#my last 3 shiny before this (not the same day) were 3 of my faves too so the luck I have ?????

[juvian]

Omg after almost 2 years 4 shiny Luxio and 2 shiny Luxray one being alpha I finally got a shiny Shinx in PLA 😭 HDJSBDJN

#I really thought it would never happened #it was an inside joke with myself at this point #I’m almost sad I caught one BDJSBSJ #my last 3 shiny before this (not the same day) were 3 of my faves too so the luck I have ????? #i got a shiny female Snorunt so I can finally have a Froslass got a shiny Eevee yesterday I got a Piplup and now this #Luxray is not in my top 10 even 20 fave pokemon but definetely is a electric fave and childhood fave #and like I said I had so many attempts at those lil babies and nothing bdjsbjdbs #alex.txt

[brilliantt]

Mouse - part one 

Summary: Maggie Shelby isn’t like her brothers or sister, being quiet and studious she often struggles to fit in. When money gets stolen and she is accused will she stick around and continue to be outcast in her family?

A/N: this is my first fic ever and im nervouss! l love reading peaky blinder fics and thought i’d give it a go. I plan on this being a series loosely based between series 3 and 4, loosely because I haven’t watched the series in a while and it won’t follow every single event. In this chapter we can see her close relationship with John, my fave Shelby boy :))

It was undeniable that Maggie - or Mags, as kept John insisting- was in fact a Shelby. While Finn could perhaps be mistaken with his ginger hair, inherited from their mother’s side, Maggie could almost be Ada’s or Tommy’s twin with her dark curls and blue eyes. While her appearance screamed SHELBY, her attitude whispered it. Maggie wasn’t loud like Arthur or confident like John. Nor was she determined like Tommy nor rebellious like Ada. And she certainly couldn't have fun like her twin. Maggie was a mouse in the Shelby zoo: uninteresting and forgettable. The way she liked it. For Maggie, if she could spend the day in her room, reading books and being out of the way from her family’s ruckus below, it was a day well spent.  

Of course this never sat well with her family, least of all John who was no doubt the most outgoing brother. John was undeniably her favourite brother, but right now as he dragged Maggie around the market, the one they’ve spent hours at already, she couldn’t help but wonder why she favoured him. The sound of her feet stumbling were drowned out by the bustle of deals and bargaining. Her vision blocked by the numerous products shoved in her face by the vendors. The maze cleared finally when John stopped at another stall. 

His lips pursed, the toothpick that Maggie hated jutted out as his eyes scanned the products in front of him. It wasn’t long before he huffed and turned to Maggie who he noticed was distracted by a scuffle between two young boys. He flicked her neck and muttered “You gonna help me pick or what?” Maggie brought her fingers to ease the slight pain in her neck and frowned at John, “She’s your wife John, shouldn’t you know what she likes?” Her eyes flickered on the assortment of jewellery in front of her. She scrunched her nose up. The glitter of the jewels gave her no interest and it was clear John felt the same.

“I know fuck all, Mags, i just know Esme likes shiny shit, and it’s your job to pick something she likes enough to get me out of the doghouse, eh?” He wiped his brow. Maggie stared at her brother, feeling annoyed that he dragged her out here, from her very busy schedule of staying in her room to make this decision, something he could easily do.  “So if I pick something, I can go back to the house and you’ll leave me alone?” John smirked at her, raised one eyebrow and nodded once. With a new determination, Maggie took a closer look at the array in front of her, trying to decide if Esme would prefer a ring or a necklace. “What did you even do?” She asked her eyes stilling on one ring in particular, a thick gold band with a dull black stone- one of the simple ones among the shine of gems. When John didn’t answer she turned to him with the ring in her hand, “Doesn’t matter,” he shrugged, and Maggie rolled her eyes. He frowned at the ring she chose.“That’s fucking ugly.”

Her mouth opened with shock, “You asked me to pick, John!” She cried in defense. He took the ring from her and studied it closer, he smirked again before saying  “Fuck sake, Arthur would have been better at this!” This made Maggie frown further and cross her arms, she resisted stomping her feet, remembering his constant teasing when she did it the last time.

“Don’t get it then.” She huffed.

“Nope, I’m getting it,” John grinned,  “and when Esme hates it and kicks me out, I can come and annoy you all day because it's your fault that you picked such an ugly ring.” Maggie pouted as John handed it to the vendor, who in turn placed it in a paper bag and accepted the coins handed to her. While she was annoyed that John bought it, she couldn't help but feel relief that they would now leave the market. 

As John led her away through the stalls, this time letting her walk without his hand gripping her arm, Maggie couldn’t help lingering by a stall selling beautiful leather journals. She watched the seller show one off to a smartly dressed man- something hard to come by in Small Heath- flicking through the blank pages and letting him feel the luxurious cover. Maggie sighed dreamily, while the jewellery didn’t hold her attention, these books certainly did, wishing she owned one since her last birthday, although she was too scared to ask due to the impressive price tag attached. 

“You want anything Mags?” The hand John placed on her back made her jump, she looked at him and shook her head to say no, letting John to guide her in the direction of the house, allowing herself one last glance at the stall. 

----

Maggie had managed to avoid everyone the next day, in favour of finishing her latest novel and studying from her school books. The sandwich that her Aunt Polly had made her for lunch stayed half eaten and forgotten next to her on her desk as the afternoon turned to evening. Maggie was so engrossed in her arithmetic book- the subject she favoured and excelled at- that she didn’t hear her door open behind her, with footsteps following. “I think you’re the only Shelby who’d rather fucking do schoolwork than drink a whiskey with the rest of us, Mags.” She jumped in her seat and gasped at the interruption, huffing at the ink she spilled on the page. “Well, I don’t like whiskey John.” Her brother stumbled back, placing one hand on his chest, the other hidden behind his back. “Fuck’s sake, you might as well rip my heart out and stomp on it.” Maggie rolled her eyes at her brother's antics and tried to hide the smile that only John could rise from her. 

“Did Esme kick you out? Is that why you’re bothering me again?” Maggie smirked cheekily at John. “Oi, watch yourself,” He pointed his finger at her, “actually Esme loved the ring and she was soo happy that she jumped right on top of me and-”

“Ah!” Maggie quickly put her hands to her ears, knowing the direction of the conversation, “Stop John! Stop talking right now!” Her brother grinned widely. He reached one hand to put her arms back down, “Since you picked the ring so well, I thought I’d get you a little reward.” Maggie eyed him skeptically, it wasn't often John gave thoughtful gifts. Normally the only ‘gifts’ he gave her were spiders on her bed or salt in her water. John’s other hand appeared from behind his back and he shoved a rectangular shaped package into Maggie’s lap. “What is it?” Her tone held only suspicion. Her fingers smoothed over the paper wrapping. At John’s nod of encouragement she carefully pulled at the wrapping until it came apart. The paper crinkled as she pushed it away to reveal a leather book she immediately recognised. Her mouth parted, fingers dancing over the high quality of the pages. “You know, most people would be saying thank you by now…” John knew when he saw Maggie ogling the book stall that this gift would be appreciated, however, what he didn’t expect was his sister to bound into him for the tightest hug he thought he’d ever receIved. It wasn’t a common occurrence for Maggie to initiate any sort of affection- leaving him and Arthur to treat her as if she was a doll and they were little five-year old girls. Knowing this, he quickly returned the embrace with an equal amount of force. “You like it then Mags?” 

“Like it? John this is the best thing I’ve ever been given...thank you!” John chuckled and couldn’t wait the gloat to the rest of his brothers. “But, it.. It must have cost a fortune John.” John pulled back from the hug and saw the worry in his sister’s eyes. “Yeah, well we don’t have to worry about that anymore, eh? The Shelby’s can afford to buy a hundred of them books and then a hundred more.” He put a gentle hand on her shoulder, “You want something you just gotta ask, right?” She nodded but John rolled his eyes knowing she wouldn’t ask for anything. He removed his hands and went to leave her room. 

“You know what this means though?” Maggie looked up from the new book at John who stood by the door. She frowned in confusion and shook her head, “No, what does this mean?”

John grinned. “It means that since I bought you this very nice present, I’m allowed to bother you as much as I like and you have to do exactly what I tell you until.. Well, until forever.” John left the room before Maggie could even comprehend what he said.

“What?” She said in disbelief, “That is not what that means!” She called out and when John did not respond her eyes widened, “John? That’s not what it means!” 

John chuckled to himself and finished walking down the stairs, looking forward to bugging his sister again tomorrow to find another apology gift for Esme. 

-NEXT-

#shelby!sis #shelby!sister #sister!shelby #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinder fanfic #peaky blinder imagine #peaky blinders #tommy shelby x reader #tommy shelby

[ikol-cosplay]

What are your favorite shows/characters outside of the Marvel franchises?

Avatar The Last Airbender!!!! My love for Zuko is almost as strong as the one for Loki but he doesn't have nearly enough merch and cosplaying him is hard because I WILL sweat the scar off (this happened twice) 😂😂😂 I love every single Atla character, they are my precious babies. Before I became Loki obsessed I was just as Zuko obsessed. I still am I'm just less vocal about it but I grew up on this series and I love it so so SO MUCH. One day I'll cosplay Azula, Toph, Suki and the cabbage merchant 😌👌

Merlin! Gosh I was such a fan I once did a school project on this. I would watch this with my family when it came out and every episode we would be CONVINCED this was the moment where Merlin revealed his magic (spoiler: it wasnt) 😂 Again, there's not nearly enough merch but dang does this show hold a special place in my heart. When I got really depressed all I did was rewatch Merlin and Avatar. My faves are Merlin and Morgana 👌

Shows I like a lot but don't feel as strongly about as the ones mentioned above:

She-ra and the princesses of power. It was so nice to have such an inclusive show and also they're all gorgeous! I got my redemption arc as well 👌👌👌 And double trouble is a MOOD. I still need to finish my Catra cosplay, but I already have She-ra and she makes me feel gorgeous like her. I love every character here as well but special mentions to Catra, Adora, Scorpia, Entrapta, Sea Hawk and Double Trouble

Phineas and Ferb. I just love how they put it all together with the jokes and the songs 👌

The Mandalorian. This series is just A++++ just a dad and his tiny green son doing cool shit throughout the galaxy with a bunch of badass friends.

The Good Place. I'm so sad this one ended. I LOVED every second of it.

Lucifer, Good Omens, Tangled the series, The Dragon Prince, Voltron (they did my boi Lotor dirty tho), currently watching My Hero Academia (I vibe with Bakugo, I too want to go feral), The Umbrella Academy (10/10 I love this series, Klaus Five and Allison are faves), The Legend of Korra, The Witcher (Jaskier is my fave)

I used to be absolutely obsessed with Winx and Yu-Gi-Oh as well (and they had merch so child me was a happy little gremlin, my faves were all the Winx and Riven and Yami Marik 😂 I already had a type back then)

I know you said shows but I'm gonna mention movies as well.

Pirates of the Carribean. I watched the first 3 movies so many times my mom sent me upstairs to watch it because she couldn't take it anymore 😂 Elizabeth and Jack are my faves

Star Wars. I know the movies aren't great but they have cool costumes, fancy weapons and redemptions arcs so I'm sold ok? Faves are Kylo Ren, Obi Wan, Leia and Anakin.

Harry Potter. I like the magic and the concept of it all (not all the problematic shit obv). My fave is, as you may have guessed by now, Draco Malfoy (I don't have a type you have a type)

Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Gosh could rewatch these a thousand times and still not get bored. I love the story and the costumes so much. My fave is Thranduil but not in the same way the others are faves, here I just love all the characters and Thrandy happens to be extra shiny 😂

The Hunger Games. But mostly the books, even though I enjoyed the movies too. I should reread those books some time.

Disney movies, especially Princess and the Frog, Moana, Mulan and Tangled

Kung Fu Panda. What? Those movies are great!

Megamind. I don't need to explain this one.

And I'm a fan of the mobile game The Arcana, my fave being Julian. I'm also a fan of musicals like Beetlejuice, Mean Girls, Six, Hamilton (faves being Hamilton, Lafayette and Jefferson), Heathers and Wicked.

I probably still forgot some but eh 😂

[yayninjabob]

Update 1/20/21

It's been swell having my freedom again now that I'm covid-free.  I'm not going anywhere or anything.  But things like gardening in our backyard, taking my dog-kids Fable and Riot on walks, cuddling with my wifey on the sofa and watching netflix or whatever, and just being able to cook again for myself in the kitchen... I've missed all of it so much.  So much in fact that I've been slacking on editing more than I should, whoops.  SORRY, GUYS.

But I did finish up all my rewrites yesterday FINALLY so the new chapter is nearly done.  All that's left is another swoop of editing and maayyyybee swapping out this one scene I have for another that I originally had planned for 13 instead.  So give me a day or two to decide what feels best for the story while I start tinkering with 13 a bit.

So basically I'm stepping away from 12 today to work on the scene for 13.   Depending on what I decide to do with that scene, I might finish chapter 12 tomorrow night after work, or I might need another day after that.  But I don't think so.  I'm already like 90 percent sure on what I'll probably end up doing lol.   Just gotta write this up first to be sure and it will EASE my perfectionist mind.  Once that's done, then it's final editing and formatting stuff which takes me usually a day or two.

Alright that's just a really wordy way to say I will have CHAPTER 12 up this SUNDAY, JANUARY 24TH.  PROMISE GUYS.  

I feel so bad it's been so long since our last update that I'll share one scene with you guys from 12.  I mean, if you’re checking this blog you're probably looking for an update, right?  Well for now, I hope a little sneak peek will suffice until Sunday.

Personally, I think it's kind of a cool sneaky peeky because honestly it doesn't really give away much of the plot of the chapter and still leaves the suspense of where we last left off pretty much.  SO.  If you wanna read a little bit of 12, here's scene #3 for you guys early.  If you want to avoid it and remain pure, I’ll see you Sunday I guess lol.

Uh... heads up, it's got some gore lol.  A creepy little horror comedy scene, really.  One of my personal faves of the chapter, too.  PLEASE ENJOY.

SNEAK PEEK:  Chapter 12, Scene 3 under the cut....

scene 3

The green Powerpuff lay in the dark unable to sleep.  Even though the teenager had turned out the light hours ago, there was no stopping the never ending loop of the night which still replayed over and over within the young hero's mind.  Buttercup had done nothing but tossing and turning in an attempt to try and find rest that night, and had managed to kick away all of the bedding and sheets.  Laying upon a bare mattress and still hopelessly waiting for sleep with eyes shut tight, there was a sudden faint knocking sound heard coming from within the bedroom.

