#to train the other people on the new equipment in a smooth manner

[squeakadeeks]

moodboard for this past week ❤️

#they should invent a grad school thats not fucking insane #i'm hanging in there but im the most unwell i've been in AWhile #this week was just horrible #there was already the freezer food incident but it also started off with a very severe pain episode thats putting me in constant woe #even mundane motion has been agonizing which is McAwesome bc we had a lab inspection which involved moving hundreds of pounds of equipment #during which we found a blackwidow and rats which we had to deal with and was a whole thing psychologically on top of the physical toll #the new class fiasco is still popping off and i had to respond to at this point over 400 emails in the fleeting moments outside of lab #AND A STUDENT TRIED TO FINANCIALLY BRIBE THEIR WAY INTO THE CLASS ? ?? ?? ????? #then the instructor wanted to use me as a guinea pig and i had to test new circuit boards but I wasnt given any time to do so properly #i had to test them plus get them operational and deal with my incoming students all in a frantic 10 minute window #im in charge of running our meetings too but the instructor was interrupting and having side conversations that made it really hard- #to train the other people on the new equipment in a smooth manner #which meant that a bunch of people had to keep me after to ask questions which made me late for my drs appointment #where i found out i cant get the new covid vaccine bc my heart and blood levels arnt stable enough #and joanns lost an expensive+critical fabric order of mine+i had to give a big presentation this week on my research that was stressful #and my inbox is still blowing up from being needed all over the place between teaching lab and classes and yall i am. so so tired. #im in so much pain and so stressed out #debating the ethics of turning into a pile of lint to escape my responsibilities and mortal frame

[einjelique]

"Happy Birthday, Nanna." Despite wearing his typically aloof expression with a complementary stern tone, there was a respective warmth and smoothness in them that betrayed the deep sincerity behind his words. "I'm sure Leif has plans of his own for you today, so I'll not keep you long, but I wanted to give you this while I had the chance." The exceedingly gentle manner with which he placed his gift, a brand-new gauntlet, into her hands by clasping his hand under hers and putting the gift on top spoke to the rest of his feelings of fondness and affection for his cousin he owed so much to. "I have watched your strength grow much since that first sword lesson of ours during the Holy War, so I thought it time to reward you the way I was when I met a milestone in my own training." In actuality, Ares had to go fetch his own "rewards" for his training. To achieve his first class of Cavalier in Javarro's mercenary band required one's own equipment, and the only expectation was that young trainees like him would have it secured by the first day of their next assignment. Buying it, stealing it, ripping it off a slain foe -- the method didn't matter so long as you had it, and only those who earned the right to have it could try to get it. Simply being given it was the only option that was basically always out of the question, for no mercenary in their right mind would hand away very expensive equipment to someone else instead of use it themselves. He thought Nanna deserved that impossible option. "I can show you how to mend it if its size proves too big, but that can wait for later. This day ought to be used for relaxing." Ares gave her a reassuring and proud pat on her shoulder, letting it rest there for a moment as he added, with utmost certainty in his eyes, "My hand, my sword -- know that you may always have whatever help you need of me. I promise."

Her cousin was difficult to read…for other people, perhaps. Though they had only met for the first time during their time in Seliph’s army, the bond of family was already apparent to Nanna. At first it was simple: he was the son of her mother’s beloved brother, a boy she would have taken under her own wing had she not…

(Today was not the day to think like that— not when she was sure her mother would make her own appearance on this day.)

But Nanna quickly saw him as so much more than family by blood alone. Ares was more than Eldigan’s son or the heir of Nordion— he was her cousin, a man who stood strong for his beliefs, yet had a kind heart despite the lies and hardships.

He was simply Ares.

“Oh! Thank you, Ares! Your well wishes warm my heart…” A gift? Nanna was a bit surprised to hear that. She knew about his situation back in Nordion…and even outside of this fact, they had grown up with little to nothing. Money was hard to come by during the war, and luxuries accounted for everything but food and weapons. “You didn’t have to get me anything!— Oh…”

His hands are so strong— she’s seen how he brings down the sword on his opponents— and yet his hold is so gentle. Ares’ words are even softer. In this moment she feels not like a Princess, helpless and reliant, but a woman who can hold her own. It shouldn’t surprise her that this is how he saw her giving their time together…but it doesn’t fail to bring tears to her eyes.

“Oh, Ares…I would love that— to mend it together, and perhaps even a friendly spar!” She giggles, hand coming up to wipe her eyes. “Forgive me for crying so easily…to hear you speak of me so proudly, it’s…”

Nanna is quick to pull him into a hug, smiling against his uniform’s jacket. “With you, and so many others in my life, I have no doubt that I will never be alone…and to you, I promise the same…”

#{ blooming rose } #{ ares } #UWAAAA thank u kusa!!! ))

[expressmoveinnovations]

Why Should You Hire Professional Moving Services and Movers?

