#yeah heres my wimbly take

[slimmestslime]

DRAW ANY CHARACTER IN A DISNEY STYLE DRESS!

does this count as disney

[badfanfictionaire]

“Breaking news out of Indianapolis tonight. We come to you with an unfortunate update about the so-called “Clean Slayer”. Police are confirming there was another attack last night and two more people lost their lives. Once again we are asking the public to remain vigilant as the hunt for this ruthless killer continues. We will have more information for you on our nightly update coming up at 10 PM…”

Chrissy stares at the face of the woman on the TV screen, the latest victim in a string of recent serial murders. The woman, identified as twenty-five-year-old Claire Doyle, has shoulder-length strawberry-blond hair with thick bangs, and gorgeous blue eyes. Her boyfriend, Derrick Wimbly, was twenty-eight, with wild dark brown hair and big brown eyes.

“This is fucking insane,” he says, clicking the TV off, “How has no one caught him yet? Are they not getting my tip line calls? I couldn’t spell this out for them any better if I tried!”

Chrissy finishes toweling her hair dry and sits next to him on the bed, folding the towel on her lap.

“That’s what, six people now? Someone has to stop him.”

“We don’t even know if it is Jason,” she says gently, “It’s just a theory.”

“How could it not be? Who else is going to go around killing off every couple that looks like us ?”

Chrissy shrugs. “It could be a complete coincidence.”

“Babe,” he sighs, “This “Clean Slayer” went out of his way to find three nearly identical couples in this area. And I get it that some serial killers probably have weirdly specific types, but don’t you think this is a very specific type to have?”

Chrissy worries her lower lip in thought.

“Plus, our five-year reunion would have been two weeks ago. That could have triggered this,” he explains, waving a hand at the TV.

“Do you really think Jason would kill people over the fact that we’ve been together for five years?”

Eddie looks at her fondly. “Princess, if anyone stole you from me, I���d probably start killing people. So, yeah, I do think you’re fucking insane ex-boyfriend, who threatened me on numerous occasions, is crazy enough to kill surrogates of us.”

“...D-do you think he would have killed us if we showed up to the reunion?”

“I don’t want to think about that,” he says with a shiver.

Five years ago in May they’d made their relationship official at graduation. Probably they didn’t need to make a spectacle of it, but Eddie wasn’t exactly known for being subtle. So after Chrissy walked the stage, he’d met her at the stairs and dipped her dramatically before kissing her in front of their entire class. They hadn’t seen Jason that night, they’d left for Indianapolis as soon as they’d been able to make their way out of the gymnasium, but they’d heard rumors Jason was livid. Up until that point, he probably thought he could win Chrissy back somehow. But, you snooze you loose, and Eddie had already locked Chrissy down as his very own.

“Let’s just get some sleep,” he suggests, taking her hand and kissing her bare knuckle where her ring normally sits. Instead, it’s in a pretty ceramic dish on her nightstand for safe keeping while she slept.

“Maybe he’ll run out of steam, or they’ll catch him… He has to screw up eventually, right?”

“Right,” he assures, tugging her down on to the mattress with him.

When they wake, the TV has the faces of another couple on the news. Both thirty years old. This time it was evident the killer had a harder time finding someone who met Chrissy’s description, because the woman’s hair looked sloppily box-dyed and like someone had cut it with kitchen shears.

“That’s two blocks from here,” Chrissy says pacing.

“Still don’t believe it’s Jason?”

“This isn’t going to end until he finds us, is it?”

“Or we find him,” Eddie says.

Chrissy stops and stares at him.

“What? I’m just saying. If we find him first, we have the upper hand.”

“And then what? We kill him? No, Eddie, I-”

“Hey, woah there sweetheart, breathe for me,” he says, taking her shaking hands in his.

“I’m scared,” she whispers.

“I know, sweet girl, I know.”

He holds her while she cries into his tee shirt, until her shoulders stop shaking and she lifts her head to wipe her eyes with her sleeve.

“We have to stop him, you’re right.”

“There’s my brave girl,” he says, kissing her hair, “And we don’t have to kill him, ok? We’ll just leave him as a little gift-wrapped present for the Indy PD.”

“And now for some happier news, just this evening we have word from the Indianapolis Police Chief that the “Clean Slayer” may have been captured. The current suspect in a string of brutal murders over the last few weeks is identified as Jason Carver, a twenty four year old man from Hawkins, Indiana…”

👻👻👻👻

(Read on AO3)

[whatarubberchicken]

The Bodyguard’s Tale -Chapter 4

<<Previous - Ao3 or ff.net - Next>>

Chapter 4

Keith felt awful. His head hurt, his neck hurt—hell, his whole body hurt. Plus, he had a fever. He’d already called Lance’s former bodyguard captain, and fortunately, Hunk was very understanding and agreed to take over Keith’s watch.

Which was good, because Keith wasn’t sure he could move right now.

Not that it stopped Lance.

“Hey! Mullet!! Why are you still in bed?!” he yelled, entering the room without so much as a knock.

