer or the application of their classes, because they are still young and their knowledge is limited. In addition, some of them not take it seriously and they barely focus . However, according to my observation, as the time goes by, children are capable of turning on the computer, tablet or iPad and sign in to the website or application they learn from like zoom and Microsoft teams.

Moreover, they are aware of their username, password and their class section, and able to turn on/off the microphone and the camera when needed, so they become independent and they don’t need any help anymore. As a result,covid-19 successfully left one choice for kids which is to use technology to achieve distance learning that positively affected their cognitive abilities.

Regarding concentration,some teachers,started to ask kids questions individually during online classes,to ensure that they understand the lesson.Moreover,they conduct short quizzes on Kahoot! website,to test kids knowldge about some topics.

A science and design teacher at Manila Xiamen International School in China, claims that he uses Kahoot at the begging and end of the lesson, because his students always want to play and learn using Kahoot , which is a great opportunity to refresh their mind and allow them to focus better since they are stuck at home.

Image Credit : Jessie Casson/getty images

However, UAE Ministry of Education applied some steps to guarantee that distance learning is successfully applied for school and students. Some of the procedures like  providing an online professional training for more than 25,000 government school teachers and administrators for one week. Also, train more than 9,200 private school teachers and principals. Furthermore, coordinating with Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, in providing a free online course called “be an online tutor in 24 hours” for teaching and academic personnel to acquire the skills that allow them to efficiently and effectively to teach in online classrooms.

Allow private schools to implement their own e-learning system, as well as assign teams and committees to supervise an make sure that distance learning process is being applied and followed successfully.In terms of the internet,the UAE coordinated with Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), Du and Etisalat to offer free mobile internet package for UAE families who do not have internet connection.

References:

 Mary Gaul, success magnified, the benefits of learning new information.p,1,4,5,7.(2018).

Beyond blue, ways to reduce stress during the coronavirus pandemic, Ways to reduce stress,p,3.(2020) .

Joseph Jones,Health.mil, COVID-19: lifestyle tips to stay healthy during the pandemic,p,5.(2020).

Salam Al Amir, Thenational, Coronavirus ; one in three UAE residents gained weight since outbreak began, survey finds,p,1,5,10.(2020)

 David Dun, Thenational, how companies going remote-first amid signs working from home is here to stay,p,5,7.(2020).

 Business,Does working from home save companies money ?,cost saving for allowing employees to work from home,p,3,4,5,6.(2020)

 UAE government, Distance learning in times of COVID-19, Implementing distance learning.p,1,2,3,4,5,7,10.(2020).