#every time i move schools & make new friends i figure out i’m extremely extroverted all over again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rosycheekedandsmilin · 3 years

Text

Here Comes the Sun

Here Comes the Sun

Luke Patterson Imagine

Summary: Luke sees you at one of the boys’ practice sessions.

Warnings: just fluff with a hint of angst, I think. There is a mention of a pregnancy rumor and implied bullying, but not extensively

(A/N: I’m soooo sorry this took so long. Things have been hectic. Also, this would be before they died back in 1995. Plus, I’m new to all this so any recommendations, comments, tips, etc would be appreciated)

You had told your friend, Dianne, that you had homework to do, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. The boys of Sunset Curve were rising quickly on the LA scene and your friend was just one of the many to join their legions of female fans. It also helped that they happened to go to school with you. You couldn’t deny that they were all pretty cute, but you sided with many when you decided you had a preference for the front man: Luke Patterson.

You both used to be close your freshman year, but after he joined Sunset Curve your sophomore year, you both went your separate ways. You’d actually seen him several times in the hallways this year when he wasn’t surrounded by girls. He would be stepping in time with some imaginary beat, his fingers plucking on the old messenger bag hanging from his shoulder. He was always looking up, ever the optimist, looking at the horizon like only good things could ever come his way. His bottom lip caught in his teeth through a beaming smile, his hair brushing along his long eyelashes-

Whew. He was gorgeous.

And trigonometry homework could wait for you to see that gorgeous again up close.

The boys would sometimes hold open practice for a few fans to come watch and hang out, but it was starting to become exclusive as more people began to show up than they had room for.

Thus, your friend lept at the opportunity when she cornered Reggie alone in World History. You giggled at his adorable smile as your friend twirled her hair and flirted his socks off. Before you knew it, she was running back to you with a grin and the promise to see the band practice that coming Thursday after school.

You dressed in some simple mom jeans and a graphic tshirt tied at the waist, hopefully to flatter your figure. Dianne guaranteed you looked “smokin’ hot”, in her words. 4:10 struck and you both got in her car to head that way. The practice started at 4:00, but Dianne told you repeatedly that being fashionably late would set you both apart from the crowd.

On the way to the studio garage, you found yourself extremely nervous. You didn’t even fully know why; it was just a band, just a boy. It wasn’t a date or you throwing yourself at him, but you couldn’t help the fluttering feeling in your stomach at the thought of seeing Luke Patterson perform before a selected crowd, you being one of them.

Meanwhile, the boys were starting to warm up when Reggie started rambling.

“Isn’t it weird that no one comes on Thursdays?”

Bobby snickered. Alex and Luke shared a look before Alex turned to Reggie.

“Dude, that’s because the school has lacrosse games on Thursdays. No one wants to be here when our team is on a winning streak.”

Reggie thought a moment before laughing at himself.

“Oh yeah! I completely forgot. Then Dianne must have forgot too.”

Luke, Alex and Bobby all turned back to Reggie.

Luke spoke up this time.

“Dianne as in Dianne Parker?”

Reggie nodded. Luke’s eyes widened.

“Dianne Parker, as in friends with-“

Reggie smiled. “Yep. Y/n y/l/n.”

Bobby turned to Luke.

“Isn’t that the girl you’ve liked since-“

“-freshman year. Yeah,” Luke sighed.

He turned to Alex, but Alex waved him off.

“Even I have to admit the puppy dog eyes you used to get around her.”

Luke smiled softly, falling back into a memory.

You and he had been lab partners in Chemistry your freshman year, as well as shared a homeroom together. This was back before he was introduced to the music that saved his life, so he was still a shy little kid. He hadn’t found the passion that spurred him to connect to people. You, on the other hand, were everything he wished he could be: kind, smart, and courageous.

You weren’t quite an extrovert, but you always made sure others felt included and valued. When someone fell quiet during group discussion, you encouraged them to speak up and always made sure they knew you valued their input. When he would inevitably get an answer wrong in class, you would quietly show him the correct answer and explain it to him in a way that he didn’t feel stupid. And you would regularly invite people eating alone to join your small group of friends.

There came a point where Luke’s parents pushed him to get a tutor because of his failing grades, and you offered immediately after hearing about it. Every Tuesday and Thursday, you both would meet in the public library after school. As time went on, Luke grew to enjoy your time together and even grew a crush, but he never thought you would like the little shy kid that couldn’t speak up for himself. Then his sophomore year, his parents gifted him with his first guitar and it changed him forever. He connected with people in a way he never had before. By the time he worked up the courage to tell you how he really felt, you were in your first relationship with Danny Fenton, the star quarterback.

Luke just had to watch as you walked with him everyday and cheered him on the loudest on Friday night football games. Then, you had a messy break up. Not even a week later, a rumor spread that it was because you had cheated and were pregnant. It was a nasty, false rumor, but enough people believed it that you moved away your junior year.

In the meantime, Luke had already formed a band and was rising through the social ranks. When he learned you had moved back your senior year, he flipped. Still, he could never find the nerve to talk to you again, and you kept your head low to avoid the social radar.

That all changed today. The boys cornered Reggie.

“Is she coming today?” Luke asked.

Reggie gulped, his eyes darting between the three faces in front of him.

“I-I don’t know! Dianne just stopped me in world history and started asking about the band and Luke and-“

“She asked about me?”

“Well, yeah and she was twirling her hair and you know I have a thing about hair-“

“Did she mention anything about y/n?” Alex piped in.

“Well, she said that she and a friend wanted to watch practice today-“

“A friend? I’m sure it’s her,” Luke spoke to himself, running his fingers through the scruff on the back of his neck.

“Dude, are you gonna be okay?” Bobby asked, the three other boys staring nervously at Luke’s retreated figure.

He turned slowly, his deep hazel eyes wide in uncertainty.

“Well,” he said, taking in a breath, his shoulders dropping in finality, “it’s now or never.”

•••••

“We’re here!” Dianne cheered as her mom’s van screeched to a halt in the drive of the studio garage.

Forget the butterflies, hornets filled your stomach now. And they were angrily looking for a way out.

“Are you sure about this?” You asked weerily, holding your stomach.

“Absolutely!” Dianne beamed, turning to you from the front seat.

Your eyes finally caught the obvious problem outside your window.

“Um, Di?”

“Hmm?”

You blanched.

“Where is everyone?”

“Oh. My. Gosh. Well, what do you know! I must have completely forgot that everyone goes to the lacrosse games on Thursdays! Looks like we’re the only ones to watch today!”

It took all the zen you had not to throttle her little neck.

“Why do you hate me?” You cried out.

She giggled. “‘S all love, darling.”

“Dianne,” you begged, “you know our history.”

“And I know your chemistry too.”

You let out a small wail and looked out the tinted window at the studio garage. The doors were closed, but you could hear the muffled sound of guitars and drums warming up still.

Dianne had already stepped out of the van.

“Y/n, c’mon. We’re already late.”

“That was your idea!”

She held out her hand, giving you a pleading look.

“Di, I don’t know if I’m ready to face him again. So much had happened since-“

“Since you realized you liked him? And Danny got jealous and started that rumor?”

You nodded.

“Darling, that is the past. This is the now.”

“But what if-“

“Can I let you in on a little secret?”

You took a deep breath.

“Yeah?”

A small smile made its way onto her face.

“Reggie told me that Luke still has it bad for you.”

Your jaw dropped.

“You’re lying.”

She shook her head, smiling.

“I’m completely serious. That’s one of the reasons that Reggie was so excited to have us come today.”

You rolled your eyes.

“And what was the other reason?”

Dianne blushed.

“I may have told him that I would make out with him under the bleachers tomorrow at lunch.”

You smiled softly at her.

You were still a scarlet letter when you came back to school, so you couldn’t find anyone willing to be seen with your reputation. That was until you met Dianne, who was known as a serial home-wrecker. That wasn’t true, of course, but a bended truth of a spited ex-girlfriend. Still, she’d had more romantic exploits than you could count on your fingers and toes.

“C’mon, (y/n). Prince Charming is waitin’ for ya.”

You blushed as you made your way out.

•••••

There was a knock on the studio doors and three heads snapped up.

Alex, Reggie and Bobby all looked to each other and Luke.

Luke was facing a nook in the back, his headphones playing from a Walkman. He was still trying to see if he could learn the riff from Wonderwall by Oasis before you came in, but none of the boys wanted to be the one to nudge him with the way he was practically vibrating in his seat.

They shared a silent look before Reggie nodded knowingly.

“Rock, paper, scissors, boys.”

Alex turned to him, blinking.

“Reggie, there’s three of us. That’s not gonna- ok.”

Alex walked up to the door and opened it to reveal you and Dianne, both smiling nervously.

“Hellooo, Dianne,” Reggie crooned as Dianne waved at him, a suave smile painting his features. Dianne giggled beside you and you found yourself bristling with nerves.

“Uh, hey, y/n,” Alex greeted you warmly, nudging Bobby forward as well to greet you.

You pressed your lips in an awkward smile and forced your hand up into a wave. Your mind began to get caught in a cycle.

I should not have come I should not have come I should not have come-

“Hey, y/n, welcome to our practice. Because you both made the wonderful choice to come watch today, we have decided to gift you with free merch!” Reggie grinned, winking at Dianne.

“Reggie, all our merch is free-” Alex started, but Reggie pressed a finger to his lips, pressing them to the side as Alex glared at him. Bobby laughed and you quickly joined in, eager to rid yourself of your nerves. You all began to fall into comfortable banter and the boys were hilarious. Dianne was flirtingly feeling up Reggie’s bicep, asking him about his workout schedule.

“Oh, yeah,” Reggie said, his voice jokingly low and gruff. He flexed his arm. “I have quite a regime.”

Alex scoffed. “What regime? Your type of workout is chasing down the ice cream truck and lifting meatball subs to your mouth.”

“Hey,” Reggie said, turning to Alex with a look of betrayal on his face, “it is an intense regime none the less!”

Suddenly, there was a creaking sound from the back corner.

You stiffened.

The boys had forgotten about the tense guitarist behind them, who had been blocked from your and Dianne’s view by their figures.

A footstep. Another. Then another.

The boys parted and your heart stopped.

Two perfectly sparkling hazel eyes looked up at you through brown tasseled hair. And there it was, that beaming smile that warmed every inch of your body.

You were thrown back three years to the vision of that shy boy with a nervous bounce asking you for help with number three.

That same boy stood before you now, gazing at you like you were a triple-chocolate sundae surprise, a brand new guitar, an open stage, a raging crowd, and every answer he would ever need, all wrapped up in one person.

“Hello there, Sunshine,” he said, at last.

#luke patterson #jatp #julie and the phantoms #luke patterson x reader #luke patterson one shot #julie and the phantoms fanfic #fanfic #sunset curve #reggie #alex #luke #netflix #jatp netflix

145 notes · View notes

ecoamerica · 2 months

Text

youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

16K notes · View notes

avpdrecovery-old · 3 years

Text

very suspicious minds

at the heart of the suffering with avpd is suspicion. suspicion of the world around us, the people around us, their actions and what they means for us and potentially our safety. every micro-expression, unconscious body language is taken apart and evaluated.

in my case, it is from here that everything else fans out. avoidance, hypervigilence, anxiety to do the simplest things such as run errands, talking on the phone, sending job applications, interacting with people, epecially new people... at the core of it all is the suspicion that nothing is as it seems. that there is some plot i am unaware of and need to stay away from.

pre-avpd, i was still a child, i never thought i was important enough or had done anything egregious enough to warrant anyone “plotting” against me. it just didn’t make sense. i was not a bully, i was not popular enough to warrant jealousy from other kids. i was just average and had no enemies to speak of, who does at eleven?

i think it is because of this (and my trigger, explained here) that my mind grew overly suspicious of everyone and everything. if there had been something to explain the behaviour of my bullies, outside of the fact that they just didn’t like me, i think i would have been able to stomach it better, i don’t know. but there was no reason behind their bullying, which meant from then on, my brain was going to watch out and try to protect me from anyone and everything. whether i liked it or not.

it is normal to be nervous when interacting with new people, whether we’re kids or grown ups. after all as humans, we natually do not want to be rejected or abandoned by the group. as a “former” extrovert i still remember the thrill of walking up to kids on the playground or at family gatherings excited that i had found someone to play with. however, the thrill/fear that i felt then was small and didn’t stop me from interacting, i just pushed through it. and even if there was rejection and they didn’t want to play, the rejection didn’t linger, i would simply find someone else, or play on my own in the meantime.

however, post-avpd, my mind has never been the same and it started slowly. after that summer, we moved again and i changed schools again. i remember telling myself that this time things would be different, after all i had finally left those insufferable girls behind me. in fact i remember walking up to them, after all that had happened, and telling them that i would be moving away soon and wouldn’t have to deal with their bullshit anymore. lil eleven year old me actually told off her bullies, can you imagine?!

anyway, the new school full of new kids was upon me, but i just couldn’t stop the programing that was suddenly running in the back of my brain. suspicion.exe had been started and there was no way to turn it off. every friendly face i encountered felt like it might be hiding a smirk, like it might just be a ploy to get me to let my guard down. after all, exactly that had just happened and it had nearly cost me my life. how was i to know what was genuine and what was a plot? i kept my guard up and slowly turned cold.

i’m sure puberty hormones as well as age played into this as well, but i also became extremely fearful of humiliation and embarassment. not exactly the best thing when you’re at an age where you’re supposed to be learning to make mistakes, grow up and do many things for the first time. but mistakes = embarassment and potential for humiliation. and that meant possible rejection, abandonment or even worse, so the avoidance slowly crept in. i started avoiding other kids, activities, places, etc... unless i was 100% sure i would be safe somehow.

my mother said she observed me, the playground aficionado and lover of swings and slides everywhere, back away from one and insist on going home when i saw a group of kids there. this had been unheard of before, but she just assumed i was growing older and didn’t want to play childishly anymore. little did she know that everything had become a potential trap for humiliation to me, speaking to other kids, speaking to boys, saying something in class, etc...

a few years after that, i viscerally remember being afraid to order something from mcdonalds on my own. this is coming from someone who had spent every visit as a child in those god forsaken ballpits. but suddenly, i just couldn’t, couldn’t even go inside the restaurant. just picturing myself going to mcdonalds, set me off and made me feel ill. if it hadn’t been for a friend who unknowingly gave me a tutorial on how to do it, i would never have stepped foot in one ever again.

making friends became hell, because i seemingly couldn’t read people anymore, couldn’t decide whom to trust and whom not to. in fact, pre-avpd trust had never even crossed my mind. we either got along or we didn’t. if we did we were friends, otherwise we weren’t, no hard feelings. now, i suddenly found myself trying to figure out whom it was even safe to even talk to and whom not. all the while suspicion.exe rattled away in my brain, constantly making me feel i was in danger. looking back, i can say that every friendship i have ever had since (an they are not many), has been somewhat onesided from my end. i never revealed my true feelings, fears and problems, since those too were potential sources of humiliation. and i didn’t trust anyone enough to not use that against me. even though i had several bffs during my teen years, girls with whom i hung out one on one for years on end, i can say that non of them knew what was actually going on in my head, because i never told them. i wore a mask, a mask that was essentially me but watered down, and nothing real ever came to the surface. in fact this level of trust, that you could just tell your friend what you are really thinking and feeling or whom you have a crush on or some other secret thing, is alien to me now that i think about it.

a lot has happened since then obviously, i’ll probably return to this subject again, to explain how suspicion has affected me since. but i can sadly say that that programing is still running today. with other settings of course, but it’s still there. i should also add, none of this was conscious. i was doing all these things, but i wasn’t even aware. only in looking back am i able to connect the dots like this.

17 notes · View notes

kabootarandishaan · 4 years

Text

Stuck in the Middle

Summary: Pam Beasley had been Y/N’s best friend since forever. They had gone through ups and downs and practically considered each other family. Pam had even helped Y/N get a job at Dunder Mifflin so they could work together. It was also Pam who befriended Jim initially and then with Y/N they became the three musketeers. But what happens when Y/N starts falling for Jim who actually likes Pam. Will she pursue her own path or give it up for friendship?

One-shot/Series: Part 1

Pairing: Jim Halpert/We'll figure it out as we go

A/N: Just a little something fun. This beginning is just gonna be a lot of exposition so maybe not too much Jim.

Warnings: Swearing

You and Pam had known each other since highschool and it seemed as though nothing changed. You were still as close as you were then. You were the one who spoke to her first and you were glad you did. You were what you called an introverted-extrovert. A person who enjoyed social situations but wouldn't mind having some alone time at the end of the day. You played soccer and were part of a bunch of clubs but academics was where you felt most comfortable. All that still didn't save you from having to take an art class your senior year. All you needed was one last elective credit and considering you didn't have a single musical bone in your body you went with art.