“Lance, wait! I told you, he’s sick!” Hunk was whispering, trying to pull the prince away.

“No, he’s not! He’s Galra! They never get sick! He’s just faking it so you can’t go to that fancy cooking competition you were telling me about.”

“Lance, seriously?” Hunk exclaimed, still trying to be quiet. “I doubt Keith even knows about that, much less made himself sick just to spite me!”

“We’ll see about that!” Lance said, glaring down at his bodyguard, who was currently cocooned in his blankets. “Mullet! Are you dying?!” He cocked his head as Keith stared blearily up at him.

Maybe, Keith thought. He sure felt like it. Death would even be a mercy at this point. Surely the universe could do him a favor just this once, right? Lance got right up in his face, so Keith had to cross his eyes to see him. Ugh. That didn't make him feel better...

“Then again, you don’t look very good, Keithy-boy.”

Oh, no, you think? Gods, my stomach hurts….

“Lance,” he groaned, surprising himself with how scratchy his voice sounded. “Go away.”

Lance blinked at him and finally allowed Hunk to shoo him out of the room, the big guard muttering apologies to Keith the whole time. Keith made a mental note to apologize to Hunk too. He hadn’t heard about a cooking competition, but he did know it was a beloved hobby for the other guard….

He fell asleep before he could think anymore.

And woke up to something poking his cheek.

“I’m telling you, Coran, I’ve never seen him like this before!” Lance was exclaiming, way too loudly.

Something poked his cheek again. Keith growled and attempted to burrow further into his blankets. He DID NOT FEEL GOOD! Did they not get that memo? Why was Lance here again?!

“Welp, judging from these pheromone levels, I can tell you that he hasn’t got anything contagious, at least,” this Coran person said.

Keith was still annoyed, but felt a bit of relief. At least now he knew Lance couldn’t catch whatever-this-was by continually barging in here. Lance would be the biggest baby if he ever got sick—and Keith would have to take care of him!

“He’s just going into heat.”

“WHAT?!?!”

Keith wasn’t sure who screamed louder, him or Lance. He sat up, feeling instantly dizzy, but very aware that there was a man with a huge orange mustache peering at him—waaay too close into his personal space!

“I—I am not in heat!” he sputtered.

“Oh, a rut then?” Coran said, glancing down Keith’s body. Keith felt his face go bright red and pulled his covers closer. If this man tried to peek under his blankets, he was going to be missing an arm! “You’re a bit small for an alpha… might be because you’re a half-breed—”

“Who are you?!” Keith asked, very, very offended now.

“Ah,” the mustachioed man said, standing up straight, “I am Kórann Hieronymus Wimble—”

“Are you a doctor?” Keith interrupted, really not caring.

Coran pouted. “Well, not exactly…. Perhaps if we contact Prince Lotor, he can—”

“NO!” Keith didn’t know if it was the hormones of whatever-this-was or what, but the idea of seeing Lotor right now…. He either wanted to kill something or vomit. Possibly both.

“Coran, maybe we should just let Keith get some sleep,” Lance suggested quietly, staring at his bodyguard.

“Yes, yes, nothing to do but wait it out I’m afraid,” Coran agreed. “Don’t worry, you’ll have your usual bodyguard back in a few days, your grace.” He clapped the prince on the back and led him out of the room.

Keith watched the door close behind them and flopped back down on his bed, suddenly drained of energy.

Great. Just great. He’d presented! And much later than anyone had ever thought he would! No wonder he felt like he’d just spent a day on the training deck with Kolivan!

He woke up to someone humming a lullaby and gently stroking his hair. The touch was slow and soothing, and it made his stomach stop churning for a moment. It felt good. And the dip of the bed and the solid warmth at his side felt extra good. Maybe he should invest in a heating pad?

“…softer than I thought,” he heard the person beside him mumble as their fingers ran through his hair. He couldn’t resist snorting in laughter, now knowing exactly who was in the room with him.

“Despite what you may think, I do wash regularly,” he said, laughing a bit when Lance startled.

“Oh hey, Keithy-boy! How long have you been awake?” Lance asked, chuckling nervously.

Keith felt his suspicion flare. “Why? What did you do to me while you thought I was asleep?” he asked.

“Nothing!”

“Lance,” Keith groaned, rolling over so he could properly face the Altean prince currently sitting on the edge of his bed. “No offense, but you are a terrible liar, your grace.” He stressed the title mockingly.

“I just came to see how you were doing!” Lance exclaimed. “And because, ya know, I saw Coran talking to Lotor earlier, and I don’t think he’d go behind my back like that, but I wanted to make sure your brother didn’t make an unwanted appearance in your bedroom or anything, since I know how much you hate him—plus, Hunk really wanted to go to that cooking competition and I figured that if I’m with you, then I’m technically with a bodyguard and he’s free to live out his dream, so everyone wins, right?!”

Keith chuckled, still half-asleep. “You’re cute when you ramble,” he muttered.

