#if you think I’m pretty you can send a small amount of 5 dollar to my ko fi haha jk…unless?

[gravecats]

Whoops accidentally served cunt when I went to see Dethklok 🤘🏻🖤⛓️

#kat’s meow #my face #goth #punk #alternative #metalhead #dethklok RULED btw I was crying screaming and eating drywall #if you think I’m pretty you can send a small amount of 5 dollar to my ko fi haha jk…unless?

[koocycle]

play thing | drabble series (i).

pairing. basketball player!jungkook x female reader

summary. jungkook is aware of the fact that you’re not his to love, yet he’s eager to show you what you’re missing out on.

wc. 3065

warnings. none

taglist. if you’d like to be added, please send me an ask!

previous | next

‘‘You look really pretty today.’’

A hint of a barely visible flush creeps up your already heated cheeks upon hearing the words leaving his lips. You don’t want to show your vulnerability at such an everyday compliment, yet the act seems a bit too hard when your lips break into a grin you’d rather keep to yourself today - completely losing your focus under his heated gaze attempting to meet your own.

‘‘Thank you, Jungkook.’’

He tries to hide the smile that’s making an appearance on his face, but he finds your flustered state way too adorable to not be entertaining on this fine afternoon. He can tell you’re not used to getting compliments by the way you innocently play with the heavy fabric of your dress, pretending to dismiss the existence of the wet haired man in front of you, but he knows better than that. Better than this simple act of innocence you’re putting up for him. 

And he’s not making it any easier on you — not when he is looking at you like this. His entire figure is casually leaning back against the heavy door of the men’s locker room and his backpack hangs lazily over one of his shoulders as you can suspect that there’s nothing more in there besides a total of two pencils in desperate need for a new grinding.

‘‘You can look at me, you know?” He’s mumbling this time, words barely audible before his gaze shifts to his feet, his head tilting and the grimace not yet visible on his face. ‘‘Barely complemented you. I don’t bite.’’

His words make you shoot an eyebrow up your forehead, giving you the final strength to look him in the eye this time. You know exactly what he’s doing.

“I mean — unless you’re into that?”

There it was. The boyish grin just begging to show up, the hint of pure mischief continuing to gleam in his eyes — the kind he wouldn’t be able to hide even if he wanted to. You had expected it to come to this point already, had been waiting for it, actually.

You straighten your back, composing your posture in front of him. And he oh so desperately tries to not avert his eyes down your slightly pushed out chest. The lightweight fabric of your nude colored blouse is allowing him to catch a glimpse of your bra, but he won’t let his guard down.

“I’m not, actually.” You manage to answer smugly, a load of confidence washes over you as you already have a feeling as to where this is heading. This surprises him as well, the sudden hint of a tease clearly audible in your voice.

“Hm, no?”

You shake your head. “Nope.”

Your friend dramatically rolls his eyes at the obvious lie, a glimpse of a pretty smile tugging at the corners of his lips.  He shifts his weight on both his feet now as he disregards the locker room door by itself, prepared to make his way over to you now – and you can already feel the beat of your heart in the base of your throat with each step he takes. Because he’s looking bolder than the days before. More daring – defiant, almost. Ready to take on the challenge and not willing to lose anytime soon.

His entire aura screams fuck me in the janitor’s closet five minutes before your next class starts.

No.

No.

 ‘‘Tell me what you are into then.’’ His eyebrow cockily raises up on his forehead as his head just slightly tilts, knowing he’s got you stuck in place. The confident expression you had written on your face completely dismissed.  

 You can’t handle him.

You clear you throat, announcing your defeat. “You know I got you guys take out?’’ The high pitched undertone in your voice betrays you – but what else do you have in your power when he stands in front of you like this? The warmth of his body this close to you, you’re actually able to feel him? ‘‘Chinese.. take-out..’’

Both of his eyebrows raise up this time, the surprise coating his features perfectly. ‘‘What?’’ as his gaze shifts to the barely open bag hanging on to your fingertips, you feel a little less intimidated before him. “Seriously?” his tattooed fingers curl around the shoulder straps of his backpack, “I love Chinese take-out. You’re an actual angel.”

When he’s right in front of you, his gaze feels heavy on your shoulders. You tell yourself he’s only interested in the food, but there’s too little space between your bodies for that to be true. His cologne is even stronger this time and it makes your mind all cloudy.

“Uh.. It’s just,” you immediately stop talking as you feel yourself grow hot under his presence, stumbling over your own words before you attempt to gulp your nerves away. “Just some sweet sesame chicken with fried rice and egg rolls.. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Still an angel.” He smiles down at you, pinching the tip of your chin just slightly before taking his backpack off and hastily rummaging through it. “Let me pay you back.”

“Oh no,” You immediately try to reassure him, “Absolutely not, Jeon. Over my dead body. You guys trained for over 5 hours, this is the least thing I could do. ”

You watch him pull an eyebrow up, a small smile appearing on his features. As if asking you why you wouldn’t want the money. As if you’re the crazy one here.

“___” He goes, the stern warning in his voice not being dismissed. “You just bought an entire meal for a team of fifteen hungry men. It’d be disrespectful not to pay you back, honestly.”

“You’re not paying me back. End of conversation, Jeon.” You point an accusing finger his way, a cute smile on your face.

Nonetheless, your finger gets dismissed by him as he shakes his head in disapproval before rummaging through his backpack yet again.

Pulling out a rather small wallet, he opens up and goes through it.

“This should be enough.”

He holds the money in between two fingers in the air, pretty pink lips turning into a knowing smile when your eyes widen at the paper in his grip.

“That’s way too much, Jungkook.” A snicker leaves him when you cup your smaller hands over his bigger ones, pushing the 50 dollar bill back to his chest. “Way too much. Are you out of your mind?”

“Are you?” He challenges, eyebrows raising as he waits for you to say something, “I honestly don’t mind paying you back, ___. If anything, it would make me feel better knowing I paid for my own lunch.”

“I mind, though. We’re not doing this.”

“Come on,” He whined, tilting his head slightly but still remaining eye contact with you. “You bought me food, this is the least thing I can do.”

“I bought all of you food, not just you.” You correct him, pointing a long finger at him. He thinks it’s such an adorable act and can’t stop himself from wrapping his entire palm around your pointer finger. “You’ll treat me on Mexican next time, won’t you?’’

When your hand moves in its place to intertwine your fingers together, the last thing Jungkook does is protest. He proudly accepts your soft hand to take place in his own. His thumb gazes over the smooth skin as he can’t help the grin from appearing.

“You win.” He states in defeat, voice lowering a few volumes down until he goes mute, you almost don’t notice the “for now,” he mouths after.

Beats of silence pass between your figures. Your hands are still intertwined and there’s too little space between you to be seen as two average friends with platonic intentions only. The silence hanging in the air isn’t uncomfortable, but rather peaceful. 

You don’t see Jungkook that often, and that’s partly due to both of your packed schedules, growing stack of assignments, and his unending amount of training sessions in basketball court. Nevertheless, he is a great friend to you, and you’re grateful to share this friendship with him. You’re comfortable around him, and you’re sure it’s the other way around as well. That’s an obvious fact considering the way you’re standing here with him. Holding hands with giggly expressions on your faces. 

‘‘Stealing my girlfriend, Jeon?’’ 

It’s crazy how fast the distance between you and Jungkook enlarges within a second when the heavy locker room door comes to an abrupt open. You feel as shocked as you look like with the sudden change of atmosphere, eyes slightly wide when a startled, and rather uncomfortable smile finds its way on your lips.

That’s right; Jungkook kind of seemed to forget about this dude.

‘‘Oh I- uh.. we were just.. talking.’’ Jungkook manages to blurt out, fingers reaching out the scratch the back of his neck. 

‘‘I know. Don’t sweat it, man.’’ The new figure that enters the scene dismisses Jungkook somewhat faster than needed after his attempt on reassuring him, now centering his eyes on you. He stands in between you as if creating a shield around you – as if creating some sort of barrier between you. His hands are slightly up in the air, presumably ready to embrace you in his arms.

‘‘Minho..’’ His name trails off your lips in a rather hesitant manner, Jungkook can’t help but notice. ‘‘How did training go?’’ Your tone is so soft and delicate, filled with affection. 

The larger male takes a few more steps towards you, invading your space as his hands slip around the small of your back. You almost don’t notice the rest of the guys walking out of the locker room as well with him filling your sight, allowing them to have a front row seat on the scene unfolding in front of them. 

‘‘It went fine. What’re you doing here, hm?’’ His words are slightly mumbled before he pushes your body more against his own, his smell overtaking you. He barely gives you some time to process the question before his lips slam against yours, taking you in a hungry kiss. 

The guys watch the scene expand in front of their noses, a few ‘‘oohs’’ thrown in there when your boyfriend deepens the kiss even more, causing you to be thrown off guard a bit. 

‘‘Minho,’’ You try to speak in between the kisses, but he won’t budge. Nervous laughter manages to escape you, ‘‘We’re not alone.’’

Jungkook wants to look the other way a little too badly, but his eyes are somehow still glued on the show you’re currently putting out. He would rather not call the heavy feeling in his stomach something along the lines of disgust, but it’s hard for him not to with the way his insides are turning upside down.

“Better find a room for those two or we’ll be stuck here all day.” It’s Min Yoongi who snickers beside the damp haired boy, nudging his side with his elbow. But Jungkook can’t seem to laugh at the attempted joke. Instead, his fingers are tightening around the straps of his backpack once again, trying to collect his cool.

Your hand is carefully placed on your boyfriend’s chest in attempt to calm the kiss down before he finally quits the whole act all together.

‘‘Can’t even kiss my girlfriend now?’’ Jungkook wants to wipe the grin that's slowly but surely growing on his face off. And the feeling is only starting to increase when the large male turns back to his teammates, a disgusting smirk visible on his features. 

Such an ass.

Jungkook can’t help but scoff at the sight – and visibly so. He’s just using you to show off. 

‘‘I uh..’’ You start but trail off the rails soon enough, making the attention turn back to you, ‘‘I brought you guys some take out, you texted me that you guys have been training all day and I figured out-”

“You brought us take out?”

You don’t get to finish your sentence when Kim Namjoon speaks up from behind, eyes bulging out of his head before slipping past his teammates’ bodies. And even when he eventually stands before you, trying to peek inside the plastic bag in your hands, you can’t help but note the huge amount of height difference between you. No wonder his coach never let him rest on one of the benches during all the competitions played so far - he’s easily one of the tallest players on the field.

It doesn’t take a lot of peeking before a gasp escapes his lips, “Dude - she got them egg rolls, I’ve been craving those all week.’’ Eyes buckle out of his scalp, ‘’All damn week.”

Jungkook can see you shooting a warm smile at Namjoon from afar, content with the way it seems to light the male up – pretty dimples making an appearance as his nearly perfect set of teeth shine brightly in your view. He can almost compare you to a child who just gave their parents the perfect valentines gift, looking all bubbly and excited over this.

‘‘I got some chicken as well.’’ You thrillingly whisper to your side, another set of giggles escaping you once Namjoon, once again, is ready to attack that plastic bag in your grip.

‘‘I didn’t expect you to come with take-out, though.’’ Minho sighs heavily, catching your attention almost immediately as you look at him with a huge set of eyes. The tone of his voice is disgustingly sweetened up as he swallows you back into his embrace, hands dissolving around the small of your back, not caring about the remaining players gauging at the two of you from the other side of the hall. ‘‘We already made plans, babe.’’

You don’t hold on to him the same way he does to you, Jungkook notices. The bright gleam in your eyes from before has already disappeared, now replaced with a frown between your brows. And he hurts for you.

‘‘You can’t reschedule?’’ You ask hazily, almost afraid to ask the question. ‘‘I know Joon would like some take-out.’’ Your hair falls out of your face when you spare Namjoon a pretty glance from over your shoulder.

Yet your boyfriend shakes his head, ‘‘Not this time. You should’ve told me before you went all out to please my teammates like this, love.’’ He titters at his own joke, thinking he’s funny. Still, a few guys besides Jungkook seem to snicker a bit at your rosy-looking cheeks. But he can’t bash an eyelash.

If no one is going to say it, he will.

‘‘Of course we can reschedule.’’ Jungkook speaks up, catching the eyes of your boyfriend immediately, quickly followed by your own. ‘‘We can go for some fast food any other day.’’

When Minho raises a cocky eyebrow up his forehead, the question already written on his features, Jungkook heaves out a tired sigh.

‘‘Come on, man. She bought us an entire meal.’’ His open palm points to the bag, which is still hanging around your curled fingers, reddening the tips completely.  

‘‘It’s not like I asked her to.’’ He bites, almost as if what he had said offended him. ‘‘Right..?’’ He’s looking back at you now, fingers playing with the strands of your hair as he hides them behind your ears. An irky smile visible on his face.

‘‘Right.’’ He confirms once he sees you nodding, placing a hasty kiss on the soft surface of your cheek. ‘‘I’ll call you after. Promise.’’

You’re not worried about him not contacting you – that’s the least thing on your list you’re concerned about. But he doesn’t care. Will not now, will not ever.

‘‘Okay..’’ You manage to say, your voice coming out softer than you had expected. And even though his embrace hadn’t really done anything to warm you up, the void sweeping up to you once he leaves you in place feels a little heavier right now.

‘‘I’m out of here.’’ The guy states, convinced the other guys will follow after him when his hands are raised besides his head. As he turns around without a second glance your way, your eyes follow his figure until he’s out of sight, heading for the exit.

Namjoon, the one whose mouth was watering at the idea of take-out just a minute ago is the first one who breaks the uncomfortable silence. ‘‘Next time, little one.’’ He pats your head gently, making backwards steps to disappear in a second. ‘‘Thank you, though.’’ He’s shooting you an apologetic look before big steps follow your boyfriend’s down the stairs.

Min Yoongi is the next one who leaves the scene to what it is, followed by a few other guys. But unlike Namjoon, these guys don’t do much other than gifting you a few uneasy smiles — ready to leave as soon as possible. And for some reason, it makes you feel even worse.

The silence that follows when it’s just you and Jungkook standing in front of each other hurts more, though. You’re embarrassed, he can see that much.

“Come here.” Your friend spreads his arms for you to jump into, yet you don’t make a move to do exactly that. “We’ll get out of here and eat it together. It might be a little much—” He embraces you in his warmth when you don’t attempt anything, “but do you want to see how many rice cakes I can stuff in my mouth?”

You only glare at him, not having it in you to laugh at the attempted joke when your boyfriend’s irritated expressions occupies your mind.

“I know you’re tempted.” Jungkook wiggles his eyebrows at you, close to succeeding in cheering you up. And it nearly makes you want to give in and have just as a good time as Minho is about to have — but you don’t have the heart to do so.

Instead, your heart is seeking for validation.

Hence you decide to push him away. Only for you to doubt your previous actions for the upcoming few hours.

“It’s alright, Guk.” You smile at him, hand on his chest as you push him away. “I was gonna share some with my roommates anyways.”

The excuse sounds weak to the ear, even to you. But it’s not stopping you from making your way out of the hall before he seems to progress it, mind occupied with your insecurities.

#jungkook #ficscafe #jungkook drabble #bts au #jungkook au #jungkook fluff #bts fic #bts imagine #bts fics #bts x reader #jungkook fanfic #jungkook angst #jungkook smut #jeon jungkook #cosmoguk

[notmrskennedy]

Professor, pt 1

A/N - so i heard from like four of you which is enough to warrant me posting drafts that weren’t supposed to see the light of day - ANYWAY this was originally written in third person and let me tell you it takes a ridiculous amount of effort to change tenses like holy hell. 

(Technically the prequel Friendliness but can stand alone if you really want it to. There’s a part two to this so watch out for that tomorrow.)

Summary - Spencer meets a professor and falls in love for a few hours

W/C - 2k

Warnings - none-ish? there’s a small smattering of violence and horrible changing of the tenses 

-----

Spencer can’t help the irony that he’s in a freshman college class for the first time ever while protecting one of the students. Who knew that a tiny club of DnD players could incite so much rage out of an un-sub? So here he was, trying to blend in—even though he’s 25, he still looks 14 and there’s really no real reason why he should be worried about being caught—in order to protect a freshman who was more pimple than male specimen. 

Joesph—the poor kid in question—takes a seat in the front row and Spencer’s obligated to sit within tackling distance, though he hopes it won’t come to that. Hopefully, Morgan will have the kid the un-sub goes for and Spencer can just enjoy being in college again. The painfully familiar auditorium seats, the stale air, and bad fluorescents feel more like home than he cares to admit. 

College hadn’t been all too unpleasant. High school he’d gotten picked on mercilessly. College, however, had meant getting doted on by hot sorority girls and earning the protection of frat boys—they’d picked up rather quickly that he knew football strategy better than they did after Spencer had hustled a TV and 400 dollars from them. Sure, he didn’t drink, but every single drunk teenager had welcomed him with open arms and lots of ginger ale. 

There’s chatter and for the ten minutes before class starts, Spencer is torn between trying to figure out which song is quietly playing around the room and watching for a particularly rage-filled college student serial killer. Instead, he just finds too many bored faces. Most of the kids are drinking coffee like the best of them and he’s itching for his next fix just looking at it. 

The first two rows: a terrible vantage point to be profiling, but a beautifully defensible post. He watches absently as one of the TAs, who looks a little younger than him, organizes three stacks of papers on the front desk and flips through several different pages on the podium. His attention is focused solely on you for nearly a minute too long—he can hear the voice in his head chastising him for how often he gets distracted by pretty people. 

You look of the fragile sort, the in-the-lab kind of future scientist. There’s something about you that’s captivating. It might be the way you keep reorganizing the papers to perfection or maybe it’s the way you study the room so closely. And while he thinks that you might not be able to physically stop someone, you sure look like the kind of person that could crush him in chess. 

He’s 25 and is considering chess as a marriage proposal.  

Joesph shuffles his books around in the seat in front of Spencer and you, the beautiful TA in question, hold a watch up as you move to the centre of the room. Class is starting. Class is starting and he’s hopeful the professor never actually shows up. 

He notices your watch is on your right wrist—are you left handed?—as you smile widely and clap her hands together. First day jitters seem to keep everyone silent, waiting on baited breath for you to start. Spencer would stay on baited breath for the rest of his life for you. You were utterly captivating after all—he could see the drool from several students’ mouths a few seats over. 

“This is Anthropology 101,” you announce. “If this isn’t your class, you’re free to leave. Or stay if you want. Did you guys know that anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million US adults? Or 1 in 5, I guess, if you want the easier pill to swallow.”

Spencer’s heart jumps into his throat and he wants to raise his hand just to ask you to marry him. 

“Anyway,” you sigh, leaning back agains the front desk, “I spit out a lot of facts. Usually something that begins with ‘did you know’ won’t be on the tests. I try to be fair. Which brings us to ice breakers.”

The class collectively groans. You scoff. 

“Oh hush, I’m the only one doing the ice breakers so chill out. Jeez.” Spencer waits patiently for your soft breath and then your further announcement of, “I’m officially Dr. Y/N Y/L/N, but that’s like only if my boss comes in or for any emails you send. You can call me Y/N because that’s like normal. I got my doctorate in forensic anthropology a year ago and I’ve been teaching since I started grad school three years ago. You’re in safe hands, I promise.”

He almost kicks himself. You’re the professor. How many times had he been nearly kicked out of a classroom when he was in grad school for saying he was the professor? How many times had he been 18 and trying to get an ounce of respect for himself? 

You continue, waving your hands about like you could pull your ideas back down to earth. “Um—a fun fact about me is that I am not welcome in certain parts of the world for ‘violating’ what are called exhumation laws, which is silly in my opinion. I had the legal right to carry that head on the plane and—and I hope you did the reading because there’s a first day pop quiz.”

The entire class lets out one simultaneous frustrated whine that alights something almost wicked in your eyes. You wave over two students from the other end of the front row and they begin passing out test papers as you explain. 

“You’ll have a total of fifteen minutes to answer ten questions. We’ll start on my mark. If you have any trouble, give me a shout and I’ll help you out. After this, we’ll go over the syllabus and if you’re lucky, leave early.”

Spencer’s passed a test and immediately notices there’s no place for a name. Just a bolded “Student #21” at the top. Another girl raises the question and you snicker. “I like puzzles,” is the only answer you give before the time starts. 

Question four: what are the top three songs you’ve been listening to? Please list.

Question six: why are you taking this class?

A: This is a requirement

B: I heard it was easy

C: I heard the professor was hot

D: I really enjoy anthropology! (liar)

Question nine: Creationism or Evolution?

Question ten: Quickly. If you were going to have dinner, would it be with Bill or Hillary Clinton?

Spencer can’t hide the grin he’s got the entire test. It’s all ridiculous get-to-know-you questions. He can tell what merit you’re getting out of them. There’s one judging study habits, one judging religion, feminism, politics—you’ve created her own little innocuous questionnaire. Spencer was sure the students would just think you were strange, but he saw the cleverness. 

Spencer also notices that once you notice him, you don’t stop noticing him. He wonders what you see. You’re so obviously profiling him that it hurts. Do you see the FBI agent? The scholar? The doctor? The drug addict? The man in a boy’s skin?

Your timer beeps and you shout for pencils down. Your makeshift TAs are dispatched to collect the papers and you make the stacks perfect when they make it to the desk. You move to the whiteboard, a set of papers clutched in your hand, and lean against it to address the class. 

“Test go alright?” your grin is contagious and Spencer can’t help but mirror it. You glance at Spencer, turns back to the class, and tuck your hair behind your ear. You let the class chatter on for a moment, setting the papers down on the table, and readjust the undone cuffs of your white button down. He never thought that a sweater vest and jeans could look so hot. 

You smirk and check your watch one more time. “Let’s talk about tests because I know you all have questions. Everything on the test is either written on the board, on the notes, or in the study guide—if you fail after that, come to office hours. I’ve got Advil for the hangovers.”

#

Thankfully, Joesph is one of those students who has to speak to every single one of his professors. Spencer waits patiently behind the kid, trying to keep the smell from the lack of deodorant just out of range. 

