#fucking hell i am done with school...well...technically not

[buggy-d-hoe]

Gracy, BSN (unofficially)

your girl passed her exit exam from nursing school! unofficially I have my BSN (bachelor of science in nursing) for the next 2 weeks until I formally graduate, get pinned and recite the Nightingale pledge. 

next up, challenging the state board for my RN license so I can legally poke with needles (keeding...) D:|

[papayafromtv]

conversations overheard through the batkid com lines pt 61 (masterpost here) (part 2 to 60)

Jason: -eing completely serious here, like not joking,

Damian, faint from a distance: i'm well fucking aware i'm also your child, Hood- this is not a good enough reason to interrupt my mission!

Jason: no you- YOU AREN'T UNDERSTANDING ME. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE JOKE OF ME RAISING YOU IN THE LEAGUE, I'M TALKING GENUINE BIOLOGICAL CONNECTION- we need to get you over here so we can run blood tests, oh my days,

Tim: i swear to god if you don't hang up the phone and just JOIN. THE COM LINE.

Damian, faint from a distance: I AM TRYING TO- for hells sake, just let me- let me finish hacking this computer and i'll join. give me a minute.

*faint beep*

Jason, gobsmacked: he hung up on me- we're related, and he hung up on me-!

Tim, tired: just give him a minute Jay. can you get in contact with Talia or Ra's?

Jason: Ra's isn't picking up, and i wanna do a DNA test before i get anybody else involved anyway; this might be a mistake or something.

Tim: *hums*

*long, awkward stretch of silence*

Tim: *clears throat*

*more awkward silence*

*faint tapping of feet*

Tim: watcha- uh, watcha thinkin' about?

Jason: *a beat* just... *genuine* i was eatin' gum once, yeah? and the kid asked for a piece. and i didn't have any left, but he didn't believe me.

Tim: ...uh-huh.

Jason: and so i jokingly was like 'ok fine, you want some gum then you can have some!' and i took the piece out of my mouth and offered it to him. but i guess he took it as a challenge because he actually took it and started chewing on it. and i'm just wondering... could that have done it? if my DNA was on the gum, or... *trails off*

Tim: *judgemental silence*

Tim: yeah you can tell you never graduated high school.

Jason, enraged: ay- AY-

*connecting ping*

Damian: ok, what's wrong?

Jason: -FINALLY. Damian, seriously, i know you think i was doing a bit, but-

Damian: i didn't think it was a bit. we're biologically related; i am partly your child. did you not know this?

*silence*

Tim: what.

Jason: WHAT.

Damian: *very confused* Hood, you were there, why are you acting like you don't know this?

Jason: I WAS THERE WHEN WHAT-?!

Tim: *gasp of realisation* oh my god, you did fuck Talia,

Jason: I DIDN'T-??

Tim: -you just blocked it out because it was a bad memory! you- *voice dropping slightly* i fuckin' knew you'd been touched before, you so give off those vibes, i knew-

Jason: FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME I WAS NOT TOUCHED AS A CHILD.

Damian: yes, Red, don't be gross. Mother did not touch him.

Jason: HOW DO I GIVE OFF THE VIBES OF SOMEBODY WHO-

Tim: -wait so are you not Bruce's then?

Jason: *enraged scream of frustration*

Damian: no, i am. my biology i think has about... six different people that could technically test positive for parental connections. but i think only Mother, Father, and Akhi's DNA is strong enough to actually show up on a blood test. as far as i'm aware, anyway.

*a beat*

Tim: fucking what?

Jason: what the FUCK, DAMIAN? HOW DO I NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS?!

Damian, still confused: i genuinely don't know?? you were the one that did most of it?? i mean you were pretty hopped up on pain meds but still,

Jason: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Damian, incredulous: what are you talking about?! we've literally had whole conversations with the others about this- there was a whole league days bit on it! one of the lies YOU WROTE was that i was genetically related to another member of the bats! i thought the joke you were doing was that the member was Duke because you knew in reality it was you?!

Jason: NO?! I WAS JUST MAKING WILD SHIT UP?!!?

Damian, supremely exasperated: ok but you were there. you remember that i was used in a lot of Grandfather's experiments as a child, correct? you were too, we both spent a lot of time in the labs,

Jason: well yeah but-

Damian, cutting him off: AND YOU REMEMBER- you remember that to make me a better specimen and heir he would edit my DNA to give me more potential, and you remember he also did a lot of tests with your DNA,

Jason, baffled: right, but he didn't-

Damian, pointedly: and you remember how after a lot of those tests we would share a medical suite?

Jason: ok but i don't remember- *abrupt pause*

*silence*

Jason, faint: oh.... my god....

Damian, unimpressed: idiot.

Tim: the fuck is happening right now- he looks like he's been stabbed in the dick.

Jason, still faint: ...and it was before i figured out how to regulate the defence mechanisms the pit gave me,

Damian: *still unimpressed* uh-huh,

Jason: -every time i got the slightest bit injured i would just go full pit-mad and black out for hours,

Damian: uh-huh,

Jason: -so every time Ra's wanted to use me for research he had to put me on the strongest medication he could get his hands on,

Damian, dry: yup.

Jason: Damian- Damian i used to get so high,

Damian: yeah i was there.

Jason: and he put my DNA... in you?

Damian: *snort* there's definitely way better ways to word it, but yes. the majority of my maternal and paternal biological bonds do go straight back to Mother and Father, but you also share a significant chunk of paternal DNA with me- i cannot believe you fucking forgot about this.

