#this was for my university and no payment and nothing off my tuition or anything!
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still mad that i worked for like 2 and a half months (and will be doing more) on a mural and they gave me nothing for it.
#this was for my university and no payment and nothing off my tuition or anything!#would love to get a screen tablet so i stop drawing on my phone...if they'd pay me#also still upset how the message on it was deemed inappropriate basically#it said 'believe in black excellence'. i go to a hbcu. which stands for. historically black college/ university#so! upset as hell#they also told me to lighten the skin of the figures#the board i have found out is also like all white.#and the president is colorist.#i shoulda went somewhere else ngl
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Zeke Yeager Week 1: Under the Sun
Event masterlist - Read Week 2 here
Note: I'm a day late to my only event🙂🙃 first ever Zeke oneshot I've ever written and then realised that he was such a *flowy* character to write for(?)
This fic has: University AU - platonic relationship - talks about daddy issues - (Y/n) makes Zeke try Boba
wordcount: 1204
Unlike her who carried around an umbrella at the side of her backpack on their walks to clear their minds after a morning of studying, Zeke confidently strutted at a pace that matched hers, his head facing up the sun and eyes closed. “It’s a free tan.” He reassured, feeling her stare on him.
“It’s also past ten, you’ll die.”
He finally turned to her, showing how red his cheeks quickly became. Slowing down, he buried his hands in his pockets, toying with the crocheted baseball she made him. “But I get to walk with you?”
“Point. Point.” Realising that he unintentionally walked quicker, Zeke stopped under the tree only to realise how sweaty he got. “This is also practice for when we get to hell.”
“What circle do you think we’ll end up in?”
Using a hand to pinch the fabric of his shirt, he fanned himself, staring into the distance to add anything to the silence she waited in.“Don’t you worry (Y/n), we’ll have a new circle just for daddy issues.” A concerned look, furrowed brows. Zeke thought that was his answer, then a sigh.
He obviously wasn’t seeing the way his sweat beads were falling like raindrops on his shirt. Pushing the umbrella to him, (Y/n)’s hand went into her backpack, looking for something as she walked before him, “You’re the beanpole here, hold that. And I’ll hold,” a pink electronic fan with plastic bunny ears was turned on. Providing some sorting of air to them. “This.”
So what if people thought they were a couple walking under the sun? (Y/n) was sure that she wasn't dealing with a possible heat stroke. No, there wouldn’t even be a possibility of heatstroke if they didn’t decide to walk under the sun.
Just two idiots walking under the sun. Just as the regular schedule of the program would go, one of them was about to ask the other,
“What did your father do this time?”
This time it was Zeke as if payment for her offering him her umbrella. She shrugged, “Whorin’ about in his social media, he says that it's only a friendly chat with his exes. My eyes say that he’s stuck in the eighties— peaked in high school. Yours?”
“Eh . . .”
“Oh c’mon,” a foot planted on the ground to balance her body as she nudged him with the force that was nothing at all “You’re not drunk, safe to assume you won’t cry. If you do cry . . . just pretend you’re sweating! Ea-sy.”
“Yeah, but makes me wanna smoke when I imagine his face.” And he didn’t want a repeat of what happened when they first went partying, him finally being comfortable enough to smoke in front of her only for their ‘milestone’ to end at the nearest hospital. Poor Zeke suffered the dirtiest of the dirty looks from nurses for causing his poor ‘girlfriend’ an asthma attack. “Remember what happened there?”
She nodded already knowing he thought about it too, the upward curve of her lip was cute to him, “Sucks having asthma,”
“Sucks having a dad—” Quick with a counterattack, also quick to cut herself off. “Point. I’ll do the ranting for you then,” she cleared her throat. Put a hand on her chest and in a voice he wouldn’t expect to come out of her said, “Why not a full-on scholarship? Dean’s list . . . that wasn’t in my expectations, I wanna see you go higher, Zeke. You proceeding to overwork yourself until your nose started bleeding,”
“Jesus, how do you remember that?” What he should be really asking how her throat didn’t hurt . . . he wasn’t risking a hearing a dirty joke— he’s got Miche and Levi to do that for him.
“I do not know, beansprout. And then, you started crying when you overheard your father dear go, ‘I’ll pay for Eren’s tuition when he gets into the National university of—’ whatever bullshit you said on the phone.”
“Oh, shut up, you were crying with me.”
“Because that was so mean, how can you not cry?”
“And, the fact that we can’t go anywhere without me being called Grisha’s son instead of my actual name.”
“I mean you’re Zeke to me,” though with (Y/n), who somehow was always able to pinch his heart, she would follow with something of the opposite said in the same breath. “And the first guy who knocked Miche out with a punch. A menace to Erwin when you accidentally kicked his torso—”
Another vivid memory. “It’s the fuckers fault for getting that cheap hotel room—”
“oh, a hotel . . .”
“(Y/n), you were there. That’s why we slept on the floor.”
“Yeah, but I fell asleep, maybe you did nightly activities . . .”
Slowly, he raised his hand, landing it above her neatly parted hair. “It was a fantastic night of naked wrestling, one I’ll never forget.” Fingers dug in her scalp as he playfully shook her, earning him the sounds of her yelling his name.
He only came to a stop when a family of three emerged out of the store they were in front of. Complaining of the heat and merely sparing them a glance. “You wanna stop here?”
“I’m okay if you’re okay,” she shrugged, tired from the heat to read the store’s name. It was only letters, colourful ones.
“What?”
“What?” No. Not one of those instances again. With eyes staring wide with nothingness, she admitted “I was following you.”
“Me?” Realisation set in his face too, eyes growing wide behind his glasses. “I was walking with you.”
“It’s a boba shop, let’s go in!”
“Never had it before.” He wasn’t in the place to object, already wanting to seek somewhere they could sit and relax in front of a standing AC. Her hand grabbed his wrist, tugging him toward the door.
“You’re having it today, Zeke.”
“This is . . .” confused he watched her aggressively shake hers, equally amused that the sealed plastic wasn’t exploding and scared that it would. Hair, slightly swaying with her
“Boba!”
Nodding, he leaned in closer. Even if he did put his glasses on, she’d still be on a violent rampage of shaking her boba. “Uh-huh, is shaking it like that necessary?”
“It’s an experience.”
“If you say so,” sitting still, she watched him shake. “Like this?” Without breaking eye contact with her he shook the cup, unsure if he was doing it correctly.
“And now we drink,” even in poking the straw in he still watched her, only doing it when she looked his way. “I feel like such a mom watching you.”
It was only (Y/n) he trusted around new things, so, without another thought he took his first sip of milky goodness.
Oh.
And then another. It was making sense why she would come to class with it in her left hand. Maybe he’d start doing the same thing, ask her for the places she bought her boba—
Until his eyes abruptly widened, pulled his cup away and the other hand searched the table for the stack of napkins as he crouched down. She patted his back, leaning to his level and opened her mouth to say,
“Yeah, that’s the boba part. You don’t swallow balls here—”
“(Y/n)!”
Taglist: @stigandr-the-cat @blondeboyfriend @ghost-party @sinnerofthewalls @rowsn
#nick writes fics#zeke jaeger#zeke yaeger x reader#snk zeke#zeke yeager x you#attack on titan zeke#attack on titan x reader#attack on titan fanfiction#aot fics#aot fic
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A Year in Forget-Me-Not Valley
Chapter Two
Al blinked in surprise at the man who flung the door open. At first glance, he looked nothing like the Daryl she had known. His once neat hair stood at all ends with a slight sheen of grease, indicating it had been unwashed a few days. The once brilliant white of the lab coat he was so proud to receive had seen better days. His clothes were frayed and mismatched down to his shoes. Beneath grimy glasses, black bloodshot eyes peered past her.
“They just abandoned you. Did anyone even help get you here? They have revolting behavior, as usual. Can you believe the first contact with them in years was to pawn you off? Heh, heh, they’ll see when my inventions overtake the city. Then they’ll want more from me than a bad example!” the rambling sounded like her cousin. “Are you coming in or not?”
“Yes! Sorry,” Al hurriedly dragged herself and her belongings into the lab. “Mother told me to give you this.”
She fumbled the thick bag from her back to offer Daryl. It was heavy with enough G to purchase at least one full year’s tuition at the university. The money would be more than enough to construct a new modern lab. Daryl’s current lab had cracked, yellow walls that had seen better days. There were faded explosions of color, making Al wonder what experiments had backfired. She figured Daryl would be happy to have money to upgrade his facilities, but his lip curled instead.
“Keep it; throw it in the river or ocean. I’m not taking their money. They’re only offering it as payment for you being an inconvenience,” Daryl’s speech cut off as Al winced. He sighed, hands running through his hair in frustration before awkwardly shuffling his feet. “Sorry, you’re not- I didn’t- I wouldn’t have done this for anyone other than you, Emy.”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything by it. You just know how our family thinks,” Al quickly reassured him. She was thrilled by Daryl’s awkward attempt at an apology. Despite changes to his appearance, Daryl was still another odd duck in the family. Though unlike her, he didn’t care if he failed their expectations and didn’t fit in their perfect plans.
“Right, well, your room is down here,” an embarrassed Daryl quickly steered her attention to an iron trapdoor in the room. “The space isn’t too large due to extra storage and the generator, but I’ve rearranged some bookcases to provide you with some privacy. There is constant light due to the power supply I have in place, so barring any surges, you won’t be in the dark. I usually sleep at my desk, but there is a new mattress. If you need anything else-”
“It’s perfect!” The space in the corner Daryl created for her was cramped and much smaller than her room at home. A haphazard curtain made a makeshift door from the end of a heavy metal bookshelf to a ring screwed into the wall. The soft blue light provided reassurance that she wouldn’t be left underground alone in the dark, terrifying herself with ghost stories.
“Great, then leave your things. You can unpack later; I’m late for an experiment, and you can help.”
Al hurriedly dropped her belongings and rushed after Daryl, who was surprisingly quick. She had barely reemerged in the lab to see him tapping his foot.
“Hurry, hurry. I wasn’t expecting you so early. There is only a small window of time to accomplish this. I’ll have to teach you the entry and exit codes for the lab later. There’s no time now,” Daryl ushered her from the door swiftly and secretively input a code on the keypad near his door before walking briskly ahead.
She hurried after his receding form. She wasn’t familiar with environmental science, but it had to be extremely important if it warranted such haste. She felt a rush that Daryl would trust her with such a delicate experiment when they had not seen one another in years. The town would still be there later to look around and maybe try to meet some of the curious faces she was sprinting past. Ahead, Daryl took a sharp left passing and walked casually onto a farm. He seemed familiar with the place.
“He must be helping the farmer here,” Al reasoned.
“Heh, heh, here we are. Quickly, quickly which would be the best one?” Daryl had paused at the pasture’s fence instead of going towards either of the houses. The large field only had sparse patches of grass for the two cows grazing within. Al fought a sinking feeling at the sight of them.
“Um, Daryl. Are you sure we should be-” Al started.
“Hey! Not again!”
“Tch! Foiled again,” Daryl muttered before hustling away, leaving Al behind with an angry girl about her age.
“Who are you supposed to be? Some assistant cow thief? I’ve already told him to leave them alone! I have enough going on without worrying about Elsie and Moolissa being used for weird experiments,” the brunette ranted as she approached Al.
“I’m sorry! I’ll try to speak with him about focusing on something else!”
“So, you are working with him?” the girl questioned, hands on hips and her brown eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“Kind of? I’m family, so he’s giving me somewhere to stay while I study environmental science under him. In return, I’m working with Daryl for the next year, but not as an official assistant. I just arrived today. I’m really sorry; I didn’t realize we were coming here. He’s done work in the past with crops at the university. He’s hated cows since we were kids. I’m sure once I tell him I won’t help, it will distract him while he makes new plans. I can’t promise Daryl won’t-” Al’s rambling cut off as the girl snorted.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. It’s just I can see the resemblance. Does rambling run in your family?” the girl heartily giggled. Al’s face flushed with heat at the comment, and she quickly looked away from the girl. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said something like that. I thought it was cute if it helps?”
“It’s okay,” Al mumbled.
“It’s not, don’t brush it off!” The girl’s exclamation and frown drew Al’s focus back to her. “Let’s just start over. My name is Pony. I just took over my dad’s farm a few weeks ago.”
“You can call me Al,” she greeted, shaking Pony’s outstretched hand.
“Great! I hope we can be friends!” Pony chirped. “I know! Let me introduce you to everyone in the valley tomorrow! I think I know almost everyone now.”
#story of seasons#harvest moon#story of seasons a wonderful life#bokujou monogatari#harvest moon a wonderful life#hm awl#sos awl#awl imagines#feel like Daryl might be off some#I need to get more comfortable with him#pony is gonna be a great friend though
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Dean still thanked Bobby every day for giving him a job at his store. Bobby would only respond with ‘shut up and stop thanking me ya idjit!’
But still, Dean was grateful. With Sam in his first year of college (Stanford Smart-Ass), even with a hefty scholarship, affording to live is still a bitch – especially in one of the most expensive states in the country.
So, on top of his job during the week as a TA at the local university, Dean picks up a couple shifts over the weekend at his Uncle Bobby’s vintage antique store.
Now, while Dean was extremely grateful, the gratefulness didn’t stop the fact that the job was boring as hell.
If you asked Dean, half the stuff in the store looked like it should be donated to Goodwill not be in a vintage store on sale for hundreds of dollars.
(It’s not that Dean didn’t understand the appeal of vintage items. He could appreciate a vintage beauty. His car was a prime example of that. However, despite what the price tags may say, none of this junk held a candle to his beautiful 67 Chevy Impala.)
The place was hardly heaving, even on weekends. And when customers did come in each interaction went one of two ways:
People brought in their old junk in an attempt to pass it off as some rare artefact. Trying to convince those people that what they thought was a valuable medal, passed down through generations may as well have come out of a Happy Meal was not Dean’s favourite way to spend his Saturday.
The second, and perhaps the worst, type of customer would be the rich, entitled people who come into the shop wanting to expand their collection of antiques (which Dean knew without having to visit their homes that they only purchase to show off their wealth and don’t particularly care where they come from). They could be buying a Victorian butt plug to display on their mantelpiece but wouldn’t care as long as it’s as old and expensive as possible.