He keeps a hard gaze on all of the students moving in and out of the auditorium. There’s nothing to see, just a lot of students with a lot of normal college apathy. No anger, no serial killer, no one to tackle. 

“Sometimes the BO is worse than a corpse’s expulsion of gas,” you joke from your place atop the desk. Spencer looks up, and furrows his eyebrows as his brain processes. Your face falls for a split second, but your curiosity replaces it just as quickly. Joesph’s jaw hits the floor, stumbling for some way to explain himself or maybe some half decent way to insult the pretty professor. 

Spencer laughs, probably a little more than he should have, considering he wasn’t supposed to out himself as an FBI agent. You tuck your hair behind your ear again and, for someone younger than 25, you are surprisingly wide eyed with perception and curiosity. 

“Do you like puzzles, Doctor—“

“Reid,” he supplies, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat. “Spencer.”

You raise an eyebrow, chewing on your bottom lip in contemplation. You turn your focus back to Joesph—a boy worse at talking to those scoring higher than an 8 than Spencer was at the same age. “So, Joesph, why does the good doctor need to be within tackling distance of you?”

Joesph flounders, turns to hide his blush, and yelps like God himself has come down to kick him in the ass. Spencer takes one good look at the 18 year old girl charging towards a pimple of a boy and he launches before he can give much consideration to how much its going to hurt. 

But between the noticing and the launching, he makes a list: she’s got so much black eyeliner that Emily’s high school yearbook photos would be jealous; she’s about to inflict about a 9 on the pain scale if she’s left to her plan; there’s obviously no plan other to scratch Joesph’s eyes out; her nails are the size of tiger claws and Spencer desperately wishes he had a better pain tolerance; there’s no weapon. 

The tackle takes seconds. It’s a practised movement. Roll. Knee. Handcuffs. The girl is screaming and crying and kicking and biting. His arm’s on fire and she’s struggling enough that it’s taking more than ten seconds to get the handcuffs on. 

It’s calculated as he presses his knee harder into her back. She yelps and stills long enough that Spencer closes the handcuffs on her tiny, sliced up wrists. The cutting explains some things…

“Hence the tackling distance,” You sum up, bending down just slightly to look the killer in the face. Your nose wrinkles. “You had very distinct ideas on the cultural value of suicide.”

Spencer shakes his head, hauls the girl to her feet, and beckons for Joesph to follow. The entire world falls out of view as he manhandles the girl into an easy walk. The students step to the side to gawk, and he’s thankful for the wide berth. If someone got hurt, the paperwork alone—

“It was nice meeting you, Dr. Reid!” you call and he glances back over his shoulder. You’re waving around the stack of papers in your arms, utterly ridiculous, terribly adorable. He hopes his smile is more suave than love sick, but the fleeting flirtation is especially over when Miss Unchecked Rage kicks out as Joesph comes into her line of sight. 

Spencer throws his whole weight into keeping her down. There’s no room to fall in love after a day. Especially with someone on a college campus halfway across the country from him. There’s even less room to manoeuvre Miss Eyeliner even without Joesph waddling into her eye line every few seconds. Seriously, he thinks, how hard is it to keep behind me?

#spencer reid #dr spencer reid #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid x reader #reid #reid x reader #spencer reid x y/n #reid x y/n #spencer reid x you #Criminal Minds #criminal minds fanfiction #spencer reid fanfiction

[anxietysroomsupport]

Hypermobile anon here. First, thank you so much. It's just nice to know there's someone here for me. And to give a little more info, I have a serious problem where if I'm not currently in pain. I don't remember how bad it was. I know everybody does this, but my brain literally checked out as I was going to bed recently and I fell on the floor. I nearly forgot to tell my physical therapist.about it because it didn't really hurt. So, I can't do the pain scale very well, and I never remember (1/2)

(2/2) It just makes it sort of hard for pain relief when I don't know I'm going to need it and don't have the energy when I do. Also, on the vitamin subject, I know that I've had vitamin d issues before (bad heat exhaustion and allergy scares = going outside less), bad enough that I was close to being diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I'm not sure about the others, but I do know I'm not amazing healthy, so? I take calcium pills for the vitamin d, though. Again, thank you guys for all your help.

.

We just got a bill from my PT place that says we owe money that we can't pay. They told us up front how much it would be with our insurance, and my mom's been paying each time, but it says we owe 177 dollars. Sure, it's not a lot, but we're not rich and trying to send a sibling to college. If we can't get this sorted out. I can't just not go. 10 exercises I can do at home and 5 appointments is not enough to help a chronic disorder. I cant focus and I have practice in 30 mins. -Hypermobility anon

Same day but later when I'm feeling a little better (my director was very supportive though so that's nice), I'd seen the letter and heard my parents talking a bit, but my mom told be as we got to school for rehearsal about PT. I got upset, and I felt bad because I could tell she felt bad because she didn't expect me to be upset, and in the heat of the moment I said "chronic illness" in front of my mom for the first time. She loudly (not quite yelling) (1/?) - Hypermobility anon

said to me "That is the most self-pitying thing I've ever heard. Chronic illnesses are like cancer". Sure, I probably should've said disorder and not illness, but I'm scientifically right. Then I said "It is, it's chronic pain, I am always in pain" and she said "Well then clearly PT isn't helping anyway" - I??? When I went in after 15 minutes after another girl, since we were both there for an hour and a half, I decided to stop trying too much to hide my crying (useful masks) (2/?) -HSD anon

since the other girl was in the hall to eat, and when I managed to explain to the director, she was understanding and nice, and when I said chronic, she said that I should never have to live with that, especially at my age. And when I mentioned not being able to sing at that moment from my crying, she pointed out how I was singing an empowering song that was about standing against the bad stuff in life, and I was perfect for it. I know my mom was just mad, but it just drained me.

Sorry I keep sending asks so often, I just feel like telling someone this. I decided to put 'zebra' in my bio. It's a thing that people with EDS and HSD sometimes like to call themselves. I like it, so even though I just have my name and pronouns, plus a random joke, in my bio, I added it. It just feels like a step in the right direction to remembering that I don't need google to tell me I'm dealing with this every 5 minutes. Accepting it, I guess. :) -HSD anon

.

My sleep schedule just keeps getting worse and I think it's my ADHD combined busy days and pain but I just never want to sleep anymore. I can't, I don't want to, and it hurts physically and mentally to just lie there and see if I can fall asleep. 80% sure my circadian rhythm changed to sleep at about 2 am but I get up at 7 and have a chronic disorder that's getting worse because of this I *need sleep*. And I'm so scared I'll mess up, want to make a side blog for it but want to make one (1/2)

for something happy first because I always figured that if I had side blogs they would be ask blogs or for fandoms or whatever. But I got a little better at not caring what other people think, so I haven't really needed one for fandom. But I looked through the tag and felt so comforted by some of the stuff that I just think it would help me. Maybe I'm just extra bad tonight because I went outside but also talked about it a fair amount with a friend I hadn't seen recently who didn't know. -HSD

.

I wanna talk to my physical therapist about hip braces because I tried a knee one we have and it honestly helps, but my hips are worst so I wanna see if it would help, but they're pretty expensive. It's hard to find dual hip braces, from what I've seen in my research, and even though one more than the other, both cause me issues. Idk, I'm conflicted, because it could help but is it worth all the effort? Also, even if it's under clothing it's still physical evidence (1/2) -HSD anon

(2/2) of my "invisible" disorder. Also, stopping exercises for a few days because of not feeling well from my covid shot reminded me of just how much time I spend on them, so it's another thing to deal with this. . . Idk, sometimes I just wonder if it would be better to just deal with it. I still have pain anyway, though it might be a little better. Less often, maybe? I don't really remember. It's not stressing at the front of my mind all the time, but the back of it. I'm just conflicted. -HSD

.

HSD anon here, idk if I mentioned it in an ask already, but recently I had a small breakdown because I was watching something where a character was in a car accident, as was trying to push through having trouble walking even with a hip brace. After a minute, I registered it and just thought "That could be my future". My joints had already been acting up and then they got worse, so I don't know if it was cause and effect? But I don't exactly know what to call it other than a trigger. (1/2)

Physical and emotional effect, at least I'm assuming on physical because I've had a bad reaction to something similar before, but like, I don't have trauma, I think it's more fear of the future. And I don't want to use trigger incorrectly, it's insensitive to those who actually have triggers. I'm just so confused.

Forgot to sign the last ask with 2/2 and HSD, whoops.

.

Hfnsiwk I'm not ready to walk into PT tomorrow and say that I don't think months of PT have been helping but I have no way to be completely sure because for all I know it's the weather since this is the first year I've known/it's been noticeable. Maybe it's just change, I don't know, but it just feels like such a waste of time if it really didn't help. Plus, I'd stop, and while that'd be great, I do enjoy being stronger, even if it didn't help pain. I have 12 hours and a bad pain day idek. -HSD

.

Hi Hypermobility Anon,

I think I found all your asks and got them in the correct order.  And found your last ask!

I’m so glad you kept writing in.  I think you should go ahead and make your side blog - you definitely have enough material for it.  Wanting to make a happy side blog also is a great goal to have, but if you don’t know what it will be yet, don’t let that prevent you from doing something you know you want to do and that will probably help you.  

You are dealing with So. Much.  Your mom especially sounds like she just is not ready to accept the situation.  It’s not self-pity to state your actual conditions.  It’s just reality.  

Forgetting about pain is normal, and really all you can do is try to write it down or make some kind of note about it in the moment or immediately after, so you can refer to it later.  Maybe you can track your pain events in your phone notes.

I think your idea to add “zebra” to your bio is a good one, this is part of your life and just something you have to deal with.  It sounds like you’re finding a community for this.  

Sleep schedules are tricky, and feeling like you desperately need to sleep can make it so stressful that it starts a vicious little cycle.  Some strategies to get around this are First, remember that just resting is okay and helpful too, even if you don’t fall asleep.  Letting your body lay there to rest is good for you.  

Second, if you’ve spent several minutes laying down without falling asleep, its okay to get up and walk around, or any small light exercise that’s comfortable for you.  The goal with this one is to get out of the bed for a bit.  It will help your brain to re-learn that the bed is for sleeping only, not for laying awake.  That association can help signal to your brain to start its sleep-process when you get into bed at night.

Third, it’s really common to have a changing circadian rhythm during your teens and twenties.  That’s just a thing that happens and you can’t do much about it, so just try not to worry too much.  Sleep when it feels right and when you can, instead of trying to force yourself to sleep when you’re “supposed” to.  

If hip braces would help you, you should definitely at least mention it to your physical therapist.  You might research online for any used ones as well.  A physical sign that you have pain can have good and bad consequences, but I think the good consequence of being in less pain far outweighs any others.

The triggering event you described is not so much a trigger as it is just a genuinely really upsetting situation.  You related really strongly to the character you were watching, because they’re dealing with similar problems to you, and to problems you could have in the future.  It’s a lot to process.  But while you could potentially be in a car accident, remember that television is made to dramatize events and probably made it seem a lot more difficult and scary than it really would be.   

Since we know you sometimes forget your pain, it’s safe to say that the exercises are helping you manage it, and you say that they’ve made you stronger in general.  Those are good things, and I would recommend you continue the exercises you can do on your own even if you end of ending  your physical therapy sessions.  We don’t know yet if your pain might have gotten even worse without therapy.  You’ll have to find that out on your own if you stop exercising, and then decide whether it’s more worth it to you to continue exercising or to live with the pain.  Whichever you choose, it’s Your choice, Your body.  Take care of yourself. <3

-bun

#hypermobile #hypermobility #hypermobility anon #hsd anon #hsd #hypermobility spectrum disorder #pain #physical therapy #pt #vitamins #exhaustion #allergies #money #chronic pain #chronic illness #Ehlers-Danlos syndrome #zebra #mom #sibling #masking #director #classmate #chronic disorder #sleep patterns #adhd #exercises #covid mention #covid vaccine #accommodations #triggers

[txthearteu]

all i could see

note: i only just realized halfway through the story that this is about blindness again, i apologize, i swear i will try something different in the next story that i’ll make :)

pairings: choi yeonjun x reader

some soulmate stuff hihi

im sorry i really dont know how to do these intro things on top 

warnings: none

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You knew it was the right thing to do. You couldn't remember much about the things that transpired on that day, but you knew you owed that man something in return. As you try to remember his features, his actions, his name- all you could remember was his eyes filled with desperation. You could get lost in a forest filled with beautiful trees but none of the trunks could compared to his brown colored eyes. His hooded eyes were full of emotions on that day, at that moment. You didn't know him, but in that split second that you saw his eyes you felt as if you knew him for the longest time. They say the eyes were the window to your soul, and in that moment you felt as if your soul and his were one.

You woke up to nothing. You knew this day will ultimately change you life. You were still confined in the hospital after the events that happened, and it was a miracle that you're still alive and breathing. Recovering from the injuries wasn't an easy process, but you managed to heal well. The only things you had on your body aside from your hospital gown were your hospital bracelet and 2 casts, one on your right and one on your left. 

As you were playing with the plastic flower propped in your bedside table, you're mind was lost in thought of the man- his whereabouts, his current status, how he was coping, and the like. A soft knock interrupted your train of thought followed by the voice of a female nurse, nurse Jane as what you can recall, greeting you with a beaming smile.

"Good morning (Name)!" "Good morning nurse Jane." Your response held no emotion. Everything you can see- the color of her scrubs, the wheelchair she was bringing, the walls in your hospital room, the plastic flower- you took in for the last time, since today would be the last time you’d be able to see.

Nurse Jane, on the other hand, did not let your emotionless reply go unnoticed. "I know you wanted to do this, but are you really okay with it? If you wish not to proceed, I can always tell the hospital staff to discharge you instead." She suggested.

You chuckled, "Sure I won't be able to see from this day on, but I can manage. Besides, that man saved me, this is the least I can do to save him."

Nurse Jane nodded, "Okay. I will escort you to the surgery room now, I hope all will go well. We are all here for you in your recovery process." She then proceeded to help you get on the wheelchair. 

The trip to the surgery room felt long though it only took 5 minutes. In that short amount of time, nurse Jane tried to engage some small talk with you, but you only tuned her out since you tried to take in everything for the last time. There were kids in the hallway, some smiling and some giving you questioning looks, but you didn't mind since this was the last time you'd see the beauty in all you could see. If you were being honest, you wanted to back out the moment you were in front of the surgery room. But then you remembered your reason as to why you chose to do this. You knew this was the right thing to do.

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The man woke up to hushed voices in his hospital room. He knew he was okay, but one thing seemed very off to him.

"Guys?"  The hushed voices halted. "Can you please turn the lights on? I can't see you right now." The man requested.

"Um, hyung, you see..." Taehyun started off calmly,

The man could hear the uncertainty and worry in Taehyun's voice. I am perfectly fine right? He thought. But he couldn't help but think something was wrong, and he was starting to get anxious by the second, "What? What is it?"

Another unrecognizable voice started to speak, "You see-"

"-that's the doctor in-charge hyung-" Kai, who was right beside him all along, saw his question look and decided to answer his question in mind.

"-you managed to get out the accident unharmed, but unfortunately, you bumped your head pretty hard on the pole as you pulled that person you tried to save and you damaged some nerves connecting to your eyes. You're practically blind right now, and the only way to fix it is through surgery. Which is what we were discussing before you woke up."

"What?" he asked dumbfoundedly, "I can't possibly be blind right? I just bumped into the pole and blacked out, there's no way I could've possibly damage anything. What about our showcases? How can I practice when I can't see? Why can't I see?! What's happening?! This can't be a joke right? Haha nice joke guys you really can't be turning off the lights right now I could hear the cars outside-"

"That's the thing Yeonjun-hyung! You can only hear them, but you can't see them. You're literally in front of your window right now." Soobin said with a mixture of annoyance and sadness.

Yeonjun was devasted to find out that he was blind. Not only can't he see his fans anymore, but he can't live and not see the world he has yet to see. One year in to his career, and now this?

As Yeonjun thought of all the things that may happen from the on, he started to recall why he became like this in the first place. At the time he went in to save her, he perfectly mapped out how he could get out without any injury. He thought of pulling her back towards him to prevent anything else from happening, but what didn't cross his mind was how strong colliding bodies could cause a great imbalance to his stance. And that's how he bumped hard on the street light pole behind him, curse that street pole. He barely got her alive, but at least she was still alive as paramedics went in to get him and her.

"Hyung," Beomgyu spoke softly, "This isn't the end you know. The doctor said so himself, you have an option, and that's surgery. We just found out earlier that you had a donor. The donor requested we need not know him, or her, but we're grateful for his or her sacrifice. The fans will understand hyung, you'll need to rest after surgery though, but I know MOA will be supportive in your recovery process. So, what do you think? Will you go for it?"

Yeonjun, although blind, felt all eyes were on him now. He knew their eyes were filled with hope and desperation. He had to make a choice at that moment. He didn't want to deprive the donor of his or her sense of sight, being able to see was one of the greatest gifts given to human kind. But he also didn't want to disappoint or burden anyone, especially his groupmates and his fellow fans.

"Okay. I'll do it."

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A few months and many lifestyle adjustments later, you were back on track. Post-operation felt like hell, since you had to ask everyone for help in many things. It was a good thing your sister and friends were there for you every step of the way. After being discharged from the hospital, you immediately started braille lessons. If there's one thing you wanted to enhance significantly post-surgery, it was your sense of touch. That was one way you could identify someone or something, but you had to start from somewhere. You were yet to find out the name of the man, but you decided not to know who he was since there was no point- you wouldn't be able to see him.

And here you were, walking alongside your guide dog Neko in the park near your home. It was already afternoon and you just finished braille lessons a few minutes ago so you decided it was high time you'd go to the park, because why not? You passed by a cafe when you heard someone say, "No way. Bin, that was the girl I tried to-" and deciding not to eavesdrop even more, you continued on your walk towards the park. You ordered Neko to escort you to a bench near the fountain, it was the same bench you sat on that fateful day.

Flashback "For the last time Mom, I won't send in money unless I know the real reason behind it. Who knows, you might use it for drugs, again." 

You had enough of your mom calling and begging. Although she promised to get well, you knew better that she wasn't getting any help. 

Deciding that it was time you’d go home and take a rest, you stood up almost too stiffly and started walking back home. It was already late at night and you didn't pay that much attention to anything else. It all became muscle memory to you every time you walk back to your apartment, but you were still unaware with everything that was happening around you. You were so deep in thought that you didn't notice you were walking towards traffic. The last thing you heard was a long, loud honk, a voice calling out to you, and before you blacked out, you saw those deep, dark brown eyes.

End of flashback

Dark brown eyes. That was the only thing that stood out in your memory. You had the same shade of brown as what that man had, maybe that's why you were so captivated by them. But before you knew it, you blacked out. You were thinking hard and long about what happened on that day, and how that man saved you, but before you even had the chance to think deeper and deeper, you felt Neko wagging his tail beside you.

"What is it boy? What do you see?" You asked your dog, knowing damn well that he couldn't talk back to answer you. On heightened senses, you felt no sunlight casting on you, immediately thinking that someone was right in front of you. Assuming the worst that could happen, you immediately held on to Neko and, with a brave voice, started talking defensively.

"Look, I don't have much to give to you right now. I'm just trying to have a peaceful day, please don't take anything- even my dog- away from me. I only have a few dollars in me and no card and I just want to have a peaceful day please reconsider before you steal anything from me-"

"Woah woah woah. I'm not gonna do anything to you don't worry." That voice. It sounded familiar, "You look like someone I know and I just wanted to ask a few things, if you don't mind." very familiar. But you couldn't pinpoint who it was.

All doubt was gone and you trusted this man, whoever-he-is, so you complied to his request. "Sure, ask away."

"Um, this may sound very weird but, you look like the girl that I tried to save from a car crash a few months ago. I just wanted to make sure if it was you, though, the girl I saved months ago wasn't- here I say it- blind. But you really look like her though!-" The man said, rushing his last sentence in order to make it clear to you that he only had good intentions in his quest to find out if you were the girl he tried to rescue.

You'd be lying if you said you weren't shocked at all. Was this really the man that saved you? His voice did sound like that person who called out to you on the day of your crash. And to add to your thoughts, he wasn't ever supposed to see you again. You didn't want the man to know you were the one who donated your eyes for him. As your thoughts started to battle against each other, you asked him out of nowhere-

"Why did you save me that day?"

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Yeonjun was sitting on a cafe with his groupmates near the park where you lived. It was their day off, and they decided what better way to spend their day off than to go and relax at a cafe sipping Americano's. They were casually talking about everything that happened to them on the past few months, trying to catch up on anything that needed to be discussed. He was deep into the conversation between him and his groupmates when something caught his eye.

It was almost 4 in the afternoon when he saw you walk past them. The girl he saved a few months ago. Remembering that day, everything was still crystal clear in his mind.

Flashback Yeonjun was walking back to his dorm after a long tiring day, it was almost 10:30PM and he just finished polishing the dance break in which he had a hard time perfecting. 

You walked past him in the opposite direction with a look of deep-thought. He didn't mind it though, but he wanted to know what your thoughts were behind those brown eyes. He couldn't believe someone had the same colored eyes as him, almost exactly the same. He knew himself too well, and when he saw your eyes, he felt as if the heavens just copy pasted his eyes to your face. It did have a difference, your eyes just had a glimmer that no one had, not even him. Maybe it was at that moment when he saw the emotions behind your eyes that you had that glimmer. That was technically the only difference you and him had, your eyes glimmer when you are feeling lots of emotions, his doesn't. And he believed in the same thing you ponder on, "the eyes are the windows ones soul."

As you walked past him, he saw every emotion behind it. It was filled mostly with anger mixed with sadness and confusion. He wanted to know more, but he wouldn't want to seem as if he was stalking you. He continued walking, and you continued walking as well. But he just had to look back at you, just to see if you were okay. You continued walking stiffly, but it was him who saw you walking towards traffic with a speeding car almost reaching you. He didn't hesitate to call you out, "Hey!", while running towards you.