Lance stared at him, eyes wide.

Keith ignored it. He was too tired to deal with all of this. Instead, he grabbed Lance’s hand and put it back into his hair. “Keep doing that,” he demanded. “It felt good.”

Lance hesitated for a moment, but then Keith felt fingers start running through his hair again. He sighed and relaxed against the warm body beside him.

He almost missed Lance’s incredulous whisper, “Oh my God, you’re purring,” before he drifted back off to sleep.

………..

He awoke to more fire in the pit of his stomach, and all of his limbs feeling like they were made of lead. Plus, Lance was no longer petting him or humming a lullaby. Instead, Keith heard a low mutter and saw an annoying blue glow through his eyelids. He cracked an eye open to see Lance sitting nearby, muttering to himself and waving his hands. His cheek markings were glowing.

“You’re not cursing me, are you?” Keith grumbled.

Lance jumped and looked at him. “You’re awake! You want some water?”

“Yeah,” Keith said, struggling to sit up. Ugh, he felt awful! Was this really gonna be a regular thing?!

“About every six months, according to Shiro,” Lance chuckled, handing him a glass.

Keith paled. “I said that out loud?!”

“Yeah, you’re pretty talkative when you’re in heat,” Lance grinned, resting his chin on his hands.

Keith glared. “It’s not a—”

“A heat, a rut, whatever,” Lance said carelessly. He gave Keith a sideways glance. “Shiro seemed surprised it happened at all, and he says he’ll be by later to check on you. Haven’t you talked with someone before about this?”

“There was nothing to talk about,” Keith said, finishing his water. “It’s never happened before. Not all half-breeds have the same… reproductive cycle as pure Galra, and I guess they figured I didn’t get it.” He handed the glass back to Lance and flopped back down on his bed. “Though, if this is how most Galra reproduce, it’s a wonder they aren’t all extinct. I have never felt less sexy in my life.” His whole body hurt, he had a fever, and he felt like he was going to throw up at any minute…

Lance snickered. “Yeah, you don’t look so hot. I mean—well, you look hot, but sweaty-hot, not sexy-hot.”

“Thanks,” Keith said dryly. “Let’s just stop talking about how hot I am.” Lance blushed and looked away and it was Keith’s turn to laugh. “What were you doing earlier?” he asked, gesturing to Lance’s cheek markings, which were still glowing blue in the darkness of the room.

“Just practicing,” Lance said, touching them and smiling fondly. “Allura promised to work on spellcasting with me later this week.”

“You two are so close,” Keith murmured. “Lucky.”

“You sound jealous, Keithy-boy.”

“Mmm,” Keith agreed, rubbing his face and wondering if the room would ever stop spinning. “I dunno if you’ve noticed, but Lotor and I don’t have quite the same relationship that you and Allura do.”

“Yeah,” Lance drawled, relaxing against Keith’s bed and providing that blessed, blessed warmth again, “I’ve never been able to figure that out. You guys really can’t stand each other, huh?”

“It’s how we were raised,” Keith said, curling up against the other boy’s back. Ahh, this felt so good. “Lotor’s always been the undisputed heir, but I do have a small claim to the throne because I’m the emperor’s son. Lotor’s always hated me for that, no matter that the empire would never accept me. Though,” he gave a small laugh, “now that I’ve presented, the council may reconsider and determine I’m Galra enough to take the throne. That’ll be fun.”

“They won’t recall you, will they?” Lance asked, grabbing his hand and looking anxious.

“Doubt it,” Keith mumbled sleepily. After all, he was still only the son of a slave. He peeked an eye open at Lance. “Why? Would you miss me, your grace?” he teased.

Lance blushed bright red and snatched his hand away again. “Course not!” he stammered. “I—I just wanna make sure nothing’s gonna get in the way of Allura taking the throne, that’s all! I mean, if you took over, then something would’ve happened to Lotor, and that means something probably would’ve happened to Allura, and you think you’re not ready to rule, can you imagine what would happen if they put ME in charge?!”

Keith cackled. “We’d burn the universe to the ground.”

“Exactly! …Hey!”

Keith just gave him a cheeky grin. “Let’s do it.”

Lance blinked in surprise, and then laughed. “I think I like it when you’re in heat, Keithy. You’re much more fun—EE-OW!” he yelped when Keith grabbed his collar and pulled him down so they were face-to-face, inches apart.

“I told you,” Keith growled, “it’s not a heat.”

“Okay, okay!” Lance agreed quickly, hands up to show he was no threat. “Not a heat. Got it!”

Keith studied him, still growling. Lance’s eyes were wide and—had they always been so blue? Plus, he smelled amazing. Keith would always hate Lance’s many lotions and scrubs, and he absolutely loathed that the prince’s care routine took way too much time, but he had to admit, Lance’s particular smell was really doing it for him right now.

And his skin—especially his lips—looked so soft….

Keith pulled him down the rest of the way and captured his lips with his own.