That's where you met Pam. She would often be sketching away even as the teacher gave instructions. You were her desk partner and that's how you got talking initially. "Wow. You're so fucking talented! Have you always been able to draw like that?" She was taken aback at your sudden compliment but quickly gave you a shy smile before answering back. "Thanks. I um just like to draw so I do it a lot." She gave you a shrug and laughed. "Well you're really good. Do you wanna be an artist or something eventually?" You wanted to get to know her, you were gonna be sitting next to her for the rest of the year, she seemed nice. "Maybe, I was thinking something along the lines of graphic design but I don't really know." She looked away and shrugged once again before continuing, "Oh, I'm Pam Beasley by the way." She put out her hand for you to shake.

"Y/N L/N. Nice to meet you Pam." You laughed before meeting her hand. Just like that you and Pam began your friendship. You quickly found out that you both shared your last three periods and would always walk into class with each other. Pam would always be your partner in projects and assignments and would help you with artsy things like cover pages or posters. You would always have her back with math notes or biology flashcards. You both got pretty close pretty fast and would spend time with each other outside of school too. You went to the mall or just hung out. Pam had become a close confidant to you almost like a sister. You shared everything with her and vice-versa.

Pam knew about your troubled homelife and of how you had a lot of responsibilities on your head. She would never judge but would listen and try her best to console. She was at your house everyday after school when you got a concussion helping you go over material. She was there when you panicked over failing your finals. She was there helping you fill scholarships and looking for jobs when you needed money for college. Pam was the one constant in your life and you were grateful for that. That's how you both ended up at Dunder Mifflin.

Pam had seen the ad for a receptionist and part time sales representative. You both went for each position trying to increase your chances of getting hired. It did work, Pam got the receptionist gig and you were happily a sales rep. You were both extremely relieved at getting the job this meant you could both still see each other. You didn't realize it but Pam also was incredibly grateful for you. She wasn't the most social butterfly but you made her feel comfortable with herself. You were the one to believe in her even if she didn't always believe in herself.

Pam felt indebted to you in a small way. You helped her gain confidence, helped her through school, and helped her through the rough patches in her own life. She even got a boyfriend, even if you didn't really like Roy, and you were indirectly the cause of it. You decided to rent an apartment together since it would be easier for the two of you as you both worked together. It would also help cut some costs with gas and other utilities. Luckily, your brother was looking to move out of his old place. He was one of the only other people you were really close to in your immediate family and always tried to help you out when he could.

He was moving up to New York for school and although you didn't like the circumstances, you were thankful for him. He helped you shift the last of your things in and sat down with you. You tried to avoid talking to him because he was going to leave after helping you unpack. You were dreading saying goodbye, him and Pam were the only two people you were really close to. You looked down at your feet and you could tell he caught on because he grabbed your shoulders forcing you to turn to him. "Y/NN, don't tell me you won't say goodbye to your only brother." He tried to lighten the mood but you could hear the slight downcast in his voice. You couldn't say anything immediately so instead you engulfed him in a tight hug.

"Don't forget me in the big city! Call me! I bought this stupid cellphone because of you so you better make it worth it. Your voice cracked as you tried to hold back your tears. He only laughed and gave your head a little rub before pulling back. "I'll call you every weekend okay." He reassured and all you gave was a vigorous nod in response. Pam was by your side as you saw him off. She held your shoulders as he left and consoled you as you cried. You quickly realized you were still lucky to have her and now she was your roommate. You thought of it like extended sleepovers.

Only this time, you and Pam could stay with each other for as long as you wanted and do whatever you wanted. You both seemed to settle into the Dunder Mifflin team. After university you both took up full time positions. You were promoted to an actual salesperson and you were pretty satisfied with the pay increase. Although you weren't so happy sitting across from the obnoxious Dwight Schrute, you were able to see more of Michael's antics. It kept you amused.

Then one day you see him, a tall funny looking guy. You never thought Jim Halpert would become a significant factor in your life. Hell, you never thought Dunder Mifflin would take up a good chunk of your life. But, you learned pretty early on that life was a ride and you were just the passenger. The company was still fresh and needed more people as it expanded. Jim bagged the salesman gig and took a seat right by you, in between you and Dwight. You saw him settle in as you stood by Pam at the reception desk. You looked at each other and giggled, he had no idea what he was getting into.

He looked up at you two with a raised eyebrow and walked over. "What's up?" He asked while staring both of you down. Pam looked up at him and smiled "Enjoy this moment," He looked at her slightly confused as you finished her sentence. "...because you're never going to go back to this time before you met your desk mate, Dwight." You let out a laugh as you looked over to the man in question pushing Jim's things away from his desk with a ruler.

#jim halpert #pam beasley #jim halpert fanfiction #jim halpert fanfic #the office #the office fanfic #pam beesly #stuck in the middle

45 notes · View notes

winzenni · 4 years

Text

wooden clock (mark lee)

Summary: you’re paired up to help the new student in woodshop class, a nice boy who goes from being a stranger to an enemy to a friend. ft. bully!Jaemin

Genre: angst, fluff, high school!au ?

Pairing: Mark Lee x reader

Word count: 1.97k

“Y/n, despite your size, you’ve been excelling in this class. I know you’ll be a great help to the new student,” said your woodshop teacher. “Just work together on the next project, then we’ll let him work on his own on the next unit.”

“Um… sure, I guess.” you agree. When you first signed up for woodshop, it was just because the electives you really wanted to take were already full. It wasn't something you were particularly interested in, but after the first semester, it turned out you were a natural, detail-oriented in the crafts you made and extremely precise despite your short height. Though you struggled to handle and lift the machinery most of the time, your instructor consistently praised your clean work. You were just here to mind your own business and pass the class, not make friends with the rambunctious wood shop kids who talked about weird shit. But it's not like you could say no to your teacher now.

“Hi, my name is Mark,” he says, putting his right hand out for a handshake, as he pulls out a chair beside you. “Mr. Slater told me to sit next to y-”

“I know. I'm y/n,” you say, greeting him with your eyes and ignoring the hand. Interacting with people was not your thing. Especially in this class. Everyone's personalities and interests just seemed to clash with yours, a quiet and reserved personality who preferred two-dimensional soft paintings rather than three-dimensional physical crafts that required blades and loud machines.

Mark seemed like a nice kid. He had moved here from Canada and he seemed like someone who could make friends easily, with all the (sometimes funny, sometimes not) jokes that he cracked and his contagious laugh. Yet each day, he only sat by you and talked to you.

“What do I do first?” He asks.

“You have to cut the planks with the saw machine. Line up your marking with the red line here,” You demonstrated, placing your piece in the slot. “Then you just pull down the blade to cut it.”

You had to tiptoe a little bit to reach up and grab the handle of the saw machine. You felt Mark watching your every move over your shoulder. With his gaze burning into your back, the machine handle felt heavier than the last time you had used it.

“I-I got it,” Mark says, sensing your struggle. He reached over you to pull down the blade, slicing through the wood plank almost effortlessly. “Like this?”

“Yeah,” you say, a little embarrassed. You were supposed to be helping him, yet his height and strength gave him an advantage in the work that you couldn't have.

It was also kinda cute. Watching him control the blade so effortlessly though he didn't know what he was doing.

Each day, you began to find something admirable and adorable in all of Mark’s actions. The way he didn’t know how to hold an awl, the way he looked so focused when measuring, the way his cheekbones beamed when he smiled to greet you each day.

As the weeks passed, you became closer and more comfortable with him in class. Some of his jokes were getting funnier and funnier to you, and you began to think that he might be someone cool you could hang out with outside of class. However, as his personality blossomed into a more colorful, extroverted persona, he also became more popular in school, making friends in his classes easily and getting along with the oh-so popular Jaemin’s friend group, which made you a little uncomfortable. In middle school, Jaemin had made you do his homework for him each day, knowing that his social presence intimidated you and that you were too shy and quiet to go against him.

Yet every woodshop class, Mark remained by your side, unknowing of your history with Jaemin, reminding you that you could never truly be friends with him.

At the end of one class, you left the classroom trailing closely behind Mark, but unexpectedly saw Jaemin waiting for Mark by the door. You avoided Jaemin’s eyes and tried to leave quickly without saying anything, but of course Mark had to speak up.

“See you tomorrow, y/n,” Mark said, raising a hand to wave goodbye.

“You know her, Mark?” Jaemin said with raised eyebrows. “Y/n, long time no see,” he sneered, his devilish gaze piercing through you.

“Yeah, she’s my woodshop partner.”

“That’s interesting... See you around again maybe, y/n,” Jaemin said, cocking his head with a slight smile, as if the fun memories of bullying you were playing through his mind again.

The interaction with Jaemin had you completely out of it the next day. Whenever you tried to clear your mind, the image of Jaemin mocking you replayed in your head, bringing back bad memories, and seeing Mark in class didn’t help.

You held the awl in your hand, grinding it against the wood to create a hole. While grinding it into the wood, you were so lost in thought that you had embedded it in there.

Mark interrupts your clouded thoughts. “Isn’t that deep enough, y/n?”

“-hm? O-oh, yeah, my bad.” You had to use some extra arm power to tug it out of the wood, scratching the sharp metal tip against your palm in the process when the awl finally came out.

“Ow! Fuck!” you exclaim, dropping the awl.

“Are you okay?” Mark asks, his eyes widening with concern shining in them. His hands reach to turn over your palm and check the gash, but you pull your hand away from him and press it against your jeans to stop the bleeding.

“I'm fine,” you say. Why did you agree to this? To have this new student on your tail for the past months, watching your every move, asking so many goddamn questions. And worst of all, acting like he cared about you. You only saw him for an hour each day, but every minute of it was filled with thoughts of Mark. His cute smile, his cute cluelessness. Even when you wanted to escape him, you couldn't. Because he was assigned to follow you around. And at the end of each class, he linked arms with Jaemin, reminding you that your life was destined to have not one good thing in it.

“Y/n,” Mark started, watching the blood smear across your skin. “Y/n, I’ll get some-”

Without responding, you got up and left to go to the bathroom.

Staring at your reflection in the bathroom mirror, you glared down your pupils. You were nothing. Just an accessory to the lives of people like Mark and Jaemin. Every interaction with Mark, every question, every statement seemed to mock your quiet lifestyle and introvertedness. Grabbing some paper towels, you clumped them together and wiped your palm before heading back to class with a weighted frustration in your chest.

You were tuned out for the rest of the week, ignoring Mark’s jokes and responding dryly to his questions. As you pass the clock to Mark for him to take turns working on it, you tense up, making sure to avoid brushing your fingers against his.

When the bell rang, you grabbed your bag and dashed for the door, wanting to leave Mark as far behind as possible. The closer he was to you, the more you were reminded of your experiences with Jaemin. You pushed open the door, making eye contact with Jaemin waiting beside it.

As you stormed away from the classroom, Jaemin raised his eyebrows, surprised that you weren’t beside Mark today. He decided to change it up today and chase after you.

“What’s wrong, y/n? Why aren’t you following Mark like a dog today?” He sneered, walking closely beside you despite you trying to speed up your pace.

“Wow, am I not worthy enough of a response from the great y/n?” He tilted his head to try to look into your eyes, but you avoided his gaze. “It’s been such a long time since I got to talk to you, y/n.” In the crowded hallways, Jaemin’s mocking words became muddled with the footsteps of other students rushing to get to lunch, and the loud chatter between friends. You just wanted to escape the chaos and get home.

“Y/n, why do you think you’re too good to answer me?” Jaemin teased. “Talk to me, bitch,” he said, twisting the strands of your ponytail around his finger before pulling on it, jerking your head back.

“A-ah!” you reached back to remove his grip from your hair, but before you could find his hand, another one was already locked around Jaemin’s wrist.

“Jaemin, what are you doing?” Mark asked, his knuckles turning white in their tight grasp around Jaemin’s wrist.

“Oh, Mark, there you are.” said Jaemin. “Y/n and I used to be good friends in middle school, if you didn’t know.”

“I-I don’t think -- Jaemin, I think you went too far,” Mark says. “Come on, y/n, let’s just go.” Mark lets go of Jaemin’s wrist to grab yours and lead you away.

“What was that all about?” Mark asks.

You figure you might as well just tell him the truth. “-and I-I just didn’t want to get too close to anyone that affiliates with Jaemin. That’s why I didn’t feel like talking to you the past few weeks.”

Mark didn’t know what to say. He felt guilty for outwardly befriending someone that had hurt you so much. He felt ashamed for befriending someone that was such a mean and disrespectful person. He felt regretful that he couldn’t notice the signs and be there for you. He felt thankful that you had told him the truth and deemed him someone that you could trust and confide in. And most of all, he felt like he wanted to protect you. From Jaemin, from anything. He wanted to be in your life.

From that day on, instead of parting ways after woodshop, you headed together with him in the same direction, to eat lunch together. He was no longer with Jaemin, and you were no longer alone.

You became inseparable, eating lunch together, working on your wooden clock together, studying for science and math exams together. Your feelings for Mark grew more and more each minute you spent with him, but you didn’t want to risk losing the friendship, so you repressed those feelings. It had been this hard for you to make a real friend, you were not going to lose him so easily.

On the last day of the wooden clock assignment, the finishing touch was to engrave a phrase onto the back of the clock. It could be your name, the name of the receiver of the clock, a shape, or anything you wanted. As Mr. Slater explained the process, Mark whispered to you, “Can I do this part all by myself? Please?”

“Sure,” you say. It would be nice for him to do a day of assignments completely by himself before he’d have to do the next project alone anyway.

Throughout the period, he toils away, staring intensely at his engraving on the back of the clock, carving carefully and meticulously while you work on assignments from another class.

With five minutes left in the period, Mark says excitedly, “I’m done! Y/n, look, look.”

You raise your head from your book to see the small words carved on the back of the clock: Will you go on a date with me?

#nct imagines #nct fluff #nct angst #nct x reader #mark x reader #nct 127 #nct #mark lee #nct 127 scenarios #nct scenarios #nct 127 fic #jaemin #bully!jaemin #nct fic #nct high school au #nct school au

54 notes · View notes

purplesurveys · 4 years

Text

987

survey by shamegmeg

Have you ever cut your own hair? I’ve trimmed my own bangs but that’s it. I feel like doing anything to my hair altogether on my own is too big a move and would have bigger consequences if I fuck it up (which I definitely will end up doing).

What do you eat most frequently? Meat - chicken, beef, and pork. It’s in nearly every dish we eat, if not all of them.

Are you a fan of video games? I will always find the topic interesting and I played a fair share of video games growing up, but I’m not an ultra fan of any of the most popular games right now. I do like staying updated with my favorite series like Grand Theft Auto, The Sims, Mario Kart, etc. but it’s rare that I get my hands on the console itself to play.

What's your favorite color combination? I don’t really think of any specific two colors, but I’m generally a fan of combinations of muted or pastel colors. Anything that doesn’t hurt my eyes too much.

Did you share a locker at school? We didn’t do that; we each had our own.

What's one sport you could never play? Basketball. Never understood the rules and I just never had the stamina for it. I’m also pretty competitive so I feel like I’d be pissed off and take it personally whenever somebody blocks me hahaha.

Blue or black ink? Black. I have nothing against blue though - I just like keeping pens with black ink around more.

Have you ever sang karaoke? Just once or twice. I’m not extroverted enough for it, not even when drunk. I just really hate the sound of my own singing voice, so it doesn’t help if I’m suddenly singing into a microphone.

What was the last concert you attended? Answer’s gonna be unchanged for the meantime, man...Paramore. No complaints naming them every time I’m asked this, though. Let’s hope they’ll also be the next concert I attend, as they like coming back to Manila anyway :))

Have you held anyone's hand in the past week? No.

What's your favorite perfume/body spray/cologne? I’ve used Beyoncé’s Heat Rush since high school. I’ve never gotten tired of the scent and pretty much everyone knows me by that perfume now.

How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? Before Covid, it depended on how late I’d get out of bed. If I had the energy to get up earlier, I’d devote 20-30 minutes to getting ready; but if it was a harder morning to face, I’d just take a quick 3-minute shower and wear the first things I see in my closet. These days since I just work from home, all I need to do is shower which takes no more than a few minutes.

What is the oldest age you think should wear makeup? I think anyone of any gender of any age (except babies and younger kids) of any background from any walk of life should be allowed to wear makeup...

How old were you when you went on your first date? I was 16.

What's your nationality(ies)? Filipino.

Are you an open book? I can be for the most part since there’s no harm in sharing, but there are a few things that I’m extremely protective and secretive about.

Do you think you're a good secret keeper? Yeah. I used to share secrets with Gab but that’s because she tends to forget easily, but otherwise I have no problem taking secrets with me to my grave.

Name one fashion trend you could never follow. I have never been into wedges. Too chunky-looking.

