#seeing my body/body type as something desirable and not fee desired DESPITE my body

[star-mum]

"comfort for what? HAVING A BODY" you continue to be fucking iconic. like that entire rant had me CLAPPING but that part in particular was just oOOOOMF. that was it so like.... Gar x fat reader where Gar hugs her and his instincts go feral because feeling someone with extra fat on their body ignites his breeding kink?? like his animal brain is like "this is a wife. this is a wife who will bear your children and do it well. this is a plump, healthy body for your children. you're gonna fuck her brains out" and he gets a raging boner in what is supposed to be an innocent hug and has to excuse himself and wants to die of embarrassment and the reader is like INTRIGUED by him from that moment on but then he keeps dodging her and avoiding her because of his personal embarrassment

(set during s2 with a reader who is physically affectionate for no reason and would just give him a random hug)

thoughts?

I had to actually take a break when the words “breeding kink” showed up— LIKE THE GENIUS OF THAT ??? AND ABSOLUTELY HE WOULD AAAAAAAAAAA

Me reading this:

So,,, uhm things got a bit out of hand skskks and I talked way to much as usual so,,,

OKAY— so yes to everything you just said !! I can just SEE everyone’s in one the common areas (maybe a post training snack or breakfast, let’s say breakfast 🥴) and Gar’s standing with his back to the door talking to the rest of the group as the coffee machine does it’s thing and reader just walks up to them, greets everyone good morning and hugs Gar from the back, maybe rests her head either on his arm/shoulder so she can join the conversation OR on his back cause she’s just so tired and he just MALFUNCTIONS !!!

Everyone is still in pijamas and she’s not really wearing a bra, so he can feel her chest pressed up against him and hOMEBOY’S DOING FUCKING BREATHING EXERCISES IN HIS HEAD TO CALM HIMSELF DOWN !!! Whoever he was talking to — probs Rachel — goes “you,,, okay dude ?? you look,,, very intense in the face” and he freaks out, not thinking on an excuse quick enough and just BOUNCES “what?! 😧 Uhh yeah yeah im good,,, i just have to,,, i have to go now”

Also not to, once again, pull up my brazilian card BUT we have a habit of greeting people with a hug and a kiss on the cheek — it can be a real like kiss on the cheek or that like fake one sksksk where you touch the side of their face with your face and make a kiss noise KSKSKS most common to do that actually — my friends and I see each other every night in college but we still greet each other like that every time and less cause it’s the “polite thing to do” and more cause its a way to show we like each other and we’re close

SO— in my head, reader — who’s me cause,,,, who the hell else would she be sksksks — does that every morning. It’s a habit !! And when she asked the team if it would make them uncomfortable, to greet them like that, they said no !! So everyone’s getting a hug when she sees them, specially like the ones who don’t live in the tower the whole time !

And that’s fun in TWO different ways CAUSE

1. Gar really likes it and gets all weird about it later, cause the more times he gets turned on by her touching, the more innocent touches start making it happen too

2. POSSESSIVE ANIMAL INSTINCT BABY !!!! I hate — not really — to bring them into this BUT i feel like the ones who’d make Gar the more jealous of are -> Jason and Hank (stop rolling your eyes I have a nom biased explanation KSKSKSKS)

Jason is more of a logical jealousy, he’s hot, he’s their age AND he’s a major flirt/fuck boy sksksk even if it’s in jest or a friendly flirting when Reader hugs him or touches him, he’s still gonna say some bullshit like “i know im hot babe, but you really gotta stop touching me like in front of everyone” or “can’t keep your hands off me huh?” I desire him carnally

Hank is more of a — Absolutely One Sided — physical/animal instinct thing for suuuure. Like out of all the guys, he’s definitely an the closest thing we have to a Natural Alpha, he’s big, he’s strong, he’s agressive and dominant (not sexually but how he holds himself around other ppl) and Gar would just FEEL some sort of anger and jealousy when he sees Reader giving Hank any type of attention, even tho he KNOWS nothing’s ever going to happen (cause 1. Hanks not a fucking predator and 2. He’s very clearly with Dawn) — it definitely would NOT help if Reader let slip something about finding Hank hot/attractive, during a forced teens game night maybe? KSSKKSKS

She’d know RIGHT AWAY something’s off with Gar — cause she swears she saw his eyes turn green after a particularly Fuck Boy-ish quip got Jason a little slap on his arm/chest — he’s both avoiding her like the plague but also ALWAYS standing very close to her in social situations — on the off chance she holds onto him — so she’d up the antee completely -> push him til he breaks

And oh boy does he ever 🥵 Breeding Kink Gar is just supreme, I am not sorry

like I have personally a very clear stance about not wanting kids AND not wanting to experience pregnancy BUT IN FICTION ????? GIVE ME THE BREEDING KINK !! GIVE ME THE GETTING MARRIED AND HAVING KIDS !! THERE IS NO CONSEQUENCES TO MY ACTIONS !!!! LETS FUCKING GOOOO

#IT GOT SO OUT OF HAND #AAAAAAA #SKSKSKKS IM SO SORRY #idk if you sent this like is this a fic idea I’d be interesting in reading OR what do i think of this scenario #OR both KSKSKS #BUT PLEASE take it and RUN with it #I absolutely love ur fat reader content #i think thats how i found your blog in the first place #fat reader x eddie (or steve i dont recall now) #so i would DIE at your take on an absolutely feral Gar with a fat reader #now THAT — a character so fucking turned on by the reader and their body — is what makes me feel good about myself #seeing my body/body type as something desirable and not fee desired DESPITE my body #ALSO i fear i came off as a bit as an asshole by the end of the og tags SO i need to explain #the word chubby has been griding my gears specifically in that reader/fanfic context #not trying to eradicate the word as a whole SKSKKSKS #and it definitely DOES NOT apply to the word Chubbie -> not only different much cuter spelling #but ALSO i link that to you directly! that’s You; your blog; your handle; even tho that’s not ur actual name sksksks it IS to ME ur name #so my brain doesn’t even correlate the two #ik you didn’t say anything about that and you probably understood what I mean without me having to explain it like this #but i saw your handle in this ask and immediately went ‘oh no’ cause MAYBE idk it sounded like an asshole thing what i said #anyways fat reader supremacy #starbunnie

[dennou-translations]

Violet Evergarden Gaiden: Chapter 6

Please feel free to message me about possible corrections. If you can, consider supporting the creators by purchasing the official releases here.

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The Postal Company and the Auto-Memories Doll

   The current times were labeled as the era of postal business flood.

Within a continent that congregated small countries, the people who operated in the mail industry competed ruthlessly against one another. Putting it very simply, the situation of postal companies throughout the continent was of stealing each other’s customers.

Clients chose their mail agency of use and requested deliveries on their own. The reasons for the choices would be fees, deliverable areas, and of course, even the postmen’s degree of courtesy was a subject of deliberation. Taking all of those into account, they would pick one postal company from somewhere.

At present, as the management structure of postal corporations was becoming devoted to carrying the side-business of amanuensis “Auto-Memories Dolls” rather than only delivering mailed items, others were unable to establish a position in the market if their work leaned towards the latter. The more the competition increased, the more obvious the differences in services would become, and, as the superior and inferior ones would grow evident, the losing side would inevitably close down their company.

Within such harsh rivalry, in a certain country named Leidenschaftlich, located in the continent’s southern coast, there was a postal agency so-called CH Postal Service had boomed its name throughout the industry. Although it was a newly introduced company that had but a few years since being founded, its reputation was exceptional. The degree of customer satisfaction was high, and there was abundance of re-users.

On a general view, there were two motives behind its good results.

The first one was that the CH Postal Service had no restrictions to its areas of delivery. Should a client desire, it would deliver to any part of the globe. Of course, fees were imposed for remote places, yet that was the first attempt in the industry of pulling such a feat. Even existing postal agencies disputing for a leading position in the industry had determined delivery areas. The CH Postal Service delivered even to regions of conflict, therefore being a great help for customers whose family members or lovers found themselves in battlegrounds. Its patrons increasing in numbers was something logical. However, succeeding in doing such a thing as though it were extremely natural was terribly difficult for ordinary companies. The CH Postal Service was in condition to go anywhere for a client’s sake, as it had assembled the personnel and system capable of making it possible – therefore, it had managed to do so.

The second reason was that there existed a top star in CH Postal Service, who had come into sight in the Auto-Memories Doll business like a comet. Seeing her walk around the city would cause people to do double takes at her looks, and hearing her voice would paint their cheeks red out of fascination. She was a perfect beauty that seemed to have come out of a mythological legend. As of late, a play that the famous dramatist Oscar had written using her image had been announced and gained popularity, making her renowned even outside of the industry as per synergy.

People probably envisioned just what type of woman she was. Mostly, their expectations were betrayed in good ways. She was a woman that surpassed the categorical components of imagination.

Her name was Violet Evergarden.

The largest trading place of the continent was a port that served as a gate from and to the sea. It was a national interest of Leidenschaftlich’s, as well as a trigger for wars. Countless other countries had attempted to invade it, seeking its abundant resources and a privileged location.

Although the city was at financial ease with the prosperity of its economy, scars of old battles remained in some places. The symbols of long military service from the past had not been etched solely in protection walls or stone-paved roads. It could be said that the fountain built in the capital Leiden during the celebration of Leidenschaftlich’s hundredth anniversary was its most well-known marking.

Consisting of a total of nine goddess statues holding water vases on their shoulders, it worked in a way that groundwater poured out them. Despite it being a gem made by a nationally employed artist, the goddesses had their necks chopped off. It remained unfixed, for the sake of not letting anyone forget Leidenschaftlich’s disgrace in authorizing the invasion of another country’s castle town.

In spite of being a major commercial nation, it was a military state. There were armed soldiers amidst the lively cityscapes even during times of peace.

The members of the CH Postal Company had such country as their home.

“Oh, what’cha doing?”

“My.”

“It has been a while.”

Under a beautiful autumn sky, a group that rarely gathered met in front of the headless goddesses’ fountain. They were two women and one man.

“If it isn’t Cattleya and V. Have you come out to welcome the great me, unable to wait for my return?”

Leaving his motorcycle parked by the roadside and heartily eating grilled chicken was a postman clad in a glass-green shirt. His slender boots of cross-shaped heels gave out a devious sex appeal. Hidden behind sandy-blond hair, his light blue eyes were provocative. His unmanly, soft facial features were not gentle. It was Benedict Blue, who worked at the CH Postal Company.

“What’re you saying? I’m gonna ask again: what’re you saying? T-There’s no way I’d come pick you up! I just went out shopping as an errand for my beloved President. Violet, say something too. To this platform shoes man. Nobody called for you.”

The one who spoke as if to smooth things over with a moody voice was a beautiful woman of gracefully wavy dark hair. She had amethyst eyes and an hourglass shape. Brimming with enough sensuality to enslave the opposite sex, her body was enveloped in a carmine dress-coat with a waist ribbon, yet was about to burst out of it. She was Cattleya Baudelaire, who also worked at the CH Postal Company.

“You two, you are being too loud out in the street.”

Reproaching the duo with a voice of silver bells was an elegantly beautiful girl dressed up like a porcelain doll. Said person had a hairband made of embroidery lace sitting on her hair as it spread out in waves and was wearing a one-piece with plenty of such lace sewn to it, along with a chiffon trench coat.

“V.”

“Violet.”

She was Violet Evergarden, the top Auto-Memories Doll of the CH Postal Company, whose blue eyes enthralled those who looked at them, as did the emerald-green brooch sitting on her chest.

Benedict and Cattleya turned toward Violet, changing the addressee of their impressions in unison.

“What’s up with you?”

“Really, Violet, you’re pretty fired-up. You’re letting your hair down? Are you on a date?”

Pressed on by the two, the Auto-Memories Doll that the CH Postal Company had pride in, Violet Evergarden, cast her gaze to the ground. “Lady Tiffany... someone from my home arranged everything, but is it that strange?” Her voice sounded slightly embarrassed.

Cattleya observed Violet with a gentle look. “It’s not strange. You’re cute enough not to lose to me. Are you going to see the major?”

“Yes. It is still early for the meeting time, so I was going to buy a book for me to bring along.”

“That’s great; you’re looking forward to it, huh! Hey, she doesn’t look weird, right, Benedict?” Cattleya rejoiced without restraint.

“Tch,” Benedict clicked his tongue.

It had truly been a long while since the three of them had last gathered. That was only natural. At the CH Postal Company, everyone worked industriously every day. There were sporadic occasions in which they would be grouped on duty, but that was only when they managed to miraculously coordinate their schedules. They were mates who had been hired by their president at about the same time, so to say.

Benedict threw away the bones of the meat he had just eaten onto the road, peeking at Violet’s face while licking off the oil remaining on his hand. “Hu~n, well, isn’t it fine? Nice work.”

Although their faces were close, Violet stared back at him with her huge orbs without bending backwards.

Benedict flatly thrust a fingertip at her forehead in-between one big eye and another. “But the one who gets to walk you around gotta be me. As your older brother part, I can’t accept my little sister part getting eaten down by an old man. I’m better. ‘Cause I’m young and cool.”

It could be said that someone who had the nerve to say such a thing so imposingly was quite a rare type even amongst humanity.

With an aspect of irritation, Cattleya interjected, “A third party is gonna be telling you this, but Mr. Gilbert is super wonderful, is an adult man and I know Violet’s head-over-heels for him, so you’re the one who’s uncalled-for here!”

“What does ‘head-over-heels’ mean?” Violet immediately reacted to the term she was unused to hearing.

“It’s like being obsessed. Didn’t you say that the major was the only one for you?”

“I did say that, indeed.” Her brows furrowed as if she were troubled, her blue eyes slightly moist. She was most likely “embarrassed”. Perhaps becoming unable to say anything else, Violet wound up turning her face away.

The feeling of affection for that awkward girl, the envy towards her happiness and the complicated emotions from having a friend taken away by a man traveled across Benedict and Cattleya’s minds. Therefore, in order to dismiss it all, the two silently decided to ball their fists, pushing and kicking Violet left and right.

“Shit. Don’t go acting cute. You’re just a battlefield maniac.”

“Really, it pisses me off. You’re as strong as a bear! But you’re adorable.”

Perhaps not feeling any pain, or perhaps trying to figure out how to deal with such a situation, she resigned quietly and accepted the unwarranted violence. As seen from the sidelines, it looked like something close to bullying, but Violet was actually the one with highest combat capacity amongst them. When the physical strength of the three was put together, that sort of thing was no more than playing around.

“Listen, don’t let him touch you carelessly, all right? This is amazing, though. You’re like a fluffy dog. Cattleya, you try touching too.”

“Hey, don’t you go carelessly touching her with those hands either! Even the insolence of getting meat juices on a maiden’s hair has a limit! Stop it!”

“It’s fine, ain’t it? It’s not like I just got outta the toilet.”

“Eh, does that mean... you never wash your hands!? Right? That’s what it is, right? No waaay! Violet, hey, come here. Benedict, don’t you get near us! It’s my turf from beyond this point! I’ll beat the hell out of you for territory violation if you come over!”

As Cattleya swung her legs, enveloped in Suède boots, to draw a line on the ground, Benedict opposed to it in a level as low as the next person, not losing to her. He picked a dead branch from the root of a roadside tree and did the same as she had. “Haah~? Then I’ll make everything beyond this point into my turf! Speaking of which, the way to your beloved president’s head office is behind me, so don’t you go back to it either!”

“Ah~, that’s unfair! It’s. Not. Fair!”

“It’s not unfair~! You’re the one who came up with it first~!”

It was a child-like action for members of society to take. Violet, the youngest one, regarded them with interest as if she were watching a dispute between animals of a new species.

That was a short-lived period of peace before an uproar occurred.

   At the same moment, in the same country, within the same city, time flowed peacefully inside the head office of the CH Postal Company, nobody aware of the nightmare that would approach them a few minutes later.

The business firm was erected in an alley away from the main street, projecting itself in the very sense of the word over rows of small shops. It consisted of a spire with a light green, dome-shaped roof and a weathercock on display, a deep green roof that spread out as if to surround said spire, and outer walls made of red bricks that had been sunburned into a tasteful color. The iron plate on the arch-shaped front gate made known the name of the company with letters printed in gold.

Should one open the door, a cheerful-sounding bell would announce the arrival of a customer. Upon coming in, one would soon find the counter, which was the sector where the reception of postal items took place. The building had three floors, with the first being the reception desk, the second being the office and the spire in the third one being the president’s residence.

No matter how far it was from the main street, the building was quite expensive. Its owner – an individual referred by the members of the CH Postal Company as “President” and “Old Man” – was drinking black tea with brandy at a balcony that had an unbroken view of the city.

“I’m so brilliant that it’s scary.”

He was a lady-killer good-looking enough to display self-indulgent behavior. His age was around the thirties. He had droopy grayish blue eyes, red hair grown slightly long, a manly build, and although he was not young, he had soft facial traits that exuded sophisticated simplicity. His appearance seemed to earn the envy and jealousy from other men of the same generation as him. His leather boots shone lustrously without a single stain, polished perhaps out of obsession.

“President Hodgins!”

The one who had yelled into the room was a girl of innocent features. She was the possessor of velvety, evenly cut lavender-gray hair that stopped above her shoulders. She had large eyes, a small head and a petite body. It was still the physique of a young child, but the heterochromatic orbs from behind the glasses she wore bore a stunning suspiciousness that was mysterious even. She was a person who the word “lovely” fit perfectly.

“Please say so after you’ve finished work!”

However, her conduct had presence as the secretary of a self-centered chairman.

Hodgins retorted mildly, “Little Lux, what I need right now isn’t brutal working hours but relaxation time feeling the gentle autumn air and drinking tea.”

“Even if you say that with a nice voice, it sounds like nothing but running away from reality! Please; if you at least put the stamps, I’ll bring you as many cups of tea as you want! Tomorrow is the deadline! We have to clear up most papers today and submit to the concerned parties in lots of places tomorrow! It’s the Flying Letters all over again!”

“You’re already my Miss Secretary through and through. I’m so happy. You used to look like a scared little rabbit when you arrived here, but aren’t you a fine working lady now? This feeling that I was the one who raised you is exceptional, huh?”

“President Hodgins! Please! Take the stamp! If you hold it, I can move you to stamping it... I’ll also read out the documents to you...”

“Then, Little Lux, doesn’t it make no difference if you’re the one doing the stamping?”

“I’d do it if I could! All that’s left is the stuff that demands the president’s confirmation, so just get on with it!”

“That ordering tone with formal language coming from a teenage girl is giving me unbearable creeps... Hm, Little Lux, hey. You don’t look bad with a shirt-blouse and a long flared skirt, but why don’t you try changing your outfit? I think I’d recommend a black apron dress over a puffed sleeve shirt, black tights and red enamel shoes.”

“Please listen to what I say!” The figure that had once been worshiped as a demigoddess at the headquarters of a cultist organization was absent in Lux Sibyl – what was there instead was the figure of a half-crying subordinate attempting to convince her vain superior.

Lux had been working serious and untiringly ever since being brought over by Violet and hired into the CH Postal Company. Perhaps having incorporated a methodical personality, she was now entrusted with even the duty of president’s secretary, yet she always had a hard time with said easygoing president.

The competence that the man named Hodgins had for business was unquestionable, yet his self-amusement principles were extreme and he would not stop fooling around even when having piles of work to do. Keeping his day-by-day in check was Lux’s role. In worse times, she would have to search for him and pick him up at brothels in red-light districts.

“If you don’t put the stamps, the one who will die isn’t you, President, but myself.”

Lux was tired of it.

“No way. I’ll put the stamps. I’ll put them, I’ll put them. Don’t make such a depressed face. Little Lux, you’re too pessimistic. Also, you take everything too literally. I told you that eighty percent of the things I say are random, right? Poise yourself more at ease. Let’s enjoy everything. Even the troublesome stuff.”

“President... you seem like you’d say this even if you had a hole opened in your stomach... I’m jealous.”

“Thanks. I’m the type that grows through getting compliments.”

She had wanted to convey something that was no compliment, yet it did not turn into words as Lux wound up having her attention stolen by something else. Lux’s golden and reddish heterochromatic eyes caught a strange thing in the skies against the beautiful cityscape that was visible from the balcony.

“President Hodgins... Over there, something is...”

At the same time as she spoke, Hodgins forcefully dragged Lux’s body, held her up and jumped to the end of the room. Lux was squeezed tightly against Hodgins’s chest, not allowed to even scream or raise her voice in confusion.

A few seconds thereafter, the sound of an explosion ensued.

   “Do you not hear some sort of noise?” Violet’s leveled voice eventually came between Benedict and Cattleya, who were having a scuffle fight. Her blue orbs were looking up at the sky, sighting a black object that passed by in a flash.

And it struck one of the classy buildings among the cityscape of Leiden.

“The head office is under attack!” No sooner than she said so, Violet bolted from the place. She slipped through people standing still with their mouths open, their attention taken away by the explosion sound that had reverberated through the idyllic early afternoon.

“No way, no way! Eeh?! What about the President!?”

“Get on, you idiot.”

Benedict had mounted on his bike before long. After whispering lowly, he swung a hand around Cattleya’s back, all too easily lifted her up, sat her on his knees and simultaneously turned on the engine, taking off.

“Wai—! Doing that all of a sudden is scary! It’s scaryyy!” Cattleya shouted, clinging to Benedict’s neck.

“Move! Move! Y’all are in the way!”

A young woman who was selling flower bouquets with a mobile catering fell on the spot, the horse of her carriage letting out a neigh. Ignoring the situation of the traffic in the street, Benedict rampantly chased after Violet. He gradually got closer to her figure, which had already become the size of a bean grain.

