#why would you have an exam after only 3 weeks of classes. one of which you didnt even hold

[orcelito]

Getting continuously pissed off during my enterprise data management class bc they're teaching shit I already know, but Different. Like what do you MEAN this is an ERD??? You're representing attributes as possibly having multiple values without separating them into classes of their own??? You're allowing many to many relationships to exist???? And on that note, representing "many" by a fucking N except if there's more than one then it's N and M??? What the fuck are you TALKING about?????? I'm gonna fucking kill you

[ba9go]

bakugou katsuki finds you annoying (he has a soft spot for you) pt. 2

sort-of enemies to lovers with bakugou!! bakugou being avoidant bc he’s bad at feelings. he’s a little shit in this one but he makes it up to the reader!! liiiiiight angst/comfort.

pls read part 1 before 🧡 part 3 (nsfw)

the more you interact with bakugou, the more you’re baffled by the insults he comes up with.

you bump into him in the corridor, and the two of you are completely alone so it’s impossible for you to pretend you haven’t seen him, so you wave awkwardly at him.

“hey, bakug—”

“fuck off, rabbitface.”

bakugou brushes past you as he walks by, leaving you gaping at him in complete horror. “my ears are not that long!”

“cry about it, maybe your nose will twitch too!” bakugou responds without looking back at you, and you find yourself holding your nose on the rest of your way back to your room. it does not twitch one bit.

the day of the midterm exams, you’re full of jitters, standing outside the classroom and flipping through your notes frantically for some last minute revision.

“nervous?” you look up to see bakugou standing in front of you, smirking down at you with his arms crossed.

“yeah,” you admit sheepishly. “i don’t wanna fuck this up.”

“don’t be stupid. you studied, didn’t you?” bakugou’s smirk drops and he raises an eyebrow at you. you nod, and he clicks his tongue at you. “only thing stopping you now is you, then.” bakugou pokes the side of your head twice, roughly but not hard enough to actually hurt. it catches you by surprise, and it happens so fast that by the time his hand drops back to his side, you’re not sure it even happened.

“better not fuck it up, buttercup.”

as bakugou walks away from you, you’re still feeling frazzled, just not for the test anymore.

by this point, you’ve given up on asking mina and the rest for advice. they’re all convinced of the same thing — that bakugou somehow has a soft spot for you. you don’t believe it.

some days, bakugou looks a little less murderously at you, and you think that maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t completely hate your guts, but other days, he completely brushes past you like you’re invisible and you feel like a fool for ever hoping that maybe the two of you could be friends.

but then bakugou starts ignoring you more and more, and you start to wonder if he actually hates you.

you run into bakugou on the way to the gym, and you grab his sleeve before you can even stop to think twice. “bakugou, you good?”

“hah?!” bakugou recoils away from you and looks at you like he’s repulsed by your touch. “fuck do you want, extra?”

extra. you’ve noticed that bakugou’s started calling you that a lot more often recently. you’ve heard him say it before, but not to you. was that all you meant to him now? when did that happen? what changed?

“what do you want? did i piss you off or something? why are you being so—”

“i’ve always been like this,” bakugou hisses at you, and you don’t think you’ve seen bakugou this angry at you before. “and you’ve always pissed me the fuck off. so just fuck off already, would ya?”

bakugou stomps away like godzilla after a rampage, and you’re the tokyo that he’s completely ravaged.

soft spot, my ass.

for the next two weeks, you listen to bakugou. you stay out of his way, you don’t even try to meet his gaze when you walk into class or when you walk past him in the hallways. ignoring him didn’t feel natural to you, but every time you saw bakugou, you reminded yourself that you were just another extra. you’d get used to not talking to bakugou eventually.

the others picked up on this change as well. kaminari casually asked if bakugou had come up with any “interesting, new” names for you, to which you had responded, “haven’t spoken to him in a while, but he did call me an “extra” the last time.”

“extra?” kaminari repeated slowly, raising his brows. “he called you an extra? that’s low. especially since it’s you.” you shrug, and kaminari frowns. “have you talked to kirishima about it? i’m stupid but i don’t speak caveman like bakugou does. kiri’s our best bet at deciphering him.”

you decline kaminari’s suggestion, insisting that it was no big deal, but it seemed kaminari went ahead and told kirishima anyway, because “bro code”.

(1) new message from red riot:

red riot: hey, sorry about bakugou, he’s been a real asshole to you lately

you: hey kiri!!! pls don’t apologise

you: how do u even know lol? kaminari?

red riot: ding ding ding

you: 👎

red riot: sorry… bro code

red riot: i beat some sense into him dw

you: poor kami

red riot: oh no i meant bakugou

you: what

red riot: (👍ᐛ )👍

turns out, your conversation with kaminari had completely set off a chain reaction that you absolutely could not stop, with kirishima (bless his heart) confronting bakugou himself.

you: what

you: u mean u just went over and kicked his ass?

red riot: yup!

red riot: well i guess we took turns

you: ????

red riot: like i got two punches in and he got two punches in and we talked and then we called it a day

you: ???????????????

red riot: (👍ᐛ )👍

you don’t dare to ask kirishima for the details of what exactly happened during their brawl, and you don’t know how you’re ever going to face bakugou ever again. the thought of running into bakugou legitimately scares you, so you decide to hole yourself in your room for the rest of the evening, just to be safe.

well, you thought you were safe, until…

(1) new message from Unknown Number:

Unknown Number: It’s Bakugou.

Unknown Number: I need to talk to you.

Unknown Number: You in your room?

you: no (👍ᐛ )👍

Unknown Number: Yeah right

Unknown Number: I’m at the door.

you’re filled with equal parts dread and fear as you shuffle over to the door reluctantly. you peek through the peephole to see bakugou standing there with a plastic bag in his hand.

you open the door hesitantly.

“you look like shit,” bakugou says, and it sounds so familiar and so right, you almost burst out laughing despite the context of the situation. despite yourself, you can’t help the small smile that forms on your lips.

“here.” before you can say anything, bakugou’s grabbing your wrist and handing you the plastic bag. it smells like food so you think its takeout, but you look inside and see that it has a little plastic bento box and metal chopsticks.

“is this your way of apologising?” you grin cheekily, hoping to get some kind of reaction out of him, but bakugou stares back at you unflinchingly.

“yeah,” bakugou says. “is it working?”

‘it worked,’ bakugou thinks as he lets you fling your arms around his neck and pull him into a hug.

“it’s working,” you mumbled into his shoulder, and you feel two large hands grip around your waist.

extras:

(👍ᐛ )👍 is so kiri-coded i love it

(👍ᐛ )👍

kirishima was pissed after kaminari told him what happened between you and bakugou

he walked over to bakugou’s room all prepared with ice packs and shit

knocked twice, waited for bakugou to open the door, threw two punches

bakugou was confused asf but it pissed him off so punched kiri right back out of reflex

the fight stops then and there, kirishima hands bakugou the ice pack, and they both sit on his bed to talk

both are just holding ice packs to their cheeks

kirishima tells bakugou that it was unmanly of him to be mean to you when you did nothing but try to be nice to him

bakugou just listens quietly, he doesn’t really say much, doesn’t really know what to do to fix the situation

like he already knew that he fucked up before kirishima came to rock his shit

but kirishima is a true bro and he gives bakugou advice on how to make things up to you

(👍ᐛ )👍

taglist (thank you for your support!!): @anicaaa67 @maddietries @valeriyaaak @v3n7s @deimosjay @zaiban2989 @girls-overflower @notmeduhh @dreamcastgirl99 @busdriver-move-that-ass @atashiboba @kathsuhki @armeenix @channnee @antiwhores @sukunasbottomlefteyeball @kenqki @vikizzy @thesimpybitch @eempxth @hanta-seros-wifey @itztaki @thekidscallmebosss

[carbondioxidewater]

Make A Move (Pt. 3)

americanfootballplayer!Sukuna x fem!reader

genre: slow-burn romance, college au, fluff, angst

warnings: none so far

word count: 3k

(-> Pt. 1) (-> Pt. 2) (-> Pt. 4) (-> masterlist)

A small gift bag in your hand, you're currently on your way to the football field. You figured it would only be fair to thank Sukuna for his help last thursday. All of your classes were over for the day and after your talk with Utahime - you had a lot of explaining to do after all - you found out that the team had training in this exact period.

Because Utahime is a senior tutoring juniors occasionally - as she had the best score in the mathematics exam last year - she knows about their schedule through a guy named Aoi Todo, who is also in the football team and simultaneously one of those juniors she tutors. You don't know how she keeps up with her own studies, considering she has that minijob at the hotel AND is a tutor on top of that. But she had always been a very determined woman and luckily, she only tutors every few weeks.

When you arrived, the team was just getting ready to start. You looked around the area to find that distinct pink haired guy you were here for and when you thought you had found him, he turned around and didn't have those typical tattoos on his face. You were utterly confused to say the least, when all of a sudden you heard a deep voice from behind you.

"Looking for me in your free time?"

You turned around and Sukuna gave you a smug look.

"Actually, yeah." you admitted and his face turned into a stunned one. He didn't expect you to be so blunt about it.

"I just came to give you that." you added and reached him the small bag.

"What's that?" he asked, mustering it before reluctantly taking it into his hands.

"Just a small thank you for last time." you crossed your arms behind your back and looked up at him, a genuine smile adorning your face. At this sight, he gulped. He examined the gift closely, slowly removing its content. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the chocolate in form of a football, his mind went blank.

"You got this for me?" he quizzed, taken aback by the kind gesture. You couldn't help but chuckle, a small bluff following.

"No, I actually got it for the other pink haired boy over there." And with that, you turned around and pointed at the man you had mistaken for Sukuna a few moments ago.

"'The other pink haired boy?'" he repeated with an amused grin. "Don't tell me you don't know him."

You shook your head.

"I don't. Why would I?" you doubted to which he responded in disbelief.

"Because he's one of the best players of our team?"

"I don't really concern myself with football or who plays it." you confided to him, causing Sukuna to drop his jaw in a state of shock before closing his mouth again in a moment of realization.

"You knew who I was though." he then stated.

"Yes, because you're a well-known womanizer." you rolled your eyes. He just laughed.

"If I am, then why aren't you all over me?"

"I'm resistant to boys like you." you shrugged your shoulders.

"Really? How are 'boys like me'?"

"Let me think." you pretended to be serious, getting into the thinker pose. "Arrogant, insufferable, boring, nasty..." he nodded at every word, occasionally raising his brows amusedly but letting you speak. Sukuna couldn't hide his entertainment, you were truly something else.

"You think so?" He came closer. "Then why did you give me the chocolate? You sure you're not crazy about me, sweet thing?" he smirked and that startled you for a moment, but you composed yourself again.

"Don't flatter yourself. You know it's not like that."

"A man can dream." he sighed and held up his hands in retreat, eyes closed. Once again, you felt your face heating up, when suddenly some of the players on the field headed your way.

"Yo, Sukuna! Hurry up, before you're late again!" someone screamed while coming up to the two of you.

"What do you mean again? I'm never late for training!" Sukuna hissed at him. Then the guy was already next to you, though on the other side of the fence.

"And what happened on thursday?" he asked him to which Sukuna kept silent. Your mind went to work, catching onto his words.

"What happened on thursday?" was your next question, curious because on that day, Sukuna helped you out.

Then another guy followed after the first, answering your question. It was the one that looked so similar to Sukuna.

"He was one hour late to our meeting, delaying the bus drive and our whole timetable and all!" The kind looking boy unfolded and now that he was closer to you, he looked like a boyish version of Sukuna, who was rather mature in contrast. His words left you speechless though, Sukuna prioritized your safety over football? You couldn't believe your ears.

"Yeah yeah yeah, and now I'm never hearing the end of it." Sukuna complained while the others laughed at him.

"Deserved." The black haired one said.

Then Sukuna took the opportunity to introduce you to each other, exposing the one with the black hair as Todo and the other one as Yuji. The two seemed to be extremely surprised at Sukuna's action for whatever reason, stammering sceptically while greeting you.

But that was not what caught you off guard, it was the way your name rolled off Sukuna's tongue. Now that you heard it slipping from his lips, you noticed you don't reckon telling him your name, so how did he know? You instantly glanced at him and when you did, he already met your gaze, a knowing smirk on his face.

"Anyways, hurry now or we're starting without you!" the two boys exclaimed to which he responded with a simple "I'm coming, dammit!", walking after them while all three of them grinned.

And with that, the athletes said their goodbyes. You returned, leaving slowly but surely. Sukuna, though, halted for a split second, calling out your name once more. He was definitely doing this on purpose.

"Hey! We're not done with that conversation!" he shouted and you inwardly agreed, wanting to confront him about the new found information that was revealed to you.

"Is that a threat?" you screamed back and he beamed at you.

"It's a promise!"

And then he turned around, running after his teammates. You couldn't help but start growing a wide smile yourself.

In the distance, you could see them teasing Sukuna about something, but you couldn't catch their voices.

It was the next day and you were sitting in your linguistics class that was about to start in a few minutes, busy reading through the endless pages of text you were supposed to read at home. Thankfully, your lecturer was not there yet, but you still cursed yourself for not starting earlier, positive that you wouldn't finish reading it in time.

Focused on skimming through the text, you jumped when suddenly someone plumped down the seat right next to you. It couldn't be your friend who typically sat there, because she was sick this week. Of course, it was Sukuna.

"Can you stop doing that?" you hissed, still recovering from the shock.

"Where would be the fun in that?" his pearly whites flashed you.

"Why are you even here? Mixed up the classes?"

"Nah, but we have unfinished business."

"So you thought this was the right place and time for that?" you remarked sarcastically, but he replied with a careless "Yeah."

Shaking your head, you took a quick look at the time before taking the opportunity to confront him.

"Why didn't you tell me you had to be somewhere else on thursday? I would have been fine. I hope you didn't get in trouble..."

Finally talking about what left you nosy after yesterday's events, you wondered if he didn't have any classes himself. But that shouldn't bother you. You've had a hard time doing your homework and falling asleep the previous night due to Sukuna's selfless act, unable to stop your mind from wandering to said topic. You truly wouldn't have expected that from him.

"You know my reasons already, it was my decision. It was nothing your little gift couldn't have fixed." he flirted and you puffed. "I texted them I had to take care of something first and in the end, we still won. None of them was actually mad at me, so don't worry about it." he assured you and that soothed you a little.

"Next time, I'm declining your offer." you informed him.

"Next time, I'll make sure you're at the game then. Can't keep me from the game when you're at it." he smirked and you sighed. He was so annoying.

"I already told you I'm not into football."

"Yeah, about that...that has to change. Can't let you walk around not knowing who the heroes of our campus are." he exaggerated.

"Speaking of which, how do you know my name?" you finally had the chance to ask him that.

"Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe I should leave it to you to figure it out, like you did to me." he suggested, referring to you lying about sharing a class with him when you first met. The puzzled look on your face was enough for him to break out in laughter.

"But I'm not cruel like that. I know Utahime from Todo, I just didn't know she had a roommate. So when I asked him about it, he remembered your name from some of her stories. He didn't know who you were though."

So you both used the same method, the same opportunity to find out about each other? What are the chances?!

"You know Utahime?" Those were news to you. She would have told you if that was the case, you were sure of that.

He shook his head.

"Not in person, I just know she tutors Todo."

"You're unbelievable." you were shocked that he put so much effort into getting to know you.

Everything you've learned about Sukuna in the past few weeks truly surprised you. You thought he was just a big asshole that only cared about himself and had a shallow personality, but the more you got to know him, the more you realized you actually felt somewhat comfortable in his presence. Not that you would tell him that, of course.

"I know." he winked. "So, what do you say? You coming to my next game this weekend?"

"Didn't you have a game last weekend already?" And in that moment, your professor barged in.

Shit! You haven't finished reading the text yet!

"Oh you have a lot of learning to do. We have one every week of the season."

But before Sukuna could carry on his lecture on football, you tried convincing him to give you this lesson another time, internally stressed about your still due obligation of reading the text. But he was stubborn, not willing to comply until you pledged to come to his game this saturday.

The loud discussion in the otherwise so quiet room has ultimately drawn the attention of your lecturer, who quickly noticed that Sukuna didn't belong in this class.

"Mr. Sukuna, aren't you in the wrong place?" the professor voiced.

Sukuna apologized, claiming he only needed a minute before turning back to you again, everyone's eyes on the scene in front of them now. The lecturer was taken aback by Sukuna's boldness, but seeing as the period hasn't even started, he let it slide.

"Please, go already!" you pleaded whisperingly, shoving him a little but he didn't back down just yet. Thankfully, both the professor and the students started preparing for class, the noise slightly concealing your conversation and taking the focus from you.

"I'm not leaving until you promise me to come."

He pushed and you gave in, not daring to face the consequences if you didn't, and especially not wanting to make this situation even worse let alone hold up the whole class.

"Okay, okay! I'm coming! Now go!" And Sukuna grinned.

"That's what I wanted to hear, princess." he moved closer towards you, his lips right next to your ear. "Keep a lookout for number 9, he'll score the winning goal." he whispered deeply and finally stood up, excusing himself.

You let out a breath you didn't know you held and noticed some girls shooting daggers at you. You almost forgot how popular Sukuna was and that made the whole scenario the more embarrassing for you. It was in that moment that you realized what it meant to be around the campus heartthrob Ryomen Sukuna.

Home. Finally home!!!

You thought the day would never come to an end when during all of your classes, Sukuna occupied your every thought. You didn't know what to feel, you knew he was this big ladykiller who you'd never involve yourself with usually, though at the same time, he was caring and attentive and easy to talk to.

You discarded your bag into the corner of your room and freshened up a little. Shoko would come over soon and together with Utahime, the three of you would have a long due girls night again. Movies and gossip with your two best friends - what could be better.

All of you were sitting in Utahime's room now, you didn't have a living room because your apartment consisted of only two rooms plus a bathroom and a kitchen. You didn't complain though, you were already lucky enough to have two separate rooms, many dorm members have to share one.

Shoko was even luckier and lived alone. You always switched between meeting at Shoko's place and yours. Although Shoko didn't have a big apartment, her bedroom was kind of small, so she visited you more often than you visited her.

You were in the middle of telling them the tea and they already tried to persuade you into thinking that Sukuna was interested in you. You just rolled your eyes.

"It's NOT like that! Trust me!" you insisted, but they didn't sound convinced.

"He invited you to his game?" Shoko promted.