"Shit." He said to himself. He couldn't stand the fact that in just a few seconds, a persons life will perish if he didn't do anything. He caught up to you on time, pulling you back towards him. He was happy that he got to you on time, but he didn't think it over properly either. He pulled you hard- almost too hard- towards him, and you ended up crashing hard on his chest resulting to him falling back and receiving a hard blow to his head by the pole behind him. You, on the other hand, also fell hard on the ground and fracturing your arm in the process. Your left leg, however, wasn't so lucky. Even if the man got there on time, the car already zoomed past you and in the middle of the heroic pull the man did, your left leg was still halfway through it and the car hit it.  It took a few seconds for you to realize that when the man pulled you, you also hit your head hard on a street sign pole, curse that damn pole. You tried so hard to see who the man was, but the only thing (and the last thing) you saw, were his brown eyes.

End of flashback

What confused him was the fact that you were blind. He remembered clearly that you weren’t blind. He had a look of panic and immediately cut off whoever was talking, "No way. Bin, that was the girl I tried to save a few months ago! Or so I think she is her. Look." Yeonjun finished off while pointing towards you. The boys' gazes followed to who he was pointing at and sure enough, you were blind and walking alongside Neko.

"Are you sure though?" Soobin responded, "I mean it could be someone who really looks like her, you couldn't be too sure about it. Not unless you ask."

"Wouldn't it be weird if I just went up to her and asked her straight up? What if it isn't her? Or am I just assuming things-" Yeonjun started to argue but was immediately cut-off by Taehyun who said something that weighed him down,

"Wait. Hyung, I know this sounds crazy but, remember when the doctor said that you had a donor? And that she or he wishes to not inform us who she or he is? I know this sounds really weird and out of the blue but, hypothetically speaking-"

"Again with the deep words?" Beomgyu interjects,

"-shutup seaweed brain-"

"Guys, can we let Taehyun speak?" Soobin sighs, scolding the two boys bickering.

"-hypothetically speaking, what if she really IS the girl you saved a few months back? And when she found out you were blind, she got so guilty and burdened and decided to donate her eyes for you?"

The boys fell silent over this thought. The scenario was highly possible, since Yeonjun insisted that you really resembled the girl he tried to save a few months back. They wouldn't want to think of it that way, because then they'd feel burdened at the thought as well. They were doubtful, he was doubtful, but there was only one way to find out.

"Hyung," all eyes went to look at Kai, who spoke up for the first time after the long silence, "we wouldn't be so sure though. The situation IS likely, but you just have to ask her. We'll wait here, don't worry."

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

That was all it took for Yeonjun to be there in front of you. After you asked that question to him, 1/2 of his and his groupmates' suspicion was true, you were the girl he saved a few months back. What he wasn't so sure was you donating your eyes for him, he was yet to find out the truth.

And before you knew it, you were seated in front of 5 guys at the cafe you walked passed by. They go by the name of Tomorrow x Together, a boy group in which you swore you heard somewhere. They all had introduced themselves individually. Kai and Yeonjun sat comfortably at your left and right respectively, Taehyun, Beomgyu, and Soobin in front of you. Neko was seated to your left, inand it felt as if Kai was playing with him.

After all of you had your introductions down, Yeonjun then explained to you and to the boys why he saved you. As you listened intently, you heard some snickering across the table. Of course you'd understand why some of the boys would find this funny and amusing, it really did sound cliche. But you didn't mind it though, you felt attached to him, he believed in what you believe in. While Yeonjun was narrating his story, there were occasional hums of responses from you and the other members- indicating that you were listening to every word he had to say. The deeper he got to his story, the more you became attached to him. You didn't want to say it, but deep down you believe in soulmates. And maybe in this universe you are living in, your eyes were the only way for you to find your soulmate.

A long silence followed shortly after Yeonjun finished his side of the story. After what seemed like forever, Soobin cleared his throat and then proceeded to say, "Wow. Um- okay- so-, so what now?"

You heard someone slap his forehead, as if he was embarrassed that their leader was being awkward and shy despite not having anything to be awkward and shy about. You all laughed though, clearly humored by the reaction. But Taehyun had to ask you something, once again silencing everyone on the table and direction all their attention towards you.

"Noona?"

"Yes?" You responded calmly.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you blind? Basing off of Yeonjun-hyungs story, you still had eyes to see. What happened?" Oh no. Oh no. You were definitely caught off-guard. You didn't want them to know, but they also needed an answer.

"Yeah noona," Kai then butted in, "you see earlier Tae had this theory that you were-"

"Ya. Kai. Enough. Let's not assume things." Beomgyu tried to silence the youngster, but you reassured him that you wanted to hear the so-called "theory" as well. You knew where the thought was leading to, but you just had to brace for it.

Yeonjun was now silent, possibly waiting for what you had to say after Kai explained what Taehyun “theorized” earlier that afternoon.

"As what I was saying, Tae had this theory that maybe you were the one who donated your eyes to Yeonjun-hyung. Since earlier he was so sure that your were the girl he saved a few months, maybe- just maybe - you got so guilty that he got blind while saving you. So you had to save him as well, by offering your eyes up for surgery."

Everyone seemed on edge after Kai recalled the thought. You sighed and faced towards Yeonjun.

"I know what you saw that day." You said timidly. And Yeonjun immediately knew what you meant, the glimmer in your eyes. But he couldn't piece up what you're trying to say.

You continued on, "Try to think of a moment in which you were at your happiest, or saddest, or angriest. And then look at a mirror." 

You heard one of the boys get something from their bags, possibly a pocket mirror. The others still didn't quite catch on to what was happening, but a few seconds of silence later, you heard Yeonjun gasp. "No way. No way-"

"What you guys theorized was true. I did feel guilty. I was told you hit your head pretty hard, causing you to lose your vision. I felt burdened. Had I just focused on where I was going rather than thinking deeply of all the thoughts that went through my head that night, both of us would've had our eyes. Not one or the other. And yes, I did feel the same. We had the same colored eyes, but I knew mine would glimmer when I'm filled with emotions inside. And with the way you reacted, I guess they still do, even if they're attached to another persons body." You finished off your mini-speech with a big, heavy sigh. You felt the weight on your chest being lifted off, one in which didn't know you were holding on for so long.

It was only until then that the boys noticed the glimmer in Yeonjun's eyes- a glimmer in which they haven't ever seen before. So soulmates are real. Soobin thought to himself.

"I- We- Thank you so much (Name)." that was all that Yeonjun said.

You knew every emotion behind those words, you knew he was thanking you for a lot of things. Life in the spotlight would've been very different if Yeonjun was blind. He wouldn't have been able to dance with the guys like how he used to. He wouldn't have been able to see his fans who supported his group unlimitedly. And you were happy since you knew what you did was right all along. Even more so since you knew your soulmate was the one to take very good care of it.

Since then, you always hung out with them- tagging Neko with you always. Yeonjun held you closer every time you were together, both physically and emotionally. He'd always help you out on things, like fetching some water, or walking with you and Neko, or even being there for you when you needed someone to lean on- especially if it were problems regarding your mother. It eventually led to something more than just friends, and the boys weren't even surprised. They were jealous since, as Kai puts it, "We want soulmates too!"

You were happy, to say the least. Your courage didn't go unnoticed. You took a big risk. And in the end, it was all worth it.

#txt #tomorrow x together #txt scenarios #txt imagines #txt imagine #txt au #txt fluff #choi yeonjun imagines #choi yeonjun x reader #choi yeonjun #yeonjun fluff #yeonjun scenarios #tomorrow x together imagines #tomorrow x together scenario

[outlanderfandomfollies]

Diana Gabaldon’s Commentary on Casting Sam Heughan as Jamie Fraser | November 4, 2013

Goodness, can’t leave you lot to your own devices for long, can I? [g] Given the amount of traffic I see in the stats for this blog and my Facebook page, I conclude that the Casting Wars are still boiling along.

Well. Look.

1) People are entitled to their own opinions. Naturally, I’d prefer these opinions to be expressed—and received—civilly, but up to you, of course. I believe in the virtues of free discourse.

2) I—of course—am likewise entitled to an opinion. [cough]

Now, my opinion is based on rather more information than most others expressed here, because

a) I created Jamie Fraser and thus—presumably–have a pretty good idea of what he really looks and acts like.

b) While I haven’t yet met Sam Heughan, I’ve seen Rather a Lot of him (about 95%, at a rough guess), both in terms of

a. Photographs, and

b. Film, and

c. Bits and pieces, like audition tapes

Naturally, everyone forms mental images while reading. Everybody. I do it when I read other people’s books, too. Now, I can’t imagine why anyone—having read OUTLANDER—would form an image of Jamie as a 7-foot tall Bozo the clown on steroids, but you know….whatever floats your boat.

Why anyone should expect a film company to a) telepathically extract your personal vision of a character and b) try to replicate that onscreen is one of the Great Mysteries of the Universe, and I’m not about to try to solve it here—I got a book to write, among other things, and there are only so many hours in the day.

So I’m just going to say This about That:

Y’all have not seen Sam Heughan “be” Jamie Fraser.

I _have_.

[See more under the cut.]

Now, when they told me who they’d chosen and that they were sending me the audition tapes, I was in the car, driving from Phoenix to Santa Fe with my husband. Unable to get to my computer until we got to Santa Fe, I was madly googling “Sam Heughan” on my iPhone (my husband was driving, I hasten to add).

Frankly, I thought he looked bizarre. He’s 6’3”, that’s fine…very chiseled face, but oddly chiseled, and what’s with the large forehead and cleft chin?!? Jamie doesn’t have a cleft chin and his nose is not all that long, though it _is_ straight…and good grief, I know we wanted somebody who could play a 22-year-old virgin, but this guy hardly looks like he has hair on his behind, let alone the dangly bits…but…

But.

But you know, I _do_ understand what it is that actors do.

(Do you know that, btw? What they do is magic. They can become somebody they aren’t—and their physical outline is just Really Not That Important. (Within limits. Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher is a long way outside those limits…).)

So I sat down at my computer, sort of looking warily through my fingers. Willing to suspend disbelief if I could, but kind of dubious, you know?

So here he is, dark-haired, in a long-sleeved gray T-shirt, and I’m thinking, “Boy, he doesn’t look _anything_ like his IMDB photos, he actually looks pretty human, that’s a relief…”

And five seconds later, Sam Heughan was GONE, and it was Jamie Fraser right there in front of me. True. No costume, no makeup, no props, nothing but cues from an offstage casting director, and…it was him.

He did two scenes. First, a confrontation with Dougal, right after Dougal’s ripped his shirt off in the tavern.

“Devil take ye, Dougal MacKenzie! I dinna owe ye that!” Blazing blue eyes, swelling shoulders, and…bam. Showed this small bit to a (male) friend recently, who blinked at the screen and said, “Man, he’s powerful!” He was.

Second scene was even better; it’s the scene where Jamie explains to Claire exactly why he’s about to punish her. [g] And he had it all: patience, seriousness, annoyance, patience, humor, menace, humor, and…enough sex to drop anyone with functioning ovaries in their tracks.

Now. In the months since then, the production people have been kind enough to show me the occasional glimpse of this or that. I _have_ seen the red hair in its full glory (it took seven tries—and 27 hours in a salon chair, I was told by the victim), and speaking as someone married to a red-head (himself Jamie’s original body model) and with two more in residence…it’s definitely the right kind of red.

Red hair—as I notice a few red-heads have been mentioning—looks Way Different, depending on the light. Unless it’s truly carroty (and Jamie’s is Definitely Not), sometimes it looks almost brown, sometimes it’s red-gold and sometimes it’s all different colors and sometimes it has almost-blond highlights and sometimes…well, let’s put it this way: it doesn’t look like Bozo the clown or Shamus the Wrestler, it looks like Real Hair, just red. (And if you really worry about this, do go and google “red deer images” and _see_ what the heck a red deer’s pelt looks like.)

But beyond the physical details (which are, um…Really Good, and decency prevents me going further, save to say that while Jamie certainly doesn’t look like Thor (gag me with a spoon), he—and Mr. Heughan—look Very Nicely Muscled indeed)….Sam Heughan can _act_. And he totally nailed it.

So. Feel perfectly free to express your own opinions. (I don’t know quite what people expect as a result. Surely they don’t figure that Starz will say, “Oh, no! Robyn MacGillicuddy Stimson thinks Chris Hemsworth should be Jamie! Get Hemsworth’s agent on the phone!” Or at least I hope they don’t think that…) You’ll change your mind in due course.

Or I’ll pay you a dollar. [g]

I love to read Diana’s early impressions of Sam Heughan! The “bizarre” remark about his appearance was so strange! (Elsewhere, Diana even said she initially thought he looked “grotesque”!) 😂 

I was reading a post recently where someone completing mischaracterized part of Diana’s initial impression of Sam Heughan. They apparently did so to promote a certain “agenda” about Sam. Consequently, I thought I’d post one of her earliest (and most thorough) commentaries about her early impressions of Sam. (For some of her even earlier comments about Sam--from July 5 to 9, 2013--see POST1, POST2, POST3, POST4, POST5, POST6. BTW, these comments are consistent with Diana’s November 4th commentary. After seeing Sam transform himself into Jamie, Diana was clearly a fan.)

[edited]

#sam heughan #jamie fraser #diana gabaldon #commentary on casting #outlander

[thecandywrites]

Jewel Of The North Part 2

So in case you missed it Part 1. Again, many thanks to @monstersandmaw​ for sharing the concept of ice orcs with me and letting me run WILD with it. I’m having so much fun with this. 

Ok, so Zara Kingsley, top left, top right- Doug Kizzo and just under him is supposedly “Wolf Eye” which is a brand of whiskey I made up just for this story. Fun fact- there is actually a high end brand of whiskey called “Wolves” and they sell whiskey the way designer limited edition sneaker/tennis shoes are sold ($150 a bottle and you have to “register” to even get on a list before they’ll send you a bottle, *sigh* rich people, but I am not a rich person in real life which would explain why in every fantasy story I write, I can change that about my character) anyway, I didn’t know was even a thing until after I wrote this and as a point of curiosity, I double checked to see if Wolf Eye whiskey was a thing so I didn’t have to worry about copyright (Which is why names are Like That in this story) And that beautiful plate of seafood is what I envisioned a “king’s platter” would look like vs. A fisherman’s stew which is the picture right above the little girl who I’ve chosen to represent Sakura in this story and we have the lovely Taylor in the bottom left. 

Now let’s go shall we? Off to the Arctic Tundra!

Jewel of the North 

Part 2 

You woke up earlier than you thought you would, mostly because you were still in your Great Lakes time zone. So what was 10am to your body, it was 7am there. You crept out of bed and snuck into the bathroom to brush your teeth and your hair and put a bra on under your pajamas and then as quietly as you could, unpacked your gifts for Taylor and her family and arranged everything on the table as you quickly made a pot of coffee and some toast for your pre-breakfast and the smell of coffee was what roused Taylor and Greg at about 8:30.

“Good morning.” You greeted them warmly as they were both still obviously groggy but both happily shuffled over to the coffee pot to drink their coffee.  

“What’s all this?” Greg asked as he looked at his table which was almost overflowing. 

“Presents, Taylor told me to bring seeds.” You answered. 

“Did you...like...clean out a greenhouse?” Greg chuckled as he looked at the sheer amount and variety you brought. 

“Mmm...more like 5 but that’s not important besides I got to a lot of them just as they were closing out for the season so I got a bunch of it for mere pennies on the dollar and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time with money in your pocket.” You giggled with a dismissive wave of your hand. “I don’t do anything small or by half.” You shrugged before you handed him a wrapped present. 

“Oof, that’s heavy.” He realized as he took it from you. “You didn’t have to get me anything...oh my gods, you got me Kraken!” He practically squealed when he opened it and pretended to cry as he hugged the gallon jug. 

“My precious.”  He impersonated Gollum as he pet it which cracked you and Taylor up before you handed her- her own gift as she gasped and tried not to squeal too loudly as she unwrapped a bottle of raspberry peach Grand Marnier. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She practically bounced in her spot, hugging the jug too before she leaned over and hugged you too. 

“Alcohol is so stinking expensive up here it’s ridiculous, thank you so much for bringing this.” Taylor thanked you. 

“Yes, it’s very generous of you, thank you.” Greg mirrored. 

“You’re welcome.” You beamed. 

“You know, we really shouldn’t keep all these seeds for ourselves. We should gift these at the festival. That way all the clans can benefit from this.” Greg realized. 

“I was thinking the exact same thing, I told her that last night when she told me about them.” Taylor nodded in agreement. 

“You got a box we can put it all in for now?” You asked before Taylor grabbed the biggest box she had and the three of you packed the seeds away before you grabbed your other crate that had all the seasonings in it. 

“There’s more?” Greg laughed. 

“Well yeah, Taylor said the local grocery stores are pretty limited on spices so I brought enough of everything that it should last you until we see each other again.” You shrugged. 

“It’s like you brought a spice store with you.” Taylor swooned as she opened some of them and sniffed them before Greg did the same, both of them grinning at the scents in their noses. 

“French toast for breakfast?” You suggested. 

“Hell yeah,” Greg immediately agreed before you and Taylor began to make breakfast before the scents of breakfast woke the kids up. 

“Good morning guys!” You greeted them cheerfully as they stopped and stared at the stranger in the kitchen. 

“This is Zara, she’s a friend of ours so you can call her Auntie Zara and she’s going to be staying with us for about a week.” Taylor introduced you. 

“And I’m really grateful you guys opened your home up so I could stay with you, so I brought you guys presents.” You told them which made all of them gasp in excitement. 

“So, you must be Katie, the sensible older sister.” You asked as you pulled out the presents that had their names on them. 

“Lovely to make your acquaintance Katie,” you greeted her formally as you handed her the wrapped gift. Because tweens always loved it when you treated them like little adults. 

“And you must be Matthew.” You deduced as you handed Taylor’s son his gift before you got on your knees so you could be eye to eye with the toddler. 

“Is your name Jamie?” You asked as Jamie hid his face behind his mother’s leg as Greg and Taylor laughed at his bashfulness. 

“Do you think you could take this gift from me Jamie?” You asked as you held it out to him before he took it and ran away. 

“You got me a race car!” Matthew exclaimed and promptly high fived you as Katie’s jaw dropped at her present. 

“Your mom said it was ok to give you girl pampering stuff, so there’s a few face masks, some nail polish. Fancy hand lotion, a few bath bombs and stuff.” You explained as you pointed everything out before Katie happily enveloped you in a hug. 

“Thank you so much.” Katie thanked you gratefully. 

“You’re welcome sweetie.” You grinned just as Jaimie squealed in delight at his new toy and came running in and nearly knocked you over giving you a hug which got you to cackle laughing so you were left to sit on the kitchen floor while Jamie hugged you before he left to go play with his toy as Matt was already racing his car around the house before the family finally got to sit down to breakfast as the kids got to know you better by asking questions about you and your family and where you lived as you showed them pictures of your own kids and how you were a widow now and what you did for living and your horses and pets and things as Jamie happily ate his breakfast from your lap and stared at you adoringly and practically inhaled half your breakfast which you didn’t mind one bit.  As long as babies ate well, they should thrive and you remembered how your own son Xander was practically a bottomless pit. 

Then the calls started to come in on Greg’s and Taylor’s cell phones, all asking if you were there yet. 

“Yup, Noah flew her in yesterday.” You heard them both say as their phones then started to blow up from texts. 

“Uh, babe…” Taylor looked at her husband in a meaningful look that bordered on concern because word had spread like wildfire as they showed each other their screens, the same people texting both of them, but mostly Taylor because they were hoping she would give better answers than simple yes or no’s that Greg was giving. Except to his brother Doug, who Greg was giving him just about everything that you were sharing with his kids as Doug was already claiming “dibs” to the others. 

“Want to go out to dinner?” Greg offered. 

“Sure.” You nodded. 

“In town there’s really only a few restaurants, Eska’s which is a mom and pop- grandma’s food in a tavern, the bar- Kesuk’s.” Taylor began to list off. 

“Is it the place that has the ‘kitchen sink nachos’?” You asked. 

“Yes.” Taylor beamed. “And it’s not a “dive bar” but it is very much the local watering hole. Now there is a “dive bar” and that is Goose’s. I wouldn’t go to the bathroom there but we will get takeout from there because they make the best double cheeseburger while White’s has the best wings.” Taylor explained. 

“But Swanson’s has the best steaks, but it’s a bit pricey, it’s right next to Gold Horn’s which is the biggest and nicest fishing and hunting retreat around.” Greg explained. 

“And one of the nicest butcher shops because most of the hunters can’t take all that meat home.” Taylor added. 

“Anyway, the locals around here will go to Swanson’s for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and stuff, pretty special occasions.” Greg continued before they continued to list off all the places around to eat before you decided on Eska’s because it sounded like the ‘safest’ option and spent the afternoon getting ready while you happily walk Katie through your ‘routine’ of getting ready as you, with Taylor and Greg’s permission helped her get dressed up too and put some simple makeup on her as her new ‘auntie’ and by dinner your nerves were already a little frayed because Taylor told you that you were meeting ‘the family’ meaning not only hers but Greg’s too and you had picked up on the hint of Greg talking about his brother and his accomplishments and such and you gave Taylor a meaningful look to which she looked back apologetically. 

If you were honest, you were used to it. If your friend’s mates had failed trying to flirt with you or whatever, often you were ‘introduced’ to so many brothers, friends and especially brother in laws. 

You got to dinner and the ‘family’ was already there, waiting for the table to get ready while ‘Doug’ was running late getting ready and there had to be 20 people there, all of them there to meet which you didn’t mind as you did your best to meet and greet everyone before the table was ready and Taylor had you sit at the end of the table as Greg and Taylor made sure that the seat across from you was Doug’s seat and you asked Katie to sit next to you so you wouldn’t be all alone since there was an empty seat next to Doug’s seat because he liked to “stretch out” as you met Greg’s parents and Taylor’s parents and got got catch up because Glenda, Taylor’s mom had missed your mom and to see pictures of your mom on her horse with your kids made them all happy as they got to know you a little as you kept an eye on the door, waiting for ‘Doug’ before an older woman came in with the cutest little girl you had ever seen in your life then a familiar face came in behind them. 

Noah. 