Dean had a customer just last week who took hours trying to haggle on the price of an antique brooch, despite clearly being about to afford it at full price. If Dean didn’t need the job to support Sam he would have told the woman exactly what he thought of her. (Even Bobby had rules when it came to professionalism). Regardless, she was a total –
“I need a ring!”
Dean was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of a man entering the store looking pretty flustered – emphasis on the pretty.
The man made quick strides of the distance between the door and the counter where Dean was still stood – transfixed by the frankly beautiful man coming towards him.
The man stopped and let out a deep and calming sigh.
“I need a ring.” He repeated more smoothly.
Regardless of how he feels about the customers, no one could say Dean wasn’t awesome at his job. So he put on his best customer service smile, tried to ignore the things this man was making his body feel and silently thanked Bobby once again for this.
“Of course, Sir. Was there anything in particular you had in mind?”
The man frowned.
“Please. There’s no need to call me ‘Sir’. Just call me Castiel.”
Castiel. Angelic
Go figure.
“Okay, Castiel. Are you looking for any kind of ring in particular?”
As he spoke, Dean started to move towards the key box that held the key to unlock the glass cabinet, which housed all of their rings.
“Your most expensive if possible, please.”
Dean stopped in his tracks and looked momentarily at Castiel with wide eyes.
Not only is this dude hot as fuck, he’s rich as fuck too?
Dean was used to asshole rich people throwing their money around but even they had a limit. Coming in and asking for the most expensive ring before even seeing it? Dean didn’t care how gorgeous this guy was, or how blue his eyes were, or how rough his voice sounded, or how sharp his jawbone looked, or –
Anyway! This dude was clearly a douchebag so Dean wasn’t interested.
He opened the glass case and lifted out the most expensive ring, placing it delicately on a black cloth for Castiel to look at.
Castiel picked it up between his finger and thumb – inspecting carefully.
He seemed so quiet and unassuming – nothing like the normal wealthy douchebags Dean encountered. Maybe he got him wrong. Maybe he wasn’t so bad.
“Yes, I think she’ll like that one.”
Ah. So not a douchebag but definitely not single.
Dean sighed internally. That put an end to that before it even began.
Castiel dropped the ring back onto the surface and reached into his pocket for his wallet. Dean picked up the ring and carefully placed it inside the matching box. He was painfully aware that ring was worth more than he could earn in almost a year. Even if Castiel was single, Dean would never keep up with that amount of wealth.
He tried not to let the disappointment of Castiel’s impending engagement affect him – he was still just a stranger after all (a beautiful one at that his brain unhelpfully supplied). Dean plastered on his customer service smile.
“Would you like our complimentary cleaning cloth to help maintain its colour? We recommend cleaning it properly every week or so with this cloth as it is one of the older items in our collection.”
Castiel thought for barely a moment, “Sure.”
Gee, for a guy about to spend the rest of his life with the love of his life, he sure seemed uninterested in a pretty essential part of the process. This was just getting more and more depressing – and confusing.
Dean rushed to finish the transaction so he could get back to the normal status quo of the regular two types of customers and not a third who comes barreling in and turns his system upside down.
He finished the payment – Castiel barely flinched when Dean told him the price – and packed the ring carefully with the cleaning cloth into a gift bag.
“Thank you and I hope you and your soon-to-be fiancée have a wonderful life together.”
It pained Dean to say as he looked into Castiel’s eyes. Bobby should give him a raise just for the smile he was fighting to keep on his face.
As if Dean couldn’t take anymore, Castiel tilted his head and squinted his eyes making himself look adorable as hell.
“I’m not getting engaged.”
What?!
“What?”
“I’m not getting engaged.”
“B-but you just bought a really fucking expensive engagement ring!”
The confused part of Dean’s brain was overpowering the other part screaming ‘He’s not getting engaged – he might be single!’
“It’s for my mother.”
“Okay dude, you’re gonna have to walk me through this one. I mean, I love my mom but who drops that much on a ring for their mom?”
“My mother loves material things and good reputations – perhaps more than her own children. She has been rather angry with me for a few days so in order to ‘get back in her good books’ I needed to get the most expensive and oldest piece of jewellery I could. I see her tonight, hence why I was so flustered when I came in.”
Dean chose to ignore how adorable Castiel looked doing air quotes – his bran was about to explode.
“Ouch. What did you do to make her angry enough to need something as pricey as this?” Dean indicated to the bag he realised he was still holding out.
“My brother accidentally told her I’m gay.”
At this point, the other side of Dean’s brain finally took over.
DUDE HE’S NOT GETTING ENGAGED. HE’S PROBABLY SINGLE. AND HE’S INTO DUDES! ASK! HIM! OUT!
After a few prolonged seconds of Dean having an internal breakdown, Castiel started to look uneasy. Dean immediately recognised that uneasiness and managed to spit out a sentence that actually made sense.
“She’s angry at you for being gay? Sounds like a complete bitch to me.”
Dean realised what he’d said and instantly went to take it back but was stopped by the smirk on Castiel’s face.
“Oh don’t worry. She is. But as I said, she puts good reputations before her children and that means she’s paying for my law school. Well, what she thinks is law school.” There was that smirk again. Dean might just die. “I’m actually getting a degree in Education and Psychology. But I’ve got a year left so I need her to keep paying for my tuition. The day I graduate is the day I walk away from that family for good.”
Castiel held his head a little higher at that and Dean couldn’t help but admire the guy. Sucking up to a homophobic mom while tricking her into paying for the degree he wants? Frickin’ badass!
“Dude, I don’t know you from Adam, but, going on that ring alone, are you sure you could give up all that money?”
Castiel shrugged. “I’ve never been interested in it. I suppose that made me a bit of a black sheep. Add in the fact I’m gay, it pushed my mother over the edge. Hence the much too expensive ring.”
Wow. Was this guy for real?
Dean stood up from where he’d been leaning on the counter, listening with rapt attention. He put his hands in his pockets, looked down at a scratch in the counter top and looked up again slowly meeting Castiel’s eyes.
“So you’re not getting engaged?”
“Nope. Far from it, in fact.”
“You’re giving up the family money to live your own independent life?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re definitely into guys?”
Castiel smirked. “Yes. Very much so.”
“So… would you wanna go out some time? I promise it’ll probably be the cheapest date you’ve ever been on – I’m not exactly loaded myself.”
Dean avoided Castiel’s gaze, picking at the scratch on the counter.
A finger came out and lifted his chin, forcing him to meet Castiel’s eyes again.
“That sounds perfect. I’d love to go out with you but I do have one condition.”
Dean’s heart soared. He was starting to wonder where this guy had been all his life.
“Yeah?”
“Tell me your name.”
Dean threw his head back as a sharp, loud laugh burst through him.
The one day he forgot to wear his name tag. (He could hear Bobby’s ‘idjit’ ringing in his head.)
“It’s Dean.”
“Okay Dean, I’ll be out of town for a few days – to deliver the ring and reassure my mother that my brother was wrong, that her law school son is just looking for the right woman to settle down with.” Castiel rolled his eyes. “But when I get back I’d love to get burgers and see a movie or something?”
Dean’s smile could outshine the sun.
“Sounds awesome.”
* * *
A year later, they were all gathered in Dean’s garden celebrating Castiel’s graduation.
Since they met, Dean’s family had slowly started becoming Castiel’s too.
Now, Castiel was free from his biological family and was surrounded by his found family.
Dean was telling his Aunt Ellen the story of how they’d met but Castiel had zoned it out, focused only on looking at the beautiful man he got to call his.
“What a bitch!”
Castiel was drawn back into the conversation by Dean’s ‘cousin’ Jo’s outburst. Ah. They’re up to that point in the story.
Everyone in the group was looking at Castiel with sympathy and anger in their eyes.
Castiel shrugged.
“It’s fine. I used the family credit card to pay for the ring anyway. Plus I left with the most priceless item in that store anyway.”
The small crowd aww’d as Dean rolled his eyes and pulled Castiel in for a kiss.
This was my first fic since 2016 so please forgive if it’s a bit naff! I’m still re-finding my feet.
If you’d like to be tagged any of my future stuff just drop me a message and let me know. :)
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for the wip ask - 13) Help From Unexpected Places?
Sorry about the late reply! I ended up heading over to a friend’s house for Easter Dinner.
This takes place after season 3. Zac finds out that the spell that gave him legs was merely weakened back when he first got his tail returned to him and the spell has finally weakened and broken. So, he’s stuck and unable to get his legs back. He has to tell his parents everything because of the danger to the pod and they don’t take it super well. As in, they don’t want him to leave and transfer him to their pool. Chlorine isn’t good for gills or fish of any kind.
* * *
Zac couldn’t believe this was happening. The spell that had granted him legs wasn’t fully broken that night a year and a half ago, it was only weakened. If he had known that such a thing as magical backlash existed, he wouldn’t have spent all that time applying to colleges and worrying about what to major in. As it was, when the spell broke, he was trapped in his tail. There was nothing to be done. Mimmi tried to recast the transformation and failed. They tried at the moon pool, too. Since no one knew what Nerissa did to give him such a complete transformation, they only had theories to work with. The most likely was magical backlash. He was born a merman and the permanent transformation held him in an unnatural state for 15 years. There was no balance, no break, no reprieve in that entire time. The spell might have held on if it wasn’t weakened when he fell into the moon pool, or it might have broken suddenly on its own. No one was certain of anything except for the fact that he had a tail for an undetermined amount of time, so he’d better get used to it.
He had played it off as a spontaneous camping trip to his parents. One phone call from Cam and they were clear for the weekend. The mermaid council had been supportive of him attempting to get his legs back. It would cause significantly less complications for him to continue living as he had been. But, even with their support and help, he was no closer to walking than he had been when his tail forced itself free in the middle of Rita’s grotto.
Veridia and the rest of the council addressed him, “Zac, we believe that the magic that forced you into your human form is doing this. It’s demanding the balance that has long been denied.” The council shared a look that set Zac on edge. “It’s possible that it will demand full payment. You spent a little more than 15 years as a land-boy. The magic may require you to spend the same amount of time as a merman. We are hopeful that the year and a half you lived with your tail might reduce the time, but -”
Zac swallowed and blinked. His chest hurt and pressure built behind his eyes. The future he had planned for himself vanished. Fifteen years. He would be into his 30s. Merpeople didn’t seem to age as quickly as humans, but it wouldn’t matter. By the time he would be able to stay on land again, the human world would fundamentally change. And Evie. He had thought that maybe after college he could ask her to marry him. There was no way he could ask that of her now. And his parents. He would have to tell them something. He couldn’t just vanish off the face of the earth. He had records on land. As far as the Australian government was concerned, he was Zac Blakely recent high school graduate and future college freshman. His parents had already paid the tuition, so Griffith University was expecting him to show up in a couple of months.
“The council feels that it would be irresponsible to not tell your adoptive parents anything. If they decide to search for you, it would lead the land people directly to the Pod. You are being given permission to tell them everything they need to know and understand that you are safe.”
Zac’s heart beat erratically. He had kept the secret from them for so long that he couldn’t figure out what he was feeling.
“We understand if it takes some time to approach them, but you must tell them. The sooner the better.”
Zac swallowed, but could only muster a mumbled, “Thank you, Veridia.”
The head of the mermaid council nodded and vanished beneath the surface.
Zac startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“Thanks, Mimmi. But, I think I need to do this on my own.”
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Dan the Personal Assistant Epilogue
1038 words
on ao3
~Part 13~
“Wake up, boy.”
Dan groaned, sprawling his body to Phil’s side of the bed.
“Do you want a spanking?” Phil chided, buttoning up his own shirt.
Dan made a sound that was like a whine, but it was muffled into the pillow.
“What was that?” Phil lightly smacked his butt through the blanket.
“No Sir,” Dan grumbled, finally sitting up.
“Hey, at least you don’t actually have to go anywhere,” Phil kissed his forehead, “I wish I could stay home and work here with you.”
“I wish you could stay here with me too,” Dan pouted, looking downright precious as he rubbed his eyes.
Dan dragged himself out of bed to walk Phil to the door. They kissed goodbye and Phil left for work. He opened the blinds and let the morning light warm the home - their home. He was still amused by the spiderman on the cord, and didn’t think he’d ever lose the humour for it.
After their New York trip, Phil had asked him to move in with him. It was harder than he’d thought to part with his simple and empty tiny apartment. He’d still had the mindset that he didn’t deserve what he’d consider high-class living in Phil’s penthouse. He’d never get used to it, he’s a simple guy, he’d thought. But he’d be mad to want to stay in an empty bed alone at night when he could be wrapped in Phil’s warmth instead. About a year later, and he’s settled in great. Phil always told him that he used to keep decorating this place yet it never felt complete, until Dan moved in. Now, Dan added on to their growing knick-knack collection, making this - their - place as whole as it could be.
He got dressed and had a quick breakfast before going to the office room. He’d been so afraid of what the future held once he was ‘laid off’ as Phil’s assistant. But Phil made sure he had nothing to worry about. Phil guided him to find his interests. He’d thought he’d never have passion in anything. He’d viewed himself as a failure ever since he dropped out of university anyway.
Phil was so kind that he broke down and told Phil that Phil didn’t deserve to have a boyfriend this dependent on him. But Phil wanted to take care of him, and Dan had no choice but to learn to embrace being taken care of.
Dan didn’t have the qualifications to work in the field he liked, so Phil signed him up for a part-time degree. It was easier for Dan to handle after a bad university experience. He liked that half of the course was online and the pace was slower so that he had time to do other things.
Things like getting a job.
Phil had insisted he could help Dan with the tuition fees.
“You’re my boyfriend, not my ATM,” Dan had retorted.
He had quite a sum from his stint as Phil’s assistant to pay off the fees, but he still wanted to be useful and help with his share of the house bills. So he worked whenever Phil was at work too and he didn’t have classes; it was better than staying home alone anyway.
His online class lasted for 3 hours, and though he loved his new course compared to his previous attempt at a degree, school was still school and he wanted nothing but a nap sometimes.
But he stayed at his desk and worked on his assignment instead. He’d asked Phil to help him - make sure he woke up for his lessons, didn’t procrastinate his assignments, studied for his tests. He did not want to fail his second attempt at school. Phil took the role very seriously. Sometimes Dan found it cute how Phil, an accounting graduate, tried to help him with psychology notes. Other times, it was less cute when Phil threatened to spank him or lock his dick for weeks if he didn’t study. But Dan had asked him for such help, and he was glad that he had Phil for some kind of kinky discipline.
