run with me

T A I ~ V A L E N T I N E XX years old, BOTANOKINETIC and currently a student of about four years at Elswood Academy. --he kept his gaze low. "You don't get it," he whispered. "You can't tell me how to escape my demons because I AM my demons."

[warchived-deactivated20230329]

[magnusandalec]

[wilddestdream]

[clariesfray]

[winhales-deactivated20190518]

— Sometimes it’s worth it to burn. – s.s.

[sweeetblueberry]

[f-ire-fly]

ew feelings

[lilysjmes]

[magnusficent-deactivated2016073]

[tallyespen-blog]

She didn’t realize the guy was sleeping. Her bad. When he springs into wakefulness, she almost feels guilty for waking him: naps are pretty precious things. She’s had enough trouble sleeping since coming here, and she blames one recurring nightmare: she wakes up in her too-comfortable double dorm room, and the door isn’t open. It isn’t a school, it’s a prison. It’s predictable, maybe; clichéd, definitely, but it messes with her sleep schedule all the same.

“I’m pretty sure there’s some quote about protesting too much,” she says. She can’t think of it, though, which probably has something to do with her sub-par English performance. “It’s, uh, my pen cap.” Well that sounds stupid now, interrupting this guy’s nap over a pen. “I dropped it. Well, catapulted it, more like. I wanted it back, and it’s kind of between your legs, which seemed like a no-zone to me.”

[thattaiguy-blog1]

To be quite honest, Tai was almost always in la-la land in places where he should actually be concentrating. Like now. So it wasn’t entirely the other’s fault for him being startled awake. Heck, it wasn’t her fault at all. But it felt somewhat satisfying to actually have a reason to blame someone for his terrible looking facials, a result of being snapped out of a sleepy trance.

“Some quote about protesting too much, yeah,” he repeated mindlessly, technically having absolutely no idea as to what she was talking about seeing as his mind was still in the process of waking up. “Pen cap?” That was easy enough for his recovering brain to understand, a tiny laugh breaking the momentary silence between them. “Oh crap. Of course. One moment...” he said as he leant down and retrieved the cap, holding it out for the other. “Next time, you can just grab it. No such thing as a no-zone for me,” he smiled. “I’m Tai, by the way. Hi.”

[quotemadness]

The heart is extremely fertile soil. Whatever is planted there, good or bad, will take root and grow.

Abdul Nasir Jangda

[memesalldaylong]

[immaterialists-blog]

Virgil visibly deflated hearing that his rubber band ball had been lost—as if he could deflate any further. In the face of losing his preoccupation of the last twenty minutes, he now had to deal with the possibility of not getting a dustbin back because he’d misplaced Tai’s special pen.

“I did not purposefully lose it—I just don’t know where it is off the top of my head. It’s been a long day, dude, I’m tired… honestly I don’t even remember where I put down my cap.”

Not that it was uncharacteristic for Virgil to wander around without his uniform’s hat-piece, but often enough he hid under the visor whenever he wished his desire to be left alone was apparent. Even still, points were in endless supply and he’d be able to buy back five caps or more on a day’s salary, but there was a growing reluctance on his part to buy anything he could convince himself he didn’t absolutely, 100% need.

“Give me like… five minutes and I’ll get up and go look in the cleaning closet.”

[thattaiguy-blog1]

He nodded with a cheeky smirk before shaking his head. A deal was a deal, even if the other party was tired and had had a long day. For Tai, it was his special pen for the dustpan or no dustpan at all. He was sure he didn’t have to let Virgil know the consequences of not getting his special pen back, but a slight reminder didn’t hurt anyone. “No pen, no dustpan.”

Pen or not, Tai was definitely going to give the dustpan back but it wasn’t imperative for Virgil to know. Besides, he wanted to see how far he could push him and if he would actually find his pen. “How did you lose-- misplace it?” he asked. “Didn’t you put it in your pocket after I left and guard it with your life? Even after I told you it was my special-est pen?” Quietly, he chuckled and leant his head back onto the wall the rest of his body reclined on, closing his eyes. “Make it ten minutes and I’ll come with you.” It wasn’t a suggestion.