Moving can be a daunting and stressful task. From packing up all your belongings to transporting them safely to your new home, there are numerous challenges that can arise during the process. That's why many people choose to hire professional moving services and movers to handle the job. In this blog post, we will discuss the top reasons why you should consider hiring professionals for your next move Packers And Movers Mumbai

1. Experience and Expertise: Professional movers have years of experience in the industry. They know the best techniques for packing, loading, and unloading your belongings to ensure their safety during transit. They are familiar with the challenges that can arise during a move and have the expertise to handle them efficiently. With their knowledge and skills, they can make your move smooth and hassle-free. 2. Time and Energy Saving: Moving requires a significant amount of time and energy. From sorting and organizing your belongings to packing them in boxes, it can be a time-consuming process. By hiring professional movers, you can save valuable time and energy that can be better utilized in other aspects of your move, such as setting up your new home or saying goodbye to your old neighbors. Letting the professionals handle the logistics of your move allows you to focus on the more important aspects of the transition. 3. Safety and Protection: One of the biggest concerns during a move is the safety of your belongings. Professional movers are trained to handle items of all shapes and sizes, ensuring that they are properly protected during the move. They have the right equipment and materials to securely pack and transport your possessions, reducing the risk of damage or breakage. Additionally, most professional moving services offer insurance options to provide further peace of mind. 4. Efficiency and Organization: Moving involves a lot of coordination and organization. Professional movers have a system in place to streamline the process and ensure everything runs smoothly. They know how to pack efficiently, label boxes correctly, and load and unload the moving truck in a strategic manner. Their expertise helps minimize the risk of damage and loss, as well as makes it easier for you to unpack and settle into your new home. 5. Stress Reduction: Moving can be an overwhelming experience, both physically and emotionally. By hiring professional movers, you can alleviate a significant amount of stress associated with the process. Knowing that your belongings are in capable hands and that the logistics of your move are being taken care of can provide a sense of relief. It allows you to focus on the excitement of starting a new chapter in your life, rather than worrying about the logistics of the move. 6. Cost-Effective: While it may seem counterintuitive, hiring professional movers can actually be cost-effective in the long run. They have the necessary equipment and materials to handle your move efficiently, saving you from having to purchase or rent them yourself. Additionally, their experience and expertise can help prevent costly damage to your belongings, which could occur if you were to handle the move on your own. In conclusion, hiring professional moving services and movers can greatly simplify and enhance your moving experience. From their experience and expertise to their time-saving and stress-reducing abilities, they offer numerous benefits that make the investment worthwhile. So, the next time you plan to move, consider leaving the heavy lifting to the professionals and enjoy a smoother, more efficient transition to your new home Packers And Movers Mumbai

#Packers And Movers Mumbai

[sonartechnologies]

The challenges of automated warehousing and how to overcome them

Businesses are always looking for new ways to improve their productivity and save costs by streamlining their processes. In the field of supply chain management, automated warehousing has emerged as a solution that can fundamentally change the game. Nevertheless, just like every other innovation in technology, it comes with its own unique set of difficulties. In this piece, we will investigate the challenges that automated warehousing presents, as well as look into successful techniques for overcoming those challenges.

Understanding Automated Warehousing

Automated warehousing involves the use of advanced technologies and robotics to handle various tasks within a warehouse. Warehouse Management System Solutions play a pivotal role in orchestrating these operations seamlessly. From inventory management and order picking to sorting and packaging, automation promises increased speed, accuracy, and reduced labor costs.

Challenges Faced in Automated Warehousing

Complex Implementation:

The implementation of an automated warehouse system may be a complex and time-consuming process. It also necessitates the integration of a number of different technologies and the training of staff members. Existing workflows may be disrupted by the move from conventional procedures to automated processes, which can lead to opposition from the workforce.

High Initial Costs:

Although it is impossible to dispute that automated warehousing systems would be beneficial in the long run, the initial investment required to implement these systems might be rather significant. The cost of acquiring and installing robotic equipment, as well as the cost of integrating software solutions, may put a burden on a company's finances.

Maintenance and Technical Issues:

Automated systems demand regular maintenance to ensure optimal performance. Technical glitches or breakdowns can lead to downtime, halting operations and potentially resulting in delays in order fulfillment.

Workforce Adaptation:

Warehouse workers often express worries about their employment prospects whenever automation technology is used. Managing this change in a sensitive manner requires organizations to upskill their workforces so they can monitor and maintain automated systems.

Integration Complexity:

Integrating different technologies and software components within a warehouse ecosystem can be challenging. Incompatible systems might lead to data discrepancies and hinder the smooth flow of operations.

Overcoming the Challenges:

Comprehensive Planning: A meticulous implementation plan is essential. Break down the process into manageable phases, allowing employees to adapt gradually. Thoroughly assess the existing workflow to identify areas where automation can be most effective.

ROI Analysis:

To justify the initial investment, conduct a detailed Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. Calculate the projected cost savings and efficiency gains over time. This helps build a strong business case for automated warehousing.

Regular Training:

Provide the employees on your payroll with the training they need to successfully run and maintain automated systems. Not only does empowering people via training and other chances for up skilling improve productivity, but it also facilitates a seamless transition to the new paradigm.

Maintenance Strategy:

Develop a preventive maintenance strategy in order to reduce the number of service disruptions. Regular inspections, rapid repairs, and keeping a ready supply of replacement components are all methods that you may limit the possibility of disruptions to the flow of company activities.

Open Communication:

Address concerns among employees openly and transparently. Emphasize that automation is meant to complement their roles, not replace them. Encourage a collaborative environment where human expertise and automated systems work hand in hand.

Interoperable Solutions:

When selecting Warehouse Management System Solutions and robotic equipment, prioritize interoperability. Opt for technologies that seamlessly integrate with each other, reducing the risk of compatibility issues.

Conclusion

Automated warehousing presents a transformative opportunity for businesses seeking to optimize their supply chain and enhance overall efficiency, and Sonar Technologies is at the forefront of this revolution. Despite the challenges posed by complex implementation, high costs, and technical issues, the benefits of automation are substantial. By adopting a strategic approach, including comprehensive planning, calculated investment, workforce empowerment, proactive maintenance, and effective communication, these challenges can be overcome.