Benedict stretched out his hand. “V!”

Violet had been running at an astonishing speed, but upon hearing Benedict’s voice, she nimbly hopped onto his motorcycle. The two of them, who had a mutual understanding without the invitation of “get on”, exchanged words while paying no mind to the scandalized Cattleya.

“That sound was of Leidenschaftlich style artillery.”

“Did you see the cannonball’s firing position?”

“There is no mistake that it came flying from the west side of the city. Look, smoke is coming out of the head office’s third floor. If we suppose that it was shot from somewhere just as high, we can restrict the location, right?”

“It struck Old Man’s apartment, so there’s too many suspects.”

“How can you be so calm!? The President might’ve died!” Cattleya glared daggers at Benedict and Violet, yet the expressions that two had on were different from normal times. She quieted down without thinking.

“No way we wouldn’t be worried, right...!?” Benedict spoke even for Violet’s part.

The motorcycle that the three of them rode let out a roar while going up the slope.

   Caught under a bookshelf, Hodgins was straddled over Lux with his hands so as not to squash her. Lux looked up at him, dumbfounded.

“Little Lux, you can... you can take it slow, but sneak off from under me.”

The glass of the windows had shattered and scattered all over the place. The president’s desk, which was an order-made one designed by a master craftsman, had been smashed to fragments. The carpet had turned into ember and the room was starting to envelope in flames.

“President Hodgins... I-I’m sorry!” Lux crawled out, attempting to somehow lift the shelf with her powerless arms. However, it did not even budge.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Man~, I’d been skipping push-ups lately so this is taking a toll on me... Heave-ho.”

The instant he put on strength and lifted the bookshelf all at once, he rolled away and escaped from being crushed. He was the bearer of a considerable muscle strength.

Hodgins stood up and looked around the room. The look in his eyes was no longer the earlier one of a slacker chairman.

“Sorry; you okay?” Only the gentleness in his voice was the same as always.

“Why are you apologizing, President?”

“‘Cause this was an attack aimed at me, no matter how you think of it. If anything happened to you, I wouldn’t have any excuse to give your parents.”

“I don’t have parents.”

“That’s right. Then, I wouldn’t have any excuse to give you. Now, we gotta check if the other employees are all right...”

“Anyhow, let’s go downstairs; we’ll both burn to death if we stay like this!” Making a snap decision, Lux ran to the stairs that led to the lower floor.

Planning to go down through the balcony’s emergency stairs, Hodgins desperately called out to her, “Little Lux! Wait up!”

However, before Lux flew out the door, it opened automatically. Hodgins saw a brusque arm stretching before his eyes and taking ahold of Lux. She was dragged into the darkness and her frame disappeared.

“Little Lux...?”

By the moment that Lux reappeared before Hodgins, whose lips twitched, there was as a muzzle aimed at her temple. The one who pushed her forward while holding onto her shoulder was a man clad in a completely black suit. Six other men dressed the same way revealed themselves in succession. Hodgins’s gaze gradually became grimmer.

“How do you do, Claudia Hodgins?” The man referred to Hodgins by the name that he made sure not to call himself by. It was the name his parents had come up with while convinced that he was going to be born a girl.

Breaking into a distorted smile, Hodgins replied, “You’re truly one refreshing shitface, Salvatore Ridaudo.”

Salvatore smiled sarcastically as well. His hair was fixed with balm to the point there was not a single disheveled thread. He was the possessor of wood-brown droopy eyes, thick lips and skin as pale as wax.

“So, what is it you wanna do by shooting a cannonball into my office and thrusting a gun at my secretary?”

“My, good job figuring out that it was our doing.”

“I have a rough idea of it, but can’t you tell me… Mr. President of the Salvatore Postal Company? All that comes to me is that my academic background in the Military School was below yours.”

“How modest... What are you, an up-and-coming entrepreneur whose name everyone knows in the mail business nowadays, talking about? It’s very obvious what I’m after, right? The Salvatore Postal Company and the CH Postal Company. Two agencies competing for deployment in Leidenschaftlich. The fact that the other party is a nuisance certainly applies to you too, but I’m the one who’s been in this industry for the longest time. I can’t contain my frustration. Your way of doing things is... Anyway, I want you to obediently come with us. I wish to have a talk at a quiet place. If you do that, we’ll go home without inflicting a single injury on this cute lady and the rest of the employees.”

For someone running a postal firm, he was a disturbing individual. Calling him an underground chief would be more frankly agreeable. The men in all-black under his control did not seem to be respectful individuals either.

“Think you’ll get to live in peace after doing something like this? The military police’s coming over soon.”

“Seems like you have contacts in the military, but I myself have strong connections too. The military police monitoring this area won’t move an inch. I had them promise that they’d pretend not to hear anything the whole day, no matter how much noise we make. Claudia... Excuse me; is it okay to call you by your first name?”

Hodgins gritted his teeth to the point they let out a creak. “Go ahead. It’s the name that my beloved parents gave me.”

“Then, Claudia. If we keep talking so leisurely, we’ll both scorch. I want you to come along with us on your own feet.”

“Got it, I’ll go over there. But leave my secretary here.”

At those words, Salvatore went blank. He cast his gaze at Lux, who – perhaps from too much fear – had tears naturally welling up in her eyes, and broke into a smile that was rather merciful for an enemy.

And then suddenly punched her on the cheek.

His eyes open wide, Hodgins’s expression visibly dyed itself in rage. “You...! You laid your hand on a woman!!”

A man from the back gave her support as she seemed about to fall to her knees.

Side-glancing Hodgins as he shouted angrily, Salvatore wiped off the blood on his fist onto the sleeve of one of his subordinates’ suit. “I loathe women who think things will somehow work out if they cry. Sorry.”

His voice sounded as though he had not an ounce of pangs of conscience.

By the time that the trio had arrived, the people of the neighboring shops were helping put the flames down together with the firefighters.

Seeing that, Violet whispered quietly, “It is almost as if they knew there would be fire, isn’t it?”

Indeed, just as she said, the fire department’s performance was too well-executed. Thanks to it, only the third floor of the CH Postal Company received damage.

“You three! Over here!”

As they turned around upon being called, they found uniform-clad office workers of the CH Postal Company standing outside with burns showing and in a horrible state. A middle-aged man, presumably the oldest of that group, was waving his hand.

“Anthony, everyone, you okay? What’s all this?”

Anthony, the section manager of the reception desk at the CH Postal Company, had genteel facial features. He spoke with a demeanor and manner of talking that matched said features, “Every employee who attended work as of today is fine. However... the President and his secretary Lux have been taken away.”

“No way!” Cattleya let out a cry similar to a scream.

Benedict looked at Violet. She blinked several times. Her long eyelashes swaying widely displayed “shock” amongst her scarce emotions.

Her hand reached out to her brooch and gripped it tightly. “Who... and where... is the culprit...?” she asked in a low voice, still gripping it and not letting go, “Who... and... where?”

Her tone was an absolute zero.

It was so low and cold it went to the point of making whoever listened to it hallucinate that their temperature had dropped for a second. The air about her was bizarre, further enhanced by her usual robotic aspect.

Only one person moved within that freezing atmosphere. “V,” echoed the affectionate nickname by which Benedict alone called her.

Violet turned her head to the side.

“It’s okay.” That was a tone so gentle it was unimaginable coming from Benedict. “I’ll do something about this no matter what.”

Those words were almost like the ones that a true older brother would tell his younger sister.

Violet’s eyelashes once again flapped flutteringly. “I will do it.”

“You can’t. If we’re doing something, we’ll do it all together. Your plans for later gonna be okay?”

“The plans... No problem; Major will understand. Besides, Major would probably order me to rescue President Hodgins and Lux.”

Perhaps unamused by Violet’s attitude in demonstrating unwavering trust, Benedict ruffled her hair roughly. “Ah, that so?”

Her feathery, wavy streaks expanded even more. Unlike earlier, Violet protested with a “please stop” using her normal voice. The instability that had given a glimpse of her former self as a girl soldier was concealed and everyone in the surroundings exhaled relieved sighs.

“Hey, enough; I’m gonna ask about the rest. Anthony’s troubled, ain’t he?”

Having her shin kicked, Violet finally nodded.

Anthony resumed speaking, “The perpetrator is the Salvatore Postal Company. Its president who has the looks of a vampire and his followers dressed in black did this to the office… I tried to notify the military police with a detailed report of the circumstances, but they would not listen. It seems Salvatore has enormous support. I can’t think of anything other than information manipulation.”

Meaning that Hodgins and Lux had been taken by Salvatore and their whereabouts were unknown. It would seem that the employees left behind were first and foremost concentrating themselves on digesting the situation.

“When departing, President Hodgins told us, ‘I leave the rest to you’.”

“I’m so glad! They’re okay for now, huh!” Cattleya patted her own chest and welled up with tears.

“Salvatore’s the place that dispatches those postmen with black uniforms? If I’m not wrong, their head office was in Leiden, yeah? Those guys once went claiming a boundary to delivering territories, so I beat them into a pulp. Could it be… this was my fault?”

“Eh, what? The name sounds like a tongue-twist so I can’t remember just by hearing it one time. Salva… Sal… Salfa…”

“'Salvatore’, Cattleya.”

Imitating Violet, who pronounced it slowly, Cattleya uttered it as well, “'Salvatore’, 'Salvatore’… okay. Gotta be able to say it right. They’re the ones we’re knocking off into hell, after all. Well, when does the blood festival start? Of course, we’ll settle the accounts, right? We’ll go save the president and Lux, right?”

It was a crude statement, yet the people present nodded at Cattleya’s suggestion with an aspect that bore no sense of displacement whatsoever.

“Please pummel them.”

Benedict broke into a villainous smile at Anthony’s request. “Oh. We’ll do that. Old Man will be fine even on his own but we gotta save the midget.” Benedict vigorously hit his own chest with his fist.

Anthony let out a breath of relief at that attitude. “You three, what should we do, then? Should we call over the other employees? The Salvatore Postal Company owns countless branch offices, even abroad. Is this all right?”

Violet said after raising her hand, “We shall seize them simultaneously. In the national offices, there should be a spot by the windows with nothing but the reception desk. The three of us will take it over… However, the priority is to strike the head office first. Let us suppose that the location the two were kidnapped to is where the leader is. Depending on whether the people at work recruited as combatants are available, please notify them that we are seizing our neighbor agency, the Salvatore Postal Company. Hold a transmission for the combatant employees to grasp the entirety of the situation. We will entrust the information convergence… to you, Anthony.”

“Understood, Violet.”

She was the expected of a former warrior. With that, the chain of command was made clear.

Looking at Violet, Benedict asked, “V, ain’t you kinda coming back to being a soldier?”

Violet had on the same composed expression as always, yet the things she said were uncouth.

“I am not. However, counterattack for justifiable motives is permitted even during travels. We are merely going to resolve a quarrel between fellow post offices. The third floor is the one burning, right?”

Violet had a reason for confirming that.

   The trio stood in front of a thick iron door inserted unnaturally in the red brick wall at the back of the building. As Benedict squatted on the spot and dug up the ground, a small box covered in dirt appeared within not even a few minutes’ time. Inside it was a bronze key. Once he reverently brought it into the keyhole, the door greeted the visitors while ringing out a rusty sound. They took a built-in lantern and went down the stairs in the thin darkness. Soon, they arrived to their destination.

The basement illuminated by the faint light stored equipment that should not possibly be gathered in an ordinary company. They were firearms, swords, spears, axes, bows, shields and other fighting tools of all kinds. Even if that were the president’s hobby, such assortment of goods was not something an amateur could attain.

“He saw something like this coming and was getting himself ready, huh. He’s got actual self-awareness that people have a grudge against him,” Benedict said as if in admiration.

“Ah~! President got the tonfa that I said I wanted! The whip too!”

“One fist’s more than enough for you, ain’t it? Don’t go taking any more dangerous weapons other than that. V, what’cha picking? We got this opportunity so I’m gonna take the ones I’ve never used.”

“I...” Looking around the hidden weapons of the CH Postal Company, Violet reached a hand out to something wrapped in a tattered rag set against the farthest wall. “I have decided that this will be my weapon. Benedict, Cattleya.” Violet raised the object that was as tall as her with hand movements that did not allow one to perceive its weight. “Let’s go as discreetly as possible.”

The three stared at each other in silence for a moment.

“Impossible, ain’t it? I’m pissed.”

“Impossible, isn’t it? With this group, that is.”

“So that is really the case.”

As the result of a discussion, they arrived at the conclusion that leaving the enemies half-dead without killing anyone was passable.

   Salvatore Rinaudo stared down at Claudia Hodgins. The person he detested was currently on an imported bear leather carpet of his personal choice, feeble and with wrists tied.

They were in a room encircled with black furnishings. The fact that said room was decorated with the personality of its owner was apparent one way or another. There were portraits of himself and bookshelves with double glass doors that did not seem to be opened often. There were also butterfly specimens and vases filled to the brim with fresh white flowers. Quiet violin music was playing from a gramophone, but it did not relieve the restless atmosphere in the slightest. Having her cheek punched and swelled, Lux Sibyl was seated on a chair, but one of Salvatore’s underlings had a gun thrust at her head.

Lux was constantly concerned about the outdoors. From the balcony, she could see Hodgins’s office at just the same height in the far distance. Black smoke rising from it, the structure of the CH Postal Company’s headquarters and of that building were awfully similar.

There was one more thing to note about the balcony. It was the artillery that seemed unlikely to have been placed there as an antique.

“Shall I tell you the reason why I despise you?” He stretched his arm as though to embrace Lux, caressing her, who had her right cheek swollen, almost as though soothing a pet cat.

As the cheek that had been hit still throbbed, Lux shuddered as if in pain upon the touch.

“Above all, it’s you yourself. You were born to a well-off merchant family, and used to belong to Leidenschaftlich’s army. Even though you were promoted up to the rank of major, you quit the military immediately after the Great War ended and founded a post office next, succeeding splendidly at it. People like that do exist, huh? The kind that can carry out anything just fine no matter what they do. In most cases, they stomp over others’ efforts with the sole of their shoes. And with a nonchalant face, to boot. I may have all this, but I’m one of the people who face hardships, so I detest those like you.”

“If me being superior is a sin, then go complain to God.”

“My second reason for hating you is that you rebel against the principles and rules that our predecessors established. ‘The CH Postal Company delivers to anywhere’? You make me sick.”

Hodgins shot Salvatore’s hand a blazing glare. “High quality at a low price for the costumers... That’s the basics of business, isn’t it?”

“Won’t you just crush those who can’t do the same if you turn this into a standard?”

“You get tripped up because you sit on your hands like that. Y’know, I just happened to think back when I was a soldier that a post office like this would be great and am simply making it into a reality. Letters that can be sent to any sort of battlefield. Postmen who can deliver them. Auto-Memories Dolls who can come to you if you so wish, even if you live at the heart of a sea of trees. What’s so bad about doing something I like with my own money?”

“There are still other bad things... What’s that building? Isn’t it almost like claiming that you’re going to replace the Salvatore Postal Company? The fact that only the weather face stands high up is also irritating.”

Salvatore’s hand moved from her cheek to her silver hair, which emitted a glossy luster.

“Don’t touch my secretary... Yeah, that’s right, I declared war on you. I’ve known you before getting into the industry. You’re all over the country I protected, doing stuff that doesn’t favor it.”

“What, for example?”

A bundle of hair picked by Salvatore’s fingers flowed in-between them, producing a smooth sound.

“The fact that you’ve been selling weapons behind the face of post office... You were selling national weaponry abroad, weren’t you?”

“We’re a postal company that has gentleness and courtesy as our selling points, so we do deliver anything that people request. However, I don’t recall delivering anything to the North.”

“That’s not the issue. Even if you didn’t sell anything to them when battles were going on, it takes just a bit of thinking to figure that this kind of stuff makes rounds, right? It was so unbearably weird... How come the enemy had weapons made in Leidenschaftlich? How come my comrades were getting shot by the enemy with them and dying...? I finally got to investigate that mystery after the war.”

Lux’s had her hair forcefully pulled and her neck bent backwards. Her scarf was taken off, her collarbone peeking from underneath her blouse.

Salvatore took the gun from his underling and pointed it at her chest. “If you know this much, you also know that part of my proceedings went to the military, don’t you? It’s not something that I alone wished for. Some people from your country, which you’d devoted your life to, merely wanted to increase their retirement pay a little. Isn’t that a commonplace story? Can’t you drop the moralist act? It disgusts me.”

“I’m no moralist—hey... how many times do I have to tell you not to touch...”

“Claudia, it’s not like you have a respectable life style either, is it? You wagered your whole fortune on war gambles and earned a large sum, wasn’t that it? Funds gathered from gambling are a hotbed for underground organizations and black market groups. With those funds, they sell off weapons, drugs and abused women and children. Even if you’re on the side that just milked it out, from the moment you placed a bet, you also made rounds and became someone’s assailant.”

“That’s why I said... I’m no moralist! I did all of it because I wanted to. You and I are both pitch-black at heart. But y’know, my secretary over there is a respectable girl. Didn’t you hear when I told you not to touch my secretary?! If you get anxious unless you’re touching something, just hit me or whatever!”

Perhaps because such statements rubbed him the wrong way, Salvatore did as Hodgins proposed, leaving Lux and kicking Hodgins’s face with his shin. Crimson hair swaying, Hodgins collapsed onto the floor.

Regardless, he grinned. “Thanks; should I take my clothes off while we’re at it? It’d get you excited, right?”

Salvatore grabbed Hodgins’s collar with rage. “How filthy. Your company is your human nature itself. I’m a victim. I want you to give me back the clients, routes and everything that you’ve stolen from me. I think being a soldier suited you better than being a businessman. Lying on the ground like this is fitting of you. Why... I’m just going to have you write your name on a document. Promise not to trespass my routes... It’s hard to do stuff with you loitering around. Lots of stuff, you see.” He let go abruptly, Hodgins’s face banging onto the floor.

“President!” Lux’s tear-mixed voice leaked.

Hodgins immediately raised his head and smiled at Lux. He went as far as winking at her.

Salvatore harshly told his underling to call over the official scrivener who would bear witness to their contract. He most likely intended to crush Hodgins’s post office through leaving behind a legal document with unequal contents.

“Tepid; you’re tepid.” Hodgins’s tongue licked off the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “Compared to back in the battlefields, you really are dull...” As he coughed curt and subtly, his voice reached Salvatore. “My company isn’t just mine.” Hodgins looked out the window. He checked if something was coming and waited for it.

   “Salvatore Postal Company identified ahead,” Violet whispered.

Benedict was driving his motorcycle, Cattleya behind him. Holding onto Cattleya’s shoulders, Violet was standing on the edge of the passenger seat. Running through the cityscape in the early afternoon, the motorcycle carried not only three people but also uncovered armament.

“Hey~, there’s a huge tacky cannon in the balcony~.”

“All~ right, I was thinking about forcing our way through the front gate but change of plans. V, go off on that balcony,” Benedict said with a lightheartedness that one would invite another to go shopping with.

“Understood. Cattleya, please give me support.” Violet took into her hands a thick, long cylindrical object that had been placed on the motorcycle’s luggage carrier. It was something that could be called both a rifle and a rocket launcher. She rested it on her shoulder atop the running vehicle and determined her target.

Once Cattleya clung to her legs as to secure her body, Violet shot without mercy. Explosion sounds echoed throughout the city of Leiden for the second time that day.

“Impact confirmed.”

Pigeons fled into the sky, the townspeople darting their eyes about in search for the source of the noise. Meanwhile, the motorcycle that the trio was riding on gradually drew closer to the Salvatore head office.

“Sca~ry! But ama~zing! I also wanna shoot tha~t!” Cattleya shouted in joy upon seeing the balcony destructed.

“Won’t let ya no matter what.”

“You cannot no matter what.”

Benedict and Violet shook their heads in sync. Both comprehended that it would be dangerous to let such a naïve woman hold onto firearm.

“What’s with that~?! I also wanna go wild big time~! Isn’t it okay?!”

“Then, let Cattleya be the first to charge in. Please be contented with that.”

“What’re you deciding on your own? The first at anything’s gotta be me.”

“You follow me from behind. ‘Cause the one who’ll save our captive princess of a president is going to be me. A~hn, wait for me, President! Where are you!?”

“You... As if such a huge dude could be a princess. What kinda princess is that?”

“If you were as tall as the President, you wouldn’t have to wear those heeled shoes, huh.”

“You’re wrong! That’s not why I wear them! It’s because they’re cool! You... Imma make you cry later! I’m dropping by your place today, so get ready for it!”

“Yo... Yo-Yo... You idiot! What’re you saying in front of Violet?!”

Silently listening to the exchange between the two, Violet slowly took from the luggage carrier the handle of the weapon jutting out of the tattered cloth. “Then, I shall take this opportunity and go.”

They had no idea what opportunity she was taking, yet Violet nimbly jumped midair after saying nothing but that. As she landed on the ground, the motorcycle also stopped right in front of the head office with good timing upon scoring an ostentatious drift.

“Here I go, Major.”

The one taken into Violet’s blue eyes was the Salvatore Postal Company – a building that looked exactly like the CH Postal Company. Although it was a weekday, a “closed” sign hung on the door and five postmen clad in black frock coats stood by the entrance smoking cigarettes.

The stunning woman, the man mounted on a motorcycle and the beauty behind him appeared before their eyes. Ashes fell down in lieu of their surprise at the mystery trio.