"And didn't back off until you said yes?" Utahime's mouth fell wide open.

"I don't know, this all sounds pretty much like it is to me." Shoko was certain.

"I'm not sure, he's really nice and to be honest, different from what I thought." you admitted.

"Just be careful. His reputation speaks for itself. Don't let him fool you." Utahime then added.

"Don't worry, I won't." you sighed.

"Maybe he's just the type of guy who gets off on your 'unreachable' demeanor." Shoko wondered, tapping her chin with her finger. Your face cringed at the thought.

"Even if, it's not like I don't know better than to be cautious. I'm not playing into his game and I'm definitely not going to be one of his conquests. I could never see myself being involved like that with him." you declared confidently.

It was true, you wouldn't fall for his advances, you weren't naive. Maybe you've doubted it for a split second, but you always knew what his goals probably were. And you were thankful for your girls for reminding you.

"It's for the best, really. He is really attractive, but his reputation is just not it. If he ever makes a serious move on you, please run." Utahime concluded, disguising her sincerity with laughter. You could read her like a book however and knew she just deeply cared about you.

"I can't go alone to the game though. Are you by chance free on saturday and would join me?"

"What type of question is that, it was crystal clear from the beginning that we would come with you! Excuse me?" Utahime announced, seemingly offended and you all broke out into laughter.

Oh, how you loved your friends.

A few days before the game, you walked to one of your classes again. This time, you were prepared. You had read the text at home and the phenomenon 'Ryomen Sukuna' didn't distract you from it. You were on your way into the building when you saw a big bus in the parking lot in front of it. It was unmistakably for the football players, you saw Sukuna and his team in the distance. Suddenly, someone bumped into you.

"Oh shit, sorry! Hey, I know you!" It was Yuji.

"Oh, hi! Are you on your way to the bus?" you asked him.

"Yeah! We have an away game again this week!"

"Oh yeah, I know, I'll be there! Good luck!"

"Oh you will? That's nice! I hope you'll enjoy our game then!"

"Thank you! By the way, I'm sorry for interrupting your training last time. I could see you and your friend were quite irritated." you scratched your head in agitation. Yuji seemed confused.

"Hm? Oh! No, sorry if we left that impression! It wasn't you, it's just that Sukuna never really introduced a girl to us before! That was strange!"

What?

His words shocked you. You wanted to know what he meant by that, after all, Sukuna had something going on with a lot of girls already. But before you could consult him, he already set off.

"Oh shit, I have to hurry up, they're already getting inside the bus!" he stressed.

"Oh, yes of course! Uhm, please tell Sukuna good luck from me. A-and the rest of the team too of course!" you passed the message on to him.

"Will do!" he beamed at you and ran off. He was so fast that it didn't take him long to reach the bus.

In the background, you could see Sukuna looking at you through the window. He was already in the bus, his chin in his hands when he winked at you. You winked back.

Great, you thought, you successfully failed keeping Sukuna from your thoughts.

Here's part 3!!! Wasn't content with it for a while, and I've been busy. But now I like it! Omg omg so excited for all the ideas I still have for this story. Next part will be about the first game we're at! Sukuna in action (WOHOOO)! Let me know what you think! <3

taglist: @miakxn @aureliaborea @nonamevenus @silkija @sad-darksoul @joh-ahae @weareundead

[palajae]

episode two. | park jay

PAIRING ▸ host!jay x reader

GENRE ▸ ouran high school host club!au, high school! au, romance, fluff, angst, humor

WC ▸ 4.2k

SUMMARY ▸ host park jay: the cool and calculated type. as the vice president and brain of the en-host club, jay is more than quick and entertaining. you’ll never get bored with all the things he does and says—if you ever get the chance to meet him.

AKA episode two of the kiss, kiss, fall in love! series

AN/NOTES ▸ mentions of food?? toxic family issues (specifically daddy issues), not proofread

sorry for the wait but here is the second part! <3 also i swear i love jay and his father this was just for the plot okay don’t come for me 😭🙏

EPISODE 2. The Job of the Class Top Student! 

you get up, making sure to push the chair back with a loud screech so that everyone could hear. you feel the eyes boring holes into your back. if anyone looked closely, they would notice how your eyes flickered across the room. searching—checking. 

but no one was, most were still on the first page of the exam and had six more pages to go. 

you keep a straight and composed face as you walk up to the teacher’s desk, inaudible whispers and shocked stares going in one ear and out the other. 

after all, who finishes the midterm with 50 minutes left? 

you don’t falter, you don’t let your mask slip. however that rule is excused when it comes to one person. your eyes fall on his hunched over silhouette, smirking just the slightest as he flips to the last page of the exam. 

you and park jay. park jay and you. the class’s designated number one and two ranked students. who was which was yet to be confirmed. 

everyone wondered who would end up on top. there must’ve been a rivalry, a game, a secret enemies to lovers? 

to you, it was anything but that. 

it was an offense—being compared to park jay. sure, he was brilliant. you could at least admit that. 

but he was also a member of the en-host club. the vice president, at that. 

you shivered in disgust the first time you found out that he co-founded the club along with lee heeseung. you would expect no less of him, but jay, seriously? 

what would his father think? 

you had no time for trivial stuff like acting as a host and pleasing those who weren’t worthy of your company. 

he wasted hours every day, every week, at and for that club. 

you didn’t understand. 

why was jay pretending to be someone he wasn’t? 

every time someone would mention his name, you would snort and turn your head to the side. 

“that player? don’t count yourself special or lucky. he just wants attention from anyone he can get it from.” 

you vowed to beat him. how could you ever lose to the host, park jay? 

“how are you, mr. park?”

you bow gracefully, a practiced smile plastered on your face. 

you hated it—how jay was a splitting image of his father. you hated any and every reminder of him. 

and just like the two of you, your families were rivals. they had to have been, after all they both competed in the same industries and markets. 

it was only natural that jay’s father took a liking to you. the one who was as gifted as his son, if not better. 

the one who was diligent, compliant, and charismatic. you were the one raised properly. you didn’t make rash decisions that wasted your time and future. 

“good. i heard my son has been troubling you recently. in physics, was it?”

your smile tightens. “of course not, sir. i’m not sure if jay told you, but we recently received a group presentation. he got paired with the kang family’s son.”

when jay got put with the kid who barely paid attention in class, let alone showed up to class, you couldn’t hide your triumphant smile. 

he pats you on the back, “of course. you know i just say that as a joke.”

you pretend to laugh it off, bowing again before excusing yourself to the bathroom and taking your leave. 

when you reach the mirror, you stare at yourself. you looked aggravated, confused, lost. because you were. all because you knew what mr. park was implying. he thought the same as you—it’s why the two of you grew close.

were you really going to let mr. park’s son overtake you in a class? 

while you spent most of your time studying and working, his failure of a son who spent his time messing around had the same grades as you, if not better?

he was challenging you and your future. 

you despised park jay. 

gasps and whispers of awe fill the room. you stand near the back, face unreadable. 

chapter 9 test scores: 

park jay - 99 

y/l/n y/n - 96

…..

yujin nudges your shoulder with a concerned look. “are you okay? i know you spent four hours cramming for that test…”

you don’t say anything and stalk off. 

your room gets the brunt force of your emotions. you rip, crumple up, and trash your notes. your binders and notebooks go flying as you shove and fling them onto the ground with as much strength as you can. 

it was a mess. you were a mess.

how did he do better than you? you know for a fact he didn’t study as much as you did. he didn’t waste hours and hours reviewing the material and practicing. how did he do it?

there must be a reason, you resolve. something must be going on in that host club. 

you vow to figure the truth about jay. 

“what do you think he does there? seduce the girls into giving him answers?”

ningning laughs, “don’t be ridiculous.”

she pauses, “unless…?”

you huff, rolling your eyes. “i need to find out. this isn’t right.”

“you really don’t. you know you’re kinda—what’s the word? obsessed.”

“with jay,” she adds, “do you like him or something?”

you point a finger harshly, accusatorily, at ningning. 

“you know how i feel. my mother and father won’t be pleased. let’s not forget about his father.”

she only laughs, reaching out to put down your hand as you groan in frustration. 

“you sound like draco malfoy, you’re so funny. but go ahead with your plan, i’m not stopping you.”

you rub your temples in frustration. “am i about to make a mistake? is this a bad idea?”

ningning only shakes her head like a parent chiding their kid, “oh, y/n. you know you don’t ever have bad ideas or make mistakes.”

anyways, she was wrong. 

the moment you walked—more like burst—into the en-host club, all eyes were on you. 

you were used to it, but not like this. not like everyone was seeing a ghost. your eyes flit around the room, studying the infamous place. the host club was surprisingly spacious and intricate. you supposed it wasn’t that bad of an area. 

“y/n,” heeseung is the first to greet you and extend out his hand. you almost glare at it. 

“certainly did not expect to see you here. a pleasant surprise nonetheless,” he adds after flinching at your icy gaze. heeseung was the one to turn jay—disillusion him and make your life that much more difficult. 

“have the rumors finally piqued your curiosity? who exactly-“

you hold out a hand to cut him off, “save it. i’m only here to speak to jay.” 

saying his name out left a bitter aftertaste on your tongue. more whispers break out and you grit your teeth. 

heeseung’s eyes widen as jake appears with a grin. great, now you were starting to attract even more attention. 

“so you finally succumbed, huh?”

your eyes narrow. 

“to what, exactly?”

“you know, for being one of the brightest students in our grade, you can be quite dense sometimes.”

“and for being one of the most popular students in our grade, you can be quite pitiful sometimes, did you know that?”

“y/n.”

you bite back your next words at the appearance of the person of your request. jay sends a look to the other hosts, and they leave you two alone reluctantly. 

“what do you want?”

at first, you don’t say anything. 

when you don’t respond, his gaze hardens. “did my father send you?”

you ignore him. “i’m here to observe the club. and you.” 

you hold eye contact until jay finally breaks it and sighs, “fine. i could care less.” 

to your surprise, jay doesn’t say anything else. and in your awkwardness, you realize you have no choice but to follow him around or stand there like a loser. and you were anything but a loser. 

you didn’t know how this whole club thing really worked, anyway. 

you check the clock. how long would this take? how much time of yours would be wasted?

you can’t believe it. the fact that you wasted two hours or that jay was busily working, you’re not sure. probably both. 

all he did was sit down at one of the tables with his laptop. no words were exchanged when you sat stiffly across from him. it’s still a bit uncomfortable, being in this place with no purpose or goal other than to spy on jay (not to forget the girls absolutely shellshocked at your presence in the club.) 

he typed quite fast, you note by the sound of the keys clicking harshly. jay looked focused, significantly more than when he took chemistry quizzes. 

you attempt to sneakily glance at his screen. eventually, you get a crick in your neck and you sigh. 

“what are you doing?”

“running the statistics for the club’s activities this week,” he responds curtly. 

after about an hour, you frown. where were all the girls? where was his cheesy flirting and hosting that they all supposedly did?

there’s no way he was actually just that busy working?  

you walk off without another word. 

“it doesn’t make any sense,” you furiously chew your salad, “i need to go back.”

“really?” ningning replies with an edge in her voice. 

you slam your fork down. “i-i mean, he stays there until five! that means he doesn’t arrive home for another thirty minutes and that reduces his study time to around five to six hours, considering dinner and washing up. then i have to take into account the fact that his bedtime must be around twelve since he has nonexistent eye bags—“

ningning stuffs a tomato into your mouth. 

“if this isn’t obsessed, i don’t know what is.”

you glare at her as you chew. “is not. being obsessed means you have to have interest in the person or subject.” 

ningning mutters something under her breath. 

somehow, your eyes fall on jay sitting with his host club friends. his arms are relaxed behind his head, as if he was purposely flaunting off to everyone in the room. you want to slap the tinted glasses he wore, you could barely see his eyes. you never knew what he was thinking. 

you curse jay internally. 

ningning gets up. “anyways, i’ll see you in calculus later.”

you come to your senses again, nodding at her. “let me know if you need any more help on the problem set.”

she grins, patting your head. 

“thanks, good luck getting his attention.” 

“whose?” you call out but she’s already gone, leaving you to ponder your own thoughts. 

the sound of silverware scraping the plates makes you cringe. besides that, there was complete silence in the dining hall. 

you knew what was coming. 

“i heard jay scored the highest on the last physics exam.” 

you look down. “yes, father.”

you were used to it. 

“how long did you prepare for it? i thought i raised you properly,” his cold voice never failed to put a shiver down your spine. 

“i’m sorry. i’ll do better next time…” you barely manage to get out. 

you pray he’s finished. 

“i heard he barely studied. spends all his time at that horrid club, yet he scored better. interesting.”

you wipe your mouth before standing up. “i’m going to finish my homework. i promise i’ll work harder, father.”

you leave the table with clenched fists. every freaking time. 

you want to punch the wall, scream and kick. it wasn’t fair. you gave your all to make your parents proud, and it was never enough. when would you be enough for them? 

you told yourself every time, that you weren’t affected. it didn’t matter.

yet it still hurt. 

you’re on autopilot the entire day at school. you’re in and out, brain fuzzy. indeed, those were the consequences of a sleepless, turning and tossing kind of night.

“-y/n?” 

you swear, it was so bad you could literally hear your parent’s disappointed voices in your ear. 

“y/n!”

you jolt up in your seat, accidentally knocking a pencil off your desk. your professor eyes you along with the rest of your classmates. along with jay. 

it wasn’t like you to zone out. 

“i’m sorry,” you stammer. “could you repeat the question?”

“i didn’t ask a question,” they raise an eyebrow, making you look down in embarrassment. 

“are you alright? do you need to go to the nurse?”

you decline and apologize hastily, straightening your posture and grabbing your pencil off the floor. your teacher resumes their lecture and you hate how you can still feel jay’s eyes linger on you. 

when class is dismissed, you’re packing up your last notes when you feel eyes on you, once again. it was just you two left in the room.

you already know who it is.

“that wasn’t like you.”

“i know. i don’t need your fake concern,” you spit out. 

his eyes widen as you stand up and shove past him. 

“hey-“

you stop in your tracks, turning around to face jay—the root of all your issues. 

“are you happy now? seeing me like this? you embarrassed me, you won. there’s no need to pretend you care when it’s obvious you don’t. can you even?” 

he isn’t able to get in a single word in as you stalk out. 

by the end of your last class, you hate to admit it, but you’re actually regretting your words. you constantly replay that last moment in class, when you actually saw an ounce of emotion on jay’s otherwise stoic face. when it actually seemed like he got hurt by your words. it couldn’t be, though. 

jay didn’t show his emotion. he didn’t care, unlike you. no matter how much his father compared the two of you, jay did what he wanted and he did it well. 

while you hated to see that you were the weak—the jealous one.  

you didn’t mean to take your anger out on him—you knew jay would never intentionally beat you. 

you would. you were the one who needed the validation, and therefore, you had to do your best. you had to be the best in order to beat jay. and yet, you find yourself in another moment of weakness. 

standing in front of the music room, you sigh. here you were once again. when you walk in, you head straight for heeseung.

he’s sitting rather comfortably, cozying up to two random students you’ve never seen before. 

when you clear your throat, heeseung sits up as his eyes widen at the sight of you. “y/n?” 

“i need to speak with jay,” you can’t seem to look him in the eyes. 

“again?” he smirks. 

you exhale slowly, trying your best to keep your cool. “please. it’s urgent.” 

and suddenly, you’re standing in front of him. your hands clasped together, eyes downcast. 

at first, no words are exchanged. you know jay—he won’t be the first to say anything. it takes a minute for you to collect your thoughts. to finally let it sink in that you were here, in this situation, in front of him. 

“i… i didnt mean what i said.” 

“earlier,” you quickly add.

you take a quick glance, only to see the same emotionless expression he always wore. 

“alright.”

you swallow. he stands there. 

jay proceeds to push his glasses further up his nosebridge , “if that’s all, then, i’m a bit busy.”

“r-right. yeah.” 

your eyes follow his back as he begins to walk off. 

“wait! wait.” 

he slows, but doesn’t turn around. 

you scrunch your face up, cringing. “can i-just like, stay? for a moment?”

jay being jay only shrugs. 

and for the second time, you find yourself sitting across from jay. again, he’s simply typing away on his computer. 

no flirting or messing around with the guests. 

your curious eyes wander around the giant room. if you weren’t in the position you were in, born into, maybe you would’ve come here. 

your eyes fall back on jay. maybe you would’ve requested him. his looks weren’t that bad, and when he wasn’t talking school-

you clap a hand over your mouth, horrified at the thought. jay looks at you from over his screen, but his fingers never stop moving. 

you shake your head, as if to physically remove the thought from your head. 

“so… uh, what are you doing?”

“club work. finances, promotion, sponsors. basically everything behind the scenes.”

your eyes squint, “then how are you the vice president?”

he sighs as if he’s used to the question, “beats me.”

“then, you’re not a host? every time i’ve been here, you haven’t done anything host-like.”

“the two times you’ve been here,” he corrects and you roll your eyes. 

“it’s because you’re here.”

“what?”

“you scare off my usual clients, so i cannot host,” he states as a matter of factly. 

your mouth forms a “o,” but you soon cock your head at him. 

“why would i scare off your clients, though?”

his cold eyes glint up at you. “i think that’s a question to ask yourself.”

you stifle a groan. 

“either way, i don’t have many requests since i’m usually busy keeping the club alive.”

you knew it wasn’t true. there were plenty of girls who whispered about him in the halls and glared at you. not that they would ever do anything—you knew they were rightfully scared of you. 

“you’re saying that you’re not popular then.”

“if that’s what you want to think, then sure.”

“and yet, i’m here.” you cough awkwardly. 

“but you are not here for the same reasons,” 

jay stops typing abruptly. he looks at you, and you start spluttering at his implication. 

“there is no way i would ever waste my time here to-for you-“

“yet you’re still sitting right in front of me,” he smirks, “you said what you had to say earlier, no?” 

curse him for being your one weakness. there was no one who could beat you in an argument except park jay. he was so infuriating. 

you slam your hands on the table, “yes. thank you so much for the reminder. but don’t you dare think i’ll go easy on you after today.”

you turn your nose up before leaving. you hated how he always got your heart rate up, palms sweaty and knees weak. jay always riled you up, it was just because of how infuriating he was.

that was the only reason, right?

ningning smoothly slides into the seat next to you, “i heard you went back to the host club?”

your eyes widen. 