Do you prefer long hair or short hair? On me? Short. It’s easier to maintain and take care of.

When do you plan to go to sleep tonight? Depends on how tired I am by the end of the day. I did make a cup of coffee today though so the caffeine might also choose to hang out into the evening.

Has anyone besides your family seen you naked? Yes.

If so, who? Gabie.

What exotic animal would you love to have as a pet? That’s a pass for me. I don’t know their temperament and what they need on a normal day, so I’m really not well-equipped to keep an exotic animal as a pet and I don’t want to end up accidentally killing them or something.

Do you want kids when you're older? At this point in my life I can go with or without them.

Did your parents sign you up for anything you hated as a child? I’m definitely grateful for it now, but when I was going through ballet classes as a five year old I absolutely hated it and had no idea what I was doing there. I wish I could tell my five year old self to appreciate it more because now I think it’s pretty cute that my parents wanted me to take up ballet and enrolled me in classes.

Where's your cell phone? It’s just right beside me. It’s always right beside me, haha.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I’ve always been a firm supporter of the egg lol because it had to be an earlier version of the chicken that laid the egg that would ultimately hatch the chicken as we know them today. Idk though, I hate questions like this hahahaha

What are your feelings about Octomom? I don’t know anything more than the fact that she had octuplets, which is awesome and badass in itself.

Do you know of Smosh? I used to LOVE Smosh, like holy shit. I probably talked about them in my earliest surveys a decade ago; simply put I was hooked. Watched every new episode and every new Lunchtime with Smosh/Ian Is Bored video from around maybe 2010-2013 until they started adding more crew members and until their videos started to stray from the content that made them blow up in the first place. I still remember when it was Smosh and Pewdiepie vying for the highest subscriber count on YouTube, haha. Was also sad when Anthony left. Suffice it to say I’ll always hold a fondness for Smosh - Anthony and Ian were my first favorite YouTubers along with Pewdiepie.

Do you drink enough water daily? Some days I do, some days I don’t.

Is your diet healthy? When I do eat my dishes are always a good balance of meat and veggies, but I feel like me skipping most of my meals overshadows that fact and makes my overall diet not-so-healthy.

What's your favorite fruit? The only one I’ve had and not feel like gagging whenever I consume it is avocado. To an extent, tomato too.

What was your favorite Halloween costume? Going as my former best friend, Sofie.

Have you purchased any cool objects from a foreign country? I bought a few trinkets from Japan when I was there, but they were all for my loved ones and I don’t exactly remember what I bought anymore.

Are you on a laptop or a desktop computer right now? Laptop.

Where do you plan to post this survey? Tumblr, as I’ve always done in the last near-decade or so.

Do you remember anyone's number by heart? My mom’s, sister’s, and Gabie’s.

Are you a morning person or a late night owl? I’m more of a morning person lately because of work and because of the need to be chirpy by 9 AM. Being awake these days makes me sad now, so I avoid staying up late as much as I can; which means my days of being a night owl are over.

Name something you will never try in your lifetime. Coprophagia.

What do you think is your biggest flaw? I’m super competitive, which makes me the suckiest person to have friendly games with. I avoid them altogether so that I don’t end up killing the vibe of whatever crowd I’m with. I’ll own this lol.

First physical trait you notice in the sex you're attracted to? Wouldn’t say I’m automatically attracted to any sex. With everyone though, I tend to notice body language first which kiiinda counts as a physical trait.

How about personality wise? Whether they look approachable/easy to talk to or not.

Are you sick often? Almost never.

Would you rather have strep throat or an ear infection? Uh I’d rather not be sick at all hahaha.

When did you last shower? This morning, before work. We have online meetings every Monday morning, and I wanted to look fresh and clean for it.

Do you have neat handwriting? I’d say so. I get a lot of compliments about my penmanship and my friends usually call on me when they need someone with consistent and clean handwriting, so I guess must be holding my pens right.

Are you a messy or organized person? I’d say my workspaces are always organized but my personal space (car, backpack, etc) is messy.

At what age do you hope to get married? By the end of my 20s or early 30s.

Is being thin really all that great? Idk, I feel like the experience differs per person. I don’t have complaints about it for the most part, but it can get annoying when there are certain tops I’d like to wear but will never be able to pull off and thus have to leave on the rack just because my chest is flat or my overall figure is rather tiny.

Which of the seven deadly sins do you think you're most guilty of? Pride.

How much time have you spent on the computer today? 9 hours and counting. WFH is basically being on the computer all day, so that’s a big reason why I’ve racked up so many hours.

What size shoe are you? 6–7.5.

How was the weather today? The sun was out but fortunately it wasn’t all that hot for me to feel uncomfortable. I hate that it was bright all day, though. My disposition is more likely to improve if it’s cloudy and a little gloomy, haha.

Do you live above, below, or on the Equator? Above.

Do you know how to use Photoshop? I tried to play and experiment with it as a teen, but it just never made sense to me. I hate touching any kind of Adobe program.

Admit it, you're thinking about someone right now. Eh, false. I’m thinking of how much longer this survey will still be.

Where is he/she?

Where was your first job? My first internship was also at a PR agency, if that counts.

Favorite year in high school? Junior year.

East or West? As in parts of the world? East all the way, of course.

Where did your first kiss take place? On my bed.

What color do you wear most often? Probably maroon because of how many UP shirts I have.

Who was the last person you talked on the phone to? That would be my dad.

Have you ever done your own laundry? Kinda. I’ve had to wash my blanket a few times because Cooper peed on them.

Have you ever been to a night club? Yes.

Are you allergic to anything? Nope.

What's the best place you have ever eaten? Mendokoro Ramenba by a freaking mile.

Do you own a hair straightener? No. My mom does; if I ever need a straightener I just borrow hers.

Are you barefoot right now? Yep, always am when I’m at home except for the rare times I put socks on.

Are you subscribed to any magazine? No. Even when magazine subscriptions were popular I was never subscribed to any; I didn’t see the point when I could just get the new issue every month at the mall myself lol.

Puppies or kittens? Puppies.

If you had a billion dollars, where would your first investment be made? First I would probably read up on investment so that I don’t end up making decisions I’ll regret. My first agenda is to help my parents settle whatever payments they’re making at the moment, so that they don’t have to worry about any of that crap anymore.

Who is the best artist you've seen live? PARAMORE. I mean they’re artists, as in plural, but still.

Any major plans coming up this week? Keep myself alive.

Did you know they never told you Arnold's last name in Hey, Arnold? Never realized that but I don’t really care too much, considering I was never into the show.

Would you rather watch a romantic comedy or watch a thrilling horror movie? Romantic comedy, as long as it’s one I’ve already seen and enjoyed, like Love Actually or The Proposal. Most other romcoms are too cheesy and suck.

How is your hair styled right now? It’s in a ponytail that’s been unchanged all day, so it’s a bit messy at this point.

Favorite person that you've talked to today? Angela.

Do you need AC right now? I’m good. It’s a little chilly tonight, so yay.

Do more people call you by a nickname or your first name? My first name is already my nickname - most people just call me Robyn. At home, though, I’m usually called a shortened version of my name.

Name something you're proud of. I confided in Angela today that I’m finally starting to think of seeing a therapist. Which I think is such a big realization to have and a big choice to have made. So yay me. Let’s hope I actually push through with it, and let’s hope I’m able to land a job soon so I can finally fucking afford to see one.

Are you a hopeless romantic? I never knew what this meant and I don’t feel like learning tonight.

How do you feel about couples who say 'I love you' too soon? No judgment. I don’t comment on how other couples navigate their relationship; it’s their thing.

What's the most recent favor you've done for somebody? Can’t remember.

Are you at home right now? Yep.

What did you last spend money on? Gas.

Does any accent annoy you? Stereotypical ones, like how Filipino-American stand-up comedians always try to cash in on Filipino quirks and make fun of thick Filipino accents, which makes all Filipinos look like we can’t speak English ‘properly,’ whatever properly means. Full-blooded Filipinos are so sick of that shit. We get it, the cellpown is ober der -___-

How about turn you on? None actively turn me on.

Are you wearing any jewelry? No.

Do you get along better with your mom or your dad? Dad. Easier to talk to and we share more interests.

Are you craving anything right now? Sushi.

What's worse: Crocs or Uggs? I’d go with Uggs, because Crocs actually look cute on kids so at least it suits one market lol

Do you knock before you open doors? Yep, always. I learned the habit because my mom never knocks and I quickly realized I don’t want to be that kind of person.

Do you know what a sock on the doorknob means? I think so.

Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate.

What's your zodiac sign? Taurus.

Does Fred from Youtube annoy you? I don’t think he ever did.

#survey #surveys

2 notes · View notes

ecoamerica · 1 month

Text

youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

16K notes · View notes

infpisme · 5 years

Text

Why Routines Are So Important For INFPs (Even Though We Hate Them)

There’s one word that’s debatably more terrifying to us INFPs than Voldemort and Freddy Krueger combined.

ROUTINE.

But… why?

We’re described as the “children of the Myers-Briggs world” — we’re leaves blowing in the breeze, happy to glide along wherever the wind takes us. Creating (and not to mention, following) a schedule basically goes against just about every core value that we stand for: autonomy, options, freedom.

But what if I told you that it’s not only a good thing for INFPs to have a routine, but that it’s downright necessary?

Wait — not so fast. Before you hit the “X” button, hear me out on this one.

When I graduated with my Master’s degree two years ago, I had a minor mental meltdown, to put it lightly. After having spent over two decades of my life in an extremely structured school environment, I was finally free. The options were endless. I could do whatever I chose, whenever I wanted. Which was great… right?

Nope. Not so great.

My fleeting sense of liberty soon turned to utter cluelessness. Suddenly no one was telling me what to do. No advisors. No schedules. No structure.

Who even was I anymore? I tried my best to swim rather than sink, but let’s just say that the Titanic and I were starting to have more and more in common.

After lots of pondering, countless therapy sessions, and an existential breakdown (or two), I figured out the key reasons why INFPs like me absolutely need routines in their lives.

5 Reasons Why INFPs Need Routine

1. If left to our own devices, we may self-detonate with creative outbursts.

Our vivid imaginations and diverse and quirky interests are the perfect recipe for spending hours on end doing whatever sets our hearts ablaze. INFPs are dreamers who spend a lot of time in our own heads, and don’t all of those half-cooked ideas have to see the light of day at some point?

On especially emotional days, all I want to do is fine-tune my Shakira impersonation (spoiler alert: yodelling is hard) and peruse Reddit all day long. And don’t get me wrong — things like this are cathartic and even necessary for us INFPs. But when I forget when I ate last or what the heck sleep even is anymore, that’s a pretty solid indicator that I’m losing sight of the bigger picture and that my routine could use a major makeover.

2. Many INFPs choose flexible lifestyles, and routines can make all the difference.

When choosing a college major, I immediately nixed any options that would cement me into a rinse-wash-repeat routine. And I’m not alone here — a lot of INFPs avoid monotony like the plague and intentionally choose a flexible work life. Freelancing and working as digital nomads are fairly common for INFPs, since these frameworks are as go-with-the-flow as we are. I’m living proof: I’ve freelanced for the past few years as a Spanish tutor and translator, and my travel bucket list is growing longer by the day.

But is this type of lifestyle truly all margaritas on the beach and answering just the occasional e-mail? With the sweet freedom of being your own boss comes the colossal responsibility of time management and prioritizing, a.k.a. two things INFPs hate. Just because our corporate cats are away doesn’t mean we INFP mice should play all day! A little structure in our routines can make all the difference.

3. Routines can be a form of self-care.

Let’s look at one well-known INFP: Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Yes, he was a teenager in the book, but he illustrates a common theme that many, if not all, INFPs experience during their lifetime: disillusionment with the world around them. I mean, let’s face it — the world can be a lot to take in for anybody.

However, research shows that introverts as a whole run a higher risk for depression compared to extroverts. We INFPs are especially sensitive creatures who hold our values very close to our personal identities, so it’s no wonder that the real world can majorly bum us out from time to time. Building a routine that focuses on sleeping well, exercising regularly, and trying to eat healthy is one of the best things an INFP can do for a daily dose of self-care.

4. Sticking to a routine actually gives us more free time.

When I started getting serious about keeping a stable daily routine, I suddenly realized that I’d wasted a lot of idle time when I didn’t have a schedule. I used to spend half my free time worrying about how I was being so unproductive, thus eating up hours that I could have actually used productively (a self-fulfilling prophecy at its finest!).

When I decided that I needed to clean up my act, I was suddenly getting more freelance projects, spending more time with friends, and finally making progress on the guitar. Also, the first draft of my first fiction novel is well on its way to becoming an actual published book. I know I couldn’t have accomplished half of these little personal triumphs if I hadn’t given myself a bit more structure.

5. Routines make you feel like you’re working a bit more with society instead of fighting against it.

As an INFP, my inner rebellious nature and against-the-grain views can make me feel pretty isolated at times. But going entirely against society by not following any sort of routine was an exhausting uphill battle that was starting to wear me down (big time).

Then it dawned on me: I can still be my eccentric self while also following a routine that fits me. I didn’t have to give up who I was to follow a routine, and life honestly became a lot easier once I found a schedule that worked for me. I like to think of this as INFPs flowing along with the current of life, only they’re wearing their own unique, funky bathing suit for the ride. It’s all a balancing act, and a fun one at that.

Let’s face it: This whole “adulting” thing is hard enough, but it can feel exponentially harder when you’re a spontaneous, daydreaming INFP. We tend to not only fall off the wagon — but get full-on trampled by it — if we have no structure in our lives.

So, what do you have to lose? Try setting a schedule and see if you like it. And don’t fret: You don’t have to follow your routine to a “T” — INFPs are far from being Type A personalities, after all. You want to snooze your alarm three times before getting up? You need to practice your new tai chi moves during your lunch break? Go for it. Establishing a routine isn’t about turning yourself into a cookie-cutter robot — it’s about finding your own unique balance between kooky and productive.

Nothing can take that special, mystical INFP glimmer out of your eye. Not even a routine, I promise.

Source: Darcy Ritt

#darcy ritt #infp #infp personality #infp advice #infp problems #infp things #infp struggles

104 notes · View notes

knight-of-ashes · 5 years

Text

Bumbleby, Representation, and Validation

After this latest episode, I feel I have to write this and share my experiences as a RWBY fan, a Bumbleby shipper, and a slightly broken but still determined person. It’s a long tale, so I’ll try to put it under the cut, but if you’re at all questioning about your sexuality or your place in the world, I hope this post and Bumbleby help you.

When I first started watching RWBY, it was 2014. I’d just started at university for my mechanical engineering bachelor’s for the second time, after failing out the first time and then lying about it to my family for two years. I was pretty alone, but I made some friends who got me into the show. What got me hooked was the Yellow trailer, and sure enough, as I got caught up on the show, Yang continued to be my favorite. I’m extremely extroverted, enjoy violence, prone to deep anger and unbelievable excitement, with a maternal streak a mile wide and a penchant for boxing. I see myself in almost all of Yang’s behaviors. It was too easy to put myself into her place.

At the time, Bumbleby shippers baffled me. Yang and Blake just seemed like really good friends. I kept thinking about Korrasami and how much it upset me that Bryke put them together as a couple, instead of just leaving them as friends. I remember thinking “I wish they wouldn’t shove so many lesbians down our throats.” The fact that I saw myself in Yang only deepened that. I kept thinking back to high school, to my best friend at the time. She and I were peas in a pod, and while I could see myself living with her if neither of us found a guy, I wasn’t attracted to her, we weren’t lesbians, why couldn’t shows reflect that?

I met @wingzeroalchemist on Reddit while arguing this point with Bumbleby shippers on some fanart. We got to talking, and discussing why it upset me so bad. Over the course of a few months, a few more episodes of RWBY Volume 2, and more fanart, and the airing of Burning the Candle, we discussed it, and it dawned on me: I had a crush on my high school best friend, and I was very, very bi. This was news to me but to no one else I went to school with, least of all her.

That relationship never moved forward for a number of reasons including asexuality on my friend’s part, but the volume 3 finale hit me hard, and I was moved to try to come out to my family. I came out and got told that if I was really bi, I could just “choose” to be with men. I was made to promise that I wouldn’t bring it up again, and that I wouldn’t go back on my “choice”.

Fast forward to 2017. V4 and V5 disappointed me a bit but I kept with the show because I could still see the potential. I graduated with my bachelor’s and fought at Robogames 2017. I got a boyfriend and convinced myself I really loved him, even though things weren’t as great as I wanted. I got deep into the art of heraldry, and met Kim (@dustycymbre) through Reddit and Discord. My parents were super invested in my relationship with my boyfriend, until he wasn’t doing exactly what they wanted for me, and then they coerced me to break up with him. (I was also date raped somewhere in there cos the dipshit was never taught about consent but I digress.) Through V5, I realized my mother and I were a bit like Raven and Yang: wholly incompatible as mother and daughter, and I needed to get away from the emotional abuse. Her behavior was different from the fiction in a lot of ways, but the end result was the same: I never felt like I had support for my dreams, and I’d been set to wander aimlessly.

