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#Study blurbs
little-pondhead · 11 months
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Both Danny and Phantom have freckles. The only reason Wes can’t use this fact on his conspiracy board, however, is because Danny has freckles in the summer, and Phantom has freckles in the winter.
Every time Wes tries to convince people that Danny and Phantom are the same person, people around him being up this fact and his whole argument crumbles to the ground. He spends weeks trying to find any possible reason Danny’s freckles are on the opposite sides of the seasonal scale.
This is the only reason Danny’s identity has not been blown yet.
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hannie-dul-set · 6 months
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saw ur post abt idol and ship dynamic so can i request model ricky x fashion designer reader where all of the collection were designed for ricky? like there's a runway event and of course ricky being the main character of the event but also whipped for reader ^^
[when there’s a lock on the door]. ricky shen— whose face is on billboards and advertisements at every corner of the country, whose name is in the mouths of every tabloid, every passerby in the streets, and in every column and every article in weekly magazines— is currently on his knees on worn out the carpet of the dressing room floor.
“eyes up, pretty boy. look at me.”
he’s got his head resting on your lap, buried by his folded arms as a groan rumbles in his throat. the vibrations shoot into your bones when he peers up to look at you. “i’m tired,” he says. “kiss me.” now, you can’t quite pinpoint the correlation between those two phrase, but does logic really matter when forbes-declared, one of the most unattainable men in the country, is driven senseless at the mercy of your touch?
“come and get it.”
those fierce eyes on the runway are gone— half-lidded and replaced by dark gems dipped in sweet, sweet, honey. his once perfectly styled hair is now a mess under your fingers, crisp jacket now wrinkled and folded when he scrambles to his feet, stumbling off-balance in the rush to capture your lips with his.
his entire frame eats up your own, a tight grip on the back of your chair as he groans into your mouth. if the journalists right outside the door could see him like this right now, a storm would brew.
“i thought you were tired,” you laugh softly, fixing your hands on the back of his neck. your eyes flit over to his smudged lipstick. when you bring down a thumb to wipe it off, he presses a kiss to the pads of your fingertip, down to your palm and wrist until his face somehow sinks into the warmth between your neck and right shoulder. ricky is tired. he’s straddling your lap and sinking himself deeper into your scent, his body engulfing yours, and you let him. 
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underoospeterparker · 8 months
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peter distracting his princess while shes trying to study for an exam. needy peter basically
i think this is for peter sutherland but i thought it would fit peter parker too so you can read it for either <3
"baby," peter whined softly, turning your chair to face him. "you've been studying for ages. can we cuddle?"
you giggled, cupping his face in your hands. "are you four?" you asked, half joking and half serious.
he pouted. he literally pouted and you burst out laughing; a loud, wheezing one that made your boyfriend's face brighten.
"just a little longer. please?" you gave him your best puppy dog eyes and he finally relented.
"fine," he said, pressing a kiss on your forehead. "come outside in 20 minutes."
an hour later, your boyfriend slammed open the door again. you pretended like you didn't notice peter glaring at you from across the room, and you stayed silent until he gave up.
he closed your laptop lid with so much force you thought it would break. "have you seen the time?" he asked you angrily.
you lifted your eyes from your closed laptop to his face, eyes slightly watering. at this, his entire demeanour shifted, face softening and eyebrows creasing, a look of worry prominent on his face. "what's wrong?" he asked, panicked. "did i do something? sweetheart, i-"
your face betrayed you, lips curling into a smile at his concern even though nothing had happened. your giggles turned to screams as peter picked you up, throwing you over his shoulder.
"peter!" you shrieked, still laughing. "what are you doing?"
"kidnapping you," he grinned. "you've been studying for so long, i think you've gone a bit mental."
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formulaforza · 1 year
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puppy-- m.schumacher
pairing: mick schumacher x reader word count: 680
“Oh, look at this one!” You grinned at your phone screen, turning it to show Mick, grinning at him. On the screen, a picture of a puppy that was up for adoption at your local shelter. You’d been looking, trying to convince Mick that the two of you needed to get a dog together, to get Angie a playmate, for months now. He’s completely against it, but, you know he’s wrapped around your finger. It’s only a matter of time before you break him. 
He doesn’t even look at the screen, dramatically covers it and turns it back to you. “We are not getting another dog.”