You instantly blew out a breath of relief at seeing him before a relieved and happy smile plastered itself on your face and you noticed they were walking by you and Noah seemed to see you shortly after you saw him as he soon mirrored your smile as he seemed equally excited to see you. 

“Hey Stranger.” You greeted. 

“Hey, fancy meeting you here, this is my daughter Sakura, this is my mom, Summer.” He introduced. 

“But you can call me Nana Hun.” She warmly smiled at you as you shook her hand. 

“Lovely to meet you Nana, and it’s so lovely to meet you Miss Sakura.” You excitedly greeted them as you crouched down to take a knee so you could be eye level with Sakura, she couldn't be much older than 5 and your heart ached at the thought of her losing her mom so, so young and how hard that must have been for her but you didn't want to bring it up because you didn't want that to be upsetting. 

“You should be really proud of your Daddy, he did such a great job flying me here yesterday.” You praised to Sakura.  

“He’s the best pilot ever!” She agreed which got you and Summer to laugh as Noah chuckled bashfully at the praise. Goodness was she precious. 

“I agree!” You confirmed with a very exaggerated head nod. 

“So you’re Paradise?” She asked in awed wonder as she stared at you. 

“Uh...oh, are you talking about how I look like a paradise orc?” You asked as you ran your hand over your skin of your exposed arm and she nodded before you nodded in confirmation. 

“My Grandma’s tea leaves told her that my daddy would be meeting Paradise yesterday.” She proudly informed you as you could see Noah turn a deep sapphire as his smile turned slightly nervous as he gave his mother the side eye. 

“Your Grandma reads tea leaves? Mine does too! Only the way my Grandma does it, I think she reads them wrong because they tell her things like my son was ‘a ball’, which, to be honest when I was pregnant with him, I looked like I swallowed a ball and when he was six months old he was almost as wide as he was tall and very, very round because he was a fantastic eater and he’s still practically a bottomless pit but he’s turned out pretty normal so far, he doesn’t ‘bounce’ too much.” You shrugged with an easy grin which got Sakura to giggle at the joke which got you to laugh as Noah and Summer chuckled too. 

“But that was really cool that your Grandma’s tea leaves told her that I was coming,” You nodded solemnly. “Did they tell her anything else?” You whispered as you leaned forward as she smiled and giggled and nodded. 

“Can you tell me?” You asked hopefully as she looked up to Nana for permission before Nana nodded her permission as well- completely ignoring Noah who looked particularly terrified at the notion and was shaking his head subtly to his mother and his daughter ‘no’ but it was like they couldn’t see him before she came up and put her hands over your ear. 

“They said that you were the best mom ever.” Sakura whispered and your heart melted and you almost wanted to cry. 

“Well I try, really hard, every day- to be the best one I can be so that’s true.” You confirmed. “And you know what? I tend to adopt every kid that’s around me, so if you see me and if you need or want anything at all, you just let me know ok? And I’m not offering that just to be nice, I mean it. I don’t offer anything unless I’m prepared to be taken up on it. I’m only here for like a week and a half but while I’m here if I’m needed somewhere to either help your dad on the plane or help watch you, I’ll happily do it ok?” You generously offered because you just instantly adored this child and could tell she was just a sweetheart and you just...loved her. The way your love surged for your children when you got to hold them for the first time, that same love was surging for her. Something about her found every heart string you had and pulled on them and made them into a bow and you would happily wrap yourself around her little delicate fingers as you just stayed there smiling at each other before Doug cleared his throat which made you turn your head away to see Greg next to what you assumed was his brother who was dressed really nicely as they both smiled expectantly at you. 

“Hi, be with you in a minute.” You greeted them with a polite smile before you turned back to Sakura. 

“Now, you go enjoy your dinner ok Sakura?” You urged her before she launched herself into your arms before you gladly caught her and hugged her, grateful you had taken a knee so you weren’t knocked backwards. 

“How did you know I loved hugs?” You cooed as you hugged her tight and rubbed her back and just held her until she let go first because you knew that some kids just needed a good long hug and you didn’t care if you were making Greg and Doug and everyone else wait, all that mattered was Sakura and the poor baby just needed a hug. 

When Sakura finally pulled away she was smiling and her eyes were just a little glassy from unshed tears before you reached into your purse and got her a tissue and your business card. 

“This is my cell phone number. You call this, and if I’m working when you call, just leave a message and I’ll call you back as fast as I can and if I’m not working when you call, I’ll pick up ok? I’ll always pick up.” You offered and it only felt odd as an afterthought that you just met this child and you were kicked so hard and so high into mom gear that you would already go to the moon and back and bend over backwards for her but it felt like the right thing to do and the best thing you could do for her. 

“Thank you.” She thanked you graciously. 

“You’re welcome Sweetheart.” You cooed to her as you squeezed her little hands in yours before you reluctantly let them go because Greg cleared his throat again before Noah took the hint and ushered his family to sit in the booth directly behind where you would be sitting. Which was nice that they were so close as you stood to your full height. 

“Thank you so much for your patience. I’m Zara Kingsley, the LMT from the Great Lakes.” You introduced yourself to the man who had a familial resemblance to Greg as you politely shook his hand from across the table. He was handsome, that usual olive green skin, gold amber eyes, jet black hair, he was obviously younger by the way he styled his hair and his hipster- black t-shirt, black blazer, skinny jean look and the way he proudly carried himself, his chest puffed out all proud, like a peacock showing off his plumage. You could tell he knew he was one of the most handsome men in the room and his ego was too big for the place. You knew from Greg that he was practically a decade younger than you too. His ex wife had been one of the prettiest women in the Arctic Tundra but they divorced after five years and two kids because they both were having affairs. 

“Does every kid treat you like a visiting Disney Princess?” He asked pleasantly which got you to chuckle. 

“Yes, very much so, which I don’t mind at all.” You shrugged. 

“Well it’s understandable, with a name like Kingsley, it’s kind of a given you should be treated like royalty everywhere you go.” Doug flattered and you heard Noah cough a ‘damn’ behind you like he had just gotten hit in the gut and even you had to admit that was a pretty smooth line. Although it wasn’t the first time you heard that. 

“Thanks,” you nodded. Oh gods. This was going to be the longest dinner ever. He was just going to spit game at you all night and you just wanted to turn around and invite yourself to dinner with Sakura and her family as you slipped back into your seat because you were not about wait for Doug here to come around the table to pull out your chair because you were pretty sure he’d try to sneak a peek into your cleavage as he would try to too. The game was on and you were in no mood to be chased by Doug. 

Noah though, no he could chase you like the silver fox he was because he was just barely getting a few gray hairs on the sides of his head  and it made him all kinds of distinguished and made you all hot and bothered and you could already fantasize his head between your legs, with your thighs resting on his broad shoulders- your powerful thighs clamping around his ears as his tongue…

Oh, that’s right, Doug was talking to you. Damn it. 

“I’m sorry what was that?” You asked as you tried hard to refocus on Doug and what he was saying, thankfully the restaurant had gotten louder since Doug sat down directly across from you and started talking and it was kind of hard to hear him anyway. 

“I asked how you’re liking the Frozen Tundra.” He repeated. 

“Oh it’s wonderful. It’s gorgeous and the people are lovely, very kind and generous and welcoming.” You grinned politely as the waitress came over. 

“What can I get you to drink?” She asked you. 

“Anything sweet and fruity?” You asked hopefully. 

“Lethal too or just light?” She questioned. 

“Ooh, lethal.” You couldn’t help but giggle because you would need it to persevere Doug’s advances as Doug started to grin a little wolfishly. Ha! Like he had a chance of scoring with you tonight. 

“For sweet and fruity and lethal you have two choices, cloud berry punch or purple peach punch.” 

“Purple peach.” You ordered. 

“Half or full?” She asked. 

“What’s the difference?” You asked curiously. 

“A half is served in a tumbler. A full is served in a mason jar and has an order limit of three.” She answered. 

“Oh yeah, my kind of drink, a full please and thank you.” You ordered gleefully. 

“Do you want your usual Doug?” She asked moving onto him. 

“Actually could I get a glass of Wolf Eye?” He asked and you nearly snorted a laugh and covered it up with a cough. May the gods grant you patience to deal with this pretentious asshole. While Wolf Eye was a decent whiskey, it was only popular because celebrities thought it was awesome and the bottle was *couture*. Just like any other designer name brand. 

“Do you like whisky?” He asked. 

“I do.” You nodded. 

“Could I also get her a glass too?” He asked. 

“Sure.” She nodded before she got everyone else’s drink order. 

“Wolf Eye is one of the better whiskies.” You appraised. 

“Have you ever had it before?” He asked. 

“Yes I have. My sister Blossom is a whiskey geek/ whiskey snob, my sister Blossom’s husband is a whiskey geek/snob too and my own parents and my brother are all beer snobs while my baby sister Anya is a bartender and she gave me a shot of it once. Usually it’s too rich for my blood to order it though.” You confessed. Even though you had three bottles of it at home from your wealthier clients. 

“What about you? Is there any kind of alcohol you’re really into?” He asked.

“It doesn’t really compare to Wolf Eye.” You answered as you realized you probably looked bashful, when really, you were dreading being judged. 

Every guy- without fail who got you a glass of Wolf Eye were trying to show you how fancy and couture they were- thinking that because you were jewel orc- you somehow should have very refined, expensive tastes. When in reality, you didn’t. Honestly once those guys heard what you loved- they thought less of you. Or the guys who found out what you liked and weren’t pretentious assholes somehow felt that because you didn’t have “refined” tastes in wine or other booze, that that spilled over into your taste of men which couldn’t be farther from the truth. You were picky as hell when it came to men. 

Although if you were honest, you loved your clichés- the bubble gum pop music, sweet fruity wine and cocktails and peppermint mochas and sappy romance novels and romantic comedy movies and you would preferably have all of those at the same time while in the comfort of a bathtub with a bath bomb fizzing away. But that was a world away from this. 

“Oh don’t feel bad, you like what you like.” He reassured you but you laughed that laugh that said ‘oh you don’t know what you’re really asking’. 

“No I insist, I promise not to judge you based on your answer.” He vowed and you didn’t believe him one bit. 

“Ok. So, honestly, in my family- food wise, I’m the queen because I love to cook and I cook really well and my brand of hospitality is you are not allowed to leave my house hungry but drink wise, I’m like the black sheep of the family because I love flavored alcohol, the kind of liquor that’s low on the proof and mostly flavoring, so flavored moonshines and flavored rums and vodkas and especially liqueurs and things like that. The cheap ones that you just pour into some juice and it’s instantly a fruity cocktail. That’s my speed. Sweet and fruity.” You shrugged as the waitress came back and gave you your drinks as you graciously took the glass that had whiskey in it and sniffed it and swished it around the way your sisters always did before you took a tentative sip. 

Yup. It was whiskey. Could you tell the difference between a scotch, a whiskey or a bourbon? Nope. Could you tell the difference between a $20 bottle of whiskey or a $70 whiskey, hell to the nope. The only thing you noticed was if it burned or was smooth or not. You knew that all scotches were whiskeys but not all whiskeys were scotches and that was the extent of your knowledge. Honestly if this glass was full of peach whiskey you’d probably like it better. But you knew how to be a gracious recipient of a gift. And you had your manners to keep. 

“Very good.” You praised, pretending you knew what the fuck you were drinking as he took a sip and practically moaned and for some reason, that noise coming from him was making you want to gag and one look at Katie who frowned at him was nearly causing you to burst into laughter. Even she could smell his bullshit, which to you was hilarious and part of the reason you wanted her close. Having someone like a niece or a sister or the best ones - a mother or a grandmother, or someone close to whoever you were paired with tended to keep whoever it was- in line- and would keep them from asking inappropriate questions or delving into inappropriate topics of conversation. It was a strategy you learned to employ often in these circumstances. 

“So Greg told me that you’re divorced.” You put to him. 

“I am divorced and I have two kids, two boys, Doug Jr. who we just call Jr. and Kent, Jr is 5 and Kent is three.” He answered. 

“Aw, they must be adorable, where are they?” You asked. 

“They’re with their mom tonight.” He answered. 

“Oh, well I would have loved to meet them, I love kids, I also have two of my own, Xander and Skylar, but they’re a bit older, Xander is 9 and Skylar is 7.” You answered before you pulled out your phone and showed him as he showed you his kids. 

“And Greg said you have joint custody of your boys?” You asked. 

“Yup, they get to spend the week with their mom and the weekend with me.” He answered. “And their mother is about to remarry so the bitch won’t bleed me dry with alimony and child support for too much longer now.” He groused and you took a measured deep breath in to keep your face neutral as you heard Summer murmur into her drink. ‘Lucky woman’ and somehow you got the distinct impression that his ex-wife was lucky to have divorced him and to have gotten alimony and child support and just seeing Doug and after knowing him for a whole 2 seconds- you could agree with that sentiment. You could just sense that he was a narcissistic asshole. And your late husband had been one of those and there was no way in hell you were ever doing that again. 

“But I understand you don’t have that problem because you’re a widow. Obviously a young one.” He returned as you could tell he was trying to age you. 

“Yup, that’s true, my late husband Andrew was in an accident at work about two years ago, but I’m not that young. I’m 35.” You answered and he paused. Greg had told him early thirties, you were mid thirties. You looked great for mid thirties but that was practically middle aged and you only had what- another 5 years of child bearing age left in you? Not that long. But you were supposed to be a rich widow who worked in some kind of spa and had married into a rich family and drop dead gorgeous, he could work with that. 

“Wow you really good for your thirties. How long have you been dating since then?” He asked. 

“I haven’t really been dating much or for very long, just in the last couple of months actually. I wanted to give myself and the rest of my family time to grieve properly and not rush into anything that not only I wasn’t ready for but that my kids weren’t ready for and it wasn’t until a couple of months ago that they let me know that they were ok with me trying to date again because they are the most important people in my life and I’m really picky about who I let around my kids too. So I can understand why you didn’t want to bring your kids to meet me.” You answered as Greg was kicking himself for not bringing his kids because obviously you connected to kids and if his kids would behave long enough and well enough you could have bonded to his kids and made him a shoe in and this could have been a done deal already. 

“So, Greg told me that you work in the fishing industry.” You prompted him. 

“I do, I’m a sales executive for First Star, which ships all kinds of seafood all over the world.” He answered proudly. “And the pay is really good and there’s always sales incentives and I get bonuses often.” He grinned smugly as he fingered his heavy gold chain necklace around his neck and he put on way too much cologne. It was almost burning your nose and making your eyes water a little.  

“Wow, do you have a business card?” You nodded, pretending to be impressed before he very proudly pulled out his wallet and you could see from his billfold that he must have had at least a thousand dollars on him. He was flexing for your benefit and judging by his gold rings and gold banded tusks and just the general decked out nature of his attire. He was definitely showing off for you as he handed you a brand new business card. It was fancy but...not as fancy or as nice as yours. 

“Very nice. Remind me to call you before I leave so I can buy a case or two of crab and ship it home and have my mom put it in my deep freeze freezer.” You urged him. 

“Oh, you won’t have to buy them, I’ll happily gift you whatever you want.” He generously offered. 

“Aw, that’s very generous of you. Thank you.” You thanked him even though the way he said that you were pretty sure he had another "payment" in mind but this was polite company and Katie was right next to you and you didn't want to expose her to what you assumed was that particular side of her uncle just yet but if he exposed himself that was on him. 

“So being a sales rep does your income base itself on how good the fishermen’s catches are or is it pretty stable, like no matter what they catch, you’re bringing home a salary?” You questioned thoughtfully. 

“Oh it’s a salaried position and it’s all year long, unlike the fisherman who only run on the boats for a fishing season, like the different kinds of crab have their seasons and the different kinds of seafood all have their own seasons.” He answered. “Or even the pilots who only fly during the spring summer and fall, which is only like a three month window up here and have to live off of that all year long.” He answered as he cast a look past you to see Noah who was pretending to enjoy his own beer instead of eavesdropping. 

Oh this son of a bitch had to go for the low blow of putting others down to build himself up. Ok. Honestly you were grateful he was telling on himself like that. 

“So are we ready to order?” The waitress asked as she came over, after having gotten Noah’s order already and you were following along with the menu and you already decided that you wanted the same thing because it sounded amazing. 

“Yes can I have the King’s platter?” Doug ordered. 

“It’s a huge platter, we could share it.” Doug offered to you. 

“Oh, no thanks, can I just get the fisherman’s special with the seafood stew?” You requested sweetly. 

“Sure thing.” She nodded as she wrote that down and continued to get everyone’s meal. 

“So I understand you’re a masseuse?” He asked excitedly once the waitress left. 

“No. I’m a licensed massage therapist, LMT for short.” You gently corrected. 

“What’s the difference?” He frowned. 

“A masseuse uses “massage” as their cover for being a prostitute, which honestly if you’re going to be in the oldest profession, just be honest about it and don’t call it massage. Which, again, if you chose to do that,  I don’t judge, I have strippers as clients because they take self care to a whole new level and everything they get from me is a tax write off for them so it’s a win win. However, a licensed massage therapist actually went to massage school and has a license to practice massage just like a doctor has a license to practice medicine and we are held accountable to a board or in my case- to the state medical board just like any other nurse and doctor and an LMT never gives happy endings or has sex with clients in any way shape or form.” You answered with a proud smile. 

“Oh,” Doug nodded and even you could see he was trying to hide his disappointment. 

“So, are you able to make any kind of real money off of massage or is this just a hobby for you?” He asked and you were ready to dump this overpriced whiskey in his face, but that would be alcohol abuse and an insult to the whiskey itself. 

“Well massage has been a passion of mine since I was a kid, so you could call it a hobby that turned into a career. But I’m more interested in what constitutes as “real money” in your opinion.” You posed curiously. 

“Anything more than forty or fifty thousand a year.” He patronized. 

“I take it you make more than 50 thousand a year then.” You deduced as you overheard Noah whisper to his mother. ‘I barely make ‘real money’ then.’ 

“Oh I make a few times that. I make about two hundred thousand a year.” He bragged. 

“Yeah I can see you’re wearing most of it.” You appraised and Noah snorted his beer and nearly choked on it trying to cover up his laugh because your unimpressed tone was giving him life as you heard a hissed ‘yes’ from Noah. 

“You’re one of the lucky ones then. I make about the same. A little over 200 thousand a year actually.” You answered evenly like it was no big deal. 

“What? H-how?” Doug frowned in shock.

“Well I have four businesses, all four of them are solely in my name and I own all four outright and none of them have any debt while each of them have their own assets, so my massage business which makes me about a hundred- to a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year, my esthetician business which makes me another fifty to sixty thousand dollars a year and then the sales of my massage products, essential oils and esthetician products, skin care line, makeup, all that goods stuff to round it out with another thirty five to fifty thousand dollars a year and the fourth business is the shareholder for all three businesses and I only have to work about thirty to thirty five hours a week in total to do it too and I only work about 9 to 10 months a year.” You beamed proudly as Doug’s eyebrows practically went up into his hairline as you heard Noah murmur a ‘damn’ which you imagined was muffled because he must have said it into his fist behind you. 

“W-why?” Doug stuttered as he struggled to wrap his head around all that.  

“Well,  when my husband was alive, he made about a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars a year and when he died, I turned all four of those businesses which at the time were the side businesses I had to earn my own spending money into my full time career to replace his income when he died because you see I specialize in…” You began as you brought out your business card and listed everything off from the back and added to the additional certifications that weren’t on the card.  

“Not bad for a “hobby” huh?” You asked with a smug grin as you heard Noah practically whistle lowly behind you and clap ever so softly and you would have given anything for a mirror to see his face, hoping he was at least impressed. 

“Uh, nope, not bad at all.” Doug had to admit. 

“So if you got remarried and the man you married could provide you with his income that would either equal or surpass your own would you still continue to work or would you scale back? Retire?” Doug asked thoughtfully. 

“It depends.” You answered simply.  

“On?” Doug prodded. 

“It would depend on the circumstances and the person.” You specified. 

“Such as?” 

“Well, I’ve been very lucky in that I have the four thriving businesses and because I have a very good and very expansive client base where I live and I fill a niche that very few others can fill in my area and because I live just 20 to 30 minutes outside of few major cities because I’m centrally located in the country in between all of them and I work out of my own private space at my home and the home I work out of is my dream home, it’s a home that my late husband and myself designed together and it’s awesome and the only way I’m moving is if I find a home that’s even better than the one I have and that criteria is pretty extensive plus I’m very well supported and well known and have a reputation that I regularly bank on every year and speaking of support, I have my parents who live right next door and my in-laws live only 15 minutes away and all of them are very involved in my children’s lives. So honestly, I’m not gonna move unless I find circumstances even better than the ones I already have and the person I would be moving for can give me things that I don’t already have which is basically at this point- unconditional love, respect, recognition, dignity, sympathy, empathy, kindness, understanding and freedom to keep my independence that I already have so that if I so choose I could basically start my businesses over again in a new area.” You specified. 

“So...what is your criteria for a potential mate?” Doug asked, hoping that you would list off things that he could try to shoot for. 

“Well, whoever I choose to marry- he can’t drink to excess, he can’t do drugs, he can’t have a bad temper, he can not yell or scream at me or my children, he can’t be abusive in any way shape or form or I will kick him to the curb faster than lightning strikes but he doesn’t have to make as much as I do or make more than me or whatever. If he had a job that he was passionate about and he loved it as much as breathing which, for me, that’s what my career represents to me, I do what I do because I love it, it’s what I was put on this planet to do and I’m really good at it and to a degree, it’s a skill I can practice anywhere as long as I have a pool of clientele to pull from so there’s some flexibility there.” You mused and you saw Doug nod along with your train of thought so at least it was making sense to him. 