Jason: DAMIAN I WAS SO HIGH.

Damian: yeah, well you were aware enough to teach me how to play blackjack when we shared a hospital room.

Tim: -yeah, so, i have a lot of questions; number one you fucking said six potential parents, and i want more information on that,

Jason, abruptly: -OH MY GOD THE BLACKJACK,

Tim: yeah, Jay, there are more important things right now than-

Damian: no, Red, he's-

Jason: NO THE BLACKJACK IS WHY THERE'S MORE PARENTS,

Damian: -yeah he's answering you, that's- the blackjack was relevant to that.

*a beat*

Tim: fucking how.

Jason: i- holy shit. dude i was so high.

Tim: yeah so you keep fucking saying-

Jason: NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND- Tim, Tim. i was so out of it that i was getting the other scientists and servants to join the blackjack games i was playing with Damian post-experiment.

Tim: ...ok?

Jason: and i- *slightly muffled* oh my god i'm a horrible person,

Damian: no, don't worry, you asked me like twenty times beforehand if i was ok with it; i was just so bored i thought it was funny and said go ahead.

Jason: I WAS- *abrupt wheeze*

Tim: if you tell me how fucking high you were again-

Jason, still laughing wetly: NO- i was- Tim we would get left alone unsupervised in those labs for so long- like i'm fairly sure Ra's was just fucking forgetting about us,

Damian: oh- a hundred percent he was forgetting about us.

Jason: -yeah, and so when the drugs wore off enough to leave me capable of getting up and just a little loopy, i used to- oh my god it's all coming back to me,

Damian: -he would go and look through all of Grandfather's notes and fuck around with all the machines and stuff that were being used on us, during. there was really nothing else to do until he found the deck of cards.

Tim: right...?

Jason: ok so- so i was still significantly high and coming down from these meds, right? and i was also very bored, and i'd just sort of self taught myself on how to fuse people's DNA together via Ra's notes, right?

*a beat*

Tim: ...there's no way this is going where i think it is. please tell me i'm wrong.

Jason: i- *bursts out laughing*

Damian: he was auctioning me off like an antique vase.

Jason: *loses his shit*

Damian: in his defence he had my consent to do so, and unlike him i was not high.

Jason: *still laughing* oh my- holy- i was calling all the servants within the vicinity and yelling like- *wheeze* 'if you beat us at blackjack, you too can be a biological parent to one of the most important people in this compound! think of the special privileges!'

Damian: yeah they literally- being biologically related to me gave them nothing, by the way.

Jason: *audibly horrified with himself but still laughing* i did it like three different times-!

Damian: -to be fair i think you reversed one of them after you found out they were genetically predisposed for heart disease. and also you were still majorly impaired mentally so you didn't really fuse me very well. that's why none of them really show up on any tests.

Tim, speechless: oh. my god.

Damian: he was out in the hall outside our room yelling at the passing cleaners like somebody trying to sell fruit at a market.

Jason: *actively losing it*

Tim: wait so was it- did he fuse himself with anybody else or just you?!

Damian, pointedly: no as it turns out-

Jason: *wheezes*

Damian: -he was high enough to fuck with my DNA but not high enough to want to fuck with his own.

Jason, wetly: i can't believe i forgot about this... Damian, i'm half your biological father,

Damian: yes, Hood, i'm well aware- actually. if you didn't remember, then does Father know?

Tim: no, literally nobody knows. B almost figured it out himself at one point but because Jason obviously didn't think it was true, he brushed it off and convinced B he was being an idiot.

Jason, muffled again: oh my goooooddddddd,

Tim: Jason, Jason you- *slight snort* Jason you realise this makes you a co-dad with Bruce Wayne?

*silence*

Jason, decisively: no.

Tim: *laughs* no?

Jason: nope. not happening. we're never telling him. ever.

Tim: why not?

Jason: why n- are you taking the piss?! my relationship with that man is already so fucking undeniably odd- i am not adding co-parenting dynamics to that fucking list-!

Tim: *wheeze* holy- this situation is so fucked-!

Damian: maybe for you guys, this has been my normal for years. can i go now? i'm still working.

Jason: yeah- hold on. if you've always known that i was your half-biological-father, why don't you call me dad?

Tim: *starts cackling*

Damian, evenly: because i jokingly called you 'baba' once while you were under anaesthesia and you crawled into my medical cot and started crying about how you were too young and hated going to parent-teacher nights and weren't sure if you'd be able to 'do right by me' because you couldn't remember how to sign up for children's health insurance.

*silence*

Damian: -so i just switched to Akhi for your mental health's sake.

Tim: *cackles again*

Jason: ok that's actually fair.

Tim: *still laughing* dude are you- are you ok? you've gone so white,

Jason, faint: i gave my son weed when he was thirteen...

Tim: *loses it again*

[tallangrycockatiel]

Arthur Lester's English Accent

(This has nothing to do with anything specific happening in the show, it's just a ramble about my own hang-ups around accent with a figleaf of fandom meta. It's been bumping around in my head since I first started listening and I just felt like actually writing it today.)

One of the things I love about early-season Malevolent is the tipping point where one realises that Arthur is, if anything, weirder and less hinged than the demon entity possessing his eyeballs. That strikes different people at different moments, but for me there are two obvious hints from episode one: 1) he sounds like me, and 2) we're in Arkham, MA.