Sometimes, he’d procrastinate on purpose just to get that spanking, but he would never tell Phil.
This time though, he made sure he finished his assignment before he had to leave for work.
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“Nice to see you’re finally early for once,” Frank said, rather surprised as he took his seat across the table from Phil in the coffee shop.
Phil was already buried in his laptop, preparing the documents he wanted to share with Frank. He huffed at Frank’s comment, but didn’t rebut it. His cup was already half empty, indicating to Frank that he’d left the office and was sitting here for a while before lunchtime already. Surprisingly, it wasn’t caramel macchiato like what Frank would’ve expected Phil to drink.
Frank glanced at the counter, and nothing was surprising anymore.
“Ahh, you got the seasonal special drink from the special barista, did you,” Frank smirked.
Phil rolled his eyes, but he smiled anyway. “He can make you one too.”
Before Frank even ordered, his special coffee came his way.
“On the house,” Dan smiled at Frank, the same way he’s given Frank’s drink every time they came here for lunch or work while his shift was on.
Frank had insisted to pay lots of times, but to Dan, no amount of free coffee could ever repay how Frank had helped him and Phil back in New York.
“It’s the least I can do,” Dan would always answer as he refused payment.
“I was only being a snoopy busybody,” Frank had moped the first time, as he put his card back into his wallet. These days, he’d cheekily offer to pay just to see Dan get annoyed about how it’s the hundredth time I’m telling you, Frank, you don’t have to!
“Thanks, love,” Phil replied before Frank could this time, “see you at home later tonight.”
Dan all but beamed at him. Who would’ve known he’d end up here, happier than he could ever remember with everything he’d ever need and a love he’d never dreamed of getting, all because he accidentally sent a wrong - not to mention incredibly embarrassing - job application video?
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The end :,)
When I wrote the summary as “But what happens when he accidentally sends a wrong video?” I never thought it’d end up this way either lmao.
This fic was born solely because of a prompt sent in which made me want to write office smut and nothing more. But somewhere along the way, between irl dan & phil coming out, me graduating uni and starting a proper job and losing free time to write, and the occasional discussion on the morality of writing phansmut in a post-coming out universe, I just kinda lost the motivation to write this.
But I hate abandoning fics, I know the feeling as a reader of one too many abandoned WIPs. I tried continuing but I started hating this fic, I never (still don’t tbh) understood how this ended up one of my popular ones. I can’t read back on this work because I can pinpoint the exact moment I lost inspiration/motivation and had no idea where the hell I was going with the fic lol, and wished I wrote those parts differently.
Then it took a whole pandemic for me to finally have free time off work so I decided to give this story another try. This resulted in the story having such a prominent shift from the beginning parts (to me anyway, a lot of you have reassured me that the story still flows well, thank you for that because I can’t bear to re-read and see things from my perspective lol). And I started having a bit more fun with it again, learning to write a bit more plotty things instead of pure smut.
I hope I did this fic some justice. It may not have been what I had in mind when I started it, but I can say I’m quite glad with how it turned out in the end :) For what’s originally meant to be only a smut work, it sure got me reflecting a lot lmao. I guess it’s because so much has changed in the past 2 years - like, imagine telling Me who was writing Chapter 1 that Dan would come out in a few months and confuse my whole conscience on writing phansmut lmao???
And thank you so much for still reading despite the long breaks and everything in between. All your interactions with the fic, every like, reblog and ask, were the main thing motivating me to even continue! It really does make me happy to see that there are so many of you who enjoy this (totally not worthy imo lol).
I don’t know what 2021 has in store in terms of fic writing, but I hope you stick around if I ever do come up with new works :) And if you have an idea you’d like to share with me, please do!! This fic wouldn’t have been born if not for a prompt after all :)
Thank you and I hope the remainder of 2020 will treat you kinder than the rest of the year had been <3 (wow this is a long end note lmao)
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hello lovelies ! i’m bøffy , i’m 20 years old , prefer she/her pronouns , and currently reside in the pst timezone ! uhh . . . i am posting this intro at nearly 5 AM my time , and i would be almost willing to bet it’s littered with errors and it’s . . . probably a bit all – over – the – place since this is very much a new muse ! however , with that being said , if you give this a like , i will definitely contact you via tumblr ims or d!scord ( 𝓲𝓷𝓱𝓪𝓵𝓪 / 𝓮𝔁𝓱𝓪𝓵𝓪#1384 ) to plot !
[ jasmine brown . 21 . cis female . she/her ] just saw MALEAH AMICK dragging their suitcase up the steps to CABIN 1B . good luck living with HER , i hear that that they’re INDECISIVE , FORGETFUL , SOCIABLE & CREATIVE . Apparently they’re the ATTACKING MIDFIELDER . let’s hope the upcoming season doesn’t affect their JUNIOR year of ART EDUCATION .
STATS:
name: maleah amick .
nickname(s): leah .
age: twenty one .
gender identity: cis female .
pronouns: she/her .
sexual orientation: bisexual / biromantic .
birthday: 26 february 1999 .
zodiac sign: pisces .
myer-briggs: esfj .
pinterest: coming soon !
HISTORY:
born on the 26th of february 1999 in orlando , florida , maleah was the youngest of the three amick siblings . her mother worked as a prestigious board – certified pediatric surgeon at a local children’s hospital , and her father worked as a high school mathematics teacher and volunteered as the school’s unpaid soccer coach , a move that saved the program from ending due to budget cuts ( he claims he was roped into the position as a first – year teacher with no seniority , but while he’s reluctant to admit it , he eventually grew a passion for the sport he had previously known little about ) .
with her mother’s long shifts and emergency work – related calls , she ultimately became closer to her father and two older brothers while growing up . most knew her father as a man who towered over them at 6’7” , ordering his team to run laps or practice drills ; however , maleah knew him as the man who would crawl around the living room floor playing barbies with her or would prepare fruit and herbal teas as she twirled around dressed as a princess , declaring it time for a royal tea party . just as easily , she could be found exploring the great outdoors or playing whatever sport was currently in season alongside her brothers .
she practically followed in her brothers’ footsteps . as they approached high school , each brother chose one sport to specialize in , hoping to secure a position on a college team and eventually on a professional team . maleah did not have professional athletic goals , but although she had immaculate grades with limited effort put towards academics , she knew extra – curricular activities were important for college applications . thus , when it was maleah’s turn to choose which sport to pursue , rather than having to weigh the pros and cons and make her own decision ( or perhaps , fearing that she would make the wrong decision ) , she simply chose the sport that her brothers had previously chosen : soccer .
her high school coach knew the perfect position for maleah . years of informal practice with her brothers in the backyard had enhanced her skills . she had learned how to evade skilled high school defenses by pretending as if she was heading in one direction before bolting in the other . soccer was one of the few areas in life in which she possessed enough knowledge to make quick and effective decisions ; she could read the field and immediately determine the best course of action : dribble , pass , or shoot . ultimately , she possessed the vision and the creativity necessary to secure playmaking and goal-scoring opportunities for her team .
with a line of college scholarships , both academic and athletic , waiting for the attacking midfielder’s choice ( unfortunately , none from either of the schools her brothers played for ) , the time came for maleah to make a decision . as deadlines for summer practices , class registration , and tuition payments crept closer , she finally determined a means of deciding . she numbered her offer letters , 1 through 13 , and allowed a random number generator to make the decision for her . thus , mere chance ( or perhaps fate ) led maleah to hollis university .
her first semester at hollis was . . . rough , to put it lightly . while most freshman shed a few tears as they watched their parents’ car drive off into the distance , homesickness lingered in maleah’s life . coasting through high school with limited effort had done her zero favors ; with no effective study skills , her grades dropped dramatically . between soccer and trying to salvage her grade point average , a social life was virtually out of question . ultimately , she found herself on academic probation , unable to play soccer , for her second semester of freshman year at hollis .
luckily , she was able to develop effective study habits , and even discovered along the way that maybe pre – med was not the best major for her . when asked what she wanted to do , maleah gave an entire list of generic answers – “i want to help people” and “i want to make a difference” came up quite often , but nothing specific enough to point her in the right direction . thus , she changed her major almost every semester , desperately seeking for the right fit . in the meantime , though it took several letters petitioning her temporary removal from the team , she was able to resume playing soccer during her sophomore year .
as junior year approached , maleah was almost certain that she was back in her coach’s good graces – no longer viewed with a sense of skepticism . she had proven herself capable , finding her name on the dean’s list nearly every semester and assisting her team in numerous wins throughout the soccer season . however , with hollis’ soccer teams’ restructuring , maleah can’t help but question if her coach views her as a valued athlete or a liability .
PERSONALITY:
two words : social butterfly . almost to a fault . even if someone has expressed quite literally zero interest in talking to her / getting to know her , she will still make an attempt . kind of a . . . people – pleaser , in a sense , she just wants to be well – liked ?
avoids ! conflict ! at ! all ! costs ! generally just . . . tries to avoid people or situations that upset her . not very prone to like . . . yelling or crying , but those close to her can definitely sense a change in her demeanor when she’s upset ? just . . . a lot more tense , probably lots of eye – rolling and just . . . subtle , quiet signs that she is over whatever the problem is .
kinda . . . chill , mellow , easygoing ? she very much lives in the moment , and tries not to stress too much about the future . always down for a drink , a party , whatever – genuinely just around for some fun and some friends !!!
the kind of person who genuinely gets excited over like those fun facts and jokes that are on popsicle sticks and whatnot – absolutely must share the information with everyone within earshot . honestly , those jokes are very . . . on point with her own personal sense of humor jflakdsj .
HEADCANONS:
she suffers from a terrible case of youngest child syndrome . ultimately , without guidance , she’s terribly irresponsible . she’s always having to run extra laps because she sets her alarm too late to make it to morning practices on time . she’s always receiving overdraft fees for spending more money than is available in her checking account . forgets everything – from homework assignments to names to grabbing her keys before locking the door on her way out . just . . . imagine a child asking for an adult’s help and her looking around until she comes to the realization that “ oh , shit , i am an adult ” .
she’s practically always doodling – in the corners of notebooks , on napkins while eating lunch , on her clothing , on her own skin . she loves making art , particularly drawing or painting portraits or nature . ( ultimately , she only decided to incorporate this into her choice of major after hollis threatened to not allow any further changes to her major ) .
she has a . . . unique sense of style . she has a passion for thrifting and upcycling . practically lives in hoodies and t – shirts that she has purchased from secondhand stores and cropped herself . always adding cool iron-on patches to her clothing . she should be listed as your emergency contact if you’re prone to ripping your clothing because she can definitely fix it .
she probably thinks she’s good at trash-talking on the field , but she actually sounds like a second grader ( and that’s being kind ) . if you looked at her browser history , there’s probably at least one record of her actually googling “ best soccer trash talk ” .
CONNECTIONS:
friends !! friends she’s met through courses throughout her adventures of attempting every major possible , mayhaps soccer friendships that continue off the field , mayhaps that complicated emerging new friendship state for some who are new to hollis ! unlikely friends ! best friends !!! quite literally those unbreakable ride – or – die friendships !
muses !! i feel like every artist needs that little dose of inspiration , even if it’s simply the inspiration of a work – in – progress portrait throughout the duration of camp ! complaints of “ stop moving ! ” and her stopping every ten minutes to ask what they think and probably at some point , her flinging a brush dripping of paint in their direction (if things didn’t end in an all – out paint fight djlfakds ) .
enemies !! honestly i’m sure there is ?? so much ?? potential for this , bt . . . mayhaps someone’s just . . . fed up w her irresponsibility ? thinks she doesn’t take her soccer position seriously ? maybe someone doesn’t think she takes anything seriously ( they wouldn’t be . . . wrong tbh ) . maybe someone from cali takes that “ california vs florida ” feud a little too seriously jflskdja . idk there’s always bound to be personality clashes !
exes !! relationships that ended badly , so she actively tries to avoid them and who even knows what happens when she’s forced to acknowledge their existence at some point at this camp !!! maybe relationships that ended on mutual terms so they’re still p chill with each other ?? maybe ended relationships that never quite got closure so there’s still unresolved feelings !!
hook-ups !! they are . . . college students . they are . . . college students stuck at a camp all summer . idk i feel like this one is pretty self – explanatory jflakds .
honestly i am tired & want to sleep , bt genuinely i am up for & open to anything ! good influences , bad influences , unrequited crushes , requited crushes , idk the world is y(our) oyster !! these are . . . rlly just some ideas to get the whole process started bc i am actually terrible at . . . thinking of plot ideas on the spot . always open to jst . . . doing a thread and seeing how things naturally flow too !
#hollis.intro#i . . . don't know what most of this is#it is jst#almost 5 am now actually i need sleep#also too lazy to log on to my other account to access my other gifs so :) this is what we have to work with for the time being jflaksdj
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Opinion Series
To my fellow young adults, with much frustration, it appears that we have inherited a world on fire. Our generations from the Millennials to the Generations Z, we all are faced with the unjustified burden of cleaning up the messes made by the generations before us. The student debt crisis is a primary example of one of many very difficult situations forced on to us because of our parents and their parents' parents made poor decisions. The U.S, as we know, is currently $1,5 trillion in student debt and it all started with the "Space Race." After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the U.S. government passed the Defense Education Act of 1958 to encourage students to attend university by mainly offering federal loans since they thought that too many scholarships were considered “free rides” and having the students focus on learning science, math, and foreign languages with the hopes of beating our opponents and it did work, The number of students attending colleges nearly doubled within the next decade When we fast forward nearly 70 years, we see that student debts have only increased and the Department of Education has become one of the largest banks in America in regards to loans. How disgusting is it that our government, let alone, the Department of Education, was never meant to be a bank so we have to instead, outsource management to Loan Servicers. The comedian, Hasan Minhaj, best describes these companies as part of a “multi-billion dollar predatory industry that ruins lives” and Navient is one of the largest and worst debt collection companies in the nation. They have been accused of abusing military members, double-charging borrowers, and in 2017 they were sued and accused of systematically misdirecting borrowers into types of forbearance, which disqualified them from a Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which is a program that offers public servants (think around the lines of firefighters and crossing guards) to have their outstanding federal student loans forgiven if they meet the requirements. Navient's web-page literally states that "We help our clients and millions of Americans achieve financial success through our services and support." but they are like any business and they only care about making a profit and our government has done very little to regulate these companies. So many lives have been ruined by this issue that it can feel like there is nothing we can do. Well, I say enough is enough! For too long we have been criticized for making the nation worst, for being too focused on comfort, and the media and the government have constantly berated us for having socialistic views, that are “un-American” but the reality is that the previous generations have failed us. Their way of handling the student debt crisis is not working. So many of our peers no longer cares about continuing education. For some, going to college is like getting a pool in your backyard. It is definitely something nice, but it is not really worth it. Thee thing about that concept is that the pursuit of knowledge obviously holds more value than a freaking pool. The student debt crisis is much more like a dam is holding back so much water that it is going to burst soon and if we don't do anything about this issue, we are going to drown.