“But for me to give it all up for someone and be absolutely dependent on my partner for everything- probably isn’t going to happen because there is inherently a power dynamic that I’ve been on the losing side of in my past marriage. Because my husband had a great job with fantastic health insurance and other benefits and shouldered all the financial responsibility of the family which had its perks because that freed up my time to pursue what I wanted to and he could afford to send me to school to get all these licenses and certifications. But because he made all the money, he felt he had the right to demand whatever he wanted in return and he had a say so on how I spent the money he gave me to care for- as he put it- “his house” and “his vehicles” and such because he’s the one that paid for it all and he was a controlling narcissist. Now, was he all bad? No, he was a fantastic father and he was decent enough as a husband in that he didn’t beat me, didn’t drink to excess, didn’t smoke, didn’t gamble, didn’t do drugs, didn’t cheat on me and didn’t scream at me or cuss me out in front of the kids but I couldn’t get a credit card in my name without him knowing and he tracked me on my phone everywhere I went and if I wanted anything “extra” I had to “earn it”, like a child earns extra screen time for doing their chores kind of thing. It was all about a power dynamic and if I didn’t support him in everything he said, he got after me for not being “a good submissive wife” or “a team player”. And after 13 years of that, I’m done. I’ve had more than enough of that and I will be damned if I ever let that happen to me again. I’m not interested in that dynamic at all. No matter what side of it I find myself on.” You specified as Doug just stared at you, a bit guiltily as he was rather speechless and blushing profusely like you had just pulled his pants down and exposed him and you didn’t feel any guilt for it either and the look on Katie’s face told you that you hit the nail on the head and were preaching truth and her smile of adoration and awe was priceless.  

“I have clients that easily double, triple, quadruple even- my own salary because they’re doctors or surgeons or executives or whatever. But they’re the kind of men who feel emasculated when a woman they’re with earns anything because their income is what they base their own masculinity on which is a very dangerous and stupid thing to do in my opinion. And while these men may be really good at earning an income, that’s all they’re good at. Otherwise they’re shitty husbands and fathers. They feel that because they earn so much money that they don’t have to help out at all around their own homes. Heaven forbid they change poopy diapers, do any dishes or laundry or especially scrub a toilet and if they do any of those things, by the gods they will piss and moan and gripe and complain forever and feel “owed” that they did more than their “share”, which is bullshit. They would rather hire someone else to do any or all of that because they feel that’s beneath them as manly, masculine men and feel that a wife’s only job is to stay in their home, raise their kids and clean their house and look flawless while doing so and feel that the only support they need to give her is financial. Which, in my opinion is complete and utter fucking bullshit.”  You explained as you watched Doug’s frown get deeper and deeper the more you talked as you heard Noah hum in agreement to that sentiment. 

“So... you’re basically just looking for a Mr. Mom?” Doug asked and you could tell by his tone he was offended and incensed just saying those words. 

“To a degree, yes. But what I’m really looking for- is a partner who will view and treat me as an equal instead of a lesser or a supporting cast member while they’re the star of the show. Right now I do everything all by myself because I have to and I will continue to do so for as long as I need to because my children need me to be their everything. If I’m going to enter into any kind of romantic relationship, I would look for someone who’s willing to put in work. Someone who will happily and willingly pick up slack and support me as much as I support them. Someone who will work to gain not just my respect and admiration but my children’s respect and admiration as well and it doesn’t matter how much I like or even love a guy, if my kids are uncomfortable around him or just plain don’t like him. I’m not going to force the relationship onto them. Now there have been a couple of guys who my children really clicked with but I didn’t because they were either immature or had other issues and I’m pretty sure the only reason why my kids liked them is because these guys never told them ‘no’ and bought them whatever they asked for which is no way to raise children. There’s ways of telling them no and explaining your reasons why you’re telling them no without belittling them, hurting their feelings, implying they’re stupid or annoying for asking.” You explained as you heard Noah murmur an ‘Amen’ from behind you and instantly you saw all the hope and lust in Doug’s eyes die because he realized that this wasn’t going to work out for him just as dinner came. 

Conversation dissolved into idle chit chat while he practically wolfed his food down as quickly as he could and drank his whiskey and excused himself and quickly paid the waitress for his meal and only his meal and begrudgingly- your wolf eye whiskey too, saying he had work to do at home and you were so grateful when he left and so relieved when you peeked over your shoulder to see Noah still there, finishing up his dinner as Katie got up to go to the bathroom, leaving you alone at the end of the table as Sakura and Summer went to the bathroom too. 

“Do you like whiskey?” You asked him hopefully as you leaned backward in your chair towards him. 

“Yeah,” he confirmed. 

“You ok drinking after me?” You put to him. 

“Yup.” He nodded before you took your glass of Wolf Eye and put in on his table. 

“The whiskey’s good, I just can’t enjoy it knowing a pretentious asshole bought it for me, but I don’t think you’ll have that issue enjoying it yourself. Enjoy.” You beamed at him which got him to laugh. 

“Cheers.” He offered before you got your own drink and clinked it with his. 

“Cheers.” You mirrored. Even though dinner didn’t go as planned, you got to share a drink with Noah and that was more than you hoped for before Sakura and Summer came back. 

“Nana, I forgot my bow.” Sakura realized as she reached up to find that the bow she had been wearing in her hair was gone. 

“I can go back to the bathroom and help you look for it.” You happily offered before she took your hand and led you back to the bathroom as you grabbed your purse too. 

“Are you going to date Mr. Kizzo?” She asked you as you went into each stall, looking for her bow. 

“No, absolutely not, he is not the man for me.” You shook your head adamantly. 

“Oh good, his boys are mean.” She pouted. 

“Have they been mean to you?” You asked as your protective urges surged again. 

“They play really rough and they knocked me down and they didn’t even say sorry!” She complained and you gasped in horror. 

“No! How rude! Well if we ever go anywhere together and they’re there, point them out to me and I’ll protect you.” You insisted before you found her bow sitting on top of the toilet paper dispenser in the last stall before you quickly sprayed some sanitizer on it before you had her take a seat in one of the chairs in the bathroom so you could brush her hair and get it looking gorgeous again because you kept a little brush in your purse. 

“My Daddy likes you.” She blurted as you brushed her hair out. 

“Aw, I like your Daddy too, he’s a really good guy, he’s sweet and caring and protective and I can tell he loves you a lot and he works really hard to take care of you.” You praised as you smiled happily at her in the mirror. 

“He cries a lot.” She revealed. 

“Well I cry a lot too,” you nodded. 

“He cries because he misses my mama,” she added.

“Well, I can understand that because your Daddy and I both lost our marriage mates and we miss them sometimes and the happier we were with them and the more we loved them, the more we miss them and the more it hurts to lose them. Do you cry a lot too because you miss your mama?” You asked gently as she nodded. 

“I’m so sorry you lost your mama sweetie, I can’t imagine how much that must hurt.” You sympathized with her before she got out of the chair and reached her arms up before you readily picked her up and held her tight as she started crying before you took the seat in the chair and just held her as she cried on your shoulder and you just held her and rocked her gently and comforted her before Nana came into the bathroom. 

“What happened?” Nana asked. 

“I was brushing her hair and she told me her daddy cries because he misses her mama and I completely sympathize.” You told her as you did your best to keep your composure but you were failing spectacularly because you were an empath, her pain felt like your own as Summer pulled up another chair from the nursing mother’s area as she shot Noah a quick text just as Taylor came in looking for you and seeing how Sakura was crying in your arms, she instantly knew what was going on. 

“Noah and Anarra, or ‘Neena’ as she was better known as- were basically Frozen Tundra’s sweethearts. Neena still is greatly missed, she took care of a lot of the older ones whose kids have moved away or are on the coast making their money on the fishing vessels and when she got sick, everyone rallied around her but...by the time she started showing signs she was sick- it was too late. None of us have been the same since she passed away. Noah puts on a pretty strong face but he’s probably the most fragile.” Nana revealed as you nodded in understanding as Taylor nodded along too. 

Taylor had told you about “Neena” because Taylor and Neena were best friends and you didn’t put it together until just now that Anarra and Neena were one and the same which would explain why you and her had gotten so close so quickly because you had bonded over your losses as Sakura’s cries turned into whimpers and sniffles as you just held her and pet her head and her hair and held her and rocked her as she curled up in your lap and happily soaked up all your affections as you kissed the crown of her head affectionately as she clung to you as Nana and Taylor filled you in on the situation. 

“Neena had brain cancer. One day she was fine, the next, she had such strange symptoms and doctors around here are rare and expensive and by the time we found it, it was too late, there wasn’t anything we could do. She barely had enough time to make some videos for Sakura. She died holding her.” Taylor said as she nodded towards Sakura in your arms as you wrapped your arms tighter around Sakura as your heart effectively broke in your chest. 

“Her last words were how much she loved her and Noah.” Nena added as you passed around your thing of tissues because you were crying your makeup off. 

“My husband’s last words to me were a ‘honey do’ list, which was- ‘do the dishes, do the laundry, clean the bathroom and to brush my damn cats’ who he hated and I’m so grateful they outlived him, I know that sounds awful but they love me more than he ever did and he wasn’t dead a week before I went to the local shelter and adopted a dog for each member of my family and another cat so that there’s three cats and three dogs and we were renting from his parents at the time and before it was only because I bore them their only grandchildren that I got the ‘privilege’ of having the two cats before. And they didn’t dare argue with a new angry widow about ‘protection’ dogs for their only grandkids and didn’t want me moving away into a new place just to get them animals while we waited for our house to be built.” You revealed. 

“Did he at least have life insurance?” Nana asked which made you nod emphatically. 

“Yeah Andy wasn’t an idiot or heartless, he had a life insurance policy through work and a private one as well and because it was an accidental death at work, it paid out even more and his parents had a life insurance policy on him too that they handed over to me because they had the good sense to have life insurance policies on me and him so that if anything ever happened to the both of us, they could raise our kids comfortably and at the time, I was working for another outfit and even I had my own life insurance policy on him so we’re all set, the house is paid off, all debt is paid off, all the vehicles are paid off, I own everything outright. Other than utilities and of course food and insurance, which I can easily take care of myself, we’re ok.” You answered. 

“Did Neena have any kind of life insurance?” You asked and Taylor and Nana both shook their heads no. 

“No, Noah barely had enough money at the time to cover the funeral. When she died in the fall, at least he didn’t have to work and could stay home with Sakura and he already knew how to take care of himself and her because Neena was always caring for others, which he was very proud of her for doing and he supported that. He was always helping her to help others because so many ice orc men have moved away chasing “better lives” anywhere other than here and ice orc women are left to either do the same or stay behind and have to deal with the others who come up here, either looking for gold or fish or lumber or other resources and it used to be every summer solstice that all the tribes would get together and alliances were maintained and marriages made but all the young people are rejecting those practices because they feel they don’t have a place in the modern world. Our ways are dying, our languages are dying and Neena was one of the few women who embraced the old ways and was teaching all the kids the native languages. And when she died, a lot of the same older ones reached out to Noah and helped him with what they could and unfortunately after Neena died, some of the older ones she took care of followed, but they left Sakura everything because Neena was like a daughter to them and because she took care of them, all they could do is leave her what they could leave behind and when Neena died, that left Sakura as heir in her mother’s place, but she’s a child. She’s had so many men come back to claim what they felt was their birthright, which is mostly land at this point but thankfully the courts upheld Sakura’s rights as heir since their parent’s had the good sense to get it writing with the local lawyer who fights for the clan’s rights.” Nana explained. 

“That’s...that’s a coincidence, I know exactly how that feels.” You nodded. 

“How?” Nana asked as she tilted her head. 

“When Andy died, I was really close to several older clients as well, I got to work on them when they were at retirement age and came into my work and when their health declined, I stayed with them because they were close friends and I wanted their last moments to be in peace and as pain free as possible. They didn’t have any family to take care of them either and I endeared myself to them enough so that when I lost Andy, they all individually entailed everything they had to me too because I was their favorite person and they wanted to make sure I wouldn’t financially suffer because of my husband dying. Within six months of losing Andy, I lost almost all of them within a span of only three months. So the nine months that followed Andy’s death were just...the worst. But then to meet with dozens of lawyers and get check after check, after check, and deeds and titles and property and vehicles, I was so...numb. It didn’t mean anything to me, but man did I sure learn a lot very quickly about how to handle my newfound fortune. But the worst of it was the vultures circling because it felt like the minute I inherited all that money and property myself, suddenly every vulture of a guy somehow found me and circled me like wolves. Cause I was this “hot young desperate lonely widow” who didn’t know how to handle that much fortune and here were all these ‘knights in shining armor’ coming to “help me out” and “be there for me”. It was ridiculous, as if I couldn’t see right through them and what made it even worse was the way Andy died at work, it was a freak accident that killed not just him but five others. So the company he worked for sued the company who built the crystal grower because this was a known and very well documented issue. And the company used my picture because I was ‘the prettiest of the widows’ in the news and in the courts and they won and I got the lion’s share of the settlement because I was the one who was the public face of it and because I was the public face of it, I had organization after organization reach out to me to try to help me out too and by that point I had 5 very good lawyers and a private investigator in my pocket who were more than eager to be at my disposal. So I know exactly what it’s like to be an unwitting heiress. It’s really, really hard, thank the gods my in-laws are so great with money because they’ve been helping me structure it and organize it and keep it all and make it work for me.” You revealed lowly. 

“Could you teach Noah and Sakura any of those lessons?” Nana asked hopefully. 

“I would be more than happy to, I feel I need to at this point.” You admitted. 

“Because no one else around here knows what to do or how to help. Even now Noah’s dad Ukluk works as guide at Gold Horn and pilots his own bush plane for the hunters but it doesn’t pay as well as others, Noah’s brother Nago works for the postal service but he and his family are in June Neau. And now even Neena’s parents are no spring chickens. I know they would really appreciate it if they knew you could protect Sakura and Noah with what you know.” Nana insisted. 

“Consider it done,” you agreed. 

“So are you ever gonna get married again?” Sakura finally spoke up. 

“I would like to.” You answered honestly. 

“What are you looking for?” She asked. 

“I just want to be with someone who makes me happy and loves me for me and loves my kids as their own too who won’t hurt us but will protect us.” You answered. 

“What if they already have kids?” She asked. 

“Then I would hope that their kids would like me too, I do love being a mom, it’s the best job on the planet in my opinion and if those kids would let me love them as much as I love my own- even better and if my kids and those kids could get along, oh man, I’d be so so so happy. You see it doesn’t matter he’s rich or poor or whatever, money doesn’t matter to me. Who and what kind of person they are and how they treat others- that’s all that matters to me.” 

“And if they happen to be well endowed enough so that when...” Taylor double clicked her teeth. “Happens, you can’t walk straight after...” She hinted which made Nana raspberry her laugh. 

“That’s a bonus.” You readily agreed which made you start to laugh through your tears which made them do the same. 

“Well Noah’s you know,” Taylor implied as she clicked her teeth and winked which got you and Nana to start busting out laughing. 

“He’s what aunt Tay-tay?” Sakura asked as she turned to look at Taylor.

“Handsome, he’s very handsome.” You quickly supplied which earned you a solemn nod and an appreciate grin from Nana. 

“Ok, no more tears, let’s get cleaned up.” Nana insisted which prompted you to gently get Sakura off your lap so you could rinse the rest of your makeup off in the sink before all four of you left the bathroom to see Noah looking particularly worried. 

“Everything ok Pumpkin?” He asked his daughter. 

“Yup, we were telling Paradise about Mama.” Sakura told him. Every trace of sadness now gone as a happy smile plastered itself on her face. 

“And she brushed my hair and braided my hair and held me and comforted me and everything, can she come over to our house to watch me?” She asked. 

“If she wants to.” Noah answered. 

“I would love to, just give me the address, I’ll be there any day you need me there, free of charge.” You immediately offered. 

“Work an extra long day tomorrow Daddy, I want to watch my movies with her.” Sakura insisted which got Nana to snicker a laugh. 

“Uh,” Noah stuttered. 

“I can do tomorrow.” You immediately agreed. 

“You could have Taylor and her kids come too, because usually Taylor watches her on Tuesdays.” Nana added. 

“We’d love to.” Taylor immediately agreed as well. 

“So it’s a date. What time should I be over?” 

“He leaves early, like six in the morning.” Nana informed you. 

“Won’t be a problem. I’ll be there at like 5:30 then.” You insisted. 

“I won’t be there that early, I’m going to sleep in until a decent hour and come by later but we’ll drive by and show you where Noah lives and you could walk there if you wanted to because he’s like a ten minute walk away, five if you run because normally, she spends the night so that I don’t have to get up that early.” Taylor added. 

“But my body is still on Great Lakes Time Zone so 5:30 am here is only 8:30 am to me which is a normal time for me to wake up. So it’s not a problem at all.” You reassured Nana and Noah. 

“Ok, thank you, very much.” Noah nodded as he avoided Nana’s smug grin that screamed ‘I told you so’. 

“Well good night then, sweet dreams guys, I’ll see you in the morning.” You offered as Taylor tugged on your arm as Katie peeked her head back into the restaurant and gestured for you and her mom to hurry up. 

“What about my bill?” You asked her. 

“He got it.” Taylor answered as he gestured to Noah. 

“Aw, thank you for dinner!” You thanked him as she had to take your hand and pull you out of the restaurant.

“I really love Paradise.” Sakura said dreamily as she watched you go. 

“Well she is lovely.” Noah admitted as he got his box of leftovers and got out of the booth. 

“She likes you back, she told me so.” Sakura informed her Dad as she took his hand in one of hers and continued to hold your business card like a beloved photograph. 

“Oh yeah?” Noah returned, pleasantly surprised to hear that. 

“And she’s an heiress like me and she promised that she would teach me what she knows about it.” Sakura revealed. 

“Really?” Noah turned to look at his mom to either confirm or deny that. 

“Oh yeah, she knows how to deal with not just foxes but wolves and vultures too. The gods sent us the perfect person to help. And I have a feeling she won’t leave until everything is well taken care of and we will be hearing from her and seeing her very often from now on.” Nana predicted. 

“How?” Noah asked. 

“Just wait and see.” Nana simply grinned. 

#modern orc love story #modern orc #Jewel of the North #Jewel of the North Part 2 #ice orcs #jewel orcs #orc #orc love story #orc romance #orc reader insert #Female reader #female reader male monster #orc boyfriend #exophilia #exo #monster boyfriend

[tempestuous-cosplay]

just cuz

Ask me these probing NSFW questions ‘cuz I’m bored

SEXYTIMES EXPERIENCES

1. How many people have you had sex with?

13? somewhere around there.

2. Can you remember the names of everyone you’ve slept with?

if I try hard enough, yeah, but off the cuff, no

3. With whom did you first do the sexytimes? Was it good?

My first Bf, and hahahaha no. Not at all.

4. What’s the best sex you’ve ever had?

a close friend and i took MDMA and fucked for, like, 4 hours and it was lovely.

5. What’s the worst sex you’ve ever had?

this guy i banged in collage who was just bony, small, boring, and ignored me after.

6. Where’s the most unusual place you’ve had sex?

In a tent? Or the time in a church.

7. Where’s the most unusual place you’ve masturbated?

I don't have any fun or interesting stories about that.

8. Have you ever been caught doing the sexytimes?

NOPE

9. If you masturbate, when did you start, and how?

around middle school or early highschool but it was very rare bc i didn't get much from it. But the first time I actually orgasmed was when I hit 22 and got on T. then jacking it became a regular thing.

10. Have you ever been caught masturbating?

My dad walked in right before I was about to get started. that was the worst.

QUEER SHIT

11. How would you describe your sexuality using only adjectives (describing words–busy, fluffy, squishy, etc.)?

weird and complicated but friendly

12. Have you ever been in a queer relationship?

a solid 95% of my relationships have been queer. Only 1 wasn't.

13. Have you ever been in a straight relationship?

Just one. Gross

14. How and when did you realise you weren’t straight?

the moment i knew it was something that was possible. so very early.

15. Are you out to everyone you know?

p much

16. Where do you meet queer folks to date? Do you find it difficult?

I don't really date. But I made my friends through cosplay and then by meeting their friends and it just keeps going.

17. If your parents know about your sexuality, how did they react?

They always knew. I never really "Came out". I have p chill parents

18. Does your best friend know about your sexuality? How did they react?

Duh. I've slept with a number of them.

19. Describe your first queer kiss.

Much better than my first straight kiss.

20. What’s the queerest shit you’ve ever done?

My queer platonic partner :3

LET’S GET PHYSICAL

21. Are you happy with your body?

happier than i was and on my way to making it exactly how I want. Tho i do wish I was taller.

22. What’s the raddest part of your bod, and why?

my eyes are very pretty

23. What do you do with your body hair (pubes, underarms, legs, etc.)?

I don't do jack shit. Im lazy

24. Do you have stretch marks? Where?

Some where my tits used to be, inner thighs, and my love handles.

25. Describe your nipples in too much detail.

theyre kinda lopsided bc of how they were reattached during top surgery. the right one is super sensitive to touch and its kinda painful bc NERVE DAMAGE and the left one is totally numb

26. (Vagina-owners) Do you have an “innie” (small, tucked-in inner labia), or an “outie” (more visible/larger inner labia)?

supper innie. I, like, don't have an inner labia at all. Its WEIRD

27. (Vagina-owners) Is it very obvious when you’re turned on (swelling, wetness etc.)?

Yeah bc my clit is HUGE now thanks to T. It gets HARD

28. (Penis-owners) Describe the size and shape of your penis. Are you happy with it?

its, like, an inch an a half long and really small :3. I like it

29. (Penis-owners) Have you tasted your own cum? Did you like it?

Yeah, its kinda tart

30. (Breast-owners) How does the size of your breasts compare? Is one bigger than the other?

Back when I had them, the left one was a lil bigger than the right one, but i had huge badonkers. Just MASSIVE. They were nearly perfect, but they were on me, so it was horrible.

SEXUAL FANTASY LAND

31. Describe your most unusual/taboo fantasy.

consensual non-consent in fiction. I don;t think i could do it IRL.

32. Do you fantasise more about real situations, or imaginary/impossible ones?

It fluxuates, but mostly its very fantasy.

33. Who’s the oddest person you’ve fantasised about?

The Devil from The Arcana

34. Do you ever find yourself fantasising absent-mindedly, or is it something you do on purpose?

it fluxtuates, but horny daydreams are common

35. Do you always fantasise while you masturbate?

sometimes, yeah

36. When you fantasise, does it usually lead to masturbation?

it actually doesn't more than it does.