You narrow your eyes at him. “Angie needs a sibling.” You say, and the dog’s ears perk up from the end of the couch at her name. “She told me.”
He laughs, cocks his head to the side. “Did she, now?”
You cross you arms over your chest, reaffirm your statement with confidence. “She did.” He nods, pets her. “When you were in the shower earlier.” You say, return your attention to the website, try to find a dog he’ll think it cuter, one he won’t be able to resist. 
“Oh, well if Angie told you.”
You head shoots up from the screen to him. “Really?”
He smiles like he’s going to say yes, even nods, but then his face drops. “No.”
You roll your eyes, and he chuckles. “Fine.”
You trick him into just looking a few weeks later. Run errands with me, please, you asked him that morning, and he agreed, figured he be spending the day twiddling his thumbs and walking the line of honesty and cruelty while sitting in the boyfriend chairs at your favorite stores. Maybe, he thought, if he was really lucky, you’d take him to the grocery store and he’d get to have a say in the snacks in the house this week. 
“We have to stop at the pet store,” You told him. “Ange needs more food.” You’d seen on the shelter’s social media page that they were hosting an event at the pet store in hopes of getting some of their dogs and cats adopted this weekend. Mick, was clueless, didn’t even notice the sign at the front of the building, didn’t put the pieces together until he heard the little yelps of puppies and was being dragged to the play pens by you. 
“I just want to look.” You said, knew there was no way you weren’t leaving the store without one of these sweet dogs. There’s no such thing as just looking, it’s a ponzy scheme created to manipulate your partner into falling in love with an animal, and it works every time. 
It’s not ten minutes later and Mick is in love with a puppy–a golden retriever mixed with a super mutt, probably. Very fitting, very cute. “We’re just looking.” He says when he catches you smiling, giddy, because you’re looking at your new dog. You nod, pretend, just like he does, that you don’t know the truth. 
A couple hundred dollars worth of toys and food and a collar and a bed and all the other necessities–luxuries–a new puppy needs are being purchased by the end of the hour, along with the little golden puppy. “I think we should name him Gary.” You say, holding the dog, kissing his little nose. “Gary and Angie.”
“Absolutely not.” He says, takes the receipt from the cashier and sticks it in one of the many bags. “We are not naming our dog Gary.”
“Do you hear that Gary?” You say, voice half and octave higher, baby talking the dog. “Dad doesn’t like your name.”
“Your name isn’t Gary, Gary.” He tells the dog. 
“But he just called you that, didn’t he?” You giggle, follow behind Mick to the car and half-ass helping him put the bags in the car because Gary is already falling asleep in your arms and you don’t dare wake him. 
“I’m never just looking at anything with you, ever again.” He says in the car.
“I think we should just look at engagement rings.”
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talaok · 1 year
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Don’t go
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Pairing: Joel Miller x reader
Summary: You have to go, but Joel can't let you
Warnings: angst (?)
The words lingered on his tongue like tainted poison.
lingered in the air, in the space between you, 
in his eyes and the way they bore into you, the way they begged you.
don't go, he had prayed, stopping your hand as it turned on the knob.
You let your arm fall to your side, the weight of his words striking you defenseless.
He wasn't supposed to say that.
"I have to"
You watched as his throat struggled to swallow what felt like sand in his mouth.
"You don't," he said "you don't have to"
You heard the shield, the facade, breaking with each letter spilled from his lips.
"I do, Joel, you know I do" you whispered as if it was a secret, as if the walls had ears to attend you with "And you know you'd do the same"
He had to stop at that, to breathe, for he knew that to be the truth, but could not accept it as such.
"You can't," he said, the last brick on his wall tumbling down with the rest "Please"
You shook your head, your eyes damp with sorrow 
"Why?" you could not comprehend "Why are you telling me this now?" you had to ask "Why now that I've made up my mind? Why now that I finally know what I have to do?" you sighed "why, Joel, why?"
He knew this was coming, and yet he felt his skin prick with fear.
"Because I can't do this without you" he confessed without hesitation, feeling all the blood in his veins flow to his heart as it pumped relentlessly. 
He had to calm down. He had to tell you. He owed you at least that.
"Because I can't lose you" he said "not like this, not you too"
And there it was, the truth. The unspoken promise you had vowed to each other, 
that after everything, after everyone, you would be the exception,
That the nagging phantom cursing your existences was going to let this one slide, closing both eyes as it hovered above you.