“just admit it, you like jay. you realized all the feelings you felt about him were actually, in fact, for him. no need to be embarrassed, everyone else already knows,” she teases. 

you choke but attempt to cover it up with a small ahem, straightening your back. 

“i don’t know what you’re talking about. i only went there because of my curiosity. you know the saying: keep your friends close and enemies closer? yeah, i’m just sizing up my opponent.” 

she sighs, patting you on the head. 

“it’s alright to spend time with jay, you know. you and your families have known each other for a while. plus, you guys are literally the same person—just in different bodies.” 

although she didn’t mean it in that way, you begin to realize she’s right. 

you and jay are a lot more alike than you realize. same overbearing parents putting immense amounts of pressure on the two of you. if anything, you should have been friends—not enemies. 

who were you trying to protect yourself against? jay?

or your families who caused this whole mess in the first place? 

you suddenly get out of your chair, leaving ningning to stare at you. 

“where are you going? study hall isn’t over for another hour!”

“i…i have to go somewhere.” 

“and skip studying? what has possessed you, y/n?” she says incredulously. 

as you run off, you silently agree with her.

your feet lead the way, automatically taking you to the place you need to be without even realizing it. 

you open the doors rather harshly, stomping over to the familiar table. you already knew he would be here. he always was here if he wasn’t in class. 

jay sits there, and to your surprise, he’s strict and gazing out the large tinted glass windows. as you approach him, he pushes the bridge of his glasses up, looking at you with inquisitive eyes.

“how do you do it?”

he blinks at the question. 

“pardon?”

“how? how do you not care?” you almost demand him to answer, feeling all the pent up frustrations bubble up to the surface.  

“about your family, your duty, about everything!?”

you’re almost panting, glaring at him with glassy eyes. you needed to know. 

“it just doesn’t make sense. we’re in the same boat, yet you don’t care and you don’t seem affected. after everything that has happened, how can you feel so normal? how can you pretend like everything’s going to be okay?” your voice cracks.

to your surprise, jay sighs. he quietly gets up and looks up at you. clearly, like it’s the first time you’ve ever looked in his eyes. they draw you in, an endless void of darkness. 

you can finally feel the tension in the air. you finally notice that the two of you are alone. 

“if anything, i used to care more than you. i was worse off than you. it wasn’t always easy. it still isn’t.” 

you cross your arms. 

“you’re not lonely? stressed? is that why you decided to join the host club?” 

“i just decided to. i decided that i won’t let them dictate all parts my life. i chose to do this along with heeseung. he showed me a different world, a new path to life. not everything has to be for your own future benefit and success.” 

you look down. the sight of your own clenched fists surprises you. 

you know jay. you’ve known jay, for a long time. you’ve seen how he used to be. what an arrogant and selfish know-it-all he was. then, he changed. he became a host and suddenly, he was having fun with friends and doing everything he could for the club and them. 

but, you were in different positions. he fought back against his parents for his life, while you couldn’t even imagine coming close. why did you think you could come to him? 

“then… we’re not as similar as i thought we were. nevermind any of it.”

as you turn away, jay speaks up again. 

“you think you’re selfish. spoiled and special, perhaps.” 

you stop. 

“but you give tutoring to those who need it. and it’s not just for your reputation and the hours because you do it outside of school. you’re friends with ningning but she’s the second daughter, set to inherit nothing. you secretly give your packed lunch to the one person in our class who can’t always afford it.”

you quietly gasp. 

“i know. because you’re just like me.” 

you stand there, silently debating before walking out.

there were too many emotions. how did he know? how long has he known—noticed all those things about you? 

worst of all, it feels like you’ve reached a deeper level, a mutual understanding, in your relationship with park jay. 

whatever relationship you both even had. 

people are more than shocked to see the sight in front of them. this type of news—gossip—would reach the headmaster in a day or two. but those fan girls filled with jealousy would never do anything about it in fear of getting on your or jay’s bad side. 

park jay, helping y/n organize notes before class? 

y/n y/l/n, showing up to the host club on a weekly basis to sit with jay? 

and if your parents had anything to say, you turned the other way and pretended not to have heard. 

no one understood, like there was a silent understanding between just the two of you. 

jay scoots over, almost as if he was saving you the seat. almost like the seat was yours, it always had belonged to you. your heart warms at the thought. 

“our families are having another dinner.”

“i know. probably to discuss our futures, don’t you think?” 

you hum, passing him a honey citron drink and he gratefully accepts it without a word. for a minute you both enjoy the drinks in peace.

“maybe. probably. your mother was the one to invite us over, you tell me.” 

“i suspect to talk about the latest business affairs. then our grades.”

“oh goodness me,” you sigh and jay can’t help but genuinely smile. you liked the fact that you were one of the only people who could do that.  

“at least i’ll have you—or we’ll have each other,” he remarks rather normally, but the fidgeting of his hands with his pen tells you otherwise. 

you glance up at him, face warming slightly. he was right, though. it was a hard fact to get adjusted to. you did have someone else now. 

of all people, jay. he was the person you least expected, and yet… the only person you knew it could be. 

and maybe, you guys could heal together. you scoot your chair a bit closer to his, leaning to look at his screen. he doesn’t seem to mind at all. 

you knew you could and would heal together. 

previous episode. | next episode.

MAIN TAGLIST ▸ @precioussoulofmine @kynrki @heesterical @nvertheless @duolingofanaccount

@hoeshii @love-4-keum @luvhyun3 @dimplewonie @who-tf-soddhi

@microwvdstrawb3rri3s @asteria-wood @enhacatalog @june-pop @ohsjy

@ashtxrie @isoobie @mireyaaaaaaaaa @choppedballoondetective

SERIES TAGLIST ▸ @j3nnypng @llvrhee @mrchweeee @yoonights @yizhoutv

@xnkier @yongbokified @en-kays @in-somnias-world @shi-toshi

@avacelestepereira @kyanmeai @secretlyapartofthisfandom @enhaz1 @gojoelixir

@wonbinsnovia @nes-caf @renchai @m3chigo @starfallia

@grumble-0 @soobinbunnie5 @wonboni @yeahhemmings- @dammit-jjk

@bigwhatsblog @ppussamz @jayhoonvroom @jaeyuuns @lakoya

@loumin908 @jungwon-0902 @cupidnoo @hooniiibunn @eneiyri

@bunnihhoon @mumeimei @jenniferecand @firstclassjaylee @qwonyoung23

(if i missed anyone i’m sorry pls send in another message!) send a message to be added to the taglist!

@kflixnet

[stu-dyingstudent]

Sakura is the youngest of team 7

Let’s talk about a hot topic rn in regards to Sakura… the age order of the rookies. Tbh, I don’t think it’s a big deal but I’m tired seeing misinformation going around.

It’s been the common belief for many years that Sakura is the oldest member of team 7 because of the thought that the Naruto universe follows the American school system for age. However, if we use the Japanese school system then she would be the youngest of her entire graduating class.

What is used by many to back that Sakura is older is the information derived from the databook 4 character files. In those entries it follows that Shino is the oldest and Hinata is the youngest of the rookies. Sakura is said to be 17 during the war and Naruto (as we all know) turned 17 at the end of the war. This would indicate a following of the American school system for the ages.

However, databook 1 goes against this information. In this databook, it takes place in the middle of the chunin exams. For the character files it states that all of the rookies graduated at the age of 12 and that all of them are still 12 while under examination for promotion to chunin. Why does this matter? The only way for this to be possible is if it follows the Japanese school system and let me explain why.

In chapter 11 of the Naruto manga, kakashi states that “it’s springtime” during the Land of Waves arc. This whole arc lasts about a month. Not long after they return to the village (about a week) the teams enter into the chunin exam, which, according to Hiruzen in chapter 34, starts on July 1st. In Japan, spring is from March to May and graduation takes place from mid to late March. Furthermore, the Japanese school system works where children with birthdays from April to March of the following year are placed in the same class. This lines up perfectly with the information here as if they graduate in late March then the rookies would be 12 when becoming genin and for the exam.

Now, you might say “well why should we trust one databook over the other?” Well, if you look at databook 2 and 3 it still follows that all of the rookies graduated at the age of 12, which follows what was said in the first databook. The entire timeline of Naruto is very difficult to follow without looking to extreme detail (which I don’t have time or care for). However, the wave arc being in spring is an easy find and sets up the storyline for it to follow the Japanese school system/year.

Now, lets take a look at the novels. We know that The Last took place when Naruto and Hinata were 19; however, no information was given about Sakura's exact age at the time. On the other hand, Gaara Hiden explicitly states multiple times that Gaara is 20 years old during the novel, which is why they are pushing for his marriage in addition to the fact the Temari and Shikamaru and engaged. That later part is important. Gaara is apart of the same graduation year as the rest of the rookies and his birthday takes place in January, which makes him one of the disputed ages. There is a scene in the novel where Gaara calls Shikamaru his "elder brother" on page 122 since he is his soon to be brother-in-law. On that same page, Shikamaru also refers to Gaara as his "troublesome little brother." Now, Shikamaru is born in September, which makes his age confirmed to being in accordance to what we already believe, yet Gaara claims that he is the older one. This follows that Gaara, and thus Shino and Sakura, were born the following year like what is seen in the Japanese school system.

Notice this: Gaara Hiden is written by Ukyō Kodachi, who is one of Kishimoto's former assistants while working on Naruto. He is also the original writer of Boruto until it got taken over by Ikemoto. None of the other novels in the Hiden series are written by him or another assistant. Instead, the rest are by various Japanese authors who are working on Naruto for the first time. Why is this important? Kodachi is the most reputable source when it comes to the information we have gotten from the Hiden novels and he says that Shikamaru is older than Gaara.

Furthermore, let's look at the official timeline of the Hiden novel series, which was released by Shonen Jump. Shikamaru's novel is set before The Last, and in such novel it is said that he is 19 years old at the time. Very shortly after (same time section), The Last takes place and as discussed earlier, Naruto and Hinata are said by Kishimoto in interviews (and based off of Shikamaru's age) to be 19 as well. Then there is a few months break to where Sakura Hiden occurs. It is stated multiple times throughout the novel that it's spring; however, Sakura's age is never discussed. Nonetheless, it is said by Kakashi that Naruto and Hinata are "going to be married soon." From Naruto Mobile, it is said that they officially got married on May 8th, which would be the month that Konoha Hiden would occur.

Note: In the novel of Konoha Hiden (brief ceremony and events leading up to the wedding), there is no mention of cherry blossoms like is seen in the anime and some official art. However, it can be disputed that the wedding took place in spring, which does not affect the timeline I have put forth below.

Akatsuki Hiden, which Sasuke's portion is in the same time period as Gaara Hiden, mentions that flowers are in full bloom. This indicates that it takes place in springtime as that is when such an event occurs. Meaning, it must be the year following Sakura Hiden in order for this to be possible since Gaara Hiden and Akatsuki Hiden are set to take place an unspecified number of months after Naruto's wedding (in summer/spring).

Note: Sasuke's age is not mentioned in either Akatsuki Hiden or Sasuke Shinden, which occur at similar times.

Now, this would indicate that Gaara Hiden takes place a little over a year after The Last. This would mean that Naruto, Hinata, and Shikamaru are 20 at this time and Gaara would be newly of that age as well. This, once again, indicates that Naruto follows that Japanese system for the ages according to these timelines and still works with the ages in Boruto as those indicate that the next generation wasn't born until the rookies were about 21 years old.

Even with all of this being said, I have seen plenty of people argue that “Naruto doesn’t take place in Japan and therefore doesn’t follow their school year.” Now let me ask, why would Kishimoto, a Japanese man who has used lots of Japanese history and folklore in his series and even said much of the scenery was based on Okayama (which is in Japan), not use the Japanese school year? Why would he use the American system instead? It makes no sense. The only logical conclusion is that Naruto follows the Japanese system and that databook 4 ages were a mistake.

Kishimoto himself has never officially come out to state the age order and there are no direct references of it in the manga. The only thing absolutely certain is that Sasuke is older than Naruto, which we all know and doesn’t help at all. Now, there is one scene in chapter 18 that could give us a clue that Sakura is the youngest, but it���s all perspective imo. Kakashi calls Sakura “our young lady,” which although doesn’t confirm anything, it does indicate or imply that she is the youngest of the team. Otherwise there would be no reason for kakashi to point that out instead of just calling her “our lady.”

Anyway, what I saw rekindle this debate was the apology that Shueisha released regarding some official Naruto merchandise that came out back in 2023. In this apology they admitted to getting the ages of Sakura and Gaara during the war arc wrong and changed the info cards of the characters from 17 to 16. In addition, Sakura's character description (for the war) in one of the Naruto videogames (Borutage) also places her at the age of 16 during this arc. Many fans say that these technically aren't "official" sources to confirm her age, but aside from the databooks, which contradict themselves, these are the only other sources of her age in the war. It's also something to consider that Shueisha went out of their way to make a public apology on the matter and corrected themselves. The databooks have plenty of mistakes, so if they apologized for one mistake then they would have to do it for all. Meaning, it's best if they don't.

Furthermore, you must note that Shueisha is the publisher that Shonen Jump and obviously Naruto are under. This is the official copyright holder of the series coming out saying that Sakura is the youngest.

Also, I have seen some fans say that this illustration was released by shonen jump, but I haven’t found any proof of that being the case. Nonetheless, I will still place it below as it provides a visual for the birth order and you can use your own discretion if you think it’s official.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the matter of age order. Cheers!

[helaelaemond]

TIPS FOR WRITING IN AN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY SETTING from someone who’s been through it!

This post is written with fanfic in mind, specifically about Michael Gavey as a Maths student at the University of Oxford.

University structure

At Oxford, you are there typically for three years. You’re not usually referred to as “first year”, “second year” or “third year/final year” as nouns, and are more likely to describe yourself as being “in my first year” etc. The only exception is your first few weeks at uni when you’re known as a fresher. Your first week in your first year is known as “freshers week”, and its lots of social activities around the uni and beyond.

OXFORD IS NOT A CAMPUS UNI. University housing and buildings are scattered around the city of Oxford, and so using terms like “on campus” are not applicable.

Term starts in early October, and most exams are wrapped up by June.

Housing

Oxford is one of four English universities that use the college system (the others being Cambridge - also called ‘The Other Place’ - Durham, and York) and for the sake of simplicity, you can think of this as a replacement term for ‘dorm’ (a term not typically used). You can find a list of all the colleges on the university’s website.

Within the college building, there are usually single rooms with en-suites, but some rooms have to share a communal bathroom.

University students do NOT have roommates - no one shares a bedroom. There are also some room types in a flat-like set up, with a cluster of a few rooms (2-8 typically) and a shared kitchen. This is less common at Oxford.

Students sometimes stay in university-provided accommodation for the duration of their studies, whilst some choose to live in private accommodation from their second year onwards. If they do this, they are still associated with their college, and by default their college does not change. Private accommodation usually means a regular house shared with a few other people - this is standard across all universities in the UK, not just Oxford.

Classes

Generally speaking, subjects that don’t require lab work have a pretty simple weekly structure of one lecture and one seminar per module. Lectures are observed silently, and seminars are for discussions. Even the boldest or more socially unaware individuals do not interrupt lectures (in my four years, I never ever experienced anyone interrupting or asking a question, and so if you’re going to write Michael doing that, be aware it is a huge taboo unless the lecturer has asked for participation). Students usually take 2-3 different modules per semester, and during the academic year, there are two semesters across three terms.

Reading week is a week of usually in late October/early November where there are no classes for a week and it is a time for self-study.

Most modules have at least one assignment (what Americans would call a term paper) due before the Christmas break in December, and then at least one exam after the break ends in January. Some modules on some courses have other assignments or contributors to grades (like group presentations) but this isn’t all that common. It is very rare for things like “extra credit” to be earned, if at all.

Unless reading a combined degree (like Politics and Economics), you only take one subject. There is nothing like a “major” and “minor”. When doing a combined degree, you take half your modules on one degree, and half your modules on the other, so it’s an even 50/50. You cannot choose any subject to do a combined degree for, and they are pre-set courses determined by the university. For example, you couldn’t do a combined degree of Maths and Geography just because you wanted to.

You don’t talk about what course you’re studying, you say what course you’re reading (which is why Michael says he’s “reading Maths” not studying it).

University culture

Nightclubbing isn’t much of a thing in Oxford. If you want a uni with great nightlife you go to Birmingham, Nottingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, London - not Oxford or Cambridge. Instead, students are much more likely to spend time in one of the dozens of pubs in Oxford. College parties (I.e university accommodation parties) don’t tend to be much of a thing either unless they’re organised by the social events committees in those colleges.

Elitism is an enormous problem at Oxford. For example, in 2015, 45% of all freshers were from private schools, while only less than 7% of children in the UK are privately educated. Classism is an issue that is so unbelievably rampant in places like Oxford that I can’t even begin to explain. But like many forms of prejudice in the UK, it’s rarely overt. It comes in the forms of exclusion from social activities (think a working class student not being able to go on a ski trip with course mates), social rules only familiar to the rich being the order of the day (having the right type of suit for a formal dinner).

Oxford is a place where lifelong connections are made that spill into entertainment, business, and (most worryingly) politics, but best believe that if you’re not from the right background, those connections are not yours to make. In fact, the likelihood of you even know they’re going on in the shadows is high.

Obviously, classism and elitism are themes of Saltburn, but please don’t take them too seriously, as it’s crucial to remember that the writer/director grew up in these very private inner circles of elites. As such, her spin is wildly… wild. She’s an incredibly unreliable source for basing any kind of opinion about these issues on.

That’s all I can think of right now! I highly encourage other people who have been through English universities to add on with advice you think you would helpful to writers 😁🫶

And if you’ve got any specific questions, let me know and I’ll help if I can!

[vnamps]

THE GRADE AID. 001

next. |

overall summary: lee min-ho, your absolute academic rival, an absolute menace needs help to raise his grade before the semester ends, and who better to ask for help than you, the grade aid.

overall contents: minho is cocky, a bunch of teasing, angst, fights, mentions of injuries, good ending, lowercase

word count: 0.98k

lee minho, the school's most popular male, the son of a wealthy businessman, and your absolute rival in school. he was an absolute menace, someone who'd egg you on if you'd ever get even 1% less than him on tests, someone who didn't even have to make attempts to get a good grade, he was naturally smart and even if he wasn't, his father could still silver spoon him into good schools.

this same minho now sat at the table inside the chemistry lab, looking at his paper in pure horror. A big circular number on his paper read beside the percentage sign. and as if that hadn't been scary enough, the message below was even worse.