Sonar Technologies, with its expertise in providing cutting-edge Warehouse Management System Solutions and 50% managed IT services, stands as a beacon of innovation in the field. The evolution of technology is an ongoing process, and businesses must be agile in embracing change. With Sonar Technologies as your partner, the journey towards automated warehousing becomes not only achievable but also an avenue to pave the way for a more streamlined and responsive supply chain.

As industries continue to evolve, those who harness the power of automation, alongside the proficiency of Sonar Technologies' solutions and services, will be better positioned to thrive in the competitive landscape. In conclusion, the path to automated warehousing may be challenging, but with Sonar Technologies by your side, it's a journey worth embarking upon. Embrace the advancements, address the obstacles, and together with Sonar Technologies, pave the way for a more efficient and productive future in supply chain management.

#warehouse management solution

[firmustransportation]

Experience Luxury and Convenience: Personal Car Service in Manchester

Introduction

In the bustling city of Manchester, United Kingdom, personal car services have emerged as a popular and sought-after mode of transportation for both residents and visitors alike. Offering a seamless blend of luxury, convenience, and personalized service, personal car services have revolutionized the way people travel in the city. This comprehensive guide explores the key features and benefits of personal car services in Manchester, shedding light on why they are becoming the preferred choice for discerning travelers. From luxury vehicles and professional chauffeurs to customizable itineraries, personal car service in Manchester elevate the travel experience to new heights, ensuring passengers experience comfort, convenience, and style.

Luxury Vehicles: Traveling in Elegance

One of the primary attractions of personal car services is the luxury vehicles they offer. Travelers can experience the ultimate in elegance and comfort as they step into high-end cars equipped with premium amenities. From sleek sedans to spacious SUVs and luxurious limousines, personal car services present a diverse fleet of vehicles to cater to various preferences and group sizes.

The plush interiors, high-quality leather seats, and state-of-the-art entertainment systems create a sophisticated ambiance that is perfect for business trips, special occasions, or simply indulging in a luxurious travel experience. The allure of traveling in a well-appointed vehicle sets the tone for an unforgettable journey.

Professional Chauffeurs: Personalized Service

A hallmark of personal car services in Manchester is the provision of professional chauffeurs. These trained and experienced drivers go beyond merely getting passengers from point A to point B. They prioritize passenger safety and ensure a smooth and comfortable ride, paying attention to every detail to create a personalized service.

Chauffeurs are well-versed with Manchester's roads, traffic patterns, and landmarks, allowing them to navigate efficiently and avoid delays. Their courteous demeanor and impeccable manners contribute to a warm and welcoming travel experience, making passengers feel like esteemed guests throughout the journey.

Convenience and Flexibility: Customizable Itineraries

Personal car services offer a level of convenience and flexibility that is unmatched by other transportation options. Passengers can tailor their itineraries to suit their specific needs and preferences, whether it's for a business meeting, a sightseeing tour, or a special event.

Unlike traditional taxi services or public transportation, personal car services do not operate on fixed routes or schedules, providing passengers with the freedom to design their travel plans. Whether it's multiple stops or last-minute changes, personal car services adapt to meet passengers' requirements, ensuring a smooth and stress-free travel experience.

Airport Transfers: The Perfect Start and End to Your Journey

For travelers arriving at or departing from Manchester Airport, personal car services offer the perfect start or end to their journey. Airport transfers with personal car services guarantee punctuality and reliability, with chauffeurs tracking flight details to ensure timely pickups or drop-offs.

After a long flight, the luxury and comfort of a personal car service provide a welcome respite, allowing passengers to relax and unwind as they travel to their accommodations or the airport. The convenience of having a professional chauffeur handle all transportation logistics ensures a smooth transition from the airport to the final destination.

Special Occasions: Celebrating in Style

Personal car services add a touch of elegance and glamour to special occasions and celebrations. Whether it's a wedding, a milestone birthday, an anniversary, or a corporate event, personal car services provide a grand entrance and a memorable experience.

The spacious and luxurious interiors of limousines and other high-end vehicles can accommodate larger groups, making them ideal for transporting wedding parties or groups of friends to celebratory events. With the impeccable service of a professional chauffeur, passengers can feel like VIPs, creating cherished memories for years to come.

Conclusion

In conclusion, personal car services in Manchester offer an unparalleled travel experience, combining luxury, convenience, and personalized service. The allure of traveling in a luxury vehicle, complete with premium amenities, sets the stage for an unforgettable journey. Professional chauffeurs, with their knowledge of Manchester's roads and commitment to passenger comfort, ensure a seamless and enjoyable ride.

The convenience and flexibility of personal car services allow passengers to tailor their itineraries, catering to specific needs and preferences. Whether it's airport transfers, business trips, or special occasions, personal car services elevate the travel experience, making it a memorable and enjoyable one.