"Then you won't" you breathed, as your fingers grazed his "But in order to do that, you have to let me go" 
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goodnight-whore · 3 months
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Just a bunch of random studies and doodles
I ended up drawing MC too so I might as well post it
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tboygareth · 11 months
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swallowing hand grenades
wc: 601 | cw: mention of passive self harm, description of internalized meltdowns, references to parental violence | autistic eddie munson, inspired by the meltdown i had at work today
All his life, Eddie has been swallowing hand grenades.
At least, that’s what it feels like when everything around him is too bright, too loud, too hot, too cold, too itchy, and the tapping of his fingers against the table or the bouncing of his leg beneath the table isn’t enough to stop the explosion that’s building behind his eyes. When he was little, his mother taught him to internalize his explosions so he doesn’t turn out like his dad with his violent angry outbursts that left fist shaped holes in the drywall. 
The flooding of his overwhelmed senses always feels like he’s holding a hand grenade without a pin, and if he throws it the shrapnel will go everywhere and cause destruction in its wake, so... He swallows it, keeps the shrapnel inside where it won’t hurt anybody but himself. And most times it doesn’t even hurt him, not really. It leaves behind an ache that he doesn’t have a name for, a bone deep exhaustion that'll knock him out and let him finally get some of that blessed, blessed sleep that escapes him, more nights than not.
His mom used to say he was full of nervous energy, like a chihuahua or a Jack Russell terrier, but the older Eddie gets the less he believes that. It’s not really that he’s nervous. Sometimes, sure, that's what it is. But usually it’s the buzzing of the too-bright fluorescents overhead and the murmured conversations happening around him that sound like bugs. It’s the itch of the tag at the back of his tee shirt and the fact that one of his shoes is tied just a little more tightly than the other. It’s the furnace that kicks on in the middle of class and blows thick, hot air down on his scalp and makes his hairline sweat.
It’s the panic that rises like bile when he realizes he forgot the homework again, third time this week, and the teacher is looking at him with an arched brow and that lip curled in a sneer.
He can’t sit still, but he can’t rock side to side the way he wants or everybody’s gonna fucking look at him funny again. He can’t chew on the inside of his cheek because there’s barely anything left of the skin in there. He can’t bite his thumbnail anymore because he bit it down to the quick earlier and made it bleed. He can’t pick at his eyebrows anymore because if he goes home again with half an eyebrow missing Wayne is gonna have that look in his eye, that worried look he gets when he starts suggesting things like maybe a counselor…
So Eddie excuses himself to the bathroom and locks himself in a stall and he swallows the hand grenade, lets it pop in his tummy as he takes his rings off and shakes his hands out, flaps them a little bit so that he can start to feel human again. He presses a palm to each temple and squeezes, imagines the top of his head splitting to let all the gunk out, a pimple that’ll scab over later, one he won’t be able to resist picking at again until it bleeds.
In a few years, when he finally lets Wayne talk him into counseling, Eddie will have the language for this. He’ll know that these aren’t anxiety attacks, they’re meltdowns. He’ll know that they happen when he’s overstimulated and has nowhere to put that building feeling behind his eyes. He’ll have methods to cope with them.
Until then, Eddie will keep swallowing hand grenades.
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ducky-mae · 4 months
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Bruce Brooding (as per usual)
This started as me trying to write about Clark and Bruce on an off-world mission but turned into Bruce spiraling about his kids. I've been thinking about parents dealing with their kids gaining independence because of my internship so I guess that's what this is. It's basically stream of consciousness and unedited.
Bruce hated this. He hated being far from home for so long. He knew Dick could handle Gotham. All of the kids could handle things without him just fine. It causes such conflicting emotions in him, that his kids are so capable. Bruce was proud, so proud of all of them, but he hated that they didn’t need him. That is the point of all of this, though he rarely admits it to himself. When he started Gotham needed the The Bat, nobody needed Bruce Wayne. Sure his bank account was helpful for establishing The Batman and the Justice League, but he wasn’t. Then he took in Dick, and he needed Bruce. The Batman helped him channel the pain of losing his parents, but he needed a guardian, a father figure, and that was Bruce. It was the same with Jason and Tim, and all of the children and young vigilanties he had taken under his wing. Some needed The Batman more than Bruce but they all had needed him. Now none of them did. Not the League, not Gotham, not his children. They could take care of Gotham without him, take care of themselves without him. And they didn’t want him. How many times had Damian demanded to be left to work on his own, how many times had Jason told Bruce he hated him? Perhaps it would be best to leave them to their own devices.