"I am disappointed in your efforts, mr. lee"

the words were intensely scary it was almost as if he could hear your voice saying it for some reason.

"zero? damn, that's harsh." he turned out to meet your face, peering over his shoulder with a grinning expression.

you made your way to a seat next to him, sighing loudly, reminiscent of all the times he did the same to you in a test.

"oh yeah? what'd you get?" he leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

a smile appeared on your face as you slid your paper over to him, his eyes widening slightly but his overall expression the same.

one-hundred and twenty percent??

"I know you may be wondering, how does such a strong, intelligent, empathetic being get such a high score, minus the extra credit."

"I'm not wondering, I don't care." he was salty, you took note of that. you laughed a little to yourself as you felt victorious for once in your whole rivalry.

the whole rivalry started 3 years ago when you all got the exam results posted on a bulletin outside. whilst everyone raved on about how smart you were, minho felt jealous and decided he wanted to be smart as well

after that, minho would feel such high validation and get praise for being able to beat you in certain subjects, becoming the first topic when it comes to student intelligence.

It annoyed you. why would someone like him wanna take the one good thing you had? he had luxury, he had potential love interests, and he had a life made up for him. so why was it that he constantly felt the need to take away your progress?

it was a question both you and he constantly asked yourselves. one even jisung asked himself as minho ranted to him.

"they laughed in my face, jisung." minho emphasized as he rubbed his temples, sighing in disbelief.

jisung was scrolling through his phone, showing halfhearted sympathy as he lifted his head to look at minho. "well they're only giving you the same thing you give them." jisung reasoned which caused minho to sigh again.

as days passed, minho constantly saw a downgrade in his chemistry work, more messages filled with the word "disappointed". this went on for about 2 weeks before the teacher pulled him aside at the end of class.

"mr. lee" she starts off, peering up at him through her glasses before sighing and shaking her head.

he already knows what's to come as he approaches her desk, a worried look on his face.

"lately, I've been seeing some uh.. flaws in your work for the past few weeks and I've been a bit concerned." she brings out a slip of paper, handing it to him.

"this is a mini graph of your grades and how they can affect you going into college if you don't fix them.''

minho sighs, looking down for a second before lifting his head back up. "Is there any way I can fix them before the semester ends?"

her face lights up in a suggestive smile and minho feels the weights of his shoulders lift a little with hope.

"I like that you're not willing to give up, I'm proud of you," she states before bringing out folders filled with student applications.

"I have a few students who are doing exceptionally well in my classes and may be willing to help you." she opens the first folder, your picture is there as well as your tutor information. she lets out a small aha before showing minho.

"y/n l/n, they excel the most in my classes, I assume you'd know them?" minho's eyes widen once he sees the picture, a small sigh leaving his mouth as he looks away, muttering a small "yes''

"great! I'll get them to tutor you, starting tomorrow, the more time, the merrier"

as the day went on minho dreaded the fact you had to tutor him. he wished it was someone who liked him more, someone who'd guarantee his good grades.

the next day went by scarily fast as now he sat in the library, watching your figure make your way over to the table, an annoyed look on your face.

"do you intend on bothering me, lee?" your face was stern as you stared at him with widened eyes.

he sighed and rolled his eyes. "I didn't have a choice, I wouldn't have chosen you if I did."

you let out a harsh airy breath, setting your books on the table. "as if you couldn't have gotten a personal tutor instead of wasting my time. oh wait, I forgot you need daddy's money to afford that and of course, you wouldn't want daddy to think his little son wasn't perfect."

minho rolled his eyes once more. "right. if you're gonna keep talking instead of helping me, I'd be very happy to tell her that her perfect little ace isn't as generous as she believed" his head was tilted to the side, his eyes bleeding into you as he spoke.

you sighed in return, sitting down before opening the books, starting your first lesson.

[cat-autism-wizard]

five times danny's english class learned that he was phantom (and one time he had to reveal it)

3 - Mr. Lancer

it was after a big ghost attack at casper high. it was sadly during mr. lancer's lesson. he didnt know what those poor kids would do in the exams if their educations kept on getting interrupted by the ghost attacks. but right now they had bigger problems to dealt with, like running for their lives.

lancer made sure everyone in his class made it out of the class and making sure everyone was out of school. it was a procedure he had to use so much that everyone knew what to do. of course it didnt mean he doesnt follow it. he still makes sure he follows it line by line. and no matter how many ghosts attacked the school, kids were always terrified which made it harder to count them. lancer didnt blame the kids of course. he was feeling bad for them if anything else. those kids were just teenagers and they shouldnt live through this again and again.

lancer tried his best to keep the terrified ones calm and lead everyone to outside. it was the hunter ghost attacking and phantom was already fighting him. no matter what those lousy ghost hunters say lancer trusted phantom to protect them. he saw him saving his kids countless of times.

after everyone was outside he counted his students. only one was missing. daniel fenton. when he spotted one of his friends he decided to ask her.

"ms. manson, i couldnt see mr. fenton do you know where he is?" just for a tiny second lancer saw a little panic flash in the girl's eyes.

"uhh yeah he is with tucker." sam blurted out. lancer could tell she was lying. he was a teacher for almost 15 years, he could tell when a student lied to him.

"great then you wouldnt mind accompanying me see mr. foley and mr. fenton right?" sam cringed to herself probably scolding herself for her bad lie.

"sure" she said with a fake smile.

they walked towards tucker as he was dealing with his phone. no fenton to be seen.

"mr. foley have you seen mr. fenton anywhere?" lancer talked before sam ever could.

"uh yeah he was with sam." tucker said without looking up his phone. only when he heard sam cleaning her throat tucker decided to look up. sam glared at tucker.

"uh did i say sam i meant to say pam" tucker tried to play it off.

"we dont have a 'pam' in our class mr. foley." lancer sighed.

"if you kids didnt know you couldve just said so. he might still be inside im gonna check before he gets hurt." lancer said as he start to head back inside. when both sam and tucker tried to stop him or run inside before him but lancer stopped both of them.

"ms. manson, mr. foley i understand that youre worried about your friend but if you step inside now, you will be suspended for a week." did they really care? no, but they were both smart enough to know that could damage their school record and neither of them wanted that.

not getting a reaction, lancer went back inside to look for danny. he searched almost everywhere but he was nowhere. the only place he didnt check was the hall of his class which had a fight going on. lancer carefully headed to his classroom. then he heard phantom saying something about 'souping the ghost' which meant it was probably safe for him to go there and thats what he did.

he expected to see phantom, yes but what he didnt expect to see was phantom looking so worn out. he looked like he was about to pass out. as lancer was about to thank him and ask him if hes alright glowing rings appeared around phantom's waist. then he transformed into danny fenton.

what. lancer couldnt believe his eyes. he was terrified. he was terrified of the fact that wes was right. what he was more terrified was that danny fenton, a 14 (soon to be 15) year-old kid was fighting and protect them all from the ghosts while trying to pursue his education as well. lancer wasnt easy on him either since he would always be late or fall asleep in the class. now he knew why.

danny was barely staying on his feet. he was tried. before he could fall lancer caught him. a fear set in danny. as lancer realized that, he started to scold him.

"so you were here. youre so lucky that phantom was around mr. fenton. you cannot wander around the school when theres an attack. if i catch you next time like this there will be consequences." with that danny was relieved. he was stressed about the next time because there will be a next time but at least lancer didnt know his identity right?

lancer forced fenton to stay in the infirmary for a few classes. danny whined at first but he was fast asleep as he relaxed when lancer made sure he wasnt going to be called absent in the attendance.

after that day lancer tried to give danny slightly more time on his works and when in detention, he gave him somewhat of an extra class knowing he fell asleep in those lessons.

1 2 3 4 5 +1

[catohphm]

HPHM Ship Week '24 Day One - Quidditch

The Day before the Match

Special thanks to @autisticarachnid and @eternalchaoschocolaterain.

This is the first of my fic for @hphm-ship-week! I have been writing a trilogy of short fics about my main MC x Canon ship over the summer for this event. It is my MC Cato paired with Penny Haywood, which I like to call Reesewood. I've been long-awaiting for it to come and now it's here. These were so fun to brainstorm and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed creating them!<3

The fic begins after clicking the "keep reading" cut below.

The next day would be the Quidditch match against Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Cato Reese, one of the Ravenclaw team’s chasers, had been trying his best to focus on transfiguration homework. He was in the courtyard studying with Rowan to complete the assignments. They had just finished for the day when Rowan saw his best friend looking concerned.

“What are you thinking about, Cato? You can say, I won’t assume anything.”

“I’m having a hard time getting my mind off the match tomorrow, Rowan.”

He leaned in closer to Cato “I get uneasy whenever something big comes up too. It’s never stopped us from passing exams or being on time with homework, even the vaults.”

“Well, I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s hard to keep those thoughts to the side. I think it's because every challenge is different, so are the steps.”

Putting up his hand up to his cheek, Rowan commented in a thoughtful tone. “Hmmm, I see where you’re coming from on that. I doubt it is necessarily a problem, though.”

Cato quickly paused and elaborated “I’ve been trying to remind myself of that. It’s hard because there are so many things going on.”

Something clicked in Rowan. “Ravenclaw honors and values big achievements in learning, being intelligent and knowledgeable.”

“Yes, Rowan. It’s the pressure to do well when you’re dealing with the cursed vaults and people who doubt, or depend on you. I’m trying to enjoy my time here, I’m only fighting them out of a sense of duty.”

Cato’s friend nodded. “I wouldn’t worry about letting anyone down. You’ve got us, your friends. I’m confident you’ll best Slytherin in the game.”

“Thank you! I best put the vaults aside for now. They’re missions that take time to complete.”

Penny was walking by. She saw her friends and approached them

“Hi Cato and Rowan! How’s it going?”

Cato spoke first. “Hi Penny. I was a bit worried how well I’d do in the upcoming Quidditch match against Slytherin.”

“He’s been stressed somewhat about everyone expecting highly of him.” added Rowan.

“Ahh, I know how hard it is being popular.” Cato and Rowan encouraged her to join them. The Hufflepuff smiled and sat down with her two Ravenclaw friends. 

She then elaborated “Many of our classmates look up to me because of my beauty and my skills at potions. I really do appreciate it, but they must remember it all comes naturally.”

“That’s a great point!” Rowan exclaimed then frowned. “Sadly people these days tend to take those things for granted.”

In a somewhat exhausted tone, Cato reflected “I only wanted to build my skills in magic and make friends at Hogwarts. Never have I imagined in the first place that I’d have such obligations. Schoolwork is one thing, but all it together with quidditch and the vaults is too much.”

Penny and Rowan rested their hands on Cato's shoulders. He looked at both of them on his sides and felt brighter.

“I wouldn't dwell too much on trying to impress or prove to everybody. I try to pay attention to my own work first.” she said.

Rowan added “We can only do the best we can. All we want from you is to be happy, do well in class and stay in touch with you. We're always by your side regardless of what comes, Cato.”

“Thank you, Penny and Rowan, it does mean a lot.” their friend answered with a warm smile and nod.”

Rowan then got up from the bench. “I need to return this book real fast before the library closes. I'll be back.” Cato and Penny nodded in response as their friend went to drop off the book.

With them having a short moment to themselves, Penny then spoke.

“So, Cato, are you still feeling nervous about this at all?” she asked him.

“Still some, I guess. Worrying about getting knocked off my broom by a bludger keeps me going in the game but it's more a hard thought to shake off more than anything, Penny.”

She smiled. “You can always keep me in your thoughts.”

“Ah, Penny, how so?” he asked in a giggly voice.

“Even if you get knocked off your broom by a bludger, I'll be there with you in the hospital wing.”

She then kissed him on the cheek. It made Cato blush a bit and laugh. “How could I never count on you, Penny? You've always done your best to look out for me ever since the day I first faced Merula in a duel, got in trouble just for standing up for Ben and helped me up, get my things when I fell trying to face Rowan about to be late for Charms. That's some real above and beyond stuff.”

“I've always appreciated that about you, Cato. The prophet and those other students, they treated you harshly for what? Stuff your brother did when you were just at home? I could never see any of that being true in the first place. You've always been there to help people who need it, even when you know it goes against the rules.”

“I still did what was right?”

“Yes!” assured Penny. “It doesn't make anything you did less right, Cato. I wouldn't worry about it. Rest up when the time comes for tomorrow, I have faith you'll make an amazing effort for the team!”n

[endereies]

FUCK IT - MATT STURNIOLO - PART 6

Spotify Playlist:

Pairing: Matt x Oc

Contains: Growing up with parents who make her feel isolated, what happens when she meets Matt. A person who introduces her to new people, new experiences and new feelings.

Requested?: no

Author's notes: I'm finally finished with school for the break so I should be updating a little quicker over the next 2 weeks.

Word Count: 3265

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

“Is this something we are meant to do?”

“Fuck it.”

“Okay, so, we submit this on Monday and we still have four scenes to analyse and then two exam questions to go through.” Matt mumbles as he places his back down next to me in the library and unsheathes a load of sheets, more are crumpled than ones that aren’t. The amount of them excelling the more meetings we had after school.

“We can get that done in a weekend, right?” My voice tainted with uncertainty. I had got to the library fifteen minutes before him so all my work was already displayed out in front of me with scribbles of different coloured pen one each of them.

“right.”

We were a little bit behind in our project since the majority of our meetups end in us just talking about random things or playing music with our home equipment. I would borrow Chris’s old guitars which was covered in a metallic red with black strings. The picks he bought matched perfectly dividing the red and black shades with lines of silver. Matt’s drumkit was similar to the school’s own designs yet on the base drum was the name ‘sturniolo’ in a faded midnight blue. Each drum fastened with the same blue wrapped around them. He had custom drum sticks too, fading from the original beige wood to a dyed neon-blue. The vibrancy capturing my attention every time, I bet he knew that to with the amount he’d smirk at me when he noticed me staring.

It's why we planned on staying in the library to finish the project, hopefully none of us get distracted. That’s if Matt stopped tapping his pen on the table.

“Matt.” My tone is stern as I frown still facing the pages of my book. He was too distracted in his ‘mini-concert’ that I grabbed his wrist firmly, which made his pen fall out his hand and onto the wooden desk below him.

He stammers a little as I glare at him and raise an eyebrow at him.

“The fuck did I do?”

“If you keep tapping that fucking pen on the desk, I will snap it in half.” I hold eye contact until I’m finished speaking and I let go of his wrist, watching his circulation fade back.

“And yet, you can do it all the time.” He smirks at me again and I retort by scoffing.

“When I’m in class and have nothing to do…you haven’t written anything for 10 minutes.”

“Normally by now we are playing music at our houses, this is a long ass day and this is only making it longer.” A sigh escapes my lips and I drop my pen, lean back for a moment and fold my arms loosely across my chest.

“Okay. If you work with me until six, I’ll buy you lunch all of next week.”

“Ain’t no way, you aren’t serious.”

“And you can get whatever you wish, no matter the cost, doesn’t even have to the food on campus.” I interject him by cutting him off and leaning closer over the table.

“Fine. Deal.” He holds out his hand in front of me and I look up at him with a blank expression.

“What are we, in 6th grade? I’m not shaking your hand.” I roll my eyes to him to just pick up my pen and start writing again.

“Damn, you’re no fun.”

“No…I just happened to hit puberty.” I click my tongue inside my mouth

I feel his glare on me before he continues to work on the papers in front of him. I take out my small white case and take out one of my headphones and pick up my phone to play some music in to them. I don’t bother checking what playlist I click on and immediately blast heavy dubstep into my ears, loud enough to make Matt pay attention to me again and giggle when I jump from the volume. I spam the volume control and turn it down rapidly until I can tolerate it. Matt immediately looks away from me, trying not to laugh when I hold my gaze on him for a few seconds.

-

“Is it nearly six, Alyia. My hand is fucking cramping up.” Matt whines for the fourth time in ten minutes.

“Like I said two minutes ago, no. Besides you have yet to finish of that question and it’s been nearly thirty minutes.”

“I don’t understand how you’ve been writing for that long without taking a break.”

“I want to get this finished; I don’t exactly want all this effort to go down the drain. I’ve stayed up too many nights for this.”

“Really…?” His voice filled with concern as his smirk and joke-filled demeanour faded quickly.

“What.”

“I would’ve done more of you asked me to…you didn’t have to stay up for any of it.” I interject him before he can continue

“Matt. I have more time than you, the project’s getting done. Does it really matter?” I look up to him, dropping my pen for the first time in a while.

“Of course it matters, you need sleep Alyia.”

“I also need this project done.” He sighs and rolls his eyes at me, returning the glares I’ve been giving him all night.

“Promise me you’ll relax after the project is due and let me finish off the last two questions.”

“You really like your promises, huh?” My page fills the silence as it crumples, getting caught on itself, making me purse my lips as I try to fix it before continuing to write.

“Alyia.” He grabs the pen out my hand and places it far from my reach and I narrow my eyes at him again. “I mean that, let me handle the rest of it and get some rest. Please.” I raise my eyebrow at him.

“I’ll sleep appropriately, fine, but I’m writing the last question. You can happily take the other one if you so desire.”

“Thank you. I’m not having your sleep decrease because you don’t want to ask for help.” His words make me raise my voice at him.

“What do you mean by that.”

“I don’t recall me stuttering. You have been sacrificing your sleep because you didn’t want to ask me to do a little more work.” He leans in to me, as if he is mocking me and I scoff.

“Not true.” My words mumble, subconsciously knowing he is right.

“Whatever, look it has gone six now, c’mon. We can work on this later on.” He shuffles papers together and stuffs them into his bag, lacking organisation which makes me stare at his back with a slightly shocked expression.

I follow his actions, however, and with a heavy sigh I put all my work in a pile, putting the sheets in between two books to keep them straight.

“You want to hang out later or something?” He slings his backpack over his shoulder and looks back at me.

“Hang out, me and you somewhere. I would recommend my place but Nick is there with Chris and Madi.”

“I know a place we could go if you want? I haven’t been there in a while so I don’t know how overgrown it is.”

“Wait wait. Did you say overgrown, what kind of fucking place is this.” Matt waits for me to catch-up to him and I walk slightly faster so he doesn’t have to wait so long.

“Amery Grove? There is a line of old houses at the back that people kind of forgot about, maybe like twenty years ago? I’m not sure.” Matt gaze falls to me as I start to ramble, simply listening to my words.