[dustbusterscs]

Top Tips to Look for the Right Cleaning Company in Dubai

Are you looking for a cleaning company in Dubai? These cleaning companies can help remove the dirt, ensure a dust-free home and offer better solutions. They can enhance the overall look and feel of your home. If you plan to clean and maintain your home in-house, you might spend a lot of hours doing it. by outsourcing, you save a lot of effort and productive hours. it can result in smooth outcomes and a calmer environment. However, finding a relevant and nice cleaning company can take sometime. You need to identify if the person can offer the right solutions, has the credibility to clean your homes and research their backgrounds. Here are a few tips that should help find the right company to partner with. 1. Check if they have the right training and certification required to manage the cleaning services. for instance, are they certified as sanitation experts? Do they perform the cleaning tasks in a safe manner? Do they have the restoration license? Are they associated with top cleaning certification agencies? Have credible cleaning associations claimed that their services are good? You should know these things about the cleaning service when hiring part time maids in Dubai. It will help know if these services are credible 2. Check for the experience of the maids or cleaning services before hiring them. if they are relatively new, they may not be able to offer all the cleaning services you need. They may not have the clean room, environmental sustainability services and other cleaning related solutions that will enhance your overall experience. Look for someone trained and having a good number of years in cleaning the particular type of environment. For example, if you are planning to get the cleaning service to clean your residential apartment, you should look for people offering similar services. 3. When hiring the cleaning services, you should also check the equipment they own. The tools play a pivotal role in ensuring the proper cleaning of the space. They should have latest HEPA vacuums, and scrubbers. All the tools should be in sync with your requirements. they should also carry the updated disinfection systems. 4. When hiring cleaning service in Dubai, ensure they offer excellent customer service. Their client facing services should be as good as the core services. you would be connecting with the customer service for all your problems and resolutions. You are dependent on their personnel to offer the best support. From quality testing to solutions, your cleaning agents and the backend support are equally important. 5. When you are hiring cleaning services for your home or commercial complex, you need someone who will make the entire thing cost-efficient. Look for pricing plans and flexibility in payment before you approach the cleaning services. ensure you get proper deals and discounts with the cleaning service you are considering. Before you hire the cleaning service, get estimates and quotes for comparison. 6. The cleaning products is equally important. Know what products the part time maid in Dubai use for cleaning the places. this will help you know if you should go ahead with the hire.

[worldfertilityservices-blog]

Which IVF hospital Delhi has the highest success rate?

Selecting the best IVF hospital Delhi for treatment might be difficult for many people. Everyone seeks out the ideal setting and clinic for a smooth and effective procedure. You want to go somewhere that takes every issue seriously and offers complete satisfaction. As a result, we are your best choice for high-quality procedures and treatments for a variety of problems.

You probably wouldn't realize it, but you're able to get help at every turn. For instance, electing to undergo surgery, accepting the news of a pregnancy, or having a safe baby at home. A bit of help is the most necessary thing in today's world and the most hopeless state for anyone. The IVF cost in Delhi assist you in achieving top outcomes.

Why have the IVF treatment in Delhi?

One of the most popular fertility treatments to treat infertility issues is IVF in Delhi. A couple should consult a fertility specialist for help if they are experiencing trouble conceiving naturally. There is a chance to receive IVF treatment in Delhi if a couple has been trying to conceive for longer than six months. When a woman has irregular menstrual cycles, ovarian problems, premature ovarian disorder, genetic abnormalities, etc., IVF is performed. When there is a problem with his semen, a man should think about IVF treatment (such as less count of sperm, low mobility of the sperm, etc.).

The top IVF hospital Delhi offers reasonably priced infertility treatments to raise the chance of conception. The best IVF centre in India helps in many ways to increase success rates, such as:

Advanced approaches and procedure

The affordable cost IVF and other treatments

High-equipped laboratories and well-build infrastructure

Fertility doctors and experts with high experiences

Top assistance for International patients

Why select the top IVF hospital Delhi?

WORLD FERTILITY SERVICES is the best IVF hospital Delhi. We have top-notch services and assistance to help every couple. You can have top

The best IVF centre in Delhi offers each patient the highest level of care and support. Each patient receives the appropriate care as they undergo treatment. There is no need for you to join the lengthy waiting list. Every patient receives individual attention from the personnel. We just have one goal in mind: to make every couple happy. The team as a whole also only prioritizes extreme comfort and satisfaction. You will receive guidance from the greatest doctor in making decisions and bringing your healthy baby home.

High levels of transparency: Every patient deserves competent care without any surprises. You can get assistance from the best IVF centre in Delhi NCR. Each patient is treated honestly and with genuine devotion by our team. Every member of our medical staff makes sure to describe each step of the procedure. Your medical procedure or costs won't be a problem. Because the costs and methods of our treatment are highly transparent. Our experts do not have a business-minded mindset, which presents issues for couples receiving treatment.

Medical personnel: The entire medical staff of Delhi's premier in vitro fertilization centre is highly skilled. Professionals with extensive training and expertise will administer your care. They treat everyone with the utmost respect and good manners. Our patients always give the finest reviews for doctors and have a homey feeling. Every kind of help that the couple needs is available at the top IVF centre in Delhi. For instance, the best embryologists, psychologists, nurses, ward guardians, IVF specialists, and many more professionals. Additionally, you will benefit from the center's top infrastructure, which is highly advanced following patient needs.

Excellence: The best IVF centre in Delhi has highly excellent professionals. They have a great deal of experience doing treatments and operations. You have a good probability of receiving a process that concentrates on the underlying problem. Additionally, the IVF hospital Delhi has excellent success rates for various therapies. The greatest specialist will increase your chances of receiving therapy and getting pregnant.