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most likely to trip over their feet and spill wine on you on your first date 🤭
oh god i wanna go the cliche route and say charles but honestly, daniel.
▾ picture this ▾ daniel's hands are shaking. for a man who was rarely nervous, who drove speeds ridiculously too fast for the average person, and is widely known as the most charismatic guy out there: his hands are shaking terribly.
he clutches the stem of his and your wine glasses tightly, taking quick and calculated breaths to calm his quickly beating heart. you look radiant, glowing so brightly he can catch it from across the room. he's glues to the ground, watching as you laugh at something a friend said to you, admiring the way you throw your head back and your eyes squint with glee.
daniel moves through the room with ease, the tremor in his hand forgotten as he makes his way over to you. he smiles at the ones he recognizes, exchanges brief pleasantries with a few acquaintances as he moves about. it's when he clears the crowd, when he has the perfect view of you, do the nerves begin to rattle his fingers. his grip tightens on the glass, offering you what he hopes to be an easy going smile when you finally notice him.
he's only a few steps short of you when the toe of his right foot hits the back of his left, knocking him off his balance and further more splashing whine on your baby pink dress. the red stains his button up too, but he could care less about that.
"i'm so sorry." "no, no it's fine. are you okay?"
daniel set's the glass down on a cocktail table to his left, pulling napkins off it as he tries to pat the stains away. but he knows better, he's worked with wine before, he knows that red wine pretty much stains forever. your delicate fingers grip his wrists, eyes cast up at him as you smile up at him reassuringly.
"daniel, it's fine." "i feel terrible." "don't! it adds... character to the dress."
daniel stares at the splotches of wine on your dress, comparing it to the mere droplets that managed to make it's way onto his white shirt. he reaches over, grabbing the spilt glass with just a bit more than a sip left. he holds it out to you.
"it's only right you get me back." "daniel no." "c'mon, don't be shy. you know you wanna."
you hesitate as you take the glass from him, watching as he takes a small step back. daniel puffs his chest out slightly, arms outstretched as if to tell you to hit him with your best shot.
and you do. a weak swing of the glass, wine sliding out and onto the white fabric of his fancy shirt. a few people watch the interaction, the way daniel so willingly accepted for wine to be poured onto his shirt. it was only the first round of wine tasting, how drunk could they be?
daniel looks down at the fresh splash of wine on his button up, eyes flickering up to see your matching one.
"now we're even." "we look ridiculous." "we look great."
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they should have never given me a poll option
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emberfrostlovesloki · 6 months
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Studying with Aaron [requested]
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All photo credits after the tag list.
Hello, loves! I hope you are all having a good day/week so far. This post is for my sweet anon who asked for some Aaron study inspiration. Thank you so much for your request. I had such fun coming up with the mood board, HC's, and a little drabble. I hope you enjoy it and good luck with all of your studying and exams! You've got this! Love Levi -❤️
If you'd like to submit a request of some kind, please see this post, Request Post (linked)
Aaron knows that it gets cold in the library, so he brings an extra sweater or blanket for you to wear while you both study.
Aaron gets you any candy or snacks that you want from the vending machines on the second floor. He also knows that apart from the basics, the machines don’t have everything you like, so he buys a few bags of your favorite chips and salty snacks and has some in his apartment and in his backpack in case you need a change from sugary snacks.
If you're on the quiet floors of the library and a person or group is being loud, he will go and tell them to move and is serious about this request. He will stand and glare at the individual(s) until they are gone.
Aaron will quiz you on formulas and concepts for your math and science exams and has written a detailed list of major dates, people, and events for your history courses. He takes all the time you need to remember the important things for each class. He suggests memory devices and tricks to help you retain the stores of information you need.
Even if he says he’s not a good writer, Aaron is a good editor. He will read over any papers or presentations you must turn in. He will make remarks on the whole paper and major points, but he’ll also correct you on your syntax and grammar. As a prelaw student, he is used to detailed work and he wants you to present your best work.