I can't remember when exactly we find out that his parents died when he was young and he was raised in the States in institutional care, but for me that was one of the key moments of "oh no I have a new The Character". Because that makes no goddamn sense with his accent unless it says a whole hell of a lot about who Arthur is as a person, and then I start projecting.

Arthur and I both have the kind of English accent that gets recognised and understood as an English accent pretty much everywhere. It's the accent typically associated with politicians and BBC reporters. It's treated as non-regionalised, which is to say that it's heavily upper-class-coded and regional to the only bit of Britain that has historically been allowed to matter, because this island is insane.

I have it because my parents have it, and when we moved to an area with a marked regional accent they made sure I kept sounding like them, because it "would be helpful for me later".

We moved when I was a toddler, and I have no memories of where I was born. I am from the area I grew up in, which is close to where I live now, but I have had people, especially older people, question that to my face because I don't sound like it. It was one of the earliest and most consistent things I was bullied for at school, because I sounded, to the other kids, like a posh twat.

In my head that part also happened to Arthur, and I will 100% be dropping that into future fic somehow. I kept my accent because of a deep fear of even mild parental disapproval, and later due to doubling down against the other kids. For Arthur? Well, firstly, it would have been the only thing he had left of his parents and where he came from. And we can also infer that even as a child, he was the type to double and triple down on things that he knew were going to land him in the shit.

I'm told I write Arthur's voice very well. Honestly a lot of that is just turning off the filter on my own voice that keeps me from being too much like the miserable little snob I was supposed to be.

And the other thing is that it does help. It really does. I've been young and female in a technical field. I've been a consultant. I've done jury duty. I can tell you, it fucking works.

Which is another thing that I'm going to put in a fic some day, because there's a big old backstory question around why the hell Parker felt it was worth his while to fish Arthur out of his self-destructive spiral, sober him up and give him a job. Call it philanthropy, call it an inconvenient crush, sure, but also. Parker is self-employed and Chinese-American in Exclusion Act era New England. He's not stupid. Even if Arthur never turned out any good at detective work, he'd be useful as a face. And that would be true of any white guy with a reason to be grateful to Parker, but Arthur isn't just a face, he's a voice. Put him on the phone, suddenly all of Parker's asshole clients are paying bills on time. Put Parker's ideas in Arthur's mouth, suddenly people are listening and agreeing. I poked a bit at this kind of thing in ATIM and I Will be doing so again.

Because that is the final thing: it sounds fucking fake. I mean in-universe here. You hear that accent in Arkham in the 30s, and it must be being put on to give himself airs. You hear it on me, today, and it must be because I went to a posh uni and learnt it deliberately, and I've had people openly make that assumption too. It's kind of a mindfuck to have something built in that seems put on. It messes with feeling like you belong anywhere. It messes with believing that you really are being genuine even when you know you're trying.

Which is to say, just from the accent situation, we can infer that Arthur is a stubborn asshole, has Baggage about "home" and "belonging" and "sincerity", and just might turn out to be the kind of guy who is on some level more at ease when everything has gone extravagantly to shit, because at least then he doesn't have to do all this fucking social calculus any more.

All of which is very fun, and I would say I'm planning to put that in future fic too, but I think it just turns up in everything I write anyway because uh. See above.

[tsukkisbitch]

when hopeless megumi seeks out the school sl*t to help him lose his virginity.

chapter 1

Megumi did not care about sex, really, he didn’t. But when you're 19 years old and spent the entirety of your first semester at college studying, the nonchalant-ness about the act can wear off. When Megumi was first accepted in Jujustu Tech University, or JTU, the main thing he was thought about was how to keep his grades up in order to get somewhere in life. But, Megumi realizes, in the act of doing that, he completely disregarded what freshman year was supposed to be.

Take his two best friends, Yuuji and Nobara, all they did was party for the first semester of freshman year. He can count on ten fingers and ten toes how many times he had to hold their heads over toilet bowls while they puked out dining hall food. He complained while it was happening, but deep down, he wanted to experience the same things. But, not that he’d ever admit this, Megumi was scared of disappointing his family. His older brother and sister, Tsukimi and Gojo, were stars at JTU, and their parents expected the same from the youngest child.

“Look dude, there’s a lot more virgins here than you think. You don’t have to be in a rush to get it done,” Yuuji tried to explain. Nobara nodded in the square box below.

“Yea. Like I get it, you want to ram it in someone, but like you could be ass as it.” Megumi groaned. “No hear me out! You get all excited because some girl decides to give you a chance and you completely fuck it up because you have no idea what you’re doing.”

Megumi hated to admit it, but Nobara was right. Megumi was utterly helpless. His first kiss was technically Yuuji, when he tripped over a rock and their faces collided. But whenever someone asks Megumi, he says that it was at summer camp.

“Well then what do you suggest I do? I want to have sex, but I don’t feel like waiting to find someone that I like enough to see me in the light.” Megumi said.

“You need an experienced girl. One that knows you’re virign-”

Megumi cut Nobara off, "Absolutely not. It’s already embarrassing enough being a virgin, but the girl I’m sleeping with knowing that? Hell no. It’s like social suicide. Everyone in college is evil, even the girls. She’ll just tell everyone and it’ll be hell.”

Yuuji sighed sarcastically, “Dude. You need to chill. Maybe you’re not ready to lose your virginity.”

“I am so ready.”

“Are not.”

“Am so!”

“Shut the fuck up, please. You should like children. I have a solution for you,” Nobara sighs.

The two stop talking, “Y/N.”

Yuji pauses and then lets out a long laugh.

“Y/N? You’re joking right, she would probably snap his dick off.”