Treatments: The four-step standard IVF process starts with ovarian stimulation and ends with the implantation of the embryo in the uterus. When it comes to advanced IVF, there are various treatments available, like ICSI, IMSI, PICSI, LAH, PGD, and many more that can be used during regular IVF, making that treatment advanced. If the couple fails with standard IVF, the doctors could suggest the patient choose the advanced IVF procedure for couple infertility. The IVF cost in Delhi is always influenced by advanced IVF, therefore the couple will need to enquire with the clinic about the breakdown of costs and the procedure's plan in great detail. Read More: https://worldfertilityservices.com/ivf-hospital-delhi/

#ivf hospital Delhi

[mccurdy91bowen]

Purchase Prada Belts For Males Online

The Adidas for Prada Re-Nylon assortment, which will be launched on Jan. 13, marks the shift of the whole Prada production from virgin nylon to Re-Nylon, achieved by the shut of 2021. Featuring the house’s signature Linea Rossa pink stripe logo. Delving into after which reimagining the adidas archive, the adidas for Prada Re-Nylon assortment sees Prada rework the legendary adidas Originals Forum silhouette. To find out more about how we manage your personal knowledge for the above-mentioned purposes and to train your rights, in particular to oppose such processing, please visit ourPrivacy Policy. I learn the Privacy Policy and I authorize Blondie to make use of my personal information for business purposes together with advertising communication (by electronic data transmission like for ex. enterprise newsletters, e-mails, and regular mail). We're pleased to help with any questions you could have concerning our merchandise, orders or company information. The retailer linked to the landing page in a December sixteen e mail. It had “the final ski edit” as the subject line and featured styles by Fusalp, Bogner and Moncler, amongst others. Most manufacturers, like Draper James, are opting out of going it alone, selecting as an alternative to staff with a good skiwear firm to make sure a smooth transition into the category. Buttoned-up pieces are now not boring with this LIE costume. The combination of houndstooth pattern and navy blue would elevate the everyday wear look. Offering luxurious sportswear via a extra sustainable approach, Adidas and Prada are collectively as soon as again for the official launch of the Re-Nylon assortment. The Pradidas bags will retail from $995 to $1,990 USD relying on the type. Meanwhile, the Forum Low will set you back $850 USD and the Forum High $1,a hundred and twenty USD. Arriving in a monochrome theme, every bit is highlighted with the luxurious house’s triangle emblem. Silhouettes include a small belt bag, shoulder bag, tote, backpack and duffle bag. One of the world's most prestigious style brands, Prada is an Italian trend house. The adidas for Prada Re-Nylon collection launches globally on January 13th, 2022 via Prada boutiques, prada.com and adidas.com/prada. Activation, bringing brands and other people together in a radically inclusive manner. Collaborative by nature, followers of the gathering shall be invited to take part within the metaverse with adidas and Prada via open-source co-creation. And as we talked about above, Ripa also wore her hair in a aspect half somewhat than her ordinary middle style. This has been a current theme for the TV personality, who has opted to wear the hairstyle a handful of times during the last two months. Every every so often we purchase an accessory that manages to face the take a look at of time in our closet. These categories are along with new takes on the Adidas Forum High and Low sneaker silhouettes. For the first time, their providing contains equipment and bags with elevated takes on the Adidas Forum excessive and low silhouettes and ready-to-wear pieces all composed of Prada’s infinitely recyclable Re-Nylon Fabric. With a spring launch anticipated, you’ll have a little bit of time to save up for the capsule, however be warned that the collection’s baggage and attire aren’t any cheaper. Estimated prices range from $995 to $2,480, so be ready to put down a second mortgage, or extra sensibly, sit this one out. After launching the brand in 2006 based on the casual kinds she wanted to put on, she introduced outerwear and skiwear three years in the past. Now, it accounts for a “huge” portion of the income, and particular person jackets are amongst top-selling gadgets, she stated. The model is continually rolling out new kinds in the category. A color-block puffer and a striped ski go well with are set to launch subsequent week, followed by ski pants and tighter ski suits for girls. wikipedia belt The new collection aims to reimagine luxury sportswear by way of a sustainable lens and all items shall be made in Italy utilizing Prada’s Re-Nylon cloth. And after years of watching Kelly Ripa on Live with Kelly and Ryan, we realized that the 51-year-old has a handful of her personal. One of which is a pink belt from the designer model, Prada. JustOneEye.com is happy to offer free floor delivery inside the United States on most purchases. Express transport and worldwide flat price shipping options are also out there for a fee. If your item doesn't qualify free of charge or flat fee delivery, you may be contacted immediately by Just One Eye. Made from Prada's distinctive Saffiano leather, the Leather Belt with Case is a set staple. Prada was founded in 1913 as a small leather items store that rapidly gained a status for its luxurious Made in Italy quality. Rugged woven leather-based, statement-making branded buckles and daring bursts of shade mix for this vary of Prada belts. These outfit-defining pieces will add timeless gentlemanly fashion to any work or play ensemble. For ready-to-wear and accessories, Prada reworks some its own signature pieces in its Re-Nylon fabric with the addition of Adidas branding. The collection includes a tracksuit, sweater, hooded jacket, and bucket hat. Each piece will characteristic Adidas’ Three Strips detailing and Prada’s metallic triangle emblem. prada belt women Now, when it comes to this collection, each Prada and adidas are aligned on their sartorial imaginative and prescient. Championing future consciousness, the road reimagines iconic garments within the Re-Nylon material highlighting each brands’ dedication to pursue a more environmental strategy to design. Three are bigger and comprise a journey bag​, a backpack and a shopping bag. The smaller bags are consistent with Prada’s luxurious positioning, but additionally practical, and include a bandoleer, a BP hoodie and a belt bag. Each feature Adidas’ signature Three-Stripes detailing and Prada’s metallic triangle emblem.