“Well, anyway, about two years ago a few of my friends and I decided to fix a few of them up during the summer. We didn’t decorate or anything but we cleaned old furniture and threw out what we didn’t need. While it wasn’t the prettiest, we hung out there a lot.”

“So, you just went to abandoned buildings and fixed them?” He keeps walking and opens doors in front of me as I keep talking. When he does, I quickly walk through them and turn to face Matt, proceeding to talk with my hands.

“Yeah, it was fun, even if our skills were mediocre, it made for good hangouts and a few parties.”

“You go to parties?” He gives me a side eye and I roll my eyes in response.

“Not as much anymore, I went when I had more friends to talk to and less schoolwork on my back. Maybe at some point…”

-

“Cmon you are slow” I drag out my words and groan as I get more excited, wanting to jump up and down to reduce the amount of energy but instead I shake my hands around.

“Jesus Alyia, I’m just putting our bags in here, I’m not carrying all of this across the Grove.” He arranges the bags in the back seats like some real-life game of Tetris. After another minute or so he finally shuts the car door and locks it.

“Okay I’m done, let’s go.” He puts his keys back by his belt and returns to my side.

“I haven’t been here in a while, so no promises on how clean it’ll be.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” He smiles at me briefly before focusing on walking through some reasonably tall grass.

The trail I normally use is more overgrown than what I used to walk through so as we walk, we use old trees to climb past different areas and our feet to stamp on brambles and stinging nettles. It is pitch-black outside by this point so we are using our phone’s flashlights to guide our way through the trail. Leaves hang down from nearby trees and I start to wish I brought my jacket with me.

I place my feet onto a tree stump and try to climb over a fallen branch, but when my weight switches feet, I slip on some moss and fall backwards from the stump. My phone drops from my hand and the flashlight goes into my eyes, making me close them. I place my hands back to support myself for when I hit the floor but I never do. Instead, a tight grip snakes around to the side my waist and upper back, slowly pushing my body back to stand straight.

“Woah woah, are you alright…” I open my eyes to see Matt looking down at me with concerned eyes. I can barely make it out since he dropped his phone and its flashlight instantly to catch me. His chain dangles above my face and once I stand up properly, he uses one of his hands to push his hair back, keeping the other on my waist.

“Uh huh…” I regain my focus and brush myself off and pick up our phones from the damp grass. “Thanks”

“Of course,” He takes his phone back, brushing off the debris, continuing to walk ahead of me and over the branch I just slipped on. “You need to be more careful, sweetheart.”

It’s that fucking nickname again.

-

“Here we are!” I run ahead of Matt and smile bright at the few houses on a quiet lit up street.

“Its still the same…” I smile to myself, remembering how I used to run around here.

“Yeah? I think it looks fucking awesome.” He circles around me looking at the few houses, clearly seeing a difference between the ones I fixed up and the ones I left.

“Really?”

“Really. Y’know…maybe one day we could fix one up?” I turn my head a little too quickly to face him, who was already smiling at me.

“You wanna? Like, for real?” He simply nods to me before walking off to look at one of the houses closest to us.

I run to catch up to him again and I grab his wrist to show him inside one of the houses. The inside walls occasionally spotted with carvings of names and dates, ripping through worn out wallpaper. Unfinished projects left abandoned, mostly within the kitchen. I pick up an old and now rusted hammer and spin it around in my hands, recalling the last use of it going towards a leg of an old chair that lay on its side next to it. A bittersweet smile covers my face the more I venture the house, with Matt always following right behind, dragging his fingers across old cabinets and cupboards.

“you guys did so much work in here…” He picks up old projects that remain unfinished and analyze them one by one, awe showing within his eyes. “Why did you ever stop this?”

“We stopped being as close I guess...nothing personal to one another, just different schools and points in our lives. I still have contact but no one really talks as much anymore.” I quiet my voice and sit down on one of the chairs and put down the hammer.

“None of us ever took that personally, we just drifted. Miss it all like hell though.”

Matt stays quiet for a moment, just looking at me with slight pity.

“That’s a shame, especially since nothing even happened that you could’ve changed.” The distance between us closes as I stand up again but I simply keep walking towards the bottom of the stairs before I slowly walk up them.

Matt pov:

I follow her up the stairs, stepping where she did in case any areas are weak enough to break, but once I put that focus into the decor upstairs, I stand still. The upstairs was so much nicer, covered in intact wallpaper and furniture that made it seem like someone actually lived there. More carvings were decorating the walls and less tools were on the floors. I take in more of what’s around me, admiring the hard work.

Hearing the stories about her old friends make me smile but also makes me wonder why she is more closed off to people now.

We start to wonder around the different areas that she decorated and I admire the craftsmanship and efforts they put in to it.

“We can chill up here if you want?” Alyia points to a balcony that is guarded by a wooden fence, a few old chairs are stacked up and leant against the glass door and I walk through.

“Can I ask why you took me here, not that I hate it or anything. Just…if this place reminds you of your friends, why bring me here.” Alyia’s face falters slightly and I feel bad for bringing them up.

“This place has many memories but I feel stuck whenever I come here, and I love this place. I don’t want to come back here and feel self-pity when I see those carvings on the walls.”

“I meant it by the way.”

“Meant what Matt?” I look up at her before looking over the edge and down onto the weakly lit street.

“Fixing a place up with you, could be fun.” I smile at her before looking back over the edge and laying my arms on the wooden fence, trying not to apply a lot of weight onto it.

“I have no idea if any of the lighting still works properly, a few faulty lights here and there but nothing major enough to set anything up properl-“

“So? We have already walked through here in the dark easily enough, besides we don’t have to come here only at night.”

I turn back to look inside the house but my vision is slightly impaired from looking at the street lights too long. I change my point of view and glance down to my phone to check the time.

9:24pm

“Shit, it’s kind of late, do you parents want you back at a certain time?” I message Chris and Nick an apology after seeing the copious number of texts and missed calls.

“Uhm no, I can be back whenever” She trails off and I remember the phone call she had at my place.

“Oh…is she not home again?” I receive a small nod in return.

“You can stay over if you want to?”

“No, it’s okay I have things to do anyway…” She avoids eye-contact with me but I try not to question anything

“Alright then, should we head back, I’m being attacked by Nick so much” I see her smile as I finish speaking and just stands up and starts to walk back to the stairs.

-

“Just here, okay?” I turn the wheel and look through my window for any parking on the edge of the road.

“Yeah, this is perfect, thanks again” She thanks me for the millionth time tonight.

“Kid, I’ve already said it’s okay to drive you places.” I finish parking which makes the car tilt slightly as it reaches over the curb.

“Goodnight Matt.”

“Yeah, goodnight.”

The drive back to my place was quite bleak, even when I turned aux on, none of the songs fit the mood I was in. Whatever that mood was. I just focused on the road ahead and the way the lights shone through my windshield and lit up areas in my car like a mini disco. I sigh when I hit another red light and pull the cable from my phone and I resort to the radio music. It immediately blares and I turn it down quickly to a volume quiet enough for some background audio.

I should hate you – Gracie Abrams

It was already half way through the song but I let it play none-the-less, letting the calm guitar fill the car. The quiet and soft vocals relaxed me and I was able to take a deep breath that didn’t result from frustration.

I notice the song fading out just as I pull into the road that I live on so I turn the radio off completely as to not ruin my mood, but as soon as I step inside it gets dampened anyway.

“Oh my God, Matt. Where were you!” I drop my keys into a small bowl and I instantly get bombarded by Nick’s concerned voice.

“Out.”

“Out? Is that all you have to say. You said you were revising the project until six and then you would be home. It is nearly half ten and this is the first we have heard from you!” he starts to exclaim and honestly, I can’t blame him for the way he is acting

“I went somewhere with Alyia…that’s all. I guess we lost track of time.” I mumble quietly, knowing I’m in the wrong but I’m not going to apologize for having a good time.

“I’m not saying you can’t hang out with people, just let us know, okay? It could be three am for all I care but as long as I have some form of communication. You had us worried…” Nick takes a deep breath and looks down to the floor.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve said something…Where is Chris?” I try and change the subject to lessen the amount I get yelled at.

“He’s asleep upstairs, he wanted to wait for you but he was exhausted after hockey so I refused to let him.”

I look up to Nick and give him a tight-lipped smile, feeling guilt twinge inside briefly.

“You better go have a shower or something, you’re covered in dirt, Matt.”

“Yeah, I will…sorry again.” Nick simply hugs me tight.

“It’s alright, just don’t let me stay up again.” He punches my arm lightly and we smile at each other.

© ENDEREIES 2024

@melliflws @axolotllover225 @yuhayeee @st7rnioioss @sturn-bugz @sturniolosmind @worldlxvlys @patscorner @breeloveschris @y0urm4m @bernardsbendystraws @junnniiieee07

[s4bbatical]

YOUR GIRL | Part 4. Patrick Zweig x Female!Reader

Pairing: Patrick Zweig x female!reader, Tashi Duncan x female!reader (platonic)

Summary: After your parents announce their divorce, you're sent to New York to pursue your passion for the arts at NYU. Your cousin, the infamous tennis player Tashi Duncan, introduces you to her insufferable colleagues at a house party in the upper east side. Already a sore thumb from rural Canada, Patrick can't help but find interest in an untouched territory.

Word Count: 5,5k

Warnings: Foul language, mention of cannabis.

MINORS DNI

Notes: The timeline is inaccurate in comparison to the film, this is an AU. All characters introduced are barely in their early 20s, unless stated otherwise. No use of y/n.

Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

CHAPTER FOUR: “Sutphin Boulevard”

"Believer - monologue exemplifies a lust. It's so true."

You didn't really like November.

The month between Halloween and Christmas was as useless as a trust fund kid hosting a charity event, which you did in fact have to attend with Tashi right after your exam week. Thankfully, you were not obligated to be present on campus besides exams and classes, giving you the excuse to not face your problems anywhere. You knew running away from it wouldn't last forever. However, it was the only thing you could do for now.

The first two weeks of November, Tashi and Chloe take turns spending time with you, making sure you weren't alone with your thoughts for too long. You tried to focus on your studies, excelling in them due to the lack of outside obstacles. You no longer wanted to attend gatherings as it was another way to run into him, only leaving your house if it was necessary.

Tashi had told your grandmother about the reason why you had taken the life of a hermit, so she gave you a position at her flower shop, thinking it would be nice to distract yourself from the noise.

All you could do was think about it, really. What you would do if he apologized, what would he say, and what would you say if he really wanted you. Or wanted nothing to do with you. You couldn't help it. You even made a pro and cons list on your phone when you were on the subway earlier that day, swearing to yourself as you thought you saw him sitting in the next cart over. It was not him. You weren't even in his neighborhood, for god's sake. It was you who had chose to cut contact with him, and you knew it was up to you if you wished to reconcile.

You stood behind the counter at work, busying yourself with bouquet assembly as Chloe wandered around the shop aimlessly.

"How many orders can you possibly get in one day?" Your best friend says, grabbing a lily and sniffing it before putting it back in it's place.

"The people are very grateful for Thanksgiving, you know." You say, tying up your 10th order of the afternoon. "If you're bored then you can help me out." You suggest to Chloe, who pretends to think in deep thought for a moment.

"I'm okay, thanks though." She smiles, taking bite of her shawarma wrap that she bought across the street. She had gotten you one as well, which you already devoured about an hour ago. "So," She starts speaking, swallowing her food. "You feel like coming out of hiding for the Manhattan holiday market? We could go skating, too. Tis the season!" She says in a sing-song voice, shimmying her shoulders.

You laugh, starting another order. "Yeah, sure. I used to be a figure skater when I was younger, actually." You admit, putting away the last order of the day.

"Seriously? How am I hearing about this now?" Chloe asks, taking another bite of her wrap.

You shrug. "I haven't done it since I graduated high school. My parents..." You trail off, recalling the pain and anger of the divorce. It tore your house apart. "They didn't wanna pay for it anymore." You simply say, smiling slightly.

Chloe nods, finishing her last bite. "Well then it's settled. When's your shift over?" She asks.

"Well... technically I'm done the orders for today, but I have to stay around for another two hours." You say, glancing at the time on your phone.

"That's fine. I'll just do my homework here then." She says, grinning. "That okay?"

"Course, Chloe. You know I appreciate your company, I love ya." You say, deciding to pull out your new read from your bag.

"Awe, I love you too." She giggles. She takes a moment before speaking again. "Have you.. heard from him at all?" She asks timidly.

You frown slightly, your heart dropping. "No. Why?"

"Oh, okay." Chloe says, fiddling with her hands. "He asked me about you the other day." She looks up at you. "He's really sorry about what happened, you know."

"Good, he better be." You say curtly, tucking your hair behind your ear.

"I think you should talk to him." Chloe says abruptly. "I-I know you don't want to see him and you know I don't like the guy." She laughs before continuing. "But he looked devastated dude. Like, really upset that I wouldn't tell him anything about you." She says, pursing her lips with a sympathetic look. She stares at you, but you say nothing. "Just think about it, okay? It might be nice for you guys to resolve things. I know you're not happy about it either." She says.

"Yeah, I will." You say flatly, trying to focus on your novel. "I have more important things to do than think about that."

"Sorry but, were you there when you literally complained about it for half an hour over margaritas for movie night two days ago?" She recalls, raising a brow.

You shift your body from one foot to the other. "I was drunk, everyone complains about stupid shit when they're drunk." You argue, trying to read your book.

Chloe scoffs. "You're really stubborn, you know that?" She says, closing your book.

"Hey I was reading that!" You say, glaring at her.

"You can't keep avoiding him forever." Chloe says sternly. She sighs when she sees you frown. "I'm sorry, I just care about you a lot dude. I don't want you to keep feeling this way. You care about him, and he cares about you too. I can tell." She says softly, crossing her arms.

You hold your face in your hands, groaning like an overstimulated child. "If it'll make you happy," You throw your arms out in defeat. "I'll talk to him! Fine!" You exclaim.

"Thank you! Finally!" Chloe exasperates, mirroring your actions. "Jesus, Tashi owes me twenty dollars." She breathes out.

You gasp. "You guys betted on me?!"

Chloe stammers. "I-I uh, nooo..." You squint your eyes at her. "...Yes?" She squeaks. "Please don't be mad! We both wanted this to be over with!" She explains, holding your arms. "It's out of love."

A customer then walks in, causing the both of you to go quiet.

"We'll talk about this later." You mutter. "Hello! Welcome!" You greet the customer warmly. "Can I interest you in our Thanksgiving arrangements?"

-

"Do you think I should get this ornament for her? She likes cats." Chloe asks, holding up a felt ornament that resembled an orange tabby cat.

"You've literally been on one date." You point out.

"And? Have you ever heard of lesbianism?" Chloe retorts, putting the decoration back down.

"I thought you were all for breaking stereotypes, not becoming the definitive version of one." You jest, looking around.

Before hitting the rink, you and Chloe decided to see the Christmas market in downtown Manhattan. The various different stalls of gifts and treats galore were very alluring, but god was it expensive. You had decided to buy a hot coco the size of your hand made from pure chocolate, and that alone was creating a dent in your wallet.

"God Christ everything is so expensive." You say, although you knew your statement didn't make any difference. Most of the vendors were trying to make an income, it wasn't their fault. Well, for the most part at least.

"That's what makes it a New York Christmas, baby." Chloe states, doing some weird shake with her hands that resembled jazz hands.

"The closest thing we had to this back at home was my next door neighbor selling mulled wine for ten dollars." You explain flatly. "Capitalism is a beautiful thing." You hum, already finishing your hot chocolate. "I already finished my three ounce drink, what a pity." You say sarcastically, discarding it in a nearby bin.

"Let's just go skating then. I'm kind of over this too." Chloe says, rubbing her hands together. "Fuck my hands are cold." She complains, breathing on them heavy to warm them up.

"Didn't I remind you to pack gloves like four times this morning?" You recount, pulling out a spare pair from your messenger bag. "Take these."

"How would I survive with you?" Chloe says, kissing your cheek gingerly.

You grimace, wiping your cheek. "I'm surprised you haven't died yet, to be honest." You joke, the both of you laughing.

-

The two of you make it to the Wollman rink in Central Park, and to no surprise, had to buy admission.

"I can't believe it costed ten dollars to skate for an hour." You complain, tying up your rental skates.

Chloe doesn't respond right away, distracted by texting someone on her phone. You clear your throat.

"Huh?" She says looking up from her phone and putting it away in her pocket. "What were you saying?"

"Nevermind man." You say, dismissing your statement.

The two of you climb onto the ice, only taking a few strides before your skills came back to you. You held back a laugh as Chloe's legs wobbled, unable to let go of the railing.

"Chloe, it's not that hard I promise. Just push yourself forward." You say, reaching out to her. "You can hold onto me if you want!"

"Fuck no, I'm chill." She states firmly, putting a hand up. "Just give me some time to warm up. Go do some laps or something." She reassures, gesturing for you to go ahead.

"Alright then." You shrug, turning away. You glide gracefully across the ice, feeling the spirit of the holidays warm you up as Last Christmas By Wham! plays over the speakers. You're doing forward and backward spins, overjoyed by the reconnection of your old passion. You're grinning madly as you smoothly skate between people, nearby children very entertained by your moves.

You try to find Chloe, who seems to have disappeared. Confused, you slow down your pace, yet keep gliding in circles. You turn and face one of the entrances to the ice, seeing the last person you'd ever expect to.

Patrick is standing there, watching you from the edge of the rink.

You forget how to stop yourself, causing the loss of balance. Before you realize what's happening, you've landed on your back. You groan loudly as the ice makes contact with your body, knowing you were going to feel it tomorrow. "Shit." You whisper, wincing as you sit up and hold your head. That's what you get for being too cocky with your strides.

You hear the scuffling of shoes beside you, looking up to make eye contact with Patrick.

He looks at you with concern, a sheepish smile on his face. "If I was supposed to catch you, I did not get the memo." He jokes, offering a hand.

You glare at him, getting up by yourself and ignoring his offer to help. "Why are you here?" You ask passive aggressively, skating past him to step off the ice.

"To talk to you!" He exclaims, trying to keep pace with you. He nearly slips at least three times before stepping off the rink.

You're flustered, and very annoyed with his presence. "Well, you've spoken! You may leave now." You say bitterly, walking over to the worker in charge of shoe rentals in order to get your boots back.