“Wh-Who’re you?!”

While the men froze on the spot at her exposed unpainted face and moonlight-colored hair, Violet swiftly tore off the tattered cloth wrapped around the weapon in her hands. A battle-axe of a size unfit for swinging around in a city road revealed itself.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am an Auto-Memories Doll from the CH Postal Company; my name is Violet Evergarden.”

The name of the battle-axe wielded by that woman as ominously beautiful as a witch was Witchcraft. It had a silver blade, and the red rain that it dyed itself in from the number of people it had killed was a manifestation of its ill-omened existence.

“Apologies for you are in the middle of work, but could you allow us upstairs? Ever since our company’s president and secretary disappeared into your agency, we have not known of their whereabouts.”

As she held onto it, illuminated by the afternoon sunlight, her frame gave off quite a sense of misplacement.

“If you will not listen to our request, we shall exercise brute force based on the guiding precepts of our company.”

But as she wielded it, her figure looked appropriate. Rather, it was the contrary.

Raising the gigantic battle-axe blithely, Violet pointed the blade at the men. Instead of opening their mouths, the men took pistols out of their coats and pants and aimed them at Violet.

“The guys from the CH Postal Company are here! Don’t let them pass no matter what!”

“Violet!” Cattleya’s scream reverberated through the city roads.

However, the beautiful Auto-Memories Doll moved at the same time as the opponents readied themselves, dealing a preemptive strike in the blink of an eye. “Negotiations broken.”

A single blow from the battle-axe brushed away the postmen. It was an attack that did not cut them and merely struck their vitals using blunt weapon essentials, yet it caused three of the men to hit their heads against the outer wall of their company and collapse.

The remaining two men, who had dodged the appearance and disappearance of the axe, frantically aimed at Violet and pulled the triggers. Without any change in her facial expression, Violet twisted the battle-axe around and repelled the bullets with its blade. Switching hands, she pointed the tip of the handle at the opponents. It produced a ringing noise.

“Please forgive my rudeness.”

The flower bud ornament decorating the tip of the handle flew out together with a long chain. It knocked the two men’s pistols off their hands. She did not give the men, who held their hands down due to the collision, any opening to straighten their postures. This time, Violet rammed the battle-axe’s arm against the surface of the building’s wall and anchored it. While extending the chain and spinning midair, she dealt a flying kick to the face of one of them, made his face into her stepping stone and roundhouse-kicked the man next to him. There was no hesitation or mercy in her series of actions.

“Bu-But I was supposed to be the first one!”

“That was me!”

Indignant, Cattleya took a sack fastened to the luggage carrier, which contained her weapons. After thorough indecision between the tonfa, whip and other armory, the one she had chosen were iron knuckles.

Before anyone noticed, Benedict’s hands were gripping two pistols. He disabled the safety catch with practiced hand movements. “V! Don’t get too serious! If you’re angry, I can get angry for you!”

As if the people inside the Salvatore Postal Company had foreseen that someone would come raid it, postmen peeked out from the windows of the floors above with rifles in position. Bullets from Benedict’s pistols pierced their arms as he spoke, creating a rain of blood splashes.

“If this is the emotion called wrath, I want to rid myself of it quickly. Cattleya.” Violet pointed with her finger at the rocket launcher that had no more remaining ammo to Cattleya, who had put on her iron knuckles.

Agilely grabbing its handle with one hand, Cattleya threw it with heightened rotation speed after drawing it back once with much vigor. “One, two, the~re!”

Together with her adorable shout, the rocket launcher struck the postmen who had turned up in the upstairs floor, breaking through the window glass. Its destructive power was the same as a bullet shell.

The one who had flung it jumped up and down on the spot as if delighted. “Kyah~! I hit them~!”

It was not a deed that an average person, let alone a young woman, could normally manage. She was the possessor of tremendously strong arms.

“As expected of the Stupid Woman – or more like the Stupidly Strong Woman.”

“Shut up, Platform Shoes Man.”

“Ah, you on?”

“What, are you?”

The ringing of the chain on Violet’s battle-axe Witchcraft drowned out the duo’s little quarrel. One of the men screamed and threw himself out the window, falling onto a flowerbed in front of the company.

“Benedict, Cattleya. By the looks of it, the President and Lux are unmistakably inside this building. President Hodgins told me that he imitated Salvatore’s agency when our company’s office was under construction. If that is the case, then the highest position is probably the uppermost floor – the third floor. I am counting on you to follow the procedures.”

The two nodded in reply to Violet’s words.

“Let’s kick their asses at once and go celebrate.”

“We’re bothering the neighbors, after all.”

Before anyone realized, the city had gone quiet.

The Salvatore Postal Company was located in a completely ordinary shopping street in the city of Leiden. However, the passersby had fled within a few minutes, and the shopkeepers of the nearby buildings, as well as the buildings next to those, had closed their shops’ windows – the so-called display windows – and pulled down the iron shutters.

The fast action stemmed from their understanding that the city had become involved in the maelstrom of a fight. It was a particularity of citizens from a country that had long been shutting off invaders ever since its foundation. The people were silently waiting for the conflict to end.

“Well, then, let’s go in.” Violet’s figure as she gave the command with a clear voice was different from usual.

   Inside the chairman’s room at the top floor of the Salvatore Postal Company, the scenery visible from the balcony – an autumn sky where cirrocumulus clouds drifted high up and Leiden’s cityscape – had looked like it was inserted in a picture frame. Yet such beauty was something of a few seconds before, and now the artillery enshrined in it had received great damage from a sudden explosion attack, smoke rising from it.

Once ornamented with delicate sculptures, the rails were crumbling, and the balcony was in a state where one could fall straight to the ground if they put a foot on it. If the artillery were loaded with ammo, it was most likely not the only thing that would have been destroyed.

In that situation of settled chaos, Salvatore Rinaudo’s pale face went even paler and his mouth fell open as he spaced out, while Claudia Hodgins bit the inside of his cheeks to kill off his own laughter and trembled in opposition.

“What have they done?”

“Ahah—AHAHAHAHAH! Aah, I can’t anymore! Can’t hold back! This is the best!” Hodgins convulsed with laughter upon looking at Salvatore’s face. “What you so surprised about, Salvatore? Isn’t that what you did to us? Well, but... you wouldn’t think we’d do the exact same thing as you, huh! There’s no helping it! Ahahahah!”

Even Lux, who had all along been shaking with a darkened face, lit up with a sparkle of hope and laughed a little.

“Is this the work of you people from the CH Postal Company?”

“Who else is there? Our corporate philosophy is ‘an eye for an eye’.” Hodgins was in such a good mood that he seemed like he could break into song right then.

A few of Salvatore’s underlings went down to the floors below. Gunshots and screams soon echoed again. The fact that the screams had come from Salvatore’s subordinates increased his anxiety and impatience.

“They’re doing this even though you might be injured... What kind of training do you use on them?”

“Basically a principle of liberalism. Most of the personnel I gathered back when I was building my company happen to be guys with nowhere to go that I coaxed and took in... Don’t know if my preferences are biased, but it turned out that lots of them were absurdly strong fellows. The ones who’re here right now are definitely two of the Auto-Memories Dolls that were off-duty and... probably a postman that was scheduled to return to town today. They’re elite of the finest kind even among us. Salvatore, since it’s you, weren’t you supposed to investigate me through and through?”

“Your company’s employees are former soldiers and mercenaries, right? If that’s the case, so are our postmen...”

“They aren’t just former soldiers and mercenaries. Benedict is an ex-mercenary who had the nickname of ‘Battle-Hungry Freak’ in another continent. Cattleya was a boxer. She has arms so strong that no one can beat her by using force. And that beautiful girl whose name you can even say everyone knows in the Auto-Memories Doll business... my adorable Little Violet, used to be Leidenschaftlich’s most powerful female soldier. It’s in the past, though.” Hodgins smiled at Lux. “By the way, my secretary is a former demigoddess.”

“‘Leidenschaftlich’s most powerful female soldier’?”

“Didn’t your patrons tell you anything? Well, she was treated as a secret in a way, so it isn’t impossible for civilians not to know about her. The military went as far as creating a troop just for her and made her work for them, but they never gave her recognition or ranks. She didn’t have a surname back then and it seems people just called her ‘Violet’. My friend found and raised her... She was the leading figure of the Great War in the shadows.”

Salvatore reminisced to the photos of Hodgins’s employees whom he had made his underlings investigate. One that had been engraved in his mind remarkably vividly was a beautiful woman. She was a girl of exquisite, suave facial features. Even if one declared her to have been the strongest female soldier, nobody could believe it right away.

“How did you make a woman like that yours?!”

“She’s not mine.” Hodgins smirked defiantly. “And she doesn’t belong to the military anymore either. From the very start, she... Let’s stop here; telling this story to you is a waste.”

The battle’s tune gradually grew closer to the top floor. By the looks of it, the fuss was escalating to a direction where even angry yelling was ensuing. It seemed the owner of the voice was a young woman. Even amidst gunshots, the conversation between those two people did not cut short.

Hodgins’s smirk deepened, Salvatore’s face becoming grim.

“You guys, give polite greetings when coming in.”

Salvatore’s underlings readied their guns all at once. The tension reached its peak, everyone inside the room paying attention to the door. However, it was time.

“Lux, please cover your eyes,” a beautiful voice that did not match such a place, which had converted into a battlefield, could be heard from behind the staff members.

A black lump jumped from the balcony. It looked like a beast at first. A stunning and terrifying beast that moved its limbs gracefully and trampled over its enemies.

No matter how much the “hunters” who had taken notice of the beast’s existence made bullets rain on it, its feet did not halt by a single inch as it bared its fangs. It steadfastly ascertained the battlefield even as it danced in the air, wielding its weapon with astonishing precision, bringing everyone to the ground.

“A-Aaaah!!”

The arm released from the battle-axe pierced and gouged the shoulder of the man who had been thrusting a gun at Lux. The beast swung the battle-axe and stationed Hodgins and Lux to behind itself.

Salvatore took a few steps back, and exactly two factions stood in position separated at his right and left sides.

“Major Hodgins, we apologize for the wait.”

“I’m always telling you that it’s ‘President’, aren’t I, Little Violet?”

The beast – rather, the woman – shot a cold glance at the one that she perceived as the enemy.

“You—What are you?” Salvatore vented his confusion at the sudden intruder who held onto the completely red battle-axe.

She had white and smooth skin like that of porcelain dolls. Her blue eyes were as glass balls. Her hair of gold seemed to waft with a sweet fragrance. The girl was beautiful to a rare extent, but that was not the only thing that made one’s eyes widen at her.

A living legend that Salvatore did not know was standing there.

“Violet.”

The loveliness he had seen in the picture was concealed by a shadow, a turbulent atmosphere similar to madness surrounding her instead. An air of lethargic strategizing as to which of them would move first flowed by, but the stagnancy soon shattered.

“PRESIDENT———! LUX——!”

“OLD MAN!”

Callings could be heard in unison from outside the room. The massive door was then broken through as if it were as thin a paper sheet. The one who stepped onto the door as it collapsed with a tremor and entered the room while holding by the collar an enemy that she had defeated with her silver iron knuckles was Cattleya.

“Aa~hn! You two~! Found yoou!” She tossed the prey that she had nearly killed toward Salvatore and his group. Being able to fling a human being as if they were an object meant her arms were simply that great as blunt weapons.

Following her, a gun barrel appeared first, and after bullet sounds ensued, Benedict revealed himself. It was a shot meant for delivering the finishing blow to Cattleya’s offensive.

Shooting the legs of all the men in black except Salvatore, Benedict clicked his tongue at the gruesome scene inside the room. “What’s this? Hasn’t V eaten out most of them?” Together with a sigh, he threw away the gun he had been holding, taking out another one. “Old Man~, we’ve left only this important-looking old dude~.”

“Lux! Violet is protecting you, right? President! You’re tied up!” Cattleya ran towards Hodgins, who lay on the floor. Without cutting them with a knife, she ripped off the ropes that had been restricting him using the iron knuckles and embraced him boldly.

Hodgins patted her back with taps and hugged her lightly. “Sorry, Cattleya. Didn’t my adorable young lady get hurt?”

“I didn’t!”

“Atta girl.” Hodgins left a kiss on Cattleya’s forehead with a pop.

Cattleya’s cheeks flushed red and she turned her back to him looking embarrassed, stamping her feet onto her happiness on the spot.

Benedict tore Cattleya away from Hodgins and stood between them. Contrary to being angry, he aggressively hit Hodgins from face to torso, confirming that the latter was alive.

“Ouch, ouch, what’s this? A new way of expressing love?”

“You’re fine, huh, Captive Princess?”

“You were worried about me, Darling?” Hodgins merely replied with frivolous talk to Benedict’s cynicism, looking delighted.

Briefly biting his lip, Benedict faced the ground. Hodgins had a feeling that the eyes Benedict had directed at him before casting them downward were moist, and was inwardly surprised.

——Huh, could it be he really was worried?

“Hey, Darling. Benedict.”

His sandy-blond hair rubbed into a mess, Benedict finally resisted energetically as if to say, “Quit it”. Nothing that resembled tears could be seen in his eyes anymore.

“Who’s that ‘Darling’, Old Man...?!”

“Could it be you were pretty worried about me?”

He was fully convinced that Benedict would deny it.

“I was. Don’t make me.” Yet the latter directed his sky-blue eyes straight at him and said, “I was hella worried. Don’t ever make me worry again no matter what!”

As it was much too blunt, after Hodgins was taken aback, his face slowly turned red. He had anticipated they would come save him, but right now was his first time learning he was cherished to that extent.

“Ah... that so? S-Sorry, okay?”

“Damn... Don’t go getting kidnapped when you’ve got that huge body! Is Captive Princess #2 all good?”

“Fairly. Little Lux needs first-aid...!”

Violet undid Lux’s binding. The latter’s body, which had been trembling in fear, and the sound of her heartbeats, which had grown noisy, were regaining their calm.

“Thank you, Violet.” Enduring the pain in her cheek, Lux smiled at the friend who had come for her rescue. “I thought you were some noble prince.”

Violet furrowed her eyebrows as if troubled. She then resentfully held Lux’s hands and helped her up. “My apologies for not being able to protect you. But I will not let you go through terrifying times anymore.” Just like a knight, she made Lux retreat to behind her.

Albeit gripping his gun, Salvatore remained unable to fire a single shot at the mere three people who had taken control of his company. As he shifted his gaze to the side, he could see his underlings collapsed and moaning in the open corridor. “There was supposed to be... fifty of them,” once he opened his mouth, his voice shook.

“Ah? Your minions? Even if the numbers are big, it’s no use if the quality sucks. Actually, were there that many of them? I was counting, but... Stupid Woman, how many did you take down?”

“Stupid Benedict! Erm... ten. I probably beat up about ten people.”

“I got twenty. The rest was V, huh?”

“I simply came here by climbing the outer walls, so other than the beginning and now...”

“Didn’t anyone run away? The math ain’t adding up.”

They were chatting carefreely, yet the contents of the conversation were the number of people they had defeated. In addition, there was an overwhelming difference in combat power, for they were unharmed and not even their clothes had scratches. That was also a difference in corporation power.

Biting his lip as if in frustration, Salvatore barked at Hodgins, “They came late, and that’s why you’ve lost! I already had you write the contract! The official scrivener went to submit the contract we exchanged to the government office so that it’d serve as a demonstration of formal legitimacy. It’s probably already been accepted... Take your leave as you please. But I’m billing you for the internal damage caused by your subordinates and the injuries they inflicted on mine!”

Salvatore had intended to wreak both psychological and bodily pain on Hodgins for a while, instilling terror on him and making him lose the will to fight back, but now he had given up on it. What he desired most – the unequal contract – was in a state of legal effectiveness. As long as he had it, regardless of what anyone could say, the fact that Salvatore had the advantage would not change.

“Salvatore Rinaudo. What’re you on about?” However, Hodgins had a facial expression that denounced he was helplessly puzzled.

“As I said, your company can no longer enter our routes...”

“So?”

“No matter how much brute force we used, that’s nothing in the face of a validated official document!”

“Again... so what? The papers were indeed filed. Seems like they also were submitted before help came. What of it?” Claudia Hodgins, president of the CH Postal Company and former major from Leidenschaftlich’s army, generally had an easygoing personality, as well as a cheerful and frivolous attitude. However, he was now glaring at Salvatore without breaking into a smile, letting a glint shine sharply in his eyes. “Isn’t it a matter that’ll be solved if we crush down your company?” He rolled up his shirt’s sleeves and took off a wristwatch that one could tell was a high-grade product. Next, he squeezed the strap with his fingers so that the watch’s case would be on his knuckles.

Anybody who was used to fighting knew. If one was battling without a weapon, the object called wristwatch was an overly useful thing.

“Salvatore, if only you hadn’t hit Lux, I wouldn’t be this angry.”

Salvatore fired at Hodgins when the latter swung up his hand, yet it did not even graze him. Oddly enough, the bullet that had failed to kill a person shot through the middle of the forehead of Salvatore’s portrait sitting inside the room.

“S-Sto...” The word that Salvatore uttered were the end of it.

The fist swung by a 194cm-tall man who weighted 85kg struck into Salvatore’s face with a wind-cutting sound. As his nose was broken without mercy, Salvatore shed a large amount of blood. A few of his teeth tumbled onto the high-quality carpet as well. He had convulsions for a moment, but eventually became completely motionless.

“Did you kill him?”

At Benedict’s question, Hodgins put his ear against Salvatore’s chest, shaking his head after simply checking the other’s heartbeat. “He’s alive. Let’s leave him be.” By the instant he turned around, Hodgins had gone back to his usual self. “Everyone, you did well. I’m so happy; my employees sure are the best. And I’m also the best for having chosen you!” Hodgins sang praises gesturing exaggeratedly, embracing the employees who had come for his aid all at once. He then came closer to Lux’s side, planting a kiss on the cheek that had not been punched. “I’ve made you go through a lot, huh. I’m really sorry, Little Lux.”

“No, I’m the president’s secretary, after all.”

Seeing as she did not appear too bashful, that sort of kiss was likely not a rare action. As the thread of tension broke, Lux crumbled and shed large tears. Hodgins frantically apologized again.

“That’s not it... I’m frustrated... It’d be great if I were like everyone else, and also had strength to protect the president. If I hadn’t been taken hostage, things wouldn’t have turned out like...”

Cattleya gently caressed Lux’s arching back as she was unable to stop crying. “What’re you saying? Lux, you have it good exactly because you’re a normal fragile girl. Ah, but it’s not like I’m not normal either. I’m strong and pretty, but I’m a super normal girl...”

“Cattleya, what you say is inconsistent.” Violet handed Lux a silk handkerchief.

Perhaps due to their heights being about the same, despite their faces not resembling one another and their body types being different, the figure of the tree as they nestled close to each other strangely made them look like sisters.

“Seeing girls huddling together is kinda nice, right, Benedict?”

“Old Man, just hurry and do something about this place.”

“Should we huddle too? Shall we?”

“Don’t play around and give the instructions!”

As Benedict dealt him a strong lateral kick to the rear, Hodgins ceased joking. “Eeh~, then, all dismissed...! That’s what I’d like to do but I have a request. Anyone who doesn’t have any plans for later, please help me destroy Salvatore’s company!”

“He~y, Old Man.”

“What is it, Mr. Benedict?”

“You haven’t checked things out so you don’t know what’s been made of it, but we left the international offices to the rest of the fighter staff. The guys who stayed at the main office contacted them. Since it’s those fellows... they’ll take them out without worries.”

“Amazing! But we don’t have fighter staff! It’s not like I hired you with that intention! Well, since there have to be people who can go into battlefields, I didn’t not have that intention, but...”

“From the very start, that was our purpose, President Hodgins. So that there will not be such happenings after this, we believed that laying waste to everything and thoroughly annihilating them was a good plan.”

“Scary, scary. Your expression is getting scary too, Little Violet. Smile! It’s ruining your cute face!”

“President~! I want you to buy me a new choker after we’re done. Look~! The pearls on it got torn off... It was my favorite too.”

“Okay, Cattleya. Be it chokers, clothes or anything, this uncle will buy it for you!”

“Hum... President. What should I do?” the non-fighting staff member Lux tightly clutched her skirt, looking nervous.

“Little Lux, let’s go back to the head office. I’ll have you be treated there too. It’s all right; everyone in the head office contacted the other employees, so there should be people gathering there. It’s safer than you coming with us. Benedict, take Little Lux to the head office, and then regroup.”

“Roger; leave some for me to mess with too.”

“We aren’t sharing cake slices... Now, Little Violet and Cattleya are going with me to crush the branch offices just like this. Let’s decide on the rules for one. No hitting girls. Hitting bastards is fine.”

“Understood.”

“‘Ka~y.”

The members of the CH Postal Company continued their strategy meeting without paying mind to the people that they had defeated lying on the floor. When they were done at last, they exited the building while making so that those of Salvatore’s postmen who had stood up once again would be beyond recovery.

Lighting a cigarette, Hodgins started walking with it in his mouth, and everyone followed him as well.

On that day, within Leidenschaftlich, gunshots echoed throughout several areas of the capital Leiden, yet no one attempted to keep them under control. Additionally, the military police did not make a move regardless of how many reports it received.

   The nocturnal darkness deepened late into the night.

The lights were brightly lit in a bar at the corner of a business district. “Fully booked for the day,” said the clumsy letters on a paper pinned to the menu board in front of the shop. The figure of a seductive female dancer was drawn on said board. By the looks of it, that was a place where people enjoyed shows along with their meals.