After the breakup, about a month went by before Kim told me she had a crush on me, the day after my birthday. I won’t tell as much of her side, but what I can say is that she was married to a guy at the time, and some incidents occurred that led to her cutting it off with him several long months later. I quickly discovered that as much as I feel like a proxy for Yang, she is absolutely a Blake, down to introversion and sleeping in sunbeams and being the sneakiest woman I’ve ever met. Where I’m hot headed, she’s cool and logical. Where I want to fight everything and look at blood like it’s no big deal, she eschews unnecessary violence and gets a bit squeamish watching Daredevil. Where my body runs warm, hers runs cold. Only our heights are off, and she’s convinced MM&K are the ones who are wrong.

From my side of things, I fell for her fast and hard. She was everything I’d been looking for and then some. She calmed me down when I was mad, she made me feel like I could achieve my goals, she gave me so much purpose and happiness. I got to be the post match interviewer at Robogames 2018 because I didn’t have a robot and she watched every interview, giving me pep talks and tips and praise and constructive criticism after every match. She helped me do better at work and weather my family’s absolute insanity. I convinced her to go back to finish her Masters and she trusted me and did it and now she has an awesome job. She helped me realize I needed to go no contact with my family, and I escaped and shut them down and will never have to face the fear of disappointing my batshit mother ever again thanks to Kim. She wants to help me build my next robot, and I want to help her with her garden and a podcast idea, and the future looks so bright with her in it.

I weathered my Raven and she weathered her Adam and watching the bees weather their trauma together in Volume 6 has been the ultimate form of validation. I never thought I’d ever get to actually be with the woman of my dreams, but I am now and seeing it in fiction, seeing so many of the exact struggles we’ve been through placed in explicit language on screen, has given me a whole new perspective. The representation makes the hate thrown at us feel less consequential. Yang and Blake have given us the confidence to become our true selves and seek a relationship that is comfort and softness and contentment instead of pain and anger and resentment. We can be whole, we can be weird, we can love each other and not worry about some misguided taboo.

Representation matters, whether you’re 15 or 50. We’re 25 and just figuring out our places in the world, and there are kids who will watch Bumbleby blossom in the show and figure it out a lot sooner than we did. I am so excited about that, and I hope that the representation of abuse with Adam and Blake also saves some lives. M&K have done a really great job writing Yang and Blake and it gives me so much hope for the future.

#rwby #rwby volume 6 #bumbleby #bumbleby rwby #long post

151 notes · View notes

atomicfilm · 5 years

Text

The case for (maybe) being an INTP:

- Overanalyzing

- I try to establish my own opinion before engaging in conversations with others to gain their perspectives. However, I will engage in these conversations, but this is apparently a shared trait btwn the INTP/ENTP.

- I debate one person consistently, we’ll call her M, and most other people will give up when they talk to me and/or agree with me. I don’t argue with people to change their opinions, which I think is the ENTP way of doing it, I argue because I find logical fallacies in their arguments and believe they’re incorrect. Which just so happens to be all the time. I think this is why I thought I played Devil’s Advocate, and because I was thinking about 1 occurrence, but ignoring that a lot of the time I will end a debate simply because I agree with them.

- I feel uncomfortable with directly offensive jokes and offensive humor. It takes a lot of continual anger for me to generalize a group of people and write them off.

- I like to think I’m an optimist but I’m more of a pessimist to my own dismay. I think we’re gonna die because of climate change but I suppose nature’s way is better than mass genocide. When I debate I always prefer to take the negative/con side, which may suggest pessimism.

- I require someone to provide evidence to back up every statement of theirs and I do the same. If you don’t have this evidence then you had better find some or I will not listen to you until I’m satisfied with your sources.

- If I don’t know much about a topic then I will either say “I don’t know, do you want to look it up together” (usually option A) or stay silent. I’m too much of a perfectionist to say something too illogical that I won’t be able to correct later.

- But I also won’t agree with someone just to agree with someone because that’s the biggest piece of B.S. I’ve ever seen.

- I can spend all day googling random things instead of talking to people. And I mean all day.

- I prefer writing over talking any day. I famously like to say that I’m good at debate and terrible at speaking, refer to an earlier post of mine. I like to have the time to painstakingly process all of my ideas, weed out which ones I can’t support effectively, and then take a while to present my ideas. I teamed up with guy I really hate to pitch my film script ideas once because I’m not a good salesman.

- I think I can play the character of an ENTP really well. It’s not hard. It’s stereotypical vine material combined with a little intellectualism. One of my friends had said that I hadn’t done anything “crazy” in a few years and that I didn’t seem like myself, and my response to her was like “that’s not me, that’s a character”. It’s also the same as an INTP but more exaggerated. Now, I think ENTPs play lots of characters too generally, but I think I’m being very meta and playing an ENTP.

- A lot of people used to think that I partied hard/was a drug dealer but I mostly write and watch murder mysteries with my cat all day while contemplating the modern human’s relationship to early homo sapiens.

- I can be loud but that’s because I know how to put on a show, if that makes sense. I usually have a flair for the dramatics when I’ve decided I have a crush on them and it’s not a light one. With light crushes, I will ignore a person’s existence. The end. Otherwise, I can be silent as a mouse for months and the only person in the room who will know I’m smart will be the teacher/my bff/my mom/whoever. Likewise, the narcissism thing is totally fake. I don’t think I’m hot, I just say that because you’re supposed to believe it eventually and also because it’s some big societal upheaval for women to be confident.

- My default mode is accidentally flirty. Lots of sex jokes. Unless I like you, then any time you mention sex I will say “ew” or “cooties”. Apparently, I’m good at giving this look that says “hey stranger, come on over” but then I’ll scoot away because you’re a stranger and hello, personal space. I can be very friendly when I get over the fact that you’re a stranger talking to me though (but I had to develop this as a job skill).

- I think I’m blunt and direct but I’m actually not usually directly blunt. For example, there was this guy at my school who kept sexually harassing me and to him, I just glared at him all the time and kept moving away from him because I didn’t want to start shit, but I told his best friend about it and was like “I hate the dude”. Dunno if this points towards being an ENTP or an INTP. I’m very blunt but not in a personal way, if that makes sense. I can be like “this is why I think that’s wrong” and openly criticize an idea, but I don’t openly criticize people I know.

- I’m not totally oblivious to other people’s feelings. I understand where they come from sorta. But I don’t really understand them themselves. If that makes sense. I can be like, oh she is hurt because I said this and now she has a lowered her eyelids. But then I’m like, okay, but I wouldn’t respond the same way emotionally so why did she?

- I’m naturally basically a hobbit. I actually hang around a lot of very stable people (shoutout to ISFJ) and usually I leave behind friendships/relationships because they have upset this state of comfort by being toxic. I like to eat the same thing every time I go to a place, I like to do the same activities. But I like a little adventure, I like to have new conversations and try on different styles (but my go-to style is classic), I like to listen to new songs (but I have a soundtrack of songs I will sing over and over).

- I cannot handle authority. If you are an authority member and you raise your voice at me, I will cry, and those will be real tears.

- In middle school, people used to get mad at me for being afraid to do a lot of things like ziplining, so basically I force myself to go out of my comfort zone because I know that as much as I hate to do it and as much as I will procrastinate to do it, there’s a chance it will better my life. This could be where my ENTP character comes from. It could also be from being in theatre and imitating the average theatre kid. Either one.

- I hate stages. I hate them. I hate being in front of people. I hate talking to people a lot of the time. But I just do it anyway because it will hurt me if I don’t even if I’m about to throw up.

- I can be a loud person but I can also be extremely quiet. And when I observe people I usually think they’re being way too loud for my poor ears.

- I’m not a true leader. I take a lot of leadership positions but really I’d prefer to be an individual but have recognized the need for a guide and no one else has taken it on. I also hate group projects. I have done 0 group projects (outside of AP Bio because I worked w/ my best friend who’s very capable) in the past three years of high school that I can remember. I don’t like carrying the deadweight of other people.

- I hate liars. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. And they’re easy to spot. It’s my biggest pet peeve and I frequently say it when I’m judging someone’s character.

- Likewise, I’m very good at spotting psychopaths. My friends made a game out of this using their blocked-out forensics textbook. I think this is also an ENTP thing.

- Theoretically, I think I do think very similarly to an ENTP. For example, I can buy into existentialism, but I think there’s a basic starting point for morality that’s universal. I.E. murder is inherently bad. Slavery is inherently bad. Y’all can look at my older posts. An ENTP, however, really and truly does believe that a universal morality doesn’t exist and furthermore, that they don’t have an innate moral compass. This is one of the big red flags to me and part of the reason why I started looking into INTPs (I had initially been comparing myself w/ ENFPs but I ruled that out). I do immoral things, but I think these things are immoral and I feel guilt for them. I follow laws, but I don’t think laws are inherently moral and every once in a while you’ll come across a law that shouldn’t be followed because it infringes upon natural rights.

- Again, with reflecting on the past a lot of ENTPs don’t think their past is a concrete thing. And I logically agree with that. So many of our memories are made up and distorted, some people even steal other people’s memories and adopt them as their own. But I think of my past as a part of me all the same and I recognize that I’ve gathered as close to an objective understanding of it that I can.

- I think I naturally act like an INTP without any intense external stimuli. Which is to say, I’m an INTP and appear like one unless I feel like looking like an extrovert will aid me somehow.

- Every time I say I’m an extrovert to anyone they’re like “no, you’re definitely an introvert”. This was another red flag. I don’t put much value in other people’s perspectives of me typically but figuring out where I get energy from has been a long process. It turns out, I don’t get lasting energy from people or from being alone. I do get short-term energy from having really good conversations with people and I like to be near people but not necessarily speaking to them all the time (I’d rather fall asleep on them most of the time). They drain me out so fast too. My family was just in town for a few weeks and it will take me a few weeks to cope. Most of my energy comes from dance. It might not make sense to most people, but it’s true.

- And then I learned that some people think being an extrovert means you’re focused on external stimuli. Well, this certainly isn’t true for me. I think so much in my head that one day I decided to focus more on the outside world because it was just too much for me to handle emotionally.

- I socialize like an introvert. Even in a crowd of people, I find one person to pay attention to and they get all of my attention.

- I’m slow to decide if someone is friend material. You may think we’ve been friends for five years and I’ll be like “dude, I know one thing about you and I don’t trust you”.

- I used to be very oblivious to social cues but then I researched them and practiced them so now I’m pretty good at them.

- Si wise, if you say an adjective I can remember my associations with it very easy. This makes reading horror novels a gruesome experience. I’m a pretty nostalgic person sometimes. I’m not too sure about this one but I think it’ll be the deciding factor in whether or not I’m an INTP.

- INTPs – > small pictures within a bigger picture. When I start learning about a subject, I find a nuanced part of it very quickly. Mass incarceration for example. When I started researching about it, I became very focused on teenage drug abuse among impoverished groups in the Northeast and case studies of police planting drugs on teens to arrest them.

- I will waste 12 hrs. fixing my typos in a script. I wrote a 40 pg. script in about 8 and the rest of the day was just making sure that every word was the perfect one to use.

- One of the videos I watched said that INTPs like to intellectually support others and bring them up to their standards. This is very true for me. I’m always the friend that people ask to explain a concept to. I don’t mind taking the time to explain anything that I know about. I just want you to learn so that you can go on to have a great conversation later in life.

- When I meet other ENTPs I don’t really see myself in them a whole lot. I do relate to their need for mental stimulation. But the INTP I know and I have been told we have the same personality on more than one occasion.

- I have 3 friend groups, so technically I have a lot of friends, but I really only hang out and talk to 2 of my friends regularly. I have go-tos for my rants.

- My friend just called me and my response was “hello, why did you make me charge my phone for this when I could have texted you on my laptop instead” . I do like talking on the phone, but the act of calling someone and having to think of things to say makes me nervous.

- I have three main intellectual focuses. Human rights, zoology, and cinema. Outside of those, I usually feel like I don’t know what to say until I take a hot second to learn everything about that subject ever written.

- I do have a kind of dark sense of humor but it’s delivered in a light-hearted way. And really dark stuff makes me super uncomfortable. I also don’t show this dark humor to anyone but close friends.

- When talking about poverty or other social issues I do use my own experience (INTP) on the subject rather than using universal hypotheticals (someone thought this was more of an ENTP thing)

- Don’t like being touched/cuddled that much but do like cuddling other people and taking care of them.

- I think my friends Jake and Sebastian are ENTPs, in which case, we click really well and I’m one of the few people who don’t get mad at them. But I will call them out for being offensive. And a very notable difference between us is that Jake will challenge everything anyone has ever said ever. I will only challenge it, once again, if I disagree with your foundation of logic.

- When I’m around over three people I don’t really know what’s happening aside from the people I’ve focused on.

- I think in my head so much that it tires me out to exhaustion. I remember one day deciding that I wasn’t going to think to myself so much and instead focus on external things because I was just tired of contemplating things without having concrete information to make a definite answer.

- I feel alone in large groups and like to latch on to one close friend.

- I feel like I can “adopt on” other people’s personalities but it’s not really true. I’m always myself I’m just sometimes more talkative.

All that being said, I don’t think I’m a stereotypical INTP if I even am one. I think I probably am more emotionally developed than a lot of rational types and I’m learning how to be there for people and just be empathetic. People are constant works in progress and I consider myself a constant work in progress.

I’m externally very dynamic (or at least appear to be) and open to my opinions being challenged, but I’m also very stubborn and static unless I arrive to those logical conclusions too.

I really thought when I started saying I was an ENTP that my INTP tendencies were just the depressed version of me. But I’m not currently depressed and sometimes the evidence becomes too big to ignore. But I wouldn’t mind hearing other opinions since I’ve only been into MBTI for a month and recognize that there are other, more experienced people out there.

- It’s 12:29 AM I have been working on this post for 2 hrs. so I’m definitely an NT.

---

There’s not a whole lot of information out there distinguishing between ENTPs and INTPs without relying on stereotypes. But I have seen a lot of what is out there and I will personally be typing myself as an INTP for now.

I really have never wanted to be an introvert, and maybe I’m not one, but I think I’ve been too biased against it to act objectively.

@confusedinfj I’ve taken this off of private mode so you can take a gander.

#intp #entp #entp vs intp #mbti

11 notes · View notes

totallyvain · 5 years

Text

Vanity Hour with Carlos Vara: Handling the Seasons of Life

Hometown: Lexington, South Carolina

Sounds like: Your next favorite pop bop

WORDS BY: THANIA GARCIA

In American culture, the search for independence comes at the age of 18. For Carlos Vara, this was exceptionally true. At 18, Vara moved to Nashville in search of a life separate from the emotional cuff to his father who had previously owned nightclubs but had abruptly found religion in the small town of Lexington in South Carolina. This along with the struggle of being closeted in a small town naturally pushed Vara to search for newness in a city rich of musical history.

At 21, Vara has somewhat of a grasp on his day to day life. Bouncing back from Nashville to Los Angeles, Vara has completed his anticipated October 4th release of “Have You Ever Seen a Boy Break Down” - an EP meant to encapsulate his past few years bouncing from season to season in the versatile chapters of his life.

“When I was a teenager on X-Factor I thought I was going to be…well I loved songwriting and I loved singing, but I didn’t necessarily know who I was at the time. I was in the closet in the suburbs and I was growing up as a preacher’s kid so there was that phase. Then there was the phase of me moving to Nashville at 18 and coming out and discovering myself and exploring the boundaries of my mind and challenging myself and my ideas… I think that phase of my life lead to the music I made at that time and now I’m in a completely separate phase…what I create now are journal entries of specific eras of my life.”

In my interview with Vara, a clear conflict arises - a conflict found in the lyricism of his past couple releases. Vara shares, “I do have experiences where I’m like out and I’m like ‘Am I this person?’…because as I said I’ve gone through so many different stages in my life.”

Listen to “Confident,” Vara’s February 2019 release and you will fully understand this divide - a truly personal and internal divide.

Vara says, “The people who knew me at 18 would think I’m this quiet shy person. It’s like imposter syndrome for yourself it’s almost like you don’t think you have the right to be this brand new version of yourself. I feel it especially because I’ve been through so many extremes but I think now I’m in a stage where I’m like ‘why can’t I just embrace every single emotion?’ ‘why can’t I just live through these phases’ they are the best parts of life and it’s freeing to be what you want to be whenever you want to be.”