37. Have you ever had sex with someone while fantasising about someone else?

nah

38. Do you have any celebrity crushes that you fantasise about?

Hozier has had more than one sex dream in my head.

39. Have you ever fantasised about something by accident, and felt weird about it after?

oh sure. thats p normal.

40. Describe your most sexy fantasy.

hah, no. THats too much to type.

KINKTOWN USA

41. How do you feel about BDSM?

im fine with it

42. What’s your most unusual kink?

probably being a living sex doll

43. In an SM context, do you prefer giving pain, or receiving it?

Im not the biggest fan of either but I would rather receiving bc im too scared of accidentally really hurting someone

44. Do you consider yourself to be dominant, submissive, both, or neither?

Im a sub leaning switch.

45. Describe your most recent bondage experience.

got tied up in cosplay for a photoshoot.

46. In a BDSM context, have you ever referred to anyone as “daddy,” “mommy,” or any similar term?

nope but i've been called daddy

47. Do you have a kink for any bodily fluids (pee, saliva, blood, tears, cum, etc.)?

cum, blood, and spit to a small degree.

48. Have you ever revealed a kink to someone and had them react negatively?

not yet tbh.

49. Do you have any kinks that you’re ashamed of?

nah, not really

50. How much money have you spent on equipment for your kinks (toys, whips, chains, etc.)?

OOF!!! A good several hundred dollars. Like...... its a fairly high number.

COME FOR THE QUESTIONS, STAY FOR THE SUBHEADINGS

51. (Vagina-owners) Do you ever squirt when you come?

I have a few times!!

52. Have you ever come solely from penetration (anal or vaginal)?

no, that I haven't managed.

53. Can you have an orgasm without your genitals being touched?

HAH I WISH but no

54. Describe how you like your genitals to be touched.

Nice slow strokes on my clit like a dick with some gentle rubbing on the lips.

55. How sensitive are your nipples? Does nipple play turn you on?

One is numb and one is very painful. So no.

56. Do you find it easier to orgasm with another person, or through masturbation?

Jacking it. I almost never cum with a partner. Sex is more for bonding than personal pleasure tbh.

57. Have you ever had an orgasm that you weren’t expecting?

A few times, yeah!!

58. Do you get off easier from rough contact, or gentle?

rough ish??

59. What’s the best orgasm you’ve ever had?

the few times ive squirted.

60. Did it take you a while to have your first orgasm, or were you an early starter?

took until i was 22

ORAL FIXATION

61. Do you enjoy giving oral sex? Why?

YES!! Its a good mouth feel.

62. What’s your favourite position in which to receive oral?

not sure yet.

63. Describe your oral sex technique.

suck and wiggle. suck and wiggle

64. Do you find it easier to give oral to someone with the same genital configuration as you (eg., you both own vaginas/both own penises), or different?

theyre about the same amount of effort for me.

65. Describe the worst oral sex you’ve ever received.

too much teeth.

66. Describe the best oral sex you’ve ever received.

I was..... on some drug or another, can't remember what, and bro, i mELTED

67. Do you ever simulate oral sex while masturbating (sucking on dildos etc.)?

rarely but sometimes

68. How sensitive is your mouth? Is it an erogenous zone, for you?

not much? but its fine

69. Do you like 69ing?

never tried, not super interested

70. Can you deep-throat?

anything smaller than 6" yeah.

EVERYTHING BUTT

71. Do you like it in the butt?

yeah but it takes a lot for me to be willing to do it.

72. What’s the strangest object you’ve had in your butt?

a phallic shaped kite handle (I was young and stupid)

73. Do you enjoy being rimmed?

sure

74. Can you take a lot in your butt, or just a little?

just a lil

75. Describe your most recent experience with buttsex.

I was, again, on drugs a little under a year ago and let my best friend pop that particular cherry.

76. Do you like doing stuff to other people’s butts?

im indifferent leaning on rather not.

77. (Prostate-owners) Have you ever received a prostate massage?

nope

78. Do you own any buttplugs?

nope

79. Have you ever had an embarrassing buttsex experience?

not yet, hopefully never

80. Have you ever pegged someone (ie., worn a strapon and fucked them in the butt)?

not yet

SHARING IS CARING

All questions assume you’ve done group sex of some kind

81. Describe your most recent group sex experience.

got one coming up in about a week? but an orgy at a furry convention.

82. Have you ever had sex with more than two people at once (eg., foursome, moresome)?

sure have

83. Have you ever had an orgy? Would you?

yup, and YUP!!!

84. Do you enjoy watching your partner(s) having sex with others?

ehehehe yeh

85. Do you prefer to arrange group sex beforehand, or allow it to happen organically?

both are fine!

86. Have you ever felt left out during group sex?

nah, im too sexy for that

87. Have you ever done a gangbang (ie., lots of people have sex with one person, but not each other)?

not yet but i WANNA

88. Have you ever teamed up with someone and given a double blowjob/double cunnilingus?

not yet :O,,,, WAIT!!! YEAH I HAVE!!!!

89. Have you ever been penetrated by more than one person at the same time?

not yet but god I wanna

90. Have you ever been ejaculated on by more than one person at the same time?

not yet

**BONUS DARES**

100. Send me $500.

#red talks #wanna know way too much about me?

[selimunfridhirako]

SPELL CASTING -- HOW TO CAST A SPELL

•°•°•°•°•°•°°• Picture Depicted is from my Cleansing and Divine Light Invocation and is simply a reference •°•°•°•

Spell Casting Part 1: Preparation

Preparing for a spell is pretty much all the pre-spell work that you’ll be doing. This begins with defining your intent, which involves identifying your need and determining the ultimate goal of the spell. I have found the best intents are:

Personal (the spell is cast on you, or someone close to you with your permission, rather than others who aren’t actively cooperating).

Specific (no “wish” spells or “just make life better” spells – think about your actual needs. This is no time to be ambiguous).

Focused (if you can’t say what you want in a few words, you’re not focused enough).

Positive (always strive for positive goals— never use negative language like not, won’t or can't. For example, instead of a spell to not be lonely, cast a spell to find a friend or romantic interest).

Broken down into small goals when your overall goal is complex (just think about how many steps or how many changes it would take to achieve your intent; do a specific spell for each one of those rather than one big spell to try to change everything at once).

Find, or write, a spell. Review it, tweak it and familiarize yourself with it well. You don’t have to memorize it (you can if you want), but you should really be familiar with the steps and what you have to say so it flows naturally. Even if using notes, you should not be stumbling over them because you barely glanced at them.

Determine timing if you wish to work with magical timing.

Gather materials and supplies. Make a list; check it twice.

Prepare your space. Clean the area, cleanse and purify it if you feel the need. Set up your tools and supplies. Send the kids to grandmas, walk the dog, feed the cats, turn off the phone, put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door if you think it’ll help.

Prepare yourself. On the day leading up to the spell, you may want to eat light or fast, meditate and center yourself, take a cleansing bath or purify yourself in some way.

Spell Casting Part 2: State of Mind

Your state of mind needs to be conducive to your goal from the earliest preparation stages, through the spell and until your intent is manifest. State of mind is everything, which is why it’s so important to have the mental discipline (a regular meditation regime helps).

In the weeks/days leading up to the spell, keep positive thoughts. The worst thing you can do is walk around worrying, “Will it work? I hope I don’t screw this up! I’m scared of what might happen!”

During the spell, you want to achieve the ALPHA state, the most conducive for magic and energy work. Alpha is a meditative state of relaxed awareness. It opens the way to the subconscious while you still maintain consciousness. You know the feeling—it’s when you run on ‘autopilot’ and are so focused on the moment. You don’t notice the time passing. You’re not thinking about what you need to do in the future, or what you could have done differently in the past. You’re not worrying about your chores or whether you feel cold or hungry; you are completely and fully absorbed in the activity. You’re in the zone.

After the spell, you need to keep your thoughts positive. Thinking negative thoughts or letting doubt creep in just sabotages the results. It’s best to not think about it at all, but if you do think about it you must think about it in a positive way. You need to banish doubt and worries and know you not only can achieve your goal but -- on some level -- you have achieved it.

Spell Casting Part 3: Linking to Your Intent

During the spell, when you’re in the ALPHA state, you need to establish both a psychological and metaphysical link between you and your intent. There are multiple ways to do this, and you can actually throw several into the mix:

State your intent. By saying and hearing it, you make it part of your reality and thus begin to forge a connection between yourself and the intent.

Sensory stimulation. Pick image, scents, sounds, tastes, and objects with the feeling that reminds you of your goal. For example, if satin sheets remind you of wealth, use a satin altar cloth for a money spell. On the flip side, a lot of healing spells utilize blue. If blue just reminds you of depression and having ‘the blues’, then it’s not a good option for you and you should pick a different color.

Creative Visualization: the more detailed you can envision your intent already manifested, the better.

Symbols and imagery have a powerful effect on the subconscious. Use something that makes sense to you. For example, if you work with runes, you might see FEHU as symbolizing material wealth and career success. That’s great—use it. If you don’t work with runes, then don’t use FEHU just because someone else says so. Perhaps a dollar sign, or the amount you want to be written out on a fake check. (be realistic)

Objects. In sympathetic magic, you might use a poppet, or in candle magic, you might use one candle to represent yourself and one to represent your intention. Personal items are a great way to infuse personal power and link it with your intent. This is why you find so many spells that call for using nail clippings, hair, blood or personal belongings.

Spell Casting Part 4: Raising, Directing and Releasing Energy

Once you are focused on your intent and have connected yourself to it, it’s time to begin raising energy. Part of this energy comes from internal sources—your emotional state, your thoughts, and desires. This is why it is so important to keep your mind exactly where you want it: on the intent. The rest of this energy is drawn from external sources—your tools, correspondences, components, the Elements, other participants (if any), deities you might invoke, the Earth, Moon, Sun or other planets. Basically, everything in existence has energy, and you can draw from one or more sources when casting your spell.

Energy should build up slowly but surely by your chosen method(s) for raising it. Work on raising energy for as long as you can, until you feel it’s reached a crescendo.

How long does it take? Some people feel they can do it for as little as 5 or 10 minutes; others will spend hours. This will take time for you to experiment to see how you personally are able to build a sufficient amount.

At that point, you direct and release. To direct it, simply keep focused on the intent. There are a number of ways to release energy. Some people might stomp and shout. In sex magic, achieving orgasm is the release. Burning or breaking something is a great way to release energy. If you’re using an infusion or potion, you’d drink it. “Seal” the spell with a final thought or gesture to formally signify it’s done. This might be saying something, such as, “So Mote it be!” It might alternatively be a gesture, such as throwing up your hands or making the sign of a pentagram with your finger or blade.

Make sure to ground as well, once you’re finished, as a final step of working with energy. Just envision pouring out any last bit of excess into the earth, a tree or a tool.

Ways of Raising Energy

-- drumming

-- chanting

-- dancing

-- rocking

-- visualizations

-- sexual arousal

Spell Casting Part 5: Creating Channels

Essentially a channel is creating ways for that energy to flow freely between you and your ultimate intent. For example, if I cast a love spell to meet a compatible mate, I then create ways for the spell to take effect—I join a dating service online, I start going out by myself to coffee shops or museums, I take classes at a community center or volunteer at a charity, putting myself in the position in which the energy can help manifest my desire.

Thus, you put yourself in the perfect position for your spell to manifest.

written by -- mackenzie sage wright

#witchcraft lifestyles #beginner witch #pagan witch #wicca for beginners #wiccan #wiccawoman #witchythings #baby witch #spells and incantations

[silyabeeodess]

Hey, Fusion Fellas: As heartbroken as many of us still are over the DMCA shutdown, it’s nice to see so many fans of the game continue to carry on in whatever way they can.  I’ve kept up with whatever news appears as much as I can, seeing the news spread and more people come together to find ways to enjoy something that was such a big part of their childhoods.  There’s some stuff I’d like to say, regarding my personal thoughts and what I plan to do since I know some of you follow me for my fanwork of the game.  The first half is largely negative so, if you like, you can skip over that: I’ll have things written in bold to mark where this starts and breaks off.  

I’m still angry at CN.  I know about the guy spreading lies to the network and I understand that they have to protect their IP.  That’s not what I have a problem with.  What I have a problem with is a multi-million dollar company targeting a harmless, fan project over a piece of their IP that they themselves have confessed they aren’t planning on doing anything with--effectively keeping it vaulted where no one is allowed to touch it: Targeting a group of devoted fans who’ve shown more love and care for this franchise and the fanbase (along with the shows its attached to) than their own hired creatives have.  Beyond a matter of law, this is a matter of respect--and CN has lost all of mine. 

Take a game like Undertale and its creator, Toby Fox.  You have a small team making a game that boomed in popularity, similar to FusionFall back in its hay-day.  The difference is people can still buy UT and the game continues through the AU that is Deltarune while there’s no possible way for fans of FusionFall to ever experience it without a server.  So how do these two separate creators--Toby Fox and CN--react to their fans?  Toby Fox says, “Hey fans!  Go make your fanart!  Make your fan games, so long as you don’t try to make money off of it.  You can even make your more mature content, just please tag it separately from the game’s official title.”  Here, you have someone at greater risk of financial loss; understanding that what the fans create, they create out of love; giving as much allowance as he can to the people that enjoy what he started.  Cartoon Network?  “Yes, we know you love this game and although we’re never going to touch it again, you can’t either. How about you watch our awful reboots instead?  We know you didn’t want them and that you don’t like them, so we’ll be sure to call you names and spit on you if you have anything negative to say about us.  Because we don’t actually care about you.” This is a company that doesn’t think of its fans beyond the dollar signs they see attached to them. The fact that they’ve apparently only addressed one person over the course of weeks despite the countless emails and messages sent to them regarding FusionFall is also terrible--like they’re waiting for people to give up so the whole issue can be swept under the rug, like they think we’ll simply forget.

That post I made before about this?  I still mean it.  Cartoon Network doesn’t respect us, so why would I want to support them? Moneygrubbing, Hollywood empire Disney has shown a better attitude toward people than CN has as of late--and I can’t stand a large bulk of what Disney’s done over the past several years!  Everyone can make their own choice regarding the company--I’m not calling for a boycott--but I’ve stopped watching their shows and I’ve cancelled my plans for purchases I was going to make for their newer merchandise.  Even if I could make a few exceptions for them, their behavior overall is too horrible for me to want to give them so much as a dime of ad revenue from watching a video.

Because of this, I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t even feel like making fanart anymore or writing the headcanon posts I’ve been covering.  I’ve enjoyed them, but they have been always solely for fun and it’s hard to want to make anything when all that’s happened is on the forefront of my mind.  Part of what makes it so hard on a personal level is that I loved what Cartoon Network used to be--and admittedly does still exist in small fragments of their content now. The creatives that wanted to push the envelope for animation and storytelling: Not the trash banking on old shows and jokes that were dated the moment they uttered them in hopes of getting a cheap laugh because there’s nothing better on TV.  (Not even realizing how doomed for failure they are as things move toward streaming because then people can shift through the garbage that much easier.)  When I was a kid, I watched the PPG on a regular basis and Numbuh 5 from KND was the person I wanted to be.  In middle school, I planned my afternoon schedule around episodes of Total Drama Island and bounced on a trampoline while singing Are You CN This? like it was the top single of the year.  In high school, our theatre members’ turns backstage were shared watching Steven Universe.  Now, I feel nothing but bitterness and disappointment, like someone who’s lost a friend that changed for the worst.

So, how will this effect what I post?  I did have a bunch of stuff planned, but I keep going back and forth on what I want to do.  It’s hard to truly enjoy making stuff, as mentioned before, but at the same time I’ve never been one to drop anything easily (even if it takes me years to actually get something done, as some of you who follow me for other things already know.)  

Some of you may have noticed that I didn’t post a fic for last month’s prompt and haven’t posted any new prompts for this month.  I did start writing my story for April, but ended up leaving it hanging when everything hit. I don’t know about finishing it, and since I’ve been the only person working with the prompts from what I’ve seen, it seems pretty pointless.  Since I kinda began an arc with a few of them, I might try to at least wrap that up, but I just don’t know.

For the comic, since I already have some work done on what would’ve been the first chapter, I might go ahead and finish that.  (Just know that it’s several pages long, meaning it’ll still take some time to finish... and that you’ll need to be braced for wave of posts when its done.  It’s got about eleven pages now: I would have more done, but since I backtracked on the script to cover the tutorial rather than jump straight into a totally original plot as first intended, some of that stuff had to be put aside.)  Keep in mind thought that it really might be just that chapter.  Without the drive and with being so backed up on other projects--and since we don’t have the game to rely on for references as easily anymore--I just don’t know how long I could keep working on it.

With the headcanons, I could still do a fair amount of research to get those done, but it’s just not the same.  If I made more, the masterpost would still be updated; however, tags on the posts themselves would be limited to FusionFall rather than include the cartoons.  I don’t care about traffic: I don’t want any confusion from anyone thinking I’m supporting CN’s current work.  (Petty? Most likely, but at least there’s no question where I stand.)

Even if I don’t post as much FusionFall stuff, people are still free to send me asks about the game. So long as the asks follows the terms I’ve set up for my blog, it’s perfectly fine.  I’ll try to answer them as usual.  

Overall, at least for now, expect these posts to wane: Not dropped entirely, but definitely less frequent.  I’ve said it multiple times already: I just don’t know.  I’m upset that the game’s gone.  I’m upset at those involved for its shutdown.  I’m upset at those who don’t care about the fans and those who act like the fans are wrong for caring.  I’m upset at those in the community going at each other’s throats when people are trying to salvage the fanbase as much as they can.  The whole thing is just plain sad and I don’t feel like there’s much I can do except sit at my desk, pick up my pen, and push myself to do what I’ve always done: Focus on my work. 

#silya speaks #fusionfall

[petersmparker]

Welcome Home pt 4 (Peter Parker x Reader)

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Summary: It’s time for Peter to learn his place in the contents of Tony Stark’s will.

Word Count: 1757

A/N: obviously because I wrote this before far from home was released this is super duper inaccurate, but changing it would have introduced hella plot I didn’t wanna have here. it felt super awkward to write parts of this though. I just adore the design of the ps4 suit and have no concept of what would be a “reasonable” amount of money for Tony to leave bc this bitch aint fuckin rich and he’s thrown around cash like nobody’s business so?? welp

INTRO PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 PART 6 EPILOGUE

With Peter seated between you and May on the couch, one of his hands held by each of you, he's about as prepared for the proceedings as he's capable of being. Unfortunately, that isn't saying that much. Pepper and Happy are seated in the armchairs to either side of the couch. A large briefcase has been set on the coffee table in front of Happy. Resting on top of it is another, thinner case of some sort.

Pepper pulls two envelopes and one small box from her purse. She removes the contents of one envelope to read aloud. The other, she hands to you. When you pass it to Peter, he takes it with the hand that May had been holding. He shakes as he clutches it, staring at the scratchy writing. You squeeze his hand.

"To Peter B. Parker," Pepper begins, sounding practiced, but sad, "I wish to leave the data surrounding the engineering of the Spider-Man suits and equipment that I have manufactured, including those regarding the artificial intelligence program, Karen."

Happy leans forward to give Peter the thin case. May accepts it for him when Peter does not move to let go of the letter in his hand. She opens it gently, and reveals a thin sheet of what appears to be glass. When she lifts it, it lights up and projects a hologram of the Stark logo. From the device, a voice is emitted. "Hello, Peter," it greets, "Are you feeling any better today? How did you sleep last night?"

"Hey, Karen," he says, glancing awkwardly around, "I slept fine. Can we talk later?"

"Sure. Goodbye, Peter," it responds, and powers down.

May puts the tablet back into the case and shuts it. Pepper takes that as her cue to continue. Before she resumes reading, she hands you the box that had been sitting in her lap. It reminds you of the boxes jewelry is sold in, but when you lift the lid it doesn't contain anything of the sort. Instead, it houses three different identification cards. One bears the logo of the Avengers and one the Stark Industries logo, both with a dorky image of Peter framed below his name in the corner. The third was entirely blank, aside from the scanning code.

"So that he may make use of this data, I will be ensuring that Peter will, in the future, be granted full access to any and all facilities of mine. He is permitted to utilize whatever resources that we are capable of providing. Pepper has agreed, that, in the event of my passing, she will personally attend to this to ensure that this promise is kept."

Peter had been staring wide eyed at the three cards in your hand. The first two are pretty clearly defined. Even so, you turn them over, examining them further. Pepper admits that while the Avengers facility isn't exactly usable currently, Peter will be added to the security system as soon as it is rebuilt.

You hold up the blank card. "Ma'am?" You ask, "Which facility is this one for, exactly?"

Pepper gives a smile that expresses quite a bit of endearment. Something tells you that it's directed toward Tony, wherever he is. "That card is registered to allow access to Tony's setup in our home," she explains, "His most recent stuff is there. Please, Peter, stop by anytime you'd like. We'll even send you a ride if you need one. Tony would be glad to know you're around, and I know Morgan would be thrilled to see you again."

You had been staring at the card as you attempted to process her words, finally understanding just how close Peter apparently had been with the famous Tony Stark. Your attention is pulled back to Peter when he raises his arm to rub at his eyes. When he pulls it away from his face, his eyes are noticeably redder. He takes in a big, shaky inhale. "Thank you, Mrs. Stark. I promise I'll come visit."

You squeeze his hand again. He gives you a quick glance and squeezes back. Before Pepper continues, you gather the cards back into the box and shut the lid. Happy reaches out to the big briefcase and clicks it open.

"Peter is also to receive that which is already intended to be the owner of: every piece of Spider-Man tech that I have manufactured," Pepper reads, "This includes, in total, fifteen variations of the Spider-Man suit, including both the first one I ever gifted to him, and the Iron Spider suit."

As she finishes her sentence, Happy lifts the lid of the briefcase and spins it around so that Peter can view it. A mechanism inside lifts its contents upward. The mask is not too dissimilar from that of the original Spider-Man mask, but smack dab in the center of the chest is a large, bright white spider decal. May ooh's at the sight of it. It's simpler than the Iron Spider suit, clearly, and you can't help but wonder why, out of thirteen suits, this is the one presented to Peter so specially.