He doesn’t bother you when you are working. He has his own studies too, but every hour you will both debrief and say one major point that you have both learned in that time. You write them out on a whiteboard next to your table. You and Aaron also both have major goals or assignments listed on the board and when either of you finish one of them you cheer each other on! (This is on a non-quiet floor of the library of course).
The short Hotch drabble is below the cut. 1.2K words.
Pairing Hotch x gender-neutral reader
Category: Fluff/comfort
Word count: 1.2K
Content warnings: None
A/N: Two things. 1. This isn't well edited and 2. I use the slang Diffy Q which stands for differential equations. If you liked this story, likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated!
_y/n_ = your name
You look at your phone again. It had been nearly half an hour since Aaron had run out to grab a drink. Unless he was getting plastered somewhere off campus then ‘Going to grab a drink’ shouldn’t have taken him more than a few minutes. Just as you were about to shoot him a text asking him where he was, the man in question came walking down the hall and toward your table. He was rather awkwardly holding two 711 Styrofoam cups. He took a sip of one of them to make sure he was giving his partner the right cup. He was right and set the other cup in front of you. You smile at him and in a teasing voice say, “Have you suddenly anthropomorphized into a car and needed some petrol to keep that brain of yours going?” Aaron scoffed and replied, “You know you stop making sense when you’re this tired _y/n_.” You jokingly pouted and said, “What are you talking about, I’m at my peak performance right now.” Just as you finished saying this, you couldn’t stifle a yawn from coming out of your mouth. You hide the betrayal of your body with your mouth. This really had Hotch laughing, and he said, “Well maybe your soda will help you a little bit.” You smiled up at him and grabbed the cup. You take the straw in your mouth. Once you had taken a sip, you smiled even more. Aaron watched you. The little gleam in your eyes at tasting the drink was worth the walk to the convenience store just across from campus. Once you had taken a sip, you said, “You didn’t have to get me root beer Aaron, that was very sweet of you.” Hotch pulled out his chair and sat back down, as he said, “Well you deserved a treat. After all, you finished that twenty-page sociology paper. And I needed to stretch my legs. My eyes were starting to glaze over with this reading.” You looked over to the large textbook in front of Hotch and asked, “Is this still Poli Sci?” Hotch nodded and said, “Mhm.” You reached over and pat his hand as you both slipped back into your respective studying.
A half hour later you ran a hand through your hair and made a sound of frustration. Hotch looked up and asked, “What bothering you _y/n_?” You set down your pencil and said, “This freaking calc review is impossible. I don’t know why my professor decided to include problem types that we’ve never seen before here? I’ve tried working problem seventeen three times and I’m still not getting the answer provided. I’ve checked my stuff and it’s not working.” Hotch nodded and asked, “What concept it is over?” You looked back down at the guide and said, “antiderivatives, which I’m normally good at. But this is something else, let me tell you.” Aaron steepled his fingers under his chin and said, “Why don’t you try writing it out on the board. Maybe seeing it bigger will help you see something differently?” You stand and say, “Well it can’t hurt my chances of figuring it out.” Aaron smiled and said, “That’s the attitude I’m looking for,” as he tossed a green marker at _y/n_. You grabbed the marker and wrote out in neat writing: f(x)=ex−3x2+sinx­
You continued to work on this problem for another few minutes before hearing someone call you and Aaron’s names out. You turn and see Spencer and Penelope walking toward you. You beam and move away from the board; the annoying problem is momentarily forgotten. Garcia rushed forward and gave you a hug, while Aaron gave Reid a strong pat on the shoulder. When Penelope had released you, you and Hotch changed positions as you hugged Spencer and Aaron gave Pen an embrace. ­­As everyone pulled apart, you asked, “What are y’all two here studying for?” Spencer spoke first saying, “Diffy Q and computational engineering.” The thought of Spencer’s highly advanced school load had your head spinning and you were grateful when Penelope said, “And I’m here to write an essay for Brit Lit and remind myself for the seventieth time who Plato was and why his cave is important.” At hearing this, Spencer rolled his eyes as his gaze moved to the whiteboard, he clocked the unfinished calculus problem. The boy genius asked, “You working on calc, _y/n_?” You sighed and said, “Yeah, unsuccessfully.” Reid smiled softly and said, “How about I solve this one for you and then give you another similar problem? I won’t tell you how I’m solving it, but I’ll leave my work and you can reference back to it?” Hearing this, you smile and nod saying, “That sounds great Spence, thanks.” Reid annoyingly quickly solved the problem and provided a new one. Once Reid was back next to Garcia, Hotch asked, “Would you like to join us?” Penelope nodded no and said, “We booked out a room upstairs for the next three hours. I need ultimate silence to write.” You nodded in understanding and asked