—————————————————————————————

Totally Vain: Your life has had clear chapters from your upbringing in North Carolina, to the X-Factor, to your time in Nashville and LA. When you look back at these past few years, how do you compare your artistic vision from then to now?

Carlos: “It’s interesting you say that because it is so true… I think …well actually I was talking about this yesterday when I was stoned with my friends that I feel like I’ve lived distinct phases of my life. I think through the process of growing up, my artistic vision and the way I think has changed. My music is always changing, depending on how my environment changes..because it stays so true to that. To me, my writing is based off my reality at the time, I will always be satisfied with it because I make music to be able to express myself and to be able to purge”

TV: Your environments have all had very distinct setbacks and advantages, how have they affected you in relation to the music industry?

Carlos: “I remember being a kid and watching TV and award shows and listening to music in the car…I knew I had a passion for music but being in South Carolina meant I didn’t have an uncle who was an executive, or any relation to the industry itself. I didn’t see anyone who had come out of South Carolina, all I saw was people coming from New York or Los Angeles so I just never had that hope. Senior year of high school I moved to Nashville by myself and finished graduating online. I was working restaurant jobs. I worked so many restaurants from 18 until last year before I got signed. I think that moving to Nashville was the first time in my life when I felt like I had some possibility to make it. Thank God for Instagram and Spotify and Apple music. I think that really became a way for me to connect to people who appreciate music the same way I do and connect to artists as far as co-writes. Especially in Nashville since it is a songwriting community, it definitely helped when it came to writing. Moving there was the first time I was able to discover who I am as an artist and figure myself out, retain my thoughts and grow up and figure out what I believe and have the opportunity to collaborate with people around me.”

TV: An overarching idea in your releases is confidence, both the reaction to confidence and personal self-confidence, from where do you think that idea stems from? And what kind of conflicts or internal struggles do you still have?

Carlos: “My friends know me as a very extreme person meaning I truly feel every emotion I have. I’m either going fucking crazy at a party or I’m like I want to go home. There is no in-between. I feel like for me since I am so emotional, I tend to feel it all at once and songwriting allowed me to be able to go home at 2 A.M. and smoke and just sit at the piano and play whatever is on my mind. I think it’s a way of me being able to work through any struggles I may have and for me to fully comprehend those emotions and see it as a full picture…for instance, I am extroverted but I’m sensitive and insecure so those feelings are both there at the same time. I mean it. I’ll be at a party being the loudest one there and thinking everyone hates me so it’s like I think that when I write, I want to be able to capture what that feels like. When I wrote “Confident,” I was in LA for the summer and it was my first time being out here for a super extended period of time and I had just turned 21 so I was able to get into all the gay clubs and it was exciting but it was stressful. I wanted to appear like I was cool and kept up with everyone but I just remember going to a club and being like shwasted and like going home and crying in the Uber. I’m just out here pretending to be confident and I was mad at myself and angry at myself for faking confidence and I went home and wrote a few lines for “Confident.” I think from an outside perspective people think I’m this super confident boisterous person and I guess I am but internally it’s rooted to a lot of sadness because I am freaking out inside.”

TV: Who were the artists who spoke to you the most growing up and what did you pull from in their work that you apply to your own?

Carlos: “I think of it in phases. My mom had me when she was 21 so at that time my mom only listened to pop radio and like Christina and Britney, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston all these pop vocals and also my parents owned nightclubs so I was always surrounded by an energetic musical atmosphere. Around age seven, my parents became more religious and my dad became a pastor we went to a church with a big African American community so they were soulful in their gospel and that’s when I allowed myself to become more emotional with my music and I wanted to create to provoke emotion. When I was 16/17, I went online and I discovered the things I wouldn’t normally have access to like the Beatles and the Beach Boys and Queen and Freddie. Those three eras, have all formed me today. I don’t know if I have one specific source of inspiration but it was a melting pot for sure.”

TV: As you’ve been coming to find an artistic persona, what have you found your overarching message to be?

Carlos: “I want to always be real to myself as an artist. Growing up I was always the weird kid and I never felt that I had someone I could relate to. Now I feel I’ve been blessed to have been able to reach out to kids that feel that same way I felt and I want to make music whether it be a fast fun bop or an emotional ballad, I want the music to be passionate and dramatic and I want to be a part of the world in that way, I want to create. It’s a spiritual thing, it comes out and I know how it makes me feel and I hope that when other people hear my EP, I want them to be able to feel that emotion and have a small escape or a meaningful feeling.”

TV: Can you give me a little breakdown on what kind of lyricism and sounds we can expect from your upcoming EP?

Carlos: “The cool thing about this EP is I was able to create both in Nashville and in Los Angeles. Living in Nashville, it is very much a lyric community and in Los Angeles, there is more of an emphasis on melodies, so it’s been cool and inspiring to have access to both. For me, this EP embodies real lyricism and dramatic melodies. It’s a real and vulnerable introduction to who I am and what these past 3 years of my life have been like.”

#carlos vara #music #musicblog #blogger #onedirection #pop #popmusic #musicnews #news #Music Journalism #new #Billie Eilish #look #upandcomingphotographer #upandcoming #indie #blog #bloglife #vanityhour

3 notes · View notes

prblynvr · 5 years

Note

hey hey hey hey so like..... “great. perfect. nice. Fuck this” for the 5 word prompts??? eldonado preferably???? I loved ur last fic and like.......... angst please 💛💛

dretfgyui okay so i totally failed at angst, but have a kind of broken down version of this prompt! i wanted to try an exercise in recognizing jealousy in different ways and i sorta maybe did it? idk, but i hope you enjoy! read it here on ao3

feel free to send me more 5 word prompts!

It wasn’t very often- and there was usually a catalyst- but Sam realized that sometimes Peter was incredibly selfish.

It was never in an obvious ‘hoards wealth and resources from the less fortunate’ way, but rather in a utterly human and teenage way. And Sam knows he’s shouldn’t be one to scorn others- lest he become a complete hypocrite- but Peter has always been an oddball. So naturally, the ways his selfishness showed up wouldn’t be that of a Typical Teenager.

The first thing Sam noticed was that Peter was selfish with his time. He would turn down Sam for an after school hang out because he had a test the next day he needed to study for and No, Sam. You’ll just distract me so you can’t help me study. Even if he knew Sam had actually understood Macbeth, he still wouldn’t let him help.

He would spend time on what he wanted, feeding his drive to be successful at video making by losing countless hours of sleep over edits that don’t need to be done for days. He knew that he had to manage himself, and a lot of the time Sam felt like Peter was isolating himself because of it.

Next Sam noticed how selfish Peter was with his belongings- especially with others. He was selfish with his electronics- rarely letting people touch his laptop, phone, or camera. Sam was one of the few who had an all access pass to Peter’s stuff. Maybe it was part of the Gen Z/Millenial need for privacy in an extremely public era, but Peter seemed to take it up a notch. Sometimes, he would get huffy if Sam so much as turned the volume up when they were editing together, reaching around Peter to touch the keyboard himself.

Most important of all, Sam realized Peter was selfish with his feelings. His resting bitch face was widely known and those that interacted with him on a daily basis knew that Peter was not one to emote in blatant ways. Sure, he was defensive of his insecurities and could be provoked by outside sources, but his robot-esque exterior was hard to crack if the response wasn’t anger or rage. Peter hoarded his emotions and bottled them up tight, waiting for a day he could explode and blame it on something that happened, rather than deep seated repression and the hormonal imbalances of a 16 year old body.

It was one particular afternoon that Sam realized jealousy in Peter could be monstrous. In that moment, Sam thought Peter was being extremely unfair. He knew better than most what mood Peter was in at every given moment- it comes with the best friend territory- but he had rarely seen Peter like this, and never directed at Sam. There were targets of this sort of passive-aggression in the past, but Sam has never been on the receiving end. It seemed insane to Sam once he finally figured out what new emotion he was picking up from Peter.

What would drive someone into an almost manic state, enough so that he would make an exposé on his best friend? Of course Sam understood the principle of the situation- evaluating your own bias- but why did he have to bring Gabi into this? Why did he have to act so smug when presenting the video, like he had placed the final piece of the puzzle that was Sam? Why did he have to smirk at Sam while he presented it, driving Sam up a wall in absolute frustration?

He’s jealous, Sam thought later that night. Not ‘he’s just jealous’- writing the interaction off as a petty emotion, but rather a full statement of truth. Sam had come to realize that something in Peter was deeply bothered by his friendship with Gabi. And now it was in the doc- for all to see and assume from.

And the kicker of it all was that Sam wasn’t in love with Gabi, not at all. He was in love with Peter.

Great.

—-

Eventually- meaning several days later after Peter reached the end of his rope and made a breakthrough on the video from Nana’s party- Sam and Peter were talking again. They were talking to each other about the case. About the dicks. And that was it. There was only one aborted apology between the two which helped ease them back into casual conversation, but the thrill of the mystery was a good jumping off point.

Then the mystery was over. The case had been finished, albeit not completely solved. Dylan had still proven to be an idiot, even though his friendly and sweet nature had grown on Sam, just not as much as it had grown on Peter. Netflix had swooped in and suddenly Peter and Sam were expected to be actual professionals who do things for their productions, rather than pass out after finally finishing edits at 3 A.M. and just posting the damn thing.

The Netflix party was swanky, if Sam’s standards were anything to go by. Sam had always assumed his first suit would have been for prom, yet here he was, summer between Sophomore and Junior year, decked out in formal wear. Peter was fidgeting next to him looking unfairly good. His suit wasn’t as fashionable as Sam’s, but it didn’t matter. Sam was attracted to Peter when he was awake in the middle of the night, decked in sweatpants and a whole day’s worth of face grease. So when Peter put in the effort, Sam’s heart beat just a little bit faster.

Peter kept biting his lip and it was driving Sam kind of crazy. His hair wasn’t flopping in his face like usual, courtesy of a small bit of product, his eyebrows were actually contained and his stupid long-

“…eyelashes.”

“Sorry, what?” Peter asked leaning into Sam’s space and asking loudly in his ear.

“What?” Sam replied.

Did I really say that outloud?

“You just said something but I missed it.”

“Oh, yeah I- just uhhh said…. uh…. there’s a lot of flashes.”

Good save.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of cameras here tonight.” Peter commented, leaning further into Sam. He slipped his arm over Sam’s shoulder as they continued their circuit around the room. “Are you okay? Not too nervous?”

“Oh, my dude,” Sam said jostling back into Peter, “I am living it up! Look at what we’ve created!”

“It’s crazy to think that 27 dicks could have done this.”

Sam laughed, leaning into Peter further.

Even if I can’t tell him, at least I still have this.

Although Sam was an extrovert who enjoyed meeting new people and being around many at once, tonight felt different. This wasn’t just a party, it was a professional party- one that seemed to drain him with every passing minute instead of fill him with excitement.

“I’m going to go get a drink,” Sam said slipping out of Peter’s arm. “Want anything?”

“No, I’m good. I’ll find you in a bit.”

Sam walked away, shooting Peter a set of finger guns accompanied by a grin before scooting towards the bar. The line wasn’t too long, but all he wanted at that moment was some water and a place to sit down. Sam was taking stock of the three people in front of him in line, patiently waiting to get refreshments as well, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Excuse me? Are you Sam Ecklund?” A voice from behind him asked.

He turned his head and shoulders just enough to see a blonde, vaguely familiar girl. She was dressed as if she had a reason to be at the party and maybe she did. Sam only really knew Peter and a handful of the Netflix representatives there. Besides that, he had no idea what the guest list was.

“Oh, uh- yeah that’s me.” He said, finding her eyes. In a split second he schooled himself into standing up straighter and faking a little enthusiasm. The night had been incredibly long so far, but he and Peter had stayed up later.

Just half an hour, he promised himself, half an hour then you can probably convince Peter to leave.

“Oh, awesome! I just wanted to tell you how much I loved your work on the doc. Like Peter was always so serious but you really stole the show with the comedy aspect!”

“Yeah he seems that way, but Peter’s really just a big jokester too.” Sam said, feeling a little hurt that she would think insulting Peter would gain her favor with him.

“Hah okay, I mean sure, but you really did a great job. Like, without you I don’t think Peter would have ever solved the case.”

Some part of Sam agreed with her- he and Peter were a partnership. But there was something about the way she just kept dismissing Peter that almost pushed Sam over the edge. If he were in a cartoon, you would see his eye twitching in annoyance as this girl continued to talk.

“Nah, Pete’s brilliant. He could have gotten it himself- eventually.”

The girl laughed loudly and brightly, like Sam had said some hysterical joke rather than just a plain comment. Her hand came to rest on his elbow as she continued to giggle. His insides were suddenly knotting up as his eyes flit around the room. Finally, they landed on Peter, who was milling about on his own.

“You’re too funny Sam. Guys with humor are so attractive. Like, there’s just something about you that’s drawing me in. Y’know?”

Peter still wasn’t looking at him so Sam looked back at the girl. The line moved and Sam was able to politely shrug off her hand as he stepped forward. Instead of taking the hint, she simply stepped closer.

“Uh…,” he said, eyes moving and finally connecting with Peter. He widened his eyes and put on a nervous smile. He hoped Peter would come over and interrupt the conversation with some emergency so he could make a quick get away, or at least text him a meme to cheer him up. The line moved again, causing him to have to look away from Peter for a moment

“So, what are your plans for the rest of the night,” she pressed. He stepped further away. “Any cool after party or fun events a girl looking for a good time should know about?”

Saying ‘falling asleep in the same room as my best friend/crush’ probably wasn’t the best way to respond to her question and Sam was a bit stuck.

“Well-”

“Hey Sammy! Thanks for holding our spot.” Suddenly Peter was right next to him, sliding into the space between this girl and Sam.

“Perfect timing.” Sam hoped Peter could feel the waves of gratitude he was trying to beam straight into his psyche.

“Yeah, I forgot to ask for a water before you left. I don’t think I should be having anymore caffeine tonight.” He joked. Sam took a moment to study Peter’s face as a smile carefully graced his lips. It was a publicity smile, one Sam knew he practiced in the mirror as to not look like a murderer when he was in the press. It was one Peter used when trying to be polite without offending anyone.

But, his eyes were crinkled just slightly- something Peter’s public smile never had. That was a private smile, one reserved for his mother or for when he discovered a clue he had been trying to track for days. It was a movement that happened only in the close vicinity to those he trusted. It was just another thing Sam loved about Peter.

“Hi.” A voice cut in- and just like that, Sam’s internal monologue that was about to categorize everything about Peter that drove him crazy was cut short.

“Oh sorry,” Peter said, extending his hand to the girl, “Peter Maldonado.”

“Pleasure,” she said, quickly shaking his hand before stepping back. Sam slung his arm around Peter’s shoulder as he dropped her hand.

“My friend here was just asking about if I knew of any good after parties.” Sam said. “I didn’t quite know how to tell her our boring plans for the night.”

“Well, you are the stars of the show tonight,” she laughed, “And my name is Allison. Allison Keller. But you can call me Alli.” She scooted away from Peter and seemed to gravitate back towards Sam.

“Well Allison, we’d love to help you,” Peter said. Sam watched Allison’s face flit through a range of emotions before landing on a passive smile. “But Sam and I have to get ready for an early flight tomorrow so we’re going to head out soon anyway.”

Suddenly it was their turn at the bar. Peter turned them around enough to ask for two waters before slipping his arm around Sam’s waist and whispering in Sam’s ear, “You okay to leave now?”

Please don’t be blushing right now. Please don’t be blushing right now. Please don’t be blushing right now.

Sam grabbed the two water bottles before turning back to Allison to say, “It was great talking to you but we’re going to head out. Enjoy the rest of your night!”

They walked away without waiting for a response. Sam dropped his arm from Peter’s shoulder, but Peter’s stayed put around his waist until they were near the door. Once they were clear of the room, Peter finally dropped his arm. They chatted a bit about the party as they left and made their way back to their hotel for the night, but not about Allison. Sam wasn’t sure if Peter wanted to avoid the topic all together and didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.

Peter’s mom was in the adjoining room to theirs as they made their way in.

“Hi boys, how was the rest of the event?”

“It was great, Mom,” Peter said, poking his head through the door to her room.

“Yeah, it was crazy how many people were there,” Sam added, shucking off his tie and jacket as he moved into the room.

“Any crazy things happen after I left?”

“No-”

“Sammy got hit on by some girl.”

“Hey! Why is that so crazy?” Sam responded as he heard Ms. Maldonado’s laughter coming from the other room.

“Not crazy that it happened, Sam,” she said, “Peter, be nice.”

“Yeah Pete, be nice,” Sam joked knocking Peter through the doorway. “I’m a catch, dontcha know?”