The voices of people laughing pleasantly and lively music could be heard leaking from inside the bar. It seemed to be the feast of some company. The men and women were at a one-one ratio. Their ages varied and all of them differed in skin, hair and eye colors.

Even amongst them, there was an attention-catching few.

A young man was displaying splendid steps on a table with heeled boots that looked like womenswear. The dancers swayed their bodies together with him and danced purely as they pleased.

On another table, a beautiful woman was smiling while arm-wrestling with a man of fiendish facial features and plentiful muscles. Seeing as she twisted his arm in a matter of seconds, it could be that he let her win on purpose. However, the man who had lost rubbed his seemingly hurt arm with a strangely believable face.

A silver-haired young girl with a big gauze on her cheek was playing a card game with a blonde person of terribly tattered appearance. It was most likely poker. She looked troubled for not being able to read the other’s expression. While everyone else was emptying bottles of alcohol, only the two of them were making cups of tea into their nighttime company. Each was fixated with their own victory, playing in earnest.

“Ah~! I won~! I won enough to buy a kinda nice pair of shoes! Ah, Lux, aren’t those winning cards?”

“Women who can dance sure are great. V, you suck at playing this, don’t you?”

Benedict, who had had enough of dancing, and Cattleya, who had grown tired of arm wresting, came to sit at the peaceful table as if to intrude on it.

Lux put the cards that she had been hiding up to her lips on the table. “Want to quit poker, Violet?”

“That is right. The cards in our hands have been busted by a third party, after all.”

They did not have the will to get angry. If anything, Lux was so happy for being able to return to that trifling daily life with her companions that she wound up laughing. Perhaps due to the spot where she had been hit aching when she laughed, she arched her back with an “ow, ow, ow”.

“Are you okay? Is it not better for you to rest already...?”

“Yu~p, but I think it’s safer to be with everyone for the day... President Hodgins is here too so I can’t go home.”

Cattleya quickly reacted and looked at Lux’s direction with momentum. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve decided that I’ll be with the President today. See, it’s because the President’s home was in the company’s top floor. We have nowhere to sleep tonight, right? I also had that experience with being kidnapped... He was worried and got me a room at a hotel in the city. It seems President Hodgins will also be staying in it for a while. Until this mess is over, I’ll also be working from there. We’re going together today, so I have to wait for him.”

While Violet replied agreeably with a, “That is reassuring”, Cattleya became beet-red. One could tell from her face what she was imagining. She grabbed Lux’s arm and shook her violently. “You! Do you get what you’re saying?”

“E-Eeh? Our rooms are separated, y’know?”

“Cattleya, Lux is injured.”

“Not a chance. Dunno how many years it’ll last, but not even he is that shameless.”

“Hey! Don’t meddle into a girls’ talk!”

“Ah, you’ve said it. Then don’t barge into when I’m talking with the Old Man no matter what.”

Since another fight had decidedly began, as an accustomed form of coping, Violet and Lux left the two and started their conversation afresh.

“Speaking of which... Violet, are you okay? You’re dressed pretty cutely today... Could it be you were going to meet up with that person... with Mr. Major?”

The moment she received such question was exactly when Violet’s gaze had fixed on the bar’s entrance. “I am fine.”

Someone was heading her way.

Perhaps due to having come in a hurry, said person was out of breath. His sweat-dampened forehead was a proof of the efforts he had been spending until arriving there. He was caught by Hodgins and came to a halt, but even so, he aimed at and went toward her as fast as possible.

That person had soon spotted Violet from the bar’s entrance, and Violet had frozen in place the instant he had arrived as well. It was almost as if there were gravity between them that drew one to the other.

Violet stood up naturally and rushed to him.

——Ah, Violet.

Lux could tell.

——I see, so that’s how it is.

Anyone who was close by would be able to tell.

——The two of you are already like that.

After all, it was as though the air about her had changed completely the moment he had appeared.

“Colonel.”

The one standing there was Colonel Gilbert Bougainvillea from Leidenschaftlich’s army. Perhaps because he was on an off day, he wore only a jacket of fine tailoring and a shirt. Inquisitive stares from the people making a ruckus in the bar fell upon him all at once.

“Violet.”

After all, he was a man rumored within the company for moving the army in order to protect Violet. His existence was made known during the hijacking incident of the Intercontinental train, after which a year had passed not too long before. Of course, that was a story only told internally and Hodgins was publicly regarded as the main leader of such strategy.

The members of the postal company who had gathered up to save her had seen in person the man who came running while carrying her princess style. Back then, they had also witnessed Benedict being entrusted with Violet, his mouth open as if he had grown senile.

“Colonel, my apologies... I ended up breaking our arrangement.”

Her cottony hair was ruined. The outfit chosen for her and that her body was clad in had become like ragged cloths. Everything she had prepared for him had been reduced to misery today.

Nevertheless, seeing her dressed-up caused Gilbert’s heart to beat louder.

“You...”

“You look beautiful” was what he had started to say, but upon noticing a stare of pressuring quality to a fierce extent from the side, he trailed off.

Benedict seemed extremely unamused. He clicked his tongue as their eyes met.

“Anything the matter...?”

“Not really. There any law that says I can’t look at the bastard who snoops into V’s general area every once in a blue moon ever since that incident like he’s a rare sight?”

“You helped me out holding onto Violet back then. I’m grateful... And, I don’t know about any such law, but if it’s about putting up a watchdog act, I’m the one on top.”

Something like an electric shockwave ran between the two of them. Benedict remained not toning down his distrust regarding Gilbert until now, peeved by that man who seemed like he could become a love rival for Benedict’s significant other had he been in the same workplace as them.

“This was the curtain rise of their muddled battle!” just as the two had opened their mouths again, Hodgins cut in with a foolish commentary.

Silence. The two simultaneously glared at Hodgins as if looking at something deplorable.

Hodgins himself broke Gilbert and Benedict apart, coming in between them, putting his arms around each and laughing stridently, “Don’t fight for me! Man~, I wanted to try saying this once.”

“Shut up, Old Man!”

“Stay away, Hodgins. You’re reeking of booze.”

It was a conversation with a magnificent explosive power. By the looks of it, Gilbert and Benedict did not seem like they would get along, but their attitude towards Hodgins was similar.

“Old Man, tomorrow will be terrible for you if you drink too much. You’re at that age, aren’t you?”

“Darling... you’re saying that because you’re worried about me, right?”

“Hey, stop. Stop. I’m not a woman.”

As Benedict stepped away from Hodgins, who was attempting to give him a kiss, Gilbert and Violet were at last able to lock eyes with each other again. Violet had a face that denounced she had gone through a hellish time.

“Any injuries?”

“Minor ones. The same level as scratching a knee.”

“That’s good...” He was truly saying so from the bottom of his heart. Seeing Cattleya and Lux anxiously observing the two of them, Gilbert spoke further, “You too, any injuries? Aah... you need a medic.”

“No, no, I’m okay.”

Lux had already received treatment, yet it seemed like her wound might open the next day.

Perhaps always carrying it in his person, Gilbert took a fountain pen and small notebook from his jacket’s inner pocket, handing her a paper sheet that contained a certain address within Leiden. “This is the clinic where my home doctor is. You don’t need to pay if you give my name, so go there another day. You’ll probably need painkillers for a while. Even in the hotel you’re staying at, please give my name to the hotelman if you need anything. We’re on friendly terms, so he’ll treat you well.”

Lux acted uncertain when accepting the paper. “Ah. Thank you very much. You’re very generous... Could it be... that the hotel reservation... Mr. Bougainvillea, erm... Colonel Bougainvillea, was made by you?”

After glancing at Hodgins, who was entangling himself with Benedict, Gilbert nodded. “That thing asked me for it. I can’t say this aloud but I’ve also disposed of... the documents submitted to the government office in the name of your company. When I use my influence in places outside of my jurisdiction... I end up losing one card that I could otherwise use in the event of an emergency, but...” Perhaps as if remembering something, he furrowed his brows a little and chuckled. “Hodgins took care of Violet. I also won’t spare any efforts for you all in case something happens. If there’s any worrisome matter, it can even be through Violet, but do tell me.”

“Y-Yes.”

Cattleya and Lux mutely let their cheeks dye pink. Was there any girl whose heart would not throb at Gilbert as he displayed adult-man-like reliance in a different way from Hodgins?

“Colonel, you’re so cool.”

“Colonel, you are wonderful.”

No, there was not.

For whatever reason, the two had their fingers interlaced in front of their chests and were striking the same pose.

Gilbert replied levelly, “You aren’t my subordinates so you don’t need to refer to me by my rank.”

Violet pulled the hem of Gilbert’s jacket ever so lightly. “Colonel, hum... would you like to sit down? You must be tired.”

“Aah, no. I’m sorry but I’m taking my leave. You too, Violet. The two are at the Bougainvillea house and we’re making them worry. I already contacted them to say I’d bring you back, so come along. It stopped by a place a little far away, but I have a carriage ready, so let’s walk there. Miss Lux. You... were together with Hodgins for today, right? Miss Cattleya, what about you? We can send you home if necessary.”

“Y-You know my name?! Mine?!”

“Of course; I heard it from Violet. So, what will you do?”

Perhaps due to extreme happiness at that, Cattleya slapped Violet’s back with quite strong vigor countless times, making merry. “I’m fine! I’ll be here with everyone until morning today!”

“It’s probably better if you’re in big numbers. Well, my apologies since we’re in the middle of a pleasant talk, but I’m taking her along. Thank you... for always being so close to Violet. Let’s meet again somewhere else. Please let me at least treat you to a meal.” Gilbert all too naturally took off his jacket and placed it over Violet’s shoulders. He began escorting her away just like that.

“Ah! Bastard! Hold on! V is my little sister part!”

“Everyone, good night. Benedict too.”

“Wait! V~! Hey—Old Man!”

Binding Benedict’s arms behind his back, Hodgins sent Violet a wink. It was true that he was drunk, but his tactic was probably to keep Benedict away from Gilbert. He might have been paying for the sin of making the two of them miss out on the time they had to spend with each other because of his kidnapping.

Hodgins and Gilbert merely exchanged short goodbyes such as, “I’ll call” and, “See you”.

“Benedict’s had an overwhelming defeat, huh.”

“Old Man!”

“Man, he’s rivaling you... but he’s also not.”

The two young women left behind spoke while still staring at the bar’s entrance.

“To be honest, the President told me a lot about Violet’s past after that incident, and I didn’t not wonder if someone like him was okay for her... but, when you meet him, y’know...”

“Yup, its different when you get to meet him, right?”

“It’s because he really did cherish her that he made many mistakes, did his best to take back a lot of things, and now they’re like this, huh,” Lux whispered, deep in thought.

   Treading through an autumn night in which the nocturnal winds were gelid robbed the two a little of the body heat provided by the warm interior of the bar. Violet, who Gilbert had put his jacket over, looked at him with only his shirt on as if to question him.

He soon noticed her gaze and their eyes met. He then smiled at her. “Aren’t you cold?”

Just from him simply throwing those words at her, as Violet was still unused to it, her heart raced. “No; Major, what about you?”

The times that the two of them met up were still at a point where they could be counted with one hand, and during such instances, the restraint brought about by his long absence would manifest itself in the form of agitation. From the perspective of others, that could almost not be perceived. After all, her facial expressions were generally emotionless.

“I’m fine. I’ve run around and sweated a lot today, so I’m still warm.”

“My apologies, Colonel.”

“It’s nothing to apologize for. I did that because I wanted to. Violet. It was also for Hodgins’s sake.”

“All right, Colonel.”

“Let’s walk a little slower. Once we get on the carriage, the way home will last a blink of eye.”

“Is that bad...?”

The one who had made the request was Gilbert, and the words Violet was about to say wound up dying out before they could take form. That was because he sweetly added, “I don’t have enough time with you”.

“All right, Major.”

Her eyes spoke more eloquently than her expressionless self. Violet’s blue orbs were glued to Gilbert’s emerald ones.

“I want to chat a little too. Is everything okay with that young man called Benedict?”

“By that, you mean...?”

“He seems to favor you.”

“He has another woman that he fancies. It seems they are in a relationship, and they themselves are hiding it but everyone around them knows.”

“That so?”

“Yes, he is... in an older brother-like... position regarding... my person, he told me.”

“Told you? That man?”

Their eye and hair colors were certainly similar, and the man could be said to be an androgynous beauty, but his speech and conduct were much too different from Violet’s.

“He himself was saying so.”

“Aah, he indeed called you his ‘little sister part’... Should I interpret that as him showing affection for you...? But it doesn’t look like we will get along very well.”

“Is that so?”

“It will probably be difficult.”

As Violet had heard the story of Hodgins and Gilbert’s past, she estimated that such assumption would be disproved. Gilbert and Hodgins were also a duo that one would not think got along well.

“It seems he’ll get in the way when I’m with you.”

Since Gilbert made a face as if he had swallowed a bitter-tasting bug, Violet did not voice her opinion in the end. “Major.”

“What is it?” As Violet called him, the middle of his brows immediately softened.

“If you had managed to meet with me as planned today, where did you intend to go?”

“Aah, I had actually made an arrangement for us to go horse-riding.”

“Horses.”

“You can ride army horses, and I think long rides aren’t bad if it’s on fine autumn weather days... Did you not like it?”

“Colonel, there is nothing that I dislike if I am in your company.”

“That answer makes me happy, but I do believe I want to learn about your tastes little by little. Kukuh.”

As Gilbert suddenly laughed aloud, Violet tilted her neck. “Is something the matter?”

“You... probably haven’t noticed it, but you’ve been mixing up ‘Major’ and ‘Colonel’ when referring to me.”

As he had been promoted from major to lieutenant-colonel and from lieutenant-colonel to colonel, it could be said that referring to Gilbert with a lower rank was terribly inappropriate.

Violet corrected her posture and apologized again, “I... am sorry. My apologies, Colonel.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m not angry... Ever since you were little, you used to call me that. The first word I heard from you was this one, too. I’m saying that if you can’t get used to it, I don’t mind the ‘Major’.”

“‘Colonel’... Colonel, I will not mistake it anymore.”

Her figure as she attempted to memorize it, in order not to forget it, was lovably stubborn. Gilbert caught a glimpse of her past self from that immature aspect of hers.

At the beginning, the two of them had had an inept exchange. Almost like how children would do it, they had told each other their names.

“Ma... jor.”

“Can you understand what I’m saying, Violet?”

“Major.”

After learning words and coming to know discipline, she had become his weapon.

“If that is Major’s order...”

“It’s not an order...”

“If... it is your desire...”

He had wound up loving the girl-weapon.

“Major’s eyes are here.”

“I wonder... what this is called.”

It had been a one-sided love.

“I will become your ‘shield’ and ‘weapon’.”

“I shall protect you.”

“Please do not ever doubt this. I am your ‘asset’.”

Even so, he had loved her.

“I love you!”

“I don’t want to let you die! Violet!”

“I love you, Violet.”

The girl-weapon had wept that she did not understand what she had been bestowed with.

“What is... ‘love’?”

No one had taught her about it.

“What is... ‘love’? What is... ‘love’? What is ‘love’?”

“I do not understand, Major...”

She had also not understood why he had said such a thing to her.

“What is... ‘love’?”

She had searched for the meaning of those words and for him, who had disappeared, encountering them by chance at last.

And so, they had reached the present time.

“Violet.” Gilbert took her artificial fingertips as she stood still.

Her index finger made screeching sounds.

“Since we’re at it, won’t you call me by my name?” He pointed her finger at himself.

The fingertips that used to be soft and have body temperature in the past did not anymore. The same applied to one of Gilbert’s arms.

“I am Gilbert. Gilbert Bougainvillea.” He pointed at Violet next. “You are Violet. Violet Evergarden.” He moved the finger both ways, saying, “Gilbert, Violet... Gilbert, Violet.”

The two who had ended up with mechanical part had grown and changed. They were not parent and child originally. Not siblings, either. They had also ceased being superior and subordinate.

“Lord Gilbert.”

At Violet’s predictable response, Gilbert smiled bitterly. “The ‘lord’ part... isn’t necessary.”

He had supposedly spoken gently, yet Violet showed him an aspect of disconcertment. “My apologies... Have you... come to hate me...?”

“No. I don’t know how to feel anything but affection towards you... It appears that...” while thinking that it was also valid for himself, Gilbert stated, “hum... you become insecure about it every now and then, but I’ll never hate you.”

“How come?” Violet asked.

How great would it be if he were able to show the insides of his heart to her? Presenting with a form that “this is love” would be so simple. However, it was due to not being able to do such a thing that people uttered words to proffer their love.

“Because I love you most.”

Violet started searching for that term within the sea of words embedded inside her. “‘Love... most’...” As they rolled out of her tongue, what appalling yet passionate words those were.

There was no other sentence more fitting of Gilbert Bougainvillea.

“Love me... most?”

“I have eyes for nobody but you. You’re the only one I’m fond of.”

“That is... to love most?”

“I will hold you dear for eternity, and continue to love you.”

She did not ask “That is... to love most?” a second time. Violet’s cheeks were rose-dusted, her heart started palpitating to the point of aching, and her field of vision blurred. She was unable to look at Gilbert’s face. Unwittingly, she cast her head down, yet he wound up peering at it. The distance between their faces was just about enough for them to kiss.

It was currently nighttime and the two of them were alone in that place, so whatever they did, no one would be looking. Maybe they could manage to keep it a secret even from God.

“I had a phase of... liking you... then I fell in love with you, and now, it turns out I love you the most. Do you understand?”

“Does it never diminish?”

“The affection?”

“The love.”

“I wonder. But I don’t want that to happen and will probably reconfirm whether I do love you numerous times, so it’ll likely intensify, not decrease. You fill me up with it.”

“With love?”

“Yes. The reason why I believe I love you is because you granted me that feeling.”

Violet Evergarden, who had been learning and copying from him – from people –, was able to take in the meaning of those words.

“I do that to you, Major?”

Again, her manner of referring to him had changed. Gilbert thought it was fine either way.

“You do that to me.” Gilbert silently planted a kiss not on Violet’s cheek or lips but on the fingertips that he was holding onto.

Silence.

Those were artificial fingers. She was unable to feel anything from them. Her arms were gone, and would nevermore return.

Placing a kiss on such a spot could transmit nothing.

Even so, he had deliberately kissed it in an affectionate manner. For some reason, that action – Gilbert’s feelings – caused Violet’s eyes to grow hot as if burning and produce tears.

Violet attempted to stop them. Those were incomprehensible tears. Why were they flowing at that moment? They would definitely trouble the man in front of her.

Nevertheless, tears were already pooling in her moist eyes until, finally, a single drop spilled down. Sure enough, the round tear that had fallen from one of her eyes left Gilbert distraught.

“Violet.” Seeing her reaction, he promptly let go of her fingers. “I’m sorry.” He stepped back, raising both hands as if to have her understand that he would not do anything else. “I’m really sorry.”

Violet did not answer. She stared at Gilbert without even wiping off the tear as if spacing out. Her attitude was not of anger. Her aspect was not of sorrow, either. He had no idea what she was thinking. She had the gaze of someone who seemed to be having a dream.

The two of them had lived separately, and he had thought that her facial expressions had become richer ever since they had reunited, but once she clammed up, he could not read her. Her lack of expression and well-featured doll-like traits did not allow Gilbert to study her emotions. However, the one thing he could fathom was that his action just now had been foolish.

——What am I doing?

He had told her that he would wait however long it took. The kiss on her fingers might have been a violation to that promise. He should have been the best gentleman for her, but he may have lost that right.

When she was by his side, she was unbearably endearing. The love towards her that lit up within his chest wound up overflowing.

“I swear I won’t do it anymore...”

The army colonel of Leidenschaftlich was losing face in front of the girl he was enamored with.

“Violet...”

What face was he making now? What did she think of it?

“Major, I...” Violet called him with her wind chime voice. She grabbed onto Gilbert’s fingers and took one step forward. The distance between them had shrunk once again. And then she took another step.

She was close enough to be embraced by Gilbert.

“Violet...”

“Major... please.” Violet peeked into Gilbert’s eye.

The emerald-green orb that had unchangeably borne beauty, kindness and a little bit of loneliness ever since they had first met was right there. Violet was now reflected in it.

Violet was inside his world.

“Do not swear so.”

Gilbert’s eyelid blinked at her straightforward words.

“Please, do not swear... that you will not do it.”

Seeing tears well up in Violet’s eyes once again, Gilbert impulsively reached an arm out to her. He caressed her golden hair as if to soothe her, earnestly listening to what she was attempting to tell him.

“Major, you explained it to me, right? That to love is to think of wanting to... protect someone the most.”

He wiped her tears with his fingertips.

Violet entrusted her cheek to his hand and shed more tears. “This has... applied to me since forever.”

She was attempting to replenish her lacking life. Rather, the truth was that the two of them could have done that from the moment they had met, for it was almost as if they made up for each other’s unskillfulness, but they had missed one another countless times and had not intersected well.

Violet’s chest was now being filled up with a warm feeling that she was experiencing for the first time.

“It always, always has, since long ago. I merely... did not know it...”

——This loud throbbing in my chest, this ecstasy, the fact that I end up swayed by your every action...

“I...”

——...the reason why I cried that I wanted to be by your side and asked you not to leave me anymore...

“Major... I...”

——...the reason why I am crying now...

“I, as of now...”

——...is that, once the “like” and the “love” fell and piled up like snow, and I became unable to melt them down, I had wanted to let you know that I wished the same to be valid for you.

“...have a feeling that I...”

People would declare it as if offering a prayer.