[oliverdubois]

It did count, but Oliver wasn’t buying it. Something in the stiff way the other delivered that sentence made him doubtful. “What kind of physical stuff?” he asked, picking some grass from the ground to twist and play with. 

If there was ever an overuse of a word it was now, here, with Tai, the word being packages. The guy’s mouth was barely catching up with the word vomit and Oliver could swear he could see Tai’s brain sweating as he struggled to come up with excuses. “It’s okay if you are,” Oliver said, looking at Tai like he was a little crazy. It was absurd that the other boy had to worry about that stuff here. In Elswood of all places. If anyone was a homophobe here, they hid it well, because Oliver had seen nothing but acceptance for every odd fish that landed in this supernatural puddle. 

[thattaiguy-blog1]

Instead of answering straight away and making a fool of himself, Tai remained quiet for a couple of seconds, deciding to attempt to calm himself with his own form of a remedy-- something he wasn’t proud of admitting calmed his nerves. His hand hovered over the grass and increased in height until his arm was outstretched before him, eyes closed and deep breaths passing through his lips. Tai felt himself being earthed, a warm feeling connecting him to the ground just before he felt a slight surge of energy flow from the ground, up into his body and disperse out of the fingertips of his open hand. When he opened his eyes, a tiny tree about sitting height sat before him with a couple of mandarins slashing through the rich green of the leaves. ‘Close enough,’ he said to himself since he had been aiming to conjure an orange tree. “Like sports. That type of physical thing,” Tai answered finally with a genuine smile, picking a couple of the fruit and holding it out to Oliver. “Mandarin?”

He shook his head. Hard. Honestly, if he shook it any harder, he was probably going to be the next Nearly Headless Nick. Nearly headless? How can you be nearly headless? “I-- nope. I’m just going to hush before I dig myself a deeper hole. So, what can you do? We’re in the same skills class, right? Mastering the four elements?” Tai questioned, an attempt to change the subject yet again.

[starksshwarma]

our “Little Archer Boy” 

[callmesphinx-deactivated2016032]

“No, that’s not how it works. If you have to convince yourself that you’re the underdog, you’re not the underdog. It’s something you know. I’m sorry to break the news to you.” Sphinx kept a smirk on his face the entire time he spoke. It was easy to with Tai because he was so used to these interactions where there was only an exchange of banter. It kept things around him light. It distracted his mind from the questions he had. The majority of what Tai said, Sphinx ignored. He focused in on a single detail hopefully to gain some ground in the very long ramble Tai was determined to keep up. “Tai, do you think I’m pretty?” He batted his eyelashes for a full effect and waited eagerly for a response. Sphinx nodded in agreement to the deal, though he had a strong intuition he would win. Tai would just have to find that out for himself. “I will do that only if you beat me. But we cannot tell the future, Tai, so as of the present, I am still on top.”

[thattaiguy-blog1]

“I’m not convincing myself that I’m the underdog. I’m reminding you. There’s a difference,” Tai lied, his voice betraying the confidence he wore on his face. He had absolutely no idea why, but ever since he met the other male, it was like his life long mission to beat him at everything possible; even peeing. Once or twice, he had even rushed into the bathroom after Sphinx and may or may not have raced him in the popular sport of peeing, jumping out of the cubicle with his pants done up roughly and rushing for the sink wearing a proud grin, granting himself his own victory. But it was all fun and games. And underneath the competitiveness rested friendship. Well, in Tai’s opinion, it was the start of something new, cue Gabriella and Troy. Playfully, he jabbed Sphinx in the arm. “Oh, very pretty, little kitty. But not my type,” he added with a wink.

Tai snorted not-so-subtly. “You mean when I beat you, right? Which means I should probably start picking out a saddle for you-- and maybe I should tie your mane back,” he teased, patting down a section of Sphinx’s hair. “On top? Are we still talking about the same thing?” Oh Tai. Why do you like locating innuendos in simple, innocent conversations?

[storyshipper7]