another question: “We’re still set to meet tomorrow at Commons to work on the speech, right?” Garcia and Spencer nodded, and Pen replied, “We sure are my sweet. Darn was I lucky to be put in a group with all of you. My friend Stacy who’s also in the class said half of her partners hadn’t even started their parts of the presentation.” Aaron chimed in with a “Here, here to that.” The friends spoke for a few more minutes before Spence and Penelope moved up to their booked room. As you turned back to the board to study Spencer’s work, they reflected on how they had met their best friends at school. It was fate or the academic advisors who had thrown the four into the same Intro to Communications class. You had sat next to Penelope and across from Aaron on the first day of class. They had all hit off well. In the second week, Spencer had heard Pen complain about her history class and he joined their group. It was Garia who had told you that she thought Aaron had a thing for them. You hadn’t believed her, but later that week, Hotch had texted you asking if you wanted to grab dinner off campus sometime? And the rest, as they say, was history.
            You spent another half hour trying at the problem, but you were getting tired and frustrated. You flopped into your chair and put your head in your hands saying, “I’m gonna fail this exam.” Aaron reached out and placed a hand on your shoulder saying, “Hey, no negative self-talk. This exam isn’t until Wednesday and it's only on Sunday. Reid will help you, and you can meet with your professor if you’re really, really concerned. You’re incredibly smart and capable _y/n_. Don’t let this one problem get you down.” You looked up slightly from your hands and saw how genuine Aaron was being, and how proud he was of you.” Softly you said, “What did I ever do to deserve you, Aaron?” Hotch smiled and said, “Nothing. And you never will, _y/n_. Now, it’s getting late. How about we call it here? I can drive you back to your place.” You agreed. You both packed up and as you walked toward the exit, you were very happy to be at the library at 12:30 a.m. As long as you had Aaron as a cheerleader, you knew you could make it through finals. You were pretty sure you could make it through anything with him by your side.
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tag list: @criminalskies @tgskitten @geminitapestry
Want to be added to the tag list? Please see this post, CM tag list (linked)
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Photo credits
Top row: Center and Right (@shakespearesdaughters)
Center row: Left (@shakespearesdaughters) Center: (@foldergif
All other photos are mine.
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honeykngdom · 3 months
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the fact that it’s canon Todo is at the top of his class in Kyoto 👀
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lvsmdilemma · 1 month
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Hi🧚🏽‍♀️🎀
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*sips tea*
See, I'm just s I thought I'd see how everyone's doing 🤭
Just finished season 1 of Apothecary diaries, and I'm obsessed. Unfortunately, the 2nd season doesn't come out till next year😭😭
Also currently watching Haikyuu! Tsukkishima is so hot and talented.
I have a feeling JJK will get the most votes. Mine is Blue Lock tho.
See ya💕🧚🏽‍♀️
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Bakugou flicks your forehead when he’s helping you study and you get a question wrong, but when you get it right?
That man is all over you to give you kisses, riling you up just before the point of no return, only to pull away and insist you continue until you’ve gotten every question right. 
He calls it motivation, you call it torture.
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tboygareth · 1 year
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woke up thinking about this post and now i have to project on my blorbos a little bit cw: bullying, homophobia, mention of parent death
steve is in the first grade when he first becomes aware of eddie munson. it's a friday, which means he's in chapel alongside all the other students at st matthew's, but this morning is different. this morning they're doing a dress rehearsal for the second graders' first communion this weekend. there's a long line of them, right up the center aisle of the chapel in alternating boy-girl order, and everybody is watching them.
most of the second graders are doing just what they should; standing with their shoulders back, hands in front of them in prayer position, awaiting their turn to get to the front of the sanctuary and take the eucharist from father hyde.
there's one boy, though, who can't seem to stand still.
ants in his pants, as steve's mother would say. and that's no good for chapel, for mass this weekend when the boy will take the holy sacrament for the first time.
he's a little smaller than the rest of his grade, scrawny almost. his hair's a mop of unruly dark curls and he's got big brown eyes that take up most of his face. his faded trousers are an inch or so too short, showing off a strip of white sock beneath. steve's father would have never let him out of the house showing white sock beneath black trousers. the boy's belt is tightened to the very last hole.
sister ignatius hovers behind the boy, just to his right, with her severe brow pulled into a scowl and her long wooden ruler clutched in her hand.