Megumi was confused, “Who is Y/N?”

Itadori shoves his face in the camera, “Just the girl who made herself known during college welcome week that’s who. She’s slept with like everybody.”

“Has she slept with you?” Megumi’s face turns up. Itadori shakes his head.

“Nah, I’ve never even seen her in real life. I thought she was a myth until someone showed me her instagram.” Itadori clicks his phone a couple times when Megumi feels a notification from Instachat.

Megumi stills. She is really pretty.

“I can’t sleep with her. She’ll think I’m a loser, plus I don’t even know where I would find her. On top of the fact that she's the school slut? I mean she’s had to have slept around a lot for a reputation like that to stick in a school this big. How do you even know if it's real?”

“She fucked Inumaki, and he said she had him screaming. That guy barely talks! She’s the real deal,” Nobara exclaimed.

“Toge’s a total liar,” Megumi rolled his eyes.

“Regardless of that, Megumi, dude you have no chance. She’s like college level hot, that’s a peak not many can reach.” Itadori says.

“Yuuji, shut the fuck up. ‘Gumi, you’re a total babe. You have that nerdy quiet guy thing going for you. Plan: You find her, ask her for help for her services because you heard she’s good at what she does, and then boom sex it,” Nobara claps.

Yuuji curls an eyebrow, “Did you really just say sex it?”

“Shut up, it works.”

“Look guys I love your confidence in me, but this might just be a ride I’ll have to wait out for a while,” Megumi sighs. “I’m gonna go to sleep, I have an 8am tomorrow.”

“Only you Megumi would have an 8am on the first day back for second semester. Love you bro, meet me in the quad during lunch,” Yuuji says and then exits the call.

“Gumi, I think you should think about it. It could be the college situationship everyone needs freshman year.” Nobara shrugs and then exits the call.

I am not meeting with the school slut just because I want to lose my virginity. I’m not that desperate. What kind of nickname is that anyway.

Megumi chose to ignore his thoughts and turned off his lights to fall asleep.

-

Nobara reaches for her phone, eyes still glued shut but the ringing getting to her

“Hello?” She asks groggily.

“Nobara, give me her number.”

“Megumi? What the fuck, its 7am.”

“I know but I just need her socials or something. Or her class schedule,” Megumi rushes out.

Nobara half asleep, “Uhuh and what changed in 7 hours?”

Megumi was quiet. So quiet, she thought he hung up.

“Hel-”

“I woke up with a hard on, okay. Just fucking help me out.”

Nobara bolts up-right, a laugh escaping her chest.

This is gonna be so much fucking fun.

-

Will be uploading here and on my wattpad :)

elle 😽 (@tsukkisbitch)

currently writing: teachers pet 2 Works, 7 Reading Lists, 244 Followers

[ghostlysquash0]

Lab Partners

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

OC x smokedope2016

forced proximity, tension, college AU (still makes music tho), mentions of drug and alcohol use, secrets, ongoing series

in which liliana gets tangled in with someone she is more familiar with than she thought

wordcount: 2.3k part one.

It was one of those heavy, gray mornings and today marked the 3rd day of my junior year. Technically, it's only my 2nd year of college, but I treated high school like it was a competition. College rewarded me with debt despite the scholarships and exhausting 8ams for my dedications. Thea was still asleep when I woke up, curled into her blankets like a snug little bug. Her soft snores floated across the room, and I'm sure they were teasing me. She had stayed out late with her on-again off-again boyfriend and his best friend - the same usual mess. I liked Thea's boyfriend, but his friends, I only saw them briefly in the living room when I came out of my room for a glass of water.  Male. Loud as hell. High as fuck. The kind that makes you roll your eyes.

I slipped on a hoodie, leggings, and my perpetually dirty Converse. The rain outside had ruined my energy right away, so I braided my hair, brushed my teeth, grabbed a granola bar, and accepted that was all I could manage today. My ecology lab was uphill and my calves were already protesting the thought.

This lab class is smaller than I imagined, and it smells of faint chemicals and is cold. There are random wet specimens and other odd findings like every science lab ever. It was smaller than I expected, and there were only two empty seats at a station near the back. Perfect. Next to a window to look out to pass time as well. I don’t consider myself to be a social butterfly in any way, shape, or form, so, it calmed my nerves a bit that I was safe from that for now. I was not even paying attention to the professor, who had stood up and began introducing himself. He had a huge mustard stain on his collared shirt. I looked out the window. I had my headphones in, mind floating away while listening to a soft, hazy Yung Lean song. The music helped to soften the edges of the gloomy morning. I decided to take them out, maybe out of a bit of guilt for ignoring the professor. Or instinct. 

“-and if you don’t have a partner for this lab, feel free to do it yourself or join another group. Let me know if you have any questions, get to it!” 

I look to my right, empty. I did this lab in high school. This was borrowed from the same website the baseball coach found after being forced to teach 12th grade biology, so it's fine, I guess that I'm alone. This way, I can just listen to music and get it over with, easy 100 on day one. I could even finish early and go home.

I am halfway done with the assignment when I see movement in my peripheral vision that caught my attention. Someone stood in the doorway talking to the professor. I glance up, not enough to stare, but just to peek. A guy, with sleepy, hooded eyes and baggy clothes who looks oddly familiar. I peek up again and immediately regret it.

Both of them are staring dead at me. I quickly look away. What the hell, did they catch me staring? My cheeks heated instantly. I slink into my chair a little deeper like it would make me disappear. 

