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hazard-and-friends · 3 years

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Month 11

What the fuck. Holy hell buddy.

The focus here will be catching us up with the missed months and then next month I’ll do a 1 year retrospective.

The last time I posted one of these was January 9th. In late February, we moved from FL to WA; at the end of the month we moved into a new, one bedroom apartment. In mid-March I started a part time job which I adore (running puppy camp at a R+ facility! in the next few weeks I’ll start teaching swims and puppy play groups!). So first we did a massive amount of prep for the move, and then we did even more prep for post-move things like “meeting my family” and “oh shit there’s hills now” and in between the two we’ve made huge strides on the cat thing.

The details!

Night time: We have completely stopped putting him in the crate at night. There were two reasons for crating to begin with: 1) We didn’t know where Penny wanted to sleep and didn’t trust them when we were asleep and 2) to create good sleepy associations prior to the plane flight. #2 is no longer relevant and a) Penny wants to sleep Up or in the bed and b) Hazard laaaaargely doesn’t care about her once the lights go off. So he sleeps on the floor, after a VERY exciting 4 nights at the airbnb where he got to sleep in the people bed with the people (Penny slept on top of the catinets cabinets).

Crate in general: I spent 2 months working on the plastic crate not being the actual devil, and he did end up being happy in it. But he’s regressed to thinking that crates in general are prison spaces due to the plane flight, so it’s all to the good that he doesn’t have to go in at all anymore. Regular crate training (for trials) is on the task list.

Medications: He was on trazodone through late March. For the flight itself, I started him on gabapentin (100 mg 3x daily) 24 hours before the flight, and gave him a double dose when we left the apartment. All of this was cleared with his vet first, consult with your own etc. No side effects and the gabapentin definitely helped--but he was still upset at takeoff and landing. One of the reasons I wanted him to see a vet in March was to switch off trazodone and onto something actually validated in separation anxiety. He’s now on Reconcile, 24 mg once a day. At 2 weeks in: No lasting side effects (the first 48 hours were a little weird), and overall anxiety is decreasing.

Anxiety in general: IT’S BEEN A FUN TIME Y’ALL. Because trazodone and prozac (Reconcile) both affect serotonin, he had to come off trazodone for 4-5 days before starting Reconcile. Which confirmed a bunch of things:

Trazodone wasn’t doing very much at all. 90% of the time he was unchanged.

He is WAY more anxious on car rides than anyone realized. Once off trazodone, he started whining continuously on the way out--the way back is fine, either because he’s exhausted, he knows we’re going home, or we’ve already been to the superfunexcitingplace.

Trazodone wasn’t doing SHIT for his separation anxiety, which was unchanged.

He was only slightly more reactive to the cat and no more reactive to strangers. Cool.

Now that we’re 2 weeks into Reconcile: Starting to see big improvements in separation anxiety (more on that later) and cat tolerance is back to baseline (ditto). Car rides are still chatty but rapidly improving. No side effects, still playful and happy and silly.

Separation anxiety: Over a month, we achingly worked our way up to 90 seconds of me gone, or 30 seconds of me gone if I had done one preparing-to-leave thing. And even that was unreliable. That’s not right, guys. That’s the big reason we switched medications. Because keep in mind that all of this is while Jo was in the room with him. Yesterday I left to run errands with no prep and he just watched. I love Reconcile. It took about 5 minutes for him to settle down, but still. Plan is to bust ass and get to 15 minutes with no pre-departure cues and then add them back in.

Cat: Two steps forward one step sideways. While he chases her every other day or so, there are no gates in the new apartment. Sometimes we close the door to the bedroom so Penny can be unmolested, but often she’s the one who wants out, and she’s finding more and more places to chill. Moooost nights Hazard gets tied (harness to longline to my desk) but that’s more so that we don’t have to be constantly watching. At night there’s sometimes scuffles, but those end with Penny wherever she wanted to be and Hazard under the bed.

Weight: Vet had him at 44 lbs but he hadn’t pooped that day. He’s now on diet Hills SD, 1.5 cups, but he also gets around 100 pieces of treats a day so that’s surely impacting things. He’s looking better and better though--nice thigh muscles.

Formal training: I have completely jumped the shark and started teaching rally cues. As soon as the budget balances I want to get back to doing rally with Sydney’s trainer, and he’s picking up the basics really fast. Also, recall?? Is coming along fabulously?? Amazing. Love it when I don’t have to do anything.

I jest, I did a lot. We did a bowl game where I put him in a wait, put food in his bowl, then went to the other side of the room and called him. He had to come to me before going to the food, and that really helped recall click in a way that other games hadn’t.

Handling: After 11 months I admitted defeat and took him to the vet for nails. The vet tech’s verdict is that he sang at her but she got them done in 5 minutes so hey. We’re going back to the very basics and doing it to enthusiasm, not compliance, this time. Sigh.

Good note: I did teach him a chin rest and he now LOVES offering it. Amazing. Love him so much.

Stranger danger: the BIGGEST progress. In the last month he’s met both my parents, my grandparents, one of my siblings, and a friend. 6 people, 3 genders, aged 19-77, and a whole array of builds and heights. They’re all white but you can’t have everything. A growing theme is he’s much better in novel environments than in his home base, so probably we’ll be meeting people outside and then walking them in. But still, seeing huge improvements in his willingness to associate with strange humans and let them touch him.

Walks: 40 min morning/20 min evening, except for once a week when it’s a 50-60 min hike or sometimes we rent the field at my work... It’s hard to be a dog ;) Fitness is less his problem on walks than focus for that long, so the hike is actually easier for him than 40 min along a 35mph road. Still, we’re getting lots of nice perky behavior out and about.

#ELEVEN MONTHS SORRY WHAT #training log #april 2021 #hazard to society

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captainillogical · 5 years

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Devil’s Ballroom Ch.6

A year after the events from the earth’s final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and there’s a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As you’re typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. It’s her. God can’t help us now.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

(have some tooth rotting fluff ya sluts)

You spend your weekend lazing about the house and playing games with Alex, trying your best to not obsess and overthink everything that happened with Spinel. The both of you agreed to hang out in another 3 days, and you’re really eager for the next couple of days to pass. She didn’t tell you what she wanted to do, so you’ve been waiting on a response for nearly a full day by now. She wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t use her phone much. You try to spend your time concentrating on building your tower in your minecraft server with your friends, when you hear a rustling noise from your headset, indicating Alex was back from grabbing food. You hear him set a bowl down on the desk and he picks his headset back up.

“Ugggghhhhhh.” He starts. “I was gone for like, 5 minutes and some creepers blew out the side wall of my fucking chicken coop..” You hear him chew whatever the fuck he was eating.

“That’s what that was? I thought I heard something in the distance but ignored it. I’m too far away anyway.” You reply. “I’m adding more floors to my tower. Wanna go get me more wood soon? Because I’m starting to run out.” You hear him scoff.

“Why do you always make ME go and get more wood? I wish Harper was here so she could be your supply bitch instead. Do I not look fucking busy here? First of all. I’m eating, Y/N, you brat. Second of all, I’m trying to repair my STUPID CHICKEN COOP. There’s like 60 chickens all LOOSE here and homeless!” He cries. “I have some acacia if you want it, but that’s all I’ve got to spare.”

“Yes, I’d totally love some ugly orange wood to break up all the NICE colors I have going on in here. Fuck off with your acacia.” You say, checking your inventory to see if you even have an axe. You hear your phone chime 2 times, and quickly grab it off your desk to see what it is. It’s just 2 texts from your dad asking you to pick up his prescription from the store. You sigh audibly.

“Whoooooo was that?” You hear Alex say. Nosy bitch.

“Just my dad.” You roll your eyes and say. “Wants me to pick up his prescriptions tomorrow.”

“Why’d you sound so disappointed, then?” He asks, and you can tell he’s up to something. Bastard.

“I’m not disappointed, stop trying to read my emotions.” You say. “You always do this when you think you’re onto something.” “I am onto something!!” He whines. “I can tell you’re hiding something from me, Y/N. You know what happens when you hide things from me? I find out, one way or another.”

“You’ll get nothing out of me, and you won’t find anything.” You say, deadpan.

“HA!!! So there is something.” He says, smug.

“Okay you little shit,” You sigh into the mic. “It’s literally nothing. Drop it.”

“I bet I can guessssssssss.” He giggles, and you’re considering blowing up the rest of his chicken coop.

“I doubt it.” “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…” He says into the mic, obnoxiously.

“Nope.” You say. Desperately trying to steer this elsewhere.

“Isssss it….” He continues, “Maaaaybeeeeeeee…. Spinel?” He asks, his voice pitching in that certain way when he knows he’s fucking right.

God fucking dammit, do you hate your friends. You can’t even hide anything for 2 days.

“No.” You argue.

“You’re a fucking liar Y/N, and I know you’re being difficult on purpose.”

“Nooooo. Fuck you.” You give up. He’s going to be annoying until you give him what he wants.

“That’s my girl.” He says smugly, and you can hear him chewing again.

“When you come home, I’m punching you in the face, I swear to god.” You threaten.

“Don’t be cute,” He says. “Side note, by the way, I’m actually coming home this week instead of the end of next week. Some of mom’s clients had to move their appointment forward due to some other things, so we get to go home early this year. I am SO FUCKING READY to be home at this point. Being able to only hang out with my brother blows.”

“Yesss,” You answer. “Now if only Harper got her ass home.”

“For real,” He burps. “Anyway. Back to what I was saying.” You were hoping he’d drop it. “Spinel. The gem. What's the deal with her?"

"Nothing."

"Really? Because the other night you said otherwise. Did you even get her number?" He asks, accusingly.

"Of course I got her number, I'm not an idiot," You retort, mildly insulted. "She just hasn't texted me since our initial text last night. We made plans to hang out, since she hasn't done much around here, but hasn't given me an update on what she wants to do."

"It's been less than a day. Why does this have your panties in a bunch?" He prys.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Do you liiiiiike her?" He sings obnoxiously into the mic. You consider hanging up the call for a brief moment, but you know that he'd absolutely call that one a defeat, so you yield. You just sigh, again.

"I don't know. Kind of. She's funny, and sweet, and really easy to talk to. Also she's really pretty." You admit. “I don’t think I’ve got on with anyone that quickly, like ever.”

“Do you seriously have the hots for an alien?” Alex asks, amused. “You can’t judge me!” You yell, slightly miffed. “You think xenomorphs are sexy!”

“THEY’RE JUST SO CURVY, OKAY. AND THOSE TONGUES!!” He wails in reply as you laugh at him.

“I’m just saying! At least she’s fairly normal looking.”

“You mean, humanoid. She’s a gem. Don’t they have weird powers or something?” He ponders out loud.

“Not the point, and besides,” You interject, “I’m not too sure she’s even interested in anything like that, anyway.”

“Like what?” he responds, taking another bite of food.

“You know like.. dating, humans, girls..” You mumble, checking your phone absentmindedly.

“Well, ask her?” He says casually.

“Are you shitting me? No.”

“Pussy. Want me to ask her?” He asks, teasingly.

“Don’t even fucking talk to her.” You scoff. “You will fuck up everything, I’m sure.” Your phone buzzes, and you open the notification to see that it’s a text from Spinel. Oh my god finally.

Spinel: Sooo, I’ve decided it’s gonna be a surprise.

Y/N: That’s unfair!

Spinel: ;)

“What does that even mean!?” You accidentally say out loud.

“What does what now?” asks Alex immediately.

“Hold on,” You say, and take a screenshot of the text. “Sent you it. This is all I get, apparently. Cryptic. She gives me absolutely no signs.” You hear Alex’s phone ping on the other side, and then him chuckling.

“Yeah, you know what? You can figure this one out yourself, Y/N. You’re smart.”

“I hate you so much right now.” You sigh in frustration.

“And you’re gonna hate me even more, because I just remembered I promised my mother I’d help her with something. Bye!!!” He says and hangs up the call, leaving you sitting there. Ughh, this guy. Whatever, you think to yourself. You have other things to do anyway.

But not before you blow up his chicken coop.

You spend the next two days at work letting the days pass painfully slow, with only the occasional text from Spinel. You’re not exactly overwhelming her with texts as is, as you also don’t want to seem too eager or desperate. So far, you only know that what the two of you are doing is casual, so to dress normal. You don’t even know when, or where the two of you are meeting.

You’re near the end of your shift that went from 6 hours to 10, thanks to Mr. Smiley leaving early and having you close up Funland by yourself. Tomorrow is the day you agreed on with Spinel, and with no answer still, you shoot her another text.

Y/N: So when and where tomorrow?

You wait for an answer for a few minutes, double checking all the tills you closed in the meantime and wiping a few surfaces down. You hear your phone ping, and you check it.

Spinel: Is noon good for you? Don’t worry about the where part yet.

Y/N: You're driving me nuts. Just tell me where we're going.

Spinel: Nope! ;)

Frustrated and amused, you finish the rest of your closing duties and clock out for the night. You grab your things, lock up, and head home. You spend the rest of the evening playing games with Alex, and have a hard time falling asleep, when you finally get around to it.

You wake up around 11:30 in a panic, completely aware you slept through your alarm. You check your phone, and Spinel's left a message about half an hour ago. You open it.

Spinel: I'll meet you at your place around 12 ish. Okay?

You quickly type out a reply.

Y/N: You got it.

You turn your phone's ringer on, and toss it on your bed to go and take a quick shower. You haven't even figured out what to wear. You finish your shower in like 5 minutes flat, towel yourself dry, and blow dry your hair. She said casual, you do casual best anyway, but why does this have you nervous? The fuck is she planning? Why is this secret? You're trying to keep yourself together while sorting through your clean clothes, attempting to find anything that works together. You have pants, and you're deciding between a sweater and some shirt when Jellybean jumps into the laundry pile, and you sigh out loud.

Get it together, self. You grab the shirt.

You put on a small bit of makeup - just eyeliner for the most part, and you walk downstairs to lounge on the couch and wait. You’re replying to a couple texts your father has sent you when you hear a knock on your door. You lay there for a moment, nervously, before getting up and heading over to the door. You check the peephole just in case - yep, it’s Spinel. You open the door to greet her.

“Hey,” You say, feigned casualness.

“Hey yourself. Ya ready to go?” She asks, leaning against the doorway.

“Can I put my shoes on?” You step away from the door for a moment, and grab your sneakers.

“If you think they’re necessary.” She jokes, watching you.

“I could walk around barefoot, but it’s not really in the forecast today.” You lace up your shoes, and look over to Spinel. She’s got her hair up in a ponytail again today, and she’s wearing a light sweater and jeans. The collar is a bit wide, so you have full view of her neck and collarbone. She’s so fucking soft looking that you have to force yourself to stop staring. You also notice that she has a medium sized bag with her, contents completely obscured. She notices you looking at her bag, and moves it behind her shoulder. You think you see her hand shaking, but when you look a little closer it isn’t, so you dismiss it.

“No looking. That’s still a surprise.” She smirks.

“You’ll have to tell me eventually.” You say, deadpan. You grab your bag from the table next to you, pocket your cell phone, and lock the front door. You turn to look her in the face. “Alright captain, where to?”

“Just follow me. We’re walking today.” She swivels around to face the street, her hair swishing from shoulder to shoulder. Ugh, she’s cute. You hate how easy it is for you to like her. You push down your feelings, and catch up to her side so you’re walking with her. You pass by a couple houses, the air warm and slightly breezy.

“So what have you been up to the last couple of days?” You inquire, looking around at the cars passing the two of you by, heat rising off the pavement.

“I fixed the wall that I ruined the other night, but only because Lapis was sending me increasingly threatening texts about it.” She replies, angling her face towards you. You catch her eyeing your hands for some reason, before quickly looking away.

“Yeah she seemed really miffed about it, almost like you committed a personal offense.” You say, laughing. You turn right at a street corner, and notice that you’re heading towards the beach. Hm.

“She can’t complain about it anymore, though, since I did such a nice job on it.” She adjusts the bag on her shoulder, and you hear a few items move against each other, but you can’t discern what exactly. “The diamonds have also been bothering me on my helping them with some homeworld event, but I’m not sure I’m keen on assisting them with it. They have the pearls for that.”

“What did they want you to do, anyway? Don’t they have like, thousands of gems under their reign to help them with whatever they want?” You feel your hand accidentally brush against Spinel’s twice, and mumble an apology before putting your hand in your pocket. You catch her eyebrows furrowing for a second before she smoothes out her expression.

“I honestly think they just want me there just to have me there. I don’t think they’re coping well with the fact that I actually want some space.”

“Well, they can calm down. Tell them to fuck off.” You say, joking, for the most part.

“Why don’t YOU tell the diamonds to fuck off, and see how well that works out for you.” She replies to you, grinning. The two of you are walking on the boardwalk now, by the beach. It’s pretty nice out, sun high up in the sky, a couple of fluffy white clouds around.

“I like being alive.” Spinel snorts at that, and you can’t help smiling. You feel like just being around her in general makes a permanent smile take residence on your face. “So. We’re at the beach. Are we having a beach day? I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

“No, we’re not going to the beach,” She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “We’re not even done walking, sheesh. Impatient.” You continue to follow her, and soon the two of you are walking the path that leads to the lighthouse by Steven’s house. You have no idea what she wants to do up there, but you shut your mouth and continue to follow. You’re both pretty quiet on the way up, concentrating more on the steep walk than on talking, but it isn’t uncomfortable. It’s easy, even.

Once you and Spinel reach the top of the hill, she sets her bag down, and turns to you.

“We’re here.” She’s grinning and looking proud that she made it all the way up here.

“At the lighthouse. You’ve never been here?” You ask, confused. Her face falls, slightly, and you panic. “I’m not saying I didn’t want to come here, it’s nice! I just figured you’d like, I don’t know, want to go bowling?”

“Steven said I should create better memories for the places I have bad memories attached to.” She says, looking at the ground and not meeting your eyes.

“You have bad memories with the lighthouse? But wh- oh.” The injector. Her arrival. You’re an idiot. “I’m sorry, I’m dense sometimes.” She meets your eyes and gives you a /look/ like somehow, she knows this already. Okay, ow. She bends down and opens her bag, and pulls out a little knit blanket, large enough for two people to sit on.

“So, maybe I’ve wanted to do this since seeing it in a movie I watched 2 weeks ago with Steven and Amethyst..” She trails off while unfolding the blanket and putting it down. She grabs her bag and sets it down on one of the corners, and starts to pull out what looks like 6 containers of food, and a thermos. After setting everything down, she looks up at you just standing there, a bit nervously. “Are you gonna sit down?”

“We’re having a picnic?” You look at her, breaking out into a slow grin. She flushes immediately.