#replica prada belt #prada belt #prada belt men #prada fur belt #prada belts #prada belt women

[kaaytea]

How about being the manager of Inarizaki, Nekoma, Seijoh and Shiratorizawa and how the boys would feel when they finally finally get a manager? :0

New Manager

⤷Includes: Nekoma, Inarizaki, Seijoh, Shiratorizawa

A/n: I haven't written for the HQ boys in a hot minute so I was sUper hyped for this! Thank you for the request, dear 💕

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

Nekoma

Nekoma has been manager-less for so long that literally the entire team was dumbfounded when they spotted you chilling next to Nekomata

Like hello??? Who are you and what are you doing in their gym???

There's a good few seconds of silence when Nekomata introduces you

Despite being cats, they greatly resembled their Fukurodani rivals as they blinked back at you with big curious eyes

That is until Yamamoto slumps to his knees and starts tearing up, blabbering on about how they've been blessed with a manager while a quiet Fukunaga pats his back in an almost humouring manner

Yamamoto's out burst is what loosens up the team and they start making their way to introduce themselves to you

The first is Kuroo, who approaches you with a welcoming smirk which was quickly followed by a gentle smile from Kai and a reassuring pat on the back from Yaku

The first years are VERY eager to meet you! Lev and Inouka are bouncing around you spewing out questions to the point where Yaku has to kick them both and send them off to warm up

Sweet Shibayama very nervously bows at you and thanks you for taking care of the team (what a baby 🤧💕)

The entire team absolutely loves you by the end of your first day (yes even the aloof creature that is Kenma, though he'll never admit it)

Nekoma's inner team dynamic is very familial and you're immediately sucked into the little family vibes they got going on

The first years love to be around you! (Specifically Lev bc you're not as mean to him as everyone else)

The first years are always volunteering to help you carry equipment or water bottles

You once caught one of the jokes Fukunaga muttered during practice so now the two of you bounce little puns and jokes off of eachother to see who can get the other to laugh first (he is currently winning. although, you got him to tear up from laughing so hard once which you've been counting as 10 wins)

The third years tend to mother hen you a bit, specifically Yaku and Kuroo

Kuroo made it very clear to you that you're apart of the team even if you don't play on the court, so as captain it's his job to make sure all his players are ok (mentally, physically, socially, you name it! He's always looking out for you and is basically your big brother)

You and Yaku bond over the fact that you're both the unofficial team moms. The two of you are very organized and have a whole ass check list that you BOTH go over at least twice before the team leaves for a game or training camp

Kai is like your calm in the storm that is Nekoma. The two of you have had numerous conversations about anything from books to cafés and he's always willing to lend an ear if you need to rant

Kenma is a fairly distant person but he warms up to you when he notices how caring you are. He even let's you play his DS on the train rides to and from Nekoma

Inarizaki

You're a brave soul if you are willingly becoming the manager of Inarizaki

Kita is actually the one who asked if you wanted to be the teams manager

He saw you cleaning the board in a classroom during lunch break and was impressed by how well of a job you did

It doesn't matter if you said yes out of fear from Kita's blank stare or because you were genuinely interested bc now you're standing in the volleyball gym, clad in Inarizaki's signature maroon tracksuit

The team notices you instantly, particularly a certain blonde Miya

Before Kita even got a chance to introduce you to everyone, Atsumu had wandered over to you with a lazy smile tugging at his lips

Atsumu introduced himself and then started asking what you were doing here

"Are ya lost?" "Ya here to admire me?" "Ya dating one of the players?"

You didn't get a chance to answer his questions as Osamu lovingly threw a Volleyball at Atsumu, cutting off any moment you had to respond

The only problem was that Atsumu noticed the volleyball rOcketing towards him and scrambled out of the way like a startled cat, leaving the ball to hit you instead of its intended target

The silence that hung over the gym was deafening as the younger team members watched Kita and Aran rush over to assist your now bloody nose

Just as quick as it had started, the silence was broken by Atsumu yelling at his brother for hitting a helpless person in the face and the gym quickly descended into madness

Aran held a towel to your nose and gave you a few encouraging pats on the back as the both of you watched Kita chew out the twins (safe to say Kita was hard on them during practice)

Osamu approached you during a water break to apologize and, to the surprise of the entire team, gave you the extra pudding he had as a peace offering

Since that incident Osamu and Atsumu stopped throwing volleyballs at each other's heads (at least when you were around that is)

The team is also surprisingly protective of you

The glares people get at tournaments if they try to flirt with you are terrifying

You become pretty close with Suna as the both of you tend to sit back and watch Atsumu and Osamu fight (you tried to step in once but they literally only respond to Kita so it didn't do much)

Suna also pats you on the head whenever he passes you

(it's something he does to his little sister to show some form of affection/appreciation and now he does it to you for the very same reasons)

This goes with out saying, but the twins love you

Osamu still feels bad about the whole hitting you in the face thing so he always shares any snacks he's got on him with you

Atsumu truly just likes being babied by you

Any ounce of praise or happy smiles directed at him has him acting like a puppy

(does 'Tsumu have a tiny crush on you? Yep he totally does!)

Kita and Aran are absolute sweethearts!! They are both very grateful for all the work you put in and treat you to boba every other week as a thank you :))

Seijoh

It was a new school year and you decided to push yourself out of your comfort zone a bit

What better way to do that then be a manager for a sports team!