Peter laughed small but bright. His polite public smile was shed for a real one, lips slightly turned up as he giggled. His eyes were locked with Sam’s as they stood in the doorway, each leaning against the opposite jam. Peter’s nose crinkled for a second as he used it to move his glasses up his face. Sam’s traitorous heart began beating way too fast.

“Well, I think I’m going to turn in. I am beat! Night, Ms. Maldonado.” He finally turned away from Peter to look at his mother. He waved at her as she said “Good night!”

Sam bumped Peter again on his way back into their room, the contact sending a spark through his shoulder. Peter walked all the way into his mom’s room as Sam went about changing into his pajamas. By the time Sam was ready for bed and back out into the room, Peter had changed and was lounging on his bed. The door between the two rooms was shut, leaving Peter and Sam alone again. Sam turned off the lights flopped down on his own bed. The TV softly hummed in the background, casting Peter in soft light as he turned and faced Peter.

“Thanks for doing that, by the way,” Sam said, “That girl was driving me up the wall.”

“Yeah, of course dude.”

Sam laughed. “Like usually I’m okay with talking to girls, but she was just terrible! I didn’t expect you to get so… possessive though. She probably thinks we’re like dating now.” Sam’s brain to mouth filter had apparently taken an eternal holiday, since it would have never let him actually turn his honest to god feelings into the butt of his own joke. An intense sense of dread sent a rock to the bottom of his stomach as he clenched his jaw.

Luckily, Peter just laughed. “Yeah, well, she was getting a little too friendly with you.” The end of his sentence was more of a mumble than anything.

Sam hadn’t missed it, but being one never to let Peter off the hook he said, “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you.”

Peter huffed before he spoke, “I mean, she was touching your arm and being all… I don’t know. It’s dumb.” He rolled back over facing away from Sam.

“Dude, it’s not dumb. She wasn’t even being very nice about you so I don’t know why you’d be nice about her.”

“What do you mean?”

“She was all, ‘Oh Sam, you’re so funny. You’re way better than Peter!’” He could feel Peter rolling his eyes from across the room.

“Yeah, okay whatever, I get it. You didn’t need me.” Peter pulled the blanket more over himself and turned onto his back.

“Hey,” Sam called out, “I’m serious. She tried to compliment me by insulting you. Like, what kind of plan is that? You’re my best friend. Bros before hoes, dude.”

“Aww, dude.”

“And I thanked you for your help. I was too tired to come up with an excuse. So like, if you were jealous of her you have no reason to be.”

Just the thought of Peter being jealous over some girl drove Sam a bit wild. But Peter just hummed in response and the conversation was over. It hadn’t gone perfectly, but things rarely did with Peter. Sam had said his piece, and maybe Peter believed him, maybe he didn’t. But Sam knew that Peter had been jealous. He knew that even if Peter didn’t reciprocate his exact feelings, he was still feeling strongly enough to react so fiercely. He even pulled out his press smile just to help Sam out of a sticky situation.

So it wasn’t perfect, but Sam thought it was nice.

Perfect. Nice. What’s the difference?

—

Sam had been content to let it sit. He had been fine with Peter and him living out their lives as film partners/best friends until they retired rich and powerful. All throughout their second season, living with Peter was driving him wild. They weren’t just some weird sort of hometown heroes anymore, they were certifiable documentarians, and with that came a very different sense of self.

They had been out of practice for almost 2 years. The schedule and filming and equipment were different, but when they lights went out, it was just Peter, Sam, and their subject. Watching Peter light up the room and run down an interview like it was a sneaky interrogation drove a spike in Sam’s resolve. It had been a long time since he realized his feelings for Peter. It had been a long time since he realized that maybe- just maybe- there was a chance Peter liked him back. So why was he so scared?

It all came to a head one night when planning for the next day’s shoot. They were going to return to St. Bernardine’s the next day to do some more interviews of the students there and finish out the afternoon by returning to Kevin’s. It was going to be a typical shooting day, nothing out of the ordinary - if you think documenting poop crimes wasn’t out of the ordinary.

They had mapped out their route, let the crew know of the plan, then gotten ready to eat. So far, they had mostly made it on pre-cooked meals or take out, but tonight was different. Tonight, Peter Maldonado decided he was going to cook dinner. For Sam. (Well, for them both, but it was only them.)

Oh fuck.

Sam caught a glimpse of him in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove as he listened to a podcast playing from his phone. He had told Sam he was going to cook, which recently meant either Ramen, Kraft Mac & Cheese, or frozen chicken nuggets, but tonight meant some pasta dish that wasn’t recognizable. Peter was cooking chicken in one pan while boiling pasta in a pot.

“What’s this?” Sam asked from where he was lurking in the doorway.

Peter jumped a bit before turning to meet Sam’s eye, “I was tired of the packaged stuff and asked my mom for some suggestions.”

Sam smiled at him before asking, “Need any help?” He was quickly swept up in Peter’s instructions to cut up some vegetables to be cooked after the chicken. They carefully moved around each other as they prepared the meal, commenting on the podcast playing as they went, and in what felt like no time at all, they were done. Sam moved to plate the pasta and set it on the counter by Peter who then added the sauce, chicken, and vegetables. It was all extremely domestic, and far too much for Sam’s traitorous brain to handle.

‘What if-’s began flooding his mind with unplanned scenarios of a life he didn’t feel like could ever truly be his. Lives unattainable, yet so powerful to him, he was jealous over his fictional self for living them.

What if we were already dating and I could grab his hand right now as we ate? What if we lived together and cooked dinner together every night? What if the documentary never happened? What if I never talked to him that first day in middle school?

With every question he would imagine a scenario with the same ending. He and Peter would still be together, still a dynamic duo that could accomplish anything. They would spend as much time together and were dedicated to each other. The journey would be different, but the ending the same.

What if I told him?

The last one stuck with Sam the most. In all seriousness, he wasn’t sure the answer to the question, and he couldn’t exactly predict what Peter’s response would be, but he was falling deeper down the rabbit hole trying to be realistic. All through dinner, Sam’s mind kept wandering to how that night could go. How maybe he could just grab Peter’s hand and tell him. Maybe he could. Maybe.

They finished up and began cleaning- back to domestic chores. Peter collected the dishes as Sam rolled up his sleeves to get to work scrubbing the pots and pans used. As he finished, Peter moved to taking them from Sam and drying them off. Sam had two more pots to go and his heart was beating- hungry for some sort of emotional resolution.

Fuck this.

“Hey Pete?”

He hummed a response.

“I…” Sam lost his resolve. He had been so ready to finally come clean, but this wasn’t a fantasy. This was real life and once he said his piece, there was no going back.

Then Peter’s eyes met his and he asked, “What’s up, Sammy?”

“I like you, Peter. Like, in a more than friends way- and not a ‘bro, I like you, no homo’ like- I mean- a full homo- a full homo way.” The words tumbled out of his mouth and he watched as Peter’s expression turned from something soft and open, to something charged.

His eyes squinted just a bit as his mouth opened ever so slightly. Sam waited for Peter to respond, to say something- anything - but he didn’t. All Peter did was set down the pot he was drying off, wipe his hands on his jeans, push his glasses up his face, and kiss Sam in one swift movement.

Wait - what?

He had missed slightly, lips landing closer to the corner of Sam’s mouth rather than square on, but with his mouth came his hands. They cradled Sam’s face, adjusting the angle so that they met perfectly this time. Sam’s brain finally caught up to the situation, causing him to drop the pan into the sink and splash them both with soapy water.

His hands clutched at Peter’s waist as he responded in full. They pulled back a second later, wet and soapy. Peter’s shirt has wet splotches and wrinkles where Sam’s hands had been, as well as an assortment of other spots resulting from Sam’s poor reflexes.

“So… like…do you-”

“I full homo you too, Sammy.” Peter said, laughing his way through the end.

Sam just smiled back and pulled him in again - wet shirt and dished be damned.

#eldonado #american vandal #my writing #sam ecklund #peter maldonado #grasslandgirl #AV fic

28 notes · View notes

dangerwatson · 5 years

Text

SO, MS. WATSON. YOU WANNA MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

It’s ya girl Lin back on my ‘ let’s cry about a beautiful woman together ’ bs. Here’s MJ ! It’s long, but that’s to have all her relevant information in one place should you ( or me more than likely ) need to hit it up for future reference. I’m excited to have her here ya’ll.

BASICS.

Given / Birth Name : Mary Jane Watson Nickname / Preferred Name : MJ, Red Alias(es) : N/A Birthdate / Age : June 19th 1991 / Twenty - Seven Place of Birth : Montoursville, Pennsylvania Current Location : Little Italy, NYC Gender Identity : Cis Female Sexual / Romantic Orientation : Disaster Bisexual Ethnicity / Race / Cultural Heritage: African - American && German Marital Status : Single Occupation : Field Reporter && Political commentator for Weekly Review Religious Beliefs : Agnostic. Raised Christian.

CHARACTERISTICS.

Height : 5′8″ Weight : 135 Body Type / Build : Entirely Average. Could stand to go to the gym, but honestly who has that kind of time. Don’t compare her to fruit she hates that. Eye Color : Green Hair Color / Texture : Auburn. Worn natural, 4b curls and all. Sometimes braided, sometimes weaved, sometimes in bantu knots or covered by headscarves. She’s very particular with her hair - touching it can and will lead to physical harm against the perpetrator if unwelcome. Recognizable Features / Scars : Big ol’ dimples and a slight cleft chin. Dusting of dark freckles across nose and chest. Speech Patterns / Accent : Has a deeper voice, boarding whisky worn. Because she’s moved around the majority of her childhood MJ has no discernible accent, giving her a modulated tone that’s perfect for clear annunciation across media platforms. Languages Spoken : English, French, ASL Powers / Skills / Abilities : No powers, however MJ has a nose for good stories, and tends to follow wherever they take her. Overall Health : Good.

RELATIONSHIPS.

Order of Birth : Youngest Number of Siblings : 1 Father’s Status + Relationship : Phillip Watson, alive. An abusive alcoholic, former High School English teacher. No relationship amends have been made. Mother’s Status + Relationship : Madeline Watson nee Rains, deceased. A starry eyed dreamer, former actress turned stay at home mother. Left Phillip after he struck Gayle, bounced both children through various family members. Passed away shortly after from congenital heart failure exacerbated by stress and lack of access to treatment. Sibling Status + Relationship : Gayle Watson, older sister by almost five years. Unlike MJ, continued to have a relationship with their father. Married her schoolyard sweetheart and had two children. He divorced her around the same time MJ graduated high school, leaving both sisters ( and her nephews ) living under Aunt Anne’s roof. They’re nearly estranged. When she visits her aunt and nephews, both sisters make a point of keeping their conversations short -- if they happen at all. Loyalty / Affiliation : Outwardly neutral, though subject to change behind closed doors.

PERSONALITY.

MBTI : ESFJ Hobbies : Dancing. Doesn’t matter where, when, why or how. Catch her pulling an n*sync routine in her living room at 4 PM on a Tuesday. MJ also has a knack for exploration. There are a lot of ( read : free ) things to do around the city and magically finds them all. Who cares if you have no interest in the Fungi Festival, there are booths everywhere for a quick way to kill an afternoon. Tried needlework one afternoon, didn’t stick and now there’s an abomination of mutant looking cats hanging above her bathroom door. Bad Habits : Smoking. Fixing / hyper - focusing on her hair when uncomfortable or stressed. Jumping head first into the dating scene only to find out it’s the shallow end. Providing 20 second long fart sounds whenever someone asks “how are you?” Taking care of others before taking care of herself. Three Positive Traits : The silent Mom Friend. Allow me to explain : MJ is traditionally that bitch^tm making sure you get home okay after hanging out, she ensures your soul is as well nourished as your body. For all of her outward party-girl aesthetics and a forced mean girl perception on her by others, she makes sure her friends are in good headspaces. That they feel encouraged to follow their ambitions and ultimately celebrate every success no matter the size. It’s the type of selflessness that she’d wanted for herself growing up, so I’ve labeled it as her BEST trait. She’s incredibly outgoing. An extrovert through and through, getting her battery charged by being around people. It’s what makes her an attractive personality. When in a battle of small talk, MJ not only listens and remembers those small shared details but she knows how to keep the conversation going without making it seem like a chore. I love how in tune she is like that, girl vibes hard with new and old friends alike. Finally, MJ would make a professional bargain hunter blush. She grew up poor and as a direct result is extremely careful about what she’s doing with money. And yes, being financially responsible during these trying times as a Millennial trying to earn that bread is pretty much a given good quality. We all wish it wasn’t, but here we are. Three Negative Traits : MJ is stubborn to a fault. When she digs her heels into something it’s hard to get her to stop until a desired outcome is achieved ( or undesired, event depending ). While this is usually reworded as a positive asset —- being so DRIVEN and MOTIVATED —– that’s simply not the case with her. She’s lived through all consequences resulting from this inability to budge and none of the supposed rewards. Been fired from more jobs than she’d care to admit for telling former bosses where to shove unrealistic worker expectations, or coworkers where they can file passive aggressive bullpucky. She’s also incredibly stunted emotionally. As mentioned, she’s a silent Mom Friend, but reciprocation of her actions isn’t met with as much of an openness as one might expect. MJ keeps her feelings to herself, and it usually builds up until she suffers a full scale breakdown triggered by something mundane like … dropping a fry or seeing a lady bug stepped on. Decompressing is a word in her vocabulary, for sure, but it was easier to partake in as a 20 year old than as a near 30 year old with responsibilities and bills to pay. Picky puts it in palatable terms, but MJ knows what she likes and how she likes it. When she doesn’t, then she’ll quickly find a preference. In the meantime we’ll say she’s very particular about what styles she likes to wear, how her make up is, how her hair looks, and over all what image she’s presenting to a general public. It’s a habit she hasn’t been able to shake. Moral Alignment : Neutral Good

ASSOCIATIONS.

One Song : Dead and Lovely - Tom Waits One Quote / Piece of Art : “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” One Fear : Following the Watson Women path of horrible no good very bad mistakes and poor life decisions. One Strength : Persistence One Object : Breathe Right Nasal Strips One Place : May’s kitchen One Food : Garlic One Scent : Cinnamon. One Lucky Charm : Old tattered friendship bracelet

-----------------------

Pretty typical “American Dream !” 50′s family dynamic. Everyone looking great in their Sunday best photos, father with a steady job, stay at home mom to save on daycare, two daughters and a stray cat named Sir Stinkybottom.

Father started facing emotional breaking points brought about by lack of what he considered satisfactory income and inbound midlife crisis. Turned to drinking, ( turned into a right train wreck. )

Mary-Jane, Gayle and Maddie hopped from various family member’s couches to crash for a couple of weeks at a time during the separation process from Phillip. This lasted a year.

Maddie passed away when MJ was around 10 and Gayle 15, Gayle instantly taking up the role of Mother Figure to MJ’s wild child foil. MJ maintains she doesn’t remember all that much about her mother while Gayle remembers everything and that becomes a point of contention.

Father returns into their life. It’s messy, he eats away at their still developing ego’s like the cancerous human blob he’s chosen to become. Their Aunt Anna, who they live with, intervenes when she can.

Gayle gets the fuck outta there by marrying her high school sweetheart, moving to the midwest and popping out two adorable munchkins named Kevin and Thommy.

MJ has the pleasure of dealing with their dad alone for the next five years. Which she does by a little thing called home avoidance. Garners the reputation quickly as a party girl at Midtown, someone ready to go anywhere and everywhere at any time.

Began solidly working around fifteen to help Anna out, sometimes in Diners, sometimes in retail. Her ability to sell her brand began early and honed with surgical precision during these years. All currently reflected across media platforms where she became a 2010 influencer ( and paid for little more than modeling ).

Started college at seventeen, typical move. Took 6 years for her to finish as she paid her way through without loans. The last thing MJ wanted when finally breaking out of Queens was a student dept choker. Graduated at 23 with a dual bachelors in journalism and political science.

Bounced between larger broadcasting industries for a few years as an underpaid intern before growing concerned by their lacking criteria. The burnout was real.

Tirelessly sought employment at her favorite ( but SMALL ) news agency. By luck of the draw she was screen tested and hired on for a slot as field reporter.

She’s been with Weekly Review since. Now having two years under her belt ( still extremely Green in her industry ), she’s pushing for higher scope investigative journalist pieces. And for once, they’re not telling her no.

#united task 001 #united intro #mentioned briefly :#tw alcoholism #tw parental abuse

6 notes · View notes

exid-though · 6 years

Text

An ask turned into an essay/presentation and I’m hoping MBTI blogs don’t block me for this here’s EXID’s possible MBTI types!

Before anyone who actually knows about MBTI types more in depth jumps on me for how poorly done this is, I’d like to request you do better. That sounds hella sarcastic but like legit I’m curious about what someone else would think about this especially someone who knows a lot bit more so like actually correct me on something or give your opinion like fr I’d enjoy it. I don’t word things well, I don’t say things well. But like?? power through? you can figure it out it’s not a puzzle it’s just poorly written so play English teacher and work through it.