“Don’t make fun of me.” She pouts, crossing her arms over her chest, and purposely turns her face away from you. You kneel down next to her.

"How can I not, when you always react so cutely." You tease her, feeling bold. You grab the thermos and examine it, but the contents aren't discernable from the outside.

"Remind me why I chose to do this, willingly?” She turns back to face you, glaring. “Because you liiiiiiike me.” You grin, wiggling your eyebrows at her. She sputters and her entire face reddens, and you laugh.

“A-anyway,” She grabs two of the food containers, clearly trying to change the subject. “I made some food for the both of us. Steven taught me how to make a couple of basic things, but I didn’t taste test any of them.”

“Oh, so you can poison us both at the same time?” You grab the container, and it has what looks like potato salad in it. “This looks fine, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.” She leans closer to you and peers into the container, shrugging.

“I don’t know much about human food so I wasn’t sure if it looked okay. I don’t have a whole lot to go off of.” She grabs two forks and sticks them into the container. “Let me at least open the rest of these before you try that.” She unstacks the others and opens them, setting down sandwiches, pasta, some cut up fruit, some cheese and cured meat, and some cookies. Damn, she outdid herself. You weren’t expecting all of this, or.. any of this, at all really. This was actually pretty well thought-out.

“Spinel. This all looks so good, the hell.” You say, going for one of the sandwiches and taking a bite. Ham, cheese, spinach, tomato, and some mustard? It tastes just fine. “Tastes good, too.”

“Thanks.” She sheepishly pulls out the other sandwich and takes a bite, shrugging. “Kind of hard to ruin a sandwich, though.”

“You know what? I’ll let you find the truth about that on your own. Believe me when I say, you can ruin ANY kind of easy food.” You say, taking another bite.

The two of you eat in silence for a couple minutes, while you gaze out at the sea. This was a good idea. The warm breeze makes your hair tickle your face, and you push some of it behind your ear. You see Spinel staring at you, and turn to make eye contact. She turns away swiftly. Hm.

“So,” You say abruptly, startling her a bit. “I’ve never asked. What’s your favorite color?” She laughs out loud at the sheer banality of the question.

“Hmm, you know,” She pauses and sets her fingers on her chin, thinking. “It used to be pink. Now.. not so much.”

“Your new favorite color could be like..” You trail off while looking around you, and you spot a couple of small wildflowers nearby. You point them out to her. “Yellow, like that.” She scrunches her nose.

“No, too bright. Maybe I should go for something more cool-toned.” “Don’t you already have a few other colors you like? You know, you can’t just choose a favorite color. You gotta actually like it.” You say to her, eyebrow raised.

“I like plenty of other colors! I just don’t know yet, I guess. Ask me again in a week.” She replies. “Anyway, you never answered, so.”

“It’s pink.” You say.

“What?” She says in disbelief.

“Yeah, you know. Like your gem.” You take a couple bites of some pasta. It’s nice and zesty. She’s staring at you like you’ve grown another head. “What?” You say with a mouthful of food. “It’s always been my favorite. Dad used to get me everything in that color.” You think you see her cheeks redden, but you’re too busy eating to really notice. After a few moments, you hear a ringing noise coming from Spinel.

“Huh.” She says, and pulls her phone out of her pocket. You glance at the screen, and it’s Blue Diamond. Spinel stares at the screen for a few brief seconds, and swipes the call away. She pockets her phone again. “Yeah, I’m not in the mood to deal with that.”

“You think she’s calling about needing you over at Homeworld?” You ask her, poking at a few pieces of pineapple. She shakes her head.

“Probably.. maybe. I have no idea, actually. But I’m in a good mood and I don’t want her to ruin it.” “Yeah.. that’s fair.” You chew your food thoughtfully, and stretch your legs out in front of you on the blanket. With the sun above you, and the food settling in your stomach, you honestly just want to lay down and take a nap. “I could call her back if you wanted, and like, I don’t know, tell her off?” You offer, and she laughs.

“I don’t think Blue would take it very well, especially coming from a human, and one she doesn’t know.”

“Offer still stands.” You say. “And besides. She's never met me, so."

"I think it's in your best interest to maybe steer clear from their bad side."

"You don't think I could take on a couple of aliens!?" You say in mock offense.

"Do you have any special powers I don't know about?" She smirks, and uncaps the thermos. It looks like some sort of soup inside.

"I have this uncanny ability to make people fall in love with me." You reply as she's taking in a mouthful of soup, and she nearly chokes on it, sputtering.

"You have got to be the most ridiculous human I have ever met." She says while wiping her mouth, and sets the thermos down in front of her.

“I’d say the same to you, but I’ve spent enough time around Peridot.” At that she laughs super hard, and you grab the thermos and take a small sniff. It’s a homemade chicken soup with some vegetables, which is pretty safe by all means, so you take a sip. It’s probably the best you’ve tasted in a while, honestly. “You know, this is actually really good. Most of the people I know can’t even cook at a basic level like this. And they’re human and need to EAT to survive, which is pretty ironic,” You pause to take another sip. “That a gem is more wife material than most of the humans around here.” You kind of realize what you just said after it came out of your mouth, so you quickly shove some potato salad into your face to hide your embarrassment. You hope she didn’t pay too much attention to that bit at the end.

You chew your food nervously for a moment, before looking up to meet Spinel’s gaze. Her face is comically blank, like she forced any expression off it, and she’s staring in the general direction of your mouth.

“You’ve got something on your cheek.” She states, and points to the corner of your mouth. You wipe off your face, and give her another look. “It’s still there.” You wipe again and raise your eyebrow at her. “It’s, ugh, let me,” She says in frustration and leans right over into your personal space, swiping the corner of your mouth with her thumb. You feel your face heating up immediately, and mutter a thanks to her. She only leans back slightly, very much still in your personal space, and smirks at you.

“W- what?” You stammer, like a complete fool.

“Nuthin’. You’re just cute when you’re all flustered.” She replies, grinning at you.

“Cute!?” You all but yell in response, and give her a small shove to the side playfully. You guess you caught her completely off-balance, because you just managed to tip her over, and she’s howling in laughter much to your distress. You’re watching her fit of giggles die down as she’s holding her sides, half of her face pressed into the grass.

Something deep down kind of clicks in place that you’ve been trying and failing to itch at for months now. Watching Spinel’s gem sparkle in the sunlight as she lays there, catching her breath, you think that maybe, it would be so easy to fall in love with her. And maybe you have already, just a little.

The two of you spend the next hour or so making various amounts of small talk with the occasional bout of teasing each other, before you agree that it was time to head home.

The walk back is nice, and you find yourself cherishing your time with her quite a lot. You don’t really want it to end, but you do have to run a couple errands after this. You turn to Spinel walking beside you.

“Do you wanna hang out again soon?” You ask her. She looks a bit surprised that you asked again, but pleased nonetheless.

“I’d love to.” She smiles. “Do you want me to be the one who chooses what we do again?”

“No, let me choose this time.” “Mmm, yeah, okay.” She bumps your shoulder with hers on purpose, her ponytail swinging lightly.

“Also, you should text me more. I’m going to spam you with pictures of Jellybean, and you’ve got to look at all of them. Otherwise, we’re not friends.” You bump her shoulder back, and she snorts.

“I think I’m getting the hang of human tech, so.. I’ll try my best.” She replies as the two of you pass by a couple of houses leading up to yours. “Today was fun, by the way. So.. thanks for spending time with me.” The both of you walk up to your front door, and you turn to face her.

“Don’t thank me. It was all my idea anyway, and you just went along with it. I’m just happy you agreed to try something new.” You say to her, reaching for your keys.

“You’ll keep in touch, yeah?” She nervously fiddles with the hem of her shirt, not meeting your eyes.

“I’m gonna text you in twenty minutes. Count on it.” You move to unlock the door, struggling to get the key in the deadbolt. Once you wiggle it enough it unlocks pretty easily. You turn to say goodbye to Spinel, and you feel something soft and warm on your cheek. She pulls away so quickly you barely catch it.

“I’ll see ya soon!” She shouts, already at the end of your driveway, and keeps walking until you can no longer see her.

You stand there with your door open, completely frozen on your porch. You get your shit together after a few moments so the neighbors don’t stare, and head inside. You close the door and lean against it, unable to comprehend what just happened. You pull out your phone to text your friends.

Y/N: Can one of ya’ll bastards call life alert.

#spinel x reader #spinel #su #Steven Universe #fic #devils ballroom #my fic

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kaleidoscopic-writing · 5 years

Text

In the Shadow of Your Heart

PROLOGUE

a/n: Let me know your thoughts! I know I said Saturday but my weekend ended up being a bit crazier than expected!!

“Nina, if you don’t hurry up, I am leaving without you,” Charlotte yelled down the narrow hallway.

Charlotte had approximately one minute to leave the apartment to make the 7:42 four train, which would place her at Wall Street exactly fourteen minutes later. This gives Charlotte three minutes to get to her building and ride the elevator up to the 67th floor, leaving her a minute to collect herself before her day starts. This is a sacred ritual that Charlotte had developed three weeks since she started at S&FP.

Then, at exactly eight o’clock, Charlotte would ask Alice, her boss, and whoever Alice was having morning meetings with what they would like to drink or for breakfast. Alice was very particular and followed a meticulous routine, so in the mere two weeks that Charlotte had been working for Alice, she already knew her morning order like the back of her hand.

Presently though, Charlotte had about 30 seconds to get out of her building, and her whimsical roommate was still no where in sight. Nina usually did not have to leave until an hour usually after Charlotte did, so when Nina said last night that she had to be up earlier for a doctor’s appointment and that they could take the train down together, Charlotte was already skeptical that Nina would be timely.

“Hey ninny,” Charlotte called out the mocking name, a nickname she had called Nina since they first became friends a few years ago. “I am leaving now. I’m serious. I’ll see you tonight at Alberto’s, okay?”

Without waiting for a confirmation, Charlotte sprinted out the door. Walking down three floors and out the door, Charlotte was ready to take on the day. With her (cheap) coffee in hand that she made herself, Charlotte strutted down her street towards the subway entrance. The city was slowly starting to wake. Dogs and owners pass by Charlotte as they take their morning walk, kids walk out of their buildings going on their way to school, and mostly, everyone starts on their way to work, just like Charlotte. So, on the subway, Charlotte stood to one side of the subway car. Rubbing shoulders with people on all sides of her, her small hand holds onto the subway as she waits four stops until she can get off.

Without deviation, Charlotte’s subway ride comes to a stop fourteen minutes later. Getting off the subway, she noted the warming weather from nice spring weather to rising summer heat as she made her way to the building. Everything else was just as any other day. A sea of suits brush past her at every turn.

And of course, Charlotte wasn’t surprised when Alice gave her an order of four coffees from the Farm Irving down the road.

With a tray of coffees in her right hand and Alice’s coffee in her left, Charlotte’s tray began to shake. With twenty more floors to climb in the elevator, her arm was burning so bad, but she should have been used to it by now. Charlotte gets coffee for her boss and her morning meetings every day. Alice gets the same thing everyday: a large iced coffee with soy milk and sugar. The variable was just whomever she was meeting with that morning. Today must be a bigger meeting because she had four coffees in her other hand, whereas, it usually has only been one or two. Judging from the coffee, Charlotte guessed that this was a bigger meeting.

When Charlotte got out of the elevator, the clock above the receptionists desk said that it was 8:26 which means Alice’s meeting started in four minutes and most likely was already getting started in the conference room down the hall. That stupid long line at the coffee shop made her take a feel minutes longer getting the coffee. It’s okay, though, because she was almost done with her daily morning task, and once she dropped the coffee off in the meeting, she got to retreat to her own office, which was more like a cubicle in the back corner of the office that it felt a office since it was a bit secluded. There, Charlotte got to relax in her chair and just go over spreadsheet, while sipping on her coffee she brings from home everyday.

Taking a few deep breaths to try and distract her from the burn in her arm holding up the coffee tray, Charlotte makes a note that she should probably go to the gym because her arm should not be this week.

Turning the corner, Charlotte took in the people in the room. Alice sat on one side of the oval table, her back to the windows that look down Broadway. Alice usually sat at the head of the table, however, so Charlotte knew this was a different kind of meeting than she had seen before. Next to Alice sat a man in his 60s, Charlotte guess. His white hair on his head had disappeared in a ring on the top of his head, and his tanned skin looked wrinkled with years of tasking work, most likely. Across from them sat two women — Charlotte was inspired by the female presence in the room. Both women looked middle age and held a beautiful aurora of successful business women.

“Ah, Charlotte, always perfect in getting the coffees in time!” Alice said kindly, extending out her hand as Charlotte stepped forward with her coffee. Noticing Charlotte hesitation in handing out the coffees to the people whom she did not know. “Oh, excuse me, Charlotte this is Alexander Smith, executive VP of mortgage equities acquisitions. Alexander, this is my newest intern, Charlotte King, and he ordered the small black coffee.”

Charlotte extended her empty hand out to Alexander, shaking his hand, as he gave her a courteous smile. “It is so nice to meet you, Mr. Smith.” Then handing him the coffee, Charlotte turned her attention to the two women on the other side of the table.

“This is Harriet Wilson, one of the longest working employees here and COO of S&FP. She ordered the large iced caramel latte.” Again, Charlotte shook hands with the nice woman, and handed her her coffee. “And, this Elizabeth Woodside. Elizabeth is the executive secretary to Harry, and the small coffee with cream and sugar is hers!” Elizabeth shook her hand and took her coffee, but Charlotte was still confused why there was still one coffee left in her hand, and who Harry was. “You can just place the last coffee right on the table. Harry will walk in this door right at 9:30.”

Charlotte placing the large black coffee on the head of the table in front of her. Moving the tray behind her back, Charlotte was about to say a kind goodbye when Ms. Wilson spoke. “Where do you come from Charlotte? Are you getting your masters?”

“Yes, I am getting my masters,” Charlotte spoke with a smile, feeling all eyes on her. “I just finished my first semester at Columbia,, but originally I’m from a small town upstate.”

“Very impressive, Ms. King,” Ms. Wilson spoke. Her smile was kind and welcoming, which was not something she has come across often in her first few weeks here. Sometimes it felt like she had the words intern plastered on her forehead, and all the employees she walked past each day knew it. But, Charlotte also knew she was being irrational; everyone is just busy with their own work. This isn’t social hour, and Charlotte was here to work too. Charlotte, then, resorted her days to working in her office, playing music in her headphones, because she was afraid she would bother someone with her music if the possibly heard it. It was a little hole but Charlotte enjoyed it.

“Thank you, Ms. Wilson.” Charlotte beamed.

“Please, call me Harriet. I know every woman says the same thing about this, but Mrs. Wilson is my mother-in-law.” Everyone laughed at Harriet’s comment. “Do you know Margaret Prince at Columbia? I believe she is the dean of the economics program.”

“I do, yes. I worked with her last year, as a part of her program that was looking into and evaluating the program’s strengths and weaknesses. Since then, we have actually kept up a bit of a correspondence.”

My answer brought about a big smile from Harriet. “Dean Prince is one of my very close friends. We have worked very closely over the years for placement for her students, when I was under different positions for this company. That responsibility isn’t mine anymore, but Prince and I remained very good friends. She is a great woman to know, and I would recommend keeping up a relationship with her.”

Charlotte nodded, taking in the advice. “Thank you so much, Harriet. I will definitely keep that in mind.”

“What part of upstate are you from?” Alexander questioned.

“Saratoga. Really more so, I am from a town about a half an hour from there, but it falls under the umbrella of Saratoga, so all my schooling was through Saratoga.”

“I love Saratoga. It is such a beautiful town.”

Charlotte loved her small town, and in the past few years she has been in the city, few have ever been to Saratoga when she had mentioned it. Hearing that Alexander understood the beauty of Saratoga made Charlotte proud. “It is so beautiful. I miss it everyday.”

“The race track is so historic. My family used to go up for a weekend of the races.”

“Yes, it’s so —“

“Good morning everyone,” a voice spoke behind Charlotte.

Immediately, Charlotte stepped aside further to the side of the room, making way for the voice that seemed commanding with so few words. When she turned, Charlotte wasn’t expecting anyone in particular, since that voice was unfamiliar to her — deep with a slow foreign draw. However, she most certainly not expecting Harold Styles to enter. She had seen his pictures around the office, and even the internet. This was his family business, and he was definitely an integral part in it. Right now, he held the title of President of derivatives and equities, one of a few members under his father’s immediate team. Though it would have to be approved by the board, it is long assumed that he will one day take over his father’s job. Alice held a high title within the company as executive VP of derivatives and futures, so Harold was one of the few she reported to, but Charlotte thought that Harold was more of her bosses boss, than hers.

Moving to the side though, Charlotte took in his appearances in person. His hair was a bit longer than the short cut that she had seen in pictures before, maybe it had been a while since he had gotten his haircut. It was still short, but now, it was long enough to show curls atop his head. His face was clean shaven; with a prominent jawline on display. His expression seemed neutral enough, not angry but definitely not happy. Maybe a bit of annoyance, Charlotte really couldn’t tell.

For Harold, his eyes took in the room in front of him, eyes immediately drawn to the person in the room who he did not know. She was tall and slim, but not too skinny. He noticed her hair, curly with bangs that framed her face nicely. She stood to the side of the room, moving out of his way when she heard his voice. She seemed startled at his entrance, which kind of annoyed him. This was a meeting, and everyone know he was coming in at 8:30. She was still standing there, when they made eye contact. A small hesitant smile spread on her lips, but Harry did not reciprocate.

He moved his gaze away from Charlotte to the his employees, but Charlotte let out no sigh of relief. She was embarrassed. Why did she smile at him? Well actually that seemed like the normal thing to do. Why didn’t he smile back?

She didn’t know if she should go or not. She was in conversation with the other people in the room before Harry came in, but she had a feeling that it was back to business when he entered the room.

“Good morning, Harry, and thank you so much, Charlotte, we are good from here.” Alice spoke, her words friendly to her superior and kind enough to Charlotte to inform her that she should leave. With a small nod and smile to those at the table, Charlotte turned around. Not before catching Harold’s eye one last time, his stern eyes on her. She darted her eyes away immediately not willing to

Walking out of the room, Charlotte thought more about whom she just met. Well, she didn’t even really meet him. ‘Harry’ was intimidating but also fascinating. His work ethic from what she has read is amazing. His education at Harvard and continual rise through the company was inspiring, but Charlotte didn’t know if she could handle the pressure of it all. He just seemed to breathe success and Charlotte got out of breathe climbing three flights of stairs to her apartment. Charlotte realized she had been in thought about it all the way back and about five minutes into her sitting in her office space, so she pushed the sighting out of his head. Meanwhile, back in the conference room, Harry listened as Alexander read off some spreadsheets on the latest quarter’s reports. His mind wandered back to the girl from the beginning of the meeting, “Charlotte,” as Alice called her. As soon as she left the room, Alice apologized admitting she was her new intern and was a little too friendly.