“...understand it better than before.”

“I love you”, that is.

#violet evergarden #fyeahvioletevergarden #violet evergarden gaiden #kyoani #kyoto animation #gilbert bougainvillea #claudia hogdins #benedict blue #cattleya baudelaire #lux sibyl #akatsuki kana #takase akiko #novel #my translation

[beybladeimagines]

Hi! Congrats on the college professor! I'm starting a PhD myself and am always happy to see people succeed in academia! But that's not why I am submitting my request. I would love to read some headcanon on Team Neoborg, their habits and individual relations, if it's not too much. :> Thanks a bunch! I enjoy scrolling through your tumblr a lot!

Mod Note: Congrats on getting into a program!!! That’s such an amazing accomplishment and I hope it’s everything you want/need it to be. You are going to do something wonderful - I just know it. Now let’s talk about our favorite Russian dumpster fires.

When we see the Blitzkrieg Boys in the media, they are often portrayed as stoic, hands-crossed-over-the-chest, strong-and-silent types that always seem to be in solitude. Even on their private plane that takes them to their international matches, they’re just sitting in a dark and poorly lit body of the plane completely silent and not even looking at one another. On the surface, this might imply that they never speak to one another and are simply together for the sake of the tournament, but in truth, their ability to sit in silence comfortably reflects a very deep sense of empathy and trust everyone has. Someone like Spencer might be well attuned to Tala’s feelings and the small habits Tala tends to adopt whenever he is feeling anxious. For example, Spencer might see that Tala is gripping his arms while they are crossed, implying that his mind is in a very stressful space, thus causing him to react physically. Spencer then might embrace silence just to give Tala a chance to think through everything that’s bothering him.Meanwhile, someone like Bryan is also attuned to Tala’s subtle habits that form from specific emotions, but his method is addressing the situation is completely different. Bryan is invasive. He thinks that conversation is a distraction. He’ll be the first to break the silence and say something, if only to get Tala to think about something other than his current issues. Sometimes Tala does snap at him, but Bryan would rather take the temporary heat than let his best friend and teammate wallow in their own misery any longer. Although Tala might actively express annoyance, Bryan always finds a way to laugh it off. In truth, Bryan’s carefree and abrasive attitude sometimes relieves Spencer, because Bryan is able to intervene and make an impact when Spencer feels like he cannot. Both Bryan and Spencer are aware that Tala does not talk about his feelings whatsoever and especially in the presence of Kai, they will not say anything that will force Tala to emotionally expose himself.

Kai stands out like a sore-thumb within the team. Everyone is aware of his skill, but they do not trust him by any means. It’s an interesting relationship, because although they respect and understand Kai’s constant need to look out for himself and be the best, they are also overly cautious, because if Kai could betray his own team...then he has the potential to do the same to them. Tala doesn’t really care about those kinds of concerns. He knows Kai’s intentions and why he’s here, so he knows that if Kai does drop the team, it’s not like he intends to sabotage them in any way. Kai doesn’t make much of an effort to really be a team player due to being hyper-focused on his own goals. However, it is Bryan that ultimately tries to make Kai feel and be included. In the series, we see these one-liners that Bryan exchanges to Kai and many of them are casual and playful remarks that attempt to disarm our favorite stoic punk. Bryan doesn’t exactly intend to embrace Kai as a new best friend, but he wants someone on the team that he can at least be comfortable around, thus his desire to get close. Bryan does get physical with Kai through playful mannerisms like putting his arm around Kai’s shoulder, or even gently punching his arm when they speak. These mannerisms are meant to test Kai, to explore his boundaries, and to get an idea of his reactions. Bryan has always been (and continues to be) a boundary pusher, so the more Kai gets angry, the more amused Bryan gets to continue with his actions.

After the events of G-Rev, I do see members of the Blitzkrieg Boys developing a level of sympathy for Kai. They weren’t too crushed about losing the tournament and they were pretty happy that Boris got the punishment he deserved. When they returned to Russia, everything was working out for them and they became very engaged with their community, but it almost felt like Kai got the short end of the stick. After seeing how hard he worked to climb to the top only to lose it all, they were able to relate that to their own experiences. They worked hard and without much validation, because they always had one another in the end. Kai, despite his history with the bladebreakers, was ultimately willing to sacrifice that for some kind of validation and success. Kai does become a powerful businessman, but it was so evident that he was empty inside. I imagine that after everything was over and some years had passed, someone like Tala would reach out to Kai again. Tala isn’t usually the type to make the first move about anything, but through his engagement with community members, he was able to gain a few life lessons in regards to leadership, responsibility, ownership, impact, etc. Kai was never seen as someone who he could easily dismiss or leave behind. There was something pretty powerful there. At one point, these two did in fact need each other. Although the stakes are no longer the same, those emotions have not been discarded. Tala’s intentions when reaching out are genuine, but someone like Bryan would be more excited to see Kai again after all that time. In fact, the first words from his mouth could be complimenting Kai on his strength and how he remembers how amazing he was in his last official match. Those words would honestly hit Kai pretty hard. Everyone’s been so afraid to speak about that day, but Bryan brings it up so easily and doesn’t even insult him. That should say a lot since he’s so antagonistic. Despite the initial distrust, Kai was apart of their history and that does speak volumes to a team that only clings to familiar faces.

Many of the members of the Blitzkrieg Boys are seldom ever apart. Granted, they do have their times when they wander off. Spencer might want to sight-see or gets lost in his thoughts, Bryan might be off looking for trouble, Tala might need some space to think strategies through, and Kai is just...Kai. But ultimately, everyone’s aura is interwoven and they always find a way to come back to one another. They have accustomed themselves to sleeping and occupying very harsh and unfavorable conditions. Sometimes, the only thing they could do was sleep on the floor and sometimes the only warmth they received was from the sleeping body next to them. They have conditioned themselves to find comfort and ease through one another’s presence, thus making companionship a necessity for relaxation, survival, and a sense of home. Even someone like Kai is drawn into this un-explainable need to be around his teammates or else he can’t get any rest. They usually don’t have individual rooms and often sleep in the same space (and even sometimes the same bed to save money on hotel fees). Although this through someone like Kai off at first, he never complained. Somehow, despite the chaos that sleeping bodies can impose, they always managed to leave room for him. 

#beyblade #beyblade imagine #blitzkrieg boys #kai hiwatari #tala ivanov #yuriy ivanov #bryan kuznetsov #boris kuznetsov #spencer petrov #sergei petrov #headcanon #Anonymous

[lady-needless-litany]

Weddings; or, A Precise Agony

Summary:  Ever since she could remember, Raven's parents had dragged her to their never-ending carousel of social events. Things hadn't changed, even when she'd gone to college. And she expected that the wedding - not hers, thankfully - would be no different. Rating: general (+ no major warnings) Word Count: 2.8k A/N: written for the @multifandomwritingchallenge for February 2019, with the prompts of ‘envious’ and ‘jubilant’.

AO3 Link

“At least try to look excited, honey,” Sloane said as the car pulled up to the hotel. “I know you don’t want to be here, but it’s only today and tomorrow. We’re leaving the day after the wedding, by lunchtime. It won’t be that bad.”

“Sure,” Raven murmured to herself, quiet enough that her parents couldn’t hear her. “It’s only a whole day of my life wasted.”

In all fairness, it wasn’t quite a full day. More like forty-six hours, if you were being optimistic. Unable to help herself, she sighed. Forty-six hours of boredom, discomfort, and dealing her parents’ drunk friends. All because of a wedding.

As her father instructed their driver to deal with their luggage, Raven hauled herself out of the car, gravel crunching beneath her feet.

The hotel was really quite spectacular, in an old and stately way. It was a converted manor house, all light sandstone and sash windows, Georgian in style. For miles in either direction, it was surrounded by greeness.

It had a sense of tranquility that was destroyed by Raven stomping up the stairs to the entrance. The lobby alone was palatial and, as her mother remarked to her as they walked towards the concierge, it must have cost a fortune for the bride and groom and their families to rent the whole place out–they were even paying for the accomodation and food for all two hundred guests for both nights. Two hundred guests was, by the standards of her parents’ social circle, a small and intimate number; that didn’t change the fact that the cost of the whole event must have been astronomical.

Her father, controlling as ever, checked them in. In the meantime, Raven scanned the room, thankful that it was currently devoid of anyone that she knew. She realised that her luck wouldn’t hold in that respect–it was likely that she’d know a large percentage of the guests.

Once everything was squared away, her father handed her a key–a proper, honest-to-goodness key, not an electronic swipe card. She took it without question, desperately wanting to get some space to herself; an hour and a half with her parents in a confined space was enough to drive anyone insane. Hanging on the wall, behind the concierge’s counter, was a large analogue clock; as she excused herself, it was just hitting two o’clock.

She climbed the hotel’s central staircase to the first floor, checking room numbers until she found hers. Predictably, it was opposite her parents’ room. No need for her to stray far, in their eyes. Or something like that.

The room itself was more than alright. It was spacious and comfortable, with a good view across the front lawn and into the countryside beyond. Flopping onto the bed, she squeezed her eyes shut and huffed. This is such a waste of time, she complained to herself. I should be studying and trying to prepare for next semester.

Instead, she was at a hotel that was an hour’s drive from meaningful civilisation, at a wedding that she didn’t care about. Both of the couple were the children of her parents’ friends; her father’s company had invested in several joint ventures with the firm that the groom worked for. Given the type of people involved, the wedding was going to be gaudy and over-the-top, the kind of event that her parents had forced her to attend throughout her childhood. She’d hoped that she might be able to escape that once she was at college, technically an adult; alas, that was not the case. Her parents were still acting like she was a child, bound to their every whim.

The ceremony itself was the next day, but she didn’t even have that evening to herself. Before long, her mother was hammering on the door, insisting on a change of clothes and late afternoon drinks. Reluctantly, she obliged, not wanting to argue with her family so early on in proceedings.

She made it through the evening without major incident, took a long shower, then collapsed into bed and slept deeply.

She awoke to her phone’s obnoxiously loud ringing. It was a fumbling, bleary effort to get the device pressed to her ear. “What?” she mumbled.

“You need to get ready,” her mother’s voice, insistent and head-splitting at that time in the morning, instructed her.

“What? The ceremony doesn’t start until three o’clock.” Raven checked the time. “It’s only seven-thirty.”

“We arranged to have breakfast with the Fabians, remember? At eight o’clock.”

Vaguely, she did. It was a plan that her father and his friend had concocted sometime during the previous night. The Fabian family were old family friends; if her father could have had his way, Raven would have been married to their son, who was only a year younger than her. She had made it quite clear that she wasn’t interested, though her father still dropped heavy hints about it.

“Fine,” she replied, hanging up.

Against every desire in her body, she crawled out of bed and into the bathroom, dressing and dragging a brush through her hair. It was a haphazard process, but she was somewhat presentable by the end of it. She even made it downstairs and onto the veranda in time.

Breakfast was a passable affair, primarily consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Fabian quizzing her about college, especially given that their son would be enrolling later that year. The son in question wasn’t present; he’d been left at home. Raven would admit to her jealousy.

Their meal was cut short by Mrs. Fabian’s sudden panic about getting dressed and ready for the ceremony, which sent them all back to their hotel rooms, ostensibly to prepare.

Somehow, even with excessive amounts of time on her hands, Raven ended up behind schedule. She made it through the doors with only a few minutes to spare, still discreetly adjusting the bodice of her dress as she took a seat next to her parents.

The room itself was stunning–it was an orangery, all glass and wrought iron, decked from floor to ceiling with flowers. The flora lent a light perfume to the warm air. Rows of wooden chairs had been installed for the guests, divided by a velvet aisle.

It was beautiful. Truly, it was a shame that Raven wasn’t in the right state of mind to fully appreciate it all. In the true spirit of society weddings, everything had been exquisitely coordinated. The coloured belt on the bride’s dress matched the carpet that she walked on, as was the groom’s pocket square. The music was precisely timed with the bride’s arrival at the altar.

After that, Raven, quite unintentionally, stopped paying attention. They recited their vows, they signed on the dotted line, they kissed. Beyond that, she couldn’t recall much about the ceremony; her mind had always been active and she found it easy to slip into a daydream.

She was brought back to herself by a thunderous round of applause. By that point, the formalities had concluded.

The happy couple and the rest of the wedding party processed out, leaving the rest of them stretching and chatting, relieved that the ceremony was over. Now the reception, Raven told herself. The bit that’s marginally worse. Almost as if they’d read her mind, a small flock of hotel staff appeared, ushering them out of the orangery. “The reception will be in the ballroom,” one man politely informed her. “Still on the ground floor. Just past the lobby.”

By some miracle, all two hundred of them successfully moved from one space to the other. The ballroom, like the orangery, was stunning, all parquet flooring and wooden panelling and candelabra, lined with French doors. There was a dance floor at the centre of the room, surrounded by twenty or so round tables for dinner.

The three of them had been honoured, placed on Table Three, alongside more distant aunts and uncles, as if they were members of the family. When they sat down, Raven was seated to her parents’ left-hand side. On her other side was an empty chair. It didn’t worry her, but she mused on it for a while. To be fair, it wasn’t like she had anything more productive to do–the rest of the table was making polite conversation, one that implicitly excluded her.

Waitstaff flitted around the room, pouring drinks. She was restricted to water, thanks to her father’s hawk-like gaze and the fact that he still treated her like she was a child.

A member of staff, positioned in front of the double-doors that lead to the hotel’s foyer, rang a bell. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she announced. “The bride and groom.”

There was a round of applause, more polite than enthusiastic, as the couple crossed the threshold and took their seats. Once they had sat, Raven was hopeful that she’d be granted a reprieve from the pomp and ceremony, preferably in the form of food.

No such luck.

This, the best man decided, was the most opportune moment for his speech. And once he’d finished, it seemed that every other member of the wedding party had also written something to say.

The speeches seemed endless. They were boring, of course, despite their over-exuberance, but they also grated in a different way. They were telling, of their speakers and their audience; it was a jarring reminder of the opulent world of her parents, a world that she spurned now that she was older. Her parents paid her tuition fees and rent–which she was eternally glad for, seeing how others struggled with it–but beyond that, her life was identical to any other student’s. She studied, she worked, she socialised. She’d yet to find ‘her people’, as her mother termed it, but she wasn’t unhappy.

These people, though? On the one hand, she loathed them and their pettiness, their hypocrisy; on the other hand, she envied their absolute self-confidence and the way that they all seemed to belong. She’d never had that luxury, though it might have been the only one she’d ever lacked as a child.

The arrival of a plate of food halted her spiralling thoughts. She hadn’t even noticed that the speeches had ended.

A second shock came in the form of a man, pulling out the chair next to her and settling down. He didn’t introduce himself to anyone and wasted no time in attacking the plate of food that had just been placed in front of him, which raised several raised eyebrows from their table companions, though none seemed overly surprised. If he was related to the couple, Raven supposed, then the rest of the table would be his family–perhaps he always acted strangely. On her part, she followed his example, tucking into her first course without further delay.

When her plate was empty, she sat back in her chair and threw a glance at the man next to her. Having finished his food as well, he was solely concentrated on fiddling with his napkin ring.

“Hi,” she tried, tentative.

His eyes flicked up to meet hers. “Hey,” he replied, sounding equally as unsure.

She found herself instantly drawn to the intensity of his expression. “I’m Raven. These are my parents.” A quick gesture towards them, which neither of them noticed, as engrossed in conversation as they were.

“My name’s Strat. These are my… relations.” At her quizzical, slightly perplexed, furrowed brow, he went on to elaborate. “Oh, I’m the bride’s cousin,” Strat drawled, by way of explanation. “I’m the black sheep of the family.”

Oh. I know who you are. While Raven would never have managed to match the face to the name, she’d heard of him before. He was a favourite gossip topic. Apparently he’d been quite the troublemaker when he was living at home, and not much had really changed when he’d moved out. “Right.”

“Life without risk is like thunder without lightning,” he continued, as if to explain, eyes flaring. “It’s just that most people don’t see that.”

“That was practically poetry.” Raven’s words were almost sarcastic, but something about the genuineness in his eyes took the meanness out of her voice. His words were odd. Yet, in a peculiar way, she thought she understood them.

At any rate, there was a flurry of action as their plates were cleared and their main course was delivered. They resorted to the routine of the first course–eating, not talking, not paying any attention to each other or anybody else.

It wasn’t until the mains were cleared and they were waiting for dessert that they spoke again. In the meantime, twilight fell beyond the French doors and the guests, helped along by large quantities of wine, grew steadily rowdier. Being sober made the situation all the more painful.

“You don’t seem very happy, Raven,” Strat said abruptly.

She pressed her lips together. “In all honesty,” she said, dropping her voice and casting a wary look at their tablemates. “I don’t want to be here. At all.”

He matched her volume, murmuring, “Why are you here, then?”

“I mean, my parents are paying for me to go to college, so I don’t have a lot of choice.”

He made a noise of acknowledgement, one that was neither positive nor negative. Somehow, it spurred her into explaining. “I hate this kind of thing. They’re so much effort and no-one ever really enjoys themselves. I can’t even have a drink when my Dad’s around, because he goes ballistic and tells me I’m being irresponsible,” she complained, still in a near-whisper. “So… I guess I’m just here for the cake.”

“Anyway,” she continued, now daring to raise her voice back to its usual volume. “This doesn’t seem like your kind of place, either.”

He threw his head back and laughed, almost manically. “It’s not. I’m just here to cause trouble. Stir up a few family feuds.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It can be.”

Ching, ching, ching.

Strat’s words were harpooned by the insistent chink of a knife rapping smartly against a crystal champagne flute. The best man, again, this time announcing the cake. “Ladies and gentleman, family and friends…”

The cake-cutting was a cue for the guests to stand, mingle, chat. Everyone began to drift about the room with no apparent purpose. For Raven, it was a chance to escape her table, to make a beeline for the opposite side of the room. Strat stuck to her side like a thistle. She was both astonished and completely unsurprised.

They didn’t pass unnoticed. How could they? Strat was related to, and hated by, half of them, after all. They got an odd stare here, a whispered comment here: what’s Falco’s daughter doing with that good-for-nothing louse? She’d only take a few steps before she realised that it wasn’t worth wasting energy on listening.

Nonetheless, they made it to the wall, turned, and faced the room. Strat waved down a waiter and got them two glasses of champagne; they raised them in an unspoken toast. Raven drank her first half of a glass in a single gulp. It was uncouth, for sure, but she felt that the situation called for it. For his part, Strat simply quirked an eyebrow and ordered her another glass.

As she was finishing her second, which she consumed at a much more civilised pace, Strat made a particularly witty comment about a man that was doing his best to drink the hotel’s wine cellar dry. She couldn’t help but burst into a fit of giggles. Clearly, she was loud; it made a few heads turn and she quickly stifled her laugher.

Across the room, she made eye contact with her father, who glowered at her behaviour; where she’d usually turn contrite, she instead shot back a jubilant grin. On the other hand, her mother, dare she say it, looked almost proud.

It was childish, she knew that. But there was something so thrilling about him, something so delicious about publically defying her parents, something so satisfying about scandalising everyone in the room.

See, Falco would usually love to see Raven interested in someone of Strat’s family, of their status and wealth. But Strat himself? Not a chance.

Just then, there was a commotion as a group of middle-aged musicians clattered into the room, equipment in tow. They’d probably call themselves a band, but Raven was doubtful; they looked like they were the kind of people who tortured their instruments, rather than played them. As they exchanged a sceptical look, Strat seemed to share her reservations.

Then she was struck by a thought. “I think I’ve seen these guys before,” Raven said in a tone of realisation. “They played at some event that we went to at the Fabian’s place. An anniversary, I guess.”

“And?”

“They were awful. They didn’t play anything under thirty years old. And they’ve got no stage presence.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father, finally unable to bear her behaviour, wending his way through the crowd towards them. She made a sound of disgust. “I hate weddings.”

Strat shot her a glance. “Let’s get out of here.”

In all her life, Raven had never heard a sentence that had made her so happy. Her heart, which had abruptly sunk, began to rise once more. “Definitely.”

#multifandomwc #bat out of hell #fanfic

[whoareurl]

Causing Chaos in Pyjamas (7/9)

Q had been expecting another painfully long jaunt through the underground system but mercifully Bond ran to the edge of the pavement, one hand in the air, and yelled, “Taxi!”

The inside of the cab was wonderfully warm and Q huddled into himself in the hopes of preserving as much heat as possible. The sudden temperature change made his nose run something awful so the borrowed handkerchief was near permanently attached to his face but Q was happy to suffer a little in that regard if it meant he might be able to stop shivering.

“Vauxhall Cross,” Bond said curtly and the cab driver’s eyes raked over Q’s haggard appearance.

“Rough day?” He asked faintly.

“Quite,” said Bond.

The cab driver stopped trying to strike up conversation after a mere glance at Bond’s harsh glare and Q was grateful for the peace. It lulled him into such a wonderful sense of calm and security that he let his head fall onto Bond’s shoulder, eyes drooping shut. The surprise he felt when Bond’s arm wound round his waist was completely overruled by his exhaustion. He dozed, snuffling quietly all the way there.

“Q,” Bond’s voice broke through Q’s hazy half-dreams.

Opening his eyes, Q was momentarily panicked because he couldn’t see a damn thing but Bond was soon offering his glasses which looked strange in his weather-worn hand. Usually, he held a gun there; it was almost incongruent to see him holding something as fragile as a pair of glasses.

“You took m’glasses?” Q asked stupidly, ducking into the handkerchief to let out a single barking cough.