Lance made a strangled, confused sound and his arms were probably flailing wildly, but Keith didn’t know or care. He’d closed his eyes to enjoy the softness and the warmth flooding from the other boy, but oh, the taste! Warmth, sweetness, and something just the right kind of tangy. And Lance wasn’t actually trying to get away or anything… In fact, he made another, softer, confused noise, and then he relaxed against Keith, kissing him back.

Keith felt a jolt of electricity jolt down his spine, his heart skipping a beat as he realized… he was kissing Lance! And Lance was kissing him back! And he could totally understand why Lance was making those little contented sighs, because this felt so good! So right!

IwantIwantIwant….

He shifted his grip on Lance’s collar, reaching around to bury his hand in the prince’s hair instead. Lance gave a very gratifying groan (which Keith decided he liked quite a bit) and shifted so it was easier to kiss him. They both decided to deepen the kiss at the same time, and Keith could scarcely believe the needy moan that escaped his own throat. He could feel Lance grin into their kiss and nipped at his lips a bit to teach him his place.

Now, if only he could get rid of these cumbersome clothes and—oh, Lance’s pointed little Altean ears were softer than expected—

Altean.

Altean prince.

Lance was an Altean prince.

The prince Keith was sworn to protect and serve.

He was about to—QUIZNAK!

Keith pushed against Lance, just enough to break their kiss.

“Lance,” he gasped, very aware of how ragged he sounded right now. “You—you need to leave.”

“But—”

“Lance,” he groaned, as the heat in his belly protested by flaring. Apparently, all his previous pain had managed to focus right where he needed it the least! Not helping! Not helping! He had to get the other boy out of this room. Now. “Please.”

Either Lance heard the desperation in his voice or he realized that Keith wasn’t breathing in an effort not to smell the prince and go crazy again, but either way he got up and backed away. His eyes—his beautiful, bright blue eyes—shone with confusion, and Keith groaned again.

“I can’t,” he said, pleading with the other boy to understand. “You’re my job! And I’m not normal right now, you can’t—”

“Yeah, I get it,” Lance said coolly. “I hope you feel better soon, mullet.” With that, he turned and left.

Keith curled up on his tiny bed and tried not to sob as the beast inside him raged at having been denied what it wanted. It wanted to call the other boy back; kiss all that anger and confusion away—But no matter how much he might want it, or how much Lance might think he wanted it, there were rules, dammit!

Rule Number One: don’t sleep with your charge.

Friendship was fine, it was even encouraged. Plenty of bodyguards developed bonds with the ones they protected. But friendship was one thing. Anything more could get them both in trouble. Especially him. He was the disposable one. The screw up.

Frustrated, Keith punched his pillow and screamed into his mattress.

[thebloodgod]

SUP JUST HERE TO SAY YOUR TAGS MADE ME VIBRATE WITH JOY. I AM SO HAPPY YOU LIKED THE ART also my oc Zoatham and Newton look like they could be long lost brothers and I am very tempted to Spider-Man pointing meme the two of them. I’d love to hear more about Newt by the way, he looks like prime meow meow material and I am extremely intrigued by whatever his deal is

HI YES I LOVED THE ART !!

Newt and Z definitely have similarities. Family problems, god problems, round glasses, being gay, etc..

I have been sitting on this for days trying to think of how to summarize my guy Newt with very little success because I care about him so MUCH and his lore is a bit off the shits… so I'm just gonna try my best! Also you sent me this right after the session where everyone thought he died so I didn't want to present you with that bummer (he's fine. well, relatively.)

Alright here goes.

Newt was a pseudo-rich kid half elf with a family of rich assholes except for his parents who were cool but it's too bad they died in a house fire (allegedly) when he was 12.

After they died he lived with his shitty family who turned his sibling against him and he didn't fit in with the rich kids at rich kid school (partially because he was too busy trying to necromance-ize his parents) so he was all alone and that's just sorta been a Thing for him from then on.

He went to bard community college to get a law degree (and to be a slut because it's still a bard school) but then realized he wouldn't make much money or choose which cases to take with a community college law degree. So he snuck into Wimble which is like Wizard Harvard and sat in on some classes, forged some school records for himself, and snuck them into their records office- upgrading himself to this world's equivalent of a Harvard law degree.

After that, he worked his way up to being a somewhat successful lawyer, albeit a bit… uh… well, he had his face on billboards. His success didn't last very long because he is too curious for his own good and looked a bit too into the corruption of the local high-security prison where they lock up people for life. His sibling got into some shit and ended up framing Newt to get out of it and he then got thrown into that same prison without a trial. And that's where he met the rest of the party! wooo

Lots of crazy lore stuff happened but the main Newt points I can remember right now are:

He's hella cursed from all that untrained necromancy he did

He refuses to kill people because.. what the fuck? that's fucked up???