The chair next to me makes a loud screeching noise I can hear over my music, loud enough to slice into the bass of the song I was listening to. The chair bumps into mine as he sits down. Before I could look over at him, a hand brushed against my face briefly and yanked my earbud free, letting the minimal chatter of my peers enter my eardrum without my permission. 

“Hey partner,” the boy next to me says. 

Oh great. It’s Ian. Up close he looked like he had a rough night, hood half up resting on his hat, eyes hooded and heavy. “Oh, hey I know you, you are Thea’s roommate ain't you?” 

“Why did you pull my earbud out?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. He laughs under his breath and shakes his head. “Had to get your attention somehow right?” I ignore that remark, but barely. My ears burned. 

“To answer your question, yes I am Thea’s roommate. You are Ian, right?” He maintains eye contact with me, casually leaning back in his chair, like he had all the time in the world. The pressure to maintain eye contact creeps up my neck, but I look away. His confidence is giving me a stomach ache. 

“In the flesh. What we workin on, partner?” He leans closer, peering over my shoulder, close enough to feel his breath hit my ear when he speaks. My own breath caught.I turned to look at him, realizing how closely our faces were, and turned back to focus on the paper. The smell radiating off of him was driving me crazy. It was almost like a woodsy, bourbon scent with a hint of weed on top. I hate that I noticed that. I scoff, I could see he had a shit-eating grin out of the corner of my eye, almost like he knows he intimidates me.

Ok I’ll admit, maybe I would come out of my room more than needed to sneak little peaks at him when he would smoke with Thea and her boyfriend. I never talked to him. I barely even looked at him. But I noticed him. More than I should’ve. It’s not a crush, just a mild interest is all. The one where you have to tell yourself to get a grip, which is what I'm doing right now.

“It’s a lab about the microorganisms found in pond scum,” I said, fidgeting with my pencil, “ I have the assignment almost done already. I did it already in highschool so it's pretty easy, so you don't have to help at all unless you want to. It’s mainly just cyanobacteria that I can see but you can look if you-”

“Ima cut you off right there,” he says, stretching, “I had a late night so I am gonna catch some shut eye since you got this down”

Okay. Rude. I kept working, but I couldn’t help that my eyes kept drifting back to him.. His outfit, baggy, but stylish, his backwards fitted cap covered his fluffy light brown hair that slightly spilled out the sides. His eyelids were low, but when they opened- 

“Were you, staring at me?” I look away. I tuck the hair falling out of my braid behind my ear, trying to play it cool. He looks at me like he can see right through me. 

I blurted, “You weren’t moving, had to make sure you were still alive, is all.” He lowers his eyes, and scoffs quietly. 

“Right, lab partner, sure you weren’t.”

“I have a name, you know.” I say, avoiding eye contact and looking back into the microscope at the familiar, fuzzy algae. I am not usually this brave, but I like being a shithead sometimes. I do it to my mama when she asks me if I can grab her a snack from the gas station, and I say we got food at home. And then silently chuckle to myself, amusing no one but myself. It brings me joy. Anyways. 

He doesn’t miss a beat. “I know you have a name, Liliana.” The way my name rolled off his tongue made my entire body go warm, he said it so deliberately and smoothly. I didn't correct him, that no one except my mother when she's mad at me calls me that. It sounded so different coming out of his mouth. 

“Wasn’t so hard, hm?” I muttered.

“I guess not.” 

We didn’t talk for the rest of class. I wrote his name on the handout after I finished, packed up, and walked home, ignoring my heart that was still beating out of my chest.

⟡₊ ⊹ . ✦ . ⊹ ₊⟡

Work was slow, the boring slow where the clock seemed to tick backward. I was tagging clothes, zoning out to my playlist but every time my mind drifted, it drifted right back to class today. How embarrassingly awkward I was talking to Ian. The way he said my name, like he was practicing it, even though just before that he immediately dismissed me like I was nothing. I don't know why I care. Or why I can't stop thinking about our interaction. 

I tried focusing on the music, the same playlist I always used when I needed to shut my brain off. Some cloud rap, some Yung Lean, and a lot of underground stuff, which I've been listening to since middle school. The kind of music that made me want to make something of my own.

I've been messing around with making beats for months now. Nothing serious, just something that made my brain feel less heavy. Something that made me feel like I had a little world of my own to escape into.

But today, even the playlist wasn’t working. Every time a song faded out, my mind drifted right back to class. Right back to him.

I hung a sweater that smelled of moth balls on the rack and sighed. My shift couldn't end sooner. 

By the time I closed the store, my feet hurt, my head hurt, and all I wanted was to go home and shower. The rain had finally stopped, but the air was still heavy as I walked home. I kept my headphones in, letting the music drown out the events of the day. 

When I reached my apartment door, I paused. Voices floated through the thin, wooden door. I wasn’t expecting company, assuming Thea invited some friends over and forgot to tell me. 

And then, I heard my name. They were talking about me? I paused, hand on the doorknob, and ear to the door. A neighbor walks by, giving me a weird look. I grimace, and awkwardly wave with my ear still attached to the door.

“Speaking of, my roommate should be home soon, by the way.”

“Oh yeah? What’s she like? Is she cute?” A voice I only recognize as masculine rings through the door. 

A beat passes. And that's when I hear him.

“Shes my lab partner, she ain't nothing special. She's…boring.” The word hit me like a slap to the face. 

“Boring how?”