"No, don't do this right now." Patrick pleas. He awkwardly waits for you as you ignore him, retrieving your shoes then sitting down on a bench to change out your skates. "Chloe said you wanted to talk, so I came here." He admits, crouching in front of you to meet your eyes. He places a hand on your knee.

You glare at him. "Chloe told you to come here? No wonder she was on her phone so much." You mutter, taking off your skates and also knocking off his touch from your knee.

"Can we please go somewhere else and talk?" He asks, nearly begging you on his knees. You continue to pretend you don't hear him, putting on your shoes then getting up to hand over your skates to the worker, thanking him.

"You can't ignore me forever." Patrick exasperates, getting up and following you as you start walking away from the rink.

"Where's Chloe?" You ask yourself, looking around for your friend.

"She's with Art," Patrick explains. You finally look at him, confused. "He came with me." He says.

You roll your eyes, readjusting your scarf as the two of you continue to walk through the park. You finally decide to sit down on a nearby bench, allowing space for Patrick to sit beside you. You didn't feel like walking away from him anymore.

He does so hesitantly, looking at you from the corner of his eye. "We've both been avoiding each other," He says calmly, sighing. "I don't understand why."

You stay quiet, looking forward.

"Are you choosing to become a mute right now?" He asks, still no response from you. "Fine, alright then." He says, leaning back against the bench. "I've missed this, you know. Your stubbornness." He says, now looking right at you, the side of your face at least. "And you." He adds quietly.

You then finally look at him, your heart skipping a beat as the two of you make eye contact. "Anything else?" You say flatly, as if it was obvious that he would miss someone as great as you.

Patrick scoffs, laughing as well. "Nope, that's it." He jokes, sitting up straight. "I um, I wanted to apologize." His tone switches, sounding very sincere. "What happened last month was very out of line, and I shouldn't have done what I did. I guess I didn't like the fact that your attention wasn't on me for some selfish reason, but that doesn't mean I should've kissed you." He admits, sighing. "That was very uncool, and I shouldn't have led you on like that." He finishes.

You look down at the ground for a moment, taking in his words. You wanted to tell him that you wish he'd kiss you like he meant it, not that he was being selfish and thinking with his groin. You knew what was best, and feeling a little hesitant about accepting his apology.

"Can you please say something?" He says quietly, frowning at you slightly.

You look back up at him. "I'm not sure what you want me to say." You mumble, tucking a loose piece of hair behind your ear. "I have been thinking this over a lot, you know." You look up at him. "I'm also sorry for how I reacted. You didn't deserve for me to just cut you off without explanation." You reason.

Patrick smiles weakly at you. "Don't apologize please. I deserved that. Made me more insightful if anything." He tries to joke, shrugging his shoulders.

"Yeah, you needed that more than most." You joke, nudging Patrick. He chuckles slightly. "I forgive you." You finally say, smiling at him. "I-"

"But-" He starts to say.

"Sorry, go ahead." You say.

"No, you first." He insists.

You nod, taking a moment. You're grateful for his apology, that is evident. However, you have to make a decision for the better. You're not just looking to fill the void of what you thought could've been, but rather to move forward in a healthy way. If he didn't feel the same, it wasn't worth confessing to anything.

"I want us to be friends, Patrick." You say adamantly, looking at Patrick for a response. You watch as his face falters, quickly covering it up with a meek smile.

"I think that's a good idea, yeah." He says, although not sounding very confident in his own words.

You search in his face whether or not he was lying. You couldn't read him, you were never good at it. "You don't sound so sure of yourself." You say, laughing awkwardly.

Patrick shakes his head, smiling even more. "Sorry, I am. I want us to be friends." He says affirmatively, although he wasn't sure if he was just saying out loud to convince himself.

"Good." You smile. "I missed you too, dumbass." You say, raising your hand for a high five.

Patrick stares at you for a moment, laughing before smacking your hand with his own. "You're so fucking weird."

You gasp. "What? I'm not a big hugger." You say in defense.

"That's fine." Patrick says, sticking his hands in his pockets and leaning back. "I didn't wanna hug you anyways." He shrugs.

You eye him closely for a few moments before going in, hugging him from the side hastily. His eyes widen, letting your warmth fill him up before he slowly hugs you back. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he really liked the sensation of getting a hug from you, even if it was against your own wishes.

-

A few days later, Patrick is spending the night at your place. You had both met up to do homework together earlier that day, you suggesting if he wanted to come over to watch some comedy movies together.

"How is a sheet of moist supposed to make my skin look better? I feel like a snail has ran across it." Patrick asks monotonously, trying not to move his face so much.

You both were wearing sheet masks that resemble cartoonish animals, managing to convince him to do some self care together to rewind on a Sunday evening.

"Wait, don't move." You pull your phone out and take a photo of him.

He simply stares up at you from the desk chair.

"Oh Jesus." You say, laughing manically as you look back at the photo. Your facemask starts coming off, deciding to discard it entirely.

"What? Do I not look beautiful like you promised?" Patrick asks, feigning being upset. He also takes off his mask, throwing it away.

"You look just fine, now hold on."You exit your room and grab a face towel from the bathroom, dabbing the excess moisturizer before returning to your room and handing it over to him. "I also have a gua sha I'm gonna use on your face, is that okay?" You ask.

He furrows his brows at you, dabbing his own face now. "A what now?" He says, utterly confused by the item he's never heard of before.

You retrieve your gua sha from your desk drawer. "It's to de-puff your face and make sure you have good circulation. I'll be gentle, I promise." You say in a taunting manner, grabbing ahold of his chin to tilt his face up towards you.

He stares at you as you glide the rose quartz stone across his face slowly, focusing on his bone structure. "It feels cold." He whispers, staring into your eyes a little too intensely.

"It's supposed to feel good, Patrick." You tell him.

"It does." He simply says, keeping eye contact with you. The both of you stare at each other for a moment as your movements cease.

You clear your throat, walking away to sit at your vanity and use the gua sha on yourself. "This is what a lot of women do every day, you know." you say matter-of-factly.

"Why? It makes no sense. These extra serums and shit, it's like witchcraft or something." He mumbles, his face flushed red. You assume you may have put too much pressure on his skin, not that he was flustered in any way. No, surely not. "All women are beautiful." He states, moving over to your bed.

"I know you think that, most of them can't escape your wrath." You say smugly, putting away your skincare.

"What? You jealous or something?" He says playfully, laying on his side with his arm holding up his head. "You had your chance."

"Oh how will I ever live?" You sigh dramatically. "Oh right, peacefully." You remark, getting up to join him on your bed.

Patrick sticks his tongue out at you in response.

"Very mature, Zweig." You say, leaning against the headboard as you grab the remote and turn on a streaming service.

"Have you seen the new Thor movie yet?" He asks, sitting up to lean his back against the wall.

"Nope, why you ask?" You say, putting on Glee.

He groans. "Glee? Seriously? You're just like my sister."

"It's fun! just watch a few episodes with me."

"I have no options, I know." He says in defeat. "But I was wondering if you wanted to see Thor on Friday." He asks.

You almost say yes, but realize very quickly that you were unavailable, because of a date. "I can't, sorry. I'm actually already going to the movies with someone else." You say, shrugging as you focus on the television.

The day after you and Patrick reconciled, a very attractive man you recognized from campus came into your work. He hung around for an hour, simply conversating with you before asking you out on a date later on in the week. His name was Seth.

"And who's more important than me?" He says, pointing to himself.

"If you must know, I have a date." You state, grabbing your diet coke off the coaster and taking a sip.

Patrick smirks, eyeing you closely. "Ooh, a date. With who?"

"Does it matter?" You quip. "It's just some guy."

"It can't be just some guy if you, the pickiest person of all time, said yes to him." Patrick states, poking your leg. "Just tell me! Maybe I know the guy."

You purse your lips before deciding to tell him. "His name is Aaron, he studies Art History at school."

"Hmm, doesn't ring a bell. Sounds like a total fucking nerd if you ask me." He mumbles, turning his head to face the television.

"Well good thing I didn't, Patrick." You say in annoyance.

"Why are you always so defensive? I'm just asking you a question." He whines, tilting his head back.

Sorry, I just didn't think you'd care so much." You say, repositioning yourself.

"I'm your friend, I think it's fair give a shit about you sometimes." He argues. "Especially if you're dating randos."

"He's not a rando, I met him at work. Not on the internet mom." You say sarcastically, causing Patrick to laugh in response.

"Still, he could be a weirdo and you just don't know it yet." He tries to explain, speaking mainly with his hands. "He could lead you to a vacant parking lot at midnight then kill you, or other evil things." He says.

"You're starting to sound like those podcasts you've been listening to. Fucking relax." You say firmly. "Nothing is gonna happen. He's taking me to see Gravity at the movies and that is all. Dinner too, I think. I don't know where because he's surprising me." You simply state.

"Gravity? I thought you had a fear of space." Patrick says quizzically, furrowing his brows.

"Well I tried suggesting that remake of Carrie, but he hates horror movies." You admit.

"But you love horror movies?" Patrick says rhetorically, scoffing. "He already sounds like a horrible match, maybe I'm just crazy though." He says, putting his hands up before clasping them together in his lap.

"If I didn't know you already, I'd say you're jealous." You mutter.

Patrick reaches over you, taking the remote and pausing the television. "I'm not." He says firmly. "I just don't want you to waste your time on someone not worthwhile and you're ignoring the fact."

"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" You snap, laughing out of annoyance. "It's just a fucking date, it's not like I'm gonna marry the guy. Christ Patrick." You exclaim, standing up from your bed.

Patrick sighs. "I know, I know." He says. "Calm down, you're taking my word too seriously!" He argues, staying on your bed.

"Just drop it, okay? I don't wanna talk about it anymore. Clearly it's a sensitive topic for some reason."

"It's not! God, no it's not." Patrick tries to reason. "I'm sorry, it's not that serious. I just care about you."

You glare at him, crossing your arms. "You mean it?"

"I mean it." He heavily accentuates. "I hope it goes well, for your sake." He says.

"Yeah, me too." You say, although now unsure of yourself. "Me too." You whisper to yourself.

-

It's Friday, November 29th. The cusp of the true holiday season, and the end of a drought for your romantic conquests.

The date was going great, incredible even. The two of you got along swell, and any worries you had about him has dissipated as the night went on. You and Aaron just had some Italian dinner at a restaurant a block away, and had just set foot into the movie theatre. It was small, but had its unique charm that has stood against time.

"You excited for the movie? It has great reviews so far." He grins, hand in hand with you.

"I'm not great with space stuff to be honest, but I'm stoked nonetheless." You admit, smiling shyly.

"Really?" Aaron's eyes widen. "You should've told me, we don't have to see it..." He says, halting the two of you in front of the snack counter.

"No, it's fine. It's not a bother." You say, smiling.

The two of you are now in the screening room, waiting patiently as advertisements cross over the screen. Aaron is already eating his popcorn, and you're scrolling aimlessly on your phone. You see a new Instagram post from Patrick, recognizing the photo had been taken by you.

pat_zweig 【┘】 4 hr

❤︎‬ 213 likes, 9 comments

pat_zweig: naughty or nice?

You laugh quietly to yourself, leaving a comment on his post.

loverg1rl: you're getting coal in your stocking. photo creds btw? hello

You put away your phone, turning it off as the movie begins. You can't help but redirect your thoughts over to Patrick, wondering if he was enjoying his evening. Maybe you'd be watching Thor: The Dark World with him, and enjoying it a lot more than the motion sickness you're about to endure due to the outer space set up.

You start thinking about how this date would go if it was with Patrick instead, finding yourself slowly imagining him instead of Aaron. You knew it was bad, horrible even. You couldn't help yourself, he's left such an impact on you since you moved to the big apple.

Patrick Zweig was something you could not have, no matter how much you wish you could. It was pointless, everything would end in flames if you tried. Why not? You'd ask yourself, but why? You also say.

You look over at Aaron, smiling when he makes eye contact with you. Without thinking, you lean in and kiss him. He kisses you back, and it feels wonderful. This is how it's supposed to be; no pain, just pleasure. You ignore the feeling that you're forcing yourself, you just aren't used to Aaron yet.

You'll learn to like someone else, even if they're not who you really want.

The movie ends. You find yourself outside with Aaron, the cold air engulfing the two of you.

"That was insane, maybe of my favorite movie of the year." Aaron says, smiling wildly.

"It was good, yeah." You say casually, checking your phone. Patrick texted you, his name saved as the one he put in your phone as.

Patrick the Almighty: how's the date? i'm at art's. chloe's here, we're watching glee. thinking of you

You smile fondly at your screen.

"How are you getting home tonight?" Aaron asks, taking your attention away from your phone.

"Oh, my cousin is picking me up." You say, putting your phone in your pocket.

"I see, the tennis star right?" He says, referring to your conversation from dinner.

"Yes, the tennis star." You laugh. "I'm sleeping over at her house, so." You add.

"That's very cute, I haven't had a sleepover with my cousins since I was a kid." Aaron says, looking off to the side for a moment before returning his gaze to you. "I can wait with you, if that's okay." He suggests.

"Sure, I'd like that a lot actually." You say, grinning madly.

"Do you mind if I smoke?" Aaron asks, pulling out a pack of what you presumed to be cigarettes.

"Go ahead, I smoke too." You say.

"Weed?" He asks, almost giddy to hear you say it.

"Oh, no... cigarettes." You say sheepishly.

"Oh!" He says, raising his brows. "These are joints, sorry." He says, referring to the pack in his hands. He takes one and sticks it in his mouth. "Is that alright still?"

"Yeah, course. I've had it a few times before, back in Canada." You say, zipping up your jacket as the cold breeze creeps under your blouse.

He nods, lighting up the joint. "Did you... Want some?" He asks, inhaling then exhaling the joint.

You stand in silence for a moment, debating. "Yeah, sure."

He hands the joint over, allowing you to take hold of it.

You bring it to your mouth and inhale, holding it like a cigarette. You exhale, coughing a few times but holding your composure. "Fuck. That shit bites." You wince, taking another hit before handing it back to him.

Aaron laughs, taking the joint back gingerly. A vehicle pulls up beside the two of you, Tashi revealed in the driver's seat as the window rolls down.

"Gotta go." You say, tilting your head towards the car. "I'll see you, yeah?" You grin, giving Aaron a wink as you open the passenger seat.

"Yeah, see you." He says, inhaling his joint and giving you a small wave before you close the door.

"Well well well," Tashi grins, driving away. "He's fucking hot." She says, tapping on the wheel in sync with the music.

"Oh, I know." You say, the joint taking over your senses. "I smoked weed with him." You say abruptly, giggling profusely.

"Are you high?" Tashi asks, gasping as a smirk grows on her face.

"Mmm, a little." You grin, pressing your cold hands to your warm cheeks.

"You must've had a good time then." She laughs, looking over at you quickly. "My mom has some news to tell us once we get to the house, so I hope you can keep it together."

"What?" You gasp, turning to face Tashi. "What is it? Tell me now!" Your urge, grabbing her arm.

"Hey, I'm driving!" She exclaims, swatting your arm away.

"Sorry, sorry!" You apologize, sitting back in your seat. "Is it to celebrate your exam results?" You ask, your stomach grumbling. "I'm hungry." You whisper.

Tashi laughs profusely, trying to hold it together for the rest of the ride. "Well, kind of. It's to celebrate us both." She says, her smile never leaving her face.

"Can we go to Mcdonalds? I want a happy meal." You say, rolling the window down.

"It's cold! Don't do that!" Tashi warns, rolling the window back up with her driver control.

"But I'm too hot!" You exasperate.

Tashi groans, turning off the heat in the car. "You're too high." She argues, turning into the closest Mcdonalds.

-

You enter the Duncan household with Tashi, managing to sober up a bit after your nugget meal and finishing off the bottle of water your cousin keeps in the car as always.

"Mom! We're here!" Tashi yells, leading you into the living room.

Diane and Mike were sitting on the couch, Diane with a book and Mike with amaretto on the rocks, his usual. The radio plays in the distance.

"Hello girls." Diane grins, putting her book down. "How was the date?" She asks you directly, catching you off guard.

"Oh, it was great, yeah." You say quietly, looking down at your hands.

"He's very nice to look at, and seems to be very nice mom. He's good friends with Emeline, from my ethics class." Tashi adds, sitting down in a nearby armchair. You quickly sit down as well.

"Has Tashi told you the big news yet?" Diane grins, clasping her hands together.

"Erm, no. No yet... What's going on?" You ask, giggling awkwardly.

"We are going... To Italy!" She exclaims, waiting for your reaction.

You gasp, covering your mouth with your hands. "No fucking way!" You exclaim, cheering with Tashi.

"We're going with Michelle and her family, we hadn't gone travelling together since we were in college so..." Diane adds, watching both of your faces falter slightly.

"Michelle? As in the Zweigs?" You ask, mouth slightly agape. You quickly pull out your phone to text back Patrick.

"Yes, that Michelle." Diane says, laughing. She notices the look on your faces. "That's fine, right? You're both good friends with Patrick I figured it was okay?" She says.

You: we're going to fucking italy????

He texts you back instantly.

Patrick the Almighty: my mom just called me about it. isn't this fucking awesome??

You forcibly smile towards Diane, still a bit too high to comprehend it. "No, it's great." You say through gritted teeth, exchanging worried glances with Tashi.

Great. Fucking awesome.

-

this took awhile sorry guys,,,,, ive been watching rivals and my mind is running with ideas. see you in the next one!

[izicodes]

Anonymous ask came through | My story

I accidently deleted their ask, so I'll answer it here

Someone messaged anonymously me saying I was privileged to get the apprenticeship and that I shouldn't be sharing tips on my blog about Junior Developer roles since I’m “experienced” (I've only worked for 1 year and 5 months which my apprenticeship lasted for one year).

The anonymous person mentioned they have been studying for 6 months and still haven't found a tech job or the job they wanted. They mentioned that I shouldn't be making posts and share tips because I'm at a privalge position coming from attending an apprenticeship and I don't relate to what they're struggling with - to that I'm sorry it's been hard for you, I wouldn't wish that for anyone studying entirely on their own. please keep trying, don't give up.

But what the anonymous person doesn't know is how hard things were for me and my family for many years to even get me to where I am today.

I am privileged to be in the UK to be able attend school, privileged to get accepted into an apprenticeship after doing two exams for it but:

I come from a family who were classed as "very low income" by the government for many years and only recently we broke out of that.

I learnt HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python on my own before the apprenticeship gave lessons on it and by then I already knew the topics.