Solji- ESTJ

The first thing that we (we being @lencoexid and I thank you for helping me/co writing this basically) decided was that Solji has a higher Te (look at me picking up the lingo?). The girl was voted the scariest member just because she’s very about her business I guess you could say? That’s not the best way to put it but anyway, she comes off as “scary” because she’s very quick to remind the girls that she’s not only the leader but also the oldest and she knows best, not because she’s actually being mean or anything but just because she wants to help and keep them doing what they’re supposed to be doing. But also Jeonghwa helps. She’s later. Anyway.

One website says

“Dominant Te types may come across as bossy or know-it-all-ish, even when they genuinely mean well.“

and another says:

“Te involves the outward expression of rational judgments and opinions; TJs literally think (i.e., make judgments, conclusions, and decisions) aloud. Te is more fact-oriented than Ti is. STJs, in particular, see the world as composed of discrete, black-and-white parts. This allows them to institute clear definitions, objective standards, and measurable goals. While Ti is forever backtracking to question and clarify underlying ideas and assumptions, Te is more positivistic and forward-moving, working to improve definitions, plans, policies, classifications, procedures, etc. It carefully spells out how to get from here to there, using as many maps, labels, and instructions as necessary.”

Solji is very sweet of course we love her whatever but she also comes across as bossy sometimes and as lenco pointed out, even Heeyeon said she also likes to do things her own way. She made Jeonghwa mad in that infamous Showtime fight because she kept teasing Jeonghwa about how slow she was washing the food and telling her to do it faster. She, like the true mom of EXID that she is, took the knife from her and showed her how to cut the food faster, too. Like literally just showed her “you can cut two at a time, see?” and Jjong was just like -_-. To Solji, this wasn’t being bossy or anything, she just had a better way to do it that was more efficient and she wanted to show her younger friend who was wasting time, but Jeonghwa was young and sensitive so she got angry lmao

Then we had to decide if she was more of a secondary Si user or Ni and Si seems to fit better.

“SJs do not venture out seeking novel sensations, experiences, or material goods. Instead, they prefer a more routinized and predictable lifestyle, functioning more as “homebodies.” ISJs may also fail to notice external details to the degree exhibited among ESPs. Unlike SPs, who are oriented to the present moment and the current trends, SJs rely on information from the past to inform the present. They grow attached to past ways of doing things, compelling them to conserve and protect traditions or conventions. Because of their concern for the remembered past, Si might be considered more abstract and less concrete than Se is.”

Solji also has moments where she goes on about things and she gets very excited when thinking about possibilities of what she could be doing, even when it’s small and just a game EXID are playing, she really seems to enjoy banter and clever thinking like an Ne might?

“When orating, NPs may not always seem to “have a point” as they haphazardly move from one idea to the next. Ne is more divergent and expansive in nature than its introverted cousin, Ni. NPs feel compelled to outwardly explore all the options and possibilities, making it difficult for them to draw firm conclusions or make confident decisions.”

In romantic relationships, Solji says she actually prefers someone who will lead her and someone who’s cold on the outside and warm on the inside. If that means anything to you mbti smart people.

"I like the manly types. Rather than a man who affectionately takes care of me well, I like the type who will lead me."

"You must like the 'tsundere (cold on the outside, soft on the inside)' types. A blood type-B man (stereotyped to be coarse and bad-tempered)." Solji said that was correct.

LE - ISFP

This woman... her and Solji. Elly is almost definitely an IXXP to me because idk just her general self. She’s very “free” ig, she doesn’t like schedules, she likes to do whatever more on a whim but less so than Hyelin I think. But she has said specifically that she doesn’t like to go by schedules and prefers to be more in the moment.

She has multiple interests but she only goes into them a little bit? The members said (on NCT night night I believe there is a thing in my drafts anyway also it was technically 2 votes for Elly and 2 votes for Heeyeon actually) that she knows a lot and it’s almost weird that she knows the things she knows and Jeonghwa explained that Elly knows about a lot but she knows things in the way that she “knows a little about everything” so like she’s smart in the way that she has a broad range of general/fundamental knowledge on random things. Jeonghwa also said she’s the type that keeps up with trends like in fashion and also just regular trends like slang and other internet things. She’s into fashion. She isn’t the most empathetic member but she did once say that when she isn’t writing songs about her own experience she’s writing about others so that might be something? She’s very blunt and she thinks it’s easier and better to just be open about what you’re thinking and feeling so time isn’t wasted.

“I hate complicated things. That's such a waste of time."When asked what kind of love she wants to try, LE said, "A both placid and raging love," then added to everyone's amusement, "I like skinship,"

then she also said:

“It’s been a long time since I’ve had a boyfriend so I can’t remember, but I don’t get nervous around guys that I like. I like to play hard to get and make them chase me instead. That makes me feel a sense of achievement.”

I think she’s more Se than Si because she definitely seems to be more of an outward sensations type of person, with trends and fashion yeah but also she said she likes skinship and she’s pretty physical even if she’s not athletic. Like she doesn’t like working out but she likes the idea of extreme sports (note the “idea of” part lmao thank you @lencoexid) she likes video games, she likes to think about the way things physically feel like she’s a very Se person to me.

I was having a hard time figuring out if she was more Fi or Ti but we do really think that she’s more Fi after thinking about how she is towards her friends and her relationships more. Ti would be too logical in her judgements of things and she seems more like a feeler when it comes to things around her. SO I’m going with ISFP.

Hani - INTJ

idc what anyone says (I say that now but like it’s so easy to change my mind you could literally just be like “well what if Hani is this because of this” and I’ll be like shoot you’re right) but anyway I could see Heeyeon being a dominant Ni user and also she’s not an extrovert like Heeyeon would be the last member I’d believe is an extrovert I’m serious e to i in EXID goes Jeonghwa/Solji/Hyelin>LE>Hani don’t argue with me. Or do idc but like I’m not wrong on Jeonghwa and Heeyeon. (like I once saw someone call Ahn Heeyeon an ENFP? nahh) but also idk

I think she shows more of a Te then Fi than the opposite (Fe then Ti) so I’m going with INTJ I think.

Anyway, Heeyeon is super logical and detailed. Think about what made EXID so famous in the first place, Heeyeon literally taking actual written notes of what exact angles make her look best while performing. Her selfies are really popular (because she’s gorgeous?duh) and when she talks about her selfies she says they’re great because she took note of how she looks prettiest when her head is tilted at a 45 degree angle. Who measures that? Who? Nerds. That’s who. Hot nerds. Nerds trying to make sure their popularity stays up and they have no weaknesses. Scary hot nerds.

She takes notes in her notebook (which they all call her death note) of like everything she possibly can? Her calories, her workouts, any new findings in her selfie angles, and when people make her angry. She literally writes down the date and what they did and everything. She’s like the scary anime kid that comes out of the shadows and pushes their glasses up and says something weird then writes in their notebook. Kyoya Ootori she’s Kyoya from Ouran High School Host Club. My husband and my wife I have a type.

But then here’s the thing, she also really feels the need to have people like her? Like she used to diet and gain and lose weight (she’s not anymore thank God) and she got in trouble and was criticized by netizens for “just saying what she thinks will make people happy in that moment” which is honestly pretty true but I think it might’ve only really been true for that time. That was back when she had just gotten popular and she was still getting used to it and she was on so many shows right after doing nothing but eating ramen all day basically so I honestly think she could’ve just been worried about EXID’s fame and her image and everything because lately especially now she’s more like she was back when they were promoting Every Night like she’s very openly braggy and less anxious so I think it could’ve just been a stress and anxiety thing? Because now especially with the other girls she seems much more open about the other sides to her personality so I still think she could be an Fi not an Fe.

She also said when talking about what she’s like in love and all:

“I would say I’m a stronger type. I have charisma. I hear that a lot actually haha.”

She also seems more Se than Si but I can’t place exactly why. @fizzybubblespop also said that they’d say she was an INFJ but she seems so “present” that having Se as her last function doesn’t seem right.

I kinda agree but I also think it makes sense since she is a bit wired and outward and everything but she’s much more of a person who needs to sit and think about things a bit, spacing out sometimes and stuff. I could see Se over Si for sure but like lower than things like Ni and Te to me.

Hyelin - ESTP or ESXP

Hyelini hea lini hey lini hey jenny idk umm I think she has a higher F something and she’s a perceiver but I’m not sure on much else. She’s probably an extrovert to me but I also could possibly see her as a social introvert? She said on Showtime that after spending a lot of time with people she needs to spend time alone to relax for a few hours. But @lencoexid did point out that it’s more likely that it’s her attention shifting and her getting bored or tired of that situation and wanting something else.

I had never even thought of Hyelin as an ESFP before until lencoexid brought it up and I was like hmm? and when you think about it it could actually work well.

So, ESFP starts with Se, the extroverted sensing function. On this website they explained Se like this:

“Extroverted sensing is focused on taking in the world as it exists in the present moment. It is highly in tune with the sights, smells, sounds and general physical stimulus that surrounds it. Extroverted sensing lives and thrives in the moment, more so than any other function.”

Hyelin is someone who is a regular at bars and actually said she drinks for the feeling of being drunk. She said she doesn’t see the point of drinking if you’re not going to get drunk. She also traveled all the way to Jeonju randomly just to go to a specific restaurant there that she likes.

The problem here though comes when you get to the 2nd function which is Fi. To me, she seems more Fe. She had a secret job when EXID was broke, she was actually kinda uncomfortable when Solji and Jeonghwa had that argument in Showtime and she tried to make jokes about it and diffuse the situation it seemed.

She said when she’s in a relationship:

“I am really the submissive type, when I am in the wrong I bow down to my boyfriend and apologize right away, (hehe) but when I know that he is lying then I become more of a strong unni style.”

And so she seems pretty Fe when I think about it compared to Fi, she seems more about group harmony than her own inner feelings even if she is blunt and everything, at the end of the day she has many friends who all are very different (Shinsadong Tiger said in an interview once that Hyelin is friends with everyone and is even friends with a politician), she works to keep her friendships with people from her childhood and she doesn’t like when things mess with that. Remember when she just grabbed a mic and said “Minhyuk and I aren’t dating” because she wanted to end rumors before they got big? She’s very blunt and “crazy” and wild and she’s very into being the humorous one of the group that makes everyone laugh but she’s also very open and straight-forward when she doesn’t like something or when something is messing with the dynamic, you know?

Now, ESTP has Se>Ti>Fe>Ni and lencoexid and I both agree that between the two, Hyelin seems more Ti than Te (Te is more Solji’s thing lbr).

Jeonghwa - ISFJ or XSFJ

I think she has high Fe and probably dominant Fe because the girls are always saying she’s so empathetic and she’s so good at relating to people’s feelings, etc. Heeyeon said she was jealous of how empathetic Jeonghwa is, when Heeyeon was trying to explain herself Jeonghwa jumped in and helped her out (I can’t remember what it was but it was on a radio show and she kinda explained for Heeyeon), she’s very open about how she feels about things and what she thinks of things (all of EXID are pretty blunt but especially Hyelin>LE>Jeonghwa), she’s also the one that takes charge even though she’s the youngest to try to keep things under control just a little but she’s still kinda sensitive? She also likes planning things and sticking to a schedule as she said on NCT night night, her and Heeyeon like sticking to plans and Elly and and Hyelin like to go with the flow. And with ISFJ and ESFJ Si is high (1st or 2nd) and this website says this about higher Si users:

“SJs do not venture out seeking novel sensations, experiences, or material goods. Instead, they prefer a more routinized and predictable lifestyle, functioning more as “homebodies.””

Then it says this about high Fe users:

“FJs, especially EFJs, are quick to outwardly express their feelings, opinions, and grievances. Fe plays a prominent role in attuning to and empathizing with others’ emotions. It allows FJs to recreate another’s emotion state within themselves, allowing them to literally feel what the other person is feeling. FJs also work to meet others’ needs and to maintain harmony in the external environment. They ensure that everyone is getting along and is well cared for. At the same time, since Fe is an Extraverted Judging function, there are times when FJs are compelled to sacrifice external harmony for the sake of asserting their judgments. FJs also enjoy giving counsel and advice, especially with regard to people-related matters.“

She’s the most social and empathetic but she also prefers staying at her house and reading and her favorite author is Alain de Botton (which I think she said on Weekly Idol?) and that guy is a philosopher.

“de Botton deals with the process of falling in and out of love. De Botton wrote a sequel to Essays in Love, published in 2016, titled The Course of Love.”

“In The Consolations of Philosophy, de Botton attempts to demonstrate how the teachings of philosophers such as Epicurus, Montaigne, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Socrates can be applied to modern everyday woes. The book has been both praised and criticized for its therapeutic approach to philosophy.”

In The Architecture of Happiness[11] (2006), he discusses the nature of beauty in architecture and how it is related to the well-being and general contentment of the individual and society. He describes how architecture affects people every day, though people rarely pay particular attention to it. A good portion of the book discusses how human personality traits are reflected in architecture.

etc.

So this girl loves people, is social, also prefers to stay in and read (philosophy), is empathetic, blunt, likes schedules, mischievous, studies English and Chinese just cause she wants to improve in those things (she’s also an idol so there is a bit of a responsibility to do that but she doesn’t have to), etc. Like. Someone who knows MBTI well come type her instead cause idk. To me she’s either ISFJ or ESFJ and she seems more extroverted to me it just seems like she’s got a higher Fe than Si and so on than the other way around, but I think that’s more up to just how you perceive her I mean she is an idol and I forget a lot so ISFJ or ESFJ.

I’ve learned a lot. Thank you for your time. Also Solji’s was the hardest and the mystery woman needs to come back so we can look into this more, agreed? Agreed. @solji when did you become so hard to figure out you’re louder than Jeonghwa sometimes

#but it'd be better if someone who actually knows more on this stuff did this #it was just an ask that turned into an essay that isn't that great but is decent enough ig #if you think so #could be better worded but I'm not a writer #**clearly**#lencoexid helped a lot though #so thank you #Solji's is the one I'm less sure on like idk why but the others I see a lot more #but ik this isn't well done but like here's my (and lencoexids) opinions?#should I make little edits #I'm bad at that stuff so like I shouldn't but I kinda want to now that it's in my head #it's lencos fault #maybe i should #they'd be kinda ugly but like maybe I should just for fun #I'm bored and it'd be something to do #exid

24 notes · View notes

guessmonsta · 6 years

Note

Roommates with Nishinoya and Tanaka headcanons? I love ya girlie!

I love you too ‘nonie! Also, I think this is Nishinoya day- I’m kinda plowing through all my asks that feature him, so if you want to ask anything Nishinoya related, I think now is your time, lol ^^

- It’s a mess, to say in the least.

- Begins when their roommate is living by themselves in an apartment off campus. Their last roommate ended up dropping out of uni and moving home, so that left them by themself. They were only making minimum wage working as a barista in one of the many Starbucks downtown, and heaven knows that money doesn’t add up when you’re trying to pay tuition, so they needed to find a new roommate to pay the bills.

- Nishinoya and Tanaka, on the other hand, were living in a frat house before they got kicked out. Nishinoya is majoring in pre-med (he’s going for his doctorate in sports medicine) so he’s constantly busy with either volleyball, his job, or studying for exams. Tanaka, although being rowdy, is not a fan of the disrespectful, preppy frat boys he’s forced to associate with.

- One day, when a party is being held in the house, Tanaka caught another one of the frat boys badmouthing Nishinoya for being in his room and studying, and Tanaka was having absolutely none of that, but he knew he would be expelled if he did anything violent, so he let it go.

- The next few days, though, he would drop crushed up estrogen pills in the frat boys food and drinks. This happened for three weeks (in Tanaka’s defense, it was a hysterical three weeks) before Tanaka finally yelled at him for being a shitty person, and the two moved out.

- So this lead them to going to meet with their future roommate, who they figured would be better than any frat boy out there, unless they were some sort of drug lord, or something. The next day, after the interview went smoothly, the two moved into their new apartment.

- They all get along pretty well. On school days, their roommate and Nishinoya are usually away studying, which Tanaka figures he should be doing to, but Nishinoya tends to be the more driven one. He’s a bit of a procrastinator, if he’s being honest.

- Personal food? What is that? If somebody wants to buy a food item specifically for themselves, they have to keep it in their room, hidden in their drawers. Their roommate learned this the hard way after they bought a package of Oreo’s that suspiciously went missing the next day. (Don’t worry, though, they got back at the boys by stealing their family sized bag of Doritos.)