“She’s too nice, too young,” Alice said with a sigh. “Follows orders well, but I don’t know if she has the backbone for this field.”

“Give her a chance, Alice,” Harriet said. “She hasn’t had to face any challenges yet.”

“Exactly,” Alice replied. “She hasn’t.”

“If she can’t handle pressure, she can’t handle this job.” Harry interjected curtly. “Now, can we begin. I have brunch with a potential client at ten o’clock?”

Everyone replied with a nod, as Alexander began.

Now, sitting here fifteen minutes later, Harry thought of the intern. She was nice, but Harry didn’t have time for nice. Her presence earlier was unnecessary, as is her job as intern probably. Sitting somewhere reading reports Alice gave her, probably thinking she is doing important work. The thought almost made Harry laugh. Almost. If she is as Alice believes, though, she probably won’t be around much longer, Harry thought. The weak ones always quit or are fired.

#1dff #1d #one direction #one direction fanfic #one direction fanfiction #1d fanfic #1d fanfiction #hs #harry styles #harry styles fanfiction #fic: in the shadow of your heart

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silverfootstepswrites · 5 years

Text

Lullaby [20%]

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Read Equinox here and come back!

“It’s too hot,” Sakura sighed.

“Sorry about the AC. Should I turn up the fan?”

“Turn off the sun, please,” she groaned, rolling onto her back on the floor of his living room.

“I could try. But that might kill the whole planet, you know.”

“Don’t care. I wanna wear socks again. And sweaters. And scaaaarves,” she whined. She rolled over again, rubbing her face against the front of his shirt.

Kakashi propped himself up on his elbow to watch her tantrum. A smile tugging at his lips. He draped his free arm over her waist.

“Should we go get ice cream?” he suggested.

“Ughhh,” she groaned.

“Come on,” he urged as he sat up. Sakura buried her face in her arms shaking her head. All the talking and moving woke Biscuit, who wandered over from his spot by the door. He stepped over Kakashi’s leg to nudge Sakura’s arm. She wrapped her arm around him and hugged him close to her chest.

“Biscuit, make summer end. Mommy’s dying,” she lamented. Biscuit’s wide eyes flew to Kakashi, who laughed.

“Alright, let’s go. Ice cream time,” Kakashi decided. He lifted her easily, throwing her over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Her laughter filled the house as he carried her out into the hall.

“Let me try a bite.”

Kakashi held out his frozen yogurt bar. It was the prettiest shade of light green, dotted with pieces of brittle.

“I’ve never been a pistachio person. This is pretty good,” she had to admit. He gave her a smug look. She pushed him with her shoulder. Their sandals lay abandoned near the plastic bag from the grocery store.

They sat on the concrete patio behind Kakashi’s house. He had turned on the fan. It didn’t help with the humidity, but the air blowing over their backs did feel nice. She leaned against his arm until eventually he lifted it to drape it over her shoulders instead.

The crickets and cicadas seemed to be competing to see who could be louder that night. Their combined songs filled the balmy air. But that was as much a part of summers in Old Pines as everything else. When she had first moved to town, the sound had kept her up at night. Now, she had trouble sleeping without the serenade on the hottest nights.

Sakura held up her spoon. “Say aah.”

He reached for the spoon, but she yanked it away from him. “Say it,” she insisted.

Kakashi sighed. “I can feed myself.” But he still lowered his hand. She fed him a bite of her strawberry ice cream. And then pecked him on the mouth before she acted like nothing had happened.

Kakashi mashed his lips together. Trying to hold in both the ice cream and a laugh. Sakura went on eating her little cup of ice cream. Humming to herself as she tapped her bare feet on the concrete.

“Sakura.”

“Mhm?”

“Can you finish your ice cream quickly?”

“Why should I do that, Kakashi?” she asked, not looking up at him. She bit back a smile when she felt him grab her free hand in the darkness. His palm damp with sweat..

“I want to go back inside.” He squeezed her hand a little as he added in a small voice, “...please.”

“Why? To play chess? Read a book?”

“Sakura,” he groaned, his head falling on her shoulder as she laughed a little harder.

“Okay, okay. I’ll be right there. I can’t say no to those puppy eyes,” she relented.

A few days later, Sakura woke in the middle of a dream. A little unsure of whether she was still sleeping or not. Her bulky but reliable air conditioner hummed out back, pumping cold air into her house. Because even in the summer, she liked to sleep under the covers.

She lifted her head, eyes cracking open. Her phone sat on the nightstand where she had tossed it the night before. She had forgotten to charge it. The blinds next to the window were shut, but she could still see the sunlight trying to peer in past the slats.

“Whozzat?” she mumbled as she heard a click.

The back door opened, footsteps clomping into the kitchen.

“It’s me,” Kakashi called back. She could hear the rustle of plastic. And the tap of little black nails on the floor.

Sighing, Sakura flopped back onto the pillow. She heard the jangle of keys before they hit the kitchen counter. Cabinet doors opening and closing. And then, several seconds later, she heard his footsteps approaching. She cracked an eye open, arms stretched out at her sides.

“Long night?” asked Kakashi from the doorway.

She grunted, eye drifting shut.

“Alright. Sorry for waking you. Go back to sleep,” he replied. He took a few more steps. She felt him smooth his hand over her hair, pressing a kiss to her temple. And she sort-of forgave him for waking her in the first place. Especially when he kissed her forehead too.

Biscuit hopped up onto the bed. He seemed to know that she wasn’t in the mood to play. Instead, the pooch wormed his way under her arm, curling up against her stomach. She slept well, the air conditioner blasting, and the faint tap of a knife against the cutting board drifting in through the crack in the door.

The second time Sakura woke, she felt much less murderous. She sat up, rolling her shoulders a couple times. Biscuit was gone. Rubbing her hand through her hair, Sakura sniffed. She smelled coffee. And something else that made her stomach rumble in anticipation.

As she opened her mouth to call for Kakashi, her eyes fell to the other side of the bed. Kakashi lay on his back, hands folded across his stomach as he stared up at the ceiling. He looked so serious that she refrained from speaking. It seemed like he had something profound to say.

“Even your snoring sounds pretty,” he finally sighed.

“I don’t snore!” she exclaimed.

“You do. It’s adorable,” Kakashi stuck to his story. And then he turned his head to look at her. She tried to scowl at him. But it didn’t last for long as he reached up to run his fingers along her cheek. She bent her head so that he could reach, his teasing forgiven right away.

“I didn’t ask before. But are you sure you were just tired? You seemed... upset,” Kakashi then brought up. His hand fell back onto the bed.

Sakura’s smile dimmed. Her mouth twisted to one side.

“Just... my head’s been busy, I guess,” she confessed. She ran her fingers through her hair, just to have something to do with it.

When he smiled at her, she returned the expression. Almost like a reflex. And it was just as reflexive to close her eyes when he leaned in to kiss her. Soft and lingering, just like his hands as they ran over her hair, down her back. His forehead pressing against hers as he inhaled. Exhaled even more slowly.

“Breakfast?”

He had made a fluffy omelet for breakfast. She sat at the kitchen table, her chin resting on her fists as she watched him. Biscuit wandered over to sit at her feet. He knew better than to try to beg Kakashi for scraps when he cooked.

Kakashi draped a towel over his shoulder as he reheated the skillet. He popped slices of bread into the toaster oven as he waited for the pan to heat.

There was something incredibly attractive about a man who knew his way around the kitchen. She especially liked watching his arms and shoulders as he used the spatula or reached for something across the counter. Although, her personal favorite was watching his hands as he sliced vegetables with precise movements. Unfortunately, she had missed out on that part of the cooking process this time around.

“Honey?”

“Mhm?” she replied, only half-listening.

Kakashi turned to look at her. He had found a jar of honey in the cabinet. “I meant, do you want honey on your toast?”

“Oh.... yeah.” Sakura blinked a few times. As he twisted the cap off the honey, he turned his attention back to the stove. He nudged the knob to lower the heat. The contents of the frying pan sizzled a little more quietly.

“Are you a ... pet name person?” Kakashi asked.

Sakura considered this for a moment. “I’m a nickname person, I guess. I mean, all my friends call me Bunny,” she finally admitted. And then she tilted her head as she thought a little harder.

“Kakashi?”

“Yes.”

“Babe?”

He froze.

“Do you not like that?” she inquired.

Hands braced on the counter, Kakashi let out a heavy sigh. When he finally turned to look at her, he suddenly looked very tired.

“Sakura, despite appearances, I’m an old man. My heart can’t take something like that,” he warned her. His hand on his chest for emphasis.

“Aw, you’re young at heart, babe,” Sakura teased, tongue between her teeth as she grinned at him. Kakashi just sighed again. Shaking his head, he pushed off the counter to plate the food.

He set breakfast in front of her a minute later. Thin slices of apple covered the surface of the toast, glistening from the drizzle of honey on top. The butter-colored omelet was flecked with what looked like chives. He had even sliced up strawberries in the shape of hearts to garnish the edges of the dish. But Kakashi didn’t sit like she expected. Before she could ask, Kakashi poured her a cup of coffee fresh from the carafe.

“This looks amazing. Thank you, Kakashi,” Sakura said as he set the mug in front of her. He smiled at her in return. Chair legs scraping against the floor, he finally settled in the seat opposite from her.

She took a big bite of the omelet and then fed him the next slice. They were content to chew in silence for a while. Save for Kakashi’s snorting laugh when Sakura took a bite of her toast and did a little happy dance in her seat.

“I love you,” he suddenly declared as he watched her munch on her toast.

And mouth dotted with crumbs, Sakura barely swallowed her mouthful of food before she replied, “Love you too, babe.”

Kakashi laughed as he reached over to brush the crumbs away with his thumb. And then he leaned across the table to replace his hand with a kiss.

#equinox #lullaby #multisaku #kakasaku #writing #happy valentine's day

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literaxies · 6 years

Text

Ain’t Daisy | Hwang Hyunjin

“Why would I look for a daisy when I go to a field of roses?”

Category : Highschool!au

Genre : Fluff, slight angst.

Warning : Maybe cursing

Word count : 2,341

Life has always been treating you fair. You’d had your ups and downs but they’ll be of the perfect balance, but then day Hwang Hyunjin stepped into your life, your ups overweighed the downs.

It was through sheer force that you were drawned to him, as well as him to you. Any girls would kill to be in your position and soon it became something you were internally proud about. Because not only was he insanely gorgeous, Hwang Hyunjin was beautiful inside as well. Humorous, kind, all the good personality— name it. He would always manage to make you feel the same about yourself as well. What more could there be?

But again, life had always been fair. The ups can never be above the downs for too long. It was when you felt the distance grow, that you knew it would all came to an end. As much as you didn’t want to admit, highschool was going to be over soon and both of you had different paths to go and his, would be miles away. It was sooner or later.

You remember the tears that flowed out of his perfectly shaped eyes that day at the park. The eyes that always curved down to form an inverted smile, now filled wih nothing but sorrow. It tore you apart to see him in that state but you knew it was for the best, or at least you thought it is. You were starting to become a distraction for him and his entrance exam, and he was starting to feel your clingy and neediness, only to snap every once in a while.

“I swear, even though I called you annoying, I still love you as much, so please.” He pleaded, he looked like he was seconds away from going down on his knees. That was how much he loved you.

“I love you too, Hyunjin. I swear. But if it keeps going on like this, what good would it make?” You held out your hands to wipe away his tears as he looked down.

“Hey,” he looked into your eyes, the salty water threatening to fall from it. You smiled and said, “we may be seperated now and it’s all on me. But one day, if we’re meant to be, we’d be together again.” He held onto your hand which was placed on his dampened cheek and brought it closer to his lips, kissing it gently.

“I’d hold onto that,” he smiled, and you felt yourself falling for him all over again. But, it’s over, “I can’t believe I cry as if you’re dead.”

“Well, better make sure you cry harder in about 60 years,” you joked, making him chuckle.

It all came crashing down on you the day after when you found him walking along the hallways with the grade’s highest-ranked beauty. Park Gowon. It has only been a day, you thought. Gowon had always aimed for Hyunjin. Getting close to him at any chances to ever exist. But you just found it unbelievable how he could smile and laugh along with her throughout their journey down the hall.

“Haha ‘i love you so much’ my ass,” you muttered under your breath.

He gave you a smile each time both of you came across each other. You would give it back but anyone could see the insincerity.

Rumor circled around the school ground soon after. How you were abandoned by the prince and how you were replaced at last. Its like all of them expected this to happen. But then, at the end, it went back to the fact that the only one who knew of the dismatch were you, him as well as your best friend, Han Jisung.

“Say you’re dating me now, then.” Jisung surprised you with his sudden remark, making you drop your lunch back onto its plate.

“They’re going to think I’m a bitch, no.” You retorted, making him laugh.

“They think you were merely a toy to Hyunjin.”

“But still, I can’t make it seem like I just jump from one good-looking dude to another good-looking... sort.. of.. dude..,” you hesitated the last few words. Jisung’s face was written with offended and you simply gave him a smile and went back to eating your lunch.

The rest of the school year was a whole drag. You had to keep yourself busy, finding references for the next step, and all that it required to be in a university, you were trying your best to have a perfect record. All these, without Hyunjin; your greatest motivation at all times. You had to admit, you would’ve done better if he was there but this just prove that you were fine even without him. Because not long after was when you heard, he had made Gowon his girlfriend. Everything seemed like nothing but bullshit to you at that point. Maybe, both of you really weren’t meant to be.

By the day of graduation, you were super proud of yourself for the feelings you’ve erased. It was hard to believe he would do such a thing but at the end, you were the one ending it all, you didn’t want to be a crazy bitch.

With the cap placed perfectly on your head and cape draped over your shoulder, you stood up high when the teacher called for you. Along with the certificate, your suffering ended there. Everyone looked happy, you could only assume all the students achieved their target like you. You didn’t look for Hyunjin amidst the sea of heads but little did you know, he was watching you with nothing but satisfaction in his eyes. You got what you wanted, you were accepted with a scholarship, and he couldn’t be more proud.

When the end of the ceremony approached, everyone was busy taking pictures and collecting gifts, including you. Jisung had roamed around the hall to take at least one selca with everyone. You weren’t that crazy about taking pictures but you did take a last look on all the classes and backyards. Absorbing everything into your memories before you had to say goodbye for good. You walk through the long hallway of the sixth story and peeked through each class. It was then when you felt someone tap your shoulder.

Hyunjin.

You looked to your right, to the sight of him walking alongside you. You didn’t feel your heart race like before and you could only be grateful. It was a total opposite for him though. It took him so much to place a gentle tap on your small figure walking.

“Congratulations to us,” he said and you smiled at him.

“Yeah, and congratulations to you and Gowon,” you didn’t want to sound bitter. But it was slightly there. You couldn’t deny the fact that the topic still brought some kind of effect on you but maturity had become your priority.

You felt him stop on his track as you were continuing your walk. You looked back to see him gazing at you. His eyes met yours with sadness evident.

“What’s wrong?” You asked innocently, not wanting to assume anything bad.

“You moved on, didn’t you?” His tone was down. It was barely audible. But you caught onto the first few words before his dynamic fall.

“Hyunjin... I-,” you turned your body completely to face him, even though the distance still seem to exist, “I couldn’t help it, you got together with her.”

“Doesn’t mean I love her,” you were taken aback by his words.

“What?”

“I couldn’t help it too, y/n. You looked like you were fine, I wanted to be too,” his face expression dropped down the cliff, your heart together with it.

“I was no where near fine, but I was the one who let you go,” he couldn’t reply to you, all he did was run his fingers through his strands of hair and held onto it at one point.

You heard someone calling out to him from behind, saving both of you from the moment. Seungmin ran towards Hyunjin, who was trying his best to look fine. When Hyunjin looked towards his friend at the back, you turned around as well. Not wanting to make anything look suspicious, you continued to walk. But before he followed his friend, you heard him shout. To you. In the saddest tone you’ve ever heard from him.

“IF YOU STILL LOVE ME, MEET ME BY THE PARK WHERE WE BROKE UP AT 9 PM,” the confusion got the best of you the moment he walked away and ceased from your vision. You had just convinced yourself that your feelings were no longer there, were you going to take the risk.

You got home exhausted. Your feet aching from the long strolls and ceremony earlier. It was 6, the long needle pointing at 9. The ticking of the clock got you a lot more frustrated.

6:55

7:30

7:50

8:15

8:45

You aggressively pulled out a grey sweater and placed it over your head before opening your bedroom door and slamming it back close. You groaned at your own decision but your feet wouldn’t stop moving.

The park was 5 minutes away from your house, but why did you run and were in fear of being late? You pulled out your phone once you got towards the bench and saw it was only 8:50.

“You came,” you looked towards the voice direction and saw him standing there. With the same grey sweater that you’re wearing. You totally forgot that it was a piece that both of you got together at the local boutique. The street light illuminate the ground and his face. You could make out the tint of red on his cheeks when he realized what you wore.

“I did. I don’t know why either.” You said, standing up.

“I’d like to believe you still love me,” he couldn’t look at you. Afraid of what your face expression would be.

“I don’t know,” his head snapped towards you, “I... I let go of us. The idea of us, the idea of ever being with you again, I moved on from that.”

“What about me? Did you let go off your feelings for me as well?”

“Perhaps I did,” that was all it took for his whole heart to shatter. “But, you still have an effect on me somehow.”

“How’s that?” His voice cracked, together with his heart. Hyunjin never felt this much pain in his life before.

“You.. make me do things,” you began, “for instance, you make me ran all the way from my house, in fear of being late and making you wait, when I have 15 minutes to spare.”

“What else did I make you do?”

“Well um...,” you fiddled with your sleeves, debating whether or not you should expose yourself to transparency, “you make me turn myself into this hardworking, studious student just so I can distract myself from the fact that you’re with her.”

If a broken piece of glass could be mold back together, Hyunjin could feel his heart slowly mending its pieces back together.

“You make me think about all the things I’ve done wrong, all the things I regret doing, one of them being, breaking up with you,” you looked down, “but then I can’t do anything. We were getting more and more toxic for each other and I didn’t want it to reach the point where it’s irreversible.”

“And you, you look great beside her. Both of you were called the power couple and I thought this was what’s right for you,” Hyunjin stood there silently, watching you fidget your fingers and nervously express your thoughts.

“I’m not special in anyway. In a field of roses, I’m just like any other. But her.. she was like a daisy, she stood out, beautifully.” You scratched your head slightly, you couldn’t believe what you just said.