He is scared of dying but is more scared of the people he cares about dying and the one guy he made the strongest friendship with actively wants to die… and now they have hooked up, oop

He seems to be a god magnet for some reason even though he was just a lawyer

He got actively hunted, gaslit, and then snatched by a god called the Faceless and is currently trapped in their domain. They snatched him by wrapping bright red string around him and… pulling it tight so he shattered into bits of glass. so yeah everyone thought he was dead for a minute there

He used to be a big big liar but he's getting better

Newt tries to not trust people. He actively has to try, because he instinctively wants to trust them. because he, at his core, believes that everyone has something inside of them that makes them worthwhile. He refuses to give up on people. Basically he's a character who tries to be selfish but keeps fucking it up because he's an inherently good person.

I definitely missed some stuff but I'm gonna cut it off here for now before I accidentally write a book.

[awakendreamersworld]

Here’s chapter 2! Maria

"Whoa!" Yelled a young siren as she was riding a dolphin through the neighborhood, obviously she didn't have control of it and just riding it like it was a rodeo. She was a 15 year old brunette girl bright amethyst eyes, small round nose, a U-shaped chin, flat cheeks and was wearing a ripped blue pageant dress. She had fins on her back like a shark, elbows and even on the sides of her tail, her tail looked like a triton but the edges were curved out and she had a small stinger right in the center. As she was trying to take control of the dolphin, the dolphin was going out of control, destroying baskets, crashing into homes, almost running into other murines, Maria was apologizing, saying "Excuse me!" or "MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!" then.... "MARIA!" Yelled her mother, Firtha, and with that yell the rampaging dolphin stopped and Maria fell off landing in the sea sand. "Hi Mama!" Said Maria with a smile trying to play off the fact that she's in trouble.... again. "Maria, where in the seven seas did you get a dolphin!?" Asked Firtha in a serious and worried tone as she shooed the dolphin away while escorting her daughter back to their home, "I, uh... well..." Maria stuttered "Maria." Firtha said sternly "You went above the depth again, didn't you?" Firtha asked, "No...?" Maria said hoping her mother wouldn't continue, but her mother is always clever and always knew. Firtha sighed, "Maria, how many times do I have to tell you? It's against the rules to go above our depth, above the sea level and above the ocean. You don't know the kinds of dangers that's up there!" Firtha warned Maria, "But Mama! I've been above the depth plenty of times! There's nothing dangerous up there!" Maria said, "And what about the sharks, hm? You don't know when one might see you and attack you! And just because you haven't seen anything dangerous yet doesn't mean there ISN'T anything dangerous up there cause there is!" Firtha said trying to explain to her daughter.

"But the 'danger' is all the way down here!" Maria argued,

"Like I said, 'that doesn't mean there isn't any up there!'" Firtha argued back,

"And exactly how far have you swam above our Abyssopelagic!?" Firtha questioned Maria

".... Above our Abyssopelagic zone." Maria said giving in

"How above, Maria?" Firtha said with another stern look

Maria sighed, "Up to the Bathypelagic Zone and almost to the Mesopelagic...? Heh..." Maria chuckled in a 'I'm so in trouble' kind of way.

"What!? You swam that far up there!? Maria, do you have any idea how many predators could've seen you!? Giant squids, octopuses, Sea Monsters, SHARKS!" Firtha yelled

"But Mama...!" Maria pleaded

"Maria! You must promise me you will NEVER swim that far above our depth again, do you understand!?" Firtha said

Maria didn't want to, but she could see the worry and fear in her mother's eyes so she sighed and said, "Yes Mama..."

Fitha kissed Maria on the head, "You know I'm only trying to protect you right? You've seen my soldiers go out there and come back with wounds only to become scars. Very, very bad and deep scars..." Firtha said,

"Yes Mama..." Maria said looking down.

Firtha looked at her daughter, lifted her head and smiled, "You know your a very brave and strong siren, right?"

"Yes Mama" Maria said,

"I just want you to be more careful, especially going above our ocean depths. The ocean may be our home, but its filled with all sort of monsters and colossal beasts!-"

"Like the Sea Emperor?" Maria asked,

"Exactly, remember the Reaper Leviathans that come here once?" Firtha reminded Maria,

"Yeah?" Maria said

"That's why we remain down here with the emperor, she protects us and we protect her." Firtha smiled and put her hand on Maria's cheek "And she doesn't have that long to live so... we need to be prepared and ready for anything." Maria nodded and Firtha Kissed her on the head and sent her to bed to get ready for school in the morning. The next day Firtha got her crab shell armor prepared for the day and went to wake up Maria for her first day of soldier training school. "Maria, sweetie, its time for school, get up!" She said trying to shake her sleeping daughter up, "Ugh... Mama... its too early!" Maria complained "Exactly! We soldiers always have to be prepared early, plus your gonna meet some new friends!" Firtha said trying to excite her sleepy daughter. Maria sighed and got up and got dressed wearing her ripped up backless blue pageant dress and put a sea star in her hair and swam with her mother to her school. Once there, Firtha had to leave Maria for her duties, "Your not coming with me?" Maria said a bit nervous "Don't be scared, Maria. It'll be okay, I promise!" Firtha said trying to calm Maria, "Okay..." Maria said and her mother gave her a kiss on the cheek goodbye and left. Maria swam towards the rest of the class of girls and boys almost her age, younger and older, staring at the director waiting for him to give directions. "Hello, students! My name is Mr. Powell and I will be teaching you how to be our homes new protectors! But first, we have a new student who's here to join us today!" Mr. Powell said pointing to Maria to come up in front of the class and introduce herself. He was tall, had a mustache and wore big round glasses, he had a bald round head and a round belly as if he was pregnant. Maria was nervous, but went up anyways to introduce herself,