"The others are currently in storage at the Stark Industries facility. Whenever you'd like, you can come check them out and take them home if you'd like. Tony wanted this one to be brought to you first, though. I'm sure the letter will explain why."

Happy points proudly to the mask. "I helped with this one, you know," he says, grinning, "I suggested he put the optional full-body cooling system in there since you were complaining about the heat that one July. He called it the White Spider. Nice, right?"

Peter slowly nods in response, but hasn't taken his eyes off the suit. For a moment it appears that he's gotten overwhelmed. He takes one more slow breath and turns back to Pepper. "Thank you very much for coming," he says, voice a bit shaky, "I never expected anything, let alone this much. Never. Thank you."

She lets out a chuckle, pushing her hair behind her ears as if preparing herself. "Actually," she admits, sounding apologetic, "there's two more things. Tony said you'd probably try to reject one of them. He also said that you are in no way permitted to reject it. Sorry in advance."

"What did he do?" Peter questions, suddenly sounding not too far from exasperated.

Pepper smiles. "In the event of the college MIT being able to reopen-"

Peter sighs, as if he's expected it.

"-Tony has written you a rather insistent letter of recommendation for future use. Though to be honest, it never really seemed like he thought you'd even need one, so why he did that I have no idea."

"Might have had to do with, 'Mr. Stark, I don't need to go to college, I want to be an Avenger!', which he thought was incredibly dumb and also hilarious," Peter suggests, seemingly unable to hold back a small smile.

You can't help but let out a laugh, too. It's not hard to remember that particular period of complete disinterest in school.

"Please go to college," says Aunt May, not without good humor.

Peter rolls his eyes good-naturedly. "I was fifteen, Aunt May, don't worry. Anyway, a recommendation to MIT isn't that bad. Especially considering everything else he's left. What did he think I'd be rejecting?"

Pepper folds up her sheet of paper. She places it back into the envelope it came from as she says, "Well," she says, "that would be the trust fund that he instructed me to create under your name."

"The what?" Peter exclaims.

His hand suddenly tightens around yours, causing you to flinch in pain. He notices it. "Oh, jesus, I'm sorry, I- the trust fund?"

"Yes," she responds, sounding amused, "I was under strict instructions to place five million dollars in a fund that you would be permitted to access when you turn twenty-one. Which I did. As of this morning, the money has been successfully transferred."

Peter stutters for a solid fifteen seconds before he is able to speak. You're similarly dumbfounded by the announcement. "I can't just take that, that's more than I'm ever gonna earn in my whole lifetime, are you kidding me, holy shit-"

Aunt May has burst into tears. You really don't blame her. "Are you sure?" She asks, flapping her hands out in front of her in some sort of panic.

Happy grabs her hand, as if to try to calm her. She repeats her question, and he nods, laughing, "This is Tony Stark we're talking about. He was always willing to dole out money like that; probably didn't even think twice about it."

"He can't just give me five million dollars," Peter continues, "That's insane, I can't-"

"You're right," Pepper chimes in, cheerfully, "He can't. But I sure as hell can, and am more than happy to do it. It's already in the fund. It's yours. That's all there is to it."

May jumps from her seat and hops around the table to throw her arms around Pepper. She can't seem to form a coherent sentence in order to thank her for what her nephew has been given, but the sentiment is clearly felt.

Peter, still next to you, has begun to cry quietly. Laughing in disbelief at the situation, you adjust to wrap your arms around him. He fits his face into the juncture between your neck and shoulder and continues to break down. You're not sure if it's due to the collection of representations of just how much Tony cared about him, or the fact that after growing up dumpster diving for electronics and feeling guilty every time he lost a backpack, he suddenly had money to his name. It very well might be both.

"I can't believe this," he says into your shoulder, words broken up, "When did he do all this?"

Pepper is still very much tangled up with Aunt May, so Happy answers. "Well, according to Pep, he sat down alone and sorted out his prospects right after they had determined that he was going to try to reverse the Snap."

"He didn't even know if he was going to be able to bring Peter back and he still set this all up?" You question, shocked, still holding Peter against you.

"Sweetheart, Tony didn't even want to try to reverse the Snap until he decided he needed to get Peter back. I don't think he even stopped to consider the possibility that Peter wouldn't be around to receive all this."

Tag List

@souvenirsvisuels @moonstruckholland

#peter parker #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fanfic #peter parker fic #peter parker series #peter parker angst #peter parker fluff #peter parker x reader #peter parkerxreader #peter parker reader insert #peter parker self insert #spiderman fanfiction #spiderman fic #marvel fanfiction

[shadowhunterdownworlderhybrid]

•A Little Bit Of Everything•

Pairing: Isabelle Lightwood & My OC Jennifer Reaper

I got sidetracked so many times because this originally was supposed to be an AU so please bear with me thank you for your time. ❤️

______

It was simple, take the picture then boom Isabelle had an idea. But it wasn’t easy it was actually pretty difficult for the small women to find something or someone to be her muse, Jace volunteered but Isabelle declined, don’t get the women wrong she loved her brother but Jace was sometimes to much he loved taking pictures of himself Isabelle couldn’t really blame him she did the same.

But that wasn’t the point, Izzy was doing a fashion design at home, she had the clothing down but nothing came to mind when she got to the colors, so Isabelle decided to use an old hobby that she loved to do, photography. Isabelle has an eye for fashion but she also has an amazing eye for scenery, perfect lighting and timing.

Aside from fashion Isabelle adored taking photos of things that caught her interest.

But at the moment nothing caught her attention or interested her. Izzy huffed in defeat deciding to go home leaving the park she was originally at.

—-

As Soon as Isabelle entered her apartment the smell of freshly cooked pasta invaded her senses which only meant one thing.

Jennifer was cooking lunch.

Isabelle made a Beeline towards the kitchen settling on a chair by the bar placing her camera on the wooden platform resting her head in the palm of her hand letting out a deep sigh.

“Uh oh I know that sigh, that’s the ‘I give up’ sigh, who exactly are you and what have you done to my best friend?.” Jennifer asked clearly joking with a hint of seriousness. Isabelle groaned tilting her head back as Jennifer set a bowl of pasta in front of her, “But seriously Iz what’s up?” Jennifer continued to question placing a fork in front of the women swaying her hips a bit to the music that was quietly playing.

“I have no muse.” Iz mumbled picking up her fork stabbing the pasta, “Isabelle Lightwood, not having any muse?. No that’s not possible Isabelle, you made a design out of a garbage bag and it looked nice! And you got that from where? A dumpster by an ally?.”

Isabelle shook her head chuckling a bit eating the noodles she stabbed earlier.

“Why not use Jace for muse?.”

Isabelle snorted covering her mouth so she didn’t spit out her food.

“Izzy he’s not that bad he models for Clary all the time.”

“I know but Jace sometimes doesn’t act normal when a Camera is faced towards him.”

“Jace does love himself I don’t know what to tell you there. Hell pretty sure if there was a second him he’d date him.”

Isabelle glanced up at Jenny her eyes casted down on the newspaper placed in front of her, she didn’t miss the way the corners of her mouth curled up, Isabelle found herself smiling too.

“It’s true.” They said in sync.

Jennifer looked at Isabelle meeting her eyes, their smiles growing bigger both women laughing.

——-

Later in the evening Isabelle found herself in her fashion and photography studio, Izzy stared down at the unfinished drawing that she created nothing coming to mind.

Isabelle groans in defeat she’s been staring at the drawing for two hours now and nothing struck her creative side.

“Why not red? You know like the iconic rose.” Isabelle jumped a bit looking over her shoulder to see Jennifer leaning against the doorframe of the studio her amber hair dissolved hazel eyes dropping wearing a shirt that went past her waist hiding her underwear, holding a cup in her hands. Isabelle gave her a gentle smile “I have at least over a hundred styles that are full on red Jen.” Jennifer shrugged “just trying to help.” She mumbled walking over to where Izzy was sitting leaning over her shoulder to see what she did.

“It looks good.”

“Yeah but it would look better if it had color.”

“And a hat.”

Isabelle looked up towards Jennifer “what?.”

“It is the winter time Iz a beanie would go great with the Jacket and pants, beneath the ripped Jeans would be leggings the shoes would mostly brown army boots with one of the tags hanging off the side.”

Isabelle thought of it, trying to imagine what Jennifer told her and explained into some details.

“Or not, i’m not as good at fashion then you are aside from that you can do it Iz, your a lightwood you’ll find a way to finish this and make it come to life.” Jen said kindly placing a quick kiss on Isabelle cheek.

“Here I made this for you, don’t stay here too long or I might have to drag you to dinner and bed like last time.” the women warned in a playful tone placing the cup in Isabelle hand “Coffee?.”

“Coffee.” Jen answered messing with Izzy’s hair before finally leaving the short women alone.

Isabelle huffed in amusement she adored that women, Isabelle looked down at the liquid smiling, not to dark or to light it balanced out, but it was mostly the foam heart that made her smile. Jennifer understood her well.

“Perfect.” a small ‘Just like you!’ could be heard making Isabelle laugh.

“Thank You!.”

Like I said, she adores that woman.

_____

Hours after hours Isabelle found herself yawning, her black hair tied up into a messy bun held together by different pencils and pens, The cup from earlier empty on her table.

Isabelle drew 5 different styles using some pictures she took years ago to help her, but nothing they didn’t give her the passion she would usually get when she created a new design.

An exhausted sigh left her lips deciding to call it a night, it can’t be that late if Jennifer didn’t come to drag her to bed, right?.

Isabelle looked at her watch, it was 8:46 Pm.

“Shit…” Isabelle dropped her pencil onto the platform of her design table grabbing the cup beside her pushing the stool back walking out of the studio turning off the light on her way out, quickly walking down the hall going to the kitchen order to clean the cup placing it in the sink.

Isabelle sighed rubbing her eyes, “what am I supposed to do?. I can’t think with a tired mind.” She said to herself leaning against the counter after a minute of complete silence and debating on what she’s supposed to do, Isabelle noticed a dim light coming from the living room, raising a brow Isabelle circled around the island heading towards the source of the light, finding a sleeping Jennifer laying on the couch. Papers laid out on the coffee table, Isabelle glanced over at them to see one word in bold RENT.

She forgot all about the rent, Isabelle was out of town for a couple months on vacation with the Lightwood family and Magnus, Jennifer wasn’t allowed to come because in her mother’s words ‘I don’t have enough money for another ticket.’

They both knew it was a load of bullshit but Jenny being Jenny told Isabelle it was fine she’ll live.

‘It’s gonna take a couple of months to get rid of the Lightwood smell anyway you and that freaking perfume trying to kill me.’

Isabelle smiled at the memory, Jennifer always tries to find something to tease Isabelle about.

Isabelle scoffed rolling her eyes a soft smile forming on her face “now aren’t you a sweetheart?.”

“Who pays 150 dollars for a damn perfume!?.” She Shouted in a playful manner a smile on her face.

“Me!.”

“Obviously.” Jennifer scoffed shaking her head.

•

Isabelle closed her eyes shaking her head at the memory quietly laughing.

The revenant took a seat by the sleeping amber haired girl noticing money lined up by the rent and other things, there were labels on top of the different stacks, Rent, Light, Cable, Gas, Phone’s, AC bill, Water bill. Taxes.

Isabelle brows drew together, how the hell was Jennifer able to pay for all these things for the past 3 months? Isabelle never got the chance to ever send Jennifer money because of her mother.

“She’s a big girl, she’ll be able to handle it.”

Isabelle was so mad when her mother said that, Isabelle and Jennifer were roommates for a reason, they split the bills, food stamps and more and of course they’ve always planned on living with each other since they were kids.

Why was the Light bill so high?.

Crap the light room…

Isabelle forgot to shut that off, after looking over the bills she noticed how each was was high beside the phone and gas bill, AC was Isabelle fault So was the light.

Isabelle sighed “you better not be working twelve jobs again.” Izzy said to herself, Izzy left before for a whole year because of a design project she was doing in London she was needed to make and come up with ideas for the dresses the models were wearing thanks to Magnus help, he knew how bad Isabelle wanted to be a fashion designer so he tried to help everyone supported her especially Jennifer. Frankly her year trip was cut short because of a call she got that scared the hell out of her. Jennifer ended up in the hospital.

Isabelle can’t remember the last time she got on a public transport so fast, she remembered bouncing her leg up and down on her way back tears in her eyes fearing for a best friend as soon as she got off the plane she called an Uber going straight to the hospital she told the Uber to take her bags to her house saying her landlord would be at the door to help with them. Izzy opened the double doors seeing that her brother’s, Magnus, Clay and Simon were already there all looking equally worried but Isabelle knew she was worst that she looked worst she was the closest to Jennifer, Jennifer was her everything.

Later on Isabelle found out she didn’t have enough nutrients in her body, she didn’t eat a normal amount of food she didn’t drink enough water or anything else her anxiety levels were horrible, doctors said she either passed out from hunger, stress, anxiety or exhaustion. All of those reasons made Isabelle feel horrible, Isabelle remembered everyone arguing with the doctor but she was more focused on the unconscious Jennifer on the hospital bed, she didn’t even look alive she would’ve mistaken Jennifer for dead if the heart monitor didn’t tell her otherwise. She was pale Isabelle couldn’t see her freckles as much, the dark circles under her eyes made her sick to her stomach.

At one point she had to yell at everyone to shut the hell up. Them arguing was gonna give Jennifer more stress and make her state last longer she may be unconscious but Isabelle knew Jennifer could probably hear them.

Isabelle was pulled out of memory lane when a small sound came from beside her, she looked over to see Jennifer stirring in her sleep a bit, then there were the nightmares.

Isabelle sighed crawling over to her lightly stroking the side of Jennifer’s head humming a song, Jennifer relaxed under her touch a deep breath leaving her, Isabelle watched her friend for a while thinking of all the times Jen was there for her. “You do so much and you barely get recognition for any of it… I tell you everyday and I’ll keep telling you, I am thankful for you I appreciate you for being in my life for always putting me first even when I don’t deserve it. I want you to take better care of yourself, I should’ve asked Magnus to help you that year but I was to caught up in my own excitement that I forgot, that was selfish of me and I really wish you told me of all the things you were doing, I would’ve helped you pay for your classes if I knew that paper was coming early, even if I did ask for Magnus to help you, I know you would decline his help till the bitter end because you’ve never enjoyed asking people for anything.” She spoke quietly. Playing with a strand of her hair.

“When I got that call I felt as if my world crumbled around me… I was so scared for you I tried to not think the worst but I did… all I knew I wanted to do was hold you and not let you go or let you out of my sight, I don’t know if I want to do this fashion thing if it’s gonna end up taking me away from you for a period of time, period of time that causes you to run all around the place trying to keep a place for us. It’s not fair for you or me, I don’t want to go somewhere and find out months later you’re in the hospital again because you weren’t able to have time for yourself.” Tears overwhelmed her eyes, “I’ve always wanted the best for you, as you did for me… be selfish for once please… do something for you…”

“You think you don’t have a calling or a future, you think you’re nothing but you are something you’re not a delinquent you’re not a mistake. You’re not bad I don’t care what my mom says, you are a part of the family you’re my family…”

“I absolutely unconditionally adore you and love you with my heart and soul.”

_______

Shadowhunters: @my-archerboy

The only reason I got into this was because of them, thank you sweetheart for giving me the courage to actually write this even though I’m still nervous about this.

If nobody likes it or cares that’s alright too 🙂🙃.

#shadowhunters #isabelle lightwood #my ocs #Isabelle x Jennifer #Izzy x my oc #jizzy #alternate universe

[prorevenge]

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her 'big-shot' marketing job.

Hey guys, first time posting here, bit of a long story. TL;DR at the bottom.

A little bit of backstory, I'm running a painting business over the summer as a Junior in college to pay for school. My prices are pretty fair as I hire college students and have a deal with Sherwin Williams as a contractor to get cheaper paint and materials.

Anyways, a potential client, we'll call her PC for pretentious cunt, scheduled an estimate with me about a month and a half ago for an interior bathroom job and a deck stain. I tell her the times I'm available, but she absolutely pushes for a time where I would have to rush over from a job site, do a hurried estimate, then run home to grab a bite of dinner before going to previously scheduled estimates. I'm a bit miffed but I said fuck it. Sales is hard, I should learn how to bend over backwards for clients. So I show up to do the estimate, and the whole time I'm getting my numbers together, she is talking me down, telling me how if she ran a business like I did, she would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately, and how I should be dressed better to respect the client. What I did to offend Her Majesty was I moved her plants to the side to be able the measure the deck better, and I came to the estimate in paint stained clothes since I had run over directly from the job site.

So I present the price of about $800 with a 10% day of estimate discount to book up the season and she says she needs a few days to consider it. Okay, fair enough right? I'll extend the discount a few days for her. So I come back a few days later expecting a yes or no answer and she sits me down and starts to haggle with me. At this point, I'm tired enough already from working in the sun all day and just want some food to stop the rumblies. After I give her another 5% discount just to close the job, she continues to haggle with me saying "The highest we can go is $600." When I finally tell her I can't go any lower on the job or I would actually lose money on it, she tells me that she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn't want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

At this point, I'm exhausted and my brain is barely keeping me breathing but that price point doesn't sound right to me. I calculated my price based of a small profit, labor, and materials. Now I pay my painters $13 an hour and I hire college students. So if the other company is charging waaay less, they either pay their career painters even less (minimum wage where I am is $11) or the quality of paint is much lower. So I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn't recall Fair enough, paint names are hard to remember if you don't see them that often. Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was. PC says that they didn't have an estimate sheet. Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc. Now alarm bells are ringing in my head so I set a firm amount on the price of the previous estimate with the additional 5% discount which means that I make a measly $5 per hour I personally work on the job. PC finally agrees on the price saying "It's just $50 dollars, I can't see why you can't just give us more discount. At [my big-shot marketing job] I would give the customer a discount without hesitation" forgetting that A. The discount would be coming out of my broke college student pockets, not a big corporation and B. I already told her that I would only be getting about $5 per hour on the job even though she wants to "support the local community"

She asks if we take credit, but there is a 5% credit card fee that would come out of my already tiny slice of profit so I ask for check (which I told her we prefer during the original estimate). She tells me that she uses Chase which doesn't have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are about half an hour from Boston). What?? Therefore, she cannot use check because she would have to order the checkbook from New York. I think, alright fine. I guess some people these days don't have checkbook. I reiterate that I will lose money on the job at that price point with the 5% fee tacked on and that I can wait until the checkbook arrives.

So I tell her that she can message or call me when the checkbook arrives and I can drive back to collect the deposit and have her sign the contract. On the way out, she tells me that the job needs to be finished before a certain date because she was having guests over. I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I'll lock her in for a power wash of the deck which will need about a week to dry the we can stain it in one day. She mutters "... [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow.." Come on now.. she just admitted to lying to me about having to order a check book from NY. So I say that's fine, let me know tomorrow afternoon so I can come by and finalize the contract.

When I get home, I decide to search up 'Chase branches near me' on Google because I found it really strange that there wasn't one closer that New York especially since we were pretty close to Boston. I kid you not, there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house. Now I'm pissed. I don't know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about. He calls me later that day and says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger (I do a lot of posts in local yard sale groups for exposure for my company so I set up estimates though Messenger) and called her out about the Chase branch, the check, and the "estimate" from the other painting company. She. Goes. Off. Here are a few memorable quotes from her rant - "You don't have the right to insult me like that, this is just your first year running a business and I've been working at [big-shot marketing job] for years now","it doesn't matter what I pay you because you're a young and money doesn't matter to you right now" (my facebook post literally says that I am running this business to pay for college) and my personal favorite "you people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work" (I'm Chinese).

At this point I'm ready to just block her and go to bed angry but I have an epiphany and just hear "[big-shot marketing job]" echo through my head. I take screenshots of the messages she sent me and slapped them along with a lengthy description of what happened in an email and sent copies to whatever email addresses I could find associated with the "big shot marketing company". I get an email back a couple days later from a different address than the ones I wrote to previously basically saying thank you for reaching out to us, this type of behavior is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC. My Justice Boner is about half-mast but I think to myself, that'll be the last of it I guess.

Just today, I was messaging another old client and came across PC's conversation with me. I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says "Works at Self-Employed." Instant full mast.

TL;DR A pompous, self righteous woman lies to me repeatedly to try to get a better deal on a paint job and when I call her out on her lies goes on a racist rant against me which I email to her company who fired her.

(source) (story by RicePaddyFarmer69)

#prorevenge #by RicePaddyFarmer69 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #revenge story #last10

[fbwzoo]

Hello! I've seen your wonderful crab posts and figured you'd be one of the best people to go to. I've been put in a weird situation. My roommates got me a hermit crab. I'm aware that they require a lot of care; however, he is currently living in the fish bowl that they provided me with with a sponge, some shells, a little plastic house, and generic crab food. What is the most immediate way I can provide him with good housing/food/stimulation until I can save up for something better?

Ooof, that’s a rough situation, I’m sorry! :/ But I’m glad you’re aware of their care needs and want to improve things for your new crab!

Okay so housing first thing. Plastic totes are your friend! They’re cheap, easy to get, and will work great for a temp enclosure for a few months. If you can, get one that’s at least around the size of a 10g tank, but a bit bigger will be better & easier to set up - think 20-40g size. Make sure you get a lid with it, as you’ll want that to help hold in humidity for your new friend.

On the plus side, substrate is pretty cheap for these guys! Play sand is the bulk of it, and usually you can get a 50lb bag of that for $3-8 at a hardware or home improvement store (Lowe’s, Ace, Home Depot, etc.). Depending on the tote size you get, you’ll need at least one, maybe two bags. Make sure you buy it from inside the store if at all possible - outside sand is more likely to end up with mold or fungus spores in it. If you can, get a brick of Eco Earth to mix in with the sand. You’ll want to add water to expand it, let it dry out for a little bit, then mix it in. The loose stuff in the bag works fine too, if you’d prefer, and doesn’t need water added to it. You want around 6″ of substrate, at least, so your crab has plenty of room to dig.