“Hyunjin, I love you. I know I do, I love you now and I’ll love you for a long time, but can we even work out-,” Hyunjin didn’t let you finish your query. He walked closer to you in a hurried manner and placed his hands on your cheeks before crashing his lips onto yours.

The sudden action made you freeze on your tract, but when he didn’t let go, you started to give in. Your feelings that you tried to move on from— more like the ones that you try to bury deep down, was starting to resurface. In fact, it had always been there.

His kiss lasted for what felt like forever. When he finally pulled away, your cheeks couldn’t stop itself from turning a tint of red.

“That’s all I need, y/n. We’ll work this out together as long as you love me and I love you.” You met his eyes, and once again, that’s all you need to fall hard for him all over. “I broke up with Gowon, because I didn’t go to a field of roses to find a daisy. I was looking for a rose to pick, the prettiest one.”

You brought your hand up to your face, covering the red on your cheek. He chuckled at your action, finding it adorable.

“So.. what do you say?” The lack of clearance had you putting down your hand. “Will you be my girlfriend again?”

You looked down and slightly nodded. Hyunjin could feel his insides cheering for him. But all he could do was embrace you into a tight hug. He kissed your hair a few times as you wrapped your hands around his waist.

“I can’t believe you had to broke my heart first,” he said in a sulky tone, “but I love you so much, y/n.”

“I’m sorry for hurting you this much, I honestly don’t deserve you,” he broke the hug and was finally able to see the eyes he love so much, filled with the love you had for him, “but I love you, so much more than that.”

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protectorsofthewood · 5 years

Text

Abby and Wendy - Episode 34

GETTING READY TO GO

After walking back from the pre-school, Abby found Officer Harley chatting with a woman at the churchyard gate. She must have been in her late 60s, with white hair, loose skin under her chin, and a formal wool skirt and jacket that seemed meant for a cooler day and a previous decade. No one else was nearby. Abby knew that Sulay, Phoebe, and Nico would be having lunch with Zoe, so she hadn’t expected them, but wondered what had happened to the crowd of previous days.

“I’m glad to see a quiet day,” she said.

“At last,” returned the officer. “May we have many more!”

Abby was about to walk through the gate when he said, “Abby, I’d like to introduce you to Mary Robinson. We go way back.”

Abby turned and shook her outstretched hand.

“She’s a real old school reporter,” Harley said. “Nothing at all like that pack of wolves we’ve seen the last few days.”

“Now, now, I’m sure they’re not that bad,” Mary said, raising her index finger as if teaching a lesson. “Some of those people are my friends. But I admit that I’ve been hoping to avoid the crowd.”

She turned to Abby. “One of my friends told me you were taking business cards the last couple of days, and I don’t want to miss out. I write about politics for the Fellsburg Star. I know we’re not from the valley, but Fellsburg is still the state capital.”

“I’m happy to take your card. But why are you interested?”

“I cover the governor and the wheeling and dealing in state government, and I like to understand things. I like to know what I’m talking about, but I’ve been making no progress on the Rivergate issue. Why is the governor trying to empty a perfectly decent small town? I paid a visit to Rivergate last Monday. I’d read the Sonny Walker interview in the Evansville Record, and a red light went on in my mind. I’m missing something here. So I went and talked to Sonny Walker myself. I can see he was telling the truth. They actually have adjusted to losing the bridge. There’s no emergency that I can see. But Sonny pretends to have no idea about the governor’s motivations. He actually claimed that the governor is just ill informed! I’m not taken in by that nonsense, and I’m sure Sonny isn’t either. I’m supposed to come up with an article on this subject, but no one will tell me what’s behind this story.”

“Why would you think I know anything about it?” Abby asked. I’ve talked too much for one day, she thought. I’m not getting into it now.

“Let me thank you for your patience. I know people bother you day after day, sometimes in truly frightening ways. But I must tell you, young lady, I do my homework. I know… you know… things that I need to know. I respect you, indeed I do. So I assume you’re doing your best, doing the right thing in awful circumstances. So please keep my card. If you ever want to talk to me I’ll be here in a couple of hours. I still get around. And please hear me when I say that I know things you need to know.” The woman raised her index finger again, looking at Abby with fierce blue eyes. “I would tell you these things straight out because I like you, but I have a job to do. So I’ll trade.”

Abby was unwilling to promise anything. “I appreciate your offer,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”

“Of course,” Mary said. “You’ll have to do your homework to have any trust in me. And you’ll also have to realize that you truly need information. I have that information.”

Abby didn’t know what to say. I might have that information already, but I’m not sure. Can I risk talking to her? Can I risk not talking to her?

“Thank you for the time, my dear. Don’t lose that card. One of these days you’ll need it. Bye now. Thanks for your time.” And Mary walked slowly to a nearby old jeep.

“I can’t believe she has a car like that!” Abby was bewildered.

“She likes to get around in the snow or rain. She was here in the church when the hailstorm hit. You have to take Mary Robinson seriously. She’s helped people get elected, and helped put people in jail. We go way back.”

“I just want to thank you for all your help!” Abby realized that she had underestimated Officer Harley. “And please, this world looks very big and confusing to me. If you ever see that I’m making a mistake, don’t hesitate to tell me.”

“I’ll do that. You’re a nice kid with a lot on your shoulders. You’ve never had a reason to visit our station, but I’m sure you know we’re just down Main Street near Grove Avenue, next to the bank. The chief is always complaining that nobody ever tells him anything. Please stop by. You’ll be doing yourself a favor.”

She thanked him and walked her bike across the lawn to the cottage.

Abby couldn’t sit still. There were too many things to think about, so she got out the hoe and started in on the weeds. It was a job she didn’t like to do, because she had a weak spot for the weeds. In her opinion, weeds were perfectly good plants that nobody appreciates because they don’t understand them. This actually was Wendy’s firmly held view of the whole situation. The difference between Abby and her godmother was that Wendy knew the virtues of hundreds of wild plants, while Abby knew the virtues of only a few.

But people in this town expect an orderly churchyard,she thought for the hundredth time. They will take it out on Tuck and me if this place looks shabby to them. And I need something to do or I’ll worry myself into a panic.

So she started in on the pigweed, the galinsoga, and the mugwort growing between the rows of marigolds and snapdragons near the front fence. This was exactly the area that a pedestrian would notice.

Wendy told me galinsoga is called ‘quickweed’ because it will go to seed five times between May and September. It’s true, but I still like the plants, so vulnerable with those tiny white flowers, so easy to uproot. But you turn around and they are back again. Everything dies and is reborn. Kayla isn’t ready to think about that. I take it for granted. I assume it’s obvious, but of course it isn’t. So I put my foot in it, put the weight of this strange universe on that poor girl’s shoulders. What an idiot I am!

She moved on to the vegetable garden, and picked the last of the ripe vegetables. Abby knew perfectly well that she was starving. No breakfast, no lunch. She was losing weight in this stressful time. But she refused to go to Scutter’s, or up to Fred Peterson’s roadside market, or even to Sammy’s Coffee Shop.

I’m getting paranoid. I’ve got to get out of town.

She simmered another vegetable stew, ate the last of the cheese left from two weeks ago, and swallowed a lemon cuke from the garden. Feeling a little better, she lay down.

It’s already 3:30. I meet Lluvia by 5! What am I going to bring? A few extra clothes… a jacket… a hat… a toothbrush. And I actually have money! That’s all I can think of. Be back here by Sunday. They’ll probably break into this place again. Thank God my seeds are still with Jeremy and Reverend Tuck, and my papers and dreamstone charm with Phoebe. I’ll carry my notebook of new songs with me, even though no one could possibly care. And of course Lluvia’s note will always be on me.

Abby began to dream of the river. She could see it going by, and feel the boat rocking on the waters and the excitement of being swept along. She just went with it, and suddenly saw Lluvia’s face.

Abby sat bolt upright. Her timer read 4:15. Just enough time to take a shower and pack a few things. By 4:25 she was ready to go, and paced the room for ten minutes, saying a prayer. Then she slipped out the back window into the late afternoon sun. Around behind the apple trees she crept, through the wild area, and up under the scaffolding to the alley opening onto Old Stone Road. It was 4:46. She stood near the wrought iron door in silence, looking for Sulay or Nico. Nothing moved on Old Stone Road.

At 4:50 she unlocked the door and stepped through, locked it behind her, and crossed the street. She didn’t hurry. She didn’t look around. Stable Lane, the alley behind the backyards of the toy store and the coffee shop, was deserted. It was too early for soccer. People were eating sandwiches at tables behind the coffee shop. Phoebe was nowhere to be seen. Abby didn’t stop, but took a quick left through the open lawn between two apartment buildings. She crossed Marie Place, and disappeared into the trees next to an enormous run-down old house. Bending to the right, she slipped into the trees near the Main Street Bridge, and went on through the willow trees bordering the river.

Cemetery Bridge loomed ahead, showing the dark water running through a wide stone arch. The water was lower than usual. Abby hugged the edge of the river and crept under the bridge, sloshing through knee high water. A muddy bank appeared just ahead, screened by trees, with a few gravestones visible at a distance. It was a perfect spot for a small boat to secretly come ashore.

Abby waited impatiently. It was 5:02. Come on, Lluvia! Come on, Phoebe! The minutes seemed like hours. In a few seconds a canoe appeared out of the shadows, turned sharply, and slid up the muddy bank. Lluvia jumped out and pulled the side of the boat up the bank. She held the boat there as Abby embraced her, kissing her on the cheek, and mumbling, “Oh this is so wonderful!”

She looks so young, Abby thought, but she was a grade ahead of me. Lluvia’s black hair glistened. Her copper skin was chapped by the wind and sun.

“What fun!” exclaimed Lluvia. “Jump in.”

“But Phoebe’s supposed to be here. Oh, I don’t know what to do… where could she be?”

And suddenly Phoebe waded out from under the bridge and said in a whisper, “You’re still here. I’m so happy… let’s go.”

#Environmentalism #ecofiction #teenagers #green energy #novels #protectorsofthewood #climate change is REAL #climate change #protectorsofthewoodband #book reading #live music #Teenagers #graphic novels #environment #Young Adult Novels

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neoblogcrying · 5 years

Text

Transmigrator!Binghe pt.7

Phew, I finally got this up! I honestly was going to try to complete this entire arc with this chapter but I was almost at 4000 words... so I decided to stop here. I’ll finish with the next chapter! Inspiration came from Pizziccato’s ask/answer [x] . Some dialogue was taken/improvised from BC’s translation found: [x]

I’ve have you know that I’ve successfully ascertained that it was indeed anxiety that was making my heart beat erratically in my chest. Ever since Shizun smiled, he’s been frowning ever since.

Was it because he saw my face that I ruined his mood? I remained in the corner, trembling slightly in fear that he would start torturing me any moment. I could feel my muscles tensing with every movement he made, making this way more exhausting than anything else.

At this rate, I’d much rather get out there and walk the rest of the way, but I’m sure Shizun won’t let me. Even if he did… Ning Yingying would likely hold a fit, and then I’d be forced back into the carriage to save Shizun face.

Black lines appeared on my face as I thought about this more than likely scenario.

I could only impatiently wait for what was to come (or not come). Every bump on the road would spike my anxiety in fear that it would make Shizun remember about my existence. My heart came close to stopping multiple times during this this travel period.

I’m such a pitiful protagonist, aren’t I? I know, I feel bad for me too.

With every movement from Shizun driving my anxiety to a peak, I closed my eyes shut tightly and tried to focus on anything else. Contemplate on things like… what I could do to reduce my affection points with Ning Yingying. Who my future lover was supposed to be (because face it, I don’t plan on failing), and whether the system was going to continue trolling me like this?

There had to be a loophole that I could take advantage of.

Maybe it’s because I kept thinking myself into circles, time passed faster than I thought.

Shuang Hu City wasn’t large, but you could say that it was bustling with activity. We met with the man who was pleading for help from the Cang Qiong Mountain sect, Old Master Chen. Apparently, two of his concubines died under the ‘Skinner’s’ hands.

“You cultivators must make a decision for us! I don’t dare let Butterfly leave my side, for fear that she’ll lose her way and be killed by that unnatural creature that very day!” The old man mournfully groaned, with tears dripping down his face. I understand that things are different here, but this is too jarring for me, who is from the modern era.

He’s not called ‘Old Man Chen’ for nothing, you know? He’s 60 years old and this concubine he’s fondling is probably a teenager by the looks of things! I was screaming in my head internally, hoping to call child services on him, but that doesn’t exist in this world.

I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep me from saying anything uncouth. This wasn’t my world and thus I had to adapt to their customs, no matter how much I didn’t want to.

Shizun, being the lofty expert, he was, coldly turned around and left. Ming Fan was left behind to greet the Old Master and go over some of the details with. This was the usual, so none of the disciples were surprised by it. It was one of those things, you know? It made you want to admire him.

We all dispersed, and I was thinking about what to do about this. It was weird that I hadn’t gotten a mission from the System yet, but I knew it was stupid of me to think positively now. It was only a matter of time before the system gave me the order to do something to progress the plot—unless…?

Hey, was this scene written in the original series?

[System: Answer, this scene was not written in the original series. This is a background story that the readers have no knowledge of.]

If that’s so… why do you still deduct OOC points from me if I act coldly towards Ning Yingying? Shouldn’t I be able to get away with it? --- That is what I wanted to ask, but I knew the answer to that even without asking it.

Even if I let loose because this wasn’t a part of the original story, it could still be referred to later. If I were to act differently, it raises the chances that this will be referred to in passing. A confusing narrative wouldn’t do anyone in this story any good.

I shook my head in dismay at the thought.

“No good? How about I ask Shizun first? I’m sure he’ll agree!”

I heard Ning Yingying’s voice beside me and I whipped my head to the side to see that she already ran off to find Shizun’s room. W-what was she saying just now? I was lost in my thoughts and I wasn’t listening. SHIT!

WAIT. NING YINGYING, COME BACK! Don’t do something that will put me in trouble with Shizun! I quickly followed after her, but she made it to Shizun’s door before I could bring her back.

“Shizun, Ying-er wants to go out for a turn in the market. Does Shizun wish to join me?” She asked him politely. My steps came to a steady halt and I let out a sigh of relief, fists unclenching, and shoulders relaxing. Luckily, she didn’t say anything that would trigger my death flag.

“If Ying-er wants to go out for a turn, go and find some of your apprentice-brothers to accompany you. This master still has things to do before we face the Skinner.”

Ning Yingying turned her head and flashed a playful smile and with light steps, she trotted over to my side. “Join me, A-Luo. Why don’t we look at the market together? We can see who else wishes to join us.” She grabbed my arm and tugged me along.

As I expected, my arm tensed up upon being touched. This wasn’t because I was nervous or anything like that, but I didn’t feel comfortable having this level of closeness with a girl. I’m a gay man, after all.

We didn’t bother to ask Ming Fan, because he was busy. He was probably doing most of the legwork for Shizun, so he wouldn’t have the time to check the market with us—luckily for me.

Speaking of Shizun, I personally think that he’s such a scummy character. For what reason did you have to hate me from the very get go? What did I ever do to you? He’s an authoritative figure, but he lets the other disciples bully me, and he sometimes joins in himself! Trashy.

That said, I was secretly excited to see what he would make of this Skinner. If I was right, this was probably the work of a demon, if I had to guess how a novel would progress. It’s not often you get to see a Master showing off his finesse and skills! Not only that, our Shizun had good looks! (Let’s ignore the fact that he’d probably come second to me once I grow up.)

What? I may think he’s trashy, but I won’t deny a good-looking man when I see one.

Walking side by side, we checked the market, looking at everything they had for sale. So many trinkets and food lined the market stalls and I looked on with amazement. I could only look on from afar when I was younger because of how poor me and my mother were.

Ah.

My hand unconsciously reached for my chest to grasp at nothing. Right, I don’t have my pendant anymore.

I’ve been dragged here and there to different stores and stalls by her already and even my saintly patience was coming to an end. Just as I was about to say something, Ning Yingying gasped aloud.

“Look! That looks so cute!” Ning Yingying let go of my arm in her excitement and she rushed to a store that sold accessories. It caught her attention and she was enthusiastically looking over the trinkets with a serious eye. “This one, isn’t it cute?” She pointed to a purple butterfly hairclip.

“I believe we should return soon. The day is getting late and surely the others will worry if we tarry much longer.”

She pouted in response, looking miffed. What? It’s true, so why are you upset?

[System: Ning Yingying feels slighted by Luo Binghe’s lack of interest in her appeal attempt. -10 affection points.]

Nice! Keep it up and she’ll move onto someone else, like Ming Fan. Then, he’ll hate me less, that jealous bigot! Still, 10 points is too little, but I’ve been burned enough to know that I should be grateful with whatever I can get.

“Hmph! No way! I want to stay out longer! If you want to go back so soon, catch me and drag me back!” She complained and ran off.

W-what a willful girl! Did your brain turn off? Have you forgotten that the Skinner is out there and it only attacks young girls like yourself!?

[System: Ning Yingying’s thoughtless action impedes her intelligence growth factor. -30 points.]

Whatever, I’ll deal with that later! I hastily gave chase and as soon as I turned the bend—she… she disappeared! How is that possible? She can’t just up and vanish into thin air! My heart beat quickly in fear. She’s gone. She’s really missing!

My feet hit the ground faster, and I could feel the ground shifting underneath my feet as I ran up and down the street, looking for her. I kept repeatedly calling her name, but no response! This isn’t good, this is really bad! She’s gone! Was she kidnapped in broad daylight? Did the Skinner capture her?

There’s no other way about it than to ask Shizun for help! I’ll accept my punishment later! She’s an important character in the progression of the story, so we can’t lose her yet, and I let her run off like an idiot!

I ran as quickly as I could (which is quite fast, might I add. As expected from my Protagonist stats), and I burst through the door. “Shizun!”

Inside was both Shizun and Ming Fan. He must have been giving Shizun the results of his research.

Shizun kept his cold visage even with me appearing so suddenly unannounced. “What is the matter for you to shout so loudly and be in such a panic?” He’s really got a face of ice.

I mentally shook my head of useless thoughts.

“Apprentice-sister Ning Yingying and this disciple went outside during the day to the market. I urged her to come back, but he refused. She ran off and I gave chase, but after she turned a corner, she disappeared. This disciple searched the entire street but couldn’t find her. I fear she may have been taken. I came back to ask for Shizun’s help. I will accept any punishment Shizun gives me as long as we can return her safely!” I solemnly pleaded for him to help Ning Yingying.