"Uhh... Hi, my name is Maria Rose." Maria said,

And the class all in unison said, "Hello, Maria!" and so did the teacher, "Hello. Maria! And welcome to our training school! Why don't you tell us about yourself? Any other family members you have that you would like to share to the class?" Mr. Powell Said,

"Um, well, there's my mother! Her name's Firtha and she's the guardian protector of the Sea Emperor and our home!" Maria said.

The class was in shock and started whispering to one another. "Wow, really!? What's she like? Is she really strong and able to take out sharks!?" Said one siren, "Did she actually kill that one shark through the eye the other day!?" Said another,

"All right! All Right! Settle down students!" Mr. Powell shouted and everyone silenced. "Well, Your mother sure is special, kiddo!" He said,

"Yeah, she sure is!" Maria said laughing,

"Okay, Everyone! Follow me!" Mr. Powell said and everyone started following him to a field with puppet sharks, they looked kind of real but with stitches and missing body parts, like they were zombies, they also had fake spears and armor, and fake bow and arrows.

"Okay class! Today we're gonna learn how to save a siren in trouble! Grab your spears and bows and arrows!" He said and everyone grabbed what they needed. "Okay class! I need a volunteer to be the Murine in danger, and one to be the defender! Emily! You be the Murine in danger!" Mr. Powell said. A young Murine came up and stood next to the teacher, she looked like she was Maria's age, and her hair was in a ponytail with bangs in front of her forehead and wore a jellyfish dress, she had two different eye colors though, one amethyst and one sapphire blue. That was weird, Maria had never seen a siren with different color eyes before, maybe she has an eye infection? "Now, I need a volunteer to be the protector!" Mr. Powell said, the started going "Oh! Me me me!" raising their hands, "Ok, ok! How about... Maria! Your new here so why don't we see what you got, hmm?" Mr. Powell said with a smile "Um, Ok?" Maria said nervously, and shyly went up and grabbed a fake weapon then went back next to the teacher and Emily, "Ok, now Emily, I'm going to grab one of these fake sharks and what I need you to do is lay on the ground and act scared and Maria will come and rescue you while attacking the shark, okay?" "Ok..." She said and went the ground putting her hand up in pretend fear while Mr. Powell started moving the fake shark. "Ok Maria, Now what I want you to do is to attack and destroy the shark puppet, don't worry, we have extras." He said, "Okay..." Maria said nervously, she remembers how her mother attacks and defends herself so she guessed that she'll use those to her advantage. The teacher then started to control the shark puppet making it look like it was going to attack with its mouth wide open with teeth getting ready to bite into Emily's flesh, Maria then dashed in front of the puppet shark and raised her spear then brought it down through its head where it came back out through the bottom of its jaw. "Wow! Excellent job, Maria!" Mr. Powell said cheerfully, Maria smiled and helped Emily up "You okay?" Maria asked "Yeah, I'm fine" Emily said with a small smile. The other students crowded around Maria cheering for her and chanting her name "Okay kiddos! Break time, go on and play!" The class cheered and rushed to the playground.

While everyone was heading towards the playground area, Emily stopped Maria to properly introduced herself, "Hi Maria! I know we've already met but I want to introduce myself better than back there, My name is Emily Stein!" She said sticking her hand out for Maria to shake, "Uh, hey Emily, are these three your other friends?" Maria asked as she pointed out the other three girls behind Emily. "Yes they are! This is Bianca Willow, Stacy lin and Alice Wimble! We've been friends since little fish school." Emily said introducing Maria to more friends. They all went and sat at a bench and talked, mostly about Maria's mother and how their big fans of her,

"Hey Emily." Maria said

"Hm?" Said Emily

"How do you have different color eyes? That's pretty cool!" Maria said amazed and interested, "Oh, um... I'm a hybrid" Emily said.

"What!? Really? Of what!?" Maria asked

"My dad is a Murine like us, but my mother is a Dorm Siren... We visit her sometimes so-" Emily began but was interrupted by Maria's excitement

"SO YOU GET TO GO ACROSS KINGDOMS!? ABOVE OUR DEPTHS!?" Maria shouted in excitement. This really was amazing to her! She thought that with Emily's help she might get to journey more across the ocean and some new things!