“I don’t know. Quiet. She’s gonna get all our work done though, get me an A in the class. That's all that really matters, right?” I feel so stupid for thinking that he could see me as anything other than a convenient grade.

My chest tightens. Then I hear Thea, the sharpness radiating through her voice.

“Shut up, Ian. You don’t know anything about her. You don't get to talk about her like that in her own home.”  Someone let out a low whistle. As they should.

My throat burned. I opened the door to my apartment before my legs gave out in the hallway.

The living room was bright, filled with people sprawled on the floor and the couch. Thea was curled up into her boyfriend’s side. My eyes found Ian, sat on the arm of the couch with his hood up like he belonged there. 

Everyone looked up when I entered. Silence. Thea’s smile faltered, just enough to tell me that she knew I heard everything. 

“Hey Lils, how was your day?” She said softly. “We are just hanging out, probably going to watch a movie you want to join? There's room on the couch next to me.”

I forced a weak smile, one I knew she would see right through. 

“I’m okay. Thanks though. It's been a long day, just gonna grab a shower and head to bed.” I could still feel everyone's eyes on me, but Ian’s burned the most. Ian looked away before anyone else did, taking a long hit off of the blunt they were passing around. 

I turned and headed down the hall to my room, and quietly shut the door behind me, letting the silence swallow me whole. 

one hour later

The shower was the first time all day my body didn’t feel like it was made of static. The water was almost too hot, hitting my shoulders hard enough to sting, but I needed it. I needed something to drown out the tightness in my chest from earlier. It was hazy in the bathroom, the air was perfectly warm for me to relax. My little Bluetooth speaker sat on the counter, playing just loud enough to hear over the water. Not loud enough for the living room. I didn’t want to interrupt Thea’s hangout, or worse, draw attention to myself. I just needed something familiar. Something comforting.

A smokedope2016 track came on, one of my favorites. The kind of dreamy beat that made my brain loosen its grip on the day. I hummed along at first, then quietly sang the lyrics under my breath. Not performing. Letting the music fill the parts of me that felt hollow.

I closed my eyes and let the conditioner rinse from my hair, letting the song wrap around me like a blanket.

I didn’t know that in the hallway, someone had stopped walking.

Out in the hallway, Ian excused himself to go to the bathroom, specifically Thea’s bathroom at the end of the hall. He walked by my door, and froze, dead in his tracks.

He heard it.

His own voice, coming from behind the door that Liliana was showering right behind. 

He stood there a second, heartbeat suddenly getting louder in his ears.

For the first time all day, the act dropped, and he didn’t know what to do.

⟡₊ ⊹ . ✦ . ⊹ ₊⟡

a.n. this was revised on 3/22/26, let me hear ur thoughts !

[princess-of-the-corner]

Public Divorce AU

Mostly Random ideas/events that will not leave me be. Some I am 100% “Yes, this is how it would play out”, others it’s more “this is the vibe, but I’m not sure on exact events and actions”. As always, we run on suggestions and ‘yes and'ing each other!

- So, the Rogercop thing goes a little differently, cause both André and Audrey showed up for Parents’ Day to try and score some good publicity points, and. Uh. One thing leads to another, and André fires Roger for…well, he gives some legit reason, but the ACTUAL one is that he thought Roger was “taking Audrey’s side”. He wasn’t, for the record. He was actually standing up for both Chloé and Sabrina, and was just trying to get the Bourgeois to maybe calm down. They did not, and Roger ends up fired. Shortly after, Roger starts working at the Museum as a security guard, which it turns out he’s actually pretty good at.

- Most Chloé related Akuma go differently. Instead of going after Chloé, most are going after André or Audrey, cause they showed up and did something stupid. Chloé’s still at root cause for a few, but not nearly so many.

- Chloé does end up meeting Zoé. Zoé and her dad get dragged to Paris by Audrey as part of the “divorce proceedings” (she’s really rubbing them in André’s face). Both are extremely apologetic to Chloé, who’s just “trust me, this is NOT your fault”. They end up sticking around Paris (everyone is confused on WHY) and Zoé starts attending school with the Miracuclass.

- Still stuck on Lila being baffled by how “low maintenance” the class is, when in actuality, it’s more effort, it’s just stuff she enjoys, so it FEELS like less effort. She’s kind of suspicious and waiting for the moment she’ll have to lie to keep these “friends” but it never comes.

- the incident that majorly contributed to Chloé’s current “Don’t Give A Fuck” attitude, was André, in an effort to prove how bad of a parent Audrey is, posting a video of a slightly younger Chloé having a breakdown over something Audrey had done (unsure of what). Like, it was a moment captured by an opportunistic reporter, and at the time, André went to great lengths to ensure that clip NEVER saw the light of day. He basically bought the rights to the footage, meaning if anyone else aired it without his permission, André would be within his rights to sue the hell out of them. Then, when he needs ammo for his dick-measuring contest with Audrey, he uses that clip to prove how awful of a parent she is, proving himself to be just as bad, because he just showed a very vulnerable moment of Chloé’s without her permission. When Chloé tries to confront him about it, André dismisses her concerns, and just points out it’s Audrey’s fault for upsetting Chloé in the first place. 

- André and Audrey start dipping into illegal activity to try and get back at each other.

- when André starts bringing home his new girlfriends, that’s when Chloé unofficially moves out of the Hotel. She does NOT want to be around for this. While she still technically lives at the hotel, and will occasionally spend the night if André had her show up at an event or something, she is otherwise packing up all her stuff and moving into the Agreste Mansion. (It took almost a week for Gabe to realize she’d taken over the guest room closest to Adrien’s.)