As much as I found her constant stickiness to be annoying as I didn’t return her affections, I didn’t hate her. She may be an idiot, and she may be overly sticky, but she had a good heart. Out of everyone on this peak, she treated me the best, and she only wanted the best for her. You could say she was my only friend on this peak, and I’d hate for her to die in some unnatural way.

“Luo Binghe! You…” Ming Fan seethed, but he couldn’t finish his sentence when an elegant motion from Shizun stole both our attention. Shizun’s sleeve waved, exploding the teacup that was sitting on the writing desk.

My entire body broke into shivers and I felt weak at the knees. Today is the day I die, but please, at least let me see that Ning Yingying is safe! I avoided my gaze to stare at the ground, wanting to escape from the anger that was emanating from Shizun’s face.

“Since things have already happened, there is no longer any use for words. Luo Binghe, you’ll be coming with me. Ming Fan, you bring your fellow apprentice-brothers to ask the Chen Family for their assistance in searching for your apprentice-sister. We will return her safely.” He spoke so resolutely with a commanding voice.

I dare not think he added the last part to soothe my panicked feelings. I knew that Shizun had a particular care for the apprentice-sisters, so that had to be his consideration of not wishing to lose a ‘flower’ of his peak.

My head continued to hang low as I dreaded the worst. I am quite used to receiving a beating, and as much as the system told me I had a Golden Halo that protected my life, I truly didn’t believe I could live to see another day because of how I lost Ning Yingying.

“This matter is all of this disciple’s fault. If Shizun wishes to punish me, this disciple has no regrets. This disciple only wishes to be able to help find apprentice-sister Ning Yingying and bring her back safely. Afterwards, even my life can be given to Shizun.”

Please… please let me see her safe. Aside from my mother, she’s the only one who treated me with genuine kindness. It’s such a shame, if I was straight, I’m sure I would have held feelings for her… but I’m gay. I just can’t see her that way, no matter how hard I could try. Keyword being ‘could’ because there’s no way I would try.

I know my preferences very well, thank you.

“Come over. Bring me to the last place you’ve seen your apprentice-sister.” Shizun’s cold voice spoke and I nodded my head slowly, hastily moving out the door to lead the way. The quicker I lead the way, the sooner we can find Ning Yingying!

I stopped when I reached the location I lost her, and I turned to Shizun to see he stood there with his eyes closed. I didn’t know what he was doing, but I could only guess he was trying to feel for any traces of anything suspicious—like evil energy.

Slowly he started walking with his eyes still closed and I trotted after him like a duckling, with anticipation growing in my chest. Ning Yingying, just wait! We’ll come and save you!

With every step we took, my confidence in finding her grew—until we stopped at a rouge shop.

“…”

A rouge shop?

“Could it be that the murderer isn’t hidden in this shop, but that they’ve visited this establishment before? Entering a rouge shop… a woman?” I heard Shizun murmur to himself.

An idea hit me.

Hey, system. Since this scene isn’t shown to the readers, it won’t be an issue to change some things, right?

[System: That is correct. As long as the changes are reasonable, the system will not punish the protagonist. What do you seek to change?]

I bit at my lower lip as I thought about this. I’m sure this mystery was going to be more contrived than I was willing to waste my time on.

Is it possible to make this mystery easier to solve?

[System: It is possible. Will you like to pay 100 points to activate Easy mode?]

YES!

After a couple of seconds, we could feel a strong evil energy! It raised goosebumps all along my back.

H-hey, isn’t that too much? That’s way too easy. That’s like kindergarten level easy.

We both proceeded towards the evil energy, and after about 500 steps, the path we were following deviated sharply from the city area and then we arrived at an abandoned and deserted house.

There is a pale lantern of the poor, dilapidated front date. It’s a haunted house, for sure. Something that you can find demons in.

See? I called it. The skinner had to be a demon. Shizun turned towards me who had been following him silently up until this point. I was hoping that if I avoided his attention, he wouldn’t send me away, but it seems like he finally remembered about my existence.

“Return to the Chen estate. Contact Ming Fan and tell him to bring all the sutras with him and lead all your apprentice-brothers to come here together.” He gave this order.

I was about to answer, but I saw an ominous shadow appear from behind Shizun. IT’S THE SKINNER! The only reaction I was able to make was the shrinking of my pupils and recognizing that my heart skipped a beat.

A gust of yin wind blew and the front gates slammed open. The Skinner attacked Shizun! That’s the last thing I saw before I too, was knocked out.

“A-Luo… A-Luo, wake up. You’re … -ring me. Are you okay?” A whimpering voice beside my ear sounded, but it kept cutting out as I was struggling to keep my focus together.

I recognize that voice! I shook the sleep away from my head and—NING YINGYING! She’s still alive! Thank goodness! I almost wanted to cry—but no good protagonist cries so easily.

My tears aren’t cheap.

“You’re awake! Thank goodness! I was so worried you’d never open your eyes again! Now… there’s… only…” Ning Yingying’s once ecstatic reaction turned very timid and flustered. That wasn’t a reaction I was familiar with.

Following her line of eyesight, I saw--!!!! THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE SIGHT!

SHIZUN. WAS. STRIPPED. BARE!

SHIT, HE’S AWAKE!

In my panic, I turned to look away, flushing a deep red.

I’M GOING TO DIE, I’M GOING TO DIE! HE’S GOING TO MURDER ME IN COLD BLOOD. HE WILL RID OF ANY AND ALL EVIDENCE OF THIS BLACK STAIN ON HIS REPUTATION!

AH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FUCK YOU, YOU SHITTY-ASS SYSTEM!

EASY MODE, MY ASS! WHAT USE IS AN EASY MODE IF IT RESULTS IN TRIGGERING MY DEATH FLAG!?

I quickly turned my gaze away from Shizun who was still unconscious.

“I feel so bad for Shizun…” Ning Yingying whispered quietly under her breath.

Feel bad for Shizun? Feel bad for ourselves! He’ll kill us to keep his honor intact, I’m sure of it! You’re such an idiot, Ning Yingying!

Shizun was tied up with his top half stripped bare. He still had his pants and his boots on, thank goodness.

No, I won’t admit that I took the time to admire his pristine white skin.

“Shizun, you’ve finally woken up. Yingying is very scared…” She whimpered pathetically. Is this… a ploy to trigger his protective feelings towards you?

[System: Ning Yingying has chosen to summon tears to curb Shen Qingqiu’s anger. +20 crafty points]

What a sly fox! Good job, Ning Yingying! Honestly, I’m in awe.

A burst of weird laughter came from behind Shizun.

“Cang Qiong Mountain Sect’s great and lofty expert is nothing great, it seems. The world’s number one big sect, the Cang Qiong Mountain sect is only at this standard. This means the Demon Realm’s rise is just around the corner.” The voice from before burst into loud laughter once more.

The person was covered entirely in black veils, with a coarse voice that was unpleasant to hear.

“The Skinner?”

“Hehe~ The famous Xiu Ya sword has fallen into my hands, I’m so happy! Shen Qingqiu, oh Shen Qingqiu, even if you break open your head, you won’t be able to guess who I am!” This demon seemed so sure of themselves, even I could guess who they were. Even without the use of the easy mode.

“What’s so hard to guess?”

“…”

“You are Butterfly.”

I nodded my head in tandem to his conjecture. As expected from the intelligent Shizun. You’ve come to the right conclusion. Let’s ignore the Ning Yingying who is looking very confused next to me.

“Impossible! How could you guess my identity correctly!” She cast aside the black veils and demanded to know irritably. How couldn’t you know?

Even if I don’t care for women, I’m not blind enough to not tell you are a woman by your silhouette. Look at the décor of this place. This isn’t something you can find in any random place. If we’re going by classic novel tropes, the culprit is always who you least suspect—the next ‘victim’ to be. Knowing that this world is a part of a novel made it easy to guess that it had to be you.

I’m not sure what information Shizun had, but I’m sure his reasoning is unfathomable to the rest of us, and he deemed us too unworthy to impart his great wisdom, so he didn’t open his mouth.

Butterfly gave up on waiting. “The Skinner is untraceable not because I have an exceedingly high ability, but it’s because I always switched skins after killing someone. By wearing the skins of those women and imitating their behavior, I was able to pass unnoticed in the confusion of the search for the next target.”

“That’s wrong.”

Huh? What’s wrong, Shizun?

“Where is it wrong?”

“Even if you switched skins after you killed someone every time, for example, after killing butterfly—you don her skin, you become ‘Butterfly’ but there is still her skinned body left over. Won’t someone find it strange if there are two?”

!!!

He couldn’t be referring to DNA analysis, could he? I thought of it myself, so maybe that’s why I’m so sensitive to his words… but…it couldn’t be?

Call me crazy, but… Shizun shouldn’t be able to have his mindset, right? For me, someone from the modern era, we have such a thing as DNA analysis, but the Shizun of this world shouldn’t have knowledge of such a thing, right?

It’s possible he has some magical method as a peak lord… but this is too weird. If I’ve transmigrated into the novel, what’s to say another person couldn’t migrate over as well?

Let me guess, you won’t let me know?

[System: Correct. The system cannot let you know if another person is a transmigrator like yourself.]

Figures.

It’s not a problem if I figure it out on my own right? Will you stop me from testing him?

[System: The system has no power to stop you from making your own conjectures about Shen Qingqiu.]

Perfect.

If he’s another transmigrator like me, maybe we can come to an understanding. If he’s another transmigrator, I can tell him, right?

[System: Answer, that is false. You are the protagonist and the readers are following your moves constantly. Any scene you are with Shen Qingqiu are regarded with high importance due to the bullying aspect. Therefore, you will be unable to tell Shen Qingqiu without letting the readers know of the truth. IF you found Shen Qinqiu to be another transmigrator, you must keep your silence.]

You really like to kick me down, don’t you? Just when I thought I found myself an ally, you kick me down.

A/N: Fufu yes, both of them asked for Easy mode, which means it’s SUPER EASY MODE. lol

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#scum villain #SVSSS #Scum Villain's Self-saving system #Neo Writes Drabbles #Binghemigrator!au #((Phew this one was pretty long. I really wanted to finish it but after almost 4000 words... I was like nope))#((I figured this was a good place to stop 8| ))#((Hope you enjoy if you read this!))

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zrtranscripts · 3 years

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Home Front, Mission 3: Hope Is An Axe

The Sound of Hope

JANINE DE LUCA: Abel Township runners, this is Janine De Luca broadcasting from Abel Township. The horde continues to surround us on all sides and there is no route of escape at this time. You must take shelter and remain in a place of safety until you receive further instructions. However long this situation continues, I will do whatever I can to support your physical and mental well-being throughout this difficult time. And so, with that in mind, we will continue with ministry-approved indoor workouts designed to maintain and even improve your condition while you are unable to serve in the field.

Begin your warm-up now. Jogging on the spot, star jumps, or dancing. Anything that gets your muscles warm and your blood moving. And to assist you, I have here an audio cassette distributed by the Ministry of Recovery to accompany your exercises. I'm sure you're looking forward to hearing this carefully curated and enriching selection of music every bit as much as I am.

[cassette clicks into tape player]

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: Very good, runners. I'm sure you found that musical selection as... educational as I did. By now, you should be feeling warm and limber. Ready, I trust, to raise a really good sweat. Today we will begin with the step ups which I'm sure you recall from Mr. Yao's broadcast.

To recap, you will need to position yourself by the bottom stair of your home or beside a sturdy box that can support your weight. The box must be heavy and very stable, nothing that can overbalance. Now simply step onto the step, then off it. Simple. If you have neither box nor step, you may raise yourself up on tiptoes slowly, holding as long as you are able, then lower your heels to the ground under full control, rest for a moment, and begin again. If you find this too easy, you may perform your tiptoe raises standing on one leg.

Attempt a 60 second session beginning [winds timer] now. [timer ticks] This exercise will build the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. Very useful for explosive bursts of speed while being chased by the walking dead. Very good, runners. That's halfway to completing your first set. Remember, if you feel sharp pain, stop immediately. Well done. Now change to the other leg. Remember to keep looking up. There are no crawlers under your feet, I hope. 15 seconds to go. Last few repetitions on this side, runners. Really make them count. Five, four, three, two, one, [timer rings and stops ticking] and rest.

Well done, runners. Take a moment or two to recover and I'll play the next track. Keep moving while the music plays. You don't want to stiffen up. There's plenty still to do. If you like, you can continue with your step ups, gently stretch out the thigh muscles, or go back to your warm-up exercises while the music plays.

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: I must confess, I was expecting rather more Elgar from the ministry and less... whatever that song was. Nonetheless, we shall now move on to incline press-ups.

Begin by taking a press-up position with your hands on the second or third step of your stairs with your fingers pointing forwards, your back straight, and your hands shoulder-width apart. Bend your arms at the elbow to lower your body until your chest is close to the floor. Hold that position for a slow count of two, then return to your starting position. It is perfectly acceptable to put your knees on the ground instead of your toes. The important thing is that your back remains straight and your form perfect at all times. If you're well-versed in this exercise, feel free to do your press-ups on the flat or even reverse the incline for a more intense workout.

Once again, we shall repeat this exercise for one minute, beginning now. [timer ticks] This exercise reminds me of being locked down in the first days of the outbreak, linked to the outside world only by an old wind-up radio. 15 seconds, runners. I used to perform this exercise while listening to the World Service. One of the announcers, Annabelle McKind, had such a comforting voice. Halfway. Remember, if you're finding this too much of a challenge, you can put your knees on the ground as long as you keep your back straight. 15 seconds to go now, runners. That's excellent. Remember to breathe. There's no need for anyone to faint from holding their breath. Five seconds. Four, three, two, one, [timer rings and stops ticking] and rest.

Well done. You should be feeling that in your shoulders and upper arms. I shall play the next piece of music while you recover, then return to the warm-up exercise or continue your press-ups if you feel strong enough.

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: I really am finding it hard to believe that this is the Ministry's idea of appropriate music to which to exercise. Let me check the cassette box again. “The Ministry of Recovery: music to inspire and energize in a time of crisis.” Well, far be it from me to criticize. One must assume they have selected these pieces of music for a reason. Very well, we shall continue with bodyweight squats.

Stand upright, arms by your sides and feet hip-width apart. Now bend your legs as though you are sitting on an invisible chair, keeping your knees above your feet and your bottom sticking out, then stand up again. You can put a hand on the wall to support yourself if you find it easier, and do ensure the floor beneath you is sturdy and intact. The last thing I want is to hear tales of runners plummeting through rotten floorboards into zombie-infested basements.

Now on my mark, begin. [timer ticks] Don't worry about speed in this exercise. It's more important to use your muscles to support you in slowly going into as deep a squat as possible for you. That's 15 seconds. If you like, you can put your hands on your head or stretch them upwards as you squat. Only 30 seconds to go. Even if you've only managed this much, you're doing well. What's important is to move a little more every day if you can. Almost finished, runners. Just imagine how good using these muscles to sprint away from zombies will feel. Five, four, three, two, one [timer rings and stops ticking] and relax. Take a moment to stretch out those hard-working legs before we start to move again.

I was just thinking of that little wind-up radio and how important it was to all of us back then. We knew that as long as the BBC was still broadcasting, life as we knew it went on. I felt I could detect in Annabelle McKind’s tones the sound of hope, that if she could still speak so calmly, then the world could be rebuilt.

And then one night, we tuned in and there was only static. It was difficult not to despair then, when we realized that the world would never again be as it was. I didn't imagine then that there could be a good future ahead of us, but Abel Township has become a new community for so many of us and the radio still connects us. That voice in the dark that reminds us though we may be apart, we are not alone, not really.

We will bring you home, runners, just as soon as we can. Now I think it's time for some music. Continue with your squats, or do some jogging on the spot or star jumps or dance, or simply rest and let your muscles recover, and I shall return shortly.

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: Good work, runners. You've done very well. Just one final effort and you can rest. Our final exercise is the plank. Simple and rewarding. First lie on your front - again, please ensure the ground beneath you is solid - with your elbows pushed into your ribs, forearms on the floor, and your toes tucked under you. Lift up so that your weight is resting on your forearms and your toes and your body is perfectly horizontal. Now assume and hold that position for as long as you feel able to without straining yourself. If you need to, rest on your knees for a few seconds and then return to the plank position.

I believe it was Runner Eight who introduced me to the merits of this exercise for core strength. I remember she used to say, "Hope isn't some wishy-washy bluebird. It's an axe, something you can use to break down a door and stave in a zombie skull, but an axe is no use if you haven't got the strength to wield it." Oh, that's 30 seconds, runners. Well done. If you feel able, continue to hold the plank for as long as you can, or return to your star jumps, jogging, and dancing one final time.

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: Really, there must have been some mistake. I simply cannot believe that this music has been selected by the Ministry - wait just a moment. I shall check the cassette itself. [cassette rattles] What on earth? Hmm. Yes, it may have started life as a Ministry release, but I note with interest that sticky tape has been placed over the write-protect notch! Someone has recorded over the official Ministry tape. [paper rustles] And it would appear that the culprit left this slip of paper inside the case!

[paper rustles]

“To my disco bear, these are a few songs that remind me of our first unforgettable night in Abel. Yours always, Eugene.” Well, Mr. Holden, if you can hear this, I shall keep this tape until you come home to collect it. I suppose I should be chastising you for defacing official Ministry materials in a time of crisis, but when so much thought has gone into this musical selection, such evident care, I... well, I never was all that fond of Elgar anyway. Let's say no more about it, shall we?

And runners, it's time to cool down. Move your body gently to the music and gradually stretch out those tired muscles. And yes, I do believe that there's one more song on this tape. Mr. Woods, Mr. Holden, this song is for you. I hope you're listening.

[cassette clicks into tape player, button clicks]

[tape player button clicks]

JANINE DE LUCA: Well done, runners. Take a well-deserved rest. You should be proud of your hard work today. Remember, this separation we must endure will one day come to an end and on that day, I will be waiting at the gates of Abel to shake every one of you by the hand.

You know, it is an odd thing, thinking back to those long nights in the basement listening to the World Service. I corresponded a few months ago with Annabelle McKind across Rofflenet. She runs a local radio station in the Lagos Enclave now. I was able to tell her what an inspiration her voice had been to me, and she was kind enough to say that she had read my preparedness papers and found them useful. Can there be higher praise?

She reminded me of the words of the writer Rebecca Solnit, to whose work I return again and again when the world seems a cruel and lightless place. "To hope is to give yourself to the future, and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.” This is Janine De Luca broadcasting from Abel Township, signing off.

#zombies run #zr home front #zrhf3 #hope is an axe #zr transcript

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gregkatepetegowest · 3 years

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The Beginning of the End - Yellowstone

Alert: This is going to be a long one. I am going to try to include lots of detail so when someone asks me about what to do in Yellowstone I can just send them here.