"Uhh, yeah?" Emily said

"This is amazing! When do you visit her? Can I come?" Maria asked just overjoyed

"Uhh, after the defender trials. I'd say sure but, what about your mother? I heard she can be very serious." Emily said with worry

"Don't worry about my mom! I'm sure she'll say yes!" Maria said overconfidently

When school was over, Maria went back home and told her mother about her new friends and asked if she could join one of their trips across the ocean. "No." Firtha said, "WHAT!? But-!" Maria began "Sweetie, I'm happy you've found new friends but you can't just jump into another's trip without taking precaution!" Firtha said with worry, "But I'm asking for you permission like I'm supposed to right?" Maria said hoping her mom would still agree "Yes, and I said 'no,' no means no, Maria." Firtha said, "UGH!" Maria angrily sighed and crossed her arms. Firtha sighed, "Maria, dear, I would love for you to see the entire ocean, even the surface! But its too dangerous, Mio Cara!" \\Italian meaning: My love/Darling// Firtha said trying to lift Maria's head to face her "Besides, we have the defender trials coming up so I'm pretty sure the trip would just be cancelled." She said trying to get Maria to understand "What's the defender trials?" Maria asked, "Well, since the Emperor's time is coming soon, she's set up a task for the chosen sirens to do in order for them to hatch her young, then her young will be the new Emperors to protect us and-" "Wait, the Sea Emperor is dying!?" Maria yelled, "Yes, she is, but her children will go through a portal to grow up and learn, but its a time portal! For them, it'll give them all the time they need and when their done they'll come back and stand in their mother's throne and it'll be their turn to defend us!" Firtha carried on hoping it would make her daughter change her mind about the dangerous trip "And how long will it take for us when they come back?" Maria asked "About a few minutes, but for now we need to be careful and prepared." Firtha said kissing her daughter on the forehead and sending her to bed.

Maria sighed, she couldn't help but think about how fun her friend's trip is going to be without her, so she came up with an idea. 'After all, Emily DID say that her trip would start AFTER the trials!' Maria thought.

Chapters: Chapter 1

[tefltraininginstitute]

From Experience to Expertise (with Alan Maley)

How do our experiences as students affect our attitudes about teaching? What's missing from teacher training courses? What would a training course including attitude and awareness look like? We talk with Alan Maley about these and other problems with teacher training and development.

From Experience to Expertise (with Alan Maley) - Transcription

Ross Thorburn:  Alan, I've heard you say before that teacher training, too often, maybe focuses on skills and knowledge at the expense of attitude and awareness. Why is it that attitude and awareness tend to get neglected in teacher training?

Alan Maley:  Why are they neglected? Well, because they're more difficult, I think. I say easy, it's not easy. It's relatively easy to concentrate on knowledge, because knowledge is knowledge, and you can transmit it in some senses.

It's relatively easy to develop basic pedagogical skills. When you come to the area of attitudes, and things like that, then it is obviously much more nebulous, if you like. People veer away from it because it's not so easy. That's one reason, anyway.

One of your questions here is, why are experiences a good starting point for personal and professional growth?

My answer to that is, where else would you start? If I can just digress a moment. At the moment, I'm editing a new book for the British Council, which should come out later this year. It's called, "Developing Expertise Through Experience."

It's based on Phabhu's idea of the teacher's sense of plausibility. In other words, whatever you do, however you train a teacher, whatever training they undergo, they make of it what they make of it.

In other words, they don't just replicate it, they incorporate it somehow into their own existing frameworks of beliefs and values, and so on. According to Prabhu, this is not something you do once, you go on doing it.

You're constantly, in a way, mediating whatever comes in through the lens of your own values, presuppositions, and experience. Would this work with my law in my class? If so, how would it work? Then modifying whatever input in the light of that.

This book that I'm doing has got 20 people worldwide. Most of them, quite well‑known, reflecting on their own career paths, and the people who have influenced them, the ideas that have influenced them, the experiences that have influenced them.

There's a very interesting texture of stuff there. One of the interesting things to come out of this is how important early experiences were even before going into a classroom, or becoming a teacher.

Early experiences with language, for example. People who've grown up in a household where three or four languages are used or, at least two. People who have had interesting learning experiences. People who have had disappointments, as well, and what kind of disappointments.

If I can give you an example from my own experience. Well before I ever knew that I was going to be a language teacher, I was in a primary school in England. We had, at that time, a test, which was called the 11‑plus, taken around about the age of 11. This was one of these psychometric tests, multiple choice, and all the rest of it.

This was an important test because it decided whether you would go on into the stream of education that would take you eventually to higher education, or you went into the other one, which meant you went into the rubbish bin. I failed this exam, this test. I had no idea what it was even. The test failed me. I didn't fail the test.

That affected my view of testing, quite profoundly, and still does. Because after being failed, I went on to get a scholarship to Cambridge. Now, either there's something wrong with the test or there's something wrong with me, and I don't think there's anything wrong with me.

These are profound influences that happen to us and affect the way that we view things. There are others. There are many positive things, as well. When I was learning French at school, I had a genius as a teacher, and he arranged to me to go on an exchange when I was only 12 years old.