As a parent, it is only natural to want your child to be happy. You make constant sacrifices for them only because you want your children to have a better life than what you, yourself had. For many years parents have thought that in order for their children to succeed in life, they need to get a good education so they can get a good-paying job and then they can live a happy, healthy, and meaningful life. There is nothing wrong with thinking that way, as a Pennsylvania mother, June, felt as well, while she encouraged her daughter’s ambition to study out of state at New York University. (Hsu, Student Debt Is Transforming the American Family.) Her daughter studied diligently with the financial support of her mother June and her father as well as assistance from a couple of loans. By then end of her daughter's education, her daughter was looking forward to chipping away at loans while starting a career dedicated to bettering the life street vendors as she chose to study the effects of globalization on an urban space at NYU. You can imagine how proud June was of her daughter. However, when her daughter got a job offer that could actually pay off her now outstanding debts, her daughter, unfortunately, found that the job went against the very principles she held and studied in college. Now June’s daughter is faced with a difficult scenario as she has to pay off her loans but the only job she found that paid well enough was immoral, and her mother June cannot do anything about it. Right now, numerous families in our nation are in this situation. The student debt crisis is endangering the well-meaning efforts of families and it is only rising. College tuition has only been rising for years and the economist, David Klein, wrote an article where he briefly explains the challenge our children can face when they graduated college, where he states “Some students are able to land jobs after graduation with salaries that justify the monthly student loan payments, but others are not able to do so, rendering their student loans a particularly heavy burden.” Countless parents and students are faced with this harsh reality, as more and more graduates move back home with their parents since it is too expensive to move out on their own, get married, or even start a family. (ONeil, Overcoming the Student Loan Crisis) Student loans work well when the students are able to get high enough paying jobs that can eventually pay back the loan and still support themselves and their future families, otherwise their lives may be placed on hold. Now imagine if that was your own child who could not move forward with their lives just because they chose to get a proper education and there is not much you can do. It is in situations like this where people can feel hopeless, but that is not the case, as there are many dedicated politicians that are trying to pass legislation to change this situation, and it is all up to us to be active fight for reforms not just for our sakes, but for our children and their children.
My fellow Americans, I am in awe of our wondrous nation. In such a short amount of time, we have grown exponentially, especially whenever we have been faced with a challenge. As we look back to the past and remember when the world was fundamentally changed on October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik, which was the first artificial Earth satellite the world has ever seen. While this was a momentous occasion for mankind and spoke well of our ingenuity as a species, our nation, the United States of America, was in a panic. Compared to our Cold War rivals, we were lacking in science, technology, languages, and all other aspects of education. It seemed impossible for us to catch up with the Soviets. In a way, we were at the bottom of the ninth, and it looked like the Soviet Union was going to come out victorious. In retaliation, our congress came together and passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958 or also known as the "NDEA," which was the first time our nation offered federal loans and scholarships to encourage enrollment in colleges, which not only shaped our government’s role in education as college enrollment increased fifteen-fold. This act also lead to us landing the first man on the moon. (National Defense Education Act of 1958, 85th Cong.) In the face of adversity, our nation has stood tall and withheld its value. Today, we are once again faced with an enormous challenge. After passing the NDEA, the U.S continued to give loans to college students, and while it did lead to increased enrollment, the Department of Education is more or less the largest bank in terms of loans, and the national student debt is at an all-time high standing at $1.5 trillion and rising. There are hundreds of thousands of borrowers that are being rejected from debt forgiveness programs due to being misled by third-party loan servicers or a general lack of education for these programs. (Friedman, Zack. “Why 100,000 Borrowers Were Rejected For Student Loan Forgiveness.") Our nation is also separated as many politicians and their constituents are stuck idly arguing over reforms. This debt crisis is also affecting us on a global scale. This is better explained as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) did an article on the top ten most educated countries in the world with Canada being ranked first as more than fifty-five percent of the population being college-educated and the U.S. is ranked sixth with not even having forty-six percent of the nation being considered educated. Basically, we are no longer the top nation in the world. We are not leading the world in innovation as we once were and we are still being crushed by student debt. While many us feel hopeless in this situation, now is not the time to give up. Just as we pushed ourselves in the Space Race, we need to actively push ourselves once again to make long-lasting policy changes so that we can continue to encourage secondary education and make sure that our fair nation and that we can once again rise up and remind, not just the world, but ourselves that we are capable of overcoming any trial in our way, because this is America.
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Hello, students of all ages! Since I graduated, I knew that I wanted to share advice with you guys and it will cover from studying to life and everything in between. So here it is, enjoy!
School:
Figure out what school works for you and your life: This is probably the first thing I normally tell people. Researching the schools that you want to go help narrow down your choices. Make sure that reading details carefully is also important for full understanding. There may be schools that offer specific majors that others may not, so make sure that there’s a full understanding of what the schools offer before making a decision.
Find out your major (and it’s okay to change it later): Knowing of what to major in can be difficult for people to narrow down. There are some people that double major in their college career. If you’re unsure of what to major in, try thinking of what career field you want to be in and find the major that is required. Remember, you choose how you live your life, even choosing your major.
Know what expectations are for the classes you’re taking: Not every professor will be laid back or chill. The work can be difficult and hard to understand. Make sure that on syllabus day you are focused and take notes on the syllabus for later use. As long as you are trying in the class and talking to the professor, you should be fine. Getting a tutor does not make you any less than you are now (I had to have a tutor for my last quarter to help with my French. Was it degrading? No, not one bit. Did it help? Yes.) Talk to some people you may have the class with, join or create a study group. Everyone is in the class with the same goal: to learn.
Find a group, club, or organization to join: This one was a bit hesitant for me because being an introverted person (well, extroverted introvert), it took me until my junior year of college to join something I was passionate in doing. (I’m not going to lie, I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to do until late sophomore year into junior year specifically anyway). I found an organization, Her Campus, that helped me do what I love: writing/editing and helped me learn the skills I needed to learn. I knew that I wanted to work in magazines by the time of me finding HC and when it was brought to Tech (Louisiana Tech University), I knew I had to do it. Since then, I got the opportunity to make my work published through an official online blog that can be seen nationally and internationally, work with the best girl gang on campus, and be able to see what I could create.
Find different study tactics to help you: Ever since I created this studyblr, I found different study tactics: from printables to schedules and everything in between. My go-to for studying were printables. I used ones from @theorganisedstudent ‘s essay planner (I swear by these because I majored in English and used these for every paper I wrote), weekly planner (to help with planning out commuting times, working, and study schedule around class times). I used @studyquill ‘s To-Do List, I constantly used this to make sure I kept track of all assignments and due dates and everything that popped up like random assignments to thought like “ extra credit assignment”. @emmastudies has a lot of wallpapers (which are adorable and amazing) I use those 100 percent of the time. The calendars are chic and available as well, I use the yearly ones. I see in the Studyblr community that people use the bujo templates for journaling, calendars, lists, etc. I didn’t have the skillset, time/patience to try it, but I may over the summer to see how it can turn out. I worked at a ratio of studying for 45 minutes and taking a break for 15 minutes. This helped me stay focused and know when to take a break without thinking about stopping. Remember that everyone is different and use what works for YOU.
Take classes that you’re interested in: When you take classes that are interested in helps make learning fun. Now, there are required classes that are not in your interests and that happens. Try to find something that makes the course interesting. I would watch documentaries for history classes and watch videos (typically short Youtube videos) for psychology. This also helped me with troubling subjects as well.
ALWAYS be prepared: the most important thing I did at the beginning of the quarter I would gather all the info I was giving off the syllabi and make a checklist. My checklist would have “electronics (computer, phone, maybe iPad) and chargers, planner, books, homework assignments, snacks/lunch, and headphones”. I brought these items with me every time I went to school. Now I wasn’t perfect, I still forgot things and I tried to make sure if I had extra chargers or headphones, I put them in a bag or specific holder (similar to this holder). For paperwork of any kind, I kept them in folders of some sort and kept them where I could find them. When I was a freshman, I didn’t receive a curriculum sheet (the paper that had the class requirements) for my major (this was before I transferred) until the last semester before transferring. Since then, I’ve always kept a copy of one for myself and had it with me when I would go to advising for classes. It helped me keep track of what classes I needed to take and where I was at in my schooling. Review notes the night before, even if it’s right before you go to bed. Some professors require that you do the assignments before you get to class and it happens. Merge both previous notes and upcoming assignments in the same time frame to help make sure that you remember the last class’ lesson plus know about the new lesson. Try to plan ahead as best as you can in every way you can. Remember: not everything goes as planned, and there are more letters in the alphabet :)
Find a friend or two in each class: a trend at my university was making a GroupMe chat (or a chat of some kind) for classes in case we needed information. I’ve made a few friends in college and I even made friends with people internationally. Don’t stress over this factor cause sometimes it just happens. If you want to start a friendship or know someone, ask them about something in the class or about their major. This is a common icebreaker for college students. I also made friends with my professors because they were understanding, amazing, and open to helping students out.
Make a studying playlist: the best way to study is with classical/instrumental music because it keeps you focused and it won’t cause distractions. You can find playlists on Youtube, Spotify, and Pandora. Even create one for yourself. Music like soundtrack scores can also help
Look for internships and jobs ASAP: always be on the lookout for jobs, internships, even ask around to job shadow to see if you would like the career path. I found internships and I job shadowed while I was in school and it helped out tremendously. I did mine through Her Campus here.
Find your favorite spots on and off campus: there will be days when you’re going to be studying. Sometimes, being cooped up in your room doesn’t help you focus. Find a place that you’re comfortable being in: a coffee shop (mine was off campus), a student center, a place outside, anywhere where you can enjoy your surroundings and help you study. This can also be a sort of “time out” spot as well. If you have two places you like to be in, you can pick one to be a study spot and the other can be a wind-down spot.
Be realistic with yourself: know yourself, know the workload and responsibilities that are at task. If you can’t handle it, find ways to break it down and handle it. If it gets overwhelming, reevaluate yourself and your situation. College is NOT easy, it will test you and push you to become better- that’s the point.
Change is not always a bad thing: change can be scary and it can either push you to be better or scare you. Pick your decision on if the change will scare you or let it push you.
Know everything you sign up for: Financial aid, work-study, any contracts, etc. Know everything about anything that you sign up for because you want full awareness of the situation. You don’t want to be in a situation where you don’t get what you need or end up owing more than what you bargained for.
Keep receipts of EVERYTHING: when I got my first debit card, I was told to keep my receipts for bookkeeping. If there were a situation where I would need to return something, you would have the receipt. I use this method for everything in my life from keeping my bank statements in a binder to keeping up with any large payments like tuition payments. It helped me keep up with everything I needed to. If you feel like you should have a copy of something, ask for one. Never doubt your gut.
Look for deals on textbooks: there’s always somewhere where textbooks are cheaper. I used the school’s bookstore, Chegg, and Thriftbooks- these were all lifesavers.
Life:
It will not always be perfect: when I graduated from high school, I pictured that I would immediately jump into university like people would do in movies and books. Despite my efforts (and an endless amount of money and time in tutoring), I found myself not going into university and was able to go to community college (side note: there is nothing wrong with community college. If you are in this predicament, you are doing amazing and there is no shame in that). One: even though I was upset that I couldn’t make it how I imagined, I made a backup plan. My plan was to go to c.c. (community college) and then move up to uni (university). Two: I also found out that transferring was possible while in c.c. Even though it’s been four years later, I earned my Bachelor’s Degree and I don’t regret it.
Your situation may change: After my sophomore year, I made the decision to commute because it became expensive for me to live at uni. This may happen to you and that’s okay. I don’t think that moving back home was a bad choice. It did come with some up and downs like living an hour away from uni, spending more money on my car and its maintenance (plus gas), saving money for tuition, and being closer to family. Nothing is wrong with moving back home or even deciding to stay home during uni days. Don’t make matters worse for yourself for any reason.
Have fun, I mean it: college isn’t spending 24/7 on studying and going to classes (yes, please go to class- don’t skip class to have fun). You’re allowed to have fun. I managed my fun. I know myself enough to schedule my fun (and I had understanding friends that knew I took my studying seriously). There were some days where I would have no classes and would decide to use that time to work on assignments, papers, etc so that I could relax later. Or some weekends I would plan not to do anything (especially on Sundays- I call “Sunday Bumdays”) and take the day to unwind, work on self-care, explore, etc. If you can afford for one day of total nothingness, great. If not, try to attempt at a half-day. If you don’t have fun within your journey, it will look back on with either regret or disappointment.
Save money (and be strict about it): every penny matters. Save money for food, gas/ transportation, tuition/books, emergency savings, etc. There are going to be times where you will need money, even if it’s to grab lunch or go grocery shopping. Always have money in the bank and in your pocket. Find odd jobs to do or find a job if you need money. Most college students work part-time and go to school full-time. Don’t forget to treat yourself, and keep in mind to manage it so it doesn’t become a burden.
Learn things outside of the classroom: learn things about your campus, people, the town you’re in, everything. Learning about things around you can help make you feel comfortable, even if you live away from the campus. It’ll help appreciate the environment around you and give you a better experience.
Find a healthy hobby to do: I know college can be/will be exhausting. There is a solution to make sure that there is a healthy outlet for stress relief. Healthy hobbies such as exercise, photography, and exploring new things (crafting classes, movie nights, etc) can help relieve burn out and stress. Personally, I made this studyblr, I free wrote (writing with no agenda/reason), went to the gym, and walked around campus during sunset. I also wrote a short article on it here.
Make a routine: I made a routine to help keep myself busy, know what was going on for the day and to be prepared. The routine would vary for the days depending on my schedules for work and school.
If you need extra help, ask: there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Ask for it and don’t be afraid to.
Take care of your body in ALL forms: mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, etc. From skincare to getting check-ups. All of it matters and your body and mind are important.
Make a resume and keep up with it: you will learn how to write a resume and clean it to help get you jobs and track your experiences and skills. Don’t slack on it because it is an important tool you will need.
Work:
Don’t overwhelm yourself: work and school can be intimidating, especially when you’re involved with extracurriculars. Get a planner and make a plan for yourself. Remember: make time for yourself too.
Quirky things/ Etiquette:
thank you cards- I sent thank you cards to a bunch of people for different reasons. Like teachers- for teaching me things that helped me graduate, organizations that came to our booth for our organization that we hosted this year, people that gave me things like presents/ advice, and any job shadow/ internships- because it’s always nice to thank people that helped you along the way.
find things that are productive that doesn’t involve studying- you’ll go crazy without it and here.
organize your workspace- tips here
find stationary you love- it makes studying enjoyable even the worst subjects
say your “please”s and “thank you”s- I promise, it will go a long way. Even if you don’t use them, it can help a bad experience turn into a good one
don’t be afraid to think outside of the box- I’m serious, not everyone is traditional and that’s okay. Be comfortable with your life.
know the rules- yes there will be rules and weird ones that you will need to know/follow. There will also be protocols and policies to keep up with as well for things like on-campus living, rules of clubs/organizations, etc. Read them thoroughly.
don’t be rude- just don’t.
make business cards- it’ll make it easier for you in the long run and it’ll help you network
branch out- look for new things to get involved in like poem slams, video game battle meetups, yoga classes, things like that to help expand your taste and experiences.
College will be different for everyone. It can be a different journey that is taken and it can make all the difference. Make it the best years for you.
#college tips#college advice#studyblr#collegeblr#student help#thestudyingcoffeeaddict#collegelifehacks#lifehacks#college#tips and advice
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More Travel Ficscribble
I wrote this for @smokingbomber during my travels. We actually spoke on the phone during my layover in Newark which was fun. It is set in a ficverse also written about for the @ssrevminibang and related to the last thing I wrote for her. Features Mamoru, and A/Z.
**
The request had seemed innocuous enough. Could some hard-working and intelligent Harvard Pre-meds access the lab after-hours, while he was in the building no less, to finish up on some work? They would not be in the building alone, and really, who would jeopardize their standings and astronomical tuition payment to get up to anything untoward. There wasn’t anything of value that would invite theft-- this was a chemistry lab, not a computer lab-- and besides, most of them had more than a decent chunk of disposable income. Who in their right minds would invite a criminal charge and college expulsion so early in their lives? So Matt had agreed, and not thought too much about it until two weeks later when it was his turn in the rotation to prep the lab for one of the organic chemistry professors the next day.
In a container labeled “Acetone” is some dusky off-white substance that looks nothing like the universal solvent.
Matt isn’t stupid: he has no idea what, precisely, the unknown substance is. However, it is almost certainly a Class-A controlled substance of the variety which can cause irreversible health damage to its users and lengthy prison time for its procurers. He also knows that it will fall on him for letting the kids in after-hours, and he has all of twenty-four hours to deal with the situation. He also, also knows that he is woefully out of his depths. It’s a sticky situation, to say the least. Lots of unpleasant possible outcomes, all of which jeopardize his own future, and not a great number of people whom he could simultaneously trust to help him deal with the situation AND not give him admittedly well-deserved shit for being a naive, soft-brained idiot with too much faith in the decency of humanity. As a matter of fact, only one person comes to mind at all.
“Hey, Alice. I sort of need your help.”
Alice Marshall is in his graduating class for medical school, though she’s about a year younger. A Bona Fide Genius even by lofty Ivy League standards, she’d been his lab partner since Organic Chemistry, Honours Section, in their freshman year of undergrad at Yale, then both had went on to Harvard for medical school after graduating. She’s a scholarship kid from somewhere in BFE, soft-spoken and calm and diligent, who’d grown up comfortably well-off but definitely not in the bubble of moneyed New England privilege like Matt or Una. Outside of their classes, she mostly keeps to herself, and Matt has very little idea of what she likes to do outside of their shared world of lectures and labs and practicals. She’s unflappable, though. Not to mention discreet and non-judgmental, and when he calls, answers in her usual pleasant way.
“No problem. What is it that you need?”
Alice, to Matt’s eternal relief, shows up promptly, and doesn’t scold after Matt tells her the bare bones of the problem which had befallen him. She does raise her eyebrows, however, and remain quiet for a good fifteen minutes as she mulls over, in all likelihood, the same set of unpleasant options that Matt has already contemplated. Finally, she sighs.
“You’ve got yourself in a rough spot, that’s for sure.”
“I know, and I’m a moron. I guess if there’s nothing that can be done about this situation, I’m just going to have to suck it up. I don’t think they can actually arrest me, considering that I knew nothing, right?”
“Let me just... make a quick phone call. I know someone who may be able to help, if I can convince them.”
She steps into the other room, and talks too quietly for Matt to hear, but returns after only a few minutes to give him a wan smile.
“Well, I found help. If anyone can get you out of this predicament, he can. So you’re in luck. He’s on his way.”
The mysterious friend of Alice’s turns up a few hours later. He’s a good-looking young man with sandy blond hair that’s a bit too long, and sharp, piercing green eyes, an arrogant smile on his lips. He barely spares Matt a glance, and heads straight for Alice, taking both her hands in his and kissing her forehead in a way that all but broadcasts his intentions towards her. It’s only after this salutation that he turns towards Matt.
“So you must be the latest stray. Alice, sweetheart, wherever do you find these people? Put it back, it might have rabies.”
“Be nice, Stephen. He’s a good guy. Matt, meet Stephen Zimmerman, once upon a time of Harvard Law. Stephen, meet Matthew Clark, my lab partner from undergrad.”
“Ah. So YOU are Matt Clark. Small world, isn’t it? I recently accepted a job offer at the firm which employs your brother-in-law, I believe.” Stephen Zimmerman links fingers with Alice. “I’m going to state for the record that I’m only doing this to please Alice. I doubt even you could afford my rates. No offense.”
“None taken.” Zimmerman was, perhaps, every stereotype of a cocky, hotshot lawyer come to life, down to the silk pocket-square in his perfectly pressed suit which perfectly matched his tie, but for all that, there’s something sort of comforting about his blunt, somewhat condescending manner. This is not someone who’d play mind games with him, or mince any words. Zimmerman, like Alice, was the type of smart so confident and comfortable with his abilities that he’d never feel the need to loudly show off just to prove a point. In the weirdest way, that made Matt feel better.
“He’d never get up to anything illegal, Stephen. That much I can reassure you.” Alice, bless her peace-loving heart, vouches for him, but Zimmerman simply smirks.
“That’s not important. No one cares about that. It’s all about how likely others can be made to believe it, or failint that, figuring out how to make this all just quietly go away.”
Matt watches with not a little awe as Zimmerman-- definitely not on friendly enough terms with him to be on a first name basis-- and Alice get to work. The latter calls a friend, who calls another friend connected to the forensic science division of the local law enforcement agency, and somehow all without asking any questions, the network of people send over a field test kit for narcotics. After ascertaining the contents of the “Acetone” container-- some clumsily and potentially dangerously synthesized MDMA, Alice proceeds to help him scour the lab down with a fine toothed comb, locating and destroying any other remnants. Meanwhile, Zimmerman gets the names of the students in question from Matt and holes himself up in a computer lab with a legal pad, a laptop with an external hard drive, and a collection of pens-- black, blue and red. He curtly tells Matt to leave him alone when the latter attempts to help, or at the very least figure out what the plan is, and is still in there with the door locked at some indecent hour of night after Matt goes off to bed.
The next morning, bright-ass early, campus police descent upon a frat house wherein resides two of the students, armed with a warrant as well as apparent evidence of them on a bank ATM CCTV dispensing their ill-produced haul. It had been called in by some little old lady whom Matt had never met or heard of, whose apartment apparently overlooked that street. Any record of Matt’s involvement in helping the troublemakers access facilities or ingredients are nowhere to be found. It’s possibly the most efficient, ruthless and cold-blooded sting that Matt had ever seen outside of some far-fetched police procedural on TV. He has no idea exactly how Zimmerman pulled it off, but figures that it’s best if he doesn’t know.
“Crisis averted.” The brilliant and possibly evil mastermind who had orchestrated this entire chain of events finally reappears, ghost-like, looking not at all worse for wear after pulling an intense all-nighter putting God knows how many plays in motion. Zimmerman smirks at Matt, then inspects his nails. “I do fantastic work, if I may say so myself.”
“I can’t thank you two enough.” Matt gives the other man a weary smile. “Kent’s firm is in good hands if you’re their in-house counsel.”
“Of course. Mind, as I said, I did this as a favour to Alice. She says that you have a few redeeming qualities, this unfortunate episode notwithstanding. As a matter of fact, I ran a background check on you before I came.” At Matt’s look of surprise, Zimmerman simply gives an expansive shrug. “Know thy enemy. Or thy client. It’s not smart to go into these things without all the facts. I will admit, your academic record is commendable, especially for a bastion of privileged wealth such as yourself. How you manage to be so smart while still being such a naive lost child, however, I haven’t the foggiest idea.”
“I guess I didn’t count on anyone being so reckless, or having such a callous disregard for others who may be harmed as a consequence of their actions. Either way, thank you. Alice is lucky to have you.”
Zimmerman’s eyes warm, and it transforms his face into something almost approachable as opposed to haughty and calculating. “Maybe I’ll convince her of that one of these days. Our Alice is an incredibly independent, strong-willed woman.”
“She didn’t call anyone else to help straighten up this mess, wich speaks to her trust in you.” This was more even ground for them. A man in love, after all, recognized a fellow man in love with automatic, unconditional sympathy. “She’s a very nice girl. Probably would enjoy being appreciated, being courted. Please be good to her.” The last bit is spoken aloud before Matt can think better of it, but Zimmerman takes no offense.
“As if I could be anything but. Don’t get yourself involved in any more idiotic situations. Just remember: people are, with only a few exceptions, greedy, selfish, inconsiderate and stupid little buggers. Don’t ever expect them to do the right, or smart, or sensible thing.”
With that little bit of sage advice, Zimmerman seeks out Alice and prepares to take his leave. Matt watches as he bends his head to whisper something, dark blond curls brushing over Alice’s blue-black locks. Whatever he says has her blushing, and glancing up at him almost timidly. Zimmerman cups her face in his hands, presses his mouth to hers in a tentative sort of way, then when she doesn’t draw away, pulls her close and kisses her for real. Alice is still blushing well after he walks away.
Matt clears his throat awkwardly. “So, umm, thank you both.”
“I did very little, really. I’m not nearly as good with this sort of thing as Stephen is. I’m glad it all worked out, however. You worried me.” Alice gives him a brief, sideways glance. “I think perhaps you place too much stock in people’s good intentions.”
“You two even sound alike.” Matt gives her a long look. “Clearly, your respect for each other is mutual. Do I need to ask him, in most likely a comically incompetent way, what his intentions are?”
“I don’t think he’d take that very well, actually.” Alice says it with a smile, though. “Just stay out of trouble. I think he’s going to have his hands full, dealing with that firm.”
Matt thought, briefly, about calling Kent to warn him, then decided against it. The bastard had the nerve to hit him over a strictly honourable relationship with Una, after all. It’d be karmic justice to see him subjected to the whims and caprices of Scary Lawyer Man.
Not that Kent would do anything stupid or reprehensible to draw the man’s ire, of course. Kent was far too smart and honest for that sort of thing, career as a Wall Street shark notwithstanding.
Probably. He hoped, anyway.
Ehh... who was he kidding? Wasn’t it his whole overly optimistic worldview what got him in trouble to begin with?
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Where You Lead
A new verse, prompted by @queen-of-the-merry-men based on Gilmore Girls. It’ll work based on prompts, so if you have any let me know. Ships are Cobrafire, Papafire, Swanfire (eventually), Rumbelle, Swan Believer and Outlaw Queen (eventually).
Also on AO3
Neal shifted back and forth from one foot to another as he stared at the overwhelming pink mansion that had once been his home.
He was doing it for Henry, it was all for Henry.
Funny, that had been the reason he had left in the first place.
Neal Cassidy had once been Neal Gold, the son of Wren Gold. Wren was a wealthy professor, who taught at his alma mater: Yale University. His childhood had been a stuffy one. Wren had once been fun loving and free…up until his wife left him. He suddenly had all sorts of expectations of his son. Maybe to their world, they weren’t too bad, but to Neal he wanted nothing more than to escape the world of the privileged. They were too stuck up, they didn’t care about anyone else. Gold didn’t seem to care, he had his son attend cotillions and debutante balls. He’d be a Gold man, just like the rest. The only problem was, when you held on so tight…the child was bound to pull away.
His rebellion had been small at first. He’d skip classes, refuse to attend the different galas his father wanted to. His father wanted him to end up with Tamara Chandler, daughter of one of his best friends. Instead, he had chosen Emma Swan. She was the wayward foster daughter to the Nolans. It was young love, but they felt it was real.
Then Emma got pregnant. They were only 16 and lots of suggestions got tossed around. In the end, Henry was born and Emma took off, feeling she was just much too young to be a parent. She stayed in contact with Henry throughout the years, but not in the way a mother would.
As for Neal, he stayed with his father, for a year. It didn’t take long for him to realize that it wasn’t the life that he wanted, for him or his son. So, he took off in the middle of the night. He found himself a job as a busboy at Granny’s Inn and worked his way up the ranks. At only 26, he was in a good place, he was happy. He spoke to his father a bit and saw him on holidays, but the strain was there. His father was still hurting that he took off without a word.
Now, it wasn’t Christmas or Easter. It was just Neal…feeling completely desperate. He would’ve refused, if his friend, Robin, hadn’t talked some sense into him.