Our drive from Idaho Falls to The Yellowstone River Motel was just under three hours with 1.5 of those hours driving through the park. We lucked out with the weather that day as it was in the low 60’s and overcast (perfect weather for safely leaving Greg in the car for a few minutes). Once we realized we would be driving through the park for 1.5 hours regardless we decided to make some stops so we would have less to cram into the next two days. We stopped off at numerous hot springs and geysers with the highlight for me being Artist Paint Pots. “Paint Pots” are basically little geysers that have heated the rock up enough to melt it and turn it into a mud/clay like substance. They bubble and shoot this mud/clay substance into the air. It’s mildly addicting to watch. After we had our fill of hot springs and geysers for the day, we continued north to the park exit. A few miles before the park exit, we hit a ton of traffic. Someone told me before our visit that if there are traffic jams and cars pulled over, to keep your eyes peeled. Since we were Yellowstone rookies we almost kept driving (also because Pete was stressing about work), but, at the last second, I saw a spot to pull off so we did. We got out of the car and tried to act like we knew what everyone was staring at. Then we saw it! A little chunky black bear rummaging around in the bushes below us. We watched the bear do bear things for a while and then hit the road, feeling lucky we had seen a bear so soon into our time in Yellowstone. The lucky feeling was still fresh when Pete spotted another bear, potentially a small grizzly, running along a ridgeline a half mile before the park exit (and very close to town).

Initially, I really wanted to stay in West Yellowstone. The road throughout the park is set up like a figure eight and the West Yellowstone park entrance is the most central. If you stay in West Yellowstone, you can essentially see/do all the major sites/hikes without ever having to backtrack driving wise. Of course, because I waited so long to book accommodations (and because we had a dog with us) there were no available accommodations in West Yellowstone, or really ANYWHERE. Planning Yellowstone was probably the biggest trip stressor for me once I realized we might be staying 40+ minutes away from a park entrance. Through extensive internet searching, I found the Yellowstone River Motel, which is located in Gardiner, MT. The only way to make reservations is to call them (CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE) and I truly think that’s the only reason I ended up securing a room. The motel was awesome. Dated, but clean and steps away from the north park entrance. The motel was also right on the Yellowstone River and had an amazing patio/yard space with grills, picnic tables, chairs, etc. Highly recommend staying here if you want to save a few dollars and stay right outside the park. Also, no sales tax in MT so win win.

After five or six stops in the park on our way to the motel, we arrived around 5 pm. Pete had an angry client so he needed to send a tax return out so this man-child would stop sending him angry emails. Most restaurants in Gardiner that were within walking distance closed at 8 pm on week nights so we had very limited food options since Pete didn’t wrap up work until 7:30 pm or so. We discovered the Iron Horse Saloon was open later and a short walk from us so we headed there. The bar/restaurant was right on the Yellowstone River and had a huge deck overlooking the river. We had to wait to be seated so we got a drink and stared at the river, which was lovely. The food was decent and cheap and we are easy to please. Pete got an elk burger because when in Rome! I would recommend this place if you are visiting Yellowstone/staying in Gardiner. No other establishment offers river views like Iron Horse. After dinner, we got right into bed because the plan was to get up EARLY and head to Lamar Valley in hopes of seeing some wildlife. Lamar Valley is where a lot of bison hang out which brings the bears, wolves, coyotes, etc.

Our alarm was set for 4:50 am and sunrise was at 5:30 am. This is where we went wrong. Lamar Valley was an hour drive from us and we should have planned to be there at 5:30/5:45 am. Seems crazy but that truly gives you the best chance to see some action. Alas, we were up walking Greg by 5:20 am or so. I was on high alert for bears and elk. The elk are EVERYWHERE in Gardiner and they are used to people but they will be aggressive if they feel threatened. My worry is always Greg acting a fool and causing an animal to come after us. Luckily, we mostly saw elk from afar on this walk. However, we were walking down a little bank towards the river when Pete pointed out a tiny deer on the hillside. I assured him it was fake because it was so still and looked exactly like those fake deer people set up in their yards to use for target practice. We continued on and when we looped back Pete pointed to the fake deer who hadn’t moved at all with the exception of it’s head so it could watch us. Long story short, the deer wasn’t fake and luckily it was a doe so she just stood like a statue and waited for us to leave her alone. From here, we dropped Greg off and headed to Lamar Valley.

The drive through the park at this early hour was a breeze. I cannot stress enough, especially in Yellowstone, that the earlier you make it into the park the better. We were in the valley by 7 am. Lamar Valley is gorgeous and this was both Pete and I’s favorite part of Yellowstone. You are away from the crowds and it’s quiet and peaceful (if you’re there early or late). Upon arriving to the valley, we realized we were idiots because we didn’t have binoculars. Literally every single other people/couple we saw had binoculars. UGH! Regardless, we had a wonderful morning despite only seeing bison. We left around 9 am to get back to take Greg out before horseback riding at 11 am.

We arrived to Hell’s- A-Roarin’ ranch just before 11 am after driving 10 miles up an unpaved mountain road. We had scheduled a two-hour ride around the mountain. We waited around a bit before getting on our horses. Pete was assigned Jimmy and I was assigned Pet. We started out and three minutes into the ride, Jimmy was kicked by another jerk horse, which of course caused him to jump sideways. Pedro handled it like the true cowboy he is, but I wondered how the next hour and fifty seven minutes would go. Two minutes after this incident, one of the guides/fake cowboys gives me the heads up that Pet was very bad on a ride earlier and “needs her space” or she’ll kick. Oh great. So now I have one hour and fifty four minutes to worry about Pet kicking another horse and potentially causing someone else to fall off/get hurt. We trudged onward and I warned anyone around me to stay back from Pet’s booty or else. Luckily, she did give signals when she was getting angry and, because I grew up riding horses, I could read these signals. Halfway through the ride I decided it was best for mine and Pet’s anxieties if we moved into the caboose position so that’s what we did and we had no incidents, thankfully!

Back to Pete and Jimmy… I really didn’t see Pete much during the ride. On trail rides, the horses typically have “friends” who they like to walk near so you are supposed to let them choose their marching order. I’ll let Pete step in here to give you the 4-1-1 on Jimmy’s overall disposition:

Jimmy is a stubborn and tired old horse. He only has one speed and it’s just slightly faster than the horses in front of him. Despite my continuous pulls on his reigns, he refused to give the other horses their space, preferring to ride up on their hind sides until his nose was nearly touching their rears. He would slow down momentarily and in a matter of seconds we would be back where we started. We spent time near the front of the pack, at the back of the pack, and eventually ended up somewhere in the middle. Jimmy didn’t seem to have any “friends” and couldn’t seem to find his place in the marching order. He mostly followed my lead, but I could tell he didn’t care much for me.

Throughout the ride, the guides/cowboys chatted us up. They were both super young (17 and 22) and lived on the ranch. They all bunked up in a basement together similar to the depiction in Paramount’s series, Yellowstone. Guide one, Logan, was 22 and from South Carolina. He was heading into his senior year at Clemson and was doing this for the summer before joining the rest of us in the rat race. Prior to earlier this spring, he had no experience riding horses. Guide 2, Hanley, was 17 and from outside of Billings, MT. He was… a “good ole boy” if you know what I mean. He meant well but was annoying AF and talked to me for at least 20 minutes which was painful. He grew up on a ranch and recently dropped out of high school, because another student had “disrespected” our flag and/or anthem. He worked his way among the group, telling the same stories over and over about killing rattlesnakes, rodeo injuries, and about that one time last year when he dropped out of high school.

The ride continued and, at this point, I was wishing it was one hour and not two. The ride was very slow. Many stops to wait for people who didn’t really have control of their horse (horses going of the path, stopping to eat grass, etc.). Finally, though, we were in the home stretch back to the ranch. Even though Pet and I were pulling up the rear we had a good view of the horses in front of us. All of a sudden, I see Jimmy and Pete jump sideways and up onto a hill after the horse in front of him decided to back up into Jimmy. Once again, Pete managed to stay on Jimmy and crisis was averted. Phew. This happened again just before the trail ended at the road to the ranch, this time with Jimmy jumping off the trail over some logs and into the long brush. We were both ready to say goodbye and Jimmy, Pet, Hanley, and the rest of the group.

After the horse ride, we were pretty exhausted (mentally and physically) so we headed back to the motel to shower/walk Greg/nap. We had decided earlier in the day to go back to Lamar Valley that night to see if we could spy some wildlife after talking to a woman at the ranch who told us about a wolf den located in Slough Creek. She had been there that morning and seen some of the pups playing. SO JEALOUS.

Before heading back to Lamar Valley, we stopped off and bought binoculars. I will just say, I was very thankful there is no sales tax in MT and I plan to take up bird watching once I get back to Nashville.

We headed out around 5 pm with plans to arrive to Slough Creek around 6 pm and continue into Lamar Valley after. As we were driving through the park, we once again saw people pulled over so we did the same and were delighted to see a mother black bear and her cub. The cub was adorable (obviously). Although the bears were not far from the road, we quickly put our new binocs to use for an up-close look.

We continued on to Slough Creek and Lamar Valley and saw lots of bison but not much else. We realized we should have asked the woman at the ranch exactly WHERE the wolf den was. Fail. Regardless, it was really cool to be back in the same area 12 hours later. We caught the “golden hour” in the valley and again we didn’t have to deal with traffic/crowds/trouble parking/etc. In my option, the move for Lamar Valley is to be there at sunrise or sunset (the sun sets really late this time of year, around 9:20 pm) and post up in camping chairs with some ‘nocs and just wait.

The next day was our last day in Yellowstone and we planned a marathon drive around the bottom loop to see as much as possibly could. We had already driven the top loop, with the exception of the Tower Falls stretch of road, which is closed until next year. I knew that the Grand Prismatic Spring and Old Faithful would be a nightmare of people so we planned to be on the road early. We stopped at many other geysers and hot springs this day as well. They are basically endless to the point that Pete stated he was done with geysers and hot springs. Oh Pete. We arrived to Grand Prismatic about 9 am. A lot of cars were pulling into the parking lot, so we opted to park on the road and walk. There was a trail and it was a 10 minute walk so not bad. Since it was early in the day, it was 50 degrees out which meant all of the springs in the park were extra steamy. Hadn’t thought about that when it came to seeing the colors of the Grand Prismatic. This one was a let down for me. Although still stunning, there was so much steam you really couldn’t see much. When the wind blew, you could see a bit more but still it wasn’t what I had seen in pictures. We also tried to stop here on our way to Grand Teton National Park as it was on the route and we figured that later in the day, when it was warmer, we would be able to see more. We arrived around 1:30 pm and the amount of people – OH MY GOD. We bagged it and continued onward. We could see from the road that there was still quite a bit of steam coming off the springs so I’m not sure how you really win here unless you manage to go early in the morning in July/August on a really breezy day. If anyone has tips, please share, because I’m sure we will be back in Yellowstone at some point!

From Grand Prismatic we continued to Old Faithful. The National Parks app predicts when Old Faithful will erupt, but there is no cell service in the park so this was relatively useless to us. OF’s eruptions occur every 60/90 minutes. We arrived a few minutes after 10 am and had no trouble parking. We hustled over and could see a large crowd already there. A good sign. We found spots to sit on the ground and eavesdropped on people nearby to determine when OF was scheduled to erupt. We ended up only waiting 25 minutes or so which felt like a major win! Old Faithful was spectacular as were all the other geysers in this area (there is a trail that wraps around the backside of OF with many other geysers and hot springs. We spent quite a bit of time at this stop before continuing onward.

Once past Old Faithful the traffic and people thinned out a lot. The loop takes you past Yellowstone Lake which is the largest lake in the United States at a high elevation (I believe it’s around 7k feet). We stopped at one of the beaches to walk around and noticed lots of animal poop on the beach. As I was getting back into the truck, I noticed a sign stating the area was closed due to bear activity. Whoops. We had lunch in Hayden Valley, which was very similar to Lamar Valley and known for lots of grizzly and other wildlife activity. We hung out for a while in our camping chairs but we were there in the middle of the day, so I didn’t expect much wildlife. We saw more bison and did some birding watching thanks to the newly acquired binoculars. We also stopped at the Mud Volcano which was really cool and fairly quick (and no trouble parking) and The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which is incredible. There was a hike down into the canyon that looked fairly easy and rewarding, but by this point, Greg had been alone in the motel room for most of the day so we didn’t have time to hike down into the canyon. I would highly recommend this hike and had I known how beautiful and impressive the canyon was, I would have skipped over some of the 175 hot springs/geysers we saw.

Finally, after nine hours in Yellowstone, we made it back to a very happy Greg. We went for a walk and then Pete and I treated ourselves to rainbow trout for dinner.

All in all, an amazing couple days. Pete and I both agreed one more full day would have been perfect and we would have started it by going back to Lamar Valley again for sunrise. A couple other pro tips:

- BINOCULARS.

- Download the Yellowstone map so you can access it offline. You are still able to see your location while offline and the map clearly shows all of the points of interest. We referenced this map multiple times every day.

- If you plan to hike, bring bear spray (duh).

- In hindsight, while West Yellowstone is very central I imagine this area is the worst for traffic/parking/annoying crowds of people. If you don’t mind driving a tad more, staying at one of the other entrances may be the better move.

- I would love to get on a boat on Yellowstone Lake. No idea what the options are but this area is so beautiful and again, less people.

#roadtrip #roadtrippin #yellowstone #yellowstone national park

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kerasdnd · 6 years

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Hair Combs and Music

Table of Contents

I sighed as I looked around Platform 9¾. It was 10:30 am yet it was swarmed with students and their families. I stood at Aunt Narcissa's side in her version of attention: head held high, shoulders held back, chest out, hands clasped together in a relaxed manner in front of my body, and feet together at a 60° angle. I looked down to make sure my black messenger bag wasn't causing any creases in my purple hoodie. As I did I noticed some dirt on my jeans and brushed it off quickly. I wasn't listening to what she or Uncle Lucius were trying to tell Draco and I, that is until I got a sharp jab from Draco. I turned my attention back to my Legal Guardians. "I swear Lyra. You grow more and more into your mother with each given day," my aunt commented before going on, "As I was saying, You two, along with your friends, are the Heirs to each Pureblood Family. You must live up to the expectations of your families at all times. More so at school. The five of you must be fighting each other for the top score in every class." Draco scoffed, "More like the second, since Lyra is in our year. She'll be top no matter what they threw at her." Uncle placed a hand on Draco's shoulder and squeezed while smiling. From an outsider's perspective, it would look like a father giving his son words of encouragement, but those standing here knew it was a warning. Draco fell silent quickly. I spied Theo and Blaise in the crowd just then. Turning around to face my Aunt and Uncle, I curtsied, "Please excuse Draco and I. I've spotted Theo and Blaise entering and wish to have them accompany us onto the train." Draco quickly got the hint and bowed as well. There was a moment of silence before Uncle dismissed us.

We raised from our bows but didn't dare to raise our heads until we had walked backwards a few steps and turned around. Theo and Blaise were in the middle of asking to be dismissed from Theo's parents as Draco offered me his left elbow. I smiled and gently touched my hand to his forearm. "Oh. Also your hair and makeup have a 24 hour permanent spell in place as per our agreement Lyra," Aunt Narcissa called before we were out of earshot. Becoming painfully aware of the pressure the comb in my perfect bun, I gripped Draco's arm tighter for a millisecond before releasing him. I turned back to her and curtsied again, watching her through my eyelashes. She waved her hand in acknowledgment. I sighed in relief. I repeated the dismissal and rejoined Draco, who was now accompanied by Pansy. I clasped my hands in front of myself once more, as Pansy had Draco's right arm in her left hand. None of us spoke a word while we waited 5 feet away from Theo and Blaise to be dismissed. When two boys weren't released by 10:55 am, I floated over to be in between the boys and curtsied. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt a family matter, Mr. Zabini. However we," I gestured to the small group of Purebloods that had formed behind Draco and Pansy without looking up, "cannot board the train without them. We only have 3 minutes to board. Would you be so gracious as to dismiss them please?" The entire group bowed/curtsied as I spoke. Theo and Blaise have been bowing since they first requested to be dismissed. We waited in silence before Mr. Zabini spoke, "Very well. You are dismissed. Though Theodore, you should've been the one to bring this to our attention instead of your betrothed." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Theo's bow get deeper, "My apologies, Sir." We were waved off. Quickly doing the dismissal, Everyone scrambled onto the train. The train started moving just as the last kid of our group jumped on.

Draco, Pansy, Theo, Blaise, Vince, Greg, and I slid into the first empty compartment we could find. I sat next to the window after everyone's luggage was put away. Blaise sat across from me and patted his lap. I chuckled and moved to sit on his lap. Blaise wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed my temple. Theo laughed as he took my original seat, "Lyra you act like you're engaged to Blaise instead of me." I laughed and stuck my tongue out at him. "It's because you don't do anything about it," Pansy stated as she sat next Blaise and I. Draco just scoffed as he sat next to Pansy. Greg sat next to Theo and across from Pansy. Vince sat next to Goyle and across from Draco. Theo smirked, sat crisscrossed and held out a hand to me. I felt Blaise's arms tighten around me as I placed my hand on Theo's. Theo gripped my hand and pulled me into his lap with ease, though Blaise wasn't actually trying to keep me where I was. Once I settled into my new seat, Draco cleared his throat. "So why did it take until Lyra butted in to get you two released?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Because they caught Theo fixing my collar before we left for the station, so we got the full 'You're a Pureblood Heir' speech," Blaise sighed while Theo started to hit his head against my shoulder. "And they wouldn't take that we were actually trying to be presentable as an answer," Theo added on against my shoulder. I patted Theo's head. "That explains a lot," Pansy muttered. Everyone nodded and went on to different topics. Theo and Blaise talked about a play that happened in a Quidditch match they watched. Pansy was going on about something to Draco, who wasn't listening to her. Vince and Greg were already starting to fall asleep. I smiled, resting my head against the window, as I watched the compartment resemble home. I slowly closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep in Theo's lap.