The apprenticeship didn’t teach me Git or GitHub or how to set up VS Code or Visual Studio - I taught myself online.

I learnt SQL and C# from YouTube because the teacher was so bad at explaining things.

I only passed the two required exams for the apprenticeship after failing 3 times - which I posted about it on my blog.

I taught myself the tech I use today, the apprenticeship did was secure me a job and having a Lead Web Developer to shadow, though he had his own projects he was busy on.

When I realised the apprenticeship wasn’t going to teach me everything I needed to learn for my tech career, I joined and completed a free online night coding bootcamp from the government and studied for 16 weeks whilst having the apprenticeship and work to attend to.

All I do on my blog, my little tiny corner of the internet, is share my progress, tips through tutorials, write posts about a topic I learnt recently and share information I get from attending those career masterclasses that free for people to join in the UK. I want to help people, not to flaunt my success. I’ve failed lots of times and posted about them on here - exams, work projects and even my own personal projects.

I may not be a self-taught with no experience and suddenly got a great tech job that the anonymous messenger wanted me to, but I’m still going to share my experience and tips that might help people out their own their own coding journey (that’s why I end some of my posts with “I hope this helps someone out there”). If you’re looking for someone that is self-taught and got a successful tech job from no previous experience, I don't think I am that person for you to follow, there would be no point following my blog because I got the role through an apprenticeship - the job was not secure though as I had to pass or they would have fired me.

So, I apologise to the anonymous person who messaged me who looked at my blog and was upset with me sharing tips on coding and it seemed like I came from that specific background they wanted me to be. However, I won’t stop sharing posts, beacuse someone out there might appreciate them and if no one does, that’s 100% a-okay! My blog is also a record of my coding journey and I’m not going to stop! :D

All I do is to make my Dad proud. Through things didn't go well for him over the years, I hope that when he sees me, he's proud and felt like after everything, I was worth it.

My family consisted of a single dad with two daughters since late 2000s UK. Mother left because she didn’t want the responsibility of looking after me and my sister. My father gave up everything to solely look after us - that meant not getting a job. We were in the benefits system for years after years, only in 2021 did we end it completely, so basically two years ago. I didn’t have much growing up and I mean the bare minimum. The only games I had were The Sims 3 base game and games on my Nokia brick.

The benefits money he got, he tried to get me and my sister to a private school just for us to see what it was like, but it only lasted a year before he realised the money was not enough. Dad made me and my sister really study hard to get into an all-girls independent school - a school where you have to take exams to get in. I took those exams and got into the school in 2013. When dad saw the confirmation letter, he cried. All his hard work was paying off. That inspired him to try university out, doing computer science.

It was when I finished secondary school I got my first iPhone in 2018 from Dad as a “well done for completing your GCSEs” gift. However, I didn’t do good enough to do the subjects I wanted to go and do medicine, so I had to switch my course from Biology, Chemistry and Maths to English Language, Combined Science and Economics. I’m grateful for economics, made me understand the government and the world a bit more (and understand what the hell news was talking about most of the time)!

I was failing. Miserably. I was pressured from my school to retake the year, so my dad advised me to quit and join a community college instead. In there they let me to my 3 subjects to do Medicine at university. However, I was failing again, had health issues which lead to me having to quit school early. I never completed my A-Levels. I was stuck for months doing nothing when I decided to get a call centre job. Liked it but last for only 3 months. I was inspired to learn programming again but properly so I can get a job. I realised how hard for self-taught beginner programmers to get a job, and I knew I would be in the mix but my dad was already struggling at home and I needed money fast to help him.

I started looking for apprenticeships even if it doesn’t pay similarliy to a full time job, it’s something to help dad. I was still of age to apply to the ones I kept seeing so I applied to a bunch. No answer. I kept learning Python and JavaScript and applied more. Then one came back saying they wanted an interview. They didn’t tell me the first interview was going to be an exam?! Last an hour and a half and then they talked to me afterwards. Got another interview with them - exam. And the last was talking to one of the partners of the company.

When I told my Dad I got the apprenticeship, he cried again. I knew he felt like I was failing left right and centre and he was a little bit losing hope on me, but for everything he’s done for me and my sister, I couldn’t let him down. And guess what my Dad did when I told him I completed my apprenticeship last month? Yep, he cried.

And I thank the gods and the universe everyday for the opportunity I was given to have done an apprenticeship because I can help my family more as I do have people here and around the world who depend on me and want me to suceed, so I will take every chance and opportunity I can get.

Dad said "If you're entitled to it, grab it. Any opportunty, grab it. You never know when it'll come back to greet you again"

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

OK EVERYONE WANNA HEAR ABOUT THE BULLSHIT I'VE GONE THROUGH THIS WEEK

I've talked to some of y'all but yeah it's fucking insane.

So two days ago, I got my essay back. And it was flagged, because they thought I was cheating. They thought I was using AI.

I got extremely anxious, sad, mad, and confused. Because I have never used AI. Everything in that essay is my own words. If there's something that is ”weird” in it… then guess what! That’s on me! Maybe I misinterpreted a text! But I cited everything, quoted, put page references… everything has been backed up.

I’m gonna have a meeting next week where I’m gonna basically ”tell my side of the story”, and then they’ll decide if they will see it as cheating or not.

Then my class’s group chat suddenly blew up, when one person wrote ”hey… did you also get a weird message from the teacher about your essay?” and everyone replied ”I thought it was only me! I have a meeting next week!” ”Yep! They thought I was cheating!”

Several people talked about how they got panic attacks, how they got afraid this would lead them to become suspended and lose their student loans. Only to then hear that every other person has gotten this same message, meaning that it CLEARLY has to do with the school’s correcting system or with the teacher doing something wrong…

Some people had also done some make-up works if they missed a seminar, which was smaller texts on around 100 words. Everyone that had done make-up works for that very teacher had also gotten back that ”your text is shallow and looks like AI” (Yeah it’s 100 words??? Of course it’s shallow??)

We all wondered, doesn’t the teacher find it odd that EVERY SINGLE PERSON has gotten the same message? That everyone has apparently ”cheated”? We also found out that another class she has also all of them have gotten the same message. And this teacher conveniently WENT ON VACATION directly after this so we can’t contact her (it was a planned vacation since beforehand but it was terrible timing).

These things do not happen! There’s an avarage line. Let’s say there’s a class of 25 people. On normal, around 5 get the highest grade level, around 17-18 pass on different levels and then maybe 2-3 fail. My class is 11 people. What are the odds that EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. US. Has been accused of cheating?

We have went to complain on the student board, and they’ve had a meeting with our insitute’s study principal. Today me and 4 other people went to the study principal and went through with our complaints.

We talked about how odd this is, how we want answers and also how we feel like we’ve lost our trust with this teacher now. The study principal was like ”oh don’t feel that! She has nothing against you, she’s just correcting your essays!”

But the worst thing she said... was that even if it turns out we did not cheat... all of us have still failed and will now have to do a re-exam.

ALL OF US HAVE FAILED BECAUSE THEY THOUGHT WE CHEATED. AND WILL STILL MAKE A RE-EXAM EVEN THOUGH IT TURNS OUT WE HAVE NOT CHEATED.

We are now trying to find a way to complain and try to make them reread our essays. We also have "individual meetings" next thursday and we have talked if we should just go everyone at once. Why should we have to have it alone?!

So yeah. This has all really been taken on our mental healths, to be wrongfully accused of this, and the school does not seem to find it odd?! Some people as I mentioned literally got panic attacks over it, today when we informed everyone else that everyone will have to take a re-exam, some even had to go out to cry for a moment. I'm so tired, and I just wanna focus on my fics and art and watch silly shows and not deal with this shit.

[blankwashed]

Sleepless Shadows (Part 3)

Chapter: I II III IV V VI VII

Recap: Satoru hugged your waist to try and bring you down. "It's okay it's no big deal. Just finish your meal and we'll be on our way okay? I don't like how people are looking at us with their judgmental eyes," he says to your ears.

You nod your head and try to finish your meal without getting stomach pains.

“All done?” Satoru looks at you after you slurped up the last bit from the stew, with a slight smile on his face.

You nod and try to bow your head to him as respect but he lifted your chin up.

“It’s fine darling, you can repay me in other ways. Like scoring a good score on our coming exams, okay?” He crooned, with a slight smirk on his lips.

Your face was red again as you were thinking of other ways you could repay him, ways that he will be gripping onto your hair, pushing you closer to him-. What?

“He’s just my lecturer, this is unethical as he says,” The thought nestled in your mind as you let out a sigh. If only you were a few years older, if only you were his type, if only you met him outside of class, if only-

His lips were glistening after he licked his lips, a bad habit of his.

“Let’s get back to the car, y/n.” He said, with a gleam in his eyes.

“Mm..” you didn’t want to go back home. You wanted to spend more time with him even though your body was crying out for sleep at this point, especially after eating so much at this time at night.

You dragged your feet to the passenger’s seat of his car which does not open for you this time, and you wondered why. As many times as you try to open the door, it won't budge. That's strange, it was fine before.

"Mr. Gojo? W-Why does my side of the door not work anymore? Could you help me from your side?"

Satoru quickly comes to you as he sees that you're having a dilemma. When he reaches the car, he pats his pockets and his face turned pale.

"Oh shit…" He swore, quite loudly. When the gears in your brain clicked, you realised. He left the car keys inside the car.

"Shit shit shit," He continued swearing with a worrisome face, which was quite different from his usual respected teacher-self. This did not help the situation at all as you didn't know what you could do.

"Shit, everyone is probably still sleeping and I don't want to wake them up…" He mumbles under his breath, still with a worried face.

You bit your lip, equally as worried but not so as you would be stranded with your favourite lecturer. Besides, you don't have classes the next day.

"Sir, I know this isn't the appropriate timing but I don't think you have classes tomorrow either. This predicament that we've gotten ourselves into is not really that bad? I'm sure you could call a tow truck or professionals to get your car opened tomorrow. " You try to make Satoru not worry that much, besides, you're sure that he's not married, right? No one would be waiting for him at home, right?

"I know, I know I just thought this night was going to be perfect, you know? Just me and you and-" He stops himself from continuing as he worries that he might scare you off.

Shucks, you were blushing. It was a chilly night, no doubt but you just felt that it was summer on your cheeks.

"I'm sorry, y/n. I should've known better and as your lecturer this mistake is very unacceptable for me to make," Satoru looks down at his feet while talking to you, as if he's a teenager again which you find quite cute.

"No big deal, sir. Anyways, I noticed that there's a motel nearby while we were driving here. We can sleep there for tonight, what do you think about that?" You adjusted your eyes onto his, making sure he's not sad anymore.

It took Satoru some time till he answered you.

"Sure, let's go get a room."

this was due weeks ago, ive just been really busy with uni and when im not busy, im either sleeping or playing games ;_; its sunday today and tomorrow i'll be back in uni grinding for i dont even know what lol.

[acradelius]

Uhm, hey!

Sorry if this place is not the right place to drop requests, but oh well, here we go...

Could you do some NSFW Zenyatta with the Sunyatta skin x male reader (preferably, if you vam) with Zen being dominant hehe. I'm really intrigued to see how you would write him, Sunyatta is just hnnngh- sooo good! Some smut with Zen's best friend would be much appreciated! ;)

PS. I have a massive crush on Sunyatta's claws a-and I'd love for you to include them, anyhow you want! <3

"I AM YOUR GOD"

Fandom: Overwatch / Overwatch 2

Pairing: "Sunyatta" (Tekhartha Zenyatta) x M!Reader

Rating: Lemon [🟡] (NSFW!)

Warnings/Mention Ofs: College Student! Reader, Human x Omnic Relations, Religious Aspects/Themes, Worshipping, Praise, Implied Manipulation, Obsessive Themes, Submissive Male Reader, Dominant Zenyatta, Slight Oral Fixation, Omnic Receiving! Blowjob, Robotic Cock Attachment, Claws, Scratching, Causing Wounds, Bleeding, Profanities, Orgasm, "Open"/Closed Ending

Word Count: 1,764 Words

Author's Note: robo dick robo dick robo dick

 There was something about studying abroad from the country you’ve spent your whole life growing up and living in, that was definitely something that (Y/N) could agree with. There was something about being able to wander throughout the bustling streets of Cairo, Egypt, taking the miraculous sights of the cultural events happening throughout the town, tasting the amazing exotic food that trying to describe the taste was just so difficult from how good it tasted. There was just something about going out to those night activities with some buddies from the university and leaving Cairo, sneaking into some ancient ruins of Giza Plateau, which started to make (Y/N) feel somewhat anxious about getting caught, and ending up awakening an ancient god from his slumber. Yet, there weren't any feelings of fearfulness, no feelings of ongoing dread despite the unknown words that proceeded to echo off the walls of the ruin and that booming, threatening tone of voice. If anything there was that feeling of inquisitiveness, that yearning desire to figure out who exactly this devine god was and what exactly he was capable of. 

What exactly had happened after that was uncertain to any of the trespassing members there, only brief moments that they could remember that wasn’t much to explain or too conflicting to process what exactly had happened. Yet, there was a certain amount of things that (Y/N) knew every time he would sneak out from Cairo back to those ancient ruins of the Giza Plateau to visit the god over and over again. 

Being able to worship him was such an honor. 

Being acknowledged by him was such an honor. 

Sunyatta reciprocating (Y/N)’s romantic feelings was such an honor. 

🔅          🔅           🔅          🔅          🔅          🔅          🔅           🔅

It was becoming more and more difficult to maintain healthy boundaries with Sunyatta, seeing that everything else around (Y/N) was seemingly falling apart. He was struggling with his studies, finding himself missing more and more classes, failing more and more exams to the point he was on the verge of failing and being evicted from his classes. (Y/N) was struggling to maintain relationships with other people, including his own family, coming up with various excuses as to why he couldn’t socialize with them. Overall, he was neglecting his responsibilities, besides what had been ingrained into his mind as the most important one: to return to Sunyatta and worship him with everything he had. It had merely begun as something that had taken place every couple of weeks, but over time and spending more time with Sunyatta became more frequent in time, at this point it had been that (Y/N) was sneaking out almost every night to see him, spending countless hours with him. Tonight, happened to once again be one of those nights, Sunyatta having promised him a reward for his excellent dedication and loyalty. 

It doesn’t take that long for him to reach their usual meeting place, (Y/N)’s arms full of various objects to offer to Sunyatta, but had stopped within his tracks upon hearing him begin to speak. “You’re such an exquisite, loyal follower (Y/N),” Sunyatta began to address as he began to enclose the distance between them, not bothering to even glance at the items that were being carried, picking them up precisely with his serrated claws and merely tossing them aside until (Y/N)’s arms were empty. “You bring me various items, various items that you have believed to bring me delight, which they were in the beginning,” (Y/N)’s attention had been focused on watching the claws disperse them items onto the ground before glancing up at Sunyatta as he spoke, but was focused back onto the claws as they seemingly twirled and danced within his vision before one had started to prod at his lips, which he unconsciously opened his mouth slightly for them to enter into his mouth. “There’s only so many materialistic items that can be offered to someone such as myself to keep oneself appeased.” There’s a slight hesitation from (Y/N), almost stepping away from Sunyatta. Did his gifts not happen to be good enough for the god? Was there something more that he could offer to keep Sunyatta appeased? Multiple times (Y/N)’s mouth parted open to say something, but instead he was interrupted by Sunyatta speaking once again, “You’re next offering, I want it to be your body. Your physical pleasure~”

There’s an unaccounted time that passes that brings (Y/N) to this moment, being down upon his knees in front of the god, proceeding to softly whine as he gripped at Sunyatta’s loin cloth, beginning to be used for Sunyatta’s own pleasure. “You must be patient, as you need to be prepped for what is bound to come~ For the time being, you need to enjoy the show~” Sunyatta simply ignores whatever response (Y/N) might have gave, if he happened to give any response at all, and proceeds to begin by trailing his claws across (Y/N)’s flesh, watching as he would momentarily flinch as Sunyatta would press his claws deeper into (Y/N)’s flesh to leave scratches, sometimes deep enough to where blood would start spotting from said scratches. Then begins the removal of (Y/N)’s clothes, but not in any old-fashioned way, oh no~ Sunyatta does as he stated, taking his time and “removes” the clothing by simply shredding them to pieces, watching as with each more piece of clothing there’s of (Y/N)’s bare skin being revealed, more bare, unmarked skin for his beloved god to mark up. Scratch after scratch after scratch~ 

“Sunyatta,” There he was upon his knees beneath the one that he could only focus on at the moment, visibly trembling underneath the claws, bucking his hips against the air as if that would relieve some friction to his hardening, throbbing cock. “Open your mouth widely, it’s time to prepare yourself for the next phase of our delightful worship session~” (Y/N) wasn’t one to complain, as he could only imagine the pleasure to come. He was sure that if he obeyed and did what he was told to do, that he would be rewarded greatly. Opening his mouth widely he had stuck out his tongue, allowing there to be more room, and proceeded to take two claw tips into his mouth, treading with caution to explore them with his tongue. Being met with praise he let out a muffled groan, one of his hands once again tugging at Sunyatta’s loincloth all while the other one was trailing down to his own cock, beginning to slowly stroke the length. Continuing to address the claws within his mouth, not minding the faint taste of iron from having nicked his tongue. Upon the removal of the claws there’s a disappointed groan before it turned into a muffled noise of surprise as he felt something foreign enter his mouth, the texture being warm, but having a silicone based exterior. Upon opening his eyes he’s met with Sunyatta’s loincloth having been pushed to the side, realizing that apparently his beloved had his own cock, and he was being blessed with having the opportunity to pleasure Sunyatta’s cock with his mouth. Upon resting his hands upon Sunyatta’s thighs (Y/N) can feel the faint vibrations, a slight mechanical noise as the cock within his mouth begins to not only vibrate, but also rotate as well. (Y/N) figures that Sunyatta’s getting close to an orgasm, seeing the way that one of his hands was placed firmly on (Y/N)’s head, helping him take the length of his cock down his throat. 