Buttercup sat up in bed with a jolt the moment the sounds began in the dark.   Immediately the Puff's emerald eyes fell on the door to the bedroom closet.  The door to the closet was shut, but the noise was definitely coming from behind it.  Buttercup watched the door intently, while silently and cautiously moving towards it.  With super hearing activated, the Puff listened to the sound of something rustling about inside, and as the young hero crept closer and closer, there was a rotten, burning stench in the air.  Buttercup reached for the closet door's handle and opened it.

"Where is it?  Dude, it's gotta be somewhere around here!"

Buttercup blinked at the blood soaked kid for a moment before a look of annoyance came next.  The sixteen-year-old Puff watched as the thirteen-year-old apparition  dug around the heap of dirty laundry that littered the closet floor.  The kid had her back turned as she knelt upon both knees over the large pile of laundry and searched frantically for something.   Buttercup groaned, still holding the closet door open, "Oh no....  What are you doing here?  Dude, really, I'm just trying to get some sleep tonight and you showing up now just isn't-"

"Where is it?!" the kid jumped onto their sandy wet sneakers and began to search the shelfing within the closet, "Where the fuck is it?!"  As the thirteen-year-old removed an old snowglobe from the shelf and tossed it carelessly over her shoulder, Buttercup caught it and glared at her.

"Where's what?!" Buttercup snapped at herself.

The kid stopped suddenly and slowly glanced over her shoulder with her ghostly, opaque white right eye.  "Where's the mask?"

"Oh," Buttercup's angry expression softened.  "...It's... gone...."

"...Oh...."

"...Yeah...."

As Buttercup reached over her to return the snowglobe to its spot on the shelf, the kid turned round to face them.  "Can't you get it back somehow?"

The green Puff sighed deeply and floated slowly back over to the bed, "Nah, Dude..." Buttercup reclined upon the bare mattress again, "I think... I think that shit's over now....  I mean, shit's getting pretty serious now that Mojo knows about us.  I'm hoping it all works out tomorrow, and he's really not gonna make me do something fucked up in return for his silence, but... even if he does keep his word..." Buttercup shut both eyes and yawned, "It's just gettin' way too risky, Dude...."

"Huh..." the kid stood at the teenager's bedside, "I thought we were just startin' to have some real fun...."

Buttercup's eyes remained shut, hoping the illusion would go away soon.  "It was fun while it lasted...."

"Sucks, Man....  Say, you got anything I can eat?  I'm fucking starving, Dude-"

"Dude," Buttercup interrupted with annoyance, "Why are you here?"  The green Puff sat up in bed once more and looked towards the kid and saw that she had made her way across the bedroom.  The blood soaked child stood in front of Buttercup's dresser, staring at the pair of birds that sat within their cage.  Her back was towards Buttercup, but Buttercup could see that the kid suddenly gripped something shiny in her right glowing green, acid burnt hand.

"Same reason I always drop by," the kid answered with her back still turned.  The apparition turned her head slightly, and even in the dark Buttercup could make out the devious glint of a small, sly smile as she still gripped whatever was in her hand.  "I'm here to help you out, you know... since you got nobody else, right?"

Buttercup continued to stare at the kid, but chose to remain silent.  The green Puff watched as the illusion returned her attention to the birdcage, and with her left, seared bloody hand, she reached for the cage's small door and opened it.  Both Snot and Pus instantly tried to dart away from the sizzling glowing green acid drenched palm that reached for them, but the kid easily managed to yank the fluttering green bird from the cage.  Buttercup's eyes widened in shock as she watched the kid cut into the squirming, live bird with a shard of glass, slicing the helpless creature straight down the middle.  His yellow companion fluttered about within the closed cage behind them, squawking loudly as the kid raised the green bird to her lips and began to slurp loudly.

All the green Puff could do was look on in stunned silence as the kid continued to suck the blood from the slowly dying bird.   As many times as the green Puff had received a "visit" from their former, "dead" self, this sort of thing... was definitely new.  As Buttercup continued to watch, the green Puff tried to keep in mind that what was being witnessed... could definitely not be happening.

The kid used her tattered black jacket's sleeve to wipe away the fresh blood-stache from her face, before turning to Buttercup.  "Did ya want the other one?"

The green Puff shook their head.

"Suit yourself," the kid shrugged and tossed the dead green bird over her shoulder, before she repeated the same act with the yellow bird next.  

Buttercup still could not look away.  "Dude... what the actual fuck...?" Eventually, the Puff's green eyes drifted slowly back to wear the discarded dead green bird's drained body lay on the floor of the room.   There was a gust of wind and Buttercup watched as the wooden floorboards of the bedroom and the dead bird began to blow away like strange particles of sand.  The green Puff rose from the bed mattress as it next faded away into the dark atmosphere around them.  "Ah, shit, no wonder..." Buttercup laughed a little nervously, "I'm dreaming...."

"We're dreaming," the kid added as she stood beside herself with a grin.

The green Puff glared briefly for a moment at the unwelcomed tag-along before looking around once more.  The once empty black void that was the adolescent's default dreamscape had changed as of late.  It was still a mostly desolate land, but no longer shrouded in total darkness.  Now, the sky shook with thick, dark and thunderous clouds which boomed with a growing, green electricity inside them.  The fiery green light that crackled within the black storm clouds illuminated the land with an eerie green glow.  The earth was cracked and dry and as the storm ahead continued to boom above, the windy weather of the vast wasteland kicked up the sandy dirt around them.

"Well, whaddya  know?  Ya changed up the place, huh?  I like it!" the kid grinned as she cupped one bloody beaten hand over her brow and looked about the dreamscape.  The thirteen-year-old turned back around and saw that she had been left behind as the green Puff continued to float on ahead without her.  "Yo! Wait up!"

The green Puff carried on without stopping, moving towards a large, distant shadow in the east.  After several minutes, the kid managed to catch up, loudly wheezing and gasping for air as she tried to catch her breath beside the casual floating Powerpuff.

"Dude! I told ya to wait up!" she socked Buttercup on the shoulder with a bloody, bruised fist, "I don't have my ghost powers in this dream world!"

"What sorta sense does that make?"

"I dunno!" the kid threw up her hands, "You tell me!"  the kid paused to cough a little, splattering the dirt with blood.  She wiped at her mouth with her tattered sleeve, as she walked quickly beside the Powerpuff, "Here, I'm just like you were when Goody-Goody left ya behind on that island!   Weak and human-y and useless and burning alive!  You remember?"

The green Puff glared at the kid for a moment before muttering, "Yeah.  I remember."

"So, where we goin' anyway?"

As the two approached a tall arched golden gateway, the green Puff stopped and turned towards the kid.  "No way.  You ain't comin' with me, alright?  Why don't you run off somewhere else, and I dunno... play."

"Why?" the blood-soaked kid strained her eyes as she tried to peer through the thick golden bars of the gate. Besides only having one functioning eye, there was a dense mist in the air that made it difficult to see. "Where are we- Oh-" she stopped as her vision focused on a short redhead walking her pet Pomeranian through the garden.  "Her?" the kid laughed a little, "Dude.  What do you see in her, anyway?   Like... do you like gettin' bossed around, or is it the big boobs, or-"

"Shut up," the green Puff rattled the gate a little to get the kid's attention once more, "Look," the skinny teen's scarred hands grasped the kid by her hooded jacket and spun her to her left, "Go that way, alright?  You'll find Ace's place and have a good time."

"OK, cool!" the kid thankfully agreed, "Which building is it?  That one or that one?"

"What are you talkin' about?  There's only one other build-" the green Puff stopped mid sentence, noticing for the first time a tall silhouette in the distance.

The thirteen-year-old watched as the green Puff shot off for the tall structure with a flash of green light.  "Shit!" she started to chase after on foot, "Wait up!"

As soon as the structure came clearer into focus, the flying teen halted mid-air, "The water tower...?"

For a while, the green Puff remained suspended in the sky, watching the tower intently from afar.  As far as the hero could tell, there were no signs of anyone there, but the scene still felt too ominous.  It was several minutes before the teenager worked up enough courage to continue forward.

Touching down on the metal landing of the water tower, the structure was so high up in the eerie green atmosphere that the darkened mist was especially thick and overpowering even for superpowered vision.  The green Puff gulped nervously, walking cautiously around the platform, tense and ready for anything.  Both green eyes glowed as they searched around the labyrinth of the thick metal beams that supported the tower's massive water tank.   As the teenager reached the railing on the other side, far below could be heard the desperate wheezing and coughing of a struggling thirteen-year-old attempting to climb the tower's ladder.

"Oh, Man!" the kid shouted from below, "I don't think I'm gonna make it!  Dude... a little help?!"

The teenager sighed before zipping downward to retrieve the kid from halfway down the ladder.  The green Puff carried her back up to the metal landing and set her on her feet, but the kid instantly collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily from exhaustion.  

"You know..." the wheezing thirteen-year-old spoke between hard breaths, "That's hard enough... without powers... but climbing really sucks... when your hands... practically have no skin..." she sat up and coughed as she struggled to climb back onto her feet.  The kid stood silent for a while as she watched the green Puff continue to intently search around every metal beam of the platform.  "So what's up?" the kid finally asked after a while.  "What're you lookin' for?"

The green Puff came to the center of the landing, and turned to look back at the kid, wearing a somewhat disappointed frown.  "Nothin', I guess."

#update #chapter 12 #the kid #sneek peek

[letsperaltiago]

I call it magic when I'm with you |Jake x Amy|

So for my b99 Fall Fic Exchange 2019 I got to write for my fave @amyscascadingtabs and got these 3 prompts to inspire my story:

Halloween costume parties

Baking together (could be something Halloween-related or general fall coziness)

Peraltiago kids celebrating Halloween

I decided to combine all 3 of them (somewhat? I mean there’s no party but there’s the mention of costumes) with a main focus on nr. 2. Hope you like it even though I finished it so last minute and it’s kinda not what you asked for... I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened. Started out good and next thing you know there’s Harry Potter sexy times going down... Anyways happy Halloween and fall-season to you, Johanna and everyone else on here. You’re sweetheart and I hope you still enjoy it though my take on your prompts is... alternative. 

———————————————————————————————————

The sound of crunching leaves beneath her feet secretly provoked a happy, giddy feeling in Amy’s stomach and an extra pep in her walk as she made her way back from the deli down the street from their apartment. It was the day before Halloween, a Friday, and this just so happened to be her and Jake’s weekly common day off which had lead to the purpose behind her trip to the deli: Instead of simply handing out candy, the sergeant was going to (see: try to) bake cute Halloween-themed cookies for the cause. Today was truly a day of mysterious events. Not only was Amy Bad-at-anything-culinary Santiago-Peralta going to bake for innocent kids who didn’t know any better than to politely accept her cookies… She had also willingly gone grocery shopping and everyone knew that she far from handled anything colder than 60 degrees very gracefully. Yet Amy couldn’t help but smile just a bit as a fresh breeze played with both her hair and dead leaves in various shades of red, orange and yellow.

Also extra plump from all the unconscious smiling, her husband couldn’t help but notice the extra bright pink shade of her cheeks when she finally walked in the door with a stuffed paper bag.

“Not too cold?” He hurriedly made his way from the living room to where she was standing by the door to grab the paper bag from her grip.

“A bit,” she shrugged off her coat before putting it away along with her shoes. “But also kind of nice. Refreshing even.”

A scoff could be heard from kitchen the room where Jake was now in the midst of putting down the heavy bag and its content. “Amy Santiago enjoying the cold? Must be a lie.”

“Perhaps adding Peralta to my name changed me for the better,” was mumbled into Jake’s left ear suddenly, letting a tiny giddy shock run through him as an effect from feeling her arms wrap around his waist from behind him. Not that he minded one bit but he hadn’t noticed her making her way from the door to him. Instantly in a reaction to the pleasent surprise, a smile grew on his face and though she couldn’t see his face, it didn’t take much more than the slight change in the tone of his voice to tell her that he was smiling.

“Well… ” the affectionate touch had quickly captured Jake’s full attention causing him to stop his dutiful process of unpacking the groceries onto the counter as to allow himself to turn around in her grip on him to look at her. Their nose-tips briefly brushed across each other, bubbling chuckles dancing from their lips, accompanying their stupidly happy grins. There was barely what could be called space between them. A tiny readjustment was all it would take for them to get that loving lock of lips they always craved. Indeed Jake was in the midst of leaning in to kiss his wife whilst mumbling, “Guess I’m the best thing that has ever happened to you then-“ when a loud wail interrupted their little moment, this bursting their otherwise bulletproof bubble, just as their lips were about to come together and he’d just barely been able to sense that his wife’s lips were still cold from her trip to the deli. A sigh was the only thing Amy got to feel, not at all as satisfying but nonetheless replacing the kiss, before she drew back to shoot him an apologetic yet slightly amused smile.

Jake returned the exact same look. “Did you tell her to do that?”

In a split second Amy’s cheeky apologetic blush switched to a look of defence followed by a playful punch to his shoulder. “How dare you!”

Seriousness being a rare matter it all of course just earned her a soft laugh from Jake who put his hands in the air in what was supposed to look innocence as he slowly backed away from the kitchen towards the hall. “I’m just saying… She’s been napping peacefully ever since I put her down before you left for the deli so it seems rather suspicious that she just now, all of the sudd-“

“Shut up, Peralta,” she scowled picking up on where he’d left off unpacking the groceries, “… and feel free to collect your daughter since you two seem to be ganging up and framing me.”

Though she was clearly messing with him there was no way she’d have to tell him twice; apart from Amy, their new barely 3-month old daughter was Jake’s favorite human and every second with her, wailing furiously or making happy gurgling-sounds, was precious. Still, even after a few months into fatherhood, her daughter was even better and more perfect than he’d ever dared to expect. Actually he never actually knew what to expect since he was so damn scared, but Marcy was incredible. It felt amazingly incredible to not be able to imagine a life without someone that you used to not be able to imagine your life with.

“Hey, Marcipan,” he cooed as he carefully pushed open the door to the infants little, pastel yellow painted room. The little girl of course didn’t answer but simply let out another wail as to call out for someone’s (preferably mom or dad’s) attention.