I was shaken awake, what seemed like, a few minutes later. Grumbling, I pushed away the hands and rubbed my eyes. When I opened my eyes, I saw that only Theo, Blaise and I were left in the compartment. Blaise was munching on a Pumpkin Pastie. It took a moment for me to realize that he was sideways. "Jeez, how long was I out?" I asked sitting up. Theo chuckled, "It's just now turning 3 pm so only about two hours. And before you ask: Yes, I got you some Every Flavor Beans. I have no idea where Draco, Vince, and Greg went. And Pansy just left to use the Loo." I stretched and groaned as some of my joints popped. Then I leaned over to grab my box of jelly beans from the other side of Theo. I settled into my seat once more with said candy, smiling. I watched the scenery pass by us as I quietly ate the sweets. Suddenly the door slammed open. I jumped, turning back to see the rest of our group pile in at once. "He thinks he's sooo amazing. I'll show him, just watch," Draco ranted as he sat next to Blaise. Theo threw a Chocolate frog at Droca, whom easily caught it and started opening. Vince sat on the other side of Draco while Greg helped gather up the other sweets so that Pansy would have a clear seat on the other side of Theo and Greg came to sit on the ground at Blaise's and my feet. I offered him some of my candy and he took some smiling. This entire time Draco was ranting and raving over someone. Finally, I sighed, "Draco, who in seven hells are you talking about?" Everybody turned to me in shock. "What? It's like you don't remember that I wasn't apart of this group until two years ago," I stated as I started searching through my bag. Draco broke the silence quickly, "I'm talking about Harry Potter. I offered to be his friend and he denied me. Oh I know," I had found and pulled out my iPod Touch at this point. Completely ignoring Draco, I turned to Pansy. "This bag is awesome. Thank you again," I smiled at her. Pansy chuckled, "Thank my mother. She's the one who had the idea to put the undetectable Expansion Charm on it. I simply picked out the style." "It's still amazing," I stated as I placed my left earbud in.

I scrolled through my music gallery when Greg said, "And to answer your question, yes we do." We froze and looked at him. Greg shifted in his spot uncomfortable about being in the spotlight but continued, "It's easy to forget you were with your Aunt Andromeda up until we were all nine years old. Draco is our Leader. Vince and I are the Muscle. Theo and Blaise are the Pranksters. Pansy is the Princess. And you, Lyra, are all of our confidants. I'm sure you know more about each of us than the rest of us put together." I felt my cheeks glow red at his words. "Thank you, Greg, for saying those touching words, but please stay on topic," Draco demanded as he went back into his rant. Everything went back to normal at Draco's words and Greg deflated. I placed a hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me. I mouthed thank you and smiled at him. Greg smiled back and returned to listening to Draco. I went back to my iPod and turned on What about Us by P!nk. I placed the other earbud in and lost myself in music.

I didn't move or interact with the group again until I realized it was dark outside. I sighed and climbed over Theo so I could stand without stepping on Greg. Everyone looked at me. "It's dark out and I'm the only one who isn't in school robes. I need to go change," I answered the silent question that hanging in the air. Pansy immediately started to get up but I waved her off. "I'll be fine Pans. You just relax," I said as I opened the door. "You know she'll hear about this, don't you?" Vince asked, sounding scared for me. I turned and looked at him. "My Aunt nor my Uncle can reach us at Hogwarts. We all know this that's why we did what we want today on the train. Our easy banter. Draco's ranting. Pansy's candy eating. Goyle's little speech. Theo's and Blaise's mini fight over whose lap I was going to sit on. Here at Hogwarts, we're free. I'm not scared of the punishments anyway. We all know I'll take all the blame if it does get back to them. You know that right?" I asked him. Vince nodded and so did everyone else when I looked at them. "Good. I'll be back in a few minutes," With that, I closed the door and went to the loo to change.

I slipped through the other first years who were doing some last minute changing as well. Over my music, I heard a muggle born complain that her iPod wasn't working as I passed her. I lowered my head and hoped she didn't notice that I had my earbuds in. "Excuse me?" the girl called out while also grabbing my bag effectively stopping me from entering the stall I was headed for. I took a deep breath before turning around and taking out my right earbud. "I'm sorry. Is there a line that I missed?" I asked cautiously as I looked at the girl who stopped me. Taking a quick assessment, the girl was about my age, had slightly bucked teeth, bushy hair and was already in her robes. "No, there's no line. I'm sorry to bother you. But I noticed that you were listening to earbuds and was wonder how you got your device to work?" she quickly explained as she released my bag. I tucked the unused earbud into the collar of my hoodie and faced her full on with my hands in the pockets. "I have no idea how it's working. I've been assuming my aunt simply charmed to work in Magical Areas. Though now that I think about it, my iPod still shouldn't work since we're on the train," I stopped to ponder the question then shrugged, "I guess my other aunt called in a few favors with the staff." The girl sighed and looked defeated for a moment before smiling once again. "Okay, thanks anyway. I'm Hermione Granger by the way," she stated while extending her hand. I could still hear the disappointment in her voice but I didn't take her hand. She was still a muggle born after all. There were still some things I'll never take the risk of punishment for. "Lyra Lestrange. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to change before we get to Hogsmeade," I commented as I slipped into the stall.

I quickly changed though I didn't want to. When my shirt and pants were on I snaked my earbuds through my shirt so I didn't have to worry about them getting caught on anything. I placed my iPod in my back pocket and continued getting dressed. Once everything was where it was supposed to be, I walked out and got blindsided by the mirror as I washed my hands. My obsidian hair was made up into a perfect bun on the top of my head. My bangs fell just right to frame my lilac eyes and make them noticeable. Aunt Narcissa added even more effect by dusting a silver-grey eyeshadow over my lids and cat-eyed my eyeliner. Thankfully she didn't bother doing any foundation or cover-up, saying something about blocking pores when I went to bed tonight. She did apply the faintest hint of pink lipstick to my lips. However what caught my eye the most was the comb that was holding my hair in place. It was a blooming emerald flower that was surrounded by vines of diamonds set in silver. I reexamined my makeup and realized that it wasn't to articulate my eyes. However, it was to compliment the hair piece. Rage flared through my body and I stormed out of the loo after drying my hands.

I slammed into the compartment, closed the door and slid down to the floor with my back to it. "I guess you finally got the full picture of what my mother did to you," Draco asked softly. I looked over at him. Draco looked ashamed of his mother's actions. I sighed and shook my head. "Draco, I agreed to this so that I could wear the tux to my birthday ball, comfortable clothes to the platform, and the boy's uniform here at school. I just wish she didn't make the comb the centerpiece. It screams rich kid more than my iPod," I ranted. Draco nodded. Then Blaise laughed. We all turned to him. "Guys, Lyra is finally 11," he explained. I rolled my eyes at him as everyone joined in on his laughter. Just as I was about to give a retort, the train came to a stop. We became silent instantly. Pansy stood up and looked down at me. "Ready to become the pinnacle of Slytherin Royalty?" Pansy asked while holding her hand out to me. I smirked and took it. She pulled me up as I replied, "Only if you guys are by my side the whole way."

#writing #oc #hogwarts #theodore nott #draco malfoy #pansy #blaise zabini #crabbe and goyle #The New Headmaster #The Founders A New Generation

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elevenhoursinfront-blog · 6 years

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2nd December 2017

Our alarm went off at 0500. We were really tired, hot and sticky. We had to make sure we had everything we needed packed and ready. By the time we were washed, dressed, packed to go it was 0610. We wanted to leave around 0600 because of parking. The street of the hostel had loads of space to park but it's always filled with camper vans of the people partaking in the Fraser Island tours.

We got to the street and found a space right at the end of the road. It was close to the hostel and luckily our van is fairly small so we managed to squeeze in perfectly. We got our stuff out and walked into the hostel. The guy yesterday said that there would be breakfast for those staying out and ready, it was only toast and tea/coffee but that's better than nothing. Obviously Steve and I weren't guests at the hostel so the breakfast wasn't out for us. I went for a walk and managed to find a plate, knife, two mugs and a teaspoon so we helped ourselves to the breakfast. I mean, why not? We had paid a lot of money for the trip and we were only having some toast and a coffee. They wouldn't know either. How cheeky.

We sat down and ate our free breakfast. The Dutch girls came and sat with us and had some breakfast too. They had their own from their camper though – we were saving money by borrowing.

Around 0700 a guy came out and introduced himself as 'Peter', our tour guide. Peter must be in his 60's and he does this tour alone. There is only one guide which we all thought isn't enough. One guide for 32 people is a big ratio.

Peter called up Group 2 first, which was us. He took us to the car and we had to go round the car with a paper marking all the dents and scratches, as you do with any hire vehicle. Steve and I took control and went round the car whilst the rest of the team just stood there. If you want a job done properly, do it yourself. I didn't want to trust anyone else with something that could mean money coming out of my account.

Another girl joined our group before we left – Kirsten, from Germany. She was lovely, very chatty and her English was perfect (better than mine). We all waited for Peter to go round with every group and their cars. We also had to fill out more paperwork before we headed off.

It was time to leave around 0800, finally. Sarah, the American, was our first driver. I sat in the passenger seat. I was pushing myself to be chatty so that nobody felt uncomfortable and/or awkward. Plus, it does wonders for your confidence. After this year, I reckon I'd be fine going out with friends who have invited people I don't know. Normally I would've said no and missed out. I haven't met any of Steve's friends yet because I'm so nervous. I reckon after I've lost my weight again, I'll be able to meet them.

We drove to the Fraser Island barge which took about 15 minutes. Sarah had never driven on the left hand side of the road before so she was loving giving it a go. The barge (ferry) wasn't really all that big. I imagined bigger. We had to drive on a lot of sand to get to it and it looked hard. The car was going where the car wanted too. It didn't matter how much Sarah steered it, the car was in charge.

We drove onto the barge and everyone got out. Steve and I stood at the edge with Sarah chatting, watching the water. The barge only took just 10 minutes to get to the other side which was good.

We were driving to our first stop – Lake Mackenzie. This is at the top of my list for Fraser Island. It's a massive lake with the whitest sand and the clearest of waters. It's fresh water and nothing goes in, nothing comes out.

According to the weather man, the next three days were meant to be rain, thunder and lightening. It was meant to be the same yesterday but we got lucky and it was beautiful. We were hoping for the same the next few days but it seemed unlikely. Rain would be typical and completely ruin the most expensive trip!

We pulled up to Lake Mackenzie after about an 1.5 hours of driving. You can imagine how big Fraser Island is now. We were driving along the beach for the majority of it and Steve took the wheel from the moment we got off the barge. We all had these massive Toyota 4x4 that I loved. They worked wonders with the roads/sand/potholes! We would be the second car that's behind the lead vehicle. Peter always drives the lead vehicle. Group three would follow us and group four would follow them.

We parked up and got out. Peter said that after every time we pull up somewhere, he will explain how long we're here for, a bit of history about it and we can go off and do our own thing. I like that we don't have to be sociable should we not want too. Mel did the Pippies tour before us and she said that she and Jack didn't talk to anyone and stuck to themselves. Steve and I are pushing ourselves to talk, for our confidence as I've mentioned.

Peter told us we had an hour and a half here and then we would be moving on to a place for lunch. He gave us all an apple each and we were on our way. Steve and I were the first onto Lake Mackenzie because we basically inhaled our apples (slightly peckish). The sand was so soft that it squeaked between our toes. We found a spot that wasn't busy and laid our towels down.

We got straight into the water after taking plenty of photos on the GoPro, as always. The water was so fresh (freezing). We got our heads under straight away to get used to it. I loved it. The water was clear and turquoise (when the sun shined). It became cloudy quickly but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We were looking round for Sarah as she was on her own and we found her walking in. We swam over to her and started chatting. We also ended up with a couple who had previously spoke to Sarah. The couple were from England – we recognised their accents. They were in Group 3. After a while, I asked the question, “Where abouts in England are you from?”. They replied “Hertfordshire, you?”. I got so excited straight away. Nobody knows where Hertfordshire is and this couple, the same age as us, are from the same place!

They were from Stevenage which is only 20 minutes from Hertford. I mean, what are the odds? We were on a sand island off the coast of Australia, in a fresh water lake with a couple from Stevenage (poor people, mind you).

Sarah got out the lake and we continued chatting to the couple – Craig and Faye. We eventually got out too, when I was getting too cold. As we sat on our towels, the rain started. We packed our stuff up and went back to the car. It was absolutely chucking it down by the time we got back to the car. Steve and I stood underneath the shelter by the public toilets. Eventually, we all got back into the car and drove to the part we were having lunch. Steve drove and I sat in the back of the car which isn't pleasant. It's the back seats, behind the back seats if you get what I mean.

We pulled up after another 30 minute drive. We walked down some stairs into a picnic area. There were quite a few different areas and ours was obviously going to be the furthest one away. Steve helped Peter by carrying the eski's of food. He had to bring about 2 boxes full of lunch.

Peter set out the food and we all got in line. It was 2 wraps each with fillings – cheese, ham, tuna, lettuce, onion, tomatoes, cucumbers, beetroot, sweetcorn and whatever else you can put into a wrap. We realised after our first one, that there wasn't going to be a lot of filling left for everyone on their second. People became a bit judgemental afterwards, watching who was putting in what.

After we cleared up, we went on a short rain forest walk. It was lovely especially as it was raining. I love things like that. There was the most clear creek going through the middle of it. It was literally as clear as drinking water, we even saw an eel swimming around. The walk was over after about 15-20 minutes. We all went back to the cars and I asked if I could drive. I was nervous especially because it was raining, the ground was so uneven. We were literally driving up steps and over massive tree roots. The sand is nerve-wracking as it is without the added extras. The other girls in our group were too nervous as said they'll drive another day, maybe. They were impressed with me giving it a go.

The drive was fine, it is so difficult driving on sand. You have to almost let go of the steering wheel and let the car go in the tracks, as they please. We were lucky enough to see wild Dingoes on the way, too. They were puppies running along the beach. We drove past slowly so we could all get photos and a better look. I was so happy I could tick that off the Australian wild animal list!

We stopped off at a little shop which was stupidly expensive. You can imagine – the only shop on the island. Peter said if everyone put in 50c, we could get 3 bags of ice which will keep everyone's alcohol cool. The bags were $5.50. I was happy to put our $1 in but surely you could take that out of our $400-$500 that we paid for the trip? It was just a nonsense really. Not everybody had cash on them either and I presume a few of them lied about it.

We arrived back in our camp to set up for the night. It was only about 500 metres from the shop. It was already around 1600 and it was going to be long before it got dark. We all parked the cars and jumped out. There was an undercover kitchen with 4 benches. There was a big BBQ, whistle kettles which are boiled with gas, toasters with gas and all sorts of camping gear. The crockery and cutlery were all tin.

A few metres away from the kitchen area was our sleeping area. There were around 18 tents in a row under cover. Steve and I picked ours and it was number '3'. We chucked our bags inside and went to the benches, as requested to do so by Peter. We heard Becky scream as she was in the tent next to us. I popped my head out to see if she was alright and there was the biggest spider on the outside of her tent, but on the inside of the waterproof cover. I went to get Peter to get rid of it. He even panicked when he had it in his hand.

After that, everyone sat down and Peter said that over the next few days, we all have to help him with things like cooking, cleaning and what not. He said two groups will cook – one tonight, one tomorrow and the two other groups will clean – one tonight, one tomorrow. He said tonight is BBQ and tomorrow is pasta bolognese. I looked at everyone and we were all nodding, so I shouted out “We will cook tonight!”. Everyone was sorted with what they were doing. Group 4 were cleaning up tonight, group 1 were cooking tomorrow night and group 3 were cleaning after.

Peter said that he would show us where the toilets were and show us where to go on a good sunset walk. The toilets were about a 1km walk away from our camp... Not ideal for someone like me who goes during the night. I would be waking Steve up for a midnight hike through the sand. Not ideal.

Peter said that the sand dunes were about 15 minutes away and the views are spectacular. He pointed us in the right direction and told group 2 to be at the kitchen for 1800. It was about 1630 so we had a while. Dingoes are dotted around everywhere on Fraser Island so he told us how to be Dingo safe too. Dingoes are a native Australian animal which basically is an aggressive dog. They're not a dog but they're from the same family. If a person was walking a dingo on a lead down the road, you would not tell the difference. Dingoes are vicious though. Apparently, only a few months ago a dingo stole some ones baby from them and ate it in front of them. How brutal?

We all left and started our walk. I was walking with Rhianne chatting away whilst Steve was walking with Craig talking about football. Craig is an Arsenal supporter. The sand dunes were unreal. The sand covered miles and miles, width and length. We were climbing for what seemed to be hours and it was never ending. I tried to take photos but they didn't do the space justice. The sand was so untouched (apart from dingo footprints). It was soft and warm. I took my trainers off and went exploring, taking photos from every angle I could.

After about 40 minutes, we stopped. We had formed our own little group with another two girls from Kent, England. They were both on holiday – dental nurses back home, Becky and Dee. We all decided that we had had enough and started to walk back for a shower. Peter said it's really easy to get lost but we didn't think so. It was a straight line back into camp.

20 minutes later, we were lost. We had ended up at the shop. We turned around and walked back. We found the camp as everyone was just returning. My idea of 'getting a shower before everyone else' had been ruined thanks to the lack of 'sense of direction'.

Steve and I grabbed our shower stuff and walked the 100 miles to our shower/toilet block. We went in and I managed to get a shower without waiting – result! I had to wash my hair after swimming in the lake. I was trying to be quick so that Steve wasn't waiting for me so long.

I was washed, dried and clothed within about 15 minutes. Not bad going really. I went outside and Craig was sitting on the bench waiting for Faye. I went and sat with him, shocked that I had beaten Steve.

Craig said that there was a queue before he went in so Steve would be in the shower now. We both sat there waiting for about 20 minutes. Faye came out and I was completely baffled as to what was taking Steve so long... Craig said he would go and shout Steve, tell him to hurry up for me.

He came back outside and said that he wasn't in there.

I was absolutely fuming that he had gone back to camp without me. We always, always wait for each other. Never mind in the middle of nowhere, in the jungle with a 1km walk back into camp. I luckily was able to walk back with Craig and Faye.

I walked into camp and it was about 1820. I was waiting for Steve so long that I was late for cooking. I put my shower stuff into the tent and went to the kitchen. They hadn't really started but they did say 'Nice and on time!' to me. I laughed, sort of. Steve came up to me and asked if I wanted a beer. I decided on giving the cold shoulder. I can't explain to you how angry I was (sounds stupid, but it was scary being there alone).

He quickly realised I had the hump with him and he asked me why. I explained and he didn't realise he did it. He thought I would walk back with one of the girls... I said that how does he know I'd be finished at the same time etc. He apologised and I got over it (I still haven't, I reference it almost every day).

We all cooked dinner together which was nice. We chopped up all the salad, boiled some potatoes, got the garlic bread, sausages and burgers cooking. I say we, Steve did all the meat. We all just sort of stood around looking pretty. There were a lot of mouths to feed and a fair amount of meat going on. Steve was sweating absolute buckets – there was a stream coming out of his forehead.

We noticed the biggest, hairiest spider on one of the beams above our heads. Everyone came running over to take a photo and then ran away. We constantly had one person on 'spider watch' as we were cooking.