🔅          🔅           🔅          🔅          🔅          🔅          🔅           🔅

It becomes difficult to focus upon anything with all the vibrating and rotating features of Sunyatta’s cock being activated within (Y/N)’s ass, causing him to clench tightly and have the tip of Sunyatta’s cock rub roughly against his prostate, causing him to cry out. He can’t help but absolutely love the way that Sunyatta is handling him, ass up in the air while his face is rubbing harshly against the ground, Sunyatta having one of (Y/N)’s arms pulled back while the other one rests on (Y/N)’s back, slowly etching scratches into his back that spell out his name. “You’ve come to realize that this is your future, yes?” Sunyatta hums, leaning down to whisper the words into (Y/N)’s ear, chuckling afterwards at watching the drool leak out of the corner of (Y/N)’s mouth and onto the ground, him not being able to speak a complete, understandable sentence without letting those sultry moans and pleas echo out into the open. “Your future is here with me, (Y/N)!~ You will serve me, treat me as your master!~ You will worship me, worship the very ground I walk upon!~” 

Sunyatta, beginning to lose his calm and collected pace and speed, began to thrust his hips quickly and disorganized, occasionally slamming his hips against (Y/N)’s ass to stretch him out, merely addressing it as preparation for future physical worshiping sessions. Leaning forward Sunyatta released the hold upon (Y/N)’s arm, using it to reach around and wrap around his neck, pulling his head back. “Maintain eye contact with me as we cum together, alright, (Y/N)~” Another whine, another string of saliva spilling from (Y/N)’s lips and onto the ground below, trying to maintain eye contact but finding it difficult to do so. Profanities echo throughout the air, a casual “F-Fuck, your cock feels so good!~ T-Too good!!~” followed by Sunyatta’s “Continue taking me cock, show me how much you actually love worshiping me!~” That pleasurable, twisting gut feeling becomes almost too much, even despite the pain of Sunyatta digging his claws deeply into (Y/N)’s skin, trails of blood being smeared across his skin, partially staining it a light red. “Cum, cum with me, (Y/N)!~ Cum with your god!~” It’s almost instantaneously that (Y/N)’s body begins to violently tremble underneath Sunyatta, crying out as he rides out his orgasm by weakly riding it out against Sunyatta’s cock that still had yet to cease its vibrations and rotation. Sunyatta’s hot, hot to the touch that is, but that doesn’t prevent him from beginning to thrust his hips against (Y/N) once again, chuckling softly. “I am your god, (Y/N)~ No one else can make you feel this way~ Don’t you ever forget that~”

[sillysurrealwriter]

Gaming Oddyssey

It was a sunny day, early in the morning near my home. I was lying on the couch and was playing some videogames, on my good ol’ Nintendo Switch. I smiled, as I cleared another level and I returned to the title screen.

I smiled. 100%. Like usual.

Oh, right? Let me introduce myself. I am Harvey Harriette. I am 17 years old and today was the first day of summer vacation. Those last exams during those last weeks had been tough, yet I somehow pulled through. Especially, Math. That class was a pain in the ass.

But right now, I could finally relax. 3 months of summer vacation, which meant for me 3 months full of gaming, to play so many games and to complete them 100%. A dream come true, you might say.

There’s just one problem though.....I kinda ended up beating all the games I had bought over the last weeks, last night. And now, I didn’t have any games left to play. Which was kinda annoying, not gonna lie.

Because I already bought almost every video game I could find. From X box, to PS5, to Switch...I got them all, really. Mom always complained that my room was quite messy, because all those game boxes were littered across the floor. Her complaining became annoying, so I ended up cleaning my room for a bit. But only for a bit.

Mom and my other mom were not here, right now. They were going to Europe, in order to watch some musical in Hamburg. Initially, they wanted me to go with them, but I refused. Because I really don’t like musicals whatsoever.

With musicals, all you could do was sit on your ass and watch. But with games, you could be actively be part of the action. Who wouldn’t want that? Probably some boomers, like my two moms. Urgh....

Oh well. It’s fine, really. I mean, not everyone has to like games or something. Even so, I was beginning to get bored. I definitely needed to buy a new game.

Which is why I got up and headed towards the hallway, putting on my shoes and smiling at the mirror. Short dark blue hair, a shirt so tight that it would make sure to flatten that stupid chest of mine, strong grey boots and some ripped jeans. Perfect.

I opened the door and headed downstairs. We were living in a big apartment complex, which for some reason didn’t have an elevator. Walking up and down was a pain, but it was manageable. Plus, I wouldn’t mind if I were to gain some muscles thanks to that. Then people would finally see that I am not a girl.

In any case, I opened the door and stepped outside. The sun greeted me with its warm smile and I heard some birds chirping, as I walked towards my bike. I unlocked the lock, climbed on top of it and then began to drive through the neighbourhood. The streets were clean and didn’t have any filth whatsoever, given that this was one of the more better neighbourhoods and cities in general. Where the government actually cared about us. But I digress.

Right now, I was making my way to the downtown part of this city. There, I’d get myself some new games from my local video game store. It wasn’t that far from my home to that one shop. After only about 9 minutes, I arrived at the big plaza of the city. The fountain spewed out fresh water and people were passing by, some couples taking pics of themselves and kissing each other, while street artists performed and had their best time, as they attracted a respectable audience. Seeing them dance was quite fun and I had a good time watching them for a bit.

Yet, I still needed to focus on, why I was here to begin with. I needed me some new games. So, I approached the shop that said: WonderGame. I entered through the door and the cashier, a rather plumb old man known as Mr. Marty in some grey overall and some bald hair, smiled at me.

“Ah, Harvey!”, he greeted me happily. “How are you doing?”

“I am fine.”; I answered happily and tilted my head. “Business going well?”

“Yes, indeed. Customers are coming and leaving, with many games. And you are one of them, naturally.”, he said to me, before giggling. “I assume you are here, to buy another game.”

“Damn right.”, I said and smirked. “So...got any new deliveries?”

To my dismay though, Mr. Marty shook his head.

“No, I won’t get new games until next week. I am sorry.”

“Until next week?”, I asked disappointed. “But I want to play some new games now! Are you sure that there is a game that I haven’t bought from you, yet?”

“Well......”

Mr. Marty seemed pensive, as he got up from his seat and motioned me to come closer.

“Follow me, okay kid?”

Confused, I nodded and watched, as Mr. Marty went into the open door near the counter. I followed him inside and was met with a relaxing smell. I knew this place of course. Those were what Mr. Marty would call, the catacombs. A place where he would often store games that didn’t sell quite so well in the past and would remain here, in case anyone was interested. I’ve been here a few times, to play some retro games. Yet as we passed by, I saw that I already knew most of those games and I frowned.

“Mr. Marty...What do you want to show me?”

“You’ll see.”, he told me and then moved a wardrobe aside, revealing another door. He took out a key, put it into the hole and turned it, before opening it up and revealing a set of stairs.

“What the..”

“You haven’t seen this part yet, kid.”, he explained to me, as we went downstairs through the dark cellar. “Normally, this is just the place where I store all the junk. Like broken game consoles and games and whatnot. However....”

He opened another door and we stepped into a messy hallway that reminded me of the lower part of Peach’s Castle from Super Mario 64.

“...recently, I was cleaning here and whatnot, when I found something.”

“You..found something? What is it?”

“Let me show you.”

Eventually, we reached a couple of boxes and he pushed a few of them away, before I saw it.

What I saw in front of my eyes, was a game console. It had the form of a cube, yet it was smaller than the NGC and upon closer inspection, I saw several ports on the back, so that the console could be connected to the TV. Not only that, but there was one controller plugged in. And the controller itself, was....off.

Its shape reminded me of the Wii Classic Controller. only that the color was dark red and that there were only two buttons. A and B. Just like the original NES controller.

What the......

“I found this here, a few days ago.”, Mr. Marty explained and scratched his head confused. “I had no idea, why this was here. As you know, I’ve been running this store since the 80s and yet, I never had anyone deliver me a console like that.”

“I see....”, I mumbled and took a closer look. Judging by the ports, the console must have been made around the time the N64 was produced, given the exact same ports. The colour itself was off in some areas, meaning that this thing was old and not new. I also saw a small writing in front of the cartridge slot. It said: Odyssey- A fantatic time

“Does this thing even work?”, I asked Mr. Marty. He nodded.

“Yes. I plugged it, into my TV at home. And indeed, the console works quite well and the games were fun too. Controls were solid and I had a bit of fun with it, I won’t lie.”

“Uhuh....Then why are you not selling it, upstairs?”, I wondered and for a moment, Mr. Marty remained quiet. Then, he let out a sigh.

“Truth be told, I wanted to. Yet....I had a feeling I shouldn’t. I have no idea why, though. So...”

He put his hand into a small box next to it, which had a green cartridge with the words “5 in 1”

“...do you want to have it?”

“Hmm.....”

I thought about it for a moment and then nodded.

“Sure, I guess. How much do I need to pay?”, I asked and took out my wallet, but Mr. Marty shook his head.

“You can have it for free.”, he told me. “Under one condition.”

“That being?”

“I want you to record your gameplay.”, he explained to me. “You know, to see what happens when you 100% the full game. Would that be fine with you?”

“Hmm...Sure, why not?”, I asked and nodded. “I already have a youtube channel, where I upload gameplay videos regurlarly and I make enough money from it. So, of course I can do that.”

“Excellent.”, Mr. Marty said and then put the controller on top of the console and then added the cartridge onto it, before giving it to me. I grabbed the box and was a bit surprised, as to how light it actually was. Honestly, it wasn’t heavy at all. Or did I gain some muscles?

“Thanks, Mr. Marty.”, I told him. “Once I am done, I’ll send you the videos to your mail. Have a nice day.”

“Thank you. See you kid!”

With that, I left and 10 minutes later, I was back home. I opened the door to the apartment and then closed it, before placing the console on the ground, grabbing the cables in order to plug them in. It wasn’t difficult at all, given that it was easy to see what those cables were. I then grabbed the cartridge and pushed it into the slot, before I turned on the TV and then pressed on the on button, of the console.

The TV screen glitched briefly and then turned black. For a moment, I was worried that I accidentally broke the TV. But thankfully, an image began to appear. My recording device got turned on as well and I watched, as a red spiral symbol appeared on screen with the word “Ripple”, on it.

Ripple....huh....

I took out my phone and googled the name of the console and the company of the game.

But I found nothing. Weird...

In any case, the screen changed and it showed me 5 options to choose from. They were as follows:

VeloSpeed

TheSuperstar

BeatoDanco

Crystal Venture

Evoke

Curiously, I grabbed the controller and selected the first game. Again, the title screen glitched and then, the title screen showcased some strange racing car with a black color and some Cyrillic symbols on the front, staring at the screen. It was of rather high quality and then, I pressed on start. Then, a vehicle selection came up.

There, I saw the names of the vehicles

Black: 1951 ZiS-112/1

Blue: Moskvitch 404 Sport

Green: Alpine A350

White: Alfa Romeo Tipo 512

Weird...I never heard of any of those names before. Eh, I’ll just go with the first option.

I expected a track selection to pop up, but instead I was immediately booted onto the track. It had a sunset background and the graphics reminded me indeed, of the N64. I grabbed the controller and focused my attention on the road, which would lead to a forrest apparently. I saw on the top right two goals listed:

1: Win the race

2: Beat the race, in under 2 minutes

Hm.

The traffic light turned from red to green and the race began. I had 3 competitors and indeed, the game controlled quite well and the controls reminded me a bit of Mario Kart 64. I dashed through the track, easily leaving my opponents behind. There were some tight corners in the forrest and yet, it was nothing hard. Which is why in the end, I approached the finish line with a time of 1 Minute and 30 seconds, when...

Huh.

The race cars barely moved from their spots. They...weren’t moving at all.

Weird....must be some kind of bug.

I finished the race and then, a trophy was shown to me saying:

Win you have done are

“The hell? What kind of grammar is this?”, I muttered bewildered and pressed on continue. I waited for the track to load....

....but the next track didn’t come. And after a few minutes, I realised why.

The console had turned itself off. Did the game crash?

Weird....

I turned it on and tried to select the first game again and....

...it was gone.

Huh?!

I turned the console off again, took out the cartridge, put it back inside and turned the console on again.

But....VeloRacer went missing.

Okay......

I decided to just select the next game, as I rubbed my eyes a bit. The title screen showed some Drag King jumping on a....on a...

..on some kind of giant lizard thing with a red suit and a cube-like mustache. Weird....

I pressed on start and the screen switched, to a 3d world. It looked like I was in some sort of palace, given the interior and I was controlling this Drag King. I then noticed two objectives.

1. Beat all soldiers

2: Find all Gold Coins.

Okay.....

Like the last game, the controls were solid and could kick and punch my opponents, while jumping extremely high. Moving around the castles, I beat all of those lizard soldiers easily, passing through the red doors and collecting coins. It was not hard at all. Once I was finished, a message popped up that said:

Go back to the main area, to finish.

And I was about to do that. But, then I noticed in the courtyard level that there was a door ahead. I approached it and opened it, wanting to explore as much as possible.

But when I did that, an error popped up. It was written in gibberish and I only saw tons of numbers, before it shut down and-

Wait.

Was it just me...or did I see a face staring at me? It looked like the moon....

Huh. Needless to say, this was weird. The game shut down again and when I turned the console off again, that game was also gone.

Only 3 more left.

What the hell......Urgh, my head hurt......

Okay, now I was extremely confused......Was the cartridge broken or why did each game disappear? I don’t get it....

This was getting weird and I wasn’t sure, if I wanted to play more. All of this felt like some cheap creepypasta, about some cursed game console. But.....

So far, the games weren’t creepy. Sure, they all crashed and yet, I didn’t see anything gross or something.

Well....let me try the next game. Beato Danco.

The title screen showed some strange orange haired girl with black eyes and colorful clothing dancing. She was smiling and even though she looked creepy, she also looked a bit cute.

I turned the game on and it appeared to be some DDR clone. I had to dance and press on the button at the right times, while fighting more of those lizard soldiers. I had two objectives.

Objective 1: Beat the level

Objective 2: -

Huh. Only one objective, huh?

Again, the game was easy to play and I had some fun too. But as I went on to play, I realised something.

None of those games...had any music. Sure, they had sound effects, but no music at all. That’s strange.... Were the developers unable to add some music? If it was an early console from the 80s I’d get it. But that console seemed to be from the early 90s and yet, no music at all.

Something felt off and I finished the level and as I expected, the screen turned black and...

Wait....

There was a text on the screen.

“Can you see me?”

But it was only for a split moment and then the console turned off again.

Okay, this was beginning to creep me out. I needed some answers.

So, instead of turning on the game again, I hopped onto reddit and went to r/retrogaming and typed in the following:

“Does anyone know this console? I got it from a local video game store and yet, I can’t find anything online. Can you help?”

I added some pics of the console and then sent it.

....only for a message to pop up that said:

You have been banned from r/retrogaming, for inappropriate behaviour.

Excuse me?????????

My post got deleted too. What the...What rule did I break? I didn’t even curse or anything?!

Okay..........

I coughed a bit and rubbed my eyes. What the hell.....

I glanced at the game console. Maybe...I should take a break and...

........

....

I turned the console on again and selected the fourth game. Crystal Venture.

The title screen showed a rainbow crystal and when I pressed on start, it seemed to be some sort of Tertris Clone, only with diamonds. I had two objectives.

Objective 1: Beat the level

Objective 2: Lose the level, please.

Eh?

But those goals were complete opposite of one another?!

Well.....I doubted that I could just play this game a second time, so I did my best.....I played and like usual, I beat the level.

I saw the trophy symbol again and yet....

....I saw no continue button.

The hell?

Suddenly, the screen glitched and it was all black. Then, text appeared on it.

Listen. Turn the console off.

Do not beat the gamesies.

You will just sufferersies.....

Pleasies...Pretty?

And then, the console turned off again.

I really didn’t want to play the last one, but my body didn’t listen to me. It...turned the game on again....and my hand selected the last game.

Evoke.

This time around, I was just on some black meadow. The game was in first person and it was so dark....

The.....sun had set. It was night. I had no idea, why it was nighttime already......

My hand moved the joystick and I walked around......I walked...and walked...........

Until there was something in the distance. Something with several white glowing things and long orange hair.

And to my surprise....my console spoke.

“HELLOSIES”, it said with a glitchy feminine voice. “YOU::::DIDNT LISTEN TO ME::::UWU:::::YOU NEED:::TO TURN:::THE CONSOLE OFF::::BEFORE ITS TOO LATE::::::”

“Wh..What?! Wh...What’s going on?!”, I exclaimed and felt my headaches getting worse.

“YOU::::HAVE FOUND:::::FORGOTTEN:::::YOU::::::::HAVE:::::::::BEATEN::::THE GAME::::::::::::::AND::::AND::::NOW:::YOU NEED TO TURN::::IT OFF::::PLEASE::::”

And then suddenly, I saw a timer at the top.

30 seconds.

I tried to reach to the off button, but......

My body wouldn’t move. I...I couldn’t move at all. And my head began to hurt even more.

“PLLEEEASSEE:::::TURN OFF::::GAME:::”

20 seconds.

My vision became blurry and I heard a strange noise from somewhere, yet I couldn’t find out from where. I coughed.

10 seconds.

“NOOOOOO:::::TURN OFF:::::NOW:::::NOW:::::::::::::NOW!!!!!”

The screen began to glitch heavily and I coughed again...some liquid. I thought it was blood, but.....

...it...was some dark gooey liquid...What the.....

I coughed it up more and felt it leaving my eye sockets, as also my hands were full of them. I coughed up even more.

5 seconds

“CLOOOSEEEE::::YOUR EYEEEEESSSS”

I tried. But I couldn’t.

The time went up. And I vomited even more black goo and then collapsed, feeling my brain bursting through my forehead. The last thing I heard from the glitchy voice was this:

“I:::::::::::AM::::::::::::::SO::::::::::::::SOOOORRRYYYY:::::::SOORRY:::”

..............................

A 17 year old kid was found murdered, yesterday. The victim was discovered by their parents, who had left their child one week ago, to attend a musical. When they returned, they found the victim on the ground, in a strange dark substance. Police entered and investigated, yet they couldn’t figure out what the substance was. They also found the TV all broken and some loose cables hanging from it, yet nothing was plugged into those. According to witnesses, no one entered the home except the kid and there was no sign of breaking in either. The autopsy discovered strangely enough that the victim had died a week ago, yet all of his organs seemed fully functional, except the skin which had some dark veins. Police is still investigating and the lead detective said that they found a suspect and that they are interrogating them, as they speak. And they also learned from said suspect that the victim visited them 3 times over the last week, even though they supposedly died a week ago. Camera footage is rather broken and the suspect claims that they gave the kid a console to play. But no console was found at said scene. Stay tuned for more.