"munson better cool it," tommy whispers at steve's side. "sister ignatius is gonna get him with that ruler of hers."
but eddie munson can't stand still, and he doesn't even get to father hyde before he catches sister ignatius' ruler across the thigh. he looks like his eyes might be welling with tears after she does it, but he stills, and he forces his body to remain as still as possible until the dress rehearsal is through
--
when steve is in the fourth grade, he's chosen to play joseph in st matthew's nativity play. eddie munson - still wild, still scrawny, still incapable of being still or quiet for more than a couple of minutes at a time - has for some godawful reason been chosen as the angel gabriel.
eddie munson doesn't take anything seriously, and the nativity play is no different. during practice and rehearsal, sister ignatius has to chase him all throughout the sanctuary while he dives beneath pews and hides under the altar and inside the hollow back of the pulpit.
steve thinks eddie munson is too old to be acting like this.
when the day finally comes, though, and they perform the nativity, munson delivers. for all the screwing around he did at practice and rehearsal, he really comes through and he shines as gabriel.
he's a touch dramatic, and his voice carries a little further than the rest of them, but there's a man and a woman in the second row of pews that smile at eddie like he is the star of both of their entire worlds as he takes a bow at the end.
the woman is young, her eyes big and dark in the same way eddie munson's are, her hair big and dark and curly. eddie's mother, for sure. the man at her side, though... that's not eddie's dad. steve's not sure how he knows it, but he does.
eddie is scooped into a hug by his mother when all is said and done, and the man at her side lays a companionable hand atop his head.
it's the happiest steve has ever seen eddie munson. the calmest, the most grounded.
--
steve is in the sixth grade when he watches eddie munson get expelled from st matthews.
he heard through the grapevine that eddie's mom died over the summer. he doesn't know the specifics but munson was out of school a lot last spring. they're not friends, barely even acquaintances, so steve doesn't offer any empty condolences when he sees eddie in the hallway between classes their first day back in the fall.
by the end of the week everything falls to shit.
steve's got no idea what or who started it, but when he comes across the scene in the hallway there are three boys surrounding eddie munson. they have eddie on his knees. one boy has a hand fisted in eddie's hair, pulling his head back at an uncomfortable angle, and the two other boys are taking turns hitting him.
the boys are using words that steve has never heard before.
fag. queer. cocksucker.
eddie munson's mouth is bleeding. there's nothing behind his eyes. he looks numb, almost dead himself. the boy holding munson down tightens his hand in his hair and pulls back again.
he says to eddie, "good thing your mom died before she found out what kinda faggot her kid is, huh?" and for the briefest moment, steve sees a flash of fire in his eyes.
and then eddie spits in the face of his attacker. he sprays blood across the other boy's face and all three of them go very very still before dropping eddie in a heap on the ground and running off to find an adult.
steve considers going to eddie, helping him up off the hallway floor, but eddie munson levels him with a hard stare and says, "fuck off."
eddie doesn't come back to st matthews after that, and over the next few years steve begins to hear rumors about him; he worships the devil, he's dealing drugs. he's gay.
--
in the spring of '86, when steve pulls on eddie's battle vest in the hazy nightmare of the upside down, there's a rosary in the pocket.
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aroseyetbloomedwrites · 2 months
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Ishgardian Superstition - Francel de Haillenarte
Based on, what little of it I could find of a general French superstition. This one resonated.
A fir, pine, or cedar, or, any such coniferous tree branch, to be decorated by such participating teams, one by one, a flower, or ribbon of varying colors from each, to be placed on the ridge of new construction. Typically done by the youngest, or newest member in charge of the team, as overseen, it could also be placed by Francel himself, though not wholly tender in age, throughout the construction of the Firmament, per lot. This decorated bouquet marks the end of construction and their trial, symbolizes their workmanship, and teamwork of all who participated. This will protect the building from newfound damage and hardship, and bring good luck to its residencies and owners.
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