I shouted out 'Dinner is served! 2 sausages and 1 burger each'. Everyone jumped up and started queuing. Everyone in our group decided that it's courtesy to eat last, as the chefs. Apparently though, the couple from Sweden in our group didn't get the memo and ate first out of everyone. Strike one with the Swedish couple and us.

Steve and I were the last two to eat out of everyone and we didn't even eat it. We were so, so hungry that after cooking it, we weren't. How silly is that? Well, it's not silly, it's quite common. We didn't have any dinner and we were suddenly full up.

We had bought 10 cans of beer – 5 each with us. We got through 4 of them on the first night.

We were sitting with the English lot and a German group of 4. We started to play drinking games like Ring of Fire. The 2 Dutch girls joined in after a while but left shortly after. They went to sit round the campfire. Another 2 Dutch girls and a German guy joined in. The two Dutch girls were so, so lovely. So far, I am loving the Dutch!

Steve and I went to the toilet around 2130. I was busting and there was no way I was walking alone. We walked there, went for a wee and walked back. We were borrowing Kirsten's head torch as we forgot ours... Obviously.

We got back to the camp when we saw a massive snake in the way of our path! I panicked massively. It was absolutely huge and just slivering slowly from one side to the next. I literally ran and shouted snake through the camp fire circle. Jolanda panicked like I don't know what - I could not stop laughing at her. Rhianne came with me to find Peter. He disappeared before we cooked dinner so I presumed he was in his tent which is further up the campsite to ours.

We were shouting Peter's name for ages, not only Peter's but anyone's. There was another Pippies tour group next to our camp (they have two) so I was looking for their guide also. Nobody answered us and I was so angry. What if someone was seriously hurt?

Eventually as we were walking away, I heard a voice say “What's wrong?”. They were sitting in their own little camp area trying to avoid us. I was disgusted. I explained that there was a gigantic snake in our campsite. The other guide asked what colour it was and said he would remove it for us.

The camp guide was quite obviously VERY intoxicated. He picked the snake up with his hands and put it further into the bush. He said it was harmless but I reckon it could've been anything and he would've said the same. I can't explain to you how big this snake was. I'm not even scared of snakes but this scared me. Steve and I were one step away from treading on it. The guide said it was a python. I was so gutted we didn't get to take a photo before it left, but I was too panicked to think about anything else. I had seen more here in camp than I had in the whole year of Australia! How awful.

Steve and I decided after that, it was time for bed. It was around 2330 and we had been up since 0500. It's been the busiest of days and we were just flat out. Out like a light, as I say.

11 months in Australia - it has absolutely FLOWN by!

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cheekybluefox · 7 years

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160 Prompt List

1. Why are we at a strip club? 2. I’m sorry, you said what to your teacher? 3. Am I dead? 4. Its always been you. You and always you. 5. Stay with me. 6. How about we put the gun down, and we talk about this? 7. I came here to kick ass and chew gum, and I’m all out of gum.. 8. Whatever it is, I didn’t do it. 9. Am I supposed to be impressed? 10. Don’t tempt me. 11. Is that mine? 12. I can’t do this anymore. 13. Go to hell. - Already been there, but thanks for the invite. 14. Look at me. 15. Where did you get that? 16. Here, take my hand. Everything is going to be fine. Just hold onto me and keep moving. 17. You don’t need to protect me. 18. I had a nightmare about you, and I just needed to make sure you were okay. 19. I told you not to fall in love with me. 20. You know it’s okay to cry, right? 21. I just want to be left alone right now. 22. Those things you said last night, did you mean it? 23. Promise me you come back, just..I need you to promise me. 24. I could tell it was your favorite book by all the notes in the margin. 25. Where do you think you’re going? 26. Despite what you may think, I can look after myself. 27. Just please, be my best friend right now and not the person they I confessed my love to. 28. Well, if you insist. 29. I can’t believe you don’t like Disney films. 30. You’re lucky you’re so cute. 31. Sometimes I really dislike you. 32. Hold my hand, we need to make this look convincing. 33. I’m like 20% sure this plan will work There’s like an 80% chance that it could end in violence and Gore, but this plan is solid, I swear. 34. If I die, I’m coming back to haunt you. 35. If you don’t want to talk about it then just say so; but do not say you are fine, when you so obviously are not. 36. I made cupcakes because I know you like them. 37. My parents asked me about you again. 38. Wait, this is your handwriting? This chicken scratch? 39. I didn’t know you could play. 40. Things don’t always turn out the way you want them to. 41. You two sure you aren’t married? 42. You can’t sit on the sidelines all your life. 43. You deserve so much better. So much more. 44. You haven’t each touched your food, what's going on baby girl? 45. Stay the night. Please. 46. Please pretend to be my boyfriend/girlfriend. I’ll owe you big time. 47. Its midnight. What do you want? 48. You’re strangely comfortable. 49. Don’t fuck with mama bear. 50. I just need you here. 51. How long have you been standing there? 52. Is that what you call an apology? 53.I’ve loved you since I laid my eyes on you. The very moment, I first saw you, and I…oh, fuck it! 54. Just hold me. 55. Can I hold your hand? 56. I just don’t know how to look forward anymore. 57. She’s still alive, she has to be. 58. Get that pretty little butt over here. 59. Is there a special reason as to why you’re wearing my shirt? 60. You’re cute when you’re angry. 61. I didn’t realise I needed your permission. 62. I’m not jealous. 63. Forever is a long time. 64. This is seriously sketchy. 65. I lost the baby. 66. Rude! 67. Let’s blow this joint. 68. Oh, bite me. 69. I haven’t slept in four days. 70. Stop being such a baby. 71. Hey, calm down, its okay. They cant hurt you anymore. 72. I’m too sober for this shit. 73. You can’t banish me! It's my bed too! 74. Good thing I didn’t ask your opinion. 75. Its six in the morning, you’re not drinking vodka. 76. You work for me. You’re my slave. 77. The kids! They ambushed me! 78. You may have to buy my silence. 79. There’s a herd of them. 80. You smell like wet dog. 81. Just smile, for me. Please? I really need to see your smile right now. 82. Just show me what’s behind your back. 83. Take one more step in that direction, and I’ll murder you. 84. I’m proud of you. I’m proud of us. 85. Everyone deserves a second chance. 86. Please don’t cry, I can’t stand to see you cry. 87. You can’t keep pretending that it didn’t happen, cause guess what? It did! 88. I think I’m falling in love with you and it scares the shit out of me. 89. Its cold, take my coat. 90. I’m such a fool for not seeing this earlier. 91. I’m not blind, I’ve seen the way you look at her. 92. Never let them die, they’re the soap opera of my life. 93. Could you just, IDK, stop murdering people for shits and giggles? - Did you just say IDK in a verbal conversation? 94. Sleep in your car if you don’t want the sofa. 95. We bet on it. You lost. Now you have to do it. 96. Let’s get wasted, and go piss on his grave. 97. This is all your fault. - I hope so. 98. Did you just agree with me? No, you said it now, no take backs. 99. Stop doing that thing with your face, its making want to vomit. 100. You’re a psychopath. - I prefer creative. 101. You look… - Beautiful, gorgeous, like a Goddess walking upon the earth. Yes, I know. Now let’s move on. 102. I know, all you want is to go home but you know what? I want to go to Mars. Know what though? It’s never going to happen. Accept it. 103. Nope, can’t go to hell. Satan has a restraining order against me. 104. Get over it. Pussy. 105. It’s three in morning. - yes. Why are you here? - I live here. No, on the floor. With me. 106. I don’t hate you, but if you were on fire and I had water I’d drink it and piss on the ground. 107. You’re judging me. - Yea, its a hobby of mine. 108. FBI! OPEN THE DOOR! -But its so much more fun when you break it down. 109. I’d rather be pecked to death by a flock of woodpeckers. 110. How drunk are you on a scale of one to ten? - Yes. 111. Are you stalking me? - Not in a creepy way. 112. Focus on me. 113. Please don’t waste your tears on him. 114. Ice cream is a good start. 115. Did you just slap me? 116. All is fair in love and war, darling. 117. My vote is on the lemon cakes. 118. Get your dirty ass boots off my nice, clean sheets. 119. I like night time. It's quiet. I can think. 120. Look, there goes my last fuck to give. 121. Why are you walking around naked? 122. Stare at the stars all you want, but you won't find the answer to your problems up there. The real world is down here. 123. I underestimated you. - Classic mistake. 124. How did you manage to get frosting on the lampshade? 125. What’s the worst that could happen? - Famous last words. 126. You want it? Beg. 127. Yes, I heard you. I just don’t care. 128. Eat a bag of dicks. Dick. 129. You’re special to me. 130. If we get caught I’m blaming you. 131. Do not try me right now. 132. You give the best hugs. 133. I swear you love your hair more then me sometimes. 134. Tell me a secret. 135. Shut up or I’ll choke you. - I could be into that. 136. Let’s start with the real questions, tits or ass? 137. You make me nervous. 138. Don’t give me that look. 139. Maybe I did? So what! I don’t have to run everything by you! 140. Tell anyone and I’ll kill you, chop up your body and sell the parts. 141. That’s not your name. 142. Oh, well done. What do you want? A gold star? 143. You like sunflowers right? 144. You game? 145. Just get in the fucking blanket fort. 146. Sorry isn’t gunna help you when I’m kicking your ass. 147. Were you born a dick? Or do you go put of your way to be one? 148. Break her heart and I’ll break your face. 149. Well that was unsettling. 150. Only I can touch you. 151. Don’t tell me to shut up. You shut up. 152. Your mother/father would be so proud. 153. You stole his wallet? - I prefer borrowing without permission. 154. You going to kiss me or what? 155. Die quietly will you? 156. You’re my one. 157. You want it? Come and get it. 158. Why are you wearing Mickey mouse ears? 159. Lock the door next time. 160. Have kids, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

Hi guys! So I love writing. So I thought I’d try this. I’ll be posting things I’ve thought of myself but I would also love to write things for you guys too. These are the fandom’s I’m happy to write for : - Harry Potter - Game of Thrones - X men - Avengers - Criminal minds - Guardians of the galaxy - Star wars - The hobbit - Lord of the rings. - Once upon a time (s1 - s3A) - Teen Wolf (s1 & s2) - Walking dead ( I watched s1 - s3, then s6 & s7) - Naruto

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nochuie · 7 years

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Gif tutorial (Avisynth, Photoshop and Topaz)

okay so I’ve gotten a lot of questions asking me how I get my gifs so nice and smooth and HD and normally I don’t really go into depth because it’s kind of a combination of stuff I’ve learnt over time. My old gif tutorial only outlines using photoshop and is like over a year old so here’s an updated version.

Everything below the cut

So I’m going to break this tutorial down into 3 key parts, avisynth, photoshop and topaz. So you can pick which section that applies for you and each tutorial is basically independent.

Avisynth

disclaimer: not recommended to start out using avisynth, learn and familiarise using photoshop to make gifs first.

some background - why I use avisynth is because it’s a way to downscale the video without/next to no loss at all, so the quality is retained. Definitely check out brandinator’s tutorial and explanations here as he’s basically the innovator for avisynth gifs. He’s also super friendly so if you have any issues definitely hit him up. His tutorial basically explains everything and I guess I’ll just outline what it’s telling you to do.

Drag your video file onto normalwebmrange.bat and a command prompt will pop up

if your file does not work with normalwebmrange, then useless lossless intead

Type in your start time and hit enter, do the same for the end time (must be in hh:mm:ss format, i.e. 00:00:03 for it to start at 3 seconds)

Then after all the frames are done processing resizer.html will automatically open up in your browser

From here you figure out the sizing of your video (please refer to brandinator’s video here because it explain it really well)

For the following steps just refer to the rest of the video because its visually easier to learn off

When you copy your code across, dont include the crop line of code just in case you want to move things around in photoshop later

What do all the options in the resizer.html mean?

GIF size - Here you just plug in the value that you intend for your gif. Refer here for the tumblr post width guides. I personally use:

540 x [anything] for single gifs

268 x 350 for double gifs

177/178 x 250 for triple gifs

Opacity - This slider is just so you can see which part of the video will be shown in your given dimensions and is really useful as a preview to see if everything you want in your gif is visible for that dimension so you can go back and tweak your size if necessary

Resizing - In the bottom right hand corner of the video itself you can click and drag to resize the video so that you can find the desired size/zoom for your given dimensions

Pre-processor - Okay this is the important one and where all the smooth and HD quality comes from. In the first box you are given these options

Use for standard video formats (mp4, avi, mkv etc)

None (choose none for every video that is not a .ts file)

IVTC (tbh idk what this does, but you don’t need it)

1 in 5 Dupe (some videos have a duplicate frame for every 5th frame and this fixes it, kind of rare to use)

Only use for .ts files Basically the 30 and 60 is talking about 30fps or 60fps, recommend that you choose 30fps for single gifs because you’re going to find it hard to fit anything of substance under 3mb for single gifs. Double gifs can be either 30/60 at your own discretion. Triple gifs can definitely be 60fps without worries about cutting out frames. The fast and slow options are the encoding speed once you’ve saved the avs, slow renders at a better quality but its barely noticeable so you can use fast every time

qtgmc 30 fast

qtgmc 30 slow

qtgmc 60 fast

qtgmc 60 slow

In the second box you can pick between resamplehq, debilinear and dithertools. All you need to know is that you choose debilinear every time and for every video format

Didn’t want to make another comparison gif so just reusing this one again, it’s slowed down so you can really see the different between 30fps and 60fps which you don’t normally feel too much if the gif is faster but definitely makes a difference. Notice the quality differences also between the first two, thats what avisynth helps with the most; making sure the quality loss is minimal

Photoshop

if you haven’t used avisynth to cut/resize your video then you can do that in photoshop, although I recommend that you cut the video first in another editing program so there’s less loading time and strain on photoshop itself (I use to use Adobe Premiere for this)

Refer here for the sites that I use to download my videos from.

Importing/Resizing

Import it into Photoshop (File > Import > Video Frames to Layers)

Match the settings to these

Select the part you want with the slider on the right and hit okay

Once it’s all into Photoshop, make sure you have the timeline/animation window open (Window > Timeline) and you should be able to see all the frames of your gif

If you’ve used avisynth you only need to crop it (Image > Canvas Size; and input in the desired size of your gif) otherwise you’ll need to crop it and then down size it to the desired gif size (Image > Image Size; setting width to either 540, 268, 177/178). Remember to set it to Bicubic and locking the width when you resize it

delete all the unwanted frames from your gifs

Sharpening

At this point I normally apply topaz (so refer below) otherwise you can do standard sharpening now

Select all your frames and layers and then convert it to a video timeline (bottom left of the timeline window)

Convert your layers to a smart object (Filter > Convert to Smart Object)

Then use Smart Sharpening (Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen)

These are the settings that I used before, feel free to tweak them to whatever you like. (Note that .ts files resized with avisynth rarely need to be sharpened at all because sometimes they already look over sharp, and thus we use topaz to clean them up)

After you’re happy with your sharpening, flatten the layers back to frames, make sure your gif is on the first frame (top right hand corner of the timeline (Convert Frames > Flatten Frames to Clips) and then create the frames again (Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips)

Click the bottom left again to change your video timeline back to frame view and delete the first frame (it should be blank) and your first layer (it should be the one thats still a smart object)

Now everything should look like it did before you did your sharpening except now your gif will be sharpened

Colouring

I’m not really going to tell you how to colour your gifs because everyone does them differently and it’s also kind of each individual’s signature thing, like often I can tell who’s gif it is just by the way its coloured. Things to note here that too many colours and over saturation will lead to your gif file being extremely large. If you want to lower the file size of your gif it’s helpful to note that darkening the blacks and/or brightening the whites helps a lot. Colouring overall can drastically change your gifs so much. Here’s an example

of course you don’t want to change the colours so heavily every time but its just an example of what’s possible

Timing

To change timing (speed) for your gif you just need to select all your frames and then click on the arrow at the bottom of any of the frames and someone will pop up for you to input the time. Generally this is what I use for my gifs

0.02/0.03/0.04 for 60fps

0.04/0.05/0.06 for 30fps

Exporting

After all your colouring and timing is done you just need to export your gif (File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)), double check that your gif is less than 3mb (in the bottom left) and also here are my export settings. Never lower the colours unless your gif is black and white or you’ll probably lose quality

200212 update: gif size limits have been increased and can reach up to 8mb but have exponential loss in quality the larger the file size. The optimal size is to remain under 3.5mb-4mb, another larger and you’ll start to notice a loss in quality.

Topaz

I’m not going to tell you where and/or how to download topaz because you can probably look that up yourself, there are a bunch of tutorials how on tumblr/youtube etc so you can sort that out. I use Topaz Denoise and Topaz Clean. Topaz Denoise does exactly what you think it does, it removes the noise from your gifs and it helps clean everything up. Topaz Clean is basically the same principle of sharpening but it’s a lot nicer and doesn’t over sharpen like smart sharpening does most of the time. Topaz takes a lot longer than regular sharpening because it processes it frame by frame so if you don’t want to bother and wait for it that’s alright.

Following the same two steps as the sharpening section of the photoshop tutorial, you’ll have a video timeline and a smart object

Then apply Denoise first (Filter > Topaz Labs > Topaz Denoise)

Play around with the settings as you see fit

Then do the same for Clean (Filter > Topaz Labs > Topaz Clean)

After you’re happy with the settings you’ll need to flatten the frames back (refer above to the sharpening section), and then just put on your psd like normal

Sometimes topaz isn’t as noticeable but when compared to original and smart sharpening it’s more noticeable

Smart Sharpen, while it does sharpen the gif also increases how grainy it is so for gifs which are originally grainy it’s not a good solution. Meanwhile topaz sharpens it without increasing the grain and can also reduce it. (The gifs above aren’t that grainy so smart sharpening doesn’t look that bad)

Here’s another example of how topaz removes the noise from gifs

Wrap-up

Okay so this is a pretty comprehensive post about everything and anything I know about photoshop and gif-making in general, it outlines all the little steps I take to make my gifs look really nice and just for an overall comparison to show you that the little things really add up

and slower for you to notice the framerate

Additional Video Tutorial Resources:

Basic gif tutorial (photoshop only)

Gif Tutorial

How I adjust for coloured lighting

Colouring tutorial - levels + exposure

Blurring text/captions

If you have any other questions on this or felt like I’ve missed something feel free to send me an ask. Happy Gif-ing!

#text #tutorials #okay this is was longer than i thought it would be #i really hope it covered everything #hmu if you think i missed anything #i proof read it but i probably missed smth so cut me some slack #ive been @ this for like 1387201 hours #long post #this is the most comprehensive thing i've written in my life

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