Enclosure decor - This can be pretty cheap & easy! You can use some tupperware containers for water pools - they should be deep enough for your crab to submerge in completely. Make sure they have a way to climb in & out though. Plastic cross stitch canvas is really good for this & costs like 25 cents a sheet. I prefer to double up the bowls - this way you can leave the bottom one in place (in case crab is buried around it) and just take the top one out to change the water. 

Hides and climbing stuff can be a lot of things. Coconut hides, tupperware with holes cut in them, ceramic plant pots, etc. Climbing stuff can be  cross stitch canvas, coconut mats, fake plants, wood, etc. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ if you check out the Crabitat Conditions, DIY, and Pictures sections on there, you should be able to get some good ideas for these things! Just be careful as some things are more prone to becoming moldy, like hay/straw, twine, some types of wood, & such.

You can get cheaper fake plants from dollar stores & craft stores, just be careful that they don’t have glitter, small plastic pieces (like berries) that will come off, not painted, and the dye doesn’t leak when you clean them before putting in.

Heat & humidity - Make sure the tote is closed up & that will help keep heat & humidity in. Larger water bowls will help add humidity, and so will bowls or piles of sphagnum moss (which you can spray carefully, don’t spray the rest of the enclosure so as to avoid flooding substrate). You can add air stones/bubblers to the pools to help boost humidity as well, but the equipment for that stuff can cost a bit more unless you find it secondhand. Small fish filters can work too, but in both cases, you want to be careful that water isn’t splashing out of the bowls a lot, which is a flooding risk.

For heating, you’re really better off spending the money on something better right now. Pet store heating pads aren’t great, IMO, and most of them are meant to be stuck on & not taken off (which can break wires & turn into a fire hazard). http://www.reptilebasics.com/ultratherm-heat-pads are the best heating mats IMO, and can be attached to the back of the tote with tape (I use packing tape) and then taken off to be used on another tank. They can also be safely insulated with cardboard or styrofoam to help increase temps. It’s best to use them with a thermostat, especially if your room temps vary a lot. But tbh, I don’t have mine on thermostats as crabs do okay with some temp fluctuation within the proper ranges (as opposed to other animals that need stricter temps to avoid overheating/injuries). Put the heating mat on the back of the tote, above the substrate line (or as much above as you can).

For measuring temp/humidity, these are my favorite gauges currently - https://www.amazon.com/AcuRite-Humidity-Thermometer-Hygrometer-Indicator/dp/B0013BKDO8/ It’s best to have it hanging from the lid or at least set in an empty bowl or something to keep it off the substrate (which can alter numbers).

Food & water - Crabs need both fresh & salt water. Both need to be treated for ammonia & heavy metals. Prime is what most people use & that little bottle will last you ages since the dosage is only 2 drops per gallon (or for less than a gallon). For the salt water, you want to get Instant Ocean salt, not the stuff sold for hermit crabs (which isn’t complete). Same thing, that box will last you a while! Word of advice, it’s worth splitting it up into single use baggies/containers when you open it, as moisture gets in immediately & turns it into a big brick pretty fast. The amount for that is ½ cup for a gallon, you can make a gallon at a time & then dose it with the Prime when you put it into the tank.

For food….Toss out the commercial stuff. You can often feed them bits of stuff you eat, with no spices/additives. Fresh/frozen fruits & veggies, raw or cooked meat (shellfish must be cooked though), stuff like that is good for them. The HCA forum I linked above has safe & unsafe food lists. I also like the Facebook group Land Hermit Crab Owners Society, and they have safe/unsafe food lists in their files as well, if you join. 

Since they eat so little & fresh foods go moldy fast in the humid heat of the enclosure, a lot of people feed dry foods, which can be left in for a week. There’s all kinds of things you can get from the pet store & grocery store, so I have a post about what you can get & where here - http://fantasticbeastsandhowtokeepthem.tumblr.com/post/163525780954/hermit-crab-food-shopping There’s also a post linked on that one to my nutrition post, which explains more about what they need in their diet!

Also uhhhh if this isn’t too weird, feel free to message me off anon & I can send you some food stuff if you want! I hoard crab food & have a lot of some things because I buy in larger packages (like the supplement type stuff, worm castings, green sand, etc.). I’m sending out a food package to someone else soon as well. I can’t give food to everyone (unfortunately), but I would like to help where I can! But no worries if you’re not comfortable with that!

And lastly, shells. Here’s a good post about types of shells & where to get shells - http://fantasticbeastsandhowtokeepthem.tumblr.com/post/135316962746/hermit-crab-shell-guide-on-shell-types-and-buying I will say that I would highly recommend going to Joann Fabrics if you have one around you, or other craft stores. You can often find cheaper usable shells there. Joann has this awesome green shell pack that has tons of green turbo shells that I’ve bought at least 5-6 of. If your crab is the right size, that could be perfect! Other than that, I really like Naples best for making sure you get the sizes you want.

I think that’s about it, just a couple other things I wanted to mention.

First, once you have things set up for your little one, it’d be a good idea to get them a friend. Crabs are social & live in large colonies in the wild, so it’s really recommended to have at least two. If you don’t want to get another one from the pet store, check Craigslist, or else check out the LHCOS adoption program - http://lhcos.org/adoption-program-beta/ 

Second, if you’re really not sure you’re able to take all of this on, that’s okay! If you’d rather see if someone who already has things set up can take your crabby, you can check the above link for someone in your area, & submit a form to place your crab for adoption.

I hope all of this helps and isn’t too overwhelming! Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions or if anything is confusing. The LHCOS Facebook group is really helpful as well, especially for new owners! Good luck!

#asks #hermit crabs #land hermit crabs #hermit crab care #long post #fbw rambles

[bondsacrosstime-blog]

Remaining Orders Announcement

Hi! My name is Cari, or @Storyofthedoor online, and I will try to explain what is taking so long with the shipping! :D Sorry this announcement is really long, it is quite detailed, I tried to thoroughly explain what has happened with the remaining 60ish orders.

TL;DR version: 60 orders to go! Struggling with getting money transferred from one mod to the other. Still trying though!

Long version:

First I want to apologize that it is taking so long to finish the last orders. When I joined this project, I really wanted to make sure the shipping was fast! I’ve been a part of, and purchased, a lot of zines that take months and months and months …. To the point that I’ve wondered if the zine is actually coming or….? So I didn’t want that to happen to Bonds Across Time. I’m sorry that for some orders, they have had to wait a long long time.

So I’m gonna start at the beginning, and then try to explain the difficulty.

In the beginning there were two mods! They were Nayuun and (x). They worked on Bonds Across Time together throughout the making of the zine. Nayuun organized artists, and (x) organized writers, and the zine came together to the point of being a book ready for preorders. At this time, I was just an artist. My total involvement was to make an art, and occasionally talk to Nayuun. I didn’t attend to anything other than that.

And then the paypal problems started.

Some of you who have been wanting a book since the beginning of January remember the paypal account being frozen with funds in it just a little bit into preorders. There was never a way to get the funds out of paypal. Nayuun tried to talk to paypal several times, and if you’ve ever had a problem with paypal, you can imagine how that went. Their customer service does not particularly deserve applause. At all. There was no resolution, all the preorders were returned to the buyers. Around this time, (x) needed to leave the project. Their work is still in the zine, but they had no other involvement after the initial paypal problems.

This left Nayuun by herself, and this is her first zine. It is most definitely difficult to run a zine, especially as a single mod, and especially if you’ve never done it before.

So I, Story, joined the mod team! C: My duties are getting stuff printed, and shipping out US and further abroad orders. Nayuun will handle Canadian shipping.

I’ve run a few projects, including kickstarters and a tarot deck zine, so I feel comfortable working with printers and doing shipping.

With this new layout of mod tasks, Nayuun and I opened preorders again! This time with payments being directed to Stripe, through the Storenvy shop.

Now begins the second round of financial problems. Remember: Nayuun has not run a zine before, so couldn’t see this coming. I *have* run zines before, but I and my fellow mods have been completely US based while running them. Nayuun and (x) are both Canadian.

Preorders go great through Storenvy with Stripe receiving payment! Honestly thank you for that. C: We are both really grateful that the preorders went well.

Storenvy is set up to receive payment in USD and dish it out to Stripe in CAD. (Because both prior organizers are Canadian this set up makes sense. This right here is where the problem happened. If hindsight was helpful at all, I would use hindsight to make Stripe receive funds in USD.)

No problems so far.

Because I, Story, am handling the printing and most of the shipping, we determine it’d be easiest if I received the payout from Stripe.

Stripe is holding the money as CAD.

My bank accounts are all in USD.

This isn’t really that big of a problem ….? Americans and Canadians transfer money to each other and conduct trade all the time…..?

We deposit the money into Nayuun’s bank, Stripe won’t let anything else happen.

There are plenty of ways to transfer money internationally. Paypal comes to mind, but we’ve just had huge problems with paypal freezing funds. Also they take a percentage instead of a flat fee. So two other methods are more common with large amounts of money. Wire transfers, and money orders. I’ve done both wire transfers and money orders, but only to US and China receivers. I’ve never tried to receive a wire transfer or money order from Canada.

I think a wire transfer is faster than a money order. It only takes a few days. So I tell Nayuun to try it.  I provide bank info for me.

For this first wire transfer attempt, I use my local credit union. I go in person and speak to them, they say a wire transfer from Canada is fine? It just needs to land as USD. Sounds fine.

A few days later, Nayuun’s bank receives the money back and claims they can’t send money to my credit union. To be fair, that credit union I use is small, who knows if they even know what they’re doing.

So I use a larger online bank for a second attempt at a wire transfer.

I guess which banks we’re using is not terribly important private information. This is a wire transfer from TD Bank in Canada, to Discover Bank in the US. These are two giant, common banks. They both know how to do wire transfers. I mean they probably both do wire transfers, to each other, dozens of times a day, independent of Nayuun and myself. Is there something I’m missing or not understanding?

We wait for the transfer to work. Nothing. TD Bank says it will take 4 - 5 business days.

I call Discover Bank. They say it will take 14 business days. They also say they cannot look up the wire transfer without a firm USD amount. When we initiated the wire transfer, it was for this large sum of CAD, and I assume a fixed USD amount was not given because it would be based on the exchange rate the day the transfer occurs……………? Discover Bank will not look up the transfer with the firm CAD amount. Who knows why. No amount of asking or calling will change their refusal. If I were to try a wire transfer a third time, I think we should initiate it as a firm USD amount, and whatever CAD is required is what goes. Not exactly convenient there but possibly more traceable by Discover.

TD Bank now claims the wire transfer may take up to 20 business days.

We wait ….

We waited a week for the first wire transfer to fail.

Now we wait four weeks.

The second wire transfer fails.

No explanation is given. None. At. All.

I know it’s hard for you, the preorderers, to count out the time here and understand why things are taking so long.

We closed preorders mid Feb or something like that?

And then had to wait about two weeks for Stripe to release all the funds to Nayuun’s bank.

And then we work on the zine and put it all together and get the printing going. Maybe a week or two for print prep and initiate the printing. I think I paid for printing beginning of March on all the merch and books.

A week to try a wire transfer.

Four weeks to try ANOTHER wire transfer ….

And we arrive now at mid April.

This …. Might? Maybe? Lead you to ask how any merch has been printed at all? Or how any zines have been shipped at present? If the funds have been tied up in multiple failed wire transfer attempts?

I, Story, have been paying for the printing and the shipping so far, just on my credit card. I don’t mind getting it all going. I do really care about the project. C: I love zines, and I love self publishing. I really want people to feel happy preordering an artist produced book, too! The helpfulness of a credit card is it does allow me to get a project going! While I wait for Stripe to make funds available … while I wait for a wire transfer … and a second wire transfer … but of course a credit card payment does come due. I paid for all these things at the beginning of March. That billing cycle closes end of March. That bill becomes due end of April, and I must pay the card bill or pay an additional interest penalty. That is how the credit cards do the do.

So! Here in a week or two I am indeed paying this card bill, for a few thousand dollars of printing and shipping. ^^; I have a bit of money saved, it will be ok.

But I’ve got about 40 orders left to ship, and about 20 orders that are Canadian and need to go to Nayuun for her to ship. And I have no more money to get stuff going until one of these methods of fund transfers works out.

It is pretty tiresome and frustrating that the funds exist, they just can’t be moved from Canada to the United States? None of our banks will tell us why.

Now we are trying a money order. When I last shipped a proof copy of the book to Nayuun, it took about 9 days? She lives in Alberta, I live in Maryland. Maybe in 9 days I’ll have a money order in my mailbox? *But can I just point out here that we have experienced first hand that MAIL DOES INDEED MOVE BETWEEN US …. Ok money order, you have no excuses.*

I’m sure you can imagine, I feel pretty dumb now. I’ve spent a lot of money, and am struggling to be reimbursed, and it is no one’s fault. Not Nayuun’s, not mine, just cosmic bad luck maybe. All we can do is keep trying to find a way to deal with a funds transfer? If not a money order through the post office … then…. Western Union? Or we try paypal again (my hopes are not high.)

I’m sorry again that I’ve got all this stuff printed and I’m unable to get the remaining orders going until we can manage this funds transfer. ;_; I really hope a money order would finally work. That would be really great if this kind of old fashioned method could just go through and be fine. ^^;

Thank you to those who have received your orders so far and loved them! You’ve made all the effort worth while, and I really appreciate it. C: I hope that when the remaining orders go out, they will be worth the wait.

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S3 Ep 11 pt 2: Seto Discovers Vulture Capitalism

Where were we on this arc that ended up being hella longer than I thought it would be? Oh yeah, Last we left the crew, Tristan’s body, now possessed by Nezbitt, was just racing away with Mokuba. This kid gets abducted so often, it’s never occurred to me that anyone in this show would think this is weird. So, when Noah showed up to intervene with actual common sense it was a good bit of whiplash for me.

It’s like the same whiplash I got back when Noah attempted to forfeit a rigged game (for the first time in this entire series). Like I get that Noah is the villain, but how is the evil kid way better at this common sense thing than...a lot of people who’ve been on this show? Not that Noah’s always smart, of course, he still doesn’t seem totally with it on a lot of things (like interior design, which we will get to in a sec) but wow. Noah actually called out this entire show with “Really? Mokuba? Again?”

And so you know what that means? We get to see Noah’s sweet pad in this VR world where Noah could have created anything. Literally anything. To start, he made himself a fireplace with a tiny tiny stack of wood (pretty sure Noah might not know how fires work) and...some sort of...curse on the mantle.

Maybe the mantle couldn’t read the typeface that Noah wanted to use on the mantle?

The rest of the room is just this. Just this.

You know what this no-walls aesthetic SUPER reminds me of?

Pocket Camp. Like this just looks like a Pocket Camp set up to me. In fact...I’m pretty sure I can make almost this exact room in Pocket Camp.

Noah’s just inviting Mokuba over with the bare minimum of ugly ass furniture he needs to have a person over at his campsite he pretends is a house while he waits patiently for the real version of Animal Crossing to come to Switch.

Leichter has an accent that is very old-fashioned Americana and doesn’t wholly make sense in the context of him living in urban Japan, like there’s a whole story there I’d be curious about. But most likely, they were probably trying to cover up the fact that they were using the same 5 voice actors by having him pull out the Clark Gable impression.

And then Seto did not use a Blue Eyes as his deck Master. Instead he used....this guy.

This is a lot of guy to take in. I...I don’t like it.

During this duel we get a Seto Kaiba flashback--and it’s an honest flashback this time, no clones are going to show up and reenact this performance, this is just a straight up flashback.

We’re transported back to Gozoboro’s long buffet table. He really, really loves this thing. It’s like the only place he and his kids ever seem to hang out. Surprised Mokuba and Seto don’t need glasses after squinting so hard to see their own Father for so many years. Also surprised Mokuba and Seto even know what their Dad looks like up close.

Anyways, he sits down at the table and shouts really loudly so it can reach the other side of the room.

Also, just gonna bring this up, we’ve only seen one other guy obsessed with long tables--let me do some digging to a S1 cap, one sec:

Maybe this is just what evil Dads who wear Salmon do?  They get hella long tables to seat their 0 friends and just sit at one of the ends and monologue until something important happens. I mean y’all know how much I love this storyboarder but boy they have a thing for villains and long tables.

Anyways, back to Season 3.

(bro’s telling me he does not know about Thoroughly Modern Millie and like can you believe neither Hulu or Netflix has that musical? I mean that musical is problematic as hell, as is all Broadway but maybe I want to watch some 1920′s dancing.)

Anyways, cue Gozaboro shuffling in a comedically large pile of money on a very small pushcart. About 1,099,520,000.00 Yen’s worth. But the show will simplify it for the Americans.

This episode of Yugioh was made around 2002, and this just followed the .com bubble bursting in California. (and before that happened, it was preceded by a recession in Japan that affected the .com bubble quite a bit) For those here who were not born yet and do not remember this happening, this was like, pretty horrifying. I grew up in the Bay where 90% of everyone still works in tech, so I remember that after the bubble burst there were kids in our school who’s parents used to have great salaries and a steady income, who suddenly had to pick up shifts at Starbucks to get back on their feet.

So, it’s interesting that we have this kid’s show basically showing us point blank what Vulture Capitalism is and how it works. You’d think this business stuff would normally go over kid’s heads, but at the time, I think a lot of kids wanted to know what happened to their families but maybe didn’t understand it?

So Kaiba is gonna get into investing all of a sudden, which is kind of weird, mostly because it involved no playing cards. Also because this happened:

Yeah, what? He’s apparently not even adopted yet, which means Seto could still turn around and tell the News that he beat Gozaboro in a match but, I guess that old threat has aged out.

It’s inferred that Seto’s been living here like for several years now. You’d think this guy would list some dependents just for the tax cuts, but nah, Gozaboro just shoved these two into the gigantic 5000 sq ft closet under the stairs of his huge mansion and forgot about them for a couple years.

So, armed with money that is printed on single Yen bills and being pushed around Kaiba in a little tiny cart, Seto has to formulate a plan. Problem is, his business skills include a.) beating up other orphans b.) doing math pretty good and c.) playing cards.

When Seto is like “I don’t care what the company sells, just get me a company to buy” that’s like a straight reference to the .com bubble, but minus the complicated stock market stuff.

For the kid’s in the room that don’t know a thing about this era, tech companies were being created en masse, and because the internet was new and exciting, all of their worth was in their stock rather than in their products--if they even had a product. Mostly they just had big overreaching ideas they were pretty sure would make them all millionaires. But the product didn’t really matter since no one ever reads any numbers when all they plan to do is turn around and immediately sell anyway. They just assumed that if they put on the pressure, they would drive up the value, and would sell before anyone figured out it was all worthless.

This actually worked for so many years, up until people at the top all started demanding real money from the people at the bottom, much like how Seto needed 100 million dollars ASAP from an unsuspecting...whatever company this was. Vulture Capitalism at it’s finest, expecting exponential and unrealistic growth from any company, and if, the growth isn’t met, just selling the whole damn thing after driving every employee to the hospital for overwork.

Now, normally Vulture Capitalism is only if an investor buys a struggling company intending to sell directly afterwards, but since Seto made them struggle like immediately after purchasing, I think we can still call this that.

(And we still do this to this day, PS, we’ve learned nothing from the .com crash.)

This really bad child’s outfit is my favorite Mokuba outfit. I mean...it’s so bad. No wonder Mokuba was picked on so often as a child, wow. He’s like a late-80′s news anchor.

Also, I have NO idea how Seto got any money back so quickly. That doesn’t...totally make sense. But, this is a kid’s show and we have to simplify this whole thing into a sensible package. I mean there’s way more to the whole  .com problem but...this show wasn’t literally doing a .com...just a really heavy reference to it.

And much like how people valued stock more than what companies actually were, Seto’s value was a lot of the same. His worth to his Father wasn’t that of a son, it was entirely held up in potential dollar signs. To Gozaboro, Seto's nothing more than a small company he’ll extort straight into...a more emotional type of bankruptcy. Framed alongside the .com crash, this is sort of like, ah, I see what you’re doing, Yugioh. The way Seto was screwing this company was the same way he was already screwed. It’s basically all he knows, and it is a lot of heavy handed foreshadowing.

Anyway, Seto destroyed a company with 10 mill, which is nothing compared to the amount of money vulture capitalists toss around nowadays.

The Big 5 may have honestly done a better job raising Kaiba than Gozoburo since this guy acted as an advisor rather than a boss, but it’s a very, very low bar these boys have set and so far, very few adults have met it. All you have to do is just try and not kill them and you’re already better than all of Kaiba’s father figures.

With the exception of Roland, of course. Youknow, other than Grandpa, Roland is like the only good Dad on this show. Never thought Roland would look like such a shining star. Man, Roland better not screw everyone over or I will be so disappointed in him.

Anyways, the Yugi crew found a fully fueled truck from Soviet Era Russia buried in one of those warehouses.

They censor so much stuff that gives away that Yugioh is from another country, and they kept in the 3-wheeler pickup? As if any North American child would have any idea what they’re looking at right now? Maybe they just assumed we’d think it was sci-fi?

Also, then this happened?

...OK then.

Not sure how Satellite Laser works outside the context of VR. But, at least here in the VR Zone, we can send a Satellite Laser into space because...Space exists here? In VR?

This world is weirdly very small but also very big at the same time. It’s like Katamari.

Anyway, that’s all for this episode, next episode we find out if Kaiba will hack a laser for the second time in this series. Also we find out if Joey can jump a sonic-the-hedgehog broken highway with a 3-wheeled European-as-hell Pickup Truck.

Also...close enough?

Pocket camp really needs more yellow sleeveless puff jackets.

And here’s a link to read the recaps in Chrono order from Ep1 S1

#yugioh #photo recap #recap #S3 Ep11 #Seto Kaiba #Gozoboro kaiba #wait I have been spelling his name wrong this entire time? #damn it #mokuba #yugi muto #a lot of stock trading #so much stock trading for a kid's show dang #You kids like STOCKS? #I like how Yugioh's hot take on capitalism is now every millennials hot take on capitalism #Noah #Tristan's possessed body