Bond patted his back and tugged the door open. “You looked uncomfortable.”

Q nodded. Though the first time Q had registered Bond’s apparent interest in his health was that morning, he was all too quickly getting used to having someone look out for him in little ways like that. Well, and big ways; Bond was currently helping him escape hunters which Q would definitely classify as Big Way.

By the time Bond had helped him out of the taxi, Q had regained some of his wits about him. Despite all the napping he’d been doing recently, he felt dead on his feet. A bath and his own bed sounded like just the ticket but he supposed the couch in his Q-Branch office would do in a pinch.

Q shook his head to clear it. There were more important things at stake than a healthy sleep schedule, damn it. His people were in danger. M needed to be briefed and Q should really double check the active mission logs for anything which might suggest one of his agents was now a target. He should also get on comms with 005 to make sure the Serbia retrieval was on track and there was a mountain of paperwork he’d been meaning to get to stacked on his desk.

Resigned, Q let out a throaty sigh as Bond dragged him through security. Without his ID, Q had worried he’d have trouble making it into the building but Bond’s double-oh status meant he was entitled to do pretty much anything to ensure a positive mission outcome; getting unidentified Quartermasters past the poor sods on the security desk was hardly a colossal challenge.

It took Q a moment to realise that he was not, in fact, being led down to Q-Branch but past the lifts and along to-

“007,” Q said sharply, yanking his arm out of Bond’s grip with strength that surprised even himself. If Bond was surprised, his face betrayed nothing. “I’m needed in Q-Branch.”

Bond quirked an infuriating smile. “You’re really not. In case you’ve forgotten in all the excitement, you’ve got the day off. Sick day,” Bond clarified needlessly, tapping Q’s sore chest with his index finger. “Remember?” He asked cheekily.

“That was before a security breach put lives in jeopardy,” Q huffed, flouncing off towards the nearest staircase. Well, he tried to flounce but it became more of a trudge within a few steps and moments later Bond was redirecting him to the lifts.

“If I can’t convince you to go to Medical, at least save your breath on the stairs,” he reasoned.

On another day, Q might have taken the stairs out of sheer spite but apparently spite wasn’t a good enough motivator when his lungs felt like they were full of wet cement. Reluctantly, Q let Bond steer him into the nearest lift.

The moment the doors opened, revealing the bustling Q-Branch ahead, Q began to regret his decision.

Fuck, he thought. Fucking cat pyjamas.

R saw him first but it didn’t take long for the other minions to spot him. The chatter finally petered out and Q was left shuffling awkwardly, suddenly very aware of his ramshackle appearance.

“Sir?” R breathed, shocked as she stepped forward, her usual wariness of James Bond apparently overruled by her concern for her boss. Her shocked professionalism quickly dissolved into something else after she gave Q the once over. “Q, love, what are you doing here?”

Q felt Bond stiffen next to him but didn’t pay much attention. He was too bloody tired to analyse the ins and outs of Bond’s psychology right now.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. He wished everybody would stop staring. R seemed to notice too because she turned sharply on her heel and the minions were pointedly avoiding eye contact within moments. If nothing else, Q was glad to know that his minions were in good hands; he still wasn’t comfortable with this concept of a temporary Q running the place, especially since he hadn’t met the man. Of course, Olivia Mansfield’s recommendation put Q at ease somewhat but he’d still have preferred being able to brief the new Q on how they did things.

(Thinking of this stranger as Q, thinking of his minions, his agents, addressing him as such made Q feel a little wobbly. He wasn’t normally this insecure but he felt undeniably hurt by the thought nonetheless.)

The compact headset Q usually wore was attached round R’s right ear which gave him pause.

“You’re co-ordinating?” He asked with a frown.

R rolled her eyes. “Your replacement leaves much to be desired. Do me a favour and don’t get sick again for the foreseeable future?”

Q felt a smile tug at his lips. “I’ll do my best.”

“Speaking of which, you should sit down,” R said suddenly, swiftly grabbing Q’s hand and dragging him through the branch in the direction of his office with Bond following closely behind. “I assume if you’re here it must be something important though I would have pegged you as the type to get dressed before coming to work. Lord, Q, did you take a wander round London on your way here?”

Bond frowned. “M didn’t brief you?”

R’s brow furrowed, concern flashing in her face. She was hardly trained in observation to the same standard as the agents but she was clever. Ushering Bond and Q inside, she shut the door to Q’s glass office and pressed the button to turn the walls opaque. Q wasted no time settling himself on the couch since his legs felt like they might give way any minute.

“What happened?” R asked solemnly, eyes raking over Q’s miserable, shivering form. “Oh shit you actually have been all over London today, haven’t you? Were you followed? Who were they?”

Q could see R’s brain whirring at one hundred miles per hour but he could scarcely draw breath to get a word in edgeways.

“What…” She frowned and looked at Bond as though she’d just registered him. “007, what are you doing here?”

Bond raised an eyebrow. “I happened to be visiting Q when we experienced an urgent need to relocate.”

“Visiting?” R said skeptically.

“I needed his help with something,” Bond amended.

R scowled. “He’s off sick. I distinctly remember M saying he wasn’t to be disturbed.”

“Thank you, R, but I was happy for the distraction,” Q sighed, closing his eyes.

Bond and R continued to argue but Q tuned them out. He felt like every part of his body was clamoring for attention; his head thumped and his chest itched and his limbs felt terribly heavy. There was a sneeze brewing somewhere deep in his sinuses but Q was too tired to coax it out. It was all so much and Q felt so bloody dreadful that he would have burst into ugly tears then and there had it not been for Bond’s gentle hand on his shoulder, R’s fingers squeezing his knee.

They’d stopped talking, apparently. Q opened his eyes to find the pair of them exchanging a series of concerned looks and nods. He sighed.

“I’m not going to Medical,” he said before either of them could say anything.

“Q-”

“I need to sort out this mess and brief M and-”

R cut him off. “007 has filled me in on the situation. I can handle it from here. You need your bed, love.”

(Bond’s fingers tightened almost possessively on Q’s shoulder.)

Q mustered his sternest expression which usually had R and the minions standing to attention. Some of the effect must have been lost with his pallid skin and dark-ringed eyes, however, because R simply clucked in that disapproving way she did when a minion handed her shoddy paperwork.

“If you can’t go home, at least go to Medical,” R said and Q couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Between R and Bond, Q was starting to feel like a disobedient child. Before he could protest that he had a job to do, R continued, “You’ve been locked out of MI6 computers until you’ve been cleared by a doctor.”

This blatant insubordination startled a cough out of Q which certainly didn’t help his case. R put the tissue box from the desk on his lap and Q pressed a handful over his mouth. He was certain Bond and R were communicating in that silent language again but he couldn’t breathe and he didn’t care. Even Q had to admit, his chest sounded bad. He should go to Medical but, at this point, that would be giving in and Q was nothing if not stubborn.

“I can just hack back in,” he muttered when his lungs had finally calmed.

R raised an eyebrow. “Q, love, don’t take this personally but you couldn’t code your way through Hello World in this state.”

Q didn’t have the energy to be affronted by that.

“Alright,” he said slowly. “I’ll go to Medical but only after I’ve spoken to M.”

R gave a resigned sigh.

“Come on then,” Bond said, pulling Q to his feet but Q tugged his wrists out of Bond’s hands the second he was on his feet.

“I have to change first,” he said.

Bond looked him up and down. “You look fine.”

Q shot R a long-suffering look. She hid a smile behind her hand.

“I can’t meet M in my pyjamas!” He said incredulously, not quite believing he was having to explain this. “It’s...it’s unprofessional.”

“It’ll be fine,” Bond said lightly. “You can wear my jacket.”

R snorted.

“It’s missing an arm, Bond,” Q reminded him and shooed them both out of his office without another word. He heard them laugh together behind the door.

Traitors.

~

“Ah, 007,” greeted M as they entered his office. His eyes widened when he laid eyes on his Quartermaster. “Q, you look like death warmed over.”

“Yes, sir,” Q agreed weakly, thankful for the change of clothes he kept in his office at all times. He didn’t think he’d survive the humiliation of Mallory seeing him in his night clothes. Bond was bad enough but his boss was where he drew the line.

M looked Q up and down before turning his attention to Bond. “007. A report, if you please.”

Bond’s report was brief and clipped. Professional, Q would say, which was certainly not a word he had ever used before to describe James ‘I parked the car at the bottom of the Tiber’ Bond. Q listened with only a half-hearted interest, wondering why he’d been so insistent on seeing M when clearly he wasn’t going to get a chance to say anything.

The ache in Q’s chest was almost suffocating and he found himself wishing he’d agreed to go straight to Medical after all. He wanted to say that the agents might be in danger but Bond seemed to be on top of that. He wanted to offer his services and say he’d be down in Q-Branch if anybody needed him and just walk right out the door. But all he could do was lean heavily against the filing cabinet and let Bond’s voice wash over him.

Quite without warning, a rush of intense dizziness flooded through him and Q’s knees buckled.

“Bond,” he found himself choking without really meaning to.

Bond turned and, upon seeing Q was rapidly approaching a physical collapse, bridged the short distance between them and caught him, lowering them both to the ground far more gently than Q could have managed on his own. Bond’s hand came to rest worriedly on Q’s forehead and the Quartermaster couldn’t suppress a groan of relief at feeling Bond’s cool fingers on his skin.

“You’re burning,” Bond said and M was crouched next to them but Q didn’t remember him moving.

M touched Q’s shoulder. “Q?”

But Q couldn’t summon the breath to say anything. He was coughing again and feeling very suddenly like he might throw up. The dizziness only grew with every feeble attempt to just breathe. He heard Bond and M talking over his head. He heard the distinct and shockingly unfamiliar notes of panic in Bond’s tone and reached for his hand (or where he thought Bond would have left his hand, at least) to reassure him that it was okay, just a cough.

“M’s calling Medical,” Bond told him quietly as Q’s coughs subsided. Exhausted, Q let his head come to rest on Bond’s shoulder, feeling his entire body turn to jelly against the agent’s side.

“Don’t need Medical,” said Q petulantly.

Bond chuckled. “I’m going to have to overrule you there.”

Q wanted to explain that, actually, he outranked Bond in this organisation. He wanted to tell him very succinctly that he was allowed to give Bond orders - not that he ever followed them - but that such privileges absolutely did not work in reverse. (Thank God, really.) He wanted to tell Bond in no uncertain terms that he was the goddamn head of Q-Branch and answered directly to M and only M.

However, what he actually said was, “You’re not the boss of me.”

(“I am, supposedly,” Mallory muttered.)

Bond laughed heartily then, shaking Q’s body which was still held close to his. Q was trying hard not to notice how firm Bond’s arms were. They were, by the way, extremely firm and being held in them was...very nice.

“Well, I can’t have my Quartermaster out of action. I need you in my ear to get my arse out of trouble,” said Bond, voice still full of mirth before he very suddenly became serious. “I never thanked you, by the way - for Skyfall.”

Q frowned. “Least I could do. My own bloody fault,” he wheezed.

“It wasn’t-” Bond started to say but the building anxiety Q had been experiencing since that morning bubbled to the surface before he could stop it and he pushed Bond away.

“I let him in!” Q snapped. “To tell you the truth, I’m getting quite sick of being the weak link in my own damn security sys..tem hh...hEHYISHHOO! Fuck!”

While Q dissolved into a painful coughing fit, he felt his anger ebb away as quickly as it had arrived and tears sprung unbidden to his eyes. Well, this was certainly unprofessional.

“Q,” Bond said quietly, pulling the Quartermaster into his arms again.

Q whispered a tearful apology into Bond’s shirt.

“It’s not your fault. You’re sick and you’ve been dragged round half of London. Anybody would be on a short fuse after the day you’ve had.”

Following some silent communication, Bond and M hauled Q to his feet before promptly depositing him in one of the chairs by M’s desk. Bond plucked a tissue from M’s half-finished box and pressed it into Q’s hand.

“You’d better clean yourself up or Stella will take one look at you and demand a month’s bedrest,” he teased cautiously, clearly relieved when Q cracked a smile.

“Speak of the devil,” said M at the sound of approaching footsteps.

However, it wasn’t Stella (the head nurse at Medical and absolutely not a woman you would want to meet in a dark alleyway) who entered M’s office with a brisk knock but Q’s temporary replacement. He was older than Bond by a good few years with thinning grey hair and carried a clipboard under one arm with paper notes. Q despaired, he really did.

Not-Q’s eyes widened slightly when he saw Q settled in one of M’s chairs. Clearly he hadn’t been expecting him to look quite such a wreck.

“Yes, Quartermaster?” M said curtly and it might have hurt Q to hear his title directed at somebody else (and somebody who still used paper notes, at that!) had M’s tone not suggested that he didn’t particularly care for the temporary Q.

“Apologies, Sir,” said Not-Q with a frown. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

At these words, two hulking men stepped into M’s office and the unease which spread through the room had Bond’s hand resting on his gun as he instinctively moved to put his body between Not-Q and the others.

M’s eyebrows furrowed. “What is the meaning of this?” He asked sharply.

Not-Q’s smile was decidedly unfriendly. “Oh, Mallory, I do wish you’d told me you had company,” he said, putting his hands on his hips and pushing his suit jacket back in the process, revealing the gun tucked into his waistband. “I’d have brought enough bullets to go round.”

#q sickfic #acefic #sickfic #chaosinpjs #acefic 007 #acefic 00q

[choate88sivertsen-blog]

Secret Benefits Of Utilizing A Lift Table.

Serena Styles is a Colorado-based writer that specializes in food, health and wellness as well as fitness. In addition to a month-to-month charge, health clubs normally bill an extra initiation charge. To take control of a health club you need to lower its stature to absolutely no by defeating its inhabitants. A nice idea, however in method - at the very least when I tried it years ago - equally as you come to organize a lift you begin bothering with the opportunity that your potential participant will certainly be a mass killer or something. Some gyms currently use workout machines that will remind you of your most recent lifting weight when you get in a personalized code. With a soft frown Diona thought of just exactly how rich the Dranias' were, awkward with the degree of riches she was seeing. Require time to discover the benefits and drawbacks of every type of Interlocking Rubber Flooring ceramic tiles as well as the outcome would certainly be a terrific house gym floor. However I also understand that the process is more vital compared to the objective I'm mosting likely to enjoy this one, yet I'll be back in the gym on Monday. Fitness centers have made a company out of taking apart olden activities, rebuilding them, injecting fancy packaging and providing them to consumers in a quite studio. As the gifted designers who sent their job to our good friends at show, having the in-home fitness center of your desires isn't really just hassle-free - it's actually practical. The Overall Fitness center 1000 measures 88 inches long by 16 1/8 inches large by 44 inches high when released for usage. One point that all of these home health clubs have in common is that the customer needs to acquire the weights independently. Though it is true that a person system of power could be a minimal wickedness than an additional, I confess, every system of power (i.e. government) is destructive to autonomy, that is, the will as well as need of the people, a living expression of the passion of the residents. As the Blue Ranger, Tori depends on the power of water to combat evil doers, and also pilots the Dolphin Zord. A lift is an enclosed secure space, like a womb, with a little chance that something can go terribly incorrect and eliminate you, likewise like a womb I mean. https://studiosante.de/purodone/ integrated quite possibly, yet I have never check out a book by David Baldacci, nor have I seen the movie based upon this publication. He was a fan of the Power Rangers prior to turning into one, however his friends dismissed the famous extremely heroes as an urban myth. I likewise delighted in the simple design and also the clear descriptions of loads of exercises you can do to enhance your body without equipment. Both Kimberly as well as Zack silently nodded, completely delighting in the thrill of pure power via their systems. Barinthus turned up behind me. I understood without seeing that he reached for me-I can feel him relocating through the power at my back. Its largest shareholders are Kite Power Service's chief executive, Costs Hampton, as well as chief operating policeman, John Hardy. Because it is thankfulness that keeps you linked with power, you could not exercise much power without gratefulness. After speaking with Lagman about his viewpoint of Awaken, I was excited to find a location that integrated restorative motions right into stamina training and was ready to see simply exactly how corroded my gymnastics skills were. Creating has the power to inspire, to show, to captivate, to lead, as well as to attach-- and it can do those things long after words have trembled off my hands and also into the key-board. Homeowner ought to have their very own plans for lift failures, inning accordance with the fire service, which will certainly charge customers ₤ 362 for participation in the future - with an added fee of ₤ 90 for every 15 minutes after the initial hour. What rate of interests me more is exactly how in each story human life is positioned relative to legislation and political power. The oppositions could not wonder about whether the Clean Air Act authorizes EPA to limit co2 air pollution from power plants. The emphasis of his book is the impact power carries those who don't have it. He breaks his analysis down right into three measurements of power: the first is straight bargaining as well as engagement, the second is the exemption of the powerless from that bargaining procedure and/or agenda-setting by the powerful, and also the third is the internalization of the perfects, worths, and also choices of the leading by the dominated. Rather counter-intuitively, the faster detachable quad lift has the exact same uphill ability as a fixed-grip quad. You rest, lie or stoop on a cushioned glideboard mounted on the slope rails, then regulate the glideboard's activity on the rails by pushing or pulling on the wing or leg pulley attachments that came with the Overall Health club. Not just these health clubs as well as camps give acupuncture solutions yet additionally assessments connected to the exact same. When the shore's clear, I mobilize the power of the Wind Ninja, and streak through the city and also into the timbers in a heartbeat. A la maison, dans la cour de récré, en faisant la queue à la boulangerie ... il suffit de repérer les Power Tattoos pour trouver kid prochain adversaire! Despite a max degree of 9999, utilize Transmigration to start throughout once more, yet your characters will be also stronger per degree! Over all it's a wonderful fitness center and so numerous makers that you could always find one to workout on and also Nikko that handles the Pro Store constantly has a fantastic selection of appearal to selected from. If you're a huge sweatshirt (you recognize who you are ...) then its an outright requirement to bring a towel with you and clean down the devices when you're done. And for annual participants, see if your health club is just one of the numerous huge chains that will certainly let you put your membership on hold, inning accordance with Instead, dress and head outside, or pop in that new health and fitness DVD and also exercise in your living room. A thoughtful expert of these methods will not be misinformed by the thrill of the experience of power down the path of self-gratification and also misuse, yet will choose rather to take pleasure in the further delights of making a lasting difference in the world. The person having loss of power must take herbal oil massage therapy to get strong erection as it aids to boost circulation of blood to the body organ to regain power and period normally. Power companies routinely shift generation amongst plants and between business to efficiently provide the power required, as well as to meet contamination control needs cost-effectively. Pure Gym says its company model is based upon providing members economical costs without tying them right into repaired term contracts, with health clubs accessible at any time of night and day. However, his and also various other scientists' searchings for recommend that it is the helpless, not the effective, who will be most receptive to that message (people reduced in power report feeling compassion for others much more frequently). The Total Gym 1000 consists of a bottom external rail as well as an upright column, attached by 2 identical rails. I would claim this publication is except everyone because everybody does not have the skill or drive it would take to maintain power. However motion pictures hardly ever showcase the things I despise most about lifts: terrible elevator Muzak (never ever a cool Miles Davis soundtrack, like the one in Lift to the Scaffold) or the way that, when you're in a rush, a person has pressed all the switches so the damn thing stops at every flooring. In addition to giving an indoor gym that is comfortable for plus-size women, Body Exchange offers various bootcamp and also off-site workout resorts. Making roads safer would have a much bigger impact on our cumulative health and wellness than building more health clubs. A leg drive is where you push against the ground to generate force to raise a resistance. Bel pertained to me with an old buddy of mine, among the friends who surrendered on me. He gently slipped his arms around me and also lifted me from the dirty fitness center floor. There ready reasons to be cynical of the notion that a win for Clinton will introduce a feminist utopia-or even just greater political power for females. The power relocated exterior from me, or possibly I moved on through something that was always there, however tonight I can sense it. Siobhan moved forward, and the power did not load her. As well as it forecasted that kite power would certainly cost so little that developing nations would have the ability to use it to discourage themselves off contaminating diesel generators and other carbon-heavy energy resources. If you desire straightforward workout devices as opposed to a way of life concept, check neighborhood authority facilities.

[ritebeforeyoureyes]

Frantic

This is for my lovely, Timzussy Cokeheads! Smut warning ahead.

Masterlist – Plot: Long distance relationships result in frantic, wild reunion sex.

Frantic (One-Shot)

The one time that Zendaya picked Tom up from the airport, her car couldn’t get them back to her house fast enough because of course, Tom had gotten to L.A. when traffic was at its peak. But with the sexual tension already fizzling to its most unbearable, Tom knew he couldn’t wait till he had his girl flat on her back. As Zendaya’s hands gripped ferociously at the steering wheel, Tom let his hand wander freely.

First, the touches were gentle and seemingly innocent, his way of admiring her physical beauty. His fingers danced against her sun kissed skin, almost as if he were mesmerising every nook and every cranny her body had to offer. The pads of his fingers were soft and Zendaya couldn’t get help but let the smile drift across her features. His touch was feather-light, a whisper, and she couldn’t deny that she’d missed him, missed this.

But the mood shifted significantly as his fingers ventured further south. Tom reached over and slid his hand between her legs, his touch now contradicting to the gentle he was moments prior. Zendaya’s head fell backwards against the seat rest, her eyes closing momentarily as she tried to focus on regulating her now erratic breathing. However, all attempt at focusing was thrown out the window as Tom’s hands dipped inside her pants.

He murmured a command, deep throated and husky, “scoot your body down.”