Apparently one of your classmates let it slip that you were looking to be a manager for a sports team because you were approached by a very buff and very attractive guy a few days after asking if you'd be interested in helping the volleyball team

You happily agreed to do a trial day that afternoon, to which the player, who you now know as Iwaizumi-san, breathed a sigh of relief and said he'd pick you up after school to take you to the gym

So the school day is over, Iwaizumi meets you outside your classroom and you're off!

As you walk to the gym he fills you in on some of the tasks the manager would have to do

The job didn't sound that terrible so you were a bit confused as to why Iwaizumi was having such a hard time finding a manager

"Let's just say that the applicants were more interested in staring at our captain than the actual job." He had told you

Ok so first unofficial rule....don't stare at the Seijoh volleyball team's captain? A bit odd but who were you to judge, maybe the guy was shy and didn't like attention

Your thoughts were cut off by the crisp slap! Of a ball hitting the floor followed by a few short yells from the players littered across the court

Your attention was then caught by the sensation of someone draping their arm over your shoulders and a tangy apple smell invading your senses

"Oh? I didn't know you were dating someone, Iwa-chan~"

Iwaizumi shoved the brunette off of you and quickly explained that you were just here to test out being the manager for the day

The player's eyes lit up and he turned to you with a bubbly smile, introducing himself as Seijoh's captain, Oikawa Tooru

Ah, Captain.... Now you knew why they were having trouble finding someone who didn't stare

Your first day went fairly smooth, just a few blunders that were quickly forgotten by the team after Oikawa cheerfully told you: "Everyone has to start somewhere, (y/n)-chan!"

After the first week you had to admit that the Aoba Johsai volleyball team were quickly becoming some of your best friends, you all fit together like a dysfunctional family

Makki, Mattsun, and Iwa would always agree/praise you when you joined in one the daily Oikawa roast session

Oikawa (when he wasn't pouting about how "mean" you are to him) was fairly sweet to you

He spent the first month helping you learn the rules about volleyball and explaining the lingo the team often used during plays

Although, he does jokingly flirt with you about 40 thousand times a week so...

Kindaichi is a nervous wreak around you the first few weeks. Eventually his nervous demeanor melts away. Now he goes to you whenever he needs someone to toss the ball up for him so he can practice his spikes

Kunimi likes you simply because you let him get away with napping during water breaks

Kyotani acts like you annoy him but if anyone made you cry or hurt you in some way he would burn the entire gym down in a heartbeat

Did I mention that Seijoh are also very protective of you?

When at tournaments they travel in a small pack with you in the middle to reduce the chances of you getting hit on

Shiratorizawa

Shiratorizawa is a very nice and prestigious school so you thought why not participate in an extracurricular that would be beneficial for, not only your resume, but you yourself as well!

Out of all the clubs you chose volleyball which you're starting to regret a bit since one of your friends informed you that the team is a powerhouse school

Which means you can't make a bad impression or silly mistakes.....at all

That entire philosophy is thrown oUt the window on your second day as the official manager

You somehow managed to trip over your own feet and slam into a cart full of spare balls AND spill the water bottles you were carrying all over yourself

You were hoping that the team, by some miraculous reason, didn't notice but the stifled giggles from a certain red head said otherwise

You would give anything for the ground to just swallow you up and disappear forever

But then you saw a pair of gym shoes standing in front of you and when you looked up you were met with THE Ushijima Wakatoshi, captain and ace of shiratorizawa, offering you help to stand up

You hadn't seen Ushijima be more than a stoic and intimidating guy so you were even more surprised when he gave one of his spare shirts to change into now that you had spilt water on yourself

I guess you could say your little clumsy episode was what broke the ice for you and the team

Tendou loves talking with you

You're an interesting person to him and he finds great pleasure in teasing you (in his own words it's "out of love")

Ushijima ended up not being as intimidating as you originally pegged him to be. Instead, he was just a quiet guy who surprisingly could say some pretty funny things (whether or not he intended it to be funny)

Goshiki just loves you. Period.

You praise him and give him head pats so he couldn't be happier!

Tendou and Shirabu tease him all the time about how he has a case of puppy love for you (which Goshiki aggRessively denies no matter how red his face is)

Semi is someone who is grateful for your assistance with the team and does his very best to get Tendou out of your hair when you're trying to do your manager work. He also shares his headphones with you on long bus rides so you can listen to music together!

#kayquests #kuroo tetsurou #oikawa tooru #iwaizumi hajime #miya atsumu #ushijima wakatoshi #miya osamu #suna rintaro #kita shinsuke #kenma kozume #yaku morisuke #matsukawa issei #hanamaki takahiro #ojiro aran #tendou satori #goshiki tsutomu #kindaichi yuutarou #kunimi akira #semi eita #nekoma #aoba Johsai #seijoh #inarizaki #shiratorizawa

[olliedollie1204]

TSUS Day 7- Analoceit

Logan calls his roommates to a meeting.

Word Count: 2,454 words

Written for the Sanders Sides Unpopular Ships Challenge by @emy-loves-you

(AO3 Link)

Virgil shifted from one leg to another as he checked his phone for the third time in as many minutes. Janus was supposed to meet him here, but even in the five— six? Yeah, almost six— six years that they’d been roommates, he’d never gotten better at being places on time. Most of the time it was an intentional power move to assert dominance, but Virgil had told him once that he didn’t like it. Janus had never been intentionally late to meet him again.