-The boys are both great at making friends, so its no surprise that after a month or so they become the best of buddies. If their roommate isn’t quite the extroverted type, that’s too bad, but if they are, Nishinoya and Tanaka will show them they are the clubbing kings. (Just make sure not to let Nishinoya take too many shots at the bar)

- They tend to share clothes among each other. They’ve learned that a men’s medium fits anybody on earth, so if one of the boys sees their roommate wearing a shit they like, they’ll ask to borrow it later on, but only if their roommate is allowed to borrow that snap back he wore last week, that is.

- They’re not as messy as you’d expect. Nishinoya is pretty strict about his morals, so he keeps his clutter shoved into the drawers in his desk. Tanaka grew up with a doting older sister, so he’s the champion of cleaning up after himself. To be fair, both of them are pretty tidy, and know how to do basic things such as take out the trash and refill the toilet paper, but their one big flaw is the fact that they are both extremely loud.

- Their roommate better not be somebody who likes to go to bed early, because in the room next door they’ll have to deal with Nishinoya half blasting rap music in the mere hours before he falls asleep (which is usually around one or two in the morning.) Tanaka just has a loud speaking voice, so they would hope he doesn’t wander into Noya’s room and start talking to him.

- They get to see Noya with his hair down a lot. Its the only thing that’s stayed partially the same about him since high school. (the streak in his hair has come, gone, and changed colors. (it was pink for breast cancer awareness before he died it back to his natural color)) He still hates to be seen without his hair spiked up, since it still gives him that extra leverage. (He finally started growing when he turned nineteen, but 5′6 still isn’t ideal when all his friends are past the 6 foot mark).

- Tanaka comes up with really bad nicknames for their roommate, which are only appreciated when they’re drunk or too tired to even function.

- They don’t bring friends over much, but Asahi does make guest appearances every so often. Their roommate jokes that they like him more than them because, finally, somebody who doesn’t speak over 90 decibels! (Bonus points if they end up dating him!)

#haikyuu!!#haikyuu #haikyuu!! imagines #haikyuu!! headcanons #haikyuu!! angst #haikyuu!! scenarios #Nishinoya Yuu #tanaka ryuunosuke

38 notes · View notes

thepropertylovers · 6 years

Text

Feature Friday with Marcus Powers (ft. Steven Kibodeaux)

Happy Friday! It's been way too long since we have posted a FF and we are truly sorry about that! We know a few of you have asked why we stopped posting these and the truth is, we just got super busy in the last few months. But we are back with a brand new one this week and we think you're going to love learning more about Marcus and Steven like we have.

Marcus has a hilarious sense of humor, has a thing for Beyonce, and gets pretty real about his and Marcus' early days when money was tight. We found his responses to be inspiring and honest, two things the world could use more of right now! Take a look and see what we mean...

Where are you from? That's a long answer. As a child of a pastor, we moved around a lot. I was born in Fort Worth, but we moved to Lakeland, Florida, shortly after I was born. We also lived in Oklahoma and various parts of Texas throughout my childhood. Normally I just tell people Dallas. Steven’s answer is easy: Pasadena, Texas, just outside of Houston, born and raised. His parents still live in the same house he grew up in.

Where do you live? Houston, Texas (home to the World Series champs and, more importantly, Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter).

What’s your Instagram handle? @marcusleepowers and @spkibodeaux

Relationship Status? Partnered. Taken. Booed up.

How long have you guys been together? We’ve been together five years and counting.

How did you guys meet and where? Our story is a tale as old as time… just kidding, we met on Grindr. We met in person for the first time in April 2012, but apparently we “met” on Grindr once before that a few months before. (Steven remembers that; I don’t.) I messaged him because his profile photo showed a lot of chest hair and he was super cute. We talked to each other on the app on a Friday, text messaged each other through the weekend, and met up for dinner on Monday night. Steven was in nursing school. We didn’t officially start dating until July 20, 2012, even though we spent practically every day together.

Choose a movie title for the story of your relationship: Bring It On. Mostly because we were both pretty hesitant to start a relationship (because he was in school, I was newly single) but decided to just go for it, but also because that movie is perfect.

What is something you have had to overcome as a couple? We went back and forth when we first met over whether it was a good time for us to start a relationship. Once we decided to just jump in, things were pretty smooth sailing. But I was in journalism back then, which is not a field you get into if you want to make any kind of money. Steven was in school, working barely ten hours a week at a minimum wage job. So money was super tight. I am not exactly the best at being frugal, so there were situations where I’d overspend and Steven had to figure things out. There were plenty of weeks that we had macaroni and cheese for dinner. Looking back, I realize we were actually pretty lucky. But for a while, it was frustrating always feeling like some other big expense would come up and wipe away whatever security we had. Nowadays we both work full-time, and we are lucky enough to be able to travel quite a bit. We are always grateful for that.

Tell us about your first date! I worked in television news at the time. I worked 1:30 pm to 10:30 pm, with a dinner break around 6 o’clock. So that coupled with the fact that we were both broke, we decided to go to Freebird’s, a burrito place. We met up, ate our food, and talked for several hours. At this point, I knew Steven was someone special, and way out of my league. He was right at the end of his first year of nursing school, so he didn’t have a ton of free time. But I came up with any excuse to see him after that point. I wouldn’t call it love at first sight, but we were both pretty smitten from the first meeting.

How has it been being an out, gay couple? Have you faced any criticism or hardships? Before we moved to Houston, we lived in a fairly small, conservative town in southeast Texas. But to be perfectly honest, we’ve never come up against much pushback. We now live in Houston, which is the fourth largest in America and the most diverse city in the nation. We count ourselves extremely lucky that we’ve been able to live our lives freely and without fear of consequence.

How old were you when you came out and what was your experience like? As I mentioned, I was the son of a pastor. I started the coming out process the summer after my freshman year of college, when I was 19. I told most of my friends, even though I was attending a pretty conservative private college. I never really told my family, because they are all fairly religious and conservative. But eventually, I just sort of stopped hiding it online, and they have all been amazingly welcoming to me and Steven. Nowadays, I’m 100% out. My family knows, I always bring up Steven in the workplace, and there’s never a time when I hide who I am. It was a long process, but it was so, so, so worth it. Steven’s story is somewhat similar, minus the religious family. He was out to friends in high school and college, but didn’t (fully) come out to his parents until after we met, around the age of 27.

Best advice for a successful relationship? When I was thinking about ending my first relationship, which lasted almost five years, I talked to a friend about it. He had been in his relationship for a decade, and I asked him how he knew it was meant to last. He said that, at the end of the day, the person he wants to hang out with was his boyfriend (now his husband). I realized then I couldn’t say that about my boyfriend at the time, so I ended it the next day. So my advice? Be friends with your partner. Physical attraction is vitally important, but just wanting to hang out and watch stupid Hallmark holiday movies with them is just as important, if not more so.

What is the thing you love the most about each other? We’re truly a ying-yang type of couple. I’m a bit of an introvert, Steven is definitely an extrovert. I’m fiercely loyal and have a few close friends, Steven has never met a stranger. The things I am not (but wish I was), he is. And vice versa. I love Steven because he’s got the biggest heart of anyone I know. He works as a nurse in the pediatric ICU at a major children’s hospital, and I always say that what makes him a good nurse is that he really, truly gives a damn about every single one of his patients and their families. Pediatric nursing is truly his calling, plain and simple, and it’s been so wonderful to see him grow in that career. I’m just so proud of him. But at the end of the day, he’s a kind person to everyone, and never one to judge anybody. That’s exceedingly rare. He’d probably say that thing he loves most about me is my vast, deep knowledge of early 2000s female-centric R&B music.

17 notes · View notes

joemerl · 6 years

Text

Post-Korra Avatar Fanficcy Thing

As I mentioned a while back, I’ve had these half-formed ideas for an AtLA/LoK “Next Avatar” sequel pretty much since Korra ended, but without any sort of firm story for the characters that I’ve created. Since these plotbunnies are hopping around my brain again, I’m gonna try to write things out just to see if that will a.) put the plotbunnies to sleep, or b.) help me get ideas for an actual fanfic (that I don’t have time to write anyway).

Keep going if you want to see a ridiculously long explanation of one fan’s stupid ideas.

Worldbuilding/Backstory/Whatever

Much has changed in the Avaverse since Avatar Korra beat Kuvira in her attack on Republic City. The Earth Kingdom/Empire is now called the Earth Confederacy, with a Parliament and Prime Minister running a bunch of semi-autonomous states. Technology has advanced in ways that I haven’t exactly figured out yet; maybe, like, 1950s-level? Also, everybody has last names now. Makes things easier to keep track of.

So, thirty years post-Kuvira, Korra goes on some sort of trip. I’m not sure why, where (maybe the Spirit World?) or what happened, but she vanishes, and all attempts to find her fail. This naturally causes some problems, because nobody knows if she’s alive or dead, and if she is dead, well, good luck finding the new Avatar in a continent-sized country when you don’t even know what birthday to look for. So yeah, we get a smaller version of the Aang-in-an-iceberg situation where people have no idea what’s going on with the Avatar cycle.

Cut fifteen-to-eighteen years later, and meet Keno Hiiragi.

Main Characters (and the Vague Narrative That Brings Them Together)

Keno Hiiragi (name somewhat subject to change) lives in Omashu with his widowed mother and twin sister. If Aang was the “spiritual” Avatar and Korra the “physical” Avatar, he’s the “intellectual” Avatar. He’s tall, gangly, bookish and introverted. He’s always had big plans for his life and tends to get moody and upset if things don’t work out like he expected.

Like when he’s worked his whole life to get good grades, won early acceptance to Ba Sing Se University, and then finds out that NOPE, it turns out that you’re the Avatar and have to spend the next decade or two learning to bend all of the elements.

(How does he find out? I’m thinking something dramatic happens, like a flood, and he winds up accidentally Waterbending to save someone. This naturally brings the White Lotus to his door.)

Oh, yeah---Keno already knew he was an Earthbender, but unlike his predecessors, he didn’t bother to master it by the time he hit puberty. Earthbenders learn it for their Physical Education requirement in school, but like most nerds, he dropped that class as soon as he could and faked a lot of injuries so that he could read in the bleachers. Basically, he’s just constantly rebelling against this whole situation, because he doesn’t want to learn anymore bending and why is bringing world peace his responsibility and askjsadkhjdfasknasd.

Which puts him in strong contrast to Mariko Hiiragi, his twin sister. While Keno was always bringing home perfect grades, she was an Earthbending jock who probably had a poster of Toph on her bedroom wall. The siblings bicker, but were relatively peaceful being prodigies in their separate fields. In fact, Mariko was accepted for training by the world’s greatest Earthbending master just as Keno got accepted into school! Accept HA HA no now they’re going to said Earthbending master together, because Keno gets special treatment even though he can barely levitate a rock and never practices and people are talking about how he’s going to be the best Bender ever in every element and---

(The Keno-Mariko rivalry is basically a much toned down version of Zuko and Azula. And it’s also ironic, because ultimately they wish the same thing---that Mariko was the Avatar instead of Keno. Mariko kind of unfairly blames him for the situation, but this would probably be an early subplot that gets resolved fairly quickly---no doubt one of them will save the other or they’ll team up to fight something and then resolve their differences. Then Mariko becomes his tutor or something. She’s probably more of the “B-Squad” of the new Team Avatar, though; she’ll join in the big battles but doesn’t travel around with Keno on his big world-spanning adventures.)

We also have Anling Soh, Keno’s childhood friend (and probably the person he saves in the aforementioned flood or whatever). She’s a Firebender, though she may not be very adept at it, having grown up in an Earth Confederacy city without any teachers. (I’m not sure if the similarities with season 1 Katara are a plus or a minus there.) She’s a lot more extroverted and calm than Keno but also extremely loyal to him, to the point where (despite his strenuous objections) she insists on accompanying him for his Avatar Earthbender training. He thinks his life is ruined, and dang it she's going to stick with him and give him some sense of normalcy until he finally gets over his freak-out.

Anling is Keno’s love interest, by the way. In contrast to both Aang and Korra, however, I don’t want to drag this out forever. Like, in “season one” of this story, Keno realizes that he has a thing for her, that her own playful flirting with him may be more sincere than he thought it was, and after one “episode” of conflicted “do I want to risk ruining our friendship” stuff they hook up. Then they’re just low-key dating throughout the rest of the story, with relatively little drama and mostly just acting the same as they did before.

So they’re off to Zaofu to see Sukru Beifong, the world’s greatest Earthbender, who happens to be the son of Zaofu’s mayor, Bolin, and his wife, Opal. He’s a decidedly tougher teacher than Keno would have preferred; the fact that he’s used to teaching the best of the best (like Mariko) and now has to teach an amateur isn’t helping matters.

In Zaofu we meet two more members of Team Avatar III: Bolin and Opal’s grandkids (from a kid other than Sukru). Shouta Beifong is the older of the two. He's an Airbender, but he’s decidedly less the “peaceful and spiritual” type and more “Toph as a male Airbender with Bolin’s physique,” prone to boisterous attacks, pranks and loud laughter. His younger sister, Hue Beifong, is a non-bender, but also kind of a psychopath. She regularly carries around ten-foot swords or Spirit-vine-powered bazookas and no that is not even remotely legal, she made them herself. She probably plans to become chief scientist of Varrick Global Industries someday, and will no doubt wind up in prison like her idol.

Okay, so now all we’re missing is a Waterbender! Admittedly, I haven’t figured out how to fit Nasak Innugati into the narrative as well as the others. I have multiple conflicting ideas of his ancestry: Foggy Swamp? Sokka’s descendant? Somehow related to Desna or Eska? In any event, he’s the apathetic/sarcastic member of our group who nobody really likes, but who cares about the others deep down.

We also need a team pet, which is a problem because Keno hates animals and is allergic to just about anything with fur. He manages to ignore everybody’s “no, seriously, every Avatar has some sort of spirit-bonded animal” thing for a while, but eventually he finds an injured baby viper bat and winds up carrying it around with him for a while. Then someone/-thing attacks him and he instinctively throws it at them, and the viper-bat winds up biting the enemy so hard that Keno can escape. He opts to keep the thing afterwards and names it Mulda (which is Korean for “bite,” if I’m getting my online translation right).

Other Characters (Including Old Favorites!)

As previously mentioned, Bolin and Opal live in Zaofu with their son and grandkids. Opal’s probably off doing Air Nomad things a lot of the time, though.

Based on an aborted Korra plotline apparently mentioned on the DVDs, Mako wound up with Fire Lord Izumi’s daughter Susila. He moved to the Fire Nation and eventually became the palace’s chief of security. He currently works to protect his great-nephew, the sickly ten-year-old Fire Lord Thahn, who probably gets kidnapped at some point so that Mako and Team Avatar III can team up to save him.

Asami continues to run Future Industries, and remains wistful about Korra’s disappearance. Finding out about/meeting Keno no doubt is a blow to her, since it definitively confirms that Korra’s dead.

(Side note: As a running gag, people keep telling Keno how “close” Asami and Korra were, and he repeatedly doesn’t get what they’re implying.)

Ikki and her husband Haneul are in the White Lotus and are in the group that finally tracks down Keno. He’s a non-bender and skilled at Chi-blocking. (They test Keno’s Earthbending skills by having him fight him. Keno loses in about three seconds.)

Jinora is now the leader of the Air Nomads. She and Kai are married. She runs the government, while he’s Air Temple Island’s main teacher (and has a Gyatso-esque tendency to teach his students how to cause trouble). They probably have some kids but I’ve not fleshed them out too much.

Meelo runs the Air Nomad military on his sister’s behalf.

I dunno what Rohan’s doing. I’ve always headcanonned him as a non-bender, though.

Desna and Eska are probably still alive and running the Northern Water Tribe. I guess Tonraq could still be alive in the South, and it’d provide some more character-building angst when Keno shows up.

Varrick is now an important member of the Earth Parliament, running the opposition to the current Prime Minister. His company is currently being run by Zhu Li and/or their daughter Dipika.

Toph is totally still alive. I mean, this may never come up, but I headcanon that she just lives in the wild now, beating up Death whenever he tries to claim her.

Plot???

I mean, I guess “what happened to Korra” is an obvious one. Team Avatar III must go and investigate? Maybe Keno can contact her spirit, despite being cut off from the other Avatars? The new villain was behind it?

The new villain is...someone? Maybe a non-bender? Or a spirit?

AtLA-style Evil Overlord or LoK-style Well-Intentioned Extremist? Something based on modern terrorism and/or Asian New Religious Movements?

Vague ideas about exploring the Earth Confederacy, particularly the conflict between its national government and semi-autonomous states? But conflict with no clear-cut right answers = headache.

Conclusion

This thing has been in my Drafts for like a year now, so I hereby release it into the wild.

#Avatar the Last Airbender #The Legend of Korra #Legend of Korra #AtLA #LoK #Next Avatar #The Legend of Keno

4 notes · View notes