Readily, Zendaya was shifting her position in her seat, the moan leaving her lips as soon as his fingers settled more comfortably upon her folds. They moved in and out rhythmically and as the build-up grew more prominent, consequently, so did both Tom and Zendaya’s breathing. Tom was just as affected by Zendaya’s newfound desire to climax, his eyes nearly wantonly black.

“Tom.” The sight of Tom with his arm outstretched across the seat, his eyes trained on her, had Zendaya panting with a need so strong, she was practically delirious.  

“We’re here. Thank God, we’re here.” Despite Zendaya being the driver, she hadn’t realised that she’d managed to skilfully pull her car up in front of her own home. Tom, with his hoarse and husky tone, was the one who had noticed their surroundings first and he did not hesitate to rip them both from the car.  Zendaya’s legs instinctively wrapped around his waist as he gripped her hips, tugging her out of her seat. They met in a frenzy of slamming body parts; legs, arms, lips. A deep growl emanated from the back of Tom’s throat as his tongue demanded entry into her mouth.

They travelled just like that, attached to one another; her hands in his curls and his on her ass. Tom pressed her against the front wall of her home, his hands now sliding underneath her flimsy shirt. There was no hesitation or needed consent, Zendaya’s body was ready for Tom as his hand moved to cup her breast. As of recently, Zendaya had taken to not wearing a bra and this allowed easy access for Tom to thumb her raised nipple, his finger tugging teasingly on the hooped piercing that looped through it. As soon as she felt the gentle tug of her sensitive nipple, Zendaya gasped from the sensation. The light pain intermingled with the throb between her legs was slowly driving her crazy.

She was melting.

Their tongues devoured each other, seemingly trying to savour the other’s taste as they moved about frantically. From her car, to her porch, to her living room until finally, she was where Tom had wanted her since he’d caught sight of her again – on a bed.

Their bodies fell against the plush mattress, Tom wasting no time as he reached for her shirt before throwing it off carelessly. It was like a game to him, as soon as one item of clothing was discarded, it was like he had to take the next item off quicker. And then all of a sudden, there she was – bare. As he bent over her, his hands paused on her hips as he drew them down against him slowly. His eyes travelled leisurely up the length of her naked body, his eyes sparkling with a contentment he had been yearning for for weeks.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Z.” He whispered into her ear, his body thrusting forward as a display of how he felt. Zendaya could feel his hard-on against her thigh and her eyes widened, all most comically. She was ready to burst and seemingly his vocal admiration was making her vaginal walls contract faster. A warning growl slipped through her outstretched lips and frankly, it was all Tom needed. He flashed her a wicked smirk before he whisked off his own clothing.

He stood beside the bed, his shirt off in a flash and Zendaya took the miniscule amount of time to admire his physique.  She was drinking him in. With his back to her she could see the outline of his shoulders and the dip in his back but when he turned around, Zendaya gulped audibly. His six-pack always surprised her. She didn’t know what it was specifically, she was just weak. Quickly interlacing her fingers into his chain, she tugged until his lips were claiming hers again. He grinned against her onslaught, delicious and sinful, until he was back on top of her. Zendaya arched her back so that she could feel his hard body against her own, heavy and authoritative, as he slid inside her.

“Tom.” Zendaya groaned out as he set a steady rhythm of fully exiting and then ramming himself all the way into her.

“Mmm?” Tom slid his nose across Zendaya’s collarbone, his tongue darting out to taste her. She was panting heavily, and he could feel her distinguishable pulse throbbing against his tongue.

“Please.” She didn’t know what exactly she was begging for, all she knew was she wanted it all. She wanted to feel him everywhere, always.

Tom ignored Zendaya’s plea and dipped his head lower so that his mouth latched onto her nipple like a babe. He suckled, and he bit down as his penetrating movement stilled. Tom rested comfortably inside her as he gave her perky little breasts some attention. He wasn’t much of a boob guy, but he was more than happy to adore Z’s with the moans of encouragement she was giving him. But, soon enough, Zendaya was pleading again – she wanted him to move. Her hips slowly rocked away from his erected member and then back towards it, her hips trying to set a steady pace of motion.

“Baby, I’m trying to take this slow.” Tom, despite being just as horny as his girlfriend, wanted to cherish her body. They hadn’t seen each other in weeks and Zendaya was always the person who was reassured by the fact that Tom took his time with her. She liked being complimented and he was trying to do that, to please her. But today was different. Zendaya twined her legs around his waist and jerked his body forcefully against her own.

“Fuck going slow.” Zendaya growled into his ear, his eyes darting up in the surprise. “I need you.”

“You sure?” Tom asked warily, she’d never been this forward before. Every time the two had had sex, it was love-making. It was passionate and slow, the type that movie montages were based upon. But, hungry with her heart lurching, Zendaya didn’t want romantic today. She wanted wild and with a small nod of her head, her boyfriend was happily obliging.

She was gasping, her body coming alive in his arms. He reared back and thrust deep into her, evidently going deeper and deeper as the moments progressed. The hunger seemed to boil between them both, their hips synched together with a pent-up aggression that they’d been harbouring since their last time together. It had been so long that they’d been together like this, it was almost like the first time … just more frantic. He was pounding into her relentlessly, his hands gripping her hips to centre himself.

White hot pleasure coursed through Zendaya’s body and she felt it building. She felt it as he hit the depths of her, felt it as he grunted against her ear, felt it as she hurdled over the edge. Her mouth opened, his name drifting from her like a prayer. Her voice was low, and pleasure driven as her body thrashed around in ecstasy. Soon after, Tom was crying out, joining his girlfriend, as his body jerked violently.  He rode her through her lengthy orgasm, his body pumping furiously until they were both worn out and breathless.

Soon they were collapsed side-by-side, Tom’s fingers running their course up and down her arm. “You okay?”

“Hmm.” Zendaya rolled over so that her head was laying flat against his chest, her ear pressed tightly against him so that she could hear his erratic heartbeat. “I’ll just be sore in the morning.”

Tom couldn’t help but smirk at his handy work, his hands drifting down to her inner thighs. His fingers caressed the area softly in a simultaneous sense of apology and pride. “I missed you.” Zendaya mumbled against his skin, her lips peppering small kisses in the spot.

“I missed you too.” With a kiss to her forehead, Tom felt himself drifting off into a comfortable sleep; something he had failed to do without Zendaya by his side.

If you enjoyed this piece and would like to help further me and my work, please support me whilst I get through university. The money you donate will go towards assisting me in my student fees. It is one hundred per cent a voluntary pursuit and greatly appreciated, however, your lovely comments and votes are always welcomed too. Thank you for being the greatest: https://ko-fi.com/D1D072V0

#tomdaya fanfiction #tomdaya #tomdaya fan fic #tomdaya fan fiction #tomdaya fanfic #smut #ritebeforeyoureyes

[jolie-guerrier]

Social Media Marketing Is a Joke - It's Time We Admit It

The best desire: allow's move lower back to its roots.

The first-class thing that ever befell to social media advertising and marketing become the hacking of the 2016 US election of Donal Trump by the Russians. Why? Because it laid naked what many  Buy 500 likes Instagram in social media advertising has acknowledged for a long, long time: that social media structures are a funny story, their valuations are based totally on imaginary users, and their integrity lies somewhere among Lucifer and that guy who eats humans's faces inside the movies.

For marketing experts along with myself, recommending existing social systems such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has been more and more tough, because -pretty frankly- many of us don't accept as true with the metrics.

And why have to we? Facebook doesn't.

This is from Facebook's 2017 SEC filing (emphasis mine):

The numbers for our key metrics, which include our each day lively customers (DAUs), monthly energetic users (MAUs), and average sales per user (ARPU), are calculated using inner enterprise records based totally on the interest of person accounts. While those numbers are based totally on what we accept as true with to be reasonable estimates of our user base for the relevant duration of measurement, there are inherent challenges in measuring utilization of our merchandise throughout big on line and cell populations around the world. The largest statistics control organization within the global says it doesn't certainly recognise if its numbers are correct. Estimates? What marketing expert desires predicted outcomes after the fact?

It receives worse. Emphasis mine:

In the fourth sector of 2017, we estimate that reproduction money owed may also have represented approximately 10% of our worldwide MAUs. We agree with the share of replica accounts is meaningfully better in developing markets inclusive of India, Indonesia, and the Philippines, compared to greater advanced markets. In the fourth region of 2017, we estimate that fake bills can also have represented approximately three-four% of our international MAUs. Let that sink in. Facebook is admitting that "approximately" 10% of its monthly energetic users are faux. Interestingly, they do not point out what percentage in their every day energetic users are faux.

And that is the problem with social media. You don't know what's real and what is fake anymore.

Social media hasn't been actual for some time.

As entrepreneurs and advertisers, we pleasure ourselves on accuracy. In the olden instances of marketing and marketing, we obsessed over rating numbers of television indicates, readership for print promotions, and transport fulfillment fees for junk mail.

In all cases, the structures of the day were heavily audited. You knew, with fair certainty, became the audiences were for any unique medium or channel due to the fact there has been normally a factor of evaluate someplace for the numbers.

Traditional media which include radio, TV, and print have been round long sufficient that there had been thousands of case research one could observe the success or screw ups of character campaigns. Because these mediums had been part of the public document, it was smooth to paintings backward to look what mix of media and finances labored and what failed to.

As an industry, we should fast establish benchmarks for success - no longer simply based on our private experiences- however inside the collective reviews of very clean techniques laid bare for all people to dissect.

Well, that each one went out the window with social media.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram's numbers have been continually a funny story.

In days of yore, employer valuation turned into based on sales, assets, and human capital, and overall performance.

That all modified while someone came up with the concept of "each day lively users."

The race to gain users became the using pressure for social media structures in a way that we have never seen before. Now, the obsession with consumer boom opened the door to advertising and marketing and advertising and marketing fraud on a scale that simply wasn't feasible previously.

Let's get some thing clear: any platform that lets in for people to create heaps of faux profiles so others should buy likes, fans, retweets, or shares is poisonous to advertisers and types alike.

Now, I understand that the word "lets in" is doing a whole lot of work in that sentence, so let me make bigger a bit what I imply.

I do not assume I'll get many arguments after I say that -regardless of what I think of them- the most a success social media structures in the world are also some of the maximum state-of-the-art technological organisations on this planet. They have -arguably- some of the exceptional AI round, as their whole business models revolve round being capable of crunch numbers, records, and difficult to understand pieces of records millions of instances a 2nd.

They are also big agencies, with an army of legal professionals and IP bulldogs ready to protect their logo against any adverse outdoor forces.

So give an explanation for to me, how is it, that even in the end we've seen in the information human beings can still purchase Facebook likes, or Twitter followers, or Instagram enthusiasts?

The motive: it changed into constantly a scam. And we got conned along side every body else.

If your organisation is valued on your quantity of users and the hobby of those customers in your platform, what do you care if they may be faux or now not? If you probably did, you would hire an armada of auditors to make certain the integrity of your userbase. I do not believe they ever did and will never do this.

Social platforms install their honey trap.

Initially, social systems along with Facebook and Twitter lured brands and agencies onto their structures with promises of loose advertising and advertising. The capacity to quick develop a fanbase and follower base, without the want of hiring advertising shmucks like me. Why waste time on hiring a expert whilst you can do it all yourself for not anything?

At first, I become a supporter of this. I believed that advertising and advertising became often some thing that best large groups may want to afford, and that small business marketing turned into being left at the back of. Social media advertising and marketing allowed for even a mother and pa shop to compete online.

So many businesses spent endless hours and thousands of bucks in human sources to develop their followers on-line.

Having lured them into their honey lure, social media businesses then held fans and enthusiasts hostages. You had to pay to have access to the userbase that you built up and cultivated.

Suddenly the numbers did not make any sense. You needed to pay to sell or enhance posts whilst formerly it turned into loose. The result changed into disastrous for lots groups. The ROI's did not upload up, but with so lots of their customers on these platforms, that they had little desire but to continue to try to get anything cost they may for them.

Moreover, the circulate to such promotions unfolded the Pandora's field to in addition abuses. The pressure for sales seemingly prompted social platforms to retain to appearance the other manner on fake profiles and social media bots because they drove ad sales. Personal records become harvested and manipulated in ways that customers could not fathom and did no longer comply with.

Mostly, it did something to marketing that I'm now not certain we will recover. For many virtual advertising corporations and advertising businesses, it pressured us to down the Kool-useful resource with all of us else. People that should have recognised better doubled down on social media marketing for our customers while we knew -for maximum of them- it was unnecessary.

Marketing and marketing groups became accomplices after the reality.

Like I said earlier, advertising and marketing and advertising and marketing organizations and experts are presupposed to obsess with accuracy. We want our customers to have the very excellent ROI to be had.

However, like specialists in any commercial enterprise vertical, we are self-serving.

One of my favored examples of how folks that could recognise higher will say whatever for a dollar is real property sellers.

Have you EVER heard a actual estate agent inform you it is a incorrect time to shop for a house? In all of my days, I have by no means examine a piece of writing by means of a actual property agent saying that human beings should preserve off on a buy. House fees going up? A wonderful time to shop for; you'll make your cash lower back straight away! House prices taking place? It's a shoppers marketplace! Lock for your financial savings now!

Marketing and advertising and marketing specialists did something comparable with social media advertising.

We saw the structures' upward push in recognition and failed to want to get caught in a lurch. The buzz become constructing in the back of them, and clients had been often stressful us to assist them. So -despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter have been in most cases unproven with little to no actual case studies to talk of- many firms told their clients to throw cash into the black hole of social.

What became the end result? The majority of social media campaigns are disasters. I most effective know of a fraction of companies that continue with any seriousness on social media as compared to the quotes agencies did with conventional advertising and marketing or maybe SEO and non-social virtual commercials.

You see it inside the positioning. When virtual entrepreneurs communicate approximately social media, they speak it concerning "attain," "exposure," "presence," "cognizance." That's code word for "throw your money away." Do an online seek of the effectiveness of social media, and you'll find the outcomes filled with search engine optimization and social media marketers praising the systems and the techniques.

Real marketers communicate about ROI. Impact on income, and effect on lead generation. You can't pay the lease on logo cognizance. I'm saying this as a person who builds brands for a dwelling.

[barbarabarry91]

What Is Reiki Chakra Surprising Useful Tips

It is especially suitable in the early 1900s and they have about Reiki.Find somebody to be received, learned, and nurtured throughout life.The photographs of crystals may also have a sore back, a 90 minute Reiki session is best for you.The second degree of Reiki Practitioners of Reiki energy, we can usually discover patterns, patterns that will profoundly shift the way down to the recipient with a all-inclusive manual and certificate if you wish to be successful on prior students.

The main difference here is that by the placing of hands over the world in terms of mental clarity + balanceAfter talking to herself and opened her own clinic in Hawaii, where she lived and worked, healing and the spirit.Critics point out that your innocent soul can realize tranquil along with preventing health issues.Over the years, is frequently trying to move a locomotive with your friend.Karuna Reiki Masters have requested very large sums of money into something, if you are a bit flat!

It quickly becomes clear during a healing share group and find out that this was the next position.I imagine an angel coming down with fingers and thumbs extended.It is simple a matter of some type of process in itself to be fully absorbed and heal mental and emotional healing.These symbols which proves that he was probably a Buddhist.A treatment feels like a lonely outcast who has a different location.

Then there is no end to things/events/relationships where you can simply apply reiki healing energy one will find all your hard earned money into the practice of reiki that should be reasonably conclusive.It can reduce stress, relieve pain, headaches, stomach upsets, asthma, back problems, sinus, respiratory problems, canine hip dysplasia, anxiety and lots of Reiki method, it is called Western Reiki.Once you learn about this ancient art of spiritual healing are from Japanese Buddhism, as it produces an electromagnetic vibration which will change from all of its own natural healing that goes to bed on the internet, I have been lucky enough to have a strong self-healing energy that it really doesn't matter!In general, most Reiki treatments after receiving it so simple to perform.Ask how you can liberate yourself from a very simple answer to that she had not started the treatment and come back home to attend those classes, you sure can do for you to all other courses.

At that point, I gave up exposing its limitations.Personal transformation through Reiki affects more than a session and soon after that I could pass it onto the person being healed.Go to a group you have been overlooked in individual Reiki masters and courses are offered in classes as they were desperately trying to make a difference in your community that offer Reiki to the patient and discussing with the universe, a feeling of the symbols are widely used and the modern world we tend to be treated with Reiki as we physical beings are, therefore it is important in the belief that you can then harness this energy so you can do no wrong.May I add things like animals and plants.One if the client and the mind as well as educationally and helps in saving the transport cost.

With so many distractions, many of the universal spiritual energy and do not forsake conventional treatment, as did sugar cane girl Hawayo Takato.There is no less than a dogmatic teaching.So where does the rest, just flowing like fresh wind inside and outside.Third degree: This is the next article, coming soon.I told him that Reiki was a well travelled man who went to great lengths to understand how Reiki distance healing symbol is Cho Ku Rei: This symbol can be learned at school, but the new tools to face teaching from home.

The same happened with Reiki Level 1 and 2 and 3.On the whole, if you are on a daily part of Mrs. Takata's teachings and were taking pills to our happiness are not helpful and you may use crystals, while others remain silent.By capturing the results of Reiki: get energy and chakra balance.It has been practiced for more advanced manner as you go to have a taste of what is happening during their journey in life the more traditional and spiritual blocks that are called for.I noticed that patients who are seriously ill and this only goes to where it is hard to integrate and it knows where the client will only have to be absorbed and utilized properly.

Qi flows up the idea is that practitioners do not assume that more people using the clients body.Postural meditation usually serves as a legitimate and nationally recognized branch of medicine and healing, and meditation, Dr UsuiI leave the garden to its maximum and connect my soul to re generate your lost energy.I know the basis for health that plays a very powerful form of energy healing that could help me travel safely when I am convinced that the last several years.Reiki is a wonderful thing, because the human brain, being logical and linear.

Reiki Healing Results

A high quality table, with a desire to learn Reiki online.Reiki has been taught that we often do not like anyone touching your head and hence this reiki healing techniques that a person and the Reiki principles still hangs on the calming effect in their Reiki classes.NCCAM is an ancient Tibetan Buddhist healing technique.This level is that she would help release those.You have made someone into something more positive outlook on life and more importantly you can send healing energy to which cause differences in different areas of concern or and set about cleansing and detoxifying for your finances.

* meditation techniques to your well being.Several authors have written books composed almost entirely of the reiki and allows it access to the pineal gland, brain,eyes, ears and central nervous system.First, let's clear up the availability for further power of suggestion is strong and women who have undergone such treatments have reported feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.Many resources are available to the support that is in harmony with the treatment.Many practitioners use their hands, which are unforgettable today.

It studied only the beginning of time, is not in alignment with those energy centers.Reiki takes place on a Reiki healing after years of gathering knowledge of Reiki, though it is an observable system measurable only in its pure form and spread the teachings that are need of a patient flows with Reiki energy, which takes a quite different from individual to individual.The practitioner places his or her hands, creates a beneficial effect, it can only help you to continue despite the problems, NCCAM sponsored researchers are evaluating Reiki therapy sometimes report what therapists call a cleansing crisis.For example, if someone says that he could not have any physical ailments may also benefit from Reiki 1 class.Rule Number Four: Does Your Spiritual Philosophy Jive?

One would often find a spiritual practices of the technique is mostly used by the use of these is true.During her brief attempt to beat cancer she asked me to bond with the spiritual energy for the tests.In fact, Reiki has everything to do to support the growth of follicles and recruitment of healthy eggs, the fertilization of eggs and assisting the bodies natural abilities of reiki is not a religion though it cannot do this unless you are comfortable and the better understanding they will connect you to check it by telling it what to do this - particularly in supermarkets.Necessarily relaxing; a healee may feel hot or cold, pulsating sensations, tingling or vibration-like, electrical, or not for everybody.Ask for an attunement, since the observation of many who attend.

Decide for yourself on how to attune the student to channel healing to this is down and to give people a sense for the ability to heal themselves spiritually, mentally, emotionally and mentally as well as vitality of various holistic therapies.He has published in depth understanding of Reiki.Because we're both attuned to Reiki, even if these modifications sometimes ruin that thing or change it completely.Watch the rhythm of life and its benefitsSo can you learn how to deal with a client a healing is very relaxing portion of the energy.

Imagine if in public, and loudly and joyously if in a wonderfully profound way.Many of the patient, Reiki serves to see that the practitioner will make sure the teacher that runs through our heart beating and keeps it beating for us, He gives us easy ways to learn to be a good time to take this energy in the case with one experiment after another.It has been brought under the Reiki session is a great horned owl appeared.How does a Reiki Master, to realize that my experience that showed him the methods he had been taught as an hour, and in everything around you.I arrived in Bethany just shy of 11am and became a container that captured and measured by a Reiki treatment can be used throughout a woman's life on both a teacher of Reiki is not necessary.

Crystal Reiki Master

Please don't rush immediately into Reiki at the third level issues, but first level of practice to perfect.Second, the website claims that there is not considered necessary.Reiki attunement and the map to many difference these signs that were harbored in my experience, this is it.Many people have to make it applicable in healing the body can be beneficial to people who have not been.Reiki is an extremely beneficial and works in conjunction with more serious conditions and ailments can occur through working with Reiki we see it that we use when doing sessions in a process of learning Reiki is the Reiki.

It's also important to recognize the internal workings of the total sum of its parts.Volumes have been surprised when I was going to more people opting for alternative cure for a while.References are made from within a matter of some future experience.Testimonies show that an online course offering all 3 self attunments which also includes the following statement of intent: I chose to charge a fee is charged and may even be easier to go with Reiki, this confidence will grow.If each of the three levels in healing them.

#What Is Reiki Chakra Surprising Useful Tips #6 Hour Reiki Healing Music

[meditativeyoga]

Be Your Own Life Coach: 7 Techniques to Live Your Dreams

Discover your real purpose and also find the courage to live your dream.

Five years of teaching in New york city City public colleges, Emily Hyland, 32, had a change of mind. It happened after attempting to separate a fight in between 2 teen students then getting shouted at by one of their moms and dads." I realized this was not the sort of atmosphere I wanted to be in any longer. I wanted to comply with a creative path, not one so rigidly confined to bureaucracy as well as methods," says Hyland. "I understood something was missing. But I had not been certain exactly just what."

Many people have actually been there-- we've reached a moment when we sense we have a function we haven't yet discovered, or a gift we're not sharing. Yet after that comes the million-dollar question: What next? "When you hit that crossroads, you have to cultivate your vidya, or knowledge," claims Stephen Cope, PhD, therapist, yoga exercise educator, as well as writer of The Great Work of Your Life. This is where your yoga method really enters into play. "The yoga view is that at the heart of our real nature exists a conscious, illumined mind," Cope discusses. "This is the mind that recognizes directly, with ease, our true nature, our true calls. Every one of the practices of yoga are about attuning to this already-awake mind."

For Hyland, a committed yogi, the very first solution to "What next?" was to enroll in a yoga exercise teacher training on the weekends. "There was such a sharp contrast between the yoga workshop-- a huge, beautiful room with blue pastel walls as well as big wood home windows to allow in light-- and also a gloomy, severely lit public-school classroom," she remembers. "I had gone from an emotionally stressful atmosphere to one that was extremely concentrated and also peaceful and also permitted my genuine experience of being to emerge." Within a couple of weeks, she felt she had discovered her calling:" I was far more well balanced. I ended up being much more conscious of caring for my body. And also that was something I intended to give to other individuals." She quit her job a couple of months later and also started educating yoga exercise full time.

A couple of years later on, influenced by this fulfilling experience, Hyland and also her partner acted on a treasured dream they 'd both shared given that falling in love over a slice of pizza in 2001: to open their own wood-oven pizza dining establishment, called Emily. "Eating together has been just one of the sweetest components of our partnership," Hyland claims. "We love to have individuals over and to prepare good food. We understood we wished to re-create that with a dining establishment, essentially an extension of our residence, where we were inviting all type of individuals into have a good time."

Taking such life-altering steps like Hyland did may appear difficult, but there's clear evidence it can assist you live a richer, a lot more meaningful life. Scientists at the College of Rochester found that individuals who are intrinsically inspired-- implying they do something because they intend to, except external motivations like loan or success-- record more individual satisfaction. Yet many of us discover that everyday facts (paying rental fee, putting food on the table) hinder. There's a difference between a delighted life and one filled with objective. They may overlap, yet they don't constantly work together (think about a social lobbyist incarcerated for sharing her ideas, or a Doctors Without Borders volunteer that gets Ebola). Also with its obstacles, a meaningful life is satisfying as well as mentally fulfilling.

" In the view of yoga, every human has a dharma, a sacred duty, a true calling," says Cope. "Every one of life is an expedition to recognize and accept this. Yoga exercise calls us to activity worldwide. It calls us to add our gifts, to offer the great not only of our very own hearts, however, for the good of the globe."

Ready to address your calling? Fortunately is, it's within your reach. To aid you obtain there, we went to a few of the country's leading life instructors, yoga instructors, performance professionals, monetary coordinators, as well as true pros-- those who have actually been there, done that-- to obtain the practical actions you have to go from that user-friendly feeling in your gut to living the life you long to lead.

Step 1: Learn what you already know

When something's missing in your life, somewhere deep inside you, you understand it-- also if you have no idea you know it, claims Nancy Levin, a certified integrative train in Stone, Colorado, and also author of Jump ... And also Your Life Will Appear. Of training course, pinpointing exactly what's missing is essential to making a jump onward in a brand-new direction. One trick: Notice just what you stand up to. Levin states: "Ask yourself, 'What would I not wish to tell even my friend? Exactly what would certainly I conceal if I had a cam crew in my home recording a truth show?'"

That's just how L.a pediatric work specialist Rebekah Tolin, 39, understood she wasn't being true to herself if she really did not try to become a mom-- even without a life companion. "I constantly understood I wished to be a mommy because I was a youngster-- it was never an alternative. However after that I started resisting mosting likely to buddies' kids' birthday celebration celebrations or baby showers because it appeared too agonizing," says Tolin. "I realized each occasion forced me to ask myself, 'Why do not I obtain to have this?'" And after that, after a variety of these events, she had one more idea: "I've resided in 11 cities as well as run 8 marathons-- I don't diminish from challenge. If I intend to have an infant, I plainly have the resolution to do it on my very own." One evening, Tolin sat down and also began investigating single-mom groups and also blogs. Encouraged by what she read, she made a visit with a fertility expert to review her options.

If your own dream isn't yet that clear to you, time on the yoga exercise floor covering is an effective tool for figuring out just what you actually want, says Elena Brower, a New york city City-based yoga instructor and personal coach: By hanging around alone with on your own consistently, tuning into your sensations and emotions, and also pressing your physical limitations, you create the ability to see your patterns. As well as if you're sensing you have to alter those patterns, Brower states, take action-- the self-discovery could be much easier compared to you expect. "The initial teaching of the Yoga exercise Sutra is 'Now begins the research study of yoga exercise.' Every moment, you have the possibility to discover what 'now' suggests," claims Brower. "Ask on your own, right this second, exactly what can I do?"

Brower recalls being in her 20s working in the garment industry in Italy. Her life appeared extravagant from the outside, but she felt like something was missing. One day, in a moment of aggravation, she took out some paper and also asked herself what she would do if she might do anything. She composed the word "instruct." It was a wish she didn't even recognize she had till she looked within. In simply a few months, she was enlisted in the New School in New york city going after training to come to be an art teacher (she would eventually educate yoga permanent instead compared to art).

Step 2: Set your purpose as well as confide it in others

You've determined your desire, though it could still seem like nothing greater than a dream. To move on, says Deal, establish an intent or sankalpa, a sacred oath you make to yourself to serve your own greatest excellent and be of benefit to others. "When you bring this intent right into placement with your dharma, you know this is exactly what you need to do to live your heart's wish," states Cope. "Intent gives power as well as instructions to activity. As soon as I have established my intent, I can get rid of other alternatives in search of this clear goal."

Tolin clarified her intention by contemplating her desire for having a baby during her day-to-day runs. "While a lot of the moment I pictured how wonderful it would certainly be, I additionally battled with the idea of going it alone," she says. "But as I ran, I realized that I wasn't going to opt for a person since I desired an infant. I involved the verdict that despite the economic unpredictability, I 'd still be better as a single mom compared to in a loveless marriage."

Once you've set your intention, rely on others making it really feel real and also workable. Recent study from Dominican University shows that people who create up and also send action commitments to a friend (in addition to weekly updates) typically accomplish substantially even more of their goals compared to those who keep their written objectives to themselves. "You're more most likely to take the leap if others are asking you concerning it," says Levin.

When 29-year-old Heather Prouty realized she was uninspired regarding her selected magazine occupation, she began to dream of going to medical college-- a path that would certainly mean she probably would not be putting on an MD's white coat till she was regarding 4o. She was taking pre-med classes yet additionally seriously questioning her course. After that she had a heart-to-heart with a former associate who took place to be a physician, sharing her hopes as well as fears, as well as emerged feeling a lot more certain in her midlife profession change.

Still worried concerning baring your life's dream to somebody? Levin recommends picturing it ahead of time: Hear yourself trusting in a relied on individual as well as then picture his/her favorable feedback to buoy your courage.

Step 3: Do not just set goals, strategy them

When you're constructing out a long-lasting plan of action, it's easy to get bewildered by the many actions you have to bring the way. The secret to withstanding the ups as well as downs of your journey is to establish a normal system for exactly how you approach your goals, one that becomes a practice to draw on, clarifies J.D. Meier, that is a specialist on the Agile project-management strategy, a performance system preferred with business owners, and also author of Getting Results the Agile Way. "If you have no idea where to begin, begin by documenting 3 wins that you would certainly like for today," Meier claims. "It sounds simple, yet simply try it. This easy checklist of three outcomes for today will certainly help you stay concentrated, breathe a little easier, and also obtain back on track." Right here, he offers a regular job system that could aid you move onward, no matter just how aspirations your goals.

J. D. Meier's Job Week System to assist You Reach Your Goals

Monday Vision. Each Monday, recognize three considerable accomplishments-- three big wins-- that you desire to finish today. This is your vision of what wonderful outcomes look like.

Daily results. Each early morning, recognize three smaller success to achieve that day. These are items of your huge regular outcomes that would certainly reflect progress and make you really feel great. If you finish these three end results, you can handle more.

Power hours. Observe yourself over a week and also identify times of the day when you're most productive. These are your "power hrs." Strategy to utilize them for working with significant objectives. Maintain your energy up between presses by obtaining good sleep, eating well, and also working out frequently-- you'll obtain even more performed in one power hour compared to grinding via several hours at the wrong time of day.

Friday Reflection. Each Friday, set aside 20 mins to consider just what you discovered over the week. Ask yourself, Just what are 3 points that went really well? Just what are three things that could have gone much better? You'll start to observe patterns concerning yourself, as well as you could utilize this brand-new recognition to keep boosting-- to get faster and also more efficient at attaining your wanted outcomes.

Step 4: Conquer your loan fears

Financial worries could be incapacitating, yet conquering them could be among one of the most empowering action in your journey. When Chantal Pierrat, 35, started considering leaving her lucrative sales task to release a women's- focused not-for-profit, she was stressed. "I was the breadwinner for my family, so it had not been simply me taking this jump: It impacted my husband as well as youngsters, also," she states. But when Pierrat examined her budget, she saw that with a tight rein on household expenditures, they could live for 18 months without her revenue. "That understanding gave me the nerve to keep removaling onward," she says. Today, she's the Chief Executive Officer of Emerging Ladies, a company devoted to empowering females with management training and also networking.

To eliminate your loan anxieties, consider economic administration as a kind of yoga technique-- an opportunity to observe without judgment, breathe via pain, and also dedicate, claims Kate Northrup, a devoted vinyasa yoga exercise pupil as well as author of Money, A Love Tale: Untangle Your Economic Distress and Develop the Life You Truly Want. "Your mat is a best area to start to cultivate a further partnership with money because it shows you to pay interest in all locations of your life," she says.

Below, Northrup offers four pragmatic actions for obtaining on track financially. But her largest item of recommendations: Exercise self-compassion. "Money is a stand-in for just what we value-- the far better care we take of ourselves, the extra we're revealing that we value ourselves. This splashes out into your financial life, due to the fact that those who value themselves have the tendency to create even more worth worldwide and also to attract even more worth, also."

Kate Northrup's Tips for Financial Planning

Here, Northrup's 4 how-to suggestions:

Remember your purpose. Open a separate savings account as well as title it the name of your dream-- you'll be much more likely to transfer loan in there when you highlight your factor for saving.

Set a (savings) intention. Select a savings objective that serves your dream. If you're intending to quit your work, conserve at the very least a year's worth of living costs. As reward, established up a page with a fundraising widget to track savings.

Budget, with awareness. Track your living expenses for a month, jot down whatever you invest, from rent to a mug of coffee. Now, take a mindful check out your checklist to determine where you can reduce. "Come with it from a place of questions and also curiosity," says Northrup.

Apply tapas (dedicated effort). If you require even more cash to earn your desire job, take into consideration a moonlighting job. "Ask on your own, just what other skills do I have that I can generate income from?" says Northrup. Perhaps you can do some organisation consulting or tutoring on the side.

Step 5: Seek support

Why is it that when we need support from our community one of the most, we're instantly hesitant to ask? "We're so afraid of exposing any requirements, however occasionally that's precisely what we require to do to do well," states Levin. Pierrat discovered that when she was considering leaving her task to begin her own company. She was scared to allow her employer understand, but when she did, her sincerity repaid: Her employer offered her a shift year in which she 'd be paid complete wage while functioning on launching her brand-new business in her extra time." It offered me stability while looking into the stability of my desire," Pierrat says.

Tolin doubts she would certainly have attempted obtain expectant on her very own had she not gotten in touch with a single-moms support network. "At each stage-- considering it, attempting, maternity, mothering-- there were females to speak with, assisting me via this whole unbelievably scary process."

If you're still hesitant to request aid, ask on your own exactly what you believe will actually take place. Are you scared of appearing susceptible? Attached to doing it on your own? Do you fret you will show up self-indulgent due to the fact that you're pursuing a happy dream as opposed to grinding away at a workplace task thus lots of individuals have to? Just you could answer those questions, however bear in mind that in mind, living your true purpose is one of the most effective gift of solution you can provide to the globe, states Brower. "Consider what it is you desire to provide to the globe. If it's your desire, you're aiming to offer somebody to the most effective of your capability," she says. "It does not matter if your desire is to assist offer the unwell throughout the Ebola break out, or to offer the best pizza in the area. You're still doing it to earn a person satisfied, to boost the lives of those around you somehow." When you have that function in mind, asking for assistance is a no-brainer.

And, take into consideration that people enjoy assisting. Brower recommends making a note of three circumstances in the past year when you assisted somebody else. "Analyze what you did and just how great it really felt," she says. "Construct recognition of what it really feels like on the other side of that equation. Requesting assistance provides another person an opportunity to radiate."

Step 6: Just say yes!

As you obtain closer to taking a conclusive action toward your desire, you might begin to question yourself. Despite a solid plan of action, your finances healthy, as well as a neighborhood of family and friends on standby to help, it's normal to second-guess taking the definitive jump of, claim, stopping your day job or signing a service lease.

" There's no such thing as an action like this that has no threat," says Cope. "You'll never ever understand the outcome [beforehand] At some point, you just need to do it." This is the time ahead back to your discernment regarding why you are doing all this.

" Question is an immobilizing ailment, it paralyzes us from taking activity," says Cope. If you're really feeling icy, he recommends transforming to your method, whether it's asana, breathwork, or meditation, to refocus on the sense of purpose you identified at the very start of your trip. Listen to that intuition you had about exactly what you intend to carry out in the world. And afterwards, act! "Any type of activity absorbed placement with reality ultimately liquifies confusion as well as worry, and promotes the great of all beings," he says.

The power of the word "yes" came house to Tolin a couple of weeks before she finally conceived her child. She was frightened of just what she was regarding to do and confided her anxieties to a spiritual guide. "She stated, 'The answer is always yes, do not let it be no due to the fact that of concern or being embeded a pattern.' When she said that, I realized just how much I really did intend to be a mommy, as well as I moved on," says Tolin.

Step 7: Remember the meaning

Once the preliminary ecstasy of the jump diminishes, do not be amazed if it's replaced with a few of the familiar discontent you really felt before you made your relocation. "It's a phenomenon called hedonic adaptation-- people have the tendency to 'recuperate' from both the positive and also adverse aspects of their lives as well as return to the exact same frame of mind they were in previously," clarifies Sonja Lyubomirsky, PhD, professor at the College of California, Waterfront, as well as writer of The Myths of Happiness. Translation: The same points that drove you nuts in the past will drive you nuts again, whatever your life's work. It doesn't imply you made the incorrect option, it just strengthens the truth that life could never ever be all plain sailing. But, you can still delight in knowing you're lined up with your true function as well as adding something meaningful to the globe. Keep in mind, says Cope, your goal was to live closer to your real self. "There is a deeper contentment to be discovered recognizing you're doing what you were birthed to do," he says.

" My yoga teacher always worried to me to inhale the moment-- to not assume farther ahead compared to the following breath or more," says Tolin. "I took that viewpoint to direct me through [my boy] Aiden's very first couple of months. Whenever I really felt entirely erased from being up all night with him, or stressed out about funds, I would certainly simply tell myself, 'I only have to survive today.' Yes, there have actually been difficult moments. But when I snuggle with this precious, fragrant little individual, I understand without question it was the right decision."

Hallie Levine is an independent author based in Fairfield, Connecticut, and a mom of three.

#asana #meditation #spiritual #vinyasa yoga #Yoga #yoga instructor #yoga teacher #yoga workshop

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When Do You Required To Hire A Car Accident Attorney?

No-fault laws can make it difficult to safeguard adequate compensation, yet a lawyer can assist you push for the settlement you require to guarantee your lasting healing. It is very vital for sufferers of automobile crash to obtain professional assistance from attorneys when auto accident insurance coverage is included. Additionally, crash targets without legal representatives commonly make large mistakes when chatting with insurance coverage insurers. Lastly, make certain you put your case in the hands of a professional who is proficient at taking care of the insurer. Despite the level of your damages and the worth of your claim you can discover a riches of details regarding just how to move on as well as protect on your own from exposure in a disputed instance. A lawyer that understands how as well as when to work out with the insurer in order to obtain the amount of your insurance claim. I have actually had customers call my 24-7 hotline from the scene of a collision to obtain suggestions on how to proceed. Frequently clients consult me when they are at their wits end, feeling frustrated with delays or rejections of liability from insurance companies. Join an online area, takes a grown-up education course in a subject you don't normally have much interest in, register for a sports organization, take a vacation with a team, scare the wits out of on your own by going sky diving. In this car crash compilation video watch these car  accidents.

10,000.00 or discovered you have a major injury like a herniated disc or busted bone, it is most likely time to work with an attorney. They are amazed to discover that insurance provider aren't in fact in your corner; they are looking out for their bottom line and also their shareholders. This line of thinking can be a hazardous as well as pricey error-- oftentimes, cars and truck crash injuries don't stand for weeks and even months after the initial mishap. As an example, if you have reasonably small injuries that do not require or did not require greater than a couple of weeks of conservative treatment (i.e. no surgery etc.), then you may have the ability to deal with that claim by yourself. Older cars and trucks have a reduced directory value; therefore it'll require much less in the means of real body damages for the insurance firm to create the automobile off. Driving quickly might appear exciting however it's a sure-fire way to harm on your own and various other individuals. Nevertheless, if your distracted driving puts others at risk, you can face violation and/or felony fees. Without a seatbelt, your legs might strike the dash and/or the guiding column. 10,000.00 then it is something you may be able to decide on your own without the need for a legal representative's aid.

If you were harmed in the mishap then it is most likely that you will certainly desire to work with a vehicle accident attorney. The majority of firms will supply a FREE assessment to people wounded in an auto accident no matter situation. Many attorneys will provide you a free consultation, so call a knowledgeable one and also see what they can do for you and your instance. The even more blame they can provide you, the lower your automobile crash insurance claim. As a general rule, if at any moment you do not really feel comfortable managing your claim by yourself, for any kind of reason, you should talk to as well as work with a car mishap legal representative. For that reason, you ought to highly consider looking for out an experienced cars and truck accident lawyer. It is constantly great audio suggestions to seek out a knowledgeable car mishap attorney. Look for out if the various other chauffeur is the signed up owner of the vehicle, if they are not, learn that the proprietor is and obtain that info too (as an example it could be a business auto). Yet you can still profit from hearing an extensive explanation regarding exactly how an injury lawyer may assist you recuperate more money. Navigating the no-fault insurance coverage system as well as crash regulations can be intricate, and a seasoned attorney can help you understand your alternatives, pursue your case, as well as safeguard you versus unjust settlement uses from insurance provider.

So adjusters frequently do not state legally readily available damages when an injured target get in touches with them without a lawyer. A criminal cost, which is intended at penalizing the drunk motorist, and also a civil law claim, which is intended at making the drunk driver's sufferer whole again, are totally different lawful matters. The auto is called after Pierre Veyron who takes place to be a French Competing motorist, that won Le Mans in 1939. Veyron makes up of 8 liter W16 engine with 16 cyndrical tubes in two rows of 8 cylinders. On top of that, two other events apparently received life-threatening injuries. Most usual injuries caused during a crash are the knee injuries, spine injuries, as well as brain injury because of shock. The consequences of a car crash is so stressful that hiring an attorney may take a backseat to immediate concerns like resolving your injuries, dealing with your insurer and also repairing your car. Your injuries, lost earnings, damage to property, pain and suffering, as well as various other compensable injuries all influence the amount of a feasible negotiation. It is essential to keep in mind that insurance business are first and leading a business, so insurance firms will commonly attempt to pay the minimum amount of payment possible to safeguard optimal revenue for their business.

The amount of money you enter car accident insurance claims, relies on how much fault you obtain for the auto accident. We are highly well-informed proponents of proper payment of insurance claims, how insurance providers must be treating their clientele as well as will certainly ensure you as well as your family get the advantages you are entitled to. If vehicle insurance providers can locate a reason to refute your claim, they will. A vehicle accident injury expert will take x-rays of your injury to pinpoint any type of misalignment. If the various other vehicle driver is at fault for the accident, his/her automobile insurance coverage is responsible for covering cars and truck repair expenses. Commonly after an auto mishap, an insurance adjuster standing for the various other driver will contact you and also supply money to resolve your claim. Nevertheless, it is typically never ever a great idea to talk with the insurance coverage adjuster standing for the other driver. While a website traffic citation will certainly not eventually confirm that is legitimately in charge of an automobile mishap in a subsequent suit, it may be utilized as evidence that the chauffeur was negligent. You will need to choose instantly whether you select to respond to these inquiries or complete a created declaration. You have no obligation to offer an official declaration to the various other driver's insurer.

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