On cue, the door swung open and Janus strode through, almost colliding with Virgil in the process. He stumbled clumsily, and on instinct Virgil caught him in his steadying grasp.

The two locked eyes, and after a moment Janus smirked.

“Hello, stranger.”

Virgil clicked his tongue in faux annoyance, but he couldn’t hide the earnestness behind his smile as the two of them righted themselves.

“Hey,” he replied. “Any idea what this is all about?”

“I assume he wants to practice his presentation again,” Janus commented idly, the two of them heading towards the private study room Logan had texted them to meet at.

“At the library, though? We never come here anymore.” That was true— while this library had been a hotspot for the three friends when they were undergrads, none of them had been in quite some time. Even Logan, who’d worked there from the time he was a teenager, hadn’t visited in years— it was much more convenient to do his research, studying, and grad work in the shared home office in the house they lived in together.

“Maybe he wants to use some of the projection equipment to rehearse or something,” Janus answered Virgil’s question. Virgil shook his head.

“I don’t even know why he gets so worried.”

Janus scoffed. “Glass houses.”

“I mean about presentations, Jan,” Virgil retorted. “Or like, school in general. He’s always incredible at...”

His voice trailed off; he’d been planning on ending that sentence with ‘school work’ or ‘graduate school’ or even ‘public speaking about niche ecological topics’, but he found he couldn’t find one in time. The words hung in the air.

A beat, and then Janus sighed with a smile in his voice. “Don’t I know it.”

The two looked at each other. The tips of their tongues were weighed down with words unsaid, and all too soon they reached the small study room Logan requested.

Janus was the first to break eye contact, rapping twice on the door before pushing it open.

“Knock knock!” he announced as he and Virgil entered. Just as expected, there was Logan at the back of the room, fiddling with the wall projector and a set of note cards. He looked up as the two entered, his face a bizarre combination of flushed and pale.

“Hello,” he said quickly before Virgil could ask if he was okay. “Please, take a seat.”

He gestured to the only two rolling chairs in the room. Virgil and Janus paused, side eyeing each other bemusedly, before taking a seat on the other side of the table.

“I do hope this was worth the bus fare,” Janus said lightly. His comment seemed to hit Logan, who flinched minutely before smoothing his face into a neutral expression.

“I wanted to speak with the two of you about something,” Logan continued, voice uncharacteristically tight, “and I thought it best to bring it up in a neutral, public environment should either of you want to leave.”

That… was not what either man expected. Janus kept his eyes trained on Logan’s face; next to him, Virgil subconsciously began bouncing his leg.

“Um,” he said. “Okay?”

Logan nodded. “Right.” He nodded again. “Well.”

Then he blinked, and leaning forward slightly, he murmured, “I need one of you to ask me why I invited you here.”

The tension broke a little, and Virgil huffed a quiet laugh that made Logan’s stance soften.

“Why did you invite us here, Logan?” Janus asked obligingly. Logan shook his head a bit and took a deep breath before looking down at his notecards.

“I invited you both here because this library has a lot of significance to me,” he read, eyes glued to the paper. “This is where I spent the majority of my undergraduate years, studying and working and passing the time with no real connections to the world around me. And… and this is where I first met the two of you.”

He looked up briefly, steeling himself, before turning his body toward Janus as he continued to read. “Janus, you were in the computer lab, swearing at a printer for taking too long to print your midterm.”

The man in question smirked at the memory. “I had a class in 15 minutes. Those things smell fear, you know.”

Logan turned his body toward Virgil, although his eyes remained trained on his note card. “And Virgil, you knocked over a book display I’d put up and pretended to only know French when I came up to help you.”

“I panicked!” Virgil squeaked in defense.

“And both of you came back the next week to work on a class project together,” Logan said with a significant air in his voice. His eyes flicked up again; unbeknownst to each other, both Virgil and Janus gave him matching encouraging smiles.

Logan felt the tension drain slightly from his body, and he couldn’t help but smile back as he continued, “For no reason at all, you two wandered back into this library— and back into my life— time and time again. We were strangers, then acquaintances, classmates, roommates. Friends.”

He paused, then, quieter: “Best friends.”

The silence only lasted a moment, but it was thick, heavy with meaning and intention. Neither Janus nor Virgil could even find it in themselves to make a snarky remark. By now Virgil’s leg had stopped bouncing, and he was watching Logan with an unconscious intensity. Conversely, it was now Janus’ turn to fidget in his seat, the growing sincerity in Logan’s voice making him clench the hem of his jacket between his fingers.

“I…” Logan started, looking between the two of them. He blinked and dropped his eyes back on his notecards.

“I… I am so grateful,” he said, “and so lucky to call you two my friends. You are the best friends, and the best people, I have ever known. And with this in mind, I was—”

He flipped to a new card, but his hands were shaking: he fumbled, and despite his best efforts the entire stack of notecards all went cascading from his hands to the floor.

“Oh, shit!” Virgil said reflexively, leaning forward in his chair in a feeble attempt to catch them. Janus was already on his feet.

“Allow me,” he said loudly, dropping to his knees to crawl under the table.

Logan’s eyes bulged. “No! No, Janus, wait—”

He, too, dropped to the floor, scrambling to pick up the cards closest to him. Janus knelt across from him, attempting to collect the cards on his side in a much calmer manner.

Above the table, Virgil swore again as he shimmied awkwardly from his seat to join them on the carpeted floor. “Jesus Christ, Lo, how many cards did you— ow! