extemporally | Show me you really care!

This is not so much a post, as a couple of things which are delightful.

From The Ashes is delightful! So I was just like, "la la la, I will submit an application cos Mik said I could and I'll take an insanely long time to reply to emails and get everything together" and -- well okay it is STILL DELIGHTFUL. Hijinks! Chess! Age-reversals! This is the part where I beam all around. We need some The Like representation, though! Z at Hogwarts. Tennessee at Hogwarts. :D? :D?
Speaking of Z, this picture

Well I could call it delightful, but I can think of some other words that would fit as well. >:D
So I was on holiday when my parents were like, "I wonder what happened to the gramophone!" and I said, "WE HAVE A GRAMOPHONE??" and they said, "Well, yes. It's in storage!" Now it has been retrieved! And there is a record store whom, when I called, had a copy of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. Hi, David Bowie, hi. I find the way you scream on Moonage Daydream relentlessly endearing. Soon I will be able to listen to it, ON THE GRAMOPHONE
Work is good! I have an off day tomorrow, which is also good.
I have been toying with writing some more original fic lately. Lately I've been thinking about a girl named Zelia. Studying languages in university -- hopelessly impractical, she's afraid. On her year abroad, she's a language assistant in France maybe (definitely). The small flat she rents is a little bit (a lot) cramped, so she heaps blankets and pillows on her landlord's long dining table and sleeps there, and hopes to God she won't roll off. Her best friend has had a baby. She's a little bit in between things, a little bit lonely. In the story it's never really specified where she comes from. Likes: long beaded jewellery.

"Hey," Tennessee called, hurrying across the hall towards Z and Ryan. Z felt relieved. Saved by the bell! Saved from not having to talk to weirdos like Ryan, oh my god. Even though she guessed the whole cake thing was kind of a weird thing to tell to people who just didn't get it. She felt kind of grumpy.

"So," Ryan said to Tennessee, face deliberately turned away from Z, "Yesterday Spencer -- you know Spencer, right? My best friend, who goes to another school --" Z had only heard of Spencer a couple of times, but she was pretty sure Tennessee knew who Spencer was, so she thought what, "He put pants on his head and he didn't say anything for thirty minutes. It was really funny."

Over Ryan's shoulder, Tennessee gave Z a startled look. Z shrugged in bewilderment and tapped the side of her head gently, and because Tennessee gave her a reproachful look for that she said loudly, "So, what are you doing for English class now, Tenn?"

you know, z and ryan, people in glass houses shouldn't be throwing stones. or shrivelled cakes. also talking directly to each other help! awwww, they all are so adorable. mooooooooooooore.

They're all like "TALKING TO PEOPLE HELP" and bwahh, social things are hard sometimes. DO NOT JUDGE OK :(

(Also Spencer the dudebro dork. You know this is true.)

Tennessee gave Z a look. "Flowers for Algernon," she said. "You know that."

"Guess I just forgot," Z said, as lightly as she could. Of course she knew it. Actually, she was doing the same text, she'd asked that for the sole purpose of making conversation. Tennessee just wasn't making this any easier.

Ryan lit up. "Hey!" he said. "I've read that! Did you like it?"

"I guess," Tennessee said doubtfully. "I liked reading it, but it's hard having to talk about it and write essays, you know what I mean? Sometimes I feel like I have thoughts but I don't know what they are."

Z knew what she meant. But maybe this wasn't the best thing to say around Ryan Ross, because she knew Ryan Ross was supposedly this big shot at English, had won a couple of prizes last school year, so if he said anything condescending god help him --

Ryan was nodding sympathetically. "Yeah," he said. "I know what you mean, sort of. I just take out the bits I liked and try to talk about why I liked them, you know?" He threw a glance over at Z, almost like he was asking her something, and Z felt oddly gratified.

Z cleared her throat. "Isn't it going to be harder," she said, her voice cracking because she was kind of nervous, "Because I heard the version we've got is the condensed version, without any sex and everything."

"I didn't know that," Ryan said. He sounded mildly impressed.

ah-ha! the trick is to find the right topic! (also mannn, flowers for algernon. i've only read the short story, but it haunted me for years, seriously. it's so awesome).

Dude, I know, right. Although I first read it when I was twelve. The main message I took away from it was, "I WANT TO BECOME SMARTER TOO." Uhhh, it is highly possible I was not taking away the same message it'd been intended with.

But anyway. Yeah, it's something I reread pretty frequently, maybe once a year. Charlie :(

i still remember this moment when he smartens up enough to realize that people at his workplace were mocking and bullying him all the time. and later, when he's unable to read the books he loved. ugh, so much heartbreak.

Oh my god, I want this so much. MORE HIGH SCHOOL AUs ABOUT THEM, PLEASE.

RYAN ROSS: DO NOT TALK ABOUT CAKES ♥♥♥

Also, the bit at the beginning about Z getting into fistfights: so much yes. Her hair getting yanked so hard that she wants to cry -- that's why she cuts it short, in the end -- throwing her fists around and coming out bloody and bruised, lip swollen, black eye forming, and her knuckles bleeding.

So I keep thinking that someone's going to write more soon, right? Soon?

RYAN ROSS DOESN'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR STUPID CAKES. >:(

And yes yes yes -- Z never cries, that's a huge sign of weakness.

I finished my ghostfic, if that helps! It'll be off getting betaed for a while, but 16k of high school AU sooner or later?

Tennessee hates that she doesn't, though, Z clenching her free hand into a fist, fingernails digging into her skin and leaving white marks while Tennessee bandages her up. "It's just me," she says, "I don't mind," but Z never does.

Duuuuude, ghostfic!! That is a great help indeed. *grabby hands*

Tennessee doesn't know where Z learnt how to fight. She supposes that one doesn't learn, exactly, one needs and needs and needs to learn by getting beat up again and again until suddenly one knows how, the same way that a baby who's tossed into the ocean learns how to swim. Z always starts the fights with these girls, though, the ones who make mean remarks and would be content to let the buck stop there, them vaguely on top and Z & Tennessee vaguely at the bottom, only Z doesn't let it go, has to plunge herself into fights until she's bruised blue-black and scratched bright red.

She always gets in the worst trouble afterwards, too, because there's no denying (Z never denies it) that she always starts the fights. "Elizabeth," the head says, "what will we do with you?" and once Tennessee'd been in the office too, seen Z give the man a baleful stare through her swelling eye as if to say, you tell me.

Show me you really care!

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