“It’s for the kid. Won’t the price be worth it?”
Finally, he let out a deep breath and rang the doorbell. The door opened and a petite brunette stood on the other side. For a moment, he wondered if it was the housekeeper, until he took in her outfit. She was wearing a light blue dress and black pumps, didn’t look much older than him.
“Can I help you?” She asked.
“I’m here to see Wren.”
“May I ask what this is regarding?”
Neal sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m his son.”
The woman smiled brightly. “Neal! It is so great to meet you. I’m Belle, your father’s wife.”
He blinked a few times. “Wife? But you’re…my age.”
She chuckled. “I’m actually 30.”
“4 years isn’t a lot.”
“It’s a long story, come in, come in. I’ve heard so much about you.”
And Neal had heard nothing of her. He wasn’t sure why he was so surprised. It wasn’t like he and his father talked outside the rare holiday. Even so, his father hadn’t dated when he was young. Sure, he’d have people on his arm for different events, that was expected. Marriage, though? He hadn’t thought that was possible after his mother left.
Neal followed her inside and into the living room. “Wren, look who’s here,” Belle said.
Wren looked up from his newspaper, raising an eyebrow. “Neal. Christmas, already?”
Neal forced a chuckle. “Hey, Pop.”
His father clutched his cane and forced himself up, nodding a bit. “Scotch? Coffee?”
“I’m fine, thank you. I promise I won’t take long. I just wanted to talk to you about something.”
Wren looked him up and down. “You need money.”
Neal winced. How did his father always know? “Henry has been accepted to Arendelle Preparatory.”
Belle grinned. “That’s a wonderful school, it’s only 10 minutes from here.”
“That’s right,” Neal sent a grateful smile to Belle for keeping things less tense. “The problem is, they want me to put down an enrollment fee. If I don’t, he’ll lose his spot and he’s just worked so hard to get in…”
“So, you need money,” Wren repeated, dryly.
Neal sighed. “It’d be a loan, I’d pay you back. I never ask for favors.”
“Oh, yes, I’m well aware.”
“Wren,” Belle fixed him with a look.
Neal was surprised to see his father’s features soften when he looked at Belle. Suddenly, it was as if he were a different man. Perhaps, even the man he once was before Milah left. He slowly collected himself and turned back to his son.
“Henry deserves only the best and I never liked that he attended public school. So, I will write you a check and I’ll cover his tuition.”
Well, that had been painless. “Thank you,” Neal said, sincerely. “Pop, you have no clue how much this means to us…”
“However, there’s a condition.”
Of course. His father was a law professor at Yale, everything always came with conditions. “What is it?”
“If I’m financially involved in your life, I want to be more in your life overall.” He drummed his fingers over the cane, slowly smiling. “I want a weekly dinner. You, Henry, every Friday night.”
Neal felt his stomach drop. His father was good, too good. He knew he’d be willing to do anything to get Henry into this school. Including this. His father couldn’t just set up a payment plan like a normal person and say “See you at Christmas.” No, everything had to be tricky.
He had ran away from home for a reason. He loved the life that he and Henry had built in Stars Hollow. It was quiet, yet quirky. They had at least one meal a day at Granny’s Diner, where they’d banter with Ruby. He got to watch Robin do his own flirty banter with their liquor supplier, Regina. Their lives were happy and full.
Having dinner with his father once a week would require stepping back into a world he vowed to never show Henry to.
Yet…wasn’t that what he was doing by allowing him to attend Arendelle Prep? All of those kids would probably be in the same situation he had grown up in. He could only hope that they were better behaved and more grounded.
It was once a week, a few hours every Friday night. Henry always asked about his grandfather, why they never saw him much. He had Mary Margaret and David, Emma’s former foster parents, but they hadn’t known her very long. This was a real connection to his family. Plus, this Belle seemed to be keeping his father a bit more grounded himself.
“I don’t want Henry to know I borrowed the money,” he said, finally. “Can that please stay between us?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow at 7. You’ll get the check before you go.”
Neal blew out some air through his nose, feeling the weight lifted off his chest.
You’re doing this for Henry. It’s all for Henry.
#cobrafire#cobrafire au#where you lead verse#papafire#papafire au#rumbelle#rumbelle au#swanfire#swanfire au#queen-of-the-merry-men
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, to study physics and explore an interest in standup comedy in Manhattan.
This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.
Arriving in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if she was not paid up. At one point, she ran into obstacles transferring money onto her campus meal card.
“I’m a literally broke college student that didn’t have money for food,” she recalled. “At that moment of panic, I didn’t want to do anything or leave my bed.”
In late October, she called the campus counseling center hotline and met with a psychologist. “All I wanted was someone to listen to me and validate the fact that I wasn’t going crazy,” she said.
Instead, when she mentioned suicidal thoughts, the psychologist insisted on a psychiatric evaluation. Singh was taken by ambulance to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, and kept for a week on a psychiatric ward at nearby Zucker Hillside Hospital. Both are part of the Northwell Health system.
The experience — lots of time alone and a few therapy sessions — was of minimal benefit psychologically, she said. Singh emerged facing the same tuition debt as before.
And then another bill came.
The Patient: Divya Singh, a 20-year-old student at Hofstra University.
Medical Service: Seven-day inpatient psychiatric stay at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York.
Service Provider: Northwell Health, a large nonprofit hospital system in New York City and Long Island.
Total Bill: Northwell charged $50,282, which Singh’s insurer, Aetna, reduced to $17,066 under its contract with Northwell. The plan required Singh to pay $3,413.20 of that.
What Gives: Singh had purchased her Aetna insurance plan through Hofstra, paying $1,107 for the fall term. Aetna markets the plan specifically for students. Under its terms, students can be on the hook for up to $7,350 of the costs of medical care during a year, according to plan documents. Singh’s Northwell bill of around $3,413 is the plan’s requirement that she pay for 20% of the costs of her hospital stay.
Although such coinsurance requirements are common in American health plans, they can be financially overwhelming for students with no income and families whose finances are already under the extreme stress of high tuition. Singh’s Hofstra bill for the academic year, including room and board and ancillary fees, totaled $68,275.
As a result, Singh found herself beset by a double whammy of bills from two of the costliest kinds of institutions in America — colleges and hospitals — both with prices that inexorably rise faster than inflation.
For hospitals, there is supposed to be a relief valve. The Internal Revenue Service requires all nonprofit hospitals to have a financial assistance policy that lowers or eliminates bills for people without the financial resources to pay them. Such financial assistance — commonly known as charity care — is a condition for hospitals to maintain their tax-exempt status, shielding them from having to pay property taxes on often expansive campuses.
Northwell’s financial assistance policy limits the hospital from charging more than $150 for individuals who earn $12,880 a year or less. It offers discounts on a sliding scale for individuals earning up to $64,400 a year, although people with savings or other “available assets” above $10,000 might get less or not qualify.
The IRS requires hospitals to “widely publicize” the availability of financial assistance, inform all patients about how they can obtain it and include “a conspicuous written notice” on billing statements.
While the bill Northwell sent Singh includes a reference to “financial difficulties” and a phone number to call, it did not explicitly state that the hospital might reduce or waive the bill. Instead, the letter obliquely said “we can assist you in making budget payment arrangements” — a phrase that conjures installment payments rather than debt relief.
Resolution: In a written statement, Northwell said that although “all eligible patients are offered generous financial payment options … it is not required that providers list the options on the bill.” Northwell stated: “If a patient calls the number provided and expresses financial hardship, the patient is assisted with a financial need application.” However, Northwell lamented, “unfortunately, many patients do not call.”
Indeed, a KHN investigation in 2019 found that, nationwide, 45% of nonprofit hospital organizations were routinely sending medical bills to patients whose incomes were low enough to qualify for charity care. Those bills, which totaled $2.7 billion, were most likely an undercount since they included only the debt hospitals had given up trying to collect.
Singh said the worker who took down her insurance information during her hospital stay never explained that Northwell might reduce her portion of the charge. She said she didn’t realize that was a possibility from the language in the bill they sent.
Northwell said in a statement that after KHN contacted it about Singh’s case, Northwell dispatched a caseworker to contact her. Singh said the caseworker helped Singh enroll in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people. Foreign students are not generally eligible for Medicaid, but in New York they can get coverage for emergency services. With the addition of Medicaid’s coverage, Singh should end up paying nothing if the stay is retroactively approved, Northwell said.
At the same time the caseworker was helping Singh, Singh received a “final reminder” letter from Northwell about her bill. That letter also mentioned Northwell’s financial assistance, but only within the context of people who completely lack health insurance.
“Send payment or contact us within 21 days to avoid further collection activity,” the letter said.
The Takeaway: Despite stricter requirements from the Affordable Care Act and the IRS to make nonprofit hospitals proactively educate patients about the various forms of financial relief they offer, the onus still remains on patients. If you have trouble paying a bill, call the hospital and ask for a copy of its financial assistance policy and the application to request your bill be discounted or excused.
Be aware that hospitals generally require proof of your financial circumstances such as pay stubs or unemployment checks. Even if you have health insurance that covers much of your medical bill, you may still be eligible to have your bill lowered or get on a government insurance program like Medicaid.
You can also find documentation online: All nonprofit hospitals are required to post financial assistance policies on their websites. They must provide summaries written in plain language and versions translated into foreign languages spoken by significant portions of their communities. Be aware that financial assistance is distinct from paying your full debt off in installments, which is what hospitals sometimes first propose.
Although the IRS rules don’t govern for-profit hospitals, many of those also offer concessions for people with proven financial hardship. The criteria and generosity of charity care vary among hospitals, but many give breaks to families with middle-class incomes: Northwell’s policy, for instance, extends to families of four earning $132,500 a year.
Singh’s family has paid off her fall tuition and half of her spring tuition so far. She still owes $16,565.
Singh said the back and forth over her hospital bill continues to cause anxiety. “The treatment I got in the hospital, after I’ve gotten out, it hasn’t helped,” she said. “I have nightmares about that place.” The biggest benefit of her week there, she said, was bonding with the other patients “because they were also miserable with the way they were being treated.”
Dan Weissmann, host of the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast, contributed the audio portrait that aired on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KHN and NPR that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived. published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/
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College Tuition’s Mental Health Cost Included A Surprise Medical Bill : Shots – Health News – NPR
Hofstra University student Divya Singh found herself beset by a double whammy of bills from two of the costliest kinds of institutions in America — colleges and hospitals. After experiencing anxiety when her family had trouble coming up with the money for her tuition, she sought counseling and ended up with a weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital — and a resulting $3,413 bill. Jackie Molloy for KHN hide caption
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Jackie Molloy for KHN
Hofstra University student Divya Singh found herself beset by a double whammy of bills from two of the costliest kinds of institutions in America — colleges and hospitals. After experiencing anxiety when her family had trouble coming up with the money for her tuition, she sought counseling and ended up with a weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital — and a resulting $3,413 bill.
Jackie Molloy for KHN
Despite a lifelong struggle with panic attacks, Divya Singh made a brave move across the world last fall from her home in Mumbai, India. She enrolled at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., to study physics and explore an interest in stand-up comedy in Manhattan.
Arriving in the midst of the pandemic and isolated in her dorm room, Singh’s anxiety ballooned when her family had trouble coming up with the money for a $16,000 tuition installment. Hofstra warned her she would have to vacate the dorm after the term ended if she was not paid up. At one point, she ran into obstacles transferring money onto her campus meal card.
“I’m a literally broke college student that didn’t have money for food,” she recalls. “At that moment of panic, I didn’t want to do anything or leave my bed.”
In late October, she called the campus counseling center hotline and met with a psychologist. “All I wanted was someone to listen to me and validate the fact that I wasn’t going crazy,” Singh says.
Instead, when she mentioned suicidal thoughts, the psychologist insisted on a psychiatric evaluation. Singh was taken by ambulance to Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y., and kept for a week on a psychiatric ward at nearby Zucker Hillside Hospital. Both institutions are part of the Northwell Health system.
The experience — lots of time alone and a few therapy sessions — was of minimal benefit psychologically, Singh says. She emerged facing the same tuition debt as before.
And then another bill came.
The Patient: Divya Singh, a 20-year-old student at Hofstra University.
Medical Service: Seven-day inpatient psychiatric stay at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y.
Service Provider: Northwell Health, a large nonprofit hospital system in New York City and Long Island.
Total Bill: Northwell charged $50,282, which Singh’s insurer, Aetna, reduced to $17,066 under its contract with Northwell. The plan required Singh to pay $3,413.20 of that.
What Gives: Singh had purchased her Aetna insurance plan through Hofstra, paying $1,107 for the fall term. Aetna markets the plan specifically for students. Under its terms, students can be on the hook for up to $7,350 of the costs of medical care during a year, according to plan documents. Singh’s Northwell bill of around $3,413 reflects the plan’s requirement that she pay for 20% of the costs of her hospital stay.
Although such coinsurance requirements are common in American health plans, they can be financially overwhelming for students with no income and families whose finances are already under the extreme stress of high tuition. Singh’s Hofstra bill for the academic year, including room and board and ancillary fees, totaled $68,275.
As a result, Singh found herself beset by a double whammy of bills from two of the costliest kinds of institutions in America — colleges and hospitals — both with prices that inexorably rise faster than inflation.
For hospitals, there is supposed to be a relief valve. The Internal Revenue Service requires all nonprofit hospitals to have a financial assistance policy that lowers or eliminates bills for people without the financial resources to pay them. Such financial assistance — commonly known as charity care — is a condition for any hospital that wants to maintain its tax-exempt status; that status shields the facility from having to pay property taxes on its often expansive campus.
Northwell’s financial assistance policy limits the hospital from charging more than $150 for individuals who earn $12,880 a year or less. It offers discounts on a sliding scale for individuals earning up to $64,400 a year, although people with savings or other “available assets” above $10,000 might get less or not qualify.
The IRS requires hospitals to “widely publicize” the availability of financial assistance, inform all patients about how they can obtain it and include “a conspicuous written notice” on billing statements.
While the bill Northwell sent Singh includes a reference to “financial difficulties” and a phone number to call, it did not explicitly state that the hospital might reduce or waive the bill. Instead, the letter obliquely said “we can assist you in making budget payment arrangements” — a phrase that conjures installment payments rather than debt relief.
Resolution: In a written statement, Northwell said that although “all eligible patients are offered generous financial payment options … it is not required that providers list the options on the bill.” Northwell stated: “If a patient calls the number provided and expresses financial hardship, the patient is assisted with a financial need application.” However, Northwell lamented, “unfortunately, many patients do not call.”
Indeed, a KHN investigation in 2019 found that, nationwide, 45% of nonprofit hospital organizations were routinely sending medical bills to patients whose incomes were low enough to qualify for charity care. Those bills, which totaled $2.7 billion, were most likely an undercount since they included only the debt hospitals had given up trying to collect.
Singh says the worker who took down her insurance information during her hospital stay never explained that Northwell might reduce her portion of the charge. The student adds that she didn’t realize that was a possibility from the language in the bill they sent.
Northwell said in a statement that after KHN contacted it about Singh’s case, Northwell dispatched a caseworker to contact her. Singh says the caseworker helped Singh enroll in Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people. Foreign students are not generally eligible for Medicaid, but in New York they can get coverage for emergency services. With the addition of Medicaid’s coverage, Singh should end up paying nothing if the stay is retroactively approved, Northwell said.
At the same time the caseworker was helping her, Singh received a “final reminder” letter from Northwell about her bill. That letter also mentioned Northwell’s financial assistance, but only within the context of people who completely lack health insurance.
“Send payment or contact us within 21 days to avoid further collection activity,” the letter said.
The Takeaway: Despite stricter requirements from the Affordable Care Act and the IRS to make nonprofit hospitals proactively educate patients about the various forms of financial relief they offer, the onus still remains on patients. If you have trouble paying a bill, call the hospital and ask for a copy of its financial assistance policy and the application to request your bill be discounted or excused.
Be aware that hospitals generally require proof of your financial circumstances — such as pay stubs or unemployment checks. Even if you have health insurance that covers much of your medical bill, you may still be eligible to have your bill lowered or get on a government insurance program like Medicaid.
You can also find documentation online: All nonprofit hospitals are required to post financial assistance policies on their websites. They must provide summaries written in plain language and versions translated into foreign languages spoken by significant portions of their communities. Be aware that financial assistance is distinct from paying your full debt off in installments, which is what hospitals sometimes first propose.
Although the IRS rules don’t govern for-profit hospitals, many of those also offer concessions for people with proven financial hardship. The criteria patients need to meet to get charity care — and how generous the hospital is likely to be — vary among institutions, but many give breaks to families with middle-class incomes. Northwell’s policy, for instance, extends to families of four earning as much as $132,500 a year.
Singh’s family has paid off her fall tuition and half of her spring tuition so far. She still owes $16,565.
Singh says the back and forth over her hospital bill continues to cause anxiety.
“The treatment I got in the hospital, after I’ve gotten out, it hasn’t helped,” she says. “I have nightmares about that place.” The biggest benefit of her week there, she says, was bonding with the other patients “because they were also miserable with the way they were being treated.”
Dan Weissmann, host of the “An Arm and a Leg” podcast, contributed the audio portrait that aired on NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by NPR and KHN that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!
source https://wealthch.com/college-tuitions-mental-health-cost-included-a-surprise-medical-bill-shots-health-news-npr/
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I bought Amy Poehler’s book “Yes Please” in the fall of 2015.
It’s taken me 3 years to finish it, but this Wednesday I picked it up at work, and read the last 100 pages it took me this long to finish.
In the last 100 pages, she talks about how she’s constantly trying to be present so she can enjoy the best moments of her life, because they’ll come and go, and if you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss some of the best ones.
But then she says this: if you’re lucky, it’s when you least expect it, a moment, a scent, or a memory can allow you to time travel and bring you back to relive some of the best ones.
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It’s 10 pm and it’s just now occurring to me... today I time traveled. And I would have never known it had I never finished that fucking book it took me 3 years to read....THIS WEEK.
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This morning I woke up not sure if my dream had really happened. Like most of my dreams, I don’t remember the contents of it. But I do remember that mid dream, I vividly had a thought that this was something that had already happened, and it wasn’t right. As if my deja vu was reminding and/or reassuring me that right now, you are only dreaming but you’re also observing the old you in the relationship you were in before it ended. I was going through the motions, much like the last few months of my relationship.
It was trippy but not triggering.
Then several hours later, on my way home from class, while I was sitting at a red light, I started zoning out (usually happens when I’m anxious about a million things) & as I was zoning back in, trying not to feel stressed about my financial troubles, I immediately noticed two former friends of mine that I lost when my relationship ended. Friends of hers, that cut me off when I cut her off. They were crossing the intersection, and much like my dream, it was like I WAS LITERALLY WATCHING MY OLD LIFE WALK RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME BEFORE MY EYES, but they couldn’t see me. Only me them.
But. I. Was. Still. Not. The. Least. Bit. Triggered.
I only thought to myself, “huh what are the odds?” But then I immediately lose the thought bc I’m racing against the clock to get home in time to change & eat before my shift starts.
**Still not realizing this whole time that I’m time traveling**
I get to work. Work is going fine. I’m feeling excited to go home and drink my wine & smoke my weed. Then 30 minutes before the end of my shift, I get a text from a mom that I have only babysat for once.
Normally I’d say no (my Saturdays consist of me being ON from 10 am-6 pm) but she’s m desperate for a babysitter because hers wasn’t responding & her and her husband had a black tie affair they paid for downtown (rich boujee things). Even though I’m bummed about not having my Saturday night, I need the money, so I say yes.
In fact I’m writing this from their couch right now. And it wasn’t until about 20 minutes ago when I went to the bathroom, washing my hands and looking at my reflection, and my second city work t-shirt, that I FINALLY connected all the dots.
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Today was giving me nothing but signs but I didn’t think ANYTHING of them until I had DEJA VU from looking at the logo of my second city shirt in the bathroom of this home that I had only been into once that everything started rushing back to me like images in fast forward rewind of a movie when the main character goes back in time to a memory after EVErythinGGGG that day had led him to that very motherfucking moment.
It was a rainy, October day.
I remember it like it was yesterday.
I was babysitting for them on a Sunday afternoon, right before what was going to be the very last show I had in a relationship with my ex. I hadn’t seen her for a week because we had been on a break, and I was ready and willing to look past all the bullshit, because it was THAT Sunday I found out I had made it past the second round of auditions for the conservatory at second city and I was on such a high from that, and even more excited to have a show, that I was willing to look past months of emotional destruction because truth be told, I really did see the best in her.
But just like you can’t put a bandaid on a gushing wound, things weren’t going to change, and that night proved it. Despite my requests not to, she got piss drunk, couldn’t drive, and was immobile by the time she made it to my bed. I’m not proud that I went through her phone and confirmed everything I had been feeling for months, but had I never done it, I’m actually fucking afraid I’d still be with her. I was scared. The lies, the manipulation, the emotional abuse was all laid out for me, and i still felt like I couldn’t leave her....until i did. And I haven’t looked back since. I haven’t heard or tried to reach out to her, and the last time I’ve seen her, was the last time I was in this house.
Five fucking months ago. Almost to the goddamn day.
—————————————————————
I don’t know if this is exactly what Amy meant when she talked about her experiences time traveling. But I do know, that the universe is always trying to teach me something. ALWAYSSSSSS. Sometimes I’m in disbelief at how much I’ve grown up since October, but today has truuuulllyyyyy opened my eyes on another level.
How the hell was I supposed to know that only hours after I found out I was one of the few people to retain my spot in the conservatory, I was ALSO going to find out how much I had been deceived by ignoring the red flags from the biggest master manipulator I’ve ever met in my life—
—It’s unbelievable how hard I fell from grace after really thinking, “I am about to really peak. Ive achieved so much.” I had no fucking idea. No fucking idea at all for what was to come.
It’s even crazier that’s it’s almost 5 months on the day, TODAY, that I singlehandlely made the best decision of my life to block the most toxic person out.
—————————————————————
Also. Complete side note: I made $120 tonight, for 4 hours while I ate leftover children birthday party food, and watched the hunger games all because I came in clutch as the super nanny. So that anxiety I was having earlier when I was posted at the red light over my financial struggles? No. Longer. A. Thing. The remainder of my payment plan tuition just paid for itself.
How does that saying go about luck being disguised as work? I believe that. But Hard. Work. Pays. Off. And the harder you work, the “luckier” you are. I fucking sound like my dad right now, but I’ll be the first one to say that money doesn’t buy happiness. I am no longer anxious about my current financial troubles, but the same things that have been weighing me down, continue... despite the money I have.
I will say though, God is listening when you’re begging him to cut you a break. Him and the universe are helping me out and today, that was mad fucking real. Despite the emotions it brought by the end of the day.
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Mark my words, one day, when I get a book deal, this will be an excerpt from it.
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It’s 12:30 AM and I’m super tired and still have homework to do and have to get up for school in less than six hours but my brain is whirring entirely too fast.
A few days ago I made a post about the bros being relatable, and in the tags I said Prompto specifically.
And me? I’m so angry. I’m so angry. I know I should be forgiving, but I’m so tired of it. I’m so tired.
Read more bc I’m just -- too much.
TL;DR: Basically I just rant for entirely too long about shitty parenting things, then connect my own experiences to Prompto’s at the veeeery end, followed by “You can’t choose your blood, but you can choose your family” and how both Prompto and I did that.
Reason I said Prompto specifically? Terrible parents. Parents that only care distantly, if at all. Parents that don’t really try.
I suppose it’s a little rude for me to say such things...
I’m just angry. See, for context, my whole life has been between two households cause my parents pretty much hate each other (and whenever I say “hate” they say that they don’t hate each other but that’s beside the point). I spend the week with my mom because she lives closer to my school, and then on weekends I go over to my dad’s.
My mom is golden, more than so. Maybe it’s because we spend so much time together, we’re just that close, she’s pretty much my best friend, she loves me enough for two people, five people. (she’s been a single mom the whole time she’s been raising kids cause my older brother’s father didn’t stick around either, which just makes my mom that much more amazing to me because she raised two kids pretty much by herself)
My dad?
With me, I bottle up things way too much so there’s always that one thing, that super small thing that always breaks the bottle, the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, that’s how I handle like 95% of everything I deal with (unhealthy, yeah, but that’s another thing for another time)
And the bottle bursting always happens whenever I’m in a good point, as in I have a bit of motivation and my grades are good and I’m just generally not as depressed and that bone-deep, soul-deep exhaustion I feel isn’t as harrowing. It’s like the plot of life takes a sudden left turn straight off of a cliff.
The little thing this time was my flute.
Y’all know I play the flute. Y’all know I’m in marching band.
About two-ish months ago, I took my flute in for repairs, ‘cause it was garbage and didn’t play any notes, and I wanted it for marching band season so I just. Took it in for repairs, that was July? More than two months. whatever, so I got a call saying I could pick it up this week.
Went over to the shop...
Repairs came out to be $203. Like I said, garbage flute. Buuuut way back when I sent it off originally, my dad was prepared to lay down $200 so that it could be paid for -- as in, there was a pre-payment system so that if the repairs cost $200 or less, they’d already be paid for, but if it was over that amount they’d have to get customer approval before beginning transactions and whatnot.
(Of course it’d be $3 over the line... but anyways)
So I’m like, cool, I’ll just call my dad and he can pay for it and I can pick up the flute, it’ll be great, right?
Nope. (and here, if this was a verbal story, I’d pop my “p” just because of how simply and quickly he turned me down and how infuriated I am about it)
The basic rundown of what he said was that no, I wasn’t going to get my flute until next week (this week, now) and that I wouldn’t have it by Saturday (a truly important date for me b/c it was my last marching band competition, I wanted to have a playable flute for that ((and I ended up having to use my expensive ass concert flute for that event, anyways))) and that I might not even get it next (this) week because I was low on his priority list.
I probably sound like a brat but -- his daughter? Fucking low on his priority list?
He gave me a hard time when I said I should be at least second on the list, and because I’m a little shit I just took it with a tight smile and an “okay, see you next weekend, love you too, bye.”
And like -- god, he’s been doing this shit for my entire life. I guess it just took until now for me to finally see it. To say the least he’s very poor at keeping his word with me.
(Once my mom said we could go to the movies together to see Spiderman: Homecoming. She promised me we would go. Come the day of, we were running on a bit of a tight schedule due to unforeseen circumstances, and even though I told her that it was alright and we didn’t have to go see the movie, she still took us to see it because she promised. She made time for a basically three hour outing (four, I think, we may have went out to eat) because she promised me that we would go see that movie.)
((My dad’s never done anything like that. Once, when I was younger, he asked what I wanted, probably something for a birthday or Christmas or whatever, and I said I wanted to spend a day with him, just he and I, so we had one meal together at a restaurant and he took me back home. And me, being myself, I just ate that time up because I didn’t have any other times that I could say were ours, just ours. It’s... kinda sad.))
Every single time he doesn’t keep his word I get all broken up and just completely break down, full out sobs and all that jazz, because? Why? It’s the same thing that keeps happening.
I’ve been making excuses for him for years, years, my entire life. I’ve been forgiving him over and over.
Because he’s not all bad. He’s really not. (And I don’t mean it sarcastically, at least I don’t think I do, cause I’m not too sure anymore) He buys me the things I want on the appropriate dates, as in holidays and birthdays. He bought me a PS4 with the help of my brother, and he bought me FFXV (also with the help of my brother) and the like. The things I wanted in that moment, if it’s close enough to a holiday, he’ll buy.
It’s the wants, but he never participates in the needs. Never, not once.
You know, when I was younger he would always say no whenever I asked to do something with my friends on the weekends? (There’s one particularly terrible experience that happened when I dared to have an outing with my friends on a Friday without letting him know) Did you know it got to the point where my friends just stopped asking if I wanted to hang out because they knew the answer would be no?
Do you know how much that hurts?
One of my best friends (we’re estranged now) was having a birthday party for herself, and she was debating on asking me because she knew the answer would be no and she just figured that it would be better if I didn’t know about it in the first place.
I’ll never forget the look that she gave me, the pure hesitance in her whole being, when she finally told me about the party.
You know I only hear about parties second-hand now? So much time was spent, “Did you go to so-and-so’s party?”
“I didn’t even know so-and-so was having a party... how was it?”
“Ah... it was fun.”
“That’s good.”
It fucking hurts.
But does my dad care? No. (Sometimes I felt like he was doing that on purpose, just to make it easier on himself in the long run, not having to hassle, trying to cart me around to everyone’s birthday parties.)
But all that was a tangent.
I don’t think my dad knows where I want to go to college, and I frankly don’t think he cares so long as he doesn’t have to pay anything.
(My reasons for believing that? I told him a while back ((he probably doesn’t remember)) that I was going to apply to both Queens University of Charlotte and Duke University. I want to go to Queens more badly ((which requires more work on my part because I’m basically in a one-income household, so scholarships)). Duke has this financial plan where, if your family makes less than a certain amount of money yearly, the school will cover a certain amount of the tuition. At the current income level and their need-based aid, my mom wouldn’t have to pay anything because my education would be completely covered by the school. Queens has no such plan as that... but it’s my preferred school, for reasons I won’t list at the moment. When I told him these things, he basically told me to “just get into Duke,” because then he won’t have to pay anything.)
Like I said, the big things, he just doesn’t want to be involved in.
He doesn’t help my mom make payments on my car, at all. He doesn’t help with school fees, at all. (I have a fun story about that one)
When I got my permit to drive, we went driving exactly three times together (once when I first got it, and then twice when I was about to take my test for my license so he could help me parallel park). And after I got it, he called me “driving partner” ...and then hasn’t let me behind the wheel since.
My dad’s never taken off of work to support me. I’m always second place. (As a foil, my mom has taken off of work plenty of times to support me, and then worked extra to make up for it, all for me ((and bills, of course)))
I send my dad a schedule of the football games for this season, basically every time he can come see the marching band perform the show at half-time, and does he come? Not to one game. Not at all.
I didn’t tell him about competition this weekend because (after much coercing) he’s going to the game next weekend, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get him to do something like this for two weekends in a row.
(And he told me he might not even stay to watch the show, depending on his work hours.)
When he picks me up to drive me to his house on Fridays, he won’t speak to me unless I speak first. He doesn’t ask me how my week was, nothing. The drive is just an hour of fucking silence (because he doesn’t turn the radio on with me in the car), if I don’t talk first.
He once had to pick up some food so he had a lunch for work that evening. So, with me in the car, he stopped by Chick-fil-a. (Note, I hadn’t eaten anything that day, but I hadn’t told him that.) He didn’t ask me if I wanted anything, didn’t ask me if I had eaten, didn’t even look at me. About twenty minutes down the road later, with me having to hold his food in my freaking lap because there was nowhere else to put it, he asks me if I was hungry. And when I say yes, he tells me about the leftovers in the fridge.
He makes me feel like such a nuisance whenever I even think about asking for something outside of the prompted times (again, holidays and birthdays).
I hate it so much.
And then he feels like he can still think he plays some huge part in my life when he’ll barely speak to me when we do get to see each other.
It’s like I, as a person, don’t even matter. It’s like all he wants is the final product of a “good daughter,” but not actually put in the work of being a father. (I once got a 96 or so on a test, and was very proud of it, but when I told him, his response was, “Why didn’t you get a 100?” I stopped telling him about my grades after that.)
If my school is doing a fundraiser and I ask him to buy something, no matter how politely I put it, he’ll tell me no. A random ass kid from the neighborhood can come to the door selling bottles of water and he’ll rush to get his wallet.
I just don’t get it. ...is it me?
But anyways... so yeah. My dad, as a parent, does the bare minimum.
To relate this all back to Final Fantasy XV as per this blog, I imagine Prompto’s parents were much the same as my dad.
They were never around. They never actually took care of him like parents should. He came home to an empty house most of the time.
And presumably they sent money, because Prompto ate fast food a lot but surely didn’t have a job, to at least show that they care a little bit.
They don’t want him to die.
So it’s the bare minimum... and Prompto, like me, just takes what he can because there’s so little, and makes excuses for the rest.
And knowing Prompto (especially with how he reacted to having to kill Verstael), if his parents died in the fall of Insomnia, he would be torn to pieces by it. And he might be asked why, because they were never around in the first place, and Prompto can’t explain it well (neither can I, for that matter) but there’s just something about his parents dying that’s just... killing him, too, even if they weren’t the best parents... they were still his parents.
When I was having a sobbing fit at the game immediately after the whole flute thing with my father (aka a basic thing of “am I just worthless to him?”), my friend said something to me that really stuck with me.
“You can’t choose your blood, but you can choose your family.”
And it’s not her own quote (she said as much) but it’s still true.
My dad’s related to me, and I probably love him because of that, because... he’s my dad. How can I not, even when he does make me angry sometimes?
I made my family elsewhere. I have amazing friends that support me, and I have my mom, and I have my section in the marching band and I have you guys, here on Tumblr and everyone I’ve talked to in the past that’s still with me now... I have a family. They may not all be blood, but they’re my family.
Prompto did the same thing with Noctis, Ignis, and Gladio. His parents may have been his “blood,” but he made his own family with the people that really cared about him. He chose his family.
So yeah, I don’t really know how to end this -- this was a little raw with emotion and I know I’m most likely just screaming into the void, but it’s... it’s nice to get some of it out, you know? This probably isn’t cohesive at all.... sigh.
It’s 2:30 AM now. I need sleep.
#admin note#ignore this if you like cause it's just me ranting about life and probably being a bit of a brat about it tbh#i'm just angry and drained#prompto argentum#final fantasy xv#prompto#ffxv#would i tag this under writing?#it sure is long enough to be an entire piece#it's 2625 words...yikes
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Ring My Bell - Captain Canary
Title: Ring My Bell
Fandom: DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Rating: G
Pairings/Characters: Sara Lance/Leonard Snart, Mick Rory
Summary: Prompt from @laweizhu: food delivery guy/girl au?
Timeline: n/a
Word Count: 1,736
Disclaimer: I claim no ownership over these characters. I am merely borrowing them from Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim, Andrew Kreisberg and Phil Klemmer.
Betas: Thank you to angelskuuipo and shanachie_quill for looking this over for me.
Author's Note: Today is my one year anniversary of writing Captain Canary fanfiction and this is my 65th story for Legends of Tomorrow!
Sara Lance was a sophomore at Central City University, taking four classes for the semester and working as a delivery girl for the Big Belly Burger just off campus to help pay her tuition, as well as have some spending money.
Most of her deliveries were to fellow students who lived both on and off campus, but there were some regulars that were out in the real world, as she liked to call it.
One of her favorite stops was the Snart apartments. Yes, that's apartments, plural.
The first time she made a delivery to an address and Leonard Snart opened the door with a look of surprise on his face, she'd just assumed that he'd moved. She'd even joked with him that it was nice of him to order from the same location after moving. He'd muttered something about sticking with a good thing and closed the door as quickly as possible.
Then, a few weeks later, she'd made a delivery to the former Snart residence, thinking this must be the new tenants, only there he was again.
"Hey, I thought you'd moved," Sara said upon seeing Leonard's startled face.
"You?" Leonard exclaimed upon opening the door for Sara. "What are you doing here?"
Sara held up a bag of food in one hand and a tray of drinks in the other. "Delivery?"
"Of course," Leonard said, reaching for his wallet, muttering to himself, "Why is it always you?"
"You're just lucky," Sara commented. "So what's the deal with multiple apartments?"
"The other one's my sister's place," Leonard smoothly said.
Sara's brow scrunched in confusion. "When I asked if you'd moved there, you said yes."
"You'd just caught me off guard," Leonard insisted, coldly. "I meant that my sister had just moved there."
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Sara said. She handed him the bag of food and took her money, then handed him the drinks. She counted the cash as she walked away, noticing the tip was almost as much as the food. She thought about giving some of it back, but he was kind of a douche just now, so she shrugged and headed back to her car to make the rest of her deliveries.
~~*~~
"Why don't you just ask her out already?" Mick asked, taking the bag from Leonard and handing out the burgers, fries, and onion rings.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Leonard said, sitting stiffly at the table.
"You always order from the same Big Belly Burger no matter which safe house we're in," Mick pointed out. "And you always ask for her."
"I like how they make my burger at that location, and Sara always gets it here before it gets cold," Leonard said.
"Plus she's hot," Mick added.
"That has nothing to do with it," Leonard insisted, silently agreeing with his friend.
Mick took a long sip from his drink and stared at him knowingly.
As if to prove a point, Leonard purposely ordered from Big Belly Burger at lunchtime the next time he was craving a Big Belly Buster, rather than dinnertime. Surely he'd get a different delivery person this time.
Except that he didn't.
"Sara," Leonard exclaimed in surprise upon opening the door.
"The one and only," Sara said brightly. "Well, not the only Sara, but the only one who works at BBB."
"Why are you working now?" Leonard asked, perplexed.
"One of the drivers called in sick and I only had an early class today so they called me in," Sara said. "I recognized the address and offered to make this run. Why, you trying to avoid me?" she teased.
Leonard shifted uncomfortably.
"You are? Seriously?" Sara asked.
"Was trying to prove a point to my friend, Mick, that I don't always call so that you can make the delivery," Leonard found himself admitting.
"So you called when you thought I wouldn't be on shift," Sara concluded. "Sorry to ruin your plan."
"It happens," Leonard said, absentmindedly touching his pinky ring. "So, uh, you're taking classes at CCU?"
"Yeah, sophomore," Sara confirmed.
"What's the hold up?" Mick asked, opening the door wider behind Leonard. He grinned upon seeing who was out there. "Oh, hi, Blondie. Fancy seeing you here."
"Just picking up an extra shift," Sara said, handing Leonard the food and holding out her hand to shake. "You must be Mick, I'm Sara."
Mick shook her hand, "Kinda figured."
"We shouldn't keep you any longer," Leonard interrupted, pressing the food into Mick's chest as he pushed him back. "I'm sure you have other deliveries to make."
"I do," Sara reluctantly agreed. She held her hand out to Leonard palm up, who blinked down at it before shaking it. Sara laughed, warm and heartily. "As nice as it is to shake hands with you, I was actually looking for payment for the food."
"Oh, right, of course," Leonard stuttered, mentally kicking himself, caught up in his jealousy that Mick had touched her before he had, even if it was only a handshake. He hastily pulled out his wallet and handed her several bills, not caring that he was over-tipping her, again.
Sara raised one eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything. She just gave him a flirtatious smile and walked away.
Mick was wearing a shit eating grin when Leonard turned to face him after closing the door.
"Shut up," Leonard muttered, taking the bag and going to eat his burger.
~~*~~
The next time that Sara made a delivery to one of Leonard's apartments; she slipped her work schedule into the bag. She hoped he'd use it to only make delivery requests when she was on shift, but in case he needed to prove his friend wrong, which she hoped he didn't, he could.
The delivery after that, Leonard smiled at her. A true smile, not his usual smirk. "You trying to tell me that you like making deliveries here?" he asked, holding up the schedule.
"That was in case you wanted to try again to make an order and not have me deliver it," Sara said, then blushed slightly as she admitted, "although I'm glad you did call when I was working."
It was a few days later that Sara was asked to make a delivery to what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. The instructions were that it should be her only delivery on this run and she was done for the night after she made the delivery and got a signature on her phone for the credit card used to pay for the food.
She'd shrugged at the instructions, thinking they were awfully cryptic, but it also meant she got off early, so she wasn't going to complain.
Sara set the alarm on her car after getting out of it, looking around the deserted area as she walked toward the door of the warehouse. She pounded on the door and hoped the person would get there soon so she could get out of there.
Mick tentatively opened the door, then pulled her inside. "Good, you're here."
"Mick? What's going on? Where's Leonard?" Sara asked, suddenly nervous for other reasons.
"In here, c'mon," Mick huffed. "He's not doing so good."
Mick led her to a room lit by a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. It was dirty and sparsely furnished with only a card table covered in papers, some folding chairs, and a ratty couch.
Leonard was lying on the couch, a large bruise forming over one swollen eye, his arm in a sling.
Sara rushed over to him, landing on her knees on the concrete floor. "Leonard, what happened to you?"
"What's she doing here?" Leonard slurred, opening his one good eye and struggling to sit up.
"Thought you could use a friendly face," Mick said. He took one of the burgers and the package of onion rings out of the bag and tossed the bag to Leonard. "Plus, I was hungry," he added. To Sara he grunted, "You got something for me to sign?"
"You're paying?" she asked, surprised. Knowing better than to question the fact that the name on the card was not even remotely close to Mick, she pulled up the app on her phone and handed it to Mick. "Just use your finger to sign."
He did. As he left them alone in the room, he handed Sara a cash tip, which she slipped into a pocket, along with her phone.
"He shouldn't have dragged you into this," Leonard apologized.
"What is this?" Sara asked. Her hand hovered over his swollen face. "What happened to you? What is this place?"
"This place is a warehouse and I got in a fight," Leonard answered, tersely. "Mick shouldn't have called you."
"Technically, he called Big Belly," Sara said. "But yeah, he asked for me. Guess now I know why this was supposed to be my last delivery of the night and why I have the rest of it off."
"Is that so?" Leonard asked, holding a hand out to Sara to help her off the ground. She took it and sat beside him on the couch.
Reaching into the bag, Sara handed him the burger. "You may as well eat it while it's warm." She pulled out the fries too, taking one and eating it. "I'm sharing your fries."
"Yes, ma'am," Leonard agreed, taking a bite of his burger and chewing slowly. "You don't have to stay," he admitted reluctantly after eating for a few minutes.
"I don't mind," Sara said, shrugging out of her jacket. "It's not like I have anything else to do tonight."
"I'm sure you could come up with something better than watching me eat my burger one handed," Leonard said. "Don't you have homework or friends?"
"Yes to both," Sara said. "But look at it this way; this is the first meal we're getting to share together." She popped a fry into her mouth to emphasize the point.
"Is that something you'd like to do?" Leonard tentatively asked. "Have dinner together?"
"You asking me out on a date, Leonard?" Sara asked, playfully.
"Maybe I am," he answered. He licked his lips and asked, "Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?"
"I'd love to," Sara said. "Preferably when I'm not on the job."
"How do you feel about Chinese?" Leonard asked. "I'm getting sick of burgers."
Sara's laughter rang throughout the warehouse. "I feel very positive about Chinese."
The End
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