- the Style Queen Trilogy goes differently. Or rather, it goes mostly the same, right up until Style Queen is pointing her glitter ray at Adrien. At that point, it gets derailed, by Chloé bodily launching herself at Style Queen and grappling with her, shouting for Adrien to run. Adrien does indeed book it (if he changes into Chat fast enough-), but Chloé gets hit with a glancing blow. And rather than immediately changing into a statue, Chloé starts slowly turning to glitter, starting from where the ray hit, but she’s still conscious and mobile. So she keeps going. Keeps trying to fight Audrey, keeps trying to rip the item off. She kicks, bites, and claws at Audrey, snarling and shouting the whole time. Eventually, she’s too disintegrated to hold on, and Audrey throws her off, resulting in Chloé dissipating into a cloud of glitter upon hitting the ground, vanishing. Ladybug and Chat Noir beat Style Queen, and Miraculous Cure everyone back, but this is the incident that gets Fu to give Chloé the Bee. It’s also the incident that makes Gabe start running all his power ideas for André and Audrey by Nathalie.

- For almost a week after this, Adrien and Sabrina are both extremely clingy. So are most of their friends. Chloé’s actually pretty ok (it didn’t hurt, felt more like going numb, and she was so enraged she barely noticed) but everyone else has ✨trauma✨.

- Infinity War is now banned media for their class.

- Chloé tries to do a “I don’t feel so good, Mister Stark”, sends half her class into a panic attack. 

- the Incident that finally gets both Audrey and André “taken out” so to speak, is near the end of the divorce. Because everything is more or less settled, except for one thing. Who gets custody of Chloé. This is complicated (for them) by Chloé being old enough to have input, which is “I’d rather live in a sewer than with either of them”. The way they decide to handle this is by each trying a big spectacle to prove THEY are the better parent, and said spectacle ends up with Chloé (and possibly others) becoming endangered. Not by an Akuma either, this is just plain mortal stupidity. Also, probably illegal, whatever it is, resulting in both André and Audrey being arrested, and Chloé ends up under someone else’s Guardianship (Gabe? Someone else?). The thing that sprung to mind was they each separately hire some goons to kidnap Chloé, so that they can come in and “save” her, proving that THEY are the superior parent, but they accidentally do it on the same day, so instead they had a mutual shoot out or something.

- because Chloé’s parents get arrested, Chloé gains control over BOTH their financial assets. She promptly begins to sell off EVERYTHING SHE CAN. Some personal effects, she can’t touch, but what she can, she is selling. The hotel? Sold. Style Queen Magazine? Gone. Yachts, cars, jets, stocks - all sold to the highest bidder. Everything they fought over during the divorce, she sells as soon as she can.

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments?

-

Ohohoho!

- Au where Roger is decent hell yeah!

- absolute rip to them getting involved but YEAH that’d cause Akumas

- they end up sticking around because Mr. Lee is like ‘well someone has to look out for this kid’s wellbeing’

- Lila is both happy and filled with anxiety.

- OH OUCH. Yeah that’d- that’d really break all love and trust huh? It’s one of those things that Chloé would’ve used to think that Andre scrubbed the video from existence because he cared, but now it’s just so clear that it was only to save his own reputation/image and it taints everything.

- these damn rich people

- I just imagine Gabriel actually showing up to breakfast with Adrien for once only for Chloé to waltz in still half-asleep in pajamas and messed up hair and just steal Adrien’s toast and Gabe is like ????

- Oh this HURTS

- Yeah everyone’s traumatized

- OH SHE WOULD LMAO

- Honestly yeah them doing some ridiculous shit that can’t be handwaved as Hawkmoth’s fault because hey no Akumas this time just them? And that’s the tipping point because sure before this was clearly an unhealthy environment for Chloé but it was never anything that could get them in legal trouble it just made everyone judge them. But now? This is Al Capone’s taxes. Also yeah the incident being them both staging danger to ‘save’ Chloé and prove themselves the ‘better parent’ makes sense.

- selling everything they fought over is the ultimate power move

[samsaraserpent]

I JUST GOT CURSED: story time

so yall biggest mistake of my life. rmb that LV bag and prada cafe pic i posted two days ago. well obv i posted it on my ig story as well. i didnt think too much of it but i was proud like it was an awesome bday gift from my dad and it was such a fun day and i was thriving i was happy life was life-ing..? and i was like okay everything is good.

i wake up the next day same old same old but since last night idk if its a time difference or what LMAO but ive been GOING thru it. firstly couldnt sleep last night, went into my dads room woke up to a COCKROACH crawling on top of me.

i brushed it off and said whatever. woke up this morning first thing that happens...i fight with my dad OVER LAW SCHOOL smth weve dicussed hundreds of times but it was bad and i cried but again i moved past it. i go to the train with my dad bc we need to go to my dorm to drop off a suitcase and the train has a technical issue so we have to wait 15 mins to swtich trains. and best part ITS BOILING HOT. every single day its been raining or at least like 14 degrees celcius or less but today??? A FUCKING HEAT WAVE. and obv im dressed for the cold and undereath my sweater im wearing a pj shirt so i cant even take my sweater off. and even better we take the wrong line so we got off on a station we thought was close to my uni but was acc 25 mins away by bus. speaking of the bus the driver stopped halfway and said he didnt want to drive and they had to wait to change drivers so we had to SWTICH BUSES.