The place that I went to in France, nobody spoke a single word of English. For a month, I had to either sink or swim, and I swam. That was a profoundly influential moment for me because it was opening a window on the world I had no conception of before.

A lot of these people who are writing in the book that I was talking about are also telling stories about their earlier times before they even became teachers.

What I'm getting at, I suppose, is that our sense of plausibility is based on a whole series of experiences that we've undergone. We mediate whatever comes to us later in the light of this.

Ross:  I suppose that no teacher starts their career as a blank slate, do they? Because everyone has this experience of being a student.

Alan:  I think we need to pay more heed, perhaps, to previous experience and to validate it. People, as you say, they're not coming into teacher training as blank slates. They have already got a lot of experience, of one kind or another. Discussing that can be very helpful.

Ross:  To go back to the teacher's sense of plausibility that you mentioned earlier, is there a similar thing there with teaching? Maybe, students don't always learn what the teacher teaches. Is this teacher's sense of plausibility a similar idea in that the trainee teachers don't necessarily learn what their trainer trains?

Alan:  Yeah, I suppose so. It goes for any learning experience, doesn't it? Whether it's in the classroom directly, or whether it's in the training setup. There are fundamentally two kind of views on this, which is perhaps oversimplifying.

On the one hand, we have the kind of algorithmic view of education. Which is, here it is, if you do this, and you do this, and you do this, then you will...The result will be that, A plus C plus B equals 0. That's how it will be.

Then on the other hand, you have a view of education, which is the plausibility one, if you like, where that's not the case. It's much more of a heuristic.

You go in. You deal with what there is in front of you, and you deal with it the best way you can in the light of your experience and whatever training you've had. There are no guaranteed outcomes at all, then. The idea that you can train people and that they will all come out pretty much the same, is ridiculous and it's sad, really.

Ross:  To pull all that together and go back to the start, what would a teacher training course based more around teachers experiences look like?

Alan:  Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that you should throw away all the stuff on...People need knowledge, and they need skills. I think more space could be made in training programs for discussion of experience, and reflection.

I would put a much more emphasis, for example, on training teachers in presentation skills. For instance, in use and maintenance of the voice, something that I've banged on a lot about. Also, then looking at improvisational theater games, for instance, which is a way of getting people to react in the moment to what's going on.

I don't know if you've ever experienced clowning. I don't mean circus clowns. I mean, clowning, theater clowns, people like Mike Leacock, for example, in Paris, and people like that. What happens in clowning is very, very interesting, because in order to be a proper clown, you must not have a plan.

A plan will kill the clowning, so you must have no plan. What you have to do and what a clown does is to simply wait until there is something to react to in the audience. Then they begin to react to things. They deal with things as they come along. They don't have a preset plan.

Now, I know this sounds all very wimbly‑wombly. There is a very interesting account of this in a book by a man called Peter Leutscher. He conducted an experiment in Germany. He's not German, he's American. Where a group of teachers ‑‑ these were in Steiner schools, the Waldorfschule ‑‑ they underwent a complete course in clowning.

Then, he followed them up a couple of times after that. The results were very interesting that in terms of the way that the people who undertook the clowning got to understand themselves a lot better, and the effect that it had on their teaching.

Interestingly, he also asked the students what they thought. He asked the student's parents what they thought about the changes in their teaching style after they'd done this course. Things like clowning would be an excellent way of preparing people for the unexpected.

That's what happens in classrooms. The unexpected thing that you cannot simply deal with, but that you can turn to your own advantage.

I often quote this, so excuse me, if you've heard it before. There is a very interesting book called "Teacher Man," by a guy called Frank McCourt. He was teaching in a pretty rough school in New York. He'd been to Columbia. He'd just emerged from the Teachers College.

It was his first job, and his first class. In his first class, the first thing that happened was that one boy threw a sandwich. They were a pretty unruly lot. This boy threw a sandwich, and he didn't know what to do.

He said professors at Columbia University didn't talk about that kind of thing. They talked about theories of education and child‑centeredness, and whatever. They didn't talk about sandwiches being thrown. "What do I do?" he said. "This was my first pedagogical act."

What did he do? I picked up the sandwich, and I ate it. This changed the whole ecology of the classroom, because all of a sudden, the other kids in the class found this hugely interesting and amusing. Whereas, the boy who had thrown the sandwich was absolutely outraged. The class was, all of a sudden, on the side of the teacher.

After that, he could do almost anything with them. You get these incidents, these moments where something happens, and you must deal with it. It's being in a state of readiness for what you cannot expect that matters.

Of course, it's very, very difficult to train people in this. To some extent, you can't, but I do believe that things like training and theater games and improvisation activities.

There's a very good book I'm just reaching for now, by a man called Robert Poynton, which is called, "Do Improvise ‑‑ Less Push. More Pause. Better Results. A New Approach to Work (and Life)." He has some very simple activities there which help to develop this kind of improvisational capacity.