“Shhh,” he shushed her calmly all while safely leaning down over her bassinet to cradle her tiny body his warm hands. Within seconds, making sure to be careful with the tiny human still as fragile as porcelain, his daughter was safely cradled in his arms and a warmth that had come to grow very familiar spread within him. “What do you say we go help mom bake some cookies, huh?”

He pecked Marcy’s forehead before slowly making his way out the room and down the short hall before continuing the one-sided conversation. “Just between the two of us, we have no choice but to help her,” there was a truth in the words that provoked a chuckle from the father’s own lips. “If we don’t she’s gonna burn the place down and we’ll have to spend Halloween in the streets. Your mom might be tough enough for that but I sure as hell am not.” Whether is was on purpose or not, his sentence ended as he rounded the corner to the kitchen.

“I heard that, you know…” His wife currently had her back turned to them, hands working on something on the kitchen counter and allowing Jake to admire the long, shiny pony tail flowing down her back. Pony tail meant serious business in the book of Amy Peralta-Santiago.

“Just being honest with her, honey.”

There was barely any time for her to react before she felt his figure’s presence besides her, presenting her her now awake and curiously observing daughter. A smile instantly appeared on the mother’s face, her hands interrupting whatever she was doing.

“Hi, baby,” she cooed sweetly ahead of bowing down to place a kiss, similarly to how Jake had just seconds ago, to her daughter’s soft forehead. “Did you nap well while mommy was gone? Or did you just spend the entire time plotting against me with your father?”

“Oh mommy, me and dad would never be mean to you,” Jake spoke in a high-pitched, phony voice as to take on his daughter’s role.

Amy straightened back up to take in the funny sight of her husband’s parody with one hand on her now popped hip and a suspiciously cocked eyebrow. Though there was no way she was actually mad at him, this kind of banter was a Peralta-Santiago trademark. Not a day went by without it and Jake incorporating their newborn daughter was definitely to his advantage.

“Hm,” she turned back to what appeared to be a bowl with mixed ingredients. “I don’t know if I believe you two…”

“Please believe us, mommy,” Jake continued his little sketch, following Amy’s movement away from them trying to close the remaining distance between them. “I napped really well and daddy just sat there thinking about how much he loves you and how he can’t wait to see you wearing that sexy Hermione costume he bought-”

Upon hearing those last few words slipping off her husband’s lips (her husband who was currently holding their tiny daughter in their arms!!) Amy’s head snapped back to him and away from where it was looking at what was slowly but somewhat surely becoming cookie dough. “Jake!” Though his wife’s eyes would forever and always be the most beautiful, soothing and perfect brown pair, for a second right there in that moment, he feared them and the threatening daggers they shot. “Don’t say stuff like that in front of Marcy!”

“Babe, she’s a baby,” he chuckled warmly to his defence, leaning in before tenderly placing kiss to his wife’s cheek followed by replacing them directly onto her ear so that his breathy whisper could hopefully cause shivers to run down her spine. “I could add so many more details about what you and I do when she’s asleep and she wouldn’t understand a thing.”

One side of Amy, the one that did quiver beneath the feeling of his whisper into her ear, wanted to give in to the tension her husband had managed to sneak into an otherwise very innocent and domestic moment.  Yet her contradicting side, the one that was eyeing their tiny daughter safely cuddled up in his arms, managed to fight her urge. Yes, it was a fact that the otherwise incredible arrival of their daughter had kept them from any particularly intimate activities. Whenever Marcy happened to somewhat sleep through the night the two exhausted parents made sure to use every precious second to catch up on the constant state of lacking sleep that they currently lived in. Yet she couldn’t get herself to act on her urges right in front of the tiny, innocent human.

“Jake…” Amy’s vocal chords barely managed to generate a mumble with a longing quiver as she fought the fight between giving in to the side of her that was simply a craving human and the side that was a parent.

Deep down she knew that they couldn’t go any further - at least not right now when her baby’s beautiful, innocent face was looking right at her. Nonetheless she couldn’t break the spell without allowing herself to give into the intrigue that her husband’s familiar lips waiting expectingly against her ear brought to life within her. There barely even time to acknowledge the movement before her neck and head had twisted just enough in his direction for her ear to be replaced by her lips. Years later and he still made her feel like a bubbleheaded love-sick teen.

“I know she’s a baby…” Amy whispered into the merge of their moving lips, somehow managing to keep up with Jake’s lips that happened to be persuasive as ever in the act of pursue this rush of affection for his wife. “… But we need to behave.”

“Uhummm,” as carefree as he was known to be, there was no way the mumble meant Jake planned on stopping. Itself the fact that he’d been able to keep Amy going, partially against her morals, for this long was a tiny victory that sparked the teasing competitive within him that he loved almost as much as her.

Though Amy kept telling herself that she was indeed about to break it up, Marcy letting out a tiny squeal beat her to it. The two enamoured adults quickly broke the embrace both instantly redirecting their wild gazes down at their fussy daughter. Both had to let out a small chuckle meanwhile Marcy looked anything but pleased by her parents’ lack of immersion in her presence.

“We pissed her off,” Jake joked before taking a step back from his position previously glued to his wife, allowing room to gently rock the infant which instantly reacted by quieting down. Still by the kitchen counter and having learned quite early into their new role as parents that Jake was very much capable of handling their daughter’s small tantrums on his own, Amy had resumed to the process of her Halloween cookie-experiment (Amy doing anything in the kitchen was an experiment, Jake had learned a long time ago).

“She’s tired of her dad being so obsessed with her mother instead of her.”

Jake could hear the smirk in her voice as she shuffled across the tiny kitchen to turn on the oven for her.

“That must be a big misunderstanding then,” he carefully repositioned the tiny human. Instead of cradling her carefully he was now holding her by the armpits, Lion King-stylez, facing him as he raised his arms to hold her at his eye level. “Isn’t that right, Marcipan?” He kissed his daughters forehead tenderly before holding her back out to look into her eyes. “You and I both know that you’re my favorite, don’t we?” his voice immediately indulged in his daughter’s universe, mushy and goofy,  only adding sweetness to the sight of him simultaneously nuzzling her tiny with his big nose.

Moments like these could only kindle a varm feeling in every corner of Amy’s body.

Since things were going so well for them she rarely gave it any thought, but in moments like this specific one it suddenly hit her that at some point Jake actually doubted his abilities as a parent. Yet here was, goofing around with their child like it was the most natural thing in the world, and Amy could only burst with pride at the sight. Not only had she witnessed Jake picking a tough battle in order to disobey the voices in his head telling him that there was no way he could be a better father than his own was; now she was also witnessing him, on a daily basis, being what she could only consider as being the most loving, dedicated and hard-working father to their daughter.

“I’m okay with that,” Amy smirked, making her way to the fridge to put the dough to rest. Jake’s eyes followed her, staying attentive for many reasons, as he carefully placed his daughter back into a cradled position in his arms. There was no way he was going to be let off with being right; something was coming to shut him up and all he could do was observe, wait patiently for his witty wife to pull out the last trick hidden up her sleeve. Her every move was noted.

Slowly closing the fridge was step one. The movement wasn’t exactly slow enough to seem suspicious, like it was leading to something else, but what happened afterwards or better known as step two would definitely blow his mind.

“… cause at the end of the day, as soon as I put on that costume… I’ll be your favorite.” Just in time to match her reaching the end of her venomous sentence, Amy tantalisingly turned around (right on that very same spot by the now closed fridge) and like a dagger stabbing him in his hopelessly devoted heart her deep, her brown eyes told him everything he needed to know. As so many times before she was more than right - and as so many times before he didn’t mind one bit. If she wasn’t smirking before (which she was) then she definitely was now and it was driving Jake crazy which with the biggest guarantee in the world she immensely enjoyed. Amy Santiago-Peralta had driven him crazy with great, legendary purpose for the past 11 years and by the looks of it she wasn’t planning on stopping; yet another fact Jake didn’t mind one bit.

He especially didn’t mind later that evening, after saving five entire batches of cookies from burning, when Marcy decided to stay asleep and his wife suddenly walked into their bedroom clad in a what Hogwarts would definitely define as a scandalous outfit: a way too revealing school girl outfit (if you asked Hogwarts - not Jake), red knee-socks and tie, only to be topped off with a magic wand. Needless to say that Jake, who’d quietly been sitting in bed on his phone playing Candy Crush (such a dad) dropped his jaw through their bedroom floor right at that very moment. Ambushed was not the word; this was so much worse (better).

“Hey, babe…” She smiled teasingly, posing by the end of the bed well knowing that she hypothetically could say or do nothing at all and it would still drive Jake insane. But where was the fun in that?

“Wanna explore my chamber of secrets?”

His reaction to those words, to her brief dismay, reminded her of Scully’s famous heart attacks. “Oh my God, Amy,” he basically gasped for air and Amy loved it as she took her time making her way around the bed before straddling him with the dopiest yet sexiest grin on her face.

“Jake Peralta!” She gasped playfully. “Is that a wand in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

And though he loved his daughter more than anything in the world, he prayed that tonight would be the night Marcy Santiago-Peralta would make him proud and sleep soundly.

“Guilty as charged…” He returned the grin, having finally returned from his stroke-like state, only to put his phone aside to slide his hands all the way up her thigh to her waist, burying them under her robe to pick at the edge of her skirt. Amy Peralta-Santiago-Granger… You’ve definitely got me under your spell for the night.”

#b99 fall 2019 fic exchange #b99 fic #peraltiago fic #peraltiago #jake x amy #amy santiago #jake peralta #brooklyn nine nine #b99 #fanficition

[oikawasbread]

(part 1) Ah, okay for matchup’s, I thought it would be cool to try one of theses because I've never done one before. I’m female, and bisexual. I’m a Scorpio, and I enjoy track and cross country, dancing, which i’m fairly good at, photography and reading in general. I also find myself getting back into drawing and singing oftenly. It said I was a INTP-T. I have relatively short brown hair, which is curly. I’m mixed, more on the tan side and i’m 5′6 (I just checked)

I wear glasses majority of the time, and i’m fairly curvy. I see myself as a ambivert who has a bit of a shy shell, but can easily be broken into revealing a very energetic human being. My friends describe me as scary?? Aka, i’m not afraid to defend myself or state my opinion in many conversations. Along with that, I do get anxiety quiet often and wonder frequently if I accidentally made someone mad or not. With people I trust or like, i’m fairly loud and laugh alot- and its to the point where people have to tell me to calm down lmao. I enjoy engaging conversations almost about anything, and I wish I can have those types of talks more in my life. Alone however, i’m usually quiet and don’t start conversations unless I have too, or someone starts a conversation with me. In relationships, I’m just looking for someone who can make me laugh, while also tying me down when my emotions get the best of me, while respecting who I am. A few negative parts about my life can be simply showed with my zodiac sign with me being able to get jealous really fast and holding big grudges other small things, which are two things i’m trying to work on currently. On the positive note, I will say that I will literally take a bullet to save any of my best friends to be completely honest. I enjoy the rain, snow, and cold temperatures. I love animals and I have a very tiny doggo that I treasure with every ounce of my being. finally the last one im so sorry) I really enjoy reading about Greek gods and fantasy books. Another fact is that I get flustered really easily, which a lot of people tease me about. I don’t exactly like to stand out, which is why my wardrobe has more dark colors, as I don’t own any red/orange/yellow or pink shirts. And finally the last fact I thought I should include randomly is that I play the piano and learning it this year was one of the best decisions I've made in my life.

Damn, don’t feel sorry for this detailed description, fr. I actually enjoyed so much writing this. As a scorpio, I relate to you so much. I spent so much time on this and you gave me so much info so i had to do a whole character analysis for you and I felt like i was writing about myself. So I enjoyed writing this so much cause I realised new things I didn’t knew about me and it feels good to know that I’m not the only one who is like this.

Anyways!

MATCHING WITH : OIKAWA TOORU

Aight, I know that so many people hate him. And i don’t know if you hate or love him , but hear me out : Besides being a cancer and working with a scorpio so well, i feel like Oikawa would be perfect for your character.

-

 he’s totally in love with the way you style your brown curly hair. 

he says ‘’it’s almost as good as my hair’’

  he’s a total simp he knows your hair is better than his

 has a thing for your tanned skin. tbh u make him wish he wasn’t so pale :’( baby boy wants to get that tanned shiny skin! but it is what it isss

 you being 5’6 makes it easy for him to mock you. 

but he won’t exaggerate, because he knows you’re going to cut him with your sharp glance

 you’re clearly the top in this relationship. i mean you’re a scorpio. are we surprised?

 y’all r going to volleyball matches looking badass asf with your matching glasses but in reality you two are being crackheads in the last row of seats

 he clearly sees through you, but not since the beginning  

 at first, he was totally a bit scared to approach you. he’s always seen you being intimidating and sarcastic

you were like a challange to him, since Tooru himself is pretty intimidating and sarcastic

until he opens his mouth

and i think this is what makes you two so perfect for each other : you just need some time to warm up, then you suddenly become the funniest people of the group

 as a scorpio,  you can be pretty insensitive, having trouble when it comes to expressing your feelings, and when you and Tooru get into a fight, you won’t hesitate to throw some venomous words. sometimes you just can’t control your anger

but he knows you well. he won’t take it by heart since he knows how short your temper is, and he’s willing to step on his pride and put an end to your argument

 you’’re not afraid to step up. you’ve always went too far to defend your beliefs and he’s totally whipped. he thinks you would make a great lawyer haha

he loves how you always have a good argument for everything and how you can beat people in a fight just with your words. it’s truly amazing for him, the power you hold

so he avoids fighting with you

           I JUST KNOW you guys both have struggles when it comes to following rules. it comes with your zodiac sign. even though he’s way softer and innocent than you, you will drag him into your adventures. and he won’t say no :’)

 sometimes you feel like Oikawa is the only person who understands you, who doesn’t think you’re insane

he may not be a genius, but you can’t deny the fact that he’s actually clever

he understands you without even having to hear any words coming out of your mouth

Tooru knows you’re rebellious, stubborn, independent; he knows how you sometimes can feel 29843 emotions at the same time, and he’s here for you

he won’t question you when you don’t feel like talking. Instead, he would make a cup of your favourite tea, add  some ice in it, and watch you reading your favourite book while you’re drinking the tea in which he put his secret ingredient <3 love!!

you love reading about Greek Gods, and he loves aliens : so you slowly became a fan of the universe, the unknown, and he started to love the Greek Mythology

totally in love with your dance moves ; watching you dance is his favourite hobby; the way your body moves amazes him and he tries to dance like you sometimes . he may be the great king but not on the dance floor.

long story short, he’s in love with everything about you : your passion for photography, the things you’re reading (he actually finds your favourite authors quite interesting) , the way you’re singing in the shower or how you’re humming some familiar songs when you’re focused on something

he thinks he’s so lucky, and skipping some volleyball practices to hear you play his fave song at the piano is totally worth it

when he found out you’re an athlete, his brain went poof

watching you run with the sunlight dripping all over you was what he needed to get his mind off the school and vbc stress

having a thing for sports made you even more interesting and hot (he didn’t knew you could get hotter than you already are)

sometimes he can see that you’re needing approval, and he tries his best to let you know that you are the greatest at whatever you do.

you think he’s bluffing just to make you feel good, but you appreciate it so much even tho baby boy actually thinks you’re the greatest. like fr. you are his grand queen

you have a rich inner world, so you’d rather focus your attention on it instead of the external world. 

Oikawa thinks it’s pretty cute, cause you guys sometimes have lazy Sundays when you just lay in bed all day and do nothing but enjoying each others presence and your own thoughts.

Tooru, just like you, hates failure. losing any type of match puts him down, and the same happens to you. 

you feel like you wanna start over and do things the other way around, but you can’t.

the good thing is, you have each other.

 he mocks the hell out of your jealousy. whenever his fan girls are approaching him, you feel your heart stop and the oxygen fading away. you just wanna let out your anger

but he knows it, and he will reassure you that you don’t have any reason to feel that way. 

he’s only interested in his Grand Queen and no one else can change his mind.

he finds it quite fun that you hold grudges over small things, he can clearly see that you’re vengeful, and that makes you two lil partners in crime.

BUT the way you’re willing to do absolutely anything for him or your friends inspires him so much. 

of course, he would take a bullet for you. But your strong spirit is what’s making him be so passionate about everything : you inspire him

 the best days for him are when you two are around the house, and it suddenly starts raining. 

he only has to look at you once, and you both drop everything you’re doing and run outside to just sit in the rain. the feeling of the cold rain on your skin while you’re trapped between his arms makes your heart explode

 little moments like these are making you both fall in love more and more everyday.

I really really hope you enjoyed this! I tried my best and please feel free to request again whenever you want! <33                                                                                          

-Riley

[ofcloudsandstars]

God this week was one of them WEEKS but I will post about some daily adventures and pics. It was good I am just reflecting and it was a ride lol. 

I just think cause celestially there was a lot of ““disharmonious”” aspects though I don’t really like calling them that it’s more like aspects that cause a lot of tension but that could be use as gun powder for energy or if you choose to not use it it can explode in other uncontrollable ways. 

Sunday my best witch friend invited me to this performance in London (if you guys went you’d know it was hell) called ‘Black Moon Lilith in Pisces in the 4th House’ which already a foreboding enough title. It was performed by Johanna Hedva at The Forum where apparently according to my witch friends that went was an Actual non-consentual seance of this musician channeling her mother who was abusive and died from alcoholism. She also trapped the attendees in this black room?? But to say the obvious I did not go cause I had a ✧・ﾟStaff Party・ﾟ:* (I am a Libra with priorities) and there was a potential for my work crush to be there so I got to partake in a ritual of one of my fave magics (glamour magic) and I wore a silver slinky gown with smokey black eyeshadow, long silver chain earrings and my selenite orb necklace. I painted my nails sheer silver too. I used glamour to make myself more alluring and ‘shiny’ to charm people/catch their eye etc. No my crush wasn’t there because that’s how life be BUT all the other managers were and they were all like Shocked at how I looked like I felt like the morningstar and the P&D manager literally gagged when she saw me cause she couldn’t find the words. The magic was sadly wasted cause my crush wasn’t there but maybe this was my guides trying to save me from shitting where I eat cause that was the evening Mars and Venus were in an intense square and we would have definitely gone home together. It was the same night another witch friend split with her wife and she had to move back home with her parents which is always unfun. 

Which leads me to Monday, I was staying at a coworkers BOUGIE house in highbury and Islington that’s a two floor apartment to babysit his cats while he and his girlfriend were away in the Philippines. I am known as a cat lover at work so he came to me to look after his place but I reached out to my friend cause I knew these aspects were trying and she asked if she could stay at the flat with me. I said yes which was.. a MISTAKE lol. Out of respect I don’t want to go into the details of her life but its more of I didn’t realize how blessed I was to be able to have a moment to rest and reflect in a nice apartment and I was trying to be nice and help out a friend but it was like the scene in titanic where there is a door they are holding on to for support and for some reason Rose gets to sit on the door and Jack is in the water and I felt like I was supporting this friend and getting sunken down myself. It’s crazy how much someone can take up space and when she wasn’t UNLOADING her drama of work and her ending marriage when I would come home from work desiring peace and quiet, she would try to change the subject but her mind is in a negative space since she is going through chaotic change so it would be always a negative or violent topic and I am like.. I need SPACE. 

The last straw was on the second night I asked if she could sleep on a sheet on the sofa since I noticed that people prefer when others sleep on bedsheets if they sleep on sofas and since it’s not my house and it doesn’t belong to a friend of mine but a coworker who is my SUPERIOR at work entrusting me with his house I want to be extra careful with his things and she said: Oh did I do something wrong?? And that question just irritated me cause it’s like no I am not implying you are dirty and will contaminate his couch its just this isn’t someone close to me and obviously this place is fucking bougie they have a Fountain for their Cats in the kitchen so you know they are uppity people like just sleep on the fucking sheet jeeze. Then she got up.. and there were Stains.. And she quickly said: Oh yeah I noticed they were there before.. Maybe they were from the cats?? 1. I was in the house days before and never saw the stains.  2. Regardless of whom it was from, even, if it was the cats, she should have said something cause its my RESPONSIBILITY to look after the house and if the cats ruined something I’d have to take care of it and if it wasn’t fixable I’d have to report it asap to my coworker and 3. upon further inspection it was chocolate.. Which means no it was not the cats, it was her, and instead of her taking responsibility for whatever she stained it with she just sat there for hours and if I wouldn’t have suggested she slept on the sheet which she was passively trying to make me feel bad for even asking her to do this then the chocolate would have had even longer to seep into the couch.  I asked her if she ate any chocolate lately and she was like: O yea, I had some cookies! In a babey voice and I was so done I just silently got the sponge and scrubbed the stains the fuck out the couch. 

That night I was literally sending energy out towards her like: You have to leave tomorrow and it will all be understood and go smoothly. The next morning the first thing she asked was: Hey how have you been feeling? Like she knew and she received the energy, and I was like yes sorry I haven’t been great and I do need space to process it alone. And an hour later she left to go back to her parents.  

Wednesday was my friend’s (this is the Scorpio witch I did DMT with and also moved here briefly from Brooklyn, she is from my NYC witch community) closing ceremony she did for her healing space in Peckham. I am sad to see her go cause she was such a fantastic friend and interesting presence in my life but she is moving on to the next chapter and is joining some community of witches in New Orleans which I am excited for her since she has also been on this journey of self love and healing trauma from her ancestral roots and its great that she is going to join a loving black spiritual community. There is also an underground movement happening in Louisiana with black radical Americans growing their own food and trying to help each other out so she is going to get involved there. She is an inspiration cause I kind of wish I could be this radical and just move from place to place and use my powers for healing but like its not easy to compare especially cause my friend went through some insane trauma that probably contributed to her taking a more dynamic path and maturing faster spiritually than I have. I mean she has an insane scorpio stellium and would do DMT often like having an ego death is just cyclical to her cause pluto is her ruler so its just another healing process for her to die again and be reborn from her ashes even though I probably could never do DMT again for at least 15 years lol. (It’s not my medicine). Her friend did a soundbath which was really nice in the space and I met up with some other witch friends there and FINALLY this illusive witch I made a yule stocking for that has been intensely hibernating since she split with her girlfriend and had to move back with her parents as well (the planets have not been kind to your relationships guys) but it was funny cause the yule cards I made for everyone were based off of oracle cards I pulled that reflected their year and winter to come and hers was literally about how she was going to hibernate and needed rest so when she apologized for not being around I was pointing to the image on the card of the person chilling in their burrow under the earth like: It’s ok that’s you!!! 

The rest of the week I have pictures for and I will post about them separately. 

I always feel bad I haven’t been on here as much as usual but my life has been eventful and full of adventure and I am in the process of figuring myself out (again.. a long ongoing process lol) so I haven’t been spending much time on the computer anyway. I used to love doing posts from magic in my personal life here but like everyday there is a lot of magic here happening in my life in london so I feel like it’s everyday and I feel like I don’t want to bombard you all with daily nonsense or drama. I also would want to be more productive with what I post like maybe use some of my knowledge I’ve been working with for years to teach people but I am somewhat unconfident in that. I am also kind of hard on myself. 

#personal #what I have been up to #the hot mess libra witch living her london life

[viknaerth]

Flash Points Challenge 001

what are some of your favorite tropes? -  400 POINTS

This one I had to think on for a minute because I think with my writing I was very anti-tropes for a while. For me I love historicity, so best friendships and pre-established connections that blur lines or develop into something more intense are particularly special. I think that’s because there a never-ending depth to the relationship, it can always be delved into and picked apart. Aside from that in character building, I have a terrible love of anti-heroes. Good in their heart but not necessarily in their actions, I think that it paves the way for more opportunistic and exciting writing.   

do you have a favorite character you’ve written, in or outside of shiver? if so, what makes them your fave?  -  550 POINTS

This is tough because I’m not about to get into the laundry list but I have love for all the characters I’ve written and me being an actual old person of tumblr means there are actually a heap of them. I have to give love to my two kiddos here because I’m having such a good time writing them. Elyse’s dim mind and super bright personality is a duality I find a lot of joy in trying to portray because as with all of my onion children there's so much more than that. She’ll do anything for anyone and the way that I write her really does mean anything so it’s been interesting to see the lengths she’d go to. My darling Vik is a consistent expression of what the experience of loss looks like. Somehow, even when you lose everything that you hold dear the world keeps turning even though it shouldn’t. I like his candid way of approaching romance and the fact that he’s more poetry than person. And then a final shoutout to one of the last characters I played outside of Shiver because they’re on my mind and that’s Sid James, a traveling tattoo artist. No wild supernatural AU, just a grand love of art, aesthetics and self-acceptance. There have been a couple of iterations of her and they all managed to carry the same energy, the muse is strong with that one. 

do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large ones? what are some of the pros and cons?  -  400 POINTS

Yes and yes? In my world small is say under 10 and then large would be 20+ and for me I’ve had positive and negative experiences with both. I think that overall I would say you have an easier time writing with fewer people as it forces you to make meaningful connections when plotting. Not saying it isn’t possible in a bigger group, people just have more options and the ways in which characters are linked can get spread think depending on the setting. I think for me the smaller cast wins out and the pros are certainly as I’ve said above and you get a chance to meet and engage with people outside of the rping space more frequently. With bigger groups it can be harder to stake a claim or make yourself heard in amongst everyone else. The cons of a small group is that dedication is required to make sure that it isn’t just 5 out of 10 keeping the dash moving and people leaving can have a greater effect on the whole look and feel of the rp. In a bigger cast of characters 2 people leaving, while it is a shame, maybe not alter the whole balance of the rp. As with anything it is a balancing act, for me whether there’s 4 or 40 people involved I just prefer to write with dedicated and creative writers.

what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)? - 500 POINTS

Okay, listen, we’ve all been there: I could definitely admin an rp, in fact, I could definitely make an rp! 

It really isn’t as simple and shiny as everyone else makes it seem. I’ve made to completion 3 rps and plenty of others that never saw the light of day. That was mostly because the high concept was way outside my realm of knowledge or the intricacies grew to be too much. I know there’s little examples but I feel like I’ve done all of them. From a post-apocalypic rp that had it’s own barter systems, power hierarchy and fully scaled map that I made in PS. I recognised it was way too much way too late and I just didn’t do anything with it. Way too much research time spent on how society would societally and physically rebuild itself after a doomsday moment. 

share the last paragraph you wrote you’re most proud of. - 650 POINTS

Elyse:

Elyse had never looked anyone so deeply in the eye before, sure that she saw a whole world between her darkened iris’, unsure if she’d ever been so close to anyone. While ditzy she was never clumsy, too much restraint holding all of her muscles rigid to bump into someone like they did in the movies. Books would drop, both hunkering down, eyes meet and supposedly that was what attraction was. A succession of touches, glances and fumbled words. Neither of them had managed poetic verse, but they shared a glance that didn’t waver and their lips had brushed and could again according to Selene. Elyse’s doe eyes watched the woman in front of her so intently, just waiting for a cue or for her to make a move. She never believed she could be in control nor did it call to her. Her two sisters were the guiding forces, each had their own styles of giving direction. Elyse felt as though she’d been led to the center of the universe, stood in front of the only thing that mattered. The cracks in the pool tiles seemed to push themselves back together and the peeling paint on the motel’s rear curled back up into place. Everything was the most perfect version of itself and Elyse finally realized that while control wasn’t exactly her forte she did have to respond.

Vik:

His cheek and his precious hair graced by delicate fingers who had played his strings before. Vik felt like an instrument in her hands, known and appreciated. Impossible to some and unscrutable to most she elicited the finest melody out of him. It echoed love and support, a song for her alone. Their relationship so unique, a musician and their chosen companion were inseparable until the lowly tool fell into disrepair. Vik was broken in ways he didn’t understand entirely, a mix of trauma, loss and nowhere to call home. Could he play the same melodies? Were they sharp, or worse, were they flat? If she stayed then he supposed time would tell. But with his forehead pressed against hers, he forgot his worry. Vik looked into her eyes and remembered his place, holding no ability to judge who he’d become. She would always be enchanting and he only hoped that there was something left in him to offer her.

describe your current muse’s physical appearance using only one, over the top sentence. - 400 POINTS

y’all can guess whos who ok:

A sunshine smile knitted to soft lips, arms crossed over chest by way of keeping her pieces held as one; swaying as the breeze takes her. 

Tousled locks framed her marble features, canines bared in a daring grin and her eyes honed like a predator to prey with no malintent, instead just to offer a sweet and empty promise of love. 

if you had to write a novel about one of the characters in or outside of shiver, which character would you choose and why? - 600 POINTS

Tuffy, real tuff. 

I think no matter who I picked there would be a whole load of infringement on other people’s writing. Though I think that’s rping, it’s the coming together of pairings to create magic scenes and capture moments in a way that a single perspective could never. Elyse is a funny little one and I’m actually (omg spoiler) currently writing her actual history out as we speak. Then with Vik his history and coming to be where he is right now makes for a very cohesive and readable tale. Paired with an ideal partner, but she couldn’t love him back, he sought something different, the something different kidnapped and tortured him, he was sent away from his home, and then his love very much accidentally found him again in a new space and as a very different person than the one she once knew. It writes itself really. It would hit a lot of beats that it has to and has very classical romance tropes while being both modern and entirely high fantasy. 

The last thing Vik needs to hear is that he’s getting a biography tho to be fair. 

#flash points #shiver.gang #i put it all under the cut bc honestly its all long

[disgruntledkittenface]

hey hi hello I updated the girl direction fic rec link you can find on my blog on desktop. perfect formatting eludes me, but this list of my personal faves is now to up to date! I’m also going to link under a read more. enjoy <3

Updated January 2, 2019

Her Love On My Lips (1k)

Harry and Louis take a late night drive. And Louis makes a confession.

another lovesick afternoon (2k)

a coffee shop au where harry pines and can't say no to a dare

Too Great a Temptation (2k)

Harry and Louis attend a fancy dress ball.

brighter than the sun (2k)

Louis meets Harry at a flea market.

that time of the month (3k)

Harry and Louis both reach for the last box of tampons at the store.

makes me wanna be all yours (3k)

Harry meets Louis when she visits her best friend Niall, who's away at university

Our Own Little French Club (3k)

It's a simple movie night. Or is it? Louis invites herself over to watch a movie with Harry, and the question of whether or not it's a date waits for an answer.

A Prank Or Two (Let Me End Up With You) (3k)

Hogwarts AU where Louis loves pulling pranks and ends up in detention with a fifth-year Ravenclaw, who does look kind of cute though.

the wheel breaks the butterfly (4k)

AU. harry and louis are roommates. girls' night ends a little differently than usual.

All’s Fair in Love and Laundry (4k)

Harry has run out of clothes to wear. So she puts on the hideous nightgown Gemma got her for Christmas and prays no one sees her as she makes a mad dash to the laundry room to fix her clothing situation. Of course, the universe hates her (or maybe loves her) because in walks the most beautiful girl Harry has ever seen. Banter and teasing ensue and maybe a bit of romance too. And maybe, just maybe, that ugly nightgown wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Quiet Afternoon Crush / Violent Overnight Rush (4k)

Louis and Harry are models, flat mates and Halloween costume connoisseurs. They’re also best friends who occasionally fuck. It’s not a big deal though.

the summertime and the butterflies (4k)

Louis works at a charity shop, Harry’s the hot hipster-ish girl who buys all her clothes there.

It’s A Long Way Down (4k)

There’s a loud rumble, along with the sound of something shattering below the hood. Louis has just enough time to swerve her car to the emergency lane before it comes to a standstill and they’re stranded on a road. Very public car sex ensues.

all down your shoulders and back (5k)

Louis has known Harry for three years now, and she's had plenty of practice avoiding thoughts like that, for her own sake and everyone else's. If she ever slips up, it’s because she’s drunk, or high, or Harry’s just threatened to cut off her hair. (Non AU. Harry and Louis are cisgirls. Everything else is more or less the same.)

Lay Down, Decide Me (5k)

She sends off a last text reading, "I just really want Lou to pull my hair while I eat her out. Is that too much to ask," before burrowing herself under the blankets. When her phone dings with a reply, she's expecting Zayn to complain about overshare, but instead what she gets is, "be there in 10." From Louis. Which. Oh fuck.

Lips Won’t Let Me Go (5k)

This is it. This is the highlight of Louis' life. She hooks her chin on Harry's shoulder, and then says ecstatically, "Driver? Roll up the partition please." Or, Harry and Louis are celebrity girlfriends who fuck in limos.

Ridiculous (5k)

The first time they meet, Harry’s got her tits out and Louis inhales hairspray. The events might be related.

Take All of Me (5k)

“So, my rut’s coming early,” Harry says, straight to the point because she’s had all day to dwell on this and worries are starting to cloud her thoughts. “Like, the doctor gave me these new suppressants for my asthma, and she said it’s coming early and there’s no way your heat won’t trigger it.” Or, Harry and Louis' rut/heat cycles sync up for the first time.

Bittersweet, Irrepressible (5k)

In which Harry's been in love with Louis all semester but can't tell the difference between platonic and romantic interactions, leading to pining and confusion and at least one date.

You’re Here, Where You Should Be (5k)

three years after having last seen her best friend, Louis shows up at the Christmas party Harry's family throws every year. Old feelings might not be as buried as Harry had thought.

Just Say the Word (5k)

Five times Harry watches Lou from across the bar and one time she actually makes a move.

Genderswap AU series (6k)

Part 1: Harry figures out how to make herself come and shows Louis.  

Part 2: they go from putting on eyeliner to sex.

As Time Goes By (6k)

Louis found herself enthralled with the way Harry talked; kind of hesitant and drawn out, like she wasn’t really expecting to be heard. Louis wondered who in Harry’s life talked over her or tried to make her stop in the middle of a story. That would be a shame, because Louis was loving their conversation. There was something about the way that Harry’s mouth formed the words, and the rasp of her voice. Louis hated talking on the phone as a rule, but she imagined she could listen to Harry talk for hours. She wanted to curl up next to her on the couch and listen to Harry talk about anything and everything.

Wow. Louis needed to get a grip. They hadn’t even opened the wine yet, and Louis was already fantasizing about cuddling Harry.

the pressure’s rising (i won’t make it through the night) (7k)

harry goes out. the night ends unexpectedly when she meets louis.

Dream About That Casual Touch (7k)

Louis and Harry fuck up two dates before they finally get it right.

Rush Crush (7k)

Stumbling through the entryway was a slender girl with dark chocolate curls. Louis picked her out of the crowd immediately seeing as how she was the only one who wasn’t wearing something overly feminine. No, this one was dressed in black skinny jeans that accentuated the obscene length of her legs. Her black Chelsea boots were shiny, softly reflecting the glow from the hanging chandelier. Louis’ eyed trailed back up and noticed the faint trace of ink showing through the girl’s white t-shirt.

In the Heat of the Night (7k)

“You’re sleeping with me, obviously,” Harry says then, pausing to regard Louis with a funny expression, nose wrinkled and brows drawn tight. “Don’t tell me you thought that I’d let you freeze out here!? Absolutely not! C’mon, the bedroom’s cozy, I dragged a space heater out.” Louis wants to protest about as badly as she wants to sleep next to Harry Styles, which is a lot. Too much. --- Or, Louis is the only butch in London with a truck and Harry needs to move a couch.

bright lights (she’s fading) (8k)

Harry and Louis are psychology students in uni. Their professor is a bit of a fuckwit who makes it seem like kink discussion in a classroom is completely normal. It gets a bit out of hand.

Who Run the World? (Girls!) (8k)

A femslash take on the beginning of Relief Next To Me, complete with girl!Direction, lots of tongue action, and lots of hints to the original work.

lonely in a crowded space (8k)

Harry runs a coffee shop and Louis is half-famous. They meet again years after a turbulent past.

Riding Comfortable (8k)

Harry is the 19-year-old intern, Louis is the 25-year-old CEO, and they fuck in the office a lot.

Always Enjoy the Taste (9k)

the Starbucks AU where Harry writes a pick-up line on Louis' cup every day

From Now Until Forever (9k)

The girls go to Britney Nite and Louis wears Juicy track pants and Harry is not ok.

Make The Yuletide Gay (9k)

A Christmas In Connecticut AU in which Louis is a mommy blogger, Harry is a pop star, and nobody's really what they seem. Featuring a lot of lying, tons of domesticity, some badly faked heterosexuality, and a few Christmas kisses.

Clap your hands (if you’re feeling gay) (10k)

Louis has had a shit year involving a shit break up. The last thing she wants when coming to Minehead is to meet someone new. She is 'getting away from it all' by going to work in a language school in one of the crappiest places imaginable. The chances of meeting anyone hot, let alone anyone hot and into girls, are nil. So why is she so obsessed with the hot, tall, curl haired girl who happens to be her boss? Why does she fall head over converse heels just as soon as she steps foot in the centre? Those are questions that Louis refuses to even acknowledge, let alone answer. That is until her curly haired boss asks to kiss her, and she has to confront them all.

Lumiere, Darling (11k)

She’s so gone it’s not even funny. It really isn’t funny because falling in love with your best friend is such a stupid, idiotic, dumb thing to do, and there’s only ever a happy ending in romantic comedies. Louis (she claims, loudly and publicly whenever anyone will listen despite the fact that she’ll watch them with Harry any time Harry asks her to) hates romantic comedies. The thing is, when it really comes down to it, Louis never stood a chance.

Wild at Heart Ain’t Hard to Find (11k)

Louis and her best friends Niall and Liam always take an annual vacation together. This year Niall has picked Redwater Canyon, a small tourist town where everyone lives like it's the Old West. There are saloons, stagecoaches, and limited access to WiFi. The town boasts tours, excursions, activities, and the hottest woman Louis has ever seen in the form of the local blacksmith.

bambi legs (11k)

Harry works at her family’s fabric store sometimes and always sells the most interesting fabrics to Louis. Louis is the wannabe fashion designer who keeps buying fabric she doesn’t necessarily need just to find a way to talk to Harry.

my heart is untamed, still (12k)

the one where Harry pines and Louis' mean, but it's not so fun when the tables are turned.

Crystal Ball on the Table (12k)

Harry Styles is just an ordinary witch from an old-fashioned Boston family trying to survive in her regular job as the fiction manager at a local bookstore and café. Her magic isn't exactly something she advertises when looking for potential new girlfriends, so when Louis Tomlinson arrives in her life like a breath of fresh air, she tries her best to hide how strongly her magic is reacting to Louis' presence.

sink into tomorrow (13k)

Harry is the new (supposedly heterosexual) freshman who gets convinced by pretty blue eyes and soft skin to join a club about body positivity and self-image. Louis is the definitely-not-male upperclassman who makes her come to terms with some things she's been denying.

long way from the playground (14k)

Louis should really get over being in love with her best friend. Harry doesn't help by acting less than platonic.

just a touch of your love (15k)

The only thing standing in the way of Harry and Louis getting together are...well, Harry and Louis.

Blush (15k)

the Christmas FxF Larry fic in which Louis is 99.5% sure she's straight and Harry likes to walk around shirtless and watch lesbian films

i found my place, i see your face (15k)

Harry and Louis hate each other but they’re forced to be in the vicinity of each other because they’re friends with the same people. They’re also forced to work together for a Christmas concert and end up falling in love, which obviously surprises no one.

Love You a Latte (16k)

Louis Tomlinson doesn’t drink coffee and definitely doesn’t go to Starbucks. Enter barista Harry Styles. Add a double shot of espresso, stir in 90s references to taste, and top with whipped cream and love. Or, the coffee shop AU featuring girl direction, creative espresso, and a professor and a barista falling in love in one beautiful autumn.

and we live like legends now (16k)

harry works at a juice bar, and louis is the cute girl that skates at the park right next door.

Diamonds in the Moonlight (16k)

The 70s au where Harry is a rich girl stuck in the suburbs who thinks she loves Shaun Cassidy, and Louis is the skater who breaks into her backyard and changes everything forever.

strawberry things series (16k)

Part 1: It bubbles in her chest, dissolving in her lungs like sour salt on her tongue, it rises to her throat, transforming into an elated hum. Their heartbeats battle between their skin, and the feel of a pulse should not be as riveting as it is, but Louis finds herself yearning for it, stretching her neck, tensing her muscles in longing. And then Harry presses her lips sweetly to Louis', letting electricity tingle between their two lips. "You taste like strawberry margaritas," Louis whispers.

Part 2: the sequel about the morning after where harry and louis try to make breakfast, harry is quite literally hot and cold and sweet fluff ensues

daydreams are made of this series (19k)

Part 1: And now she’s here, on her way to seeing Louis again for the first time since that first night and it’s… she’s just a bit nervous is all.

Part 2: It’s been five days since Harry had Louis pushed up against the kitchen windowsill and they haven’t spoken a word since.

Part 3: Harry is the kind of girl who deserves to be taken out on sweet romantic dates and to be showered in compliments because she's never expecting them. And now she's with Louis. And Harry acts like she's the one that lucked out.

Daisy Chains series (20k)

Part 1: Ten minutes later, an awkward, long-legged, curly-haired, so pale she’s reflective, and so obviously gay-looking Harry Styles is sitting shotgun next to Louis in a bikini, denim cut-offs, and heart-framed sunnies. Or, Harry and Louis and a too-small bathing suit.

Part 2: Harry thinks it’s a fever-induced delirium, at first. After all, she’s been sick in bed for a full forty-eight hours following the Best and Most Important beach trip of her entire life because fate is a cruel and jealous bitch who doesn’t want Harry to go on a date with the girl of her dreams. or, Harry is sick and Louis comes to visit her.

back and forth (i kinda like it that way) (20k)

girl!direction where they all work at a magazine. Liam is the big boss, Zayn is her girlfriend and raises her eyebrows a lot. Louis is 24 and a sports journalist, and not equipped to deal with Harry, who's a gorgeous 21 year old intern, that will be leaving at the end of the summer - so it's not like she should get involved anyway, right?

scraping the skies with our finger tips (21k)

fem slash flower child/punk au no one asked for

Read Me Like a Book (21k)

The librarian AU featuring girl direction, Pride and Prejudice, a little Shakespeare, and a crash course in love.

Find Another One, Cause She Belongs To Me (25k)

Girl Direction Uni AU, where Louis is desperately in love with her best friend Harry, who might not be as straight as she thought, Ziam can't fool anyone, and Niall is just happy with football being her only relationship.

Bleeding Love (27k)

Louis is an animal rights activist who throws red paint at fur coat wearing it-girl Harry Styles. Then there's a crack in the surface and something new starts bleeding through.

Guilty Was The Book (28k)

Harry refuses to return her book to the library and Louis has no patience

tell them we’re like magnets (31k)

Louis and Harry are roommates and best mates who like to kiss when they're drunk. Louis doesn't want her feelings to ruin things, so she starts seeing someone else, but she still can't seem to stop kissing Harry. uni au where girl direction/little mix live together and get wasted a lot and make questionable choices.

Gently As She Goes (33k)

A modern fairytale (literally!) featuring a quest to bring a lost girl home, celtic goddesses, braiding, friendship, true love, and magic.

that good girl faith (and a tight little skirt) (43k)

“What the fuck did you do to my shampoo?” Harry shouts, brandishing the offending bottle like it’s a vial of poison. “Is this fucking mud? Did you honestly replace my shampoo with mud?” “Not just your shampoo,” Louis says calmly, then cracks up when Harry visibly pales. Harry and Louis are camp counsellors. They hate each other. The amount of sex they have in the camp showers probably contradicts that.

If I Was Stronger (50k)

AU where Louis holds universes inside her, and Harry just wants to hold her.

I love your demons (like devils can) (60k)

Harry didn’t plan to join the football team. She didn’t plan to sleep with the captain of the football team. She definitely didn’t plan to sleep with the closeted captain of the football team, who promptly acted as if nothing happened and left Harry a pathetic, pining mess.

Shades of Pink (Crazy in Love) series (259k)

A 17/25 age difference story (light D/s)

#girl direction #fic rec #we are so blessed so by no means exhaustive #there's so much more out there!! #mine

[dazzling-ji]

aesthetic themed ask list

flower crown: when did you last sing to yourself?

probably halo? still riding off the performance high tbh

fairy lights: if a crystal ball could tell you the truth about anything, what would you want to know?

can’t think of anything that i would want to know immediately that i couldn’t just wait for confirmation in prayer about...

daisies: what is the greatest accomplishment of your life?

so far? taking the steps necessary to actually pursue my dreams

1975: what is the first happy memory that comes to mind, recent or otherwise?

kbbq with friends

matte: if you knew that in one year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way you are now living?

probably tell my parents how i feel about them, same to my friends

black nail polish: do you have a bucket list? if so, what are the top three things?

not really. i have things i’d like to do, tho

pantone: describe a person close to your life in detail.

as in a human being? um, she has obscenely small hands. her face is like shiny and red perpetually. she is tiny. she gets really excited over the smallest things, i.e. her cats or the sight of a corgi. lowkey highkey hates her hair unless it’s short. bane of my existence.

moodboard: do you feel you had a happy childhood?

bruh i wish. literally still trying to console younger me with each day.

stars: when did you last cry in front of another person?

lowkey cried in front of my therapist as i told him i don’t cry in front of people. idk if he noticed or not (IT’S CUZ HE KEPT STARING AT ME WITH THOSE BIG SAD EMPATHETIC BLUE EYES. I DON’T NEED EMPATHY!!!) but the tears were threatening and i was threatening the tears.

plants: pick a person to stargaze with you and explain why you picked them.

bruh, had to describe a human for the last one but this time i won’t. my best friend nam shin iii. because i love him and he’s great. wish he were real so i could teach him english and he could teach me korean and i could help him romance his girlfriend. 

converse: would you ever have a deep conversation with a stranger and open up to them?

i did when i was first meeting my therapist lol. i don’t trust people enough to do stuff like that.

lace: when was your last 3am conversation with someone, and who were they to you?

probably ye olde tiny handed one. she’s the only one who would try to stay up that late with me. doesn’t mean i don’t have to deal with her sleep delirium.

handwriting: if you were about to die, and you could only say one more sentence to one person, what would you say and to whom?

it’d either be to myself or my mom. something along the lines of letting them know their worth.

cactus: what is your opinion on brown eyes?

they aight. blue eyes are really scary 90% of the time. brown eyes make more sense to me.

sunrise: pick a quote and describe what it means to you personally.

“different doesn’t mean wrong” said by one of my late faves, who i honestly felt was a kindred spirit 99.999% best friend match to me. not gonna get into why the quote is so deep to me, all i’ll say is it allowed me to breathe.

oil paints: what would you title the autobiography of your life so far?

indigko

overalls: what would you do with one billion dollars?

pay off debts, travel, save, give to charities/church, save some more, maybe make a trust fund? 

combat boots: are you a very forgiving person? do you like being this way?

with God, yeah. by myself? depends. i can be kind of hypocritical and times.

winged eyeliner: write a hundred word letter to your twelve year old self.

guess i know what to tag this ask meme now

pastel: would you describe yourself as more punk or pastel?

punk for sure.

tattoos: how do you feel about tattoos and piercings? explain.

super cool. was thinking of getting either a septum or normal nose ring. wish tattoos made a bit more sense on dark skin, but either way they’re super painful so maybe i lucked out.

piercings: do you wear a lot of makeup? why/why not?

i don’t. don’t wanna ruin my skin and i like the natural look over a beat face. i like people looking realistic if that makes sense?

bands: talk about a song/band/lyric that has affected your life in some way.

so many people to talk about, but my ex-fave prince helped me realize i was ace.

messy bun: the world is listening. pick one sentence you would tell them.

i wouldn’t. at least not rn, don’t have anything revolutionary to tell em. maybe something like “Please remember we’re dealing with human beings” or along those lines, because I’m tired of reading about racists and human rights violations who real life be forgetting that aside from differences in race/gender/sexuality/etc/etc we are all human and worthy of love.

cry baby: list the concerts you have been to and talk about how they make you feel.

stromae @ msg - super fun! wish the people behind me didn’t try to waste my time and sit at a dance music concert.

nai palm @ brooklyn (i forget the venue) - also super great. it was great to actually see her irl, and allowed me to realize i can actually socialize without too much problem.

garth brooks @ mercedes benz - yikes ppl in the south RLY like their country music huh?

kimbra @ brooklyn (also forget the venue) - LIVE MUSIC CAN BE SO EXPERIMENTAL AND FUN. kind of reminded me of what i’d heard seeing prince irl was like.

grunge: who in the world would you most like to receive a letter from and what would you want it to say?

NYU - You have no outstanding balances. We have a $1 mil scholarship that will be applied to your account as of today. We love you. In fact, we’re gonna wipe away all your student loan debt and ensure no one in your family has to worry about paying for anything ever again in their lives.

space: do you have a desk/workspace and how is it organised/not organised?

my desk always gets cluttered with papers and stuff. but i really do prefer working at a desk rather than a bed. 

white bed sheets: what is your night time routine?

stall as long as possible until i REALLY need to go to sleep. grumble as i lazily brush my teeth and rinse my retainer. lie in bed and watch youtube for anywhere between 30 min to 3 hrs before actually turning off.

old books: what’s one thing you don’t want your parents to know?

call me crazy, but i want my parents to know about me and *gasp* like what they realize. like lemme tell em i’m ace and have them not freak out, idk. 

beaches: if you had to dye your hair how would you dye/style it and why?

blue or purple. but probably a wig or something impermanent. 

eyes: pick five people to go on an excursion with you. who would you pick and where would you go/what would you do?

THE FAB FIVE. WHY AM I SO DUMB. we’d go makeover their next person on queer eye OR even better we’d just hang out

11:11: name three wishes and why you wish for them.

1. the aforementioned letter from nyu because i deserve it, ok?

2. a life i don’t feel like i have to run away from because i hate living like this but feel powerless to change it.

3. a cool best friend i could go cool places with, because i wanna go cool places

painting: what is the best halloween costume you have ever put together? if none, make one up.

i cosplay’d as Taemin during the Ace era. It was cool because it basically was my style, so I felt super confident all day looking my best.

lightning: what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done while drunk or high?

I do neither. But the craziest thing I did half-asleep was convince myself I could still talk to the aforementioned tiny handed weirdo and answer her questions though my head was firmly planted on my pillow and i was neatly tucked under my sheets. like i really thought homegirl could read my thoughts and find the answers she needed to her questions. 

thunder: what’s one thing you would never do for one million dollars?

like donald trump

storms: you on only listen to one song for the rest of your life, or only see one person for the rest of your life. which and why?

maybe one person - i’d see myself the way God sees me so I wouldn’t be so powerless against my insecurities and the fake people in the world all the time.

love: have you ever fallen in love? describe what it feels like to realize you’re in love.

idk? i’m ace and aro and very aesthetically drawn, so i really don’t know if i ever have. 

clouds: if you’re a boy, would you ever rock black nail polish? if you’re a girl, would you ever rock really really short hair?

i prefer myself with longer hair tbh.

coffee: what’s your starbucks order, and who would you trust to order for you, if anyone?

hot chocolate if i wanna blend in. otherwise a strawberry acai refresher. i trust any of my friends because it’s really not that deep.

marble: what is the most important thing to you in your life right now?

gaining self-confidence so i can step more firmly into my calling.

fin.

#blurb ideas #ask meme

[phantumpoftheopera]

Okay, here’s the LONG birthday post I was too busy to make over the weekend!

So while I was at work Thursday, three packages were delivered to me. I didn’t know who the first one was from, but I knew the other two were from Inry and Robert. I was planning on streaming Hiveswap when I got home so I was in a hurry and had to set up for the stream and also try to open the packages at the same time once I finally got home and in my room.

So I logged into Twitch first, then decided to open the boxes…and that was my first mistake, because after opening them I absolutely did not want to stream anymore, lol.

The first box was from Amazon and did not have a name attached, but it contained a VERY cute Alolan Vulpix plush, which I LOVE and need to give a name. I had to send a thank you not through Amazon in order to find out who it was from, and it was from Salem! Thank you so much, she’s the cutest!

The second package was from Robert, and I wanted to save the one from Inry for last. It was SUPPOSED to be just a card, since that’s what he original TOLD me it was. But it was actually a rather large box, so I opened that and read the beautiful, upside-down card first, which was signed by several of my wondertag friends! Thanks guys!

Then I went to see what the gift inside was…and I pulled out a Nintendo Switch box. My FIRST reaction was, of course, to be like “WHAT THE FUCK,” as several people can attest to, because I was reacting in real time in multiple servers and in a DM convo with Robert. Then my second reaction was to assume the box was holding something else and it was a fake-out. I put the box to the side for a second because I saw there was something smaller under the packing peanuts, and pulled out a Switch screen cover and Splatoon 2. So NOW my reaction was again “WHAT THE FUCK” because I am horrible, why would anyone get me a Switch??

Turns out that was purchased by Inry, Wynn, Sai, Cass, and Robert, and I was literally crying and I am crying right now thinking about it because holy shit, that is…so sweet, y’all, that’s so nice and I there was no way I was gonna be able to get one for myself. And I LOVE IT and I wanna go home and play right now.

Then I opened the third package, which was from Inry, which I also love! Inry’s card alluded to the Switch so I wish I had opened theirs first, lol, but oh well. I got some cute Love Live! Keychains, a Riko figure (my fave Aqours girl so yay!), some super cute socks, a pen, and Kinder chocolate.

So that was Thursday. I had to stream after that and Hiveswap was being a jerkface so I didn’t get to do that, but I DID finish my mystery egg run of Pokemon Sun!

Shiny also got me Persona 3 and Tales of Hearts R for the Vita!

Friday was my actual birthday, so I drove up to Maryland. I left around 12:30 and arrived around 5:30. We had dinner reservations for 6 at Olive Garden, so I picked up my mom and grandma and booked it there, arriving around 6:10. And I’m impressed I managed that considering I had to fit my mom, grandma, my mom’s wheelchair, AND my grandma’s walker in my car. For reference, my car is a fuchsia Mitsubishi Mirage. Color isn’t relevant, I just want you to know it’s fuchsia because it’s super cute. But VERY SMALL. Still, I managed to do it.

Boska and Rachel also hosted pokemon giveaways in honor of my birthday, which was awesome! I still need to pick those pokemon up. And April made me a super cute drawing of Gatomon!

We met my brother at Olive Garden, but somehow they lost our reservation. As an apology, the manager took 25% off our bill and gave us a free appetizer. Plus I got a free dessert! Tiramisu, mmmm!

I stayed at my grandma’s this weekend. Saturday was my best friend’s daughter’s birthday party so I went there, after stopping to buy her some books for her birthday. I got a 20% off educator’s discount because I work at a college, so that was cool. The party was at Discovery Station, a hands-on family-friendly museum in Hagerstown. It’s in a very old building and it smells like it, lol. But the kids had fun and there was some cool stuff there. We laughed about the Titanic replica having a picture of Jack and Rose at the bow of the ship.

I saw my other grandmother briefly on Saturday but I was tired so I went back to my grandma’s early. I played a little campaign mode in Splatoon 2 and also some Tales of Hearts R. I also played the Danganronpa V3 demo and fell in love with one character and that’s dangerous in this franchise.

Yesterday I hung out with my grandma some more and went through old pictures (you may have seen the ones I posted, lol) and took some with me because my grandma is worried no one will take them when she passes. I got home around 8 PM last night and FINALLY got to play Splatoon with Cass and Wynn. I also played a bit with Sai and Wynn this morning before work.

So YEAH it was a GREAT birthday. Oh also, a few days before my birthday I got the package containing a Pocket Sai (a Sableye they crocheted!) and chocolate from Sai and that was awesome!

So thanks everyone for making my birthday really great! My last two have been amazing, which more than makes up for like…15 years of awful birthdays, haha. It’s also my last one because I will never acknowledge turning 30 next year. I hate the number 3 and I can’t bear the thought of a decade of 3s.

[swiftheart13]

7. MISS AMERICANA AND THE HEARTBREAK PRINCE — i love dis 🥺🥺🥺 “we’re so sad, we paint the town blue. voted most likely to run away with you.” 

you play stupid game, you win stupid prizes (!!!!!!)

miss americana and the heartbreak prince (OKAY!!!)

the bridge also snapped. LIKE WHAT?! and i don’t want you to go. i don’t really wanna fight, ‘cause nobody’s gonna win. i think you should come home. :((( 🥺🥺🥺

* * * * *

8. PAPER RINGS —  i like shiny things but i’d marry you with paper rings — TAYLOR!!!!

THIS SONG I WANNA CRY!!!!! taylor taylor taylor!!!! can i just hug you for a moment?!

i hate accidents except when we went from friends to this — sksksksks

PAPER RINGS sounds like a song you will play when it’s sunny day and you’re just spending time with the love of your life in a flowery meadow and you know that everything will be just fine. i can’t!!!

SHE IS SO INLOVE OMG

* * * * *

9. CORNELIA STREET —  we were a fresh page on a desk, filling in the blanks as we go. as if the street lights pointed in an arrow, leading us home.

TAYLOR 🥺🥺🥺😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️

and i hope i never lose you, hope it never ends. i’d never walk cornelia street again — that’s the kinda heartbreak time could never mend. 😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔!!!!

baby, i get mystified by how this city screams your name. and baby, i’m so terrified of if you ever walk away, i’d never walk cornelia street again. MY FCKING HEART!! 😭😭😭😭

I’M CRYING ON CORNELIA STREET!! Taylor please!!!! it’s gonna be okay!! 😭😭😭😭

i thought you were leading me on. i packed my bags, left cornelia street. before you knew, i was gone. but then you called, showed your hand. i turned around before i hit the tunnel. sat on the roof, YOU AND I. OMGG OMG OMG OMG MY HEART!!!!!! 😭😭😭💔❤️❤️

CORNELIA STREET SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRACK 5.  😭😭😭😭

TAYLOR’S VOICE ON THE LAST CHORUS OF “CORNELIA STREET” sorry i can’t stfu about how beautiful this song is!!!!

FOR ANOTHER TIME, WTF CORNELIA STREET!!

Okay, confession: i listened to this thrice because, i still cannot move on to the next track!! THIS IS MY FAVE TRACK!!! 

* * * * *

10. DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS —  i look through the windows of this love... i can’t pretend it’s okay when it’s not.

you said it was a great love, one for the ages. but if the story’s over, why am i still writing pages? TAYLOR DAMN MA 😭😭😭

GAVE UP ON ME LIKE A BAD DRUG. NOW I’M SEARCHING FOR SIGNS IN A HAUNTED CLUB. 

MY TIME, MY WINE, MY SPIRIT, MY TRUST. tryna find a part of me you didn’t take up. gave you so much but, it wasn’t enough. but i’ll be alright, it’s just a thousand cuts. (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

* * * * *

11. LONDON BOY — cute!!!! omg!!! 🥺🥺🥺❤️❤️❤️

king of my heart (2017): “say you fancy me, not fancy stuffs.”

london boy (2019): “darling, i fancy you.”

* * * * *

12. SOON YOU’LL GET BETTER — I AM NOT OKAY! 😭😭😭😭

omg taylor’s voice is cracking on “soon you’ll get better.” i am crying you guys 

“you’ll get better soon ‘cause you have to.” — my heart. i can’t imagine to be in this same situation, my heart will seriously break. taylor, please, be strong. God bless, Andrea.

.😭😭😭💔💔💔!!!!!

[[ Lover reaction 1 / 2 / 3 ]]

#cc #lover related #taylor related #thoughts

[cyanmnemosyne]

“about me” meme, tagged by @rinkafushi. :D

(tagging whoever else feels like playing :D)

1. How tall are you? 5′4″. What is that in real measurements? ~1.63m?

2. What color and style is your hair? medium brown, long and kind of scraggly because I can’t be bothered to trim it and it’s been a few years since I got a haircut.

3. What color are your eyes? Somewhere on the blue-grey spectrum.

4. Do you wear glasses? Yep! Experimented with contacts at one point but between the dry, tired eyes, how much of a pain it was to put them in and take them out, and “WTF I CAN FEEL THE WIND ON MY EYEBALLS”, I decided adapting to them was too much effort and went back to glasses. :)

5. Do you wear braces? I did from 2nd - 12th grade; the only vestiges left are a removable upper retainer I lost ~ 10 years ago and a glued-in lower retainer.

6. What is your fashion sense? ... T-shirts and jeans counts as a fashion sense, right? :’)

7. Do you have any siblings? One

8. What kind of student are you? Back in school I was the “I am a(n almost) straight A student because My Sense Of Self-Worth Depends On Doing Well In School Because That’s What Smart Girls Do.”

These days I ascribe more to the school of “hey, that’s an interesting article. Let’s read i -- oooh another shiny thing :D”.

9. What is your favorite subject? I really like learning about history, but I only had a couple of good history teachers, so I never really figured that out until after college. XD While in school ... math, physics, and computer science in high school, most of my computer science and electrical engineering courses in college?

10. What is your favorite TV show? ... Y’know, I think the last time I got really into a Western TV show was Avatar: The Last Airbender. XD

(The first several episodes of Babylon 5, which I will For Sure finish someday, were quite good too, though, so it may end up with a challenger. :D)

11. What are your favorite books? I’ve been on a “let’s read new things” kick for long enough that I haven’t really been revisiting many old favorites, so Martha Wells’ Raksura novels are probably the only faves I’ve re-read recently.

I will probably always have a soft spot in my heart for Anne McCaffrey, Mercedes Lackey, and ... sigh, yeah, Robert Heinlein too. XD

(Though since I’m throwing out recs anyway - Warchild and its sequels, by Karin Lowachee, are a+++ would cry again)

12. What are your favorite pastimes? Hanging out chatting with friends, reading, watching anime, theoretically writing, someday I will start playing video games again.  XD

13. Any regrets? Not leaving my shitty old job about a year before I finally did.

For the most part, not really.  I look back on my life so far, and the majority of the decisions I made, I can see why I made them, and would probably do the same thing again.  

I mean, if I could just time-hop for the fun of it?  Give going to a different college a try, actually do CS as a major, not take a seven-year hiatus from writing, that sort of thing? Sure! I’m curious how things might have been different.  But I can’t think of any major choice I deeply regret making (or not making).

14. What is your dream job? I’m honestly not sure.

I like programming, but it’s not a passion so much as it is “hey, there’s this thing that I (usually) like doing that for some reason is willing to pay me more than enough to maintain my book/manga/anime habits.”

I like writing and would someday like to be published professionally, but I think I’d only want it to be my Real Job if I lived in a fantasy land where I didn’t have to worry about ... actually making enough money to survive. And also health insurance. Also, some way to keep myself from becoming a complete shut-in. And maybe also a roommate who would be willing to cook different varieties of food for me because I’m shit at caring about that when no one is watching. :’))

idk. Something where I could solve interesting puzzles and help people, I guess?

15. Do you want to get married? If I ever find a nice girl to settle down with and she wants to, sure? I kind of like the symbolism and the excuse to have a big family party.

Y’know, if it is still legal at that point.

I don’t feel a driving need to, though.

16. Do you want any kids, and how many? hahahaha NOPE.

Seeing friends’ / family’s kids every now and then is enough to fill up my quota, thanks. :)

17. How many countries have you visited? Germany and Japan.

#rinkafushi #meme time #thanks for the tag :D

[melindarowens]

Jobs Report Disappoints, Once Again!

Good day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! You know, I liked last week, when I was still sleeping at this time on Monday morning, due to the holiday! What an awful display of baseball by my beloved Cardinals in the worst possible place, Chicago, this past weekend… UGH! I guess I’ll just have to admit it, this is a bad baseball team, and it’s going to be a long season… UGH! I went to the office yesterday, and cleaned out my office… I’m going to work from home from here on out, so there was no reason to take up space! Now the back of my car is filled with “stuff” that I have to get out of there! Steely Dan greets me this morning with their great song from the Album of the same name: Aja… (my fave Steely Dan album too!)

Well, Friday’s price action in the currencies and metals were something to see.. The Jobs report in the U.S. was disappointing, and the long dollar trades were getting unwound faster than a speeding bullet, no wait, that’s Superman’s speed… Hmmm, faster than you can say Englebert Humperdink! (remember him?) So, the currencies and metals were off to higher ground and remained there through the overnight sessions of Asia and Europe last night. The Petrol Currencies got an extra boost when the price of Oil jumped on news that some of the Arabic countries were shutting off relations with Qatar, saying that Qatar had harbored terrorists…

So, if all this movement in the currencies and metals came about from the Jobs Jamboree on Friday, I guess this is where I have to deal with the BLS’s report… You know I don’t like having to do this, because I’m going to point out the hedonic adjustments, and the off-base assumptions they make… So, here goes…

So, get a #2 pencil and a blank piece of paper and write this down… The May Jobs Jamboree only netted 138,000 jobs, and that puts the year-to-date average at 162,000 per month, and when you just count the last three months, where the drops have really occurred, the average month is only 121,000… So, knowing this, now try to figure out how the Unemployment Rate dropped to 4.3% and is down ½% in these last three months, when the drops in jobs created have occurred… I for the life of me can’t, and yes, I know all about the people dropping off the jobs radar…

Even with this 3-month drop (proving that it wasn’t just “transitory”) I don’t think it’s enough to stop the Fed from hiking rates this month… I said it before and I’ll say it again, they are hell bent and whiskey bound to hike rates this month, so like I said Friday, let ‘em hike rates… I don’t think that in 3 months or so, they’ll be happy about that decision, but for now, it’s all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops, Everything that’s wonderful when the Fed hikes rates in a weakening economy…

Of the 138,000 jobs created by the U.S. in May… The BLS added 230,000 to the survey totals… 230,000 jobs added to the numbers out of thin air! And this brings me to the main reason I just don’t care what the BLS prints any longer, it can’t be trusted as true data! Why can’t 230,000 jobs be added using the Birth/ Death Model? Well, a few months ago, you may recall me talking about how an independent research firm had issued a report saying that there had been far more business deaths in the past 10 years than “births”… But all this time the BLS was adding jobs using this model every month…

Last week, Dave Gonigam, over at the 5 Minute Forecast (www.agorafinancial.com ) talked about this subject regarding business deaths… The Census Bureau calls it” Exits and Entries”… and had a graph that showed how the “exits” were greater than the “entries” but the data stopped in 2013… So, choose your report, the independent research team, or the Census Bureau, they both come to the same conclusion, and that is that the BLS has no basis whatsoever to add jobs each month, especially to the tune of 230,000!

Oh, and one more thing before I go on… the U.S. National Economic Council Director, Gary Cohn, said Friday that we should not obsess over any one number in the jobs report… Hmmm, I wonder if after he said that, one of his “assistants” whispered to him and said, “ahem, the previous 2 months were bad too”… memo to Mr. Cohn… remember to wear flavored socks… wink, wink..

Gold was able to gain $ 13.10 on Friday… As Ed Steer says, “it was able to gain its usual 1% that it’s normally allowed to have on any given day” wink, wink.. Gold closed on Friday at $ 1,278.50, and is up $ 5 in the early morning trading today. We draw closer to the level I said I thought Gold could reach by the end of summer, which is $ 1,300… That’s a good thing, folks, because the shiny metal is ahead of schedule!

Have you heard the news on Gold? Bloomberg, GATA, you name it has been all over this story like a cheap suit, and I’m going to pile on… Basically, David Liew a trader that used to work at Deutsche Bank pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago of spoofing of futures contracts for Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, according to court papers… Spoofing is an illegal trading scenario, where the trader places orders without the intent of executing them in an attempt to manipulate the price. This trader also acknowledged front-running customer’s orders.. If you would like to read more about this click here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/trader-pleading-guilty-in-metals-probe-tied-to-deutsche-bank

I have to wonder what this leads to… More traders being brought to court? I f I were the CFTC (the commodities regulator) I would have a parade to traders at every bullion dealer, lined up to testify in court of whether they participated in the manipulation of the prices for the precious metals… Yes, or No… Under oath mind you, and then when they said “No” they were allowed to return to work… If they said “yes”, then they were taken to a different courtroom.. Or, was this just a warning to the Big firms that hold most of the short positions?

So, two BIG stories on this Marvelous Monday Morning… Look at Chuck Rocking the Alliteration! HA! The Big Story of the Jobs disappointment and the Gold trader story… Now that’s enough for one day, but hold on, there’s more! And if you’re one of the first 100 callers, you will also get detailed information on the Data Cupboard! HA!

Friday’s Data Cupboard was dominated by the Jobs Jamboree, but there was more behind the curtain… We also saw the Trade Deficit number, that was the net of the actual trade number and investments… The Trade Deficit was larger than expected at $ 47.6 Billion..

Today’s Data Cupboard is chock-full-o-data, that isn’t all Tier 1 data, but it’s printing anyway… First we get the 1st QTR Productivity revision and 1st QTR labor Costs. (that 1st QTR data is really getting stale isn’t it?) Then we’ll see the color of the ISM Services Index, and finally, Factory Orders for April… (really the only data today I care about!) I really don’t care about Services, because as I’ve said for years, “we’ve become a servicing country/ economy and our service lacks BIG TIME!

The U.K. will finally go to the election booths this week on Thursday I do believe. Which also happens to be an ECB (European Central Bank) meeting day. But before we get to Thursday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meets tonight (for us, tomorrow for them)… I don’t expect anything but the same-o, same-o, from the RBA… They won’t sound too upbeat in the statement, after leaving rates unchanged, and they have just enough optimism to keep everyone interested…

I think the A$ is going to go through a rough patch here with the RBA dragging their feet with regards to hiking rates. Traders, as I’ve explained many time before, will grow bored with the no movement from the RBA or the currency, and then look for greener pastures…

Getting back to the U.K. elections… The latest poll this weekend has the Conservatives maintaining their lead, but remember the previous polls in the U.K. and U.S.? I won’t believe anything here until the outcome is posted! And currency traders have that same belief, for they’re not giving the pound any chance to rebound ahead of the vote outcome.

And I’m told that the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.11% on Friday.. But has fallen back to 2.17% this morning… That’s pretty unbelievable to me, that the 10-year still sports an ultra-low yield like this, with all the talk by the Fed about growth, inflation and rate hikes… Are the bond boys telling us something?

To recap… The Jobs Jamboree on Friday was disappointing and left the dollar out to hang. Traders began unwinding long dollar positions, but it wasn’t just one month of disappointing numbers, May marked 3 consecutive months of disappointing numbers in jobs… Chuck has all the details and a look under the BLS’s hood today… A Gold trader has pleaded guilty to spoofing and front running, but most importantly spoofing because that can be used to manipulate a price. Chuck asks, what will happen next here? The RBA meets tonight, and there shouldn’t be any fireworks here, and the U.K. finally goes to the election booths this week…

For What It’s Worth… Well, this is a subject that I’ve been talking about for over a decade now… It’s the underfunded pensions… Well, this article talks about underfunded pensions around the world, but focuses on the U.S. which happens to have the largest amount of underfunded pensions… The article can be found here: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/pensions-time-bomb-for-worlds-biggest-economies-could-explode-to-400-trillion-says-wef.html

Or, here’s your snippet: “Future generations are on course to become enveloped in the biggest pension crisis in history, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), unless policymakers from the world’s leading economies take urgent action.

The Geneva-based organization predicted the challenges of an ageing population could result in the world’s largest economies being forced to tackle a pension time-bomb.

Analysis from WEF showed six countries with the biggest pensions, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Netherlands, Japan and Australia, as well as the two most densely populated countries in the world – China and India – would face a retirement savings gap in excess of $ 400 trillion in 2050, up from around $ 70 trillion in 2015.

According to the WEF’s forward looking estimates, the retirement savings gap from all eight countries is set to inflate by 5 percent every year over the next four decades. This translates to an extra $ 28 billion of deficit every 24 hours.

“We must address it now or accept that its adverse consequences will haunt future generations, putting an impossible strain on our children and grandchildren,” Drexler added.

Chuck again… yes, we must address this now, but we won’t… Because talking about that kind of stuff won’t get anyone reelected ! It’s that simple folks… So, like I say about debt that the U.S. keeps accumulating at an alarming rate, it might not be something that keeps people like you and me indoors, but our kids and grandkids are a different story… I thought about this briefly last night, when little Delaney Grace was sitting on my lap talking to me.. But I quickly got that out of my mind so I could concentrate on what she was telling me! She’s so darn cute!

Currencies today 6/5/17… American Style: A$ .7480, kiwi .7137, C$ .7426, euro 1.1265, sterling 1.29, Swiss $ .9641, … European Style: rand 12.7163, krone 8.4232, SEK 8.6574, forint 272.82, zloty 3.7098, koruna 23.3622, RUB 56.60, yen 110.50, sing 1.3563, HKD 7.7912, INR 64.27, China 8.1150, peso 18.37, BRL 3.2403, Dollar Index 96.77, Oil $ 47.84, 10yr 2.17%, Silver $ 17.55, Platinum $ 964.75, Palladium $ 844.61, Gold $ 1,283.70, and SGE Gold $ 1,267.78 (the SGE Gold price hasn’t been updated since last Friday, Chinese time)

That’s it for today… Frank sure did a great job on the Sunday Pfennig yesterday, as he talked about Diversification. (www.dailypfennig.com) And then last night I listened to an interview with the father of diversification, Harry Markowitz, that Grant Williams had imbedded in his letter: Things That Make You Go Hmmm… You should check out Frank’s piece, it’s really good! The older kids were here yesterday with the grandkids, and I smoked some pork steaks for them… They meat was falling off the bone when I took them off the Big Green Egg! Darling daughter Dawn will be back this morning to teach swim lessons (I’m thinking that I should get a cut of her earnings, right?) It was downright “summerish” yesterday, and I love it! The Amazing Rhythm Aces take us to the finish line today with their song: Third Rate Romance… And with that I hope you have a Marvelous Monday… Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

The post Jobs Report Disappoints, Once Again! appeared first on Daily Pfennig.

Daily Pfennig

source http://capitalisthq.com/jobs-report-disappoints-once-again/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/jobs-report-disappoints-once-again.html

[everettwilkinson]

Jobs Report Disappoints, Once Again!

Good day… And a Marvelous Monday to you! You know, I liked last week, when I was still sleeping at this time on Monday morning, due to the holiday! What an awful display of baseball by my beloved Cardinals in the worst possible place, Chicago, this past weekend… UGH! I guess I’ll just have to admit it, this is a bad baseball team, and it’s going to be a long season… UGH! I went to the office yesterday, and cleaned out my office… I’m going to work from home from here on out, so there was no reason to take up space! Now the back of my car is filled with “stuff” that I have to get out of there! Steely Dan greets me this morning with their great song from the Album of the same name: Aja… (my fave Steely Dan album too!)

Well, Friday’s price action in the currencies and metals were something to see.. The Jobs report in the U.S. was disappointing, and the long dollar trades were getting unwound faster than a speeding bullet, no wait, that’s Superman’s speed… Hmmm, faster than you can say Englebert Humperdink! (remember him?) So, the currencies and metals were off to higher ground and remained there through the overnight sessions of Asia and Europe last night. The Petrol Currencies got an extra boost when the price of Oil jumped on news that some of the Arabic countries were shutting off relations with Qatar, saying that Qatar had harbored terrorists…

So, if all this movement in the currencies and metals came about from the Jobs Jamboree on Friday, I guess this is where I have to deal with the BLS’s report… You know I don’t like having to do this, because I’m going to point out the hedonic adjustments, and the off-base assumptions they make… So, here goes…

So, get a #2 pencil and a blank piece of paper and write this down… The May Jobs Jamboree only netted 138,000 jobs, and that puts the year-to-date average at 162,000 per month, and when you just count the last three months, where the drops have really occurred, the average month is only 121,000… So, knowing this, now try to figure out how the Unemployment Rate dropped to 4.3% and is down ½% in these last three months, when the drops in jobs created have occurred… I for the life of me can’t, and yes, I know all about the people dropping off the jobs radar…

Even with this 3-month drop (proving that it wasn’t just “transitory”) I don’t think it’s enough to stop the Fed from hiking rates this month… I said it before and I’ll say it again, they are hell bent and whiskey bound to hike rates this month, so like I said Friday, let ‘em hike rates… I don’t think that in 3 months or so, they’ll be happy about that decision, but for now, it’s all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops, Everything that’s wonderful when the Fed hikes rates in a weakening economy…

Of the 138,000 jobs created by the U.S. in May… The BLS added 230,000 to the survey totals… 230,000 jobs added to the numbers out of thin air! And this brings me to the main reason I just don’t care what the BLS prints any longer, it can’t be trusted as true data! Why can’t 230,000 jobs be added using the Birth/ Death Model? Well, a few months ago, you may recall me talking about how an independent research firm had issued a report saying that there had been far more business deaths in the past 10 years than “births”… But all this time the BLS was adding jobs using this model every month…

Last week, Dave Gonigam, over at the 5 Minute Forecast (www.agorafinancial.com ) talked about this subject regarding business deaths… The Census Bureau calls it” Exits and Entries”… and had a graph that showed how the “exits” were greater than the “entries” but the data stopped in 2013… So, choose your report, the independent research team, or the Census Bureau, they both come to the same conclusion, and that is that the BLS has no basis whatsoever to add jobs each month, especially to the tune of 230,000!

Oh, and one more thing before I go on… the U.S. National Economic Council Director, Gary Cohn, said Friday that we should not obsess over any one number in the jobs report… Hmmm, I wonder if after he said that, one of his “assistants” whispered to him and said, “ahem, the previous 2 months were bad too”… memo to Mr. Cohn… remember to wear flavored socks… wink, wink..

Gold was able to gain $ 13.10 on Friday… As Ed Steer says, “it was able to gain its usual 1% that it’s normally allowed to have on any given day” wink, wink.. Gold closed on Friday at $ 1,278.50, and is up $ 5 in the early morning trading today. We draw closer to the level I said I thought Gold could reach by the end of summer, which is $ 1,300… That’s a good thing, folks, because the shiny metal is ahead of schedule!

Have you heard the news on Gold? Bloomberg, GATA, you name it has been all over this story like a cheap suit, and I’m going to pile on… Basically, David Liew a trader that used to work at Deutsche Bank pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago of spoofing of futures contracts for Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium, according to court papers… Spoofing is an illegal trading scenario, where the trader places orders without the intent of executing them in an attempt to manipulate the price. This trader also acknowledged front-running customer’s orders.. If you would like to read more about this click here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-02/trader-pleading-guilty-in-metals-probe-tied-to-deutsche-bank

I have to wonder what this leads to… More traders being brought to court? I f I were the CFTC (the commodities regulator) I would have a parade to traders at every bullion dealer, lined up to testify in court of whether they participated in the manipulation of the prices for the precious metals… Yes, or No… Under oath mind you, and then when they said “No” they were allowed to return to work… If they said “yes”, then they were taken to a different courtroom.. Or, was this just a warning to the Big firms that hold most of the short positions?

So, two BIG stories on this Marvelous Monday Morning… Look at Chuck Rocking the Alliteration! HA! The Big Story of the Jobs disappointment and the Gold trader story… Now that’s enough for one day, but hold on, there’s more! And if you’re one of the first 100 callers, you will also get detailed information on the Data Cupboard! HA!

Friday’s Data Cupboard was dominated by the Jobs Jamboree, but there was more behind the curtain… We also saw the Trade Deficit number, that was the net of the actual trade number and investments… The Trade Deficit was larger than expected at $ 47.6 Billion..

Today’s Data Cupboard is chock-full-o-data, that isn’t all Tier 1 data, but it’s printing anyway… First we get the 1st QTR Productivity revision and 1st QTR labor Costs. (that 1st QTR data is really getting stale isn’t it?) Then we’ll see the color of the ISM Services Index, and finally, Factory Orders for April… (really the only data today I care about!) I really don’t care about Services, because as I’ve said for years, “we’ve become a servicing country/ economy and our service lacks BIG TIME!

The U.K. will finally go to the election booths this week on Thursday I do believe. Which also happens to be an ECB (European Central Bank) meeting day. But before we get to Thursday, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) meets tonight (for us, tomorrow for them)… I don’t expect anything but the same-o, same-o, from the RBA… They won’t sound too upbeat in the statement, after leaving rates unchanged, and they have just enough optimism to keep everyone interested…

I think the A$ is going to go through a rough patch here with the RBA dragging their feet with regards to hiking rates. Traders, as I’ve explained many time before, will grow bored with the no movement from the RBA or the currency, and then look for greener pastures…

Getting back to the U.K. elections… The latest poll this weekend has the Conservatives maintaining their lead, but remember the previous polls in the U.K. and U.S.? I won’t believe anything here until the outcome is posted! And currency traders have that same belief, for they’re not giving the pound any chance to rebound ahead of the vote outcome.

And I’m told that the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 2.11% on Friday.. But has fallen back to 2.17% this morning… That’s pretty unbelievable to me, that the 10-year still sports an ultra-low yield like this, with all the talk by the Fed about growth, inflation and rate hikes… Are the bond boys telling us something?

To recap… The Jobs Jamboree on Friday was disappointing and left the dollar out to hang. Traders began unwinding long dollar positions, but it wasn’t just one month of disappointing numbers, May marked 3 consecutive months of disappointing numbers in jobs… Chuck has all the details and a look under the BLS’s hood today… A Gold trader has pleaded guilty to spoofing and front running, but most importantly spoofing because that can be used to manipulate a price. Chuck asks, what will happen next here? The RBA meets tonight, and there shouldn’t be any fireworks here, and the U.K. finally goes to the election booths this week…

For What It’s Worth… Well, this is a subject that I’ve been talking about for over a decade now… It’s the underfunded pensions… Well, this article talks about underfunded pensions around the world, but focuses on the U.S. which happens to have the largest amount of underfunded pensions… The article can be found here: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/26/pensions-time-bomb-for-worlds-biggest-economies-could-explode-to-400-trillion-says-wef.html

Or, here’s your snippet: “Future generations are on course to become enveloped in the biggest pension crisis in history, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), unless policymakers from the world’s leading economies take urgent action.

The Geneva-based organization predicted the challenges of an ageing population could result in the world’s largest economies being forced to tackle a pension time-bomb.

Analysis from WEF showed six countries with the biggest pensions, including the U.S., Canada, U.K., Netherlands, Japan and Australia, as well as the two most densely populated countries in the world – China and India – would face a retirement savings gap in excess of $ 400 trillion in 2050, up from around $ 70 trillion in 2015.

According to the WEF’s forward looking estimates, the retirement savings gap from all eight countries is set to inflate by 5 percent every year over the next four decades. This translates to an extra $ 28 billion of deficit every 24 hours.

“We must address it now or accept that its adverse consequences will haunt future generations, putting an impossible strain on our children and grandchildren,” Drexler added.

Chuck again… yes, we must address this now, but we won’t… Because talking about that kind of stuff won’t get anyone reelected ! It’s that simple folks… So, like I say about debt that the U.S. keeps accumulating at an alarming rate, it might not be something that keeps people like you and me indoors, but our kids and grandkids are a different story… I thought about this briefly last night, when little Delaney Grace was sitting on my lap talking to me.. But I quickly got that out of my mind so I could concentrate on what she was telling me! She’s so darn cute!

Currencies today 6/5/17… American Style: A$ .7480, kiwi .7137, C$ .7426, euro 1.1265, sterling 1.29, Swiss $ .9641, … European Style: rand 12.7163, krone 8.4232, SEK 8.6574, forint 272.82, zloty 3.7098, koruna 23.3622, RUB 56.60, yen 110.50, sing 1.3563, HKD 7.7912, INR 64.27, China 8.1150, peso 18.37, BRL 3.2403, Dollar Index 96.77, Oil $ 47.84, 10yr 2.17%, Silver $ 17.55, Platinum $ 964.75, Palladium $ 844.61, Gold $ 1,283.70, and SGE Gold $ 1,267.78 (the SGE Gold price hasn’t been updated since last Friday, Chinese time)

That’s it for today… Frank sure did a great job on the Sunday Pfennig yesterday, as he talked about Diversification. (www.dailypfennig.com) And then last night I listened to an interview with the father of diversification, Harry Markowitz, that Grant Williams had imbedded in his letter: Things That Make You Go Hmmm… You should check out Frank’s piece, it’s really good! The older kids were here yesterday with the grandkids, and I smoked some pork steaks for them… They meat was falling off the bone when I took them off the Big Green Egg! Darling daughter Dawn will be back this morning to teach swim lessons (I’m thinking that I should get a cut of her earnings, right?) It was downright “summerish” yesterday, and I love it! The Amazing Rhythm Aces take us to the finish line today with their song: Third Rate Romance… And with that I hope you have a Marvelous Monday… Be Good To Yourself!

Chuck Butler Managing Director EverBank Global Markets Creator / Editor of: A Pfennig For Your Thoughts 1-800-926-4922

http://www.everbank.com

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