its already 2 pm at this point, its boiling hot we traveled over an hour switch buses and trains and drag my suitcase into the dorm. i ask them to clean my dorm they say "cleaners come in next week and also you have to pay £35" which is ridiculous bc obv they have to clean the dorm but im pissed off im abt to yell i keep it in. i turn on the fan ready to clean my room THERES NO VACCUM CLEANER. theres 8 flats on my side of the floor ofc theres supposed to be a shared vaccum cleaner bc it was there last year. WRONG. i have to go down 8 stories, get the vaccum, drag it across 3 apartment blocks back up 8 flights.

of course at this rate IM PISSED OFF. i cry i scream i yell becuase the whole day is getting to me. me and my dad just fucking give up so we go back on the tube ready to go to the shops to eat on the way back to our hotel. everything is fine we eat, the food is good, i fight with my mom on the phone but like all in all not too stressful. now we go this area often so we know what bus to take back. the sun is boiling, we cant open our eyes, of course theres no fan or AC bc europe but its fine were almost home. guess what. THEY CLOSED OUR BUS STOP. they mention this 3 seconds before so we try to get off at the previous bus stop, right as we want get of, the doors close. so we have to walk an extra 15 mins in the boiling sun to get back.

you think it stops there? WRONG. i spill coffee on our airbnb couch and it literally ends up burning me and gets all over my pants and my dads jacket. now obv i feel guilty i try to blow dry the couch, THE BLOW DRYER STOPS WORKING. WHAT THE FUCK.

so thats been my day from hell. i was wondering how such fucking things could happen but im sure someone gave me evil eye bc i am not my own enemy to this extent like idk how i manifested this its not possible since i kept affirming good stuff would happen even if i was crying. so yeah if its one of you fucks i cursed you back x100 bc im divinely protected dont play w me and if it was the bitches on my ig i hope you choke on a hot dog you ugly broke lame fucks.

ANYWAY the day is done i lived i survived so choke on my black card bitches. if anyone knows what happened pls let me know bc i know usually the opposite happens if u affirm smth huge but like this is crazy. i dont hate my life enough for allat.

edit: forgot i woke up and found my phone charger bent at a 90 degree angle and snapped so...WHO THE FUCK IS CURSING ME DAMN U A BITCH FR 😭

[mappingthemoon]

my library is migrating to a new and terrible ils this summer and i am, ugh, finally coming to terms with the fact that i am really truly going to have to find a new job because i simply cannot deal.

without getting too much into the technical details: i am a cataloger, which is essentially data entry work, and when your job involves "touching computer all day for money," you just don't want to be fucking around with an interface that requires a lot of mouse-clicking and -scrolling. there are a lot of other issues, such as a god-awfully un-accessible layout that is somehow both too much extraneous crap crammed onto the screen and too much white space, a total inability to do the kind of analytics we regularly do in our current system, the loss of a lot of our historical metadata that can't be mapped into the new system, having to redo metadata cleanup that we've already done from our last migration 8 years ago (!!!), and just, like, not being able to do basic catalog maintenance tasks like moving an item from one holding to another or properly shelf-listing non-LC call numbers. people who sit wayyy up at the tippity-top of our institutional hierarchy and know nothing about library work made this decision years ago because they thought it would save us money and the end result is going to be the enshittification of our catalog (bad for users) and our daily workflows (bad for employees).

so now i'm in this dumb and precarious position of trying to figure out what the fuck to do with my ~career~ as an overeducated 40-something woman lol. certainly this is not the worst problem in the world to have rn, but also, from my personal perspective, it is like, basically a giant cosmic turd laid upon whatever it is i've been working to build up for myself over the past ~20 years of "trying to get my life back on track." i've been at the same library for over 10 years and the job i have now is the job i had been slowly (SLOWLY) but steadily advancing towards since day one... and now i'm barely two years into the position, finally feeling a bit comfortable in my role, and this fucking software is going to make my 9-5 life absolute hell. like, i genuinely enjoy the work of cataloging, it's kind of incredible to me that they have designed a way to make it so very terrible. i'm trying not to be a total baby about this but jfc no one wants to go to work everyday and deal with a garbage-ass machine that adds 10 extra steps to your procedures and/or doesn't even do the basic things you need to do for your job, you know?

anyway, idk. i have my eye out for job postings but it all feels so overwhelming. if i want to stay in special collections, or even if i want to stay in libraries at all (precarious itself in the current political climate, har har), i would most likely have to move, and while i never expected to stay in this town as long as i have, i don't have any strong feelings about where else i might want to live, other than i'm pretty sure i don't want to live in a place with actual winter, which limits my selection because most of the special collections cataloger jobs i see are in new england or at least the northern us. (and yet! i always keep a lil window of consideration open to returning to pittsburgh because my parents are getting older and i don't know my nieces & nephews as much as i'd like to, i feel the distance more and more every year and it might be time for me to stop being so prodigal, ugh, so all there's all that thrown into the mix as well.) i remember when library school felt like an impossible goal but i did it and now i almost feel like i painted myself into a corner by specializing in the thing i wanted to do. it is slim pickins out there already, i can't afford to take a pay cut with all the debt i'm carrying, i don't know what else to do at this "stage of life" and i hate that it feels almost like a sinful luxury to even want to have a job that i don't despise & won't destroy my mental & physical health for the next ~30 years of my working life. i know that i am resilient af and i will always do what i have to do, even if that means going back to washing dishes for minimum wage again in order to survive but like, BIG SIGH, goddamn. please give a bitch a break :(