#and have studying and loads of unpaid work stuff to get done

[livsspecialinterests]

idk what specific pathology is responsible for this but whenever I feel bad I literally cannot comprehend ever not feeling bad again

#this isnt that deep im just tired and anxious #and have studying and loads of unpaid work stuff to get done #the state of uk healthcare and the general state of the uk rn makes it hard to find extranl sources of motivation #have got to make my own motivation and so on days where i feel bad it just all goes to shit #also titrating my adhd meds and was told that things might get worse before they get better #which i understand but i wasnt prepared for the reality of it #also my grandma isnt well #not like on the brink of death but shes old and frail and sick #me and my mum are both worried that she's just going to get worse quite soon so thats like a cloud over the head too #actually i take back the its not that deep #i do kind of feel like shit lol

[thebrownssociety]

Hi, so I was wondering about the toons getting an education. You said that they didn't know how to read or write at the begining. First of all, when did they learn to read and write? And second of all, when they started learning those things, how did they do it? Did all of the toons go to school, you know, like kids do? Did they have classes and classmates, different subjects, different teachers? Or did they have private tutours?

So, first things first, thank you Ana for giving me one of my most complicated asks yet! That's why it's taken me so long to answer, I need to first of all sort through the strands of my brain in order to find the answer, and then translate it so it can be understood by normal people.

This headcanon is LONG, I hope you lot enjoy.

the majority of the toons [about 90 percent] are NOT created with the ability to read and write. In the olden days it was generally assumed that they didn't have the ability to learn either.

The other ten percent DID. They tended to be toons that were created to be doctors, lawyers or other professions that need the ability to read and write. Or members of royalty because the creators made the decision that royals would have been taught to read and write and so incorporated that into there designs. This is why Porky Pig is unusual, because he has the ability read and write, but he's not royalty and he doesn't have an official profession. Technically Porky is an anomality, it just happens that his anomality has helped him more than hindered him.

Moving onto the villains, it tends to follow the same rules as above. Grimhilde [wicked stepmother] has the ability to read and write because the creators assumed that as the now queen she had to be a princess before, therefore fit the rules.

Maleficent however, couldn't read or write [much to her frustration] because she was a villainous fairy and although she was [I think?] royalty of some sort within the fairy world the creators decided she didn't need the ability.

You might be getting an idea of the timeline from the movies I mentioned. I headcanon that the toon began campaigning to get an education during the 60's. They did this largely via peaceful means [mainly because one thing that has always been acknowledged by humans is that Toons are quite powerful and they aren't to keen to annoy them massively. The toons for their part don't want to cause massive distress to humans - they want to make them laugh! - so it actually works to a degree. During the 60's though the Toons decided something needed to be done.

The directors and other higher-ups had been promising to change the rights for the last decade and it hadn't happened. In 1965 the Toons decided enough was enough, they would start peacefully protesting. They adhered to the riles of there contracts to the letter. The LT's contract for instance says they have to arrive at least five minutes before filming starts, so they arrived five minutes before filming started when previously they'd been arriving half an hour so the director could run through everything with them.

They also left straight after seeing as there contract said they were free to go after the filming ended.

The LT's were also contracted to be available should WB ask them to do anything like help in the kitchens, but they only gave to do that for a set amount of hours each week. They worked those hours to the letter and went straight after. A few of the more devious toons even reasoned the contract just says they have to show up, not do any work, so they didn't. At first the studio got round that by asking toons who they knew would do the work properly, but it didn't take the toons long to figure out that was happening and then the 'good' toons wondered why they should bother when the 'bad' toons were being allowed to get off scot-free?

Eventually no toons was doing any work to help the general running of WB at all.

The above, I should mention, did not happen overnight. It took around 18 months, and it wasn't just happen at WB. Although Disney didn't have the exact same contract, they ran on the general principle of arriving at a set time and leaving straight after, so the toons just adhered to there contracted times.

18 months later and the companies decided enough was enough. They were having to go overtime to film the cartoons/movies now the toons weren't doing extra [previously unpaid] hours. [Which they did because the majority of them are perfectionist when it comes to the cartoons and wanted them to be the best they could be.] They were also having to pay the Human employees extra to cover the hours, often at extremely short notice. And unlike the toons they weren't contracted to come in just because the company wanted them to.

So anyway, the point of me detailing this is to explain the circumstances that meant that the companies were at there wits end and ended up petitioning the president to give the toons rights. Mickey Mouse also helped out enormously here as well. Walt Disney had died a few months earlier and Mickey was now running Disney. Which also meant control of the theme parks. Mickey decided that seeing as Toons clearly weren't valued enough to bother educating [despite being proven as intelligent] they shouldn't bother providing entertainment at the parks either.

The Disney toons also had it worked into there contracts that they had to make periodic appearances at Disney's parks [kinds like the people dressing up as the characters do now, except it's the actual toons] and are on a rota basis. Unless they're doing an events [like Halloween for the villains or valentines day for the princes and princesses] then each toon does at least one 12-hour day at Disney per year. It was this bit that Mickey was putting a stop to.

It had a real knock-on effect as, as well as the rides, most people went there hoping for a glimpse of there favourite toon. Without that...

As much of an absolute business-killer as this idea was, Mickey was more than happy to explain to anyone who would listen [read: most of the world news] exactly WHY he was doing it. With all this pressure it was really just a matter of time until the laws changed and the toons were able to gain an education. This was in 1968.

Now as fast as things work in Toontown, this was such a complicated area that it took a full 2 years for the various schools to be built, staffed and a curriculum drawn up (which followed the same basic guide as human education, but with some added stuff and some stuff taken out. It basically followed a 'would a toon actually need this in future life?' and went from there.

Here's were it gets slightly complicated. Because I mentioned before that toons age in a weird way. But the main thing is they go up and down in there age on a day to day basis until they are about 20. This makes educating them quite difficult, to say the least.

The studios solution to this was to bring in Human teachers to teach them at the grades human children would go through. So Kindergarten, Grade 1 ext. The thing was that a lot of the toons had learn some of th education already, like identifying shapes and coulors and things. And of course the ones who were professionals [Like Ludwig Von Drake and Gus Goose] already had a college-level of education, they just needed to prove it to the teachers.

The end result of this was that it wasn't unusual for a toon to be in a class for only a few months at a time while they did the work [don't forget, they only need 4 hours of sleep as well, so they could study for longer if they wanted]

It did eventually even up though and the toons ended up spending 9 months if the right class. For example, Porky Pig aced Kindergarten all the way up till 4th grade and then found he was struggling with 5th grade. This was a shock to him after spending 21 months in education [excluding holidays], to suddenly need help. Porky was forced to realise that he had centred a lot of his identity around being 'the one who can help his friends/family read.' and hadn't expanded his personality much beyond that.

So yeah, as an average most toons took about ten years to complete Kindergarten - end of high school.

Then a few of them took college courses, which lead to them getting degrees, which led to a couple of them getting teaching degrees. The majority of the LT's you see in Tiny Toons [excluding Foghorn, who decided he didn't want to be a teacher, and Elmer who took a undergraduate degree in law until 1992] did their teaching degrees from 1988 - 1992.

There's a couple of you who might had realised that they were filing Tiny Toons at the times and learning how to be parents at the same time. That was partly why they wanted to do it then, they realised that after Tiny Toons had finished the kid would need educating. Although the human teachers had been alright, they'd found it slightly difficult to cope and the LT's didn't want their kids to go through that particularly. Also, what's the point of building a school just to got rid of it after?

So here's the main schools: (After the toons gained teaching degrees)

Disney Elementary - Kindergarten- Grade 5.

Hanna-Barbara Middle School - Grade 6_8.

The Looniversity (the name stuck after the TV show) Grades 9-12.

So the Tiny Toons finished filming in 1992 and had it promptly explained to them that they would be attending school the next August [Tiny Toons were created in 1987, so were 6 by the end of filming.]

Toons don't do pre-school because there doesn't seem to be any point. Loads of Toons have coped without preschool for decades now, why would they start now?

So the TT's started Kindergarten at Disney Kindergarten, run by Snow White and helped out by Cinderella and Fairy Godmother. Kindergarten is the only school year where the toons have to do an entire year in it, the logic being they'll have longer to get adjusted to school if they're there for a year as opposed to three months.

Then it was decided which was the toon would go. Would they move upwards into Disney Elementary school, run by the Three Good Fairies? Or would they be taught by human professors? Or - the final option - they could be privately educated. [It's mainly royalty or the children of famous toons like Micky and Minnie that go down this option. The TT's were unusual in that all the LT's opted to send there kids to Disney Elementary with the hope it would help them make friends with other toons outside the LT bubble. Whether it did or not remains up for debate.

Anyway, they then go to Hanna-Barbera Middle School, which is then followed by the Looniversity. Now, despite what was shown in Tiny Toons, The Looniversity does not focus solely on Toon Physics and the like, the kids have to study the curriculum. They have options to take Toon Physics class if they wanted to, but they don't have to.

The Toons technically don't HAVE to finish High School, but they're strongly encouraged to. College is another matter, it's quite hard so only Toons who the adults know will stand a chance of passing are encouraged to do it.

Toontown University focuses primarily on The Performing Arts and Toon Physics. As well as those subjects, it offers Art, Physical Education, separate courses of Dance, Drama and Music and LAMDA.

If a Toon wants to study the likes of Maths, English and Science they can either be privately educated [A lot of the adult toons have ridiculous amounts of money due to there cartoons and the fact that until the 50's Toontown didn't exist and all there expenses were being covered by there respective directors/studios] or they could join one of the smaller colleges that specialised in what they want to do.

Push comes to shove, they find a Adult toon [over the actual age of 25] with a degree and try to mentor under them. This happens a lot.

#Looney Tunes Headcanons #Looney tunes headcanons #Looney Tunes #Asks #Education #Porky Pig #maleficent #Grimhilde #tiny toons #Mickey Mouse #Minnie Mouse #Kindergarten #Education is so complicated #Education is so important #Disney Parks #Education is highly valued by the toons #It took them long enough to get it

[talltree-writes]

We’re Going on a Trip

Fandom: PJO and MCU

Summary: The annual school trip has rolled around and the teachers have been keeping it oddly quiet. When they finally announce it, Peter’s heart sinks— just once, could he have a normal field trip? Coupled with the stress of having Percy Jackson, a relatively recent addition to the Avengers, on the trip, Peter is dreading Friday. 

Genre: fluff, irondad and spiderson, avengers fam, someone give Percy a break

Pairing: Percabeth is there 

Warnings: Cursing, Character typical injuries, Nightmares

Author’s Note: I keep forgetting this account exists, so I forgot to cross-post from my Ao3. Anyway, I’ve had this done for months, but haven’t been fully happy with it. It’s part of a series of one shots that I’m apparently only updating once a year... oops. Anyway, here’s this

“Class, as you know, the science department takes one field trip together every year. This year, I am excited to announce, Mrs. Pruta’s marine biology class, Mr. Looves Physics class, and our Chemistry class will be the first group to tour the newly reinstated Stark Tower this Friday. Now, Stark Tower was intended to close around this time last year, but Mr. Stark…” Peter tuned out whatever Mr. Gray was saying. 

Stark Industries? Really? The big annual field trip that he looked forward to every year was to the building he spent most of his time in anyway? He’d been on that tour already, given to him by the head intern herself once his Stark Internship turned from a cover story to fact. 

****

After Peter was shot, the Baby Monitor Protocol automatically called Mr. Stark, who demanded that Peter come straight to the tower to get patched up.

Unable to use the medbay that was still under construction, Colonel Rhodes set up his makeshift OR in Mr. Stark’s lab. With no anesthetic, as they did not have any of the stuff that could knock out a super soldier or enhanced human, Peter allowed his eyes to wander as Rhodey pulled the bullet from his leg and stitched him up. His eyes caught on an unsolved problem scribbled on a chalkboard.

Once Rhodey had finished patching him up, Peter hopped off of the table and limped over to the  chalkboard. He scanned his eyes over it, looking for the issue, for why it was unsolvable to the smartest man Peter knew. Finally, his eyes caught on it. “Hey, Mr. Stark?”

“Yeah, kid?” Mr. Stark came to stand behind Peter. 

“You forgot to balance the chemicals. Just redo it from there and your answer should be… this.” Peter picked up a piece of chalk and finished the problem after doing the calculation in his head, writing the answer on the bottom. 

Mr. Stark double-checked his work, marking his own calculations to the side. When he came up with the same answer, he turned to stare, astounded, at Peter. “Kid, that was a graduate-level problem, and you just solved it.” 

Peter shrugged, “You just needed a fresh set of eyes. Besides, I’ve studied ahead. How else could I have created my web fluid?” 

“Yo-wha- studied ahead?” He sputtered. 

Peter shrugged again, as if he hadn’t just admitted to knowing graduate level science and math at a high school age. “I was bored, so I read ahead and looked stuff up. When I finished our book, I moved on to the next, and then the next, and suddenly I found myself reading research essays and then I guess I could do this stuff. I didn’t know it was that advanced…” He blushed at the end. 

Mr. Stark stared at him again for a minute before speaking. “How’d you like to help me in the lab sometimes? Let’s say once or twice a week for now, and then we’ll see where it goes.” 

Eyes round as saucers, Peter met Mr. Stark’s gaze “Work in your lab… with you?” A pause as it sunk in. “Yes! Mr. Stark, yes! I’d love to!” 

“Great! You start Monday. You’ll be getting your first paycheck from Stark Industries in no time!” Mr. Stark clapped Peter on the shoulder.

If possible, Peter’s eyes got bigger. “P-paycheck? You’re going to pay me for working here?” 

Mr. Stark chuckled. “Of course, Underoos! Stark Industries doesn’t have unpaid interns anymore. I recently realized that minimum wage isn’t even a viable income, so why should I expect my hard-working interns to live off even less. I need them to be focusing on their work, and if they don’t know where their next meal is coming from, they can’t do that. You’ll be a fully realized intern, with higher access, of course, so you’ll receive the same treatment. Of course, school must come first, or else your Aunt will kill me. But I expect that will be no problem.” 

“Th-thank you, Mr. Stark! Thank you so much!” 

Mr. Stark smiled fondly at Peter and said, “It’s no problem, kid, now go on home before your aunt gets worried.” 

Peter nodded and headed towards the window, pulling his mask down as he did so. He opened the window and waved as he jumped out, nearly giving his mentor a heart attack, as that move always does. 

As soon as he knew Peter was out of earshot, Mr. Stark said, “Hey, FRIDAY? Remind me to tell Pepper we’re paying all of our interns now.” 

When Rhodey just stared at him, Tony shrugged. “The kid and his aunt can barely make ends meet, but they won’t let me help them. If I can give the kid a little extra change and gain an employee, I should do it. I mean, it’s not like it’s going to put a huge dent in my wallet, anyway.” 

****

“Get these permission slips signed and returned to me by the time we load the bus on Friday.” Mr. Gray shouted as the bell rang and all the students filed out of the classroom. 

Ned caught up with Peter after grabbing a permission slip. “Woah, dude! This is awesome! We’re going to Stark Towers! Well I guess it’s not as awesome for you, since you work there and all.” 

Before Peter could remind his best friend that he worked there as well, Flash cut in. “Ha! How lame do you have to be to lie to your own best friend, Penis?” He jeered as he passed. “We all know you don’t actually have a job at Stark Industries. They don’t even accept applications until you’re a grad student, and even then, only, like, seven get it. No way that you, Penis Parker, have a job with Stark Industries!” 

 Peter glowered at Flash but didn’t deign to answer. Ned on the other hand, shot back “He’s not lying, Flash! And he’ll prove it to you on the tour! Peter knows Tony Stark personally!” 

Turning away, Flash scoffed, “Yeah, right. You’re fooling yourself if you think he’s not lying to you. We’ll all see on Friday how much of a liar he is.” 

As Flash walked away, Peter and  Ned turned back to their lockers. “God, I hate that guy. I can’t wait for you to show him he’s wrong. Hey! Do you think you can get Mr. Stark to show up? That’ll really give him a kick in the ass!” 

Peter shot a look at his friend. “No! You don’t understand, I can’t let Mr. Stark know I’m going to be there. He’s going to embarrass me! It’s one thing for people to know I’m an intern, it’s another thing for people to know Tony Stark is basically my father.”

Ned’s demeanor shifted. “Oh, yeah.” He perked up again. “At least you’ll have Percy! Mr. Gray said his class is in our group.” 

Upon hearing this, Peter slammed his head into his now-closed locker. “Shit. Percy. At least I have an internship. How are we going to explain him and his clearance? He’s not been released to the public as an Avenger yet. This is going to be an absolute disaster.” 

“Hey, maybe it won’t be that bad. It’s not like there’s any guarantee that all of the Avengers will be there.”

Peter brightened up. “Yeah, why would any of them be there? They don’t live there. And it’s not like Mr. Stark knows about the field trip. Why would he? He’s got a billion dollar company to watch Pepper run. And he’s an Avenger. He’s super busy, like, all the time, and he never knows what’s going on in his building.” Maybe this field trip wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

***

  The day of the field trip arrived and Peter was up well before his alarm went off. “Aunt May? Is there any way I can not go on this field trip?” He called from his bed. 

“Peter, this is the biggest field trip of the year, and you always look forward to it. Don’t let the minor possibility that Tony Stark will be there ruin your day.” She said as she stood in his doorway. “Besides, you’ve missed too many days while Spider-manning to miss another.” 

Having risen into a seated position, Peter collapsed onto his pillows with a groan. “But May, Mr. Stark is going to embarrass me!” 

May chuckled. “Tony probably won’t even be there. You know how many meetings he has. He’s a busy man. He most likely doesn’t even know about the tour today.” 

“You’re right, you’re right. I’m just nervous. I’m scared about my identity getting let out of the bag, not to mention Percy’s. God, if Percy’s gets out we’re going to have serious problems.” 

Walking back into the kitchen, Aunt May called over her shoulder. “None of that is going to happen!” 

Peter groaned again, but got up and started getting dressed for school. He brushed his teeth, and tried to brush his hair, before looking at the clock and realizing he was going to be late if he didn’t leave now. 

He grabbed a Poptart from his aunt’s waiting hands, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and was out the door a second later, calling back “Love you, Aunt May!” 

Despite everything, Peter was kind of excited about the field trip. Sure, embarrassment was inevitable, but he was about to see a bunch of floors of the tower he never saw when he was working there. Plus, the look on Flash’s face when he realized the internship was real would be priceless. 

He made it to the school just in time to see the kids start loading the buses. Peter jogged forward and moved into the back of the line he saw Mr. Gray marking roll for. Just as he was about to board the bus, Mr. Gray pulled him aside. 

“Peter, you and I need to talk for a second.” He said. 

Confused, Peter went along. “Mr. Gray if this is about being tardy, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, honestly.”

Mr. Gray shook his head. “No, Peter, this is about the rumors you’ve been spreading around about you being an intern at Stark Industries. Now, we’re very lucky that we got this opportunity, but I don’t want you, or Mr. Thompson, to embarrass us with talks of this internship. And if the talk continues, I’m going to have to have a conversation with the principal about it.” 

Near tears, Peter couldn’t muster any words to counter his teacher’s disbelief. So he just nodded and got on the bus. 

***

Meanwhile, at the Jackson-Blofis residence, Percy sat snoring through his alarm clock, Annabeth curled beside him. Annabeth, who was visiting both camp and her boyfriend while on break, had started the night alone on the bed, but when a nightmare woke Percy up, she allowed him to crawl off the floor and into the bed. 

“Percy… Percy… Percy!”  He startled awake to the sound of both his alarm and his mother saying his name. “Percy, it’s almost time for you to go. Remember you have your field trip today.” 

Percy shut his eyes and breathed “Shit.” 

“Language!” His mom bopped his head and left him to get ready. 

Through everything, Annabeth slept on. Suddenly, Percy had a brilliant idea. “Wisegirl?” He gently shook his girlfriend. “How would you like to tour Stark Towers with me today?” 

Her eyes blinked open. “Will Pepper Potts and/or Tony Stark be there?” She mumbled, sleep still heavy in her voice.

“Probably. I can introduce you if you’d like.” Percy smiled at the girl next to him. His Wisegirl. 

She glanced at his smile curiously, more awake now. “You’re very smiley for this early in the morning.” 

“Just thinking about how lucky I am to have a girl like you”

She smiled back and a light pink dusted her cheeks, as if Percy didn’t say something like it every time they saw each other. “You sap. Now, c’mon, if we don’t leave soon, you’ll miss the bus and I’ll miss the train. 

“The train?” Percy said curiously. 

Sitting up, Annabeth tied her hair back. “Yes, the train. You didn’t think I’d be able to just join your field trip did you?” 

Percy pouted. “I thought maybe you could use your Yankees cap and sit on the bus with me.” 

“And what if someone else needs to sit next to you? I can’t just stand or perch or something.”

A devious smile crossed Percy’s face. “You could always sit in my lap.” 

A sharp intake of breath, a shove, and a thud later, and Percy was back on the floor, Annabeth laughing above him. “So I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then?” He asked. 

“I’ll see you at Stark Towers. After I take the subway there.” She stepped over him and grabbed her clothes. “Get up, Seaweed Brain, before we’re late.” 

Just then, Sally popped her head in the door. “Percy, what are you doing on the floor? You need to leave in 10 minutes!” 

Percy just groaned, but got up and started to get dressed. 

****

When Percy got to the school, he barely made it in time to catch the bus. His teacher shot him a sour look, but let him on nonetheless. He found a seat next to someone he didn’t know, and took out his phone to text Ned and Peter. 

From: Sea dude

To: Man in Chair, Geeker Parker

What’s the plan, gents

From: Geeker Parker

To: Sea dude, Man in Chair

Hope and pray we get out of this unnoticed. No chance your dad can help? 

From: Sea dude

To: Geeker Parker, Man in Chair

No… That’s not really how that works…

From: Geeker Parker

To: Sea dude, Man in Chair

:/

From: Man in Chair

To: Geeker Parker, Sea dude 

How does that work, anyway?

Before Percy could answer, he felt the eyes of someone on him, and looked up to see his teacher giving him another stink eye. He swiftly put his phone away. The ride was almost over anyway, so he just relaxed and focused on seeing his girlfriend again soon. 

Upon arrival, it took the teachers several attempts to calm the students down. Finally, when they did, they went over last minute rules. “Turn your phones off and be attentive, we’re very lucky to have this opportunity, and you’re a representative of the school. Please be on your best behavior, but don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the experience!” Mr. Loove said. 

It took forever to get everyone off the bus, as people kept stopping to stare at the top of the building. Percy didn’t know why, they saw it from their school every day, but he guessed one of the tallest buildings in New York was quite the sight up close. 

Inside, Percy caught Annabeth’s eye as she talked to the receptionist, trying to get a visitor’s pass. She shot him a smile before returning to her conversation. Percy turned his attention to Peter and Ned as they came over. 

“Dude, isn’t that Annabeth?” Ned asked as soon as he was close enough. 

Percy smiled. “Yeah, that’s her. She’s in town for a few days and I thought I’d invite her. I’m going to help her get her guest pass really quick, ‘scuse me, boys.”

He slid past the two towards the desk. Slapping an easy grin on his face, he approached the receptionist who was currently fighting with Annabeth. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you aren’t registered for a tour today, so I canno- Oh! Hi, Percy!” She smiled and blushed. 

“Hey, Erin. I see you’ve met Annabeth, my girlfriend. I was hoping I could get here first so I could request a pass for her, but she beat me to it. Do you think you could-“ 

Before he could finish, he was interrupted, once again, by Mrs. Pruta. “Percy Jackson, please stop flirting with these two fine young ladies and return to the group so we can check in.” 

“Oh, you mean this lovely young lady, here? Annabeth, this is my marine science teacher, Mrs. Pruta. Mrs. Pruta, this is my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. She’ll be joining us on our tour today.”  Percy grinned. 

Flaring her nostrils, as she always does when she gets mad, Mrs. Pruta said “I’m afraid we only have enough badges for the class and she hasn’t registered in order to get one.” 

Erin piped into the conversation “Oh, that’s quite alright. Percy’s clearance is permission enough to give her a badge. She’s fine to join you.” 

“P-Percy’s what?” She spluttered, but quickly recovered. “We will discuss this later, young man. Now return to the group.” She stiffly stuck one arm out in the direction of the congregated students. 

As soon as they got to Peter and Ned, they burst out laughing. “Did you see her face? I thought she’d seen a ghost!” Percy said. 

“‘P-Percy’s what?’” Annabeth mocked. Normally, Annabeth respected teachers, but this one put a thorn in her side. 

Annabeth’s face suddenly sobered up as she glanced down at her phone. “What’s wrong, Wisegirl?” Percy stopped laughing. 

“I just got a text from a certain messenger friend of ours with a specific message to give you.” She pulled out her phone and showed it to him. 

Mist falling today. Time to tell the world everything.- H

“Fuck.” He muttered. “I had definitely planned on having a few more months without people knowing.”  

Ned and Peter craned their necks to see the message, but Percy handed Annabeth’s phone back to her. “What’s up?” Peter asked, concerned for his friend. 

“The Mist is going to fall much sooner than we anticipated, and as usual, the gods have no explanation for us.” Percy explained. “I’ve got to get an emergency press conference together by the end of the school day.” 

Peter grimaced. He had never experienced the stress of a press conference, and hoped he didn’t have to. Ever. “Just tell FRIDAY after we go through security. She’ll notify Dad and set it all up.” 

Percy nodded silently. Then, they both came to the same conclusion at the same time. “FRIDAY is about to let the cat out of the bag, isn’t she?” He groaned. 

Solemnly nodding his head, he patted Percy’s shoulder. They were screwed. 

Resigned to their fate, the boys looked to the approaching figures. And groaned.

****

‘Crap.’ Peter thought, as he recognized the two women coming towards them. Lacy and… Shuri. He’s in for it now. 

“Welcome, students!” Lacy shouted to get their attention. “My name is Lacy Ames, and I will be your tour guide for the day. If you will turn your attention to me, I have a few announcements, some rules, and then some guest badges to hand out.” The group quieted, especially when they noticed the intern’s companion. 

Lacy continued. “First of all, Princess Shuri of Wakanda will be joining you on your tour today. Any words, Princess?” 

Catching Peter’s eye, Shuri smiled wide. “I just heard there was a tour, and I was bored. So I thought I’d tag along and learn a little bit more about where I’m staying for the next few weeks.” She subtly winked at Peter. 

‘Hell yeah two weeks of lab time with Shuri!” Peter thought. He and Shuri had met at an otherwise boring meeting and bonded over their love of science. After her show of force in the battle for Wakanda, she had been established as a Junior Avenger.  

Peter briefly thought he would escape the embarrassment of seeing his best friend in front of his classmates, but he was mistaken. Once Shuri had caught his attention, she called out to him. “Hey Peter?”

He sighed, but answered. He knew what was coming. “Yes, Shuri?” 

“Toss me my keys!” 

Peter, without a printer in sight, chose the next best thing. He threw his backpack at the Princess of Wakanda. 

“I said my keys.” She said, deadpan as the backpack flew past her. 

“I thought you said printer.” Peter shrugged. 

“Why the fuck would I say printer?” She disregarded the teachers’ looks. 

The two came together in the middle of the space and did an intricate handshake that involved feet, hands, and hips. They had developed it when they were bored after they had both been kicked out of an Avengers meeting because they were ‘only Junior Avengers’. As they concluded their handshake, they burst into giggles together,  until Lacy cleared her throat and shot a pointed glance at the shocked class behind them. She, who had retrieved Peter’s backpack, handed the bag back to him and gestured for them both to rejoin the group. 

With the class still sitting in stunned silence, it was easy for Lacy to regain their attention. “Now, for some rules. No touching, no yelling, no pushing, always wear these badges I’m about to give you in a visible spot, or you will be escorted from the premises, and, biggest of all, no bullying.” Peter shot a glance to Flash, or, well, the back of Flash’s head, since he was front and center and Peter was in the back again, doing his best to hide. 

“Now, as I call your name, please come forward and get the badge I hand you. Cindy Moon.” Cindy went forward and grabbed the white badge. “Eugene Thompson” 

“It’s Flash, actually.” He said, and winked at the Princess. Shuri looked like she might puke. 

On and on the list went until there were no more badges. Mr. Gray, who had been checking off his sheet as the list went on, spoke up. “Um, ma’am, I’m afraid a few of the students didn’t get one. Mr. Parker, Mr. Leeds and Mr. Jackson seemed to be missing badges.” 

With a bright grin on her face, Lacy said “Oh, they can just use their own. Happy, our head of security,  has a thing about not giving one person two badges at the same time. Boys, do you have your badges?”  

They all pulled them out, Peter and Percy’s a shimmering gold, Ned’s a bright red, much different from any of the guest badges, and even the badge hanging from Lacy’s lapel. 

Flash, upon seeing the difference, threw his hand into the air. “Miss, why are theirs different?” 

“Good question, Eugene. It has to do with the ranking system. We have five levels here at Stark Towers, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon. Alpha is the lowest ranking, and Epsilon is the highest. You all have Alpha clearance, which is clearance for guests and the press. Beta is for interns on the lower levels. These are usually our graduate interns, Gamma is for our R&D department and marketing, Delta is for our top scientists, who often get to work with Doctor Banner plus accounting and department heads, and Epsilon is for the Starks, their close friends or family, and the Avengers. Now, if you’ll follow me, I need you all to scan your badges here. Please make sure to remove anything from your pockets and put them in this bucket.” 

Peter, Percy, Ned and Annabeth filed to the back of the line. Lacy went first. “Lacy Green, Gamma clearance.” Everyone except the three boys, Shuri, and Lacy jumped. 

“Oh, don’t mind FRIDAY, she does that with everyone. She’s the building’s AI. She is the eyes and ears here and will detect anything that happens.” Lacy explained. 

Each time someone went through the scanner, FRIDAY announced their name and clearance, and each time, it spooked them. Peter wanted to laugh, but then he remembered how he reacted when he first spoke to FRIDAY. He was like a child on Christmas morning every time she spoke. 

Finally, it was their turn. When Peter went through the scanner, FRIDAY’s voice suddenly had a familiar Irish lilt. “Peter Parker, Epsilon clearance. Welcome back, Petey, I will alert Boss to your arrival.” 

Resigned to Mr. Stark finding out anyway, Peter calmly replied “Thank you, Fri. Will you remind him that I am here on a school trip, though?” 

“Yes, Petey. Mr. Stark said to have fun.” 

As he tried to ignore the stares of his classmates, Peter heard Friday say “Percy Jackson, Epsilon clearance. Welcome back, Mr. Jackson. I assume you’re on this field trip as well?” 

“Yeah, FRIDAY. Quick question, where are Tony and Pepper?” 

FRIDAY responded immediately. “Miss Potts is in a meeting until 1 and Mr. Stark is in his lab. Should I alert them to your presence?”

“Please. Could you also organize an emergency press conference for 3:45 this afternoon?”

“Yes.” A second of silence. “Boss has asked for an explanation.” She informed him.

Percy thought for a second. He wanted to remain under the radar, even if this information was coming out later that afternoon. “Tell him everything is going public today.” When she didn’t respond again, Percy assumed he got the message. 

Peter was thankful that most of the attention was off of him as everyone shifted to the bigger mystery. 

Percy looked around at the crowd of teenagers and smirked. “What, never seen someone talk to an AI before?” He confidently crossed to stand beside Annabeth, one arm around her waist, the other stuffed in his pocket. Peter was pretty sure only he and Annabeth knew how anxious Percy really was. He did well to cover up, but his smile was just too tense, his posture just too alert, he was nervous. 

Lacy smiled brighter and raised her voice slightly to grab everyone’s attention. “If you’ll follow me, we’ll begin our tour in the Avengers’ museum. 

As they walked forward, Shuri dropped back to walk with Peter. “I take it Percy is the new addition I’ve been hearing so much about.” She said quietly.

“Yeah, that’s him. His girlfriend, Annabeth, probably isn’t far behind, honestly. I’ve met her a few times and she’s brilliant, not to mention awesome at fighting. She reminds me of you, actually.” 

The princess studied the back of the blonde’s head. “I think she and I could learn a lot from each other.”

At Peter’s look of surprise, she laughed. “I’m not a man, you ass. I know that even with all of Wakanda’s advancements, technology, and knowledge, there are still things I don’t know. Annabeth and I have different backgrounds, so we’d obviously be familiar with different areas.” 

“So… you know about… them?” Peter hesitated to say anything incriminating around his classmates. 

She chuckled again. “Yes Peter, I know about ‘them’” she mocked. “I’m here to develop a new suit for Percy. He can’t battle evil forces in the world without some sort of protection.”

Peter nodded. The two fell into companionable silence as they listened to Lacy’s speech, following behind the students and occasionally whispering dumb comments or jokes until they stopped in front of an open doorway. “-and here we have our first stop, the Avengers museum. You will have 45 minutes to explore. Just remember the rules and we shouldn’t have a problem.” Lacy stepped aside to allow the students forward into the exhibit. 

The duo followed Peter’s friends as they wandered through the exhibit, the three young Avengers having already seen most of it. They stopped at each one so Annabeth, MJ, and Ned could get the information. “How long exactly are you in town?” 

“My brother plans to leave in two weeks, but I think I will stay longer. I will be finished with the gear Tony commissioned in little time, but I want to work with Percy and Annabeth on developing more weaponry, perhaps incorporating Vibranium. I have brought all of the materials I need and I suppose I can work with your rudimentary technology for a little while.” Shuri shot him a mirthful glance.  

Before he could respond, Ned called him over to see one of the new exhibit. “Dude, come over here! They’ve got a Spider-man exhibit!” 

Peter rushed over with a giggling Shuri close behind. What he found made his jaw drop. Behind a glass case stood two mannequins; one wearing a replica of his current suit, the other clad in his old pajama suit. To the side were facts about Spider-man and a small screen showing him in the middle of a fight. “Woah…” 

“Dude, does this mean Spider-man is officially an Avenger?” Ned asked. 

Peter kind of shook his head. “I guess. I wonder if Mr. Stark was ever going to tell me.” He trailed off in thought. 

“Once you had graduated and were ready to publicly become an Avenger is what he said when he told the rest of us.” Came a voice from behind them. 

The five jumped and turned around, coming face to face with a casually dressed Wanda. Peter’s face paled. “W-wanda, what are you doing here? I thought everyone was at the compound.” 

She gave him a sympathetic smile. “They were, and then Stark told them about your field trip and they all came back into the city to pop in. Even Steve was on board after he found out what that Eugene kid had been doing to you.”

Eyes shutting, Peter groaned. “I’m done for. This is it, I’m going to die.” Okay, maybe he was being a tad dramatic, but can you blame him? 

“I’m sorry, Peter, but I thought I’d give you a heads up. Stark is definitely making an appearance at some point, and it’s going to be big.” 

Before Peter could say anything, maybe a prayer to one of the many gods, Flash rushed over to get a glimpse of the Spider-man display, not noticing the civilian-clothes-clad superhero. He shoved Peter and Ned out of the way. “Out of my way Penis. You too, Dead. I need a picture with the Spider-man suit.” 

Peter shot Wanda a glance, and caught the tell-tale red cloud of her magic in her eye. He subtly shook his head at her. She didn’t need an assault, or, gods forbid, a murder charge on her hands. Instead, she took a deep breath and said, “I’m pretty sure bullying is not allowed in any building Stark Industries owns.” 

Flash turned, a haughty sneer already slipping onto his face, until he realized who spoke. Expression melting away, he gulped and started to back away. “Y-yes ma’am.” He scampered off before anything else happened. 

She sighed and looked back at the group. “I should probably go. But good luck today, you’ll need it. Especially after that little scene: Friday has orders to send any alarming footage straight to Tony.” 

At Peter’s swear, she gave him one last sympathetic look and ruffled his hair before turning to weave her way back through the exhibit to the private elevator. 

Running his hand through his hair, Peter turned to Percy, “Well… we’re fucked.” 

Percy laughed. “No, man, you’re fucked. They aren’t targeting me-- I’m not the one who lied about a bully. The only thing I have to deal with is a press conference at the end of the day and maybe some weird looks.” 

Annabeth snorted. “Only thing? Seaweed Brain, you don’t explain the whole gods thing well to new demigods, how are you going to explain it to the entire world?” 

“It’s a good thing I’ve got you here then, Wise Girl.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and tucked her into his side. “What better way to introduce the world to demigods than by introducing them to the children of prophecy.”

”You ass, you didn’t even ask.” She playfully shoved him. He widened his eyes and stuck out his bottom lip. She rolled her eyes. “But I guess I’ll help you.” He pulled her back into his side and kissed her head.

Suddenly, the class heard from the end of the room “It’s time to move to our next section, so if you would please all follow me.” Lacy led the group towards the public elevator. “We’re going to have to split into a few different groups. So I’ll go with the first group. Princess? Would you and Peter mind going with the second? And Percy could go with the third?”

Peter nodded, uncertain, his Spidey-Sense already tingling. He traded a glance with Percy; Lacy was definitely in on Mr. Stark’s plan.

The first group filed into the elevator, while the other two waited patiently. As soon as the doors closed, Peter heard a heavy scurrying in the vent, undetectable to anyone else. He shot Percy another look, this time glancing up to warn him of what was to come. 

Just as the vent opened and a leather-clad figure dove through it, Peter sidestepped. The man hit the floor with a “shit” and rolled over to reveal his face. The children around them murmured in amazement as they realized that the lump in front of them was the one and only Hawkeye. 

“Aw, Pete, how do you always hear me coming?” Clint moaned as he sat up. 

Peter froze. Was Clint trying to out him as Spider-Man? Percy stepped in “It’s because you’re loud, bird brains. It’s a wonder that you made it this far as a super spy.”

Eyes going comically wide when he spotted the source of the voice, Clint feigned surprise at Percy’s presence. “What do we have here, folks? Could this be my favorite junior Avenger?” 

Amidst gasps of shock, Percy grinned and held his hand out to help Clint up. “Are you saying I’m your favorite because Spider-Man kicked your ass in that accuracy competition?”

“You can’t prove that.” Clint said, folding his arms. “Speaking of, though, you need to work on your accuracy. Didn’t they teach you how to shoot a bow and arrow at that camp of yours?” 

Annabeth laughed. “Oh, they tried to teach Seaweed Brain. He managed to nearly shoot Chiron, who was standing behind everyone. They haven’t let him near a bow since.” 

Pouting, Percy mumbled, “I’m still better than both of you at hand-to-hand.

Eyebrows raised, Annabeth turned to Percy. “Really? You think you’re better than me at hand-to-hand combat?” She whirled back around to face the acclaimed archer. “Is there anywhere that I can prove him wrong before the end of this trip?”

Clint grinned a Cheshire-cat grin while the blood drained from Percy’s face. “I do believe there is, Miss…?” 

“Annabeth Chase” She stuck her hand out. 

Clint shook it, the evil glint still in his eyes. “Well, Miss Chase, I do believe that there is a stop on your little tour here that will take you to the Avengers training room. In fact, I’ll make sure of it. And I certainly want to be there when our dearest Avenger gets taken down.” 

“I really don’t think there’s any need for that, really. Wisegirl, you know I don’t think I’m better than you at hand-to-hand combat. In fact I know I’m not as good. There’s really no need to show everybody.” Percy panicked. 

At this point, the elevator returned and the second group loaded in, including Peter and Shuri, who had stayed quiet for most of the encounter. As Peter passed, though, he clapped his hand on Percy’s shoulder, “Good luck, dude.” Accompanied by a grimace. He’d only met Annabeth a few times, but he’s pretty sure she isn’t one to let a challenge like that go by.  

The doors slid shut on the group. Even though it was only a ten second ride (Stark tech did have its perks), everyone shifted uncomfortably in the barely-big-enough elevator. No one uttered a word until the doors opened again and spit them out onto one of the research and development floors. 

All of the students, and even Mr. Gray, were fighting for a position at the observation window to see what the lab ahead of them was working on. Peter and Ned hung out in the back, having already seen this floor, and occasionally worked on it themselves when the scientists needed some help on new tech. 

Moments later, the last group joined them, sans Clint. One look from Percy told Peter they had not seen the last of the archer, though. Upon the arrival of the rest of the group, Lacy continued her monologue. “Here we have one of our research and development labs. This is where we work on lower clearance tech, like new Stark phones, and interns work on solo projects. Mostly this lab is populated by the lower level interns who each have one or two scientists or higher level interns that they check in with.”

Peter froze, again. He forgot about check in leaders. Which wouldn’t be important, except that he himself is a check in leader, and his team works on this floor. In this lab. Not even Percy could get the attention off of him now. 

“Hey, Pete! Can you come check something out for me?” He heard a voice. Looking over, he saw Mikey, one of his team members. 

Looking to his teachers for permission, and taking it from their stunned expressions, Peter nodded once and silently followed Mikey through to the lab. On Mikey’s workstation was a little robot, designed to help people with arthritis in their hands do small tasks, like shoe tying or, hypothetically, writing and typing. 

Mikey pressed the On button, and they both waited for something to happen. Nothing did. “I can’t figure out what’s wrong. It was working fine yesterday.” He said, helplessly. 

“Calm down, let me take a look at the inside.” Peter grabbed a nearby screwdriver and unscrewed the back panel. Inside was a cross of different colored wires and motherboards and circuits and-- there. “There’s a tiny disconnected wire in the back.” Peter fixed Mikey with a look. “This is a simple mistake that you usually catch. What’s up?” He narrowed his eyes and asked “How much  sleep have you gotten recently?”

“Eight hours!” Mikey responded defensively. Another look from Peter and he amended his statement “In the last three days…” 

Peter placed a hand on his intern’s shoulder and began leading him toward the door on the other side of the lab from the elevator. “You know I can’t condone that as both your friend and your check in leader. For both the safety of this lab and your health, I need you to hit the barracks. There is no way that you can safely operate any equipment in this state, much less conduct experiments.” 

They reached the door, and Peter opened it. Inside there were three sets of bunk beds. Mikey nodded and headed for one of the beds, and Peter shut the door behind him. Turning back to Lacy, he said “Please continue the tour, I have something I need to do. I’ll catch up when I’m through.” 

Mr. Gray started to object. “Mr. Parker, this is highly against the rules, and how could you possibly find us or get around the building--” Peter cut her off. 

“Mr. Gray, it’s obvious you don’t believe me about my internship, but I have to call a group meeting right now for the safety of this lab. As for how I will know where you are, FRIDAY will tell me. I practically live in this building and I have a higher access level than our lovely tour guide. Now, if you’ll please excuse me…” Peter no longer seemed like the excitable and cheerful .

He turned around and called his interns’ attention. “Alright. I know not all of you are in my unit, but I think it’s time we do a lab wide check in. So, keep working, but I’m going to check on everyone.”

Clapping her hands, Lacy called everyone’s attention back to her. “While Peter does his job, we are going to continue on. Next, we’re getting a rare treat. We are going to go to the Avenger’s floors and get an exclusive look into the life of an Avenger.” Her eyes sparked with excitement, obviously she was just as excited for this as the children. 

As the words left Lacy’s mouth, Percy’s hand tightened around Annabeth’s. Concerned, she looked at her Seaweed Brain. His face was grim and he leaned down. “A lot of secrets aren’t going to be so secret by the end of this, I guarantee.” 

Annabeth’s stomach dropped. She knew he wasn’t just referring to their secret. That was coming out today anyway. He was talking about Peter’s. Percy and Shuri exchanged concerned looks. Poor Peter. 

As they filed back into their groups, Percy was approached by Flash. “Hey! Jackson!” Percy turned to Flash with an unimpressed gaze. “Uh, I mean, Percy,” He amended. “What the hell is going on with Penis? What did he do to get all of this stuff?” Flash still didn’t believe Peter? Gods almighty, this boy was dumb. 

Percy sighed. “Eugene, Peter works here and he works closely with the Avengers. He got all of that by working hard and studying harder. Get over your jealous bullshit before it bites you in the ass.” 

His teacher snapped “Language, Mr. Jackson. We are guests here and you will not be the reason we get thrown out.” She turned away, making no comment on Flash’s behavior. 

Incredulous, he turned to Annabeth. “I hope she realizes that they aren’t going to kick me out. And that, technically, I could kick her out… right?” 

Annabeth just shrugged. “For all the knowledge your school claims to have, your teachers are pretty stupid.” 

The second group, chaperoned by Shuri, entered the elevator, which left Percy with his class. “FRI, you’re getting all of this footage of Eugene Thompson on film and voice recording, right?” Percy asked, once the doors had closed on Flash’s group. 

The Irish A.I. responded. “Yes, Mr. Jackson. I have already sent the footage to Boss. A Code Spider-Baby has been set in place. 

Percy sighed, once again. Code Spider-Baby meant that the Avengers were mad. And when they were mad, it didn’t end well. “Remind the Avengers that murder is not only immoral, but also illegal.” 

A moment passed. “Boss says that intimidation is not.” 

Percy had no answer. Intimidation of a minor was probably immoral, but there was no stopping protective-father Tony Stark. 

The elevator door dinged as it opened, allowing the third group in. They closed once the last person had filed in, and automatically took them to their destination. Floor 47. Fuck. 

Floor 47 was the Avengers training floor. The door opened and the group rushed out when they saw the set of adults standing there waiting for them. 

None other than Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Natasha Romanoff, and a smirking Clint Barton stood waiting. “Now that everyone is here, let’s begin. Today we’re going to teach you some self defense skills. We’re going to split into groups and cycle through stations. But first, how about a few demonstrations?” 

The class cheered, drowning out the ding of Peter’s arrival. They did not, however, drown out Natasha. “Glad you could join us ребенок пауk.” The class turned around as he entered. 

Peter’s stomach dropped when he saw the glint in every super adults’ eyes. The Captain’s voice boomed as he exclaimed, “Peter! Percy! Why don’t you come help us?” He phrased it in a way that was definitely not a question. 

Resigned to their fate, the two trudged forward. Steve had a shit-eating grin on his face as they made their way to the front. “Why don’t you two choose your own partners?” 

Clint spoke up at this moment. “How about Steve, Annabeth, and Peter, versus Percy, Bucky and Natasha?” 

“What about you?” Annabeth questioned, walking up to join the group, grinning widely. 

Clint grinned innocently. “There’s six of you and that perfectly matches up. Adding me into the mix would only complicate matters.” 

A cough that suspiciously sounded like the word coward came from Bucky’s general direction. 

Rolling his eyes, Peter asked “Full capacity?” with the hint of a grin on his face. The whole class faded from his consciousness. 

Smirking, Natasha replied “Full capacity.” 

Steve called out to FRIDAY “Please activate operations PH2O and PW.” Part of the floor opened up to reveal a large salt-water pool. Parts of the wall and roof came outward. 

The five Avengers and Annabeth squared off. Natasha and Peter faced each other, Percy and Annabeth shared grins across from each other, and Bucky and Steve shook hands before stepping a few feet back from each other. 

“Fight!” Clint called from his place amongst the crowd of children, a place he knew he wouldn’t get dragged into the fight. The group converged at the same time. 

Despite the clash of super soldiers on the far end of the room, the Midtown high group focused on their classmates. Percy and Annabeth were blurs that no one could tell apart as they produced weapons from seemingly nowhere. As the two whirled around in a deadly waltz, Percy’s energy seemed to be flagging. The students watched as he stepped into the pool and seemed to gain his strength back. Slash. Jab. Clang. Their weapons moved with renewed vigor. As they watched, a tidal wave encased both of their legs and lifted them into the air. 

Peter, meanwhile, jumped into action, facing off against the deadly assassin with calm grace. He flipped over her as she struck a low blow to his legs, missing him by half an inch. He whirled around when he landed to face her and brought his leg up in a high kick. Natasha grabbed his standing leg and flipped him on his back. Before she could do anything else, he shot a web at the roof and pulled himself up to stick to the protruding piece of ceiling. He smirked as Natasha looked up at him. “Come down here, ребенок паук” She said in a sing-song voice. 

“You said full capacity, I’m just using my full capacity.” He teased. 

She rolled her eyes and pushed a button on her wrists. The class gasped as the Black Widow fired at their classmate. “Hey!” Peter cried as he leaped from the ceiling to the floor, where Natasha was ready to intercept him with her widow’s bites. She started to swipe at him and he double tapped his watch face. “Karen, activate gauntlets.” Instantly, the nano-tech of his suit wrapped around his forearms. He intercepted the Widow’s Bites with his suit covered arms. He didn’t hear the gasp of his classmates. 

They continued their fight until Natasha had him twisted with his back to her and a knife she grabbed out of nowhere to his throat. They both panted from the exertion of their fight, before grinning. Natasha released him from her hold and he twisted around. “Where did those come from?” She asked. 

“They came from adaptation. Last time we fought, you electrocuted me with those things. I adapted my suit to cover only parts of my body, just like Mr. Stark’s.” He grinned that grin that made the Avengers all fall in love with him in the first place. 

Natasha rumpled his hair and pulled him into a hug. “Brilliant job, ребенок паук.” 

Around them, the other duos came to a stop as well. Annabeth had her drakon-bone sword poised at Percy’s heart, his sword clattering to the floor far below them. Steve and Bucky both stilled with a shield at one throat and a dagger on another. 

The room was still and quiet; a pin could drop and everyone could hear it. Percy and Annabeth’s critiques of their fight as they descended from the water column broke the silence. The students gaped as it lowered them to the floor before calmly splashing back into the pool. 

“Ok, what the fuck?” Flash yelled, a small amount of pure terror glimmering as he looked back and forth between the two students. No teacher reprimanded his language. 

Steve traded a look with the rest of the Avengers. “Now would be a good time to remind you about the non-disclosure agreements you all signed.” He said. “I think we might have to allot a little bit more time to the question and answer portion of this tour.” 

The other Avengers in the room, including Peter and Percy, nodded their heads and they led the group back toward the elevator. The ride in each group was tense and awkward. No one knew how to process the information. Percy and Peter? That girl, Annabeth? What were they? Even Flash was silent. 

Finally all three groups had been corralled into the very same room Percy’s press conference would be held in only a couple of hours later. Silently, the group of Avengers in the tower filed onto the stage, minus Percy and Peter. Nat led the pack, followed by Clint, Steve, Bucky, Tony, Bruce, T’Challa, and Shuri brought up the rear. 

The room sat in silence until Tony said “So who has questions?” Every hand went into the air. 

Tony pointed at one hand in the crowd, and Betty stood up. “Are Percy and Peter Avengers?” 

A pause, before “Is everyone’s question about Percy and Peter?” Tony asked with an exasperated sigh. Everyone but Annabeth nodded their heads. 

Another sigh. “Alright, lets get those two up here, then, to answer your questions.” 

Peter and Percy both made their way up to the small stage. The other Avengers gave them space up front. Only Tony remained, acting as a mediator for the two teens. 

Every hand shook with earnest, trying to get called on, but Tony gestured for Betty to ask her question again. “A-are you two Avengers?” She stuttered. 

The two looked at each other, and Percy saw the anxious look on Peter’s face, so he spoke for them. “Yes.” He said simply, not expanding on the matter until he had to. 

Tony pointed to another hand. Abe stood up. “Uh, Percy, how could you do that stuff with the water? An-and fight like that?” 

Percy took a deep breath. Now was the time. “I fight like that thanks to five years of training with swordsmen far more experienced than I, and obviously, my beautiful girlfriend. I could do that stuff with the water because…” He took a deep breath . “Because I am a demigod. I am half god, half mortal, and my godly parent is Poseidon.” He smiled bravely as the group burst into disbelieving chatter. 

Tony whistled loudly  to draw their attention back. Immediately, hands flew back into the air. Peter’s stomach sank when Tony gestured to someone within Flash’s vicinity, and Flash spoke up. “How come you let Penis Parker and Pussy Jackson into the Avengers? Just because Jackson is supposedly some freak hybrid doesn’t mean he should be in the Avengers. He’s probably never done anything. Not to mention, Penis is some wimp loser. You need someone like me. I’m brilliant and I kick major ass.” He finished smugly, not aware of the glares from the stage, and the single pair of eyes being restrained behind him by a pretty pissed Ned. 

Not letting either boy try to de-escalate the situation, Tony Stark leaned forward, and said in a deadly quiet voice ��What did you say about my sons?” 

The grin dropped off of Flash’s face. “S-sons?” 

Tony took on a manic grin. “Oh, yes. Sons. Not only do I know what you just said, we know everything you’ve said within this tower. Now, usually I’m above threatening minors. Usually. But due to your actions today, I think you deserve it. If you ever, and I mean ever, insult, ridicule or diminish in any way my sons, I will personally call every notable university in the world and get you blackballed from admission. And I promise Eugene, you will never, ever have a job at Stark Industries, or any worthwhile company in New York.” 

Flash, much to Peter’s surprise, did not back down. “But what’s so special about them? Penis, especially. He’s not worth anything.” 

Tony went red in the face, and Clint had to hold Natasha back, her weapons drawn already. The other Avengers seemed to be stifling anger as well. “Not worth anything? Buddy, let’s get something straight: Peter Parker is worth everything. Far more than you will ever be. He is the kindest, smartest, most humble and giving person I’ve ever met. This kid is smarter than you, smarter than me, hell, this kid is smarter than Bruce Banner. Not only that, but he would also give anyone the shirt off of his back if they asked him for it. But he’d never brag about it to anyone. You know how I know this kid is the best of his generation? Because not only is he brilliant, he could also boast about his position on the Avengers, but he doesn’t. He could have been like me, and told the whole world who he is, but he didn’t. Now, I think it’s time he does.” Tony finished, leaning back and gesturing to Peter, who stood a little taller after hearing everything Mr. Stark said about him. 

He took a deep breath and tapped his watch face twice. “Karen, activate Iron Spider.” The nano-tech creeped swiftly over his skin until the full Iron Spider suit encased him. The class gasped as they realized who their classmate was. 

“No!” Flash cried, outraged. “There is no way Puny Parker is Spider-Man! This has to be some kind of trick! Penis could never do what Spider-Man does!” 

The marine biology teacher crossed her arms. “Mr. Jackson, Mr. Parker, I think enough is enough. Please apologize for this silly prank and get down off the stage. I don’t know how you pulled this off, but I will be having words with Principal Morita when we return. Now get down.” 

In a flash, Tony’s wrath turned on the teachers, who had clumped together. “And you lousy lot call yourselves teachers? Are you so dense that even after everything you’ve seen today, you still don’t believe them? Percy Jackson and his girlfriend have saved this world more times than me! Peter Parker has saved my ass too many times to count.” Tony looked over the disbelieving eyes of Flash and the teacher. “Alright, you know what? You all signed a non-disclosure agreement, so if you leak anything you’ve seen or heard here, we’ll know it was one of you, and our lawyers will bury you in so many lawsuits, you won’t be getting out of them for decades. Now get out of my tower.” He said sharply. No one moved. “Now!” He shouted. 

Everyone jumped up and filed out of the room as quickly as possible. The last person was Mr. Gray. “Percy, Peter, you heard the man, come along.” 

“I will be keeping them with me. You’ll find I’ve been listed as a guardian for both of them.” Tony said with narrowed eyes. 

Mr. Gray nodded and scampered from the room, leaving only a single, blonde-haired girl sitting in her chair. Percy hopped off the stage to go talk to her. He pulled her to a standing position and into a hug. “Think that was good practice?” He asked. 

She chuckled. “I think most of the attention was on Peter, but yeah, good practice.” 

Tony Stark approached. “And who do we have here?” He asked. 

Percy straightened and grabbed Annabeth’s left hand. “Tony Stark, I’d like for you to meet my amazing girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. Annabeth, this is Tony Stark.” 

Tony smiled and extended his hand. “We’ve heard a lot about you, Miss Chase.” 

“All good things, I hope. I’d love to get you opinions on some of my designs.” Annabeth shook his hand. 

Natasha approached. “You must be Annabeth. Percy never stops talking about you. You’re a spectacular fighter. We should train together sometime.” She winked before walking off again. 

One by one, each of the Avengers introduced themselves. “After what I saw today, I think you would be a valuable member of our team.” Steve said with his Mr. America smile. 

“Ok, but first, the cat’s got to come out of the bag. That goes for a couple of things, I think.” Tony’s face was steeled in determination. 

Curious, Peter turned to Mr. Stark. “What’s the other thing?” He asked. 

“That’s a surprise. Peter, go put on the suit that’s in your room. Percy, the same goes for you. Annabeth--” 

Natasha cut Tony off. “Annabeth can borrow something of mine.” She smiled. Annabeth lit up at the opportunity to talk to the superspy more. 

Tony nodded. “Then that’s settled. We’ll tell the world what it needs to know in an hour and a half.”

****

The crowd of reporters talked animatedly. The Starks were about to announce something big, and no one had an inkling what it was. 

In the antechamber off to the side, Percy paced nervously while Peter sat with his knee bouncing. Percy felt bad for him; at least Percy knew what he was about to announce. Peter had no idea what he was doing here. Mr. Stark hadn’t told him anything.

Annabeth grabbed Percy’s hand and squeezed it comfortingly. “Percy, we’re going to be fine. It’s just like telling a group of new campers.” 

“You’re right. They’re just a bunch of unclaimed new campers who don’t know what they are. With cameras. And a lot of questions. Oh gods, I can’t do this on my own.” Percy’s eyes started looking panicky.

Annabeth grabbed his face and turned it towards her own. “That’s why you’re not alone, Seaweed Brain. You have Peter over here, you have Tony, and you have me. And if we have to, we can Iris Message Chiron and he can help explain. It’s okay.” 

Percy nodded and took deep breaths. Then Tony walked into the room in a tailored suit and his signature glasses. In his hands were two small boxes. 

Tony went immediately over to Peter, who had his head in his hands, covering his ears from all the noise of the reporters. “Kid, I got some things to help you.” He opened the smaller of two boxes. Inside sat two earpieces, like the ones singers and performers wear onstage. They were smaller, though, less perceptible. “They block out all of the useless noise and help you focus on the noise you want to. And these,” He opened the second box, revealing identical glasses to the ones he wore, “just look cool.” When Peter just stared, he thrust the boxes into Peter’s hands. “Take them. They’re yours to keep. Use them whenever you need them.” 

Peter gingerly took the boxes. “Thank you, Dad.” He hadn’t meant to say it , but he paid no attention to Tony’s reaction as he fit the earpieces into his ears and put on the glasses. Immediately, he sighed with relief, quickly followed by a gasp of surprise as the glasses turned on. Analytics scanned across his eyes. He realized that Karen had been programmed into the glasses, and that he now had her at any time he wanted. He got up and hugged and a still-stunned Tony, who slowly hugged him back. 

They embraced for a moment before Tony’s watch beeped. “It’s go-time, kids. You guys wait here until I announce you. Peter, you’ll know when to come out.” He winked at Peter. 

Tony opened the door and stepped out and up onto the stage. “Welcome, everybody, to this press conference. Today we have a few announcements from a few different people, including one from me. So without further ado, allow me to introduce our newest Avengers, Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.” 

The pair traded glances. When did Annabeth officially become an Avenger? They stepped out the door and into the hoard of flashing lights and screaming reporters. They walked up to the podium set up with a dozen microphones, ready to capture their truths. 

Percy cleared his throat and everyone settled. “Hi, everyone, my name is Percy Jackson and this is my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase, and we are demigods.” The crowd jumped into a frenzy, shouting questions and snapping pictures. 

Tony came back to the microphone. “Everyone calm down and raise your hands like civilized people. Thank you.” the crowd calmed slightly. 

Annabeth pointed to a blonde haired reporter. “What do you mean by demigod?” 

“We are the product of relations between gods and mortals. We are half god or goddess and half mortal.” She answered. 

Pointing to another sandy-haired reporter. “Who are your godly parents?” 

Percy answered. “I am the son of Poseidon and Annabeth is the daughter of Athena.” 

A dark hair reporter stood up with no prompt. “What good do you bring to humanity? Why shouldn’t you be subject to tests or wiped out completely? Do you pose a danger to us?” 

Percy took a deep, calming breath, then launched into their story. “Our kind has spent centuries fighting monsters and wars. In the past few years, myself, Annabeth, and several other brave demigods fought multiple primordial beings that tried to take over the world, resulting in tolling wars. We’ve been key characters in those  wars and history in general, and you would be amazed to find out how many historical figures were demigods. We don’t pose any kind of direct threat to the mortal world, we’ve been saving it for centuries. Next question.” 

A curly haired reporter stood. “What benefit do you bring to the Avengers?” 

Annabeth took this question. “We are skilled fighters who train from the time we discover our identity to now. We have demigods who have been training constantly for ten or more years. We also have knowledge of and weapons that can kill monsters” 

The next question came from a raven-haired reporter. “How many of your kind are there?” 

“Fewer now, thanks to the last couple of wars, but our numbers grow every time a new demigod child is born. There are many kinds of demigod, Roman, Greek, Norse, and probably more that we don’t know about yet. Annabeth and I are Greek, but we have friends and family from other pantheons.” 

Annabeth leaned forward to speak. “This will be the last question, thank you.” 

The final question came from a reporter up front. “Why tell us now? You’ve kept the secret for so long, why now?” 

Annabeth answered. “We’ve kept our secret for so long thanks to something called the Mist. It’s a veil between the mortal world and our own. Unfortunately, I received word today that the Mist will finally fall at any moment, and we wanted to make the world aware on our terms.” 

There was a flurry of movement as the reporters tried to ask more questions, but Tony, once again, stepped forward. “That will be all for this segment of the press conference.” The two filed off, disappearing back to the antechamber. They both breathed a sigh a relief that it was over, even if the effects of everything they just announced would last for the rest of their lives. 

Onstage, they heard Tony calming down the crowd. “Now, I have an announcement, myself. For this, I’d like to bring out my personal intern, Peter Parker.” 

Peter braced himself and stepped into the room, hesitant smile on his face. Mr. Stark was standing at the podium and gestured for Peter to join him. “Ladies and gentlemen, and those who identify as neither, I give you my heir to Stark Industries!” 

Whipping his head around, Peter came face to face with a beaming Tony Stark. Him? Heir to Stark Industries? Surely Mr. Stark didn’t mean it… He glanced back toward the crowd of reporters and gave them a brave smile. 

“Peter will not be taking questions at this time. I’m afraid he just received this news as well. Thank you everyone for coming today, this now concludes our press conference.” Tony led the dazed teenager off the stage.

They entered the antechamber and Percy clapped him on the back to congratulate him. Tony didn’t stop in the antechamber, he led Peter all the way to the elevator and then into their lab before either of them talked. 

“You ok, Pete?” Mr. Stark finally asked. 

“Ok? Mr. Stark, I’m in shock, I’m overwhelmed, but yes, I’m ok. I was just given the most prestigious honor I could ever imagine. Your heir? I mean… wow. Although this means I’m going to have to triple major or something. I was already going to double major in chemical and mechanical engineering and now I’ll probably need to add business so I can run the other side of things… Unless you’re leaving that half to someone else, of course, then please disregard everything I’ve said--” 

Mr. Stark cut him off. “Pete! You’re rambling. It’s just you, but don’t worry about anything just yet. You’re not taking over tomorrow. You’ve got time.” 

Peter took another deep breath to calm down, then turned to Mr. Stark and pulled him into another hug. They both melted into each other. “Thank you, Mr. Stark.”

Mr. Stark buried his head in his kids shoulder and smiled. “You’re welcome, kid, you’re welcome.” 

#pjo #percy jackson #annabeth chase #peter parker #shuri #irondad #spiderson #irondad fic #spiderson fic #peter parker and percy jackson are friends #tony stark is a good dad #vine references #clint is in the vents #because i'm trying to forget when i am #by hiding in 2012 #oh also #i forgot roger harrington exists #so uh #just ignore that little bit #talltree-writes fic #we're going on a trip

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

y’know the one thing I hated while I was doing my arts degree, and still hate after having graduated from it, is the condescending statement/belief from people that “oh why didn’t you just do a more useful degree like maths or science???? and not your useless bullshit mickey mouse arts degree, which was never intended to give anyone jobs outside of teaching, anyway!” or some other horrendous bullshit, such as: “why didn’t you just stay with communication & media studies and complete the marketing & PR major???? you would’ve had a job after all of the unpaid internships you do throughout the course!” or whatever. (media and communications is abbreviated to m&cs further down in this post, just an fyi).

but, meredith. do you know that even people with science & maths degrees struggle to find meaningful work that’s related to their degrees? do you know that some of those people will turn to teaching anyway just because they feel like there’s nothing else that they can do??? do you know that some people (mainly me and probably quite a few others) just can’t handle maths past like idk year 6 level??? I would’ve been completely and utterly fucked if I even tried to set foot in first year uni science or maths subjects. even though some of the content did interest me.... (also there’s the fact that my handwriting wasn’t good enough for diagrams etc etc in maths & science- but that’s a whole other topic not for this post).

like I had to totally skip out of psychology/sociology and even the PR major, bc they required you to do statistics subjects.... where no matter what level of study I would’ve/could’ve done for those subjects, i would’ve still failed them spectacularly because my mind really struggles with processing and working with numbers. but that’s besides the point.

hey earl, do you know some people simply do not suit particular fields of “real world” or “practical” study areas like business subjects? trust me. I tried that one sem of marketing 101 and intro to management/ business communications in first year. and you know what I found? that my mind just could not take the complete and utter dryness of the content of marketing theory and, again, numbers. and that’s despite the earnest encouragement of my tutor, who thought I had a knack for marketing. i literally almost fucking died in that business communications subject... even though the lecturer seemed to like me as well. but as i thought further ahead into my degree in comms & media, i dreaded it. I absolutely fucking dreaded it. the PR stuff sounded as equally dry & boring (besides the point that every project was group work lmao) and so did upper level marketing subs in advertising/marketing strategy/various fields of marketing etc etc. i couldn’t stomach that lmao. and besides the point, the analysing of media just bored the fuck out of me too, for some reason. I just didn’t like the subject. hell, even my advanced diploma in marketing from business college was a fucking hard slog for me.

but when i sat in my english, philosophy, (kind sorta) history and -further down the track- creative writing subjects.... I fucking loved them. I was writing like I’d always wanted to. okay yes I did get pretty dismal marks in most of my philosophy and english exams or assignments. but I don’t fucking care. I was there doing what my mind was built for. if id tried another business subject, like intro to economics or even gone back to redo that “intro to management”/“business communications” (or whatever it was called) as an elective/as electives, i probably would’ve dropped out of either of them in the first 2 weeks. whenever i read those subject descriptions, they literally put me to sleep.

also, for the media and comms point. do you know that there’s loads of media & comms students that don’t get jobs because there’s just such a HUGE intake of students in those courses??? do you know that that the most popualr field in that degree stream (at least when I started that degree at my local home uni in 2015) was journalism & professional writing??? where literally EVERYONE was aiming to be a journalist????

I was one of the very, very few people when I began in media and comms, to outwardly say that she was there to do marketing or maybe the marketing & PR double major.... and everyone looked at me as if I was insane. “why don’t you want to be a journalist? I think journalism is so cool and that I’m more likely to get a job in that than you are in marketing or PR. you actually engage with real people in journalism and do meaningful stuff with the community!” was one of the utterly dumb responses I sometimes got from people in that course, when I told them the above. but you know what kelsey, or, trent? neither one or any of us are “more likely” to get jobs in media & comms... when you’re both competing against people with “proper” straight journalism degrees who might have more media experience than you- if you didn’t do an internship or do some uni newsroom/magazine or whatever.... or maybe more streamlined (if that’s the right word) media &comms degrees.... as well as generally competing against each other, in the same field, for the fucking same exact jobs. while im competing against commerce students doing marketing and PR and people doing the PR & marketing major in m&cs.

also in relation to the above, doing multiple unpaid or even severely underpaid internships in journalism, or even marketing, probably won’t fucking secure your chance of getting a bloody job, adam. just shut the fuck up. those internships may have helped you. but they most likely won’t help most people, theresa. because there’s only a tiny freakin chance that the place that they worked for will actually give them a guranteed job at the end of their internship’s timeframe or at the end of their whole degree. it’s a fucking scam lmao.

and plus, (not to be as rude as you were to me).... but why the FUCK would you want to go into journalism.... when it’s been debased so fucking much by media outlets like buzzfeed; writing nothing but clickbait bullshit listicles.... and is polluted by internet virality.... so much so, that more than half of the people my course had the career goal of being a viral youtuber or an instagram influencer???? like i’m sorry. this is a dumb asf course, no matter the field you’ve chosen to study.... and there’s no way that a single one of you will be a successful viral youtuber or an instagram influencer???? what on fucking earth led you to believe that????

like no offence. but there’ll only be a lucky, lucky, lucky few who get to be the next jennamarbles, ray william johnson, pewdiepie, lily singh, tanya hennessy, jeffree star, james charles, etc etc.... or hell, even friendlyjordies (if you want some satire & politics). and for instagrammers.... idek know them. someone list some instagrammers lmao. but my point still stands.

being an influencer or youtuber- both with huge followings- is a fucking pipe dream- as much as me being a hugely successful author is. it only goes to the insanely lucky, lucky few who have the right connections and the right digital savviness/finesse to grow to be uber successful.... or who started super early, before it was even considered a job title (like jenna mourey/marbles and ray william johnson listed above, and several others not listed who have big fan followings on here) and eventually grew to be the first original titans of the youtuber job title.

or again, they already have some type of other successful media career (like tanya hennessy is an aussie radio announcer. jeffree star had a short lived myspace music career in the late 000s mostly, and made cameos in emo music videos and LA ink at the time also, for example) so that they can successfully fund their youtube channels and/or instagrams as side projects or whatever, as part of their media portfolio.... and they also know how to engage and grow follower bases etc. because they already have an existing one. so it’s twice as easy for them.

tbh i actually entered the m&cs course bc of my use of this hellsite and all the weird trends it had and stuff.... but I eventually got over that as I realised that I just did NOT fit into that field of study. I realised I was too shy... and I also just hated the fact that I had to learn how to use twitter and wordpress and probably eventually snapchat & instagram 😂

i had also gotten sick of follower counts and “growing a following”- considering that by 2015, I’d hit over 3,000 followers on here, I think.... and I realised just what energy and time it took to build this blog.... and my followers.... that I just didn’t have the energy to expend on other platforms for the same thing lmao. like it seemed like more wasted time. I was tired. in addition to that, i also realised that i didn’t want to waste my whole fucking career on the internet worrying over a business’s/company’s multiple corporate social media channel follower counts and image etc.... when i’d done enough of that for myself on this hellsite lmao. doing that stuff with other students in the m&cs course seemed fake asf, especially when it came to giving feedback comments etc lol.

but do you know that one place where you don’t have to give a flying fuck about followers, post views/comments, and blog views? philosophy and english. lmao 😅. no one gives a fuck what you say. unless, of course, you have the evidence and the force of argument to back your pov up. that’s what I was about and am still about. I loved reading and analysing the many books I had to read (contrary to the complaint posts that I made on here lmao)- whereas learning about media and who owned what and how media is manufactured- just made my brain freeze. and although I didn’t do my readings in philosophy (lmao)- i enjoyed a good bulk of the content I had and the issues it involved. doing media & journalism subjects in the m&cs degree, on the other hand, terrified me, bc it meant I had to get in front of a camera and speak- which also scared me bc i look & sound terrible on camera lmao 😂. but I didn’t have to do that almost throughout the entirety of my arts degree (im obvs not counting class presentations in this lol). but do you get my point???

and also the teaching comment. don’t get me wrong, i know a good bunch of people go into teaching after their arts degrees... including many of my friends; and a load of the people I was in my arts degree with. but that is mainly because with other degrees like journalism or media & comms or whatever other fields that they overload into uni arts departments- have taken our job titles away, in a sense....

so, then you’re practically forced to either go into teaching, or go into something outside of your expertise; like idek human resources management/a MBA via a masters.... or, again into something like librarianship via postgrad study- so, that for the love of fucking god- you have a job title to whack next to your name-!!!-instead of just “arts graduate” or “english major” or “philosopher” that all mean fuck all. and that’s because those labels sound vague, unhelpful, undefined and useless; as that’s opposed to something like “teacher” or “librarian” or even “information specialist”. all those titles/labels sound defined, and have actual useful concrete skills: like coding, database creation and maitenance & information retrieval (amongst other things), for a librarian/an information specialist, for example. these skills are then translated into something that you can physically demonstrate to people.... unlike with philosophy and english where people perceive that it’s just “all in your head” and “doesn’t produce anything worthwhile” bc of your very obvious skills that everyone has of communication and writing. like idk. anyway.

anyway here’s my rant for november.

#life #about me #shut up ilona #ilona whines about her shitty life to her followers lol #uni #uni life

[three-houses-text-files]

leonie/raphael

c-a support + paired ending

c

Raphael: Hey, Leonie! Are you just getting back? Whoa! What's with the bag? It's huge! Leonie: Oh, this? Ha... I thought I'd get all my chores done at once. Guess it got a little out of hand. L: Sorry to be a pain, but could you help me out? R: I’m happy to help! Where'd you go to get all this stuff? L: Well, first it was just the cloth scraps from the tailor, and then it was the used oil from a restaurant in town... L: After that, it was the books the scholars didn't know what to do with. I mean, that was just on the way. R: Whoa. It sounds like you did a lot of running around today. L: It wasn't so bad! I just figured it would save time if I did it all in one trip. R: You planned all that out? Impressive! R: What are you gonna do with all the stuff you got? L: The scraps will be good for dish cloths, and I can make soap from the oil. The books are just to help with my studies. R: You really can't let anything go to waste, can you? L: Nope. Can't stand the idea. R: Who knew you were so thoughtful! I mean, with actual thinking ahead. R: You’re so generous to everyone and always making me food. I never knew how much thought you must put into it! L: I cook to relax. And it's nice seeing how enthusiastic you get about eating what I make. L: Whatever I give away is just the stuff that isn't useful to me. I pick up all sorts of things when I'm in town. L: Giving things like that to people who need them, or who can actually use them, makes sure they aren't wasted. R: That makes sense. You've gotta use up the stuff you've got, after all. R: Hey, do you think you're like this because you didn't have much growing up? L: I guess times were tough, now that you mention it. The folks in my village definitely aren't rich. L: My dad had to go through a lot of trouble to get the recommendations I needed to attend the academy. L: That doesn't mean I've grown up to be stingy. It just means I don't like to squander. L: Anyway, enough of that. It's in poor taste to go on about your own hardships. L: I've always got time for a meal with a friend. And it so happens I picked up some choice meat today. Why don't we share it? R: Now you're speaking my language!

——————————————————————————————

b

L: Oh, it's Raphael. What's he doing at that desk? R: … L: Hey! Are you studying? I thought you'd given up on it. Nice to see you're... R: Waaaugh! L: What the?! R: Oh! Leonie! L: What's wrong? Why are you crying? R: I-I just got a thank you letter from my little sister! L: OK, maybe start from the beginning. R: My little sister lives with my grandpa now. R: She’s had to deal with so much since I decided not to take over the family business. L: You might have to back up a bit more before this starts to make sense to me. R: Our parents were merchants, but they died in an accident. We had some money saved at first, but... R: But Grandpa isn't healthy enough to work, and I'm not smart enough to work a job that requires... much thinking. L: That's really tough. Hard to make a fortune with just your strength, I'm sure. R: I had to sell all our valuables just to pay my way here so I could become a knight! L: Wow. That's a lot of pressure. R: My sister wants the best for me, but— R: She’s the smart one in the family! She's the one that should be here! R: When I ask if she needs anything, she always says she's fine. R: She doesn't want to ask me for anything 'cause she knows I'm having such a hard time here! L: She sounds like a great kid. So, what did the letter say? R: It said she's happy and thankful for all the study materials I sent her. L: That's good, right? Wait...where did you find extras? R: I couldn't find any, so I just sent her mine. It's like you said, right? R: It’s better to give them to someone who will use them instead of letting them go to waste! L: Um, don't take this the wrong way, but don't you still kind of need those? (pre-skip) L: Um, don't take this the wrong way, but don't you think you've still got things to learn? (post-skip) L: Well, I guess if it makes her happy, it's worth it. Maybe I can scrounge something up for her too.

——————————————————————————————

a

L: Hey! Writing to your sister again? R: You bet! Gotta reply to these things as soon as they come in! L: You had one last week too. It's great to see you're both so good about staying in touch. L: It's especially important when there's a war going on. R: Yeah. Oh! That reminds me! My sister wrote to say how much she loved the painting supplies you sent! L: Good. I'm glad gathering those pigments paid off. R: You even made her a brush! I really appreciate you doing all that for her. L: I was fascinated with painting at that age. L: I was a pretty artistic kid, if you can believe it. Not a lot of time for it when you're hungry though. R: Sounds like you had a pretty tough time growing up too, huh? L: I guess so. We never thought of it that way. L: But it's true the children in my village don't usually get to choose their futures. L: Any one of us could have had the talent for artistic genius and never even noticed. L: I was one of the lucky ones. I only got to follow my passion thanks to my father and all the other folks. L: That's why, once I come into my own, the first thing I'll do is head back there and help the other kids. R: Oh, wow. It's like all the kids in your village are counting on you. L: Haha, no need to exaggerate it. L: Besides, it's not like I'm unique. You're working hard for your sister's future, aren't you? R: Yeah. It's like me and you are both carrying big weights. R: We should try sharing the weight with each other! You know, lighten both of our loads! L: Huh? R: If we share our problems, then we only gotta carry half the weight, right? It works out for everybody! L: It's...probably a good thing you didn't try to take on your family's business. L: If you take half of my burden, and I take half of yours, the total's still the same. R: Nah. That doesn't sound right. Everything's lighter when you don't gotta carry it alone. L: ... L: Hahaha, on second thought, you might be right. L: With the right attitude, and the right partner to share the burden, maybe it is only half the weight. R: Now you're getting it! It's a waste of energy to struggle alone when there's someone who can help you! L: That's true. And I do hate waste, as you well know. R: So when it comes to working toward the future you're after, you know I won't fall short. L: Great! And you should never fall short on sharing a big meal with me too! R: Deal!

——————————————————————————————

paired ending

Leonie took over the mercenary company formerly led by Jeralt. She ran out of money constantly, however, due to sending all of her earnings back to her village, and so developed a reputation for unpaid tavern tabs. When she came upon the inn that Raphael had been helping to run with his family, she was overjoyed to finally find a place that would trust her enough to open a new tab. In her years frequenting the establishment, she accrued such a massive debt to Raphael that the only way to pay him off was to work for him. By the time the debt was finally paid, she had moved in with him. They lived together happily for the rest of their days.

#fire emblem three houses spoilers #fe16 spoilers #fe3h spoilers #leonie x raphael #raphael x leonie

[alexafaie-asd]

Struggling with feeling useless.

I’m trying to think up something to write in the birthday card for my Grandpa who will be 96 next week and I just can’t think of anything to put. He likes to have something to read about what I’ve been up to as I live too far away to see him as regularly as we used to visit when I was a child.

I tried reading back what I put last year and the year before (ordering online means it saves what you put) and the common thing between them is that I just wrote about what my boyfriend has been doing because there isn’t anything I can write about that I’ve done specifically. And there hasn’t been in a long long time now.

When I was at university I could at least write about my studies. After that I was hoping to be able to work towards making and selling custom corsets for people.

But ultimately, the poor mental health that lead to me dropping out of my masters degree didn’t let up. Bipolar disorder and cPTSD is a bitch like that. Then I got diagnosed last year as autistic which explains so damn much about my difficulties I’ve had. But during that time, I’ve not achieved anything.

Okay that’s kinda unfair. I have achieved a greater understanding of myself, however I am no further forward with getting any therapy (am beginning to doubt that my doctor even made the referral back to the mental health unit) and I’ve been struggling so much with executive dysfunction issues on top of everything else and so haven’t made any progress on anything much. I haven’t even managed to get any further with trying to get the house tidied properly (keep managing a room, or a small amount, but never the whole thing that needs doing).

And because of my grandpa’s age and general mindset, I can’t just write that I’ve been struggling with just trying to function at all. He doesn’t know that I’m autistic and if he *did* know then he wouldn’t be very accepting of that. He was born back when autistic people were called idiots and morons and cretins and dumb and imbeciles and were sterilized to prevent their genes getting passed on. He’s racist and voted for Brexit and is as patriarchal as they come. He was proud that I went to university because I was his first grandkid to do so, but he still kinda sees a woman’s place as being supporting a man and it kinda pisses me off that I’m basically fulfilling that role of being the stereotypical “housewife” staying home whilst her partner works even though I’d love to have my shit together enough to be doing something that feels worthwhile to me. No shade to housewives/husbands/people out there, its just I don’t find looking after the house fulfilling for me (especially since I’m shit at it, this stuff is hard and is worth a paycheck at least with 6 zeros after the number, even though its fucking unpaid).

If you asked 4 year old me what I wanted to be doing with my life I’d have said “being a paleontologist and digging up dinosaurs” or inventing cool things (like the air filtration system I came up with for on planes to reduce the spread of airborne diseases) or curing cancer or something. I certainly wouldn’t have said staying home whilst my boyfriend brought home the money. I didn’t want kids (still don’t) and wasn’t even sure that I wanted to have a boyfriend at all. I certainly knew I didn’t want to get married (still don’t. Its a meaningless piece of paper to me).

I just feel like I had such potential as a little kid and its just come to fuck all. I know that I’m still smart and stuff, but I’ve just not achieved anything that I can remotely talk about. I feel so invisible. I can’t share anything I go through mentally with anyone in my family because they aren’t actually as supportive as they think they are. I don’t even know if my Mum realises that I’m not straight. And it doesn’t really matter anyway since I’m with a cishet male and I’m female (I think maybe, but fuck knows, what even is gender?. AFAB at the very least) so that makes me “straight” regardless of my orientation as far as she is concerned. I guess I’m just tired of hiding myself away to make others more comfortable (both in terms of my orientation, my mental health and my being autistic) around me, but I’m not even comfortable with myself so it feels so damn unfair.

And all this shit is interlinked so even though I just have to come up with a paragraph of drivel to write to my Grandpa so he is a bit more up to date with how his family are doing, it drags up all these feels. I just wish that I had more to write about than my boyfriend getting a job and a car. I wish I could be writing about stuff I’ve done. I just haven’t done anything that’s amounted to anything this past year, or even just since Christmas when I last saw him. As in I’ve managed to build a bookshelf so that I had somewhere neater to put my colouring books and craft things. I’ve managed to tidy the bedroom enough to put a chest of drawers in a cupboard so that eventually some clothes can go in it. The bedroom is messy again though. I’ve put several loads of washing to wash and failed to finish putting them away. I’ve tidied the living room and hoovered a couple of times. I’ve tidied parts of the kitchen a bit a few times. I’ve cleaned the kitchen sink a week or so ago. Oh and I coloured a mother’s day card for my Mum back when it was Mother’s Day. But that was back in March I think? Or early April? And that is everything other than going on tumblr, or playing computer games or watching youtube and listening to music that I’ve done. Oh I suppose you could count going to the PIP Assessment. And we went to the circus last bank holiday Monday. But like none of that really feels like much to write about (literally the whole “nothing to write home about” thing). I wish that I were exaggerating how little I’ve got done this year, but I’m not. The most major thing is probably not having actively attempted suicide. But like I can’t exactly write to my Grandpa who is 96 years old saying “I’ve not done a great deal of interest, but at least I’ve not killed myself!”.

And I turn 32 this year and this is really not what I expected my 32nd year to be looking like. And I feel powerless to do anything about it because I’m having to fight my own damn brain. Executive dysfunction fucking sucks and its just destroying me bit by bit. I’ve spent years upon years upon years (ok my whole life) struggling with this and trying so fucking hard to do better and be better and its just like why am I even trying any more? It doesn’t seem to matter how hard I try, it doesn’t make any difference to how things turn out for me. So why am I even bothering? I’m just so damn tired of living. So tired of suffering. So tired.

#actually autistic #actually bipolar #actually cPTSD #executive dysfunction #feels post

[rachie-neyiea]

Saw something that reminded me that it’s been about a year since my absolute lowest emotional point, and I figured I’d reflect on it a little because the then versus the now is... really different.

So basically around a year ago I was near the very end of my first try at consolidation, the very last step before writing my licensing exam. I was in a mental health placement, which was exactly what I had wanted, and I was even at my first choice hospital. It wasn’t the specific unit I wanted and I’d had a few up and downs but overall I felt pretty good about how I was doing, even if I’d made a few slip-ups along the way. And then my preceptor told me that when my time was up she wasn’t sure if she would be able to pass me because she didn’t think I had progressed enough to take on a full patient load.

I was just dumbstruck. I had a handful of scheduled shifts left when she told me this. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to even comprehend that I hadn’t been doing as well as I thought I had. I cried in the conference room that she’d taken me into, and she sort of sent me away with the dietician on staff to take part in a different activity so that I would be off the floor and could calm down. She told me that they would give me extra time, and that I could go over the 320 hours that I had to work for consolidation so that I could reach a point where she felt comfortable passing me. But now that the possibility of failure had been brought up I couldn’t get it out of my head.

So much, if not all, of my suicidal ideation has been linked to the thought of failure. The first time I really started seriously considering it was before I went back to school. I had just finished almost six months at an unpaid internship and I wasn’t getting anywhere in my job search and it was becoming very apparent to me that nothing was progressing. Nothing was going the way I had planned. I didn’t have the energy to do what I loved anymore. I didn’t have the energy to keep searching for scarce job postings. So I told myself that I was going to get a part time job and try to get back into school, and if I didn’t get accepted, I would kill myself.

There’s this feeling that I have that if I don’t succeed, I don’t really mean anything. That if I don’t do something useful then why even bother. I think that some of those feelings are why I was able to get the marks that I did when I did get back into school, because there was always the idea that if I failed a test or an exam, or didn’t get the grades that I thought I needed to get, that I wouldn’t really have a choice but to end it. These feelings would get really bad during my final year, where I would be studying so hard for tests and feel so stressed by my program and like no one in the administration really cared about the students that I would have recurring thoughts about jumping from the top of one of the buildings during a peak bus time, so that a lot of people would witness it. There was the urge behind that to be remembered, I guess, so that when an email was sent out by the college saying that I had passed and that the flags would be lowered at half mast people would know that I hadn’t just been tragically hit by a car or something.

Anyways. Suddenly being confronted by the idea that I could fail when I had worked so hard and had gotten where I wanted just made me sink further into that sort of ideation. I cried at home, I cried in the bathroom on breaks, I cried while at the nursing station. I started thinking that if this happened, if I did fail, I was going to have no other choice, and it felt so final. I’d never been so cornered by that thought process before. I had a difficult time talking to anybody about even the fact that I wasn’t doing well, let alone the thoughts suddenly filling up my waking hours. I was trying to stay positive but every time I walked into the hospital I just couldn’t feel good about it anymore, and I just became worse, making mistakes I wouldn’t have made before. I told myself that if my preceptor asked me how I was doing I would tell her, I would tell her that I was thinking about killing myself, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it unless she asked, and she never did.

Finally it got to be so bad that during one of my lunch breaks I sent a huge text to my best friend, who I had told about some of the more difficult parts of my consolidation, asking if I could call her that night and why I needed to talk to her and honestly that was one of the best decisions I ever made in regards to my own mental well being. One of the only phone conversations we’ve ever had and it lasted for more than an hour and both of us cried multiple times. It felt so good to tell someone what I was feeling and that I’d been having thoughts like this, though not at this intensity, for years. After that I felt like I could at least tell my parents that I wasn’t doing very well, and I told myself I would at least try to finish.

I pushed myself so hard to finish.

But I was working a night shift and everything was awful and I could. Not. Take it anymore so I emailed my clinical instructor to tell her I couldn’t do it any more and I called my dad crying at three in the morning while on my break because I just couldn’t stand the way I felt and how much I was slipping up and I knew I needed to stop and get out of there because being in that environment was only making me worse.

I had a meeting with my program coordinator, and we got set up so that I could stop and start again somewhere else, and I told my preceptor that I wouldn’t be coming back via text. She called me, and we talked a bit, I never told her how I’d felt.

It’s weird. How even though I was surrounded by actual mental health professionals every time I went into that hospital I never felt comfortable telling any of them what I was going through. I’d spent around 300 hours there at that point. I think that experience also just caused me to lose a lot of faith in the profession too.

No one ever seemed to notice when I was crying in the nursing station. Or at least, they never asked me about it.

If someone had just asked me how I was doing, I wonder what would have happened. 

In any case. I started a new consolidation in September. Not what I thought I wanted, but something that I could probably do. The nurses were nice, my preceptor was easy to talk to, I even admitted to her that I had done a consolidation before and that it hadn’t gone well. This time around was different. By my midterm I was almost at a full patient load, by the end I felt good enough about how I had done there that I left a cover letter and resume with the manager, and she told me that I could call her after I’d written my exam and she’d let me know if there were any positions open. 

Sometimes what you think you want isn’t actually what’s best for you.

It’s about a year after what was the scariest point in my life, and while it’s not like I haven’t thought about death since then I am doing a lot better overall. I passed my licensing exam, I have a job at my second consolidation, I’m doing pretty well, I’ve made some cool new friends, I have things I think I can look forward to, I’m leaving my part time minimum wage job soon so that I can focus on my career.

I feel more open to talking about what I’m going through and what I went through, and honestly if I learned nothing else from that terrible period it’s that being able to talk about stuff like that is so much better for me.

Things are pretty good right now. 

This is just... So much text and it just barely covers everything but last year I felt helpless and like there was no hope for me and as I am now I’m happy.

A lot can change over a year. I hope that I can keep taking better care of myself. Maybe someday I’ll try to go back into mental health, maybe I won’t. I think a lot of my drive to go into that field was to help people like myself. In my profession empathy versus sympathy is a huge thing; it’s important to be able to feel what others feel, not just know how they feel. Maybe someday that fact that I’ve been through this will help me reach out to and help someone going through something similar.

And I know that if I ever see someone struggling I’m going to ask them if they’re doing okay. Because sometimes what you’re going through is too scary to bring it up without someone asking first, or you think it’ll be used against you, or you think people will say you’re saying it for attention or for them to go easy on you. Maybe someday I’ll be the sort of person that someone can trust with this kind of information, just like I trusted my best friend.

#a reflection of sorts #tw for suicidal ideation I guess...

[healthandfitnessrecipes-blog]

Summer Shape-Up Secrets

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/?p=7615

These 12 research-backed nutrition hacks and quick-fix strategies can help you get your body bikini-ready.

When trying to tone up and shed those last few pesky winter pounds, you know the score: Eat whole, clean foods, exercise regularly and cut back on vices such as sweets, alcohol and junk food. But there are a number of less obvious dietary strategies that have been proved by research to be effective in whipping your hibernating bod into shape. Here are the top 12 tips to get you shorts-ready in short shrift.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand … Calories?

Pants too tight? Perhaps your Facebook feed is to blame. In today’s social media storm, everyone is eager to share their food porn, and while these opulent meals are just photographs and not the real thing, they can still have an effect on your physique. Multiple studies show that images of towering smoothie bowls and decadent desserts actually increase your urge to eat by lighting up the brain’s reward center and triggering visual hunger — sensations of appetite even in the absence of true hunger or real food. In other words, even if your stomach is not saying “feed me,” your Instagram feed can send you to the kitchen in search of a treat, leading to unnecessary calorie consumption.

Your move: Limit the time you spend on social media and unfollow your usual #foodporn feeds. Instead, follow accounts with inspirational people doing extraordinary feats in the gym or other activities.

Eat the Burn

The beach shouldn’t be the only place you feel the heat this summer: When Danish researchers provided people with tomato soup made with and without cayenne pepper, they discovered that the fiery soup resulted in increased satiety both at the end of the meal and one hour afterward, as compared to a bland soup. Capsaicin, the compound that gives chili peppers their hurts-so-good bite, appears to help tame the hunger monster and put the brakes on overeating. And while it’s true that chili peppers can raise your metabolic rate, it’s not enough of a change to impact your figure.

Your move: Look for ways to spice up your meals. Shake some hot sauce onto scrambled eggs and sandwiches, add chili powder to salad dressings and use sliced fresh chilies in stir-fries. A great book to check out is The Chile Pepper Bible, by Judith Finlayson (Robert Rose, 2016).

Mindful Mealtime

When it comes to eating, slow and steady can trim your waist. Recent Japanese research discovered that speed eaters are more likely to pack on pounds and possibly develop metabolic syndrome, a cluster of conditions like high blood pressure and cholesterol that raise your risk for diabetes and heart disease. When you wolf down your chow, you don’t give your body time to register satiety cues, making it easier to overeat. Eating slower also means you’ll have a better chance to determine when you’re full and ready to push away from the table, and it also may improve blood sugar levels, offering up some protection against fat gain and disease.

Your move: If you habitually inhale your food, take some measures to pump the brakes: Eat free of distractions such as social media, slice food into smaller pieces, put your utensils down between each bite and chew your food more thoroughly. This allows you to be more mindful of how you’re fueling your body and with what foods.

Divert Dining Disaster

For the sake of a flat belly, it’s good practice to prepare your own meals. But at times you want to dine out, so preorder your food to stay slim. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that when people selected their lunch meal an hour or more in advance, they tended to order lower-calorie options than when they made their selection immediately before dining and wound up ingesting 38 percent fewer calories. The reason? Ordering food when your stomach is already growling can lead to indulgent choices and spiral into calorie overload.

Your move: Try apps like GrubHub that let you order in advance to make better choices. If you’re dining out, browse the menu online ahead of time and pre-commit to a healthier meal choice before walking through the door.

Save the Starch

It seems there is an order in which to eat your macros: A study from the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City gave people a meal consisting of bread, orange juice, chicken and salad. When subjects ingested the starchy and sugary carbs (bread and OJ) after the protein and veg (chicken and salad), their blood sugar levels were about half as high afterward as compared to when they ingested the food in the reverse order. The protein in the chicken and the fiber in the vegetables help regulate your blood sugar, slashing diabetes risk and promoting your fat-fighting efforts. Front-loading with protein and veg also boosts levels of the hunger-busting hormone GLP-1, which could truncate your desire for dessert.

Your move: Practice this starch-last approach at the majority of your meals. For example, eat your hard-boiled egg before your breakfast oatmeal or the salmon and steamed broccoli before the quinoa.

Whip It Thick

Warmer temps make frosty smoothies more appetizing, so when you blend one up for breakfast or for postworkout recovery, get into the habit of making it thick: When people were provided with a thick, dairy-based shake, they felt significantly fuller 40 minutes afterward as compared to when they sipped a thinner shake — even when the thicker shake contained one-fifth the calories of the thinner shake, according to a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Study participants also reported a reduced desire to eat more food after drinking the thicker shake.

Your move: Add to this feeling of phantom fullness by blending in some frozen banana, Greek yogurt, avocado and even cooked sweet potato to thicken up your smoothies.

Expose Subversive Sugar

Life is sweet — so sweet that the typical American consumes 77 pounds of added sweeteners (sugar that doesn’t occur naturally in food) each year. In addition to being disgusting, this sky-high number can stymie your six-pack pursuits and place you at a higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and even depression. But dialing down the sugar is easier said than done, since about 75 percent of packaged foods contain added sweeteners, according to a study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. A lot of these hitchhike into your diet on unexpected sources such as crackers, bread, nut butters, deli meats, salad dressings and tomato sauce.

Your move: To weed out a good chunk of the sweet stuff from your diet, you’ll need to do more than simply quell your cookie habit. Spend time analyzing ingredient lists on all packaged foods, and opt for those free of high-fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin, fruit juice concentrate, dextrose and, yes, even honey.

5 Quick-and-easy get-slim strategies

Walk this way: The next time you’re faced with a chocolate temptation, lace up your shoes. Research shows that taking a brisk 15-minute walk is enough to tame cravings for sugary snack foods.

Go nuts: Nuts are a nutritional treasure trove, but it’s easy to go overboard. Control your snacking speed with in-shell pistachios: The extra work of shelling the nuts was found to help people consume 41 percent fewer calories yet feel just as satisfied.

Tidy up: Your kitchen is ground zero for healthy eating, so make sure it’s not cluttered with dirty dishes and unpaid bills: A Cornell University study found that women who spend time in messy kitchens mindlessly snack on twice as much junk food as those who hang out in tidy ones.

Rise and dine: For a trimmer belly, make breakfast and lunch your major meals of the day. Recent data from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that people who eat more of their calories earlier in the day have an easier time staying lean than those who eat the majority of their food later in the day.

Sleep tight: Research published in PLOS One shows that people who get six or fewer hours of sleep a night tend to have larger waistlines. A lack of adequate shut-eye messes with your hunger hormones, making you more prone to eating junk food during your waking hours.

https://healthandfitnessrecipes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Summer-Shape-Up-Secrets.jpg Credits: Original Content Source

[offwithalicesheadx]

1000 Question Survey pt. 5

Dating and Stuff 410.) Are you involved romantically with anyone right now?: Yeah

412.) Do you wish you were with someone right now?: Yeah

413.) Do you have a secret crush?: It's not a secret

414.) Who?: My boyfriend, Jesse

415.) Do they know?: Yeah

416.) How many people have you dated in the passed year?:  1

417.) Kissed in the past year?: Probably about 4

418.) Do you know what 143 means?: I love you

419.) How many people have you said “I love you” to?: A few, like family and stuff as well

420.) Did you mean it?: Yeah

421.) If you didn’t mean it, why did you bother saying it?: -

422.) Do you say I Love You to your friends all the time?: I don't have friends, haha

423.) Where do you go out on dates?: Restaurants or the cinema mainly, or we go out to clubs together, we've been to crazy golf, museums, the sea life centre and the arcade too

424.) What’s the most fun date you ever had?: Jesse and I have been on loads of fun dates, mini golf was super fun, one time we went around the German Market just eating different foods too haha, but sometimes the most fun times can just be like lying in bed watching dumb videos

425.) If you break up with someone do you cry your heart out while listening to breakup songs and then in an hour you're fine again with a new love-buddy?:  No

Who Would Win In a Fight? 426.) Britney or Christina 427.) Justin or JC 428.) Frodo or Sam (who?) 429.) B2K or Nsync 430.) Cartman or Bart Simpson 431.) Dracula or Frankenstein 432.) Triumph or Simon Cowell 433.) Conan or Jay (don't watch either) 434.) Rosie O Donnell or Boy George 435.) Carmen Electra or Pamela Anderson 436.) Tommy Lee or the guy who’s married to Carmen Electra right now (who?) 437.) Bill O'Reilly or Chris Matthews (who?)

Inspiration 438.) Who are your heroes?: Not really sure I have any, maybe Jesse for dealing with my shit haha

439.) Why do you look up to them?: -

440.) Do you wish you could be just like them?: I do wish I was more like him in some ways, he's very optimistic and chilled out where as I'm the complete opposite

441.) State the most inspiring quote you know: I can't remember exact quotes but I remember reading something about being able to achieve things at any age and not to stress about it when you're so young, and something about how the KFC founder guy was hella old before he made bank, haha

442.) Do your parents inspire you?: In some ways

443.) Do any of your friends inspire you?:  Yeah

More Random Questions 444.) Are nutri-grain bars good or bad?:  Some flavours are alright

445.) Do you eat a lot of donuts?:  No

446.) What kind?:  When I do eat them, I like custard filled ones

447.) Do you like chocolate?:  Yeah

448.) Has your uncle ever gone to jail for unpaid parking tickets?:  Not that I know of

449.) Do you see dancing giraffes and living gnomes in your sleep?:  No

450.) Do you like headphones that go in your ears or stay out?:  Go in

451.) Do you like mini blinds?:  Um sure

452.) Have you ever broken your mini blinds with a hanger?:  No

453.) Have you ever gotten into a violent fit of rage and tried to murder someone?:  No

454.) How is this survey so far?:  Some of the questions are sort of random/dumb, it's chill though

455.) Do you like the movie Fantasia?: Yeah

What s Your Take On 456.) Life:  At the moment I just think you should enjoy each day and always keep your eye on your dreams

457.) The world:  Seems like a bit of a muddle

458.) President Bush: I don't know enough about politics back then to say

459.) Ahhhhnold: I'm thinking of Hey Arnold, no?

460.) Gary Coleman running for governor: No idea what his beliefs and stuff are

461.) Howard Stern: Who?

462.) The war in Iraq:  I despise war

463.) the economy:  I have no idea, I'm really dumb about these kinds of things, I don't really know what's going on

464.) jay-z retiring:  Um, he is?

465.) school: I heard they want to remove artistic subjects and I hate that, considering that's all I studied and enjoyed doing, people think artistic subjects are an easy way out, try doing the Drama degree I did lmao

466.) going to college:  I definitely think it helps people to grow although it was so stressful, my anxiety was constantly through the roof

467.) marriage:  I'd like to be married, I think it's lovely as long as it's honest and sharing

468.) football: Used to be good, it's a bit ridiculous now though

469.) baseball:  Never really watched it or played it

470.) people cutting themselves for pleasure:  It gets you nowhere and you'll probably be annoyed in the future for doing it but there's a lot of ignorance around it saying that people do it for attention which isn't always the case and even if it is for attention, is that not still a cause for concern? 

Do You 471.) Pick your nose? 472.) Untie your shoe laces every time you take your shoes off? 473.) Fart a lot? 474.) Burp a lot? 475.) Do stupid things in public? 476.) Terrorize innocent people on golf courses? 477.) Have random hallucinations? 478.) Wear shirts with quotes on them? 479.) Wear patches and/or pins on your clothing? 480.) Wear leg warmers? 481.) Sing in the shower? (sometimes) 482.) Play any card game? (I have done, not regularly though) 483.) Sleep with a teddy bear? 484.) Take your pet for a walk? 485.) Have a snake? 486.) Have webbed feet? 487.) Wear colorful socks? 488.) Have a life? 489.) Drink coffee? 490.) Drink tea?

Internet 491.) What are your screen names?:  I usually go for alicehobbis or alicehobbisx 492.) Emails?: I have a work email and a normal email, they're both just my full name

493.) Do you have a website?: Just my Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook etc.

494.) Do you have a live journal or dead journal?: No

495.) Do you ever get off the computer?: Yeah

496.) What are your favorite websites?: Twitter, YouTube and Tumblr

497.) What are your favorite online stores?: Asos, New Look and Amazon

498.) Do you buy a lot of stuff online?: I used to but if I need something I usually just go during my lunch hour now, I'll only order the odd thing

499.) If so, what?: Usually clothes

500.) What’s the last thing you bought online?: A dress

501.) Do you have a lot of online friends?: No

502.) Have you ever met any of them in person?: -

503.) Who’s the best person to talk to online?: -

504.) Do you ever catch yourself using computer language outloud?: Sometimes

505.) Do you use AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN?: No

506.) What’s your desktop background?: Just the company's logo at work, on my personal laptop it's a picture of the Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse statue outside Cinderella's castle at Disney World

507.) What’s your AIM icon?: I don't have AIM

508.) How many hours do you spend online in a week on average?: I'll be online for maybe like a couple of hours max at work usually, and then I'll browse social media randomly for a couple of hours maybe in intervals throughout the day, not really sure

509.) Do you have a webcam or a mic?:  Both but I don't use either

510.) If your computer shut down for a week, would you die?:  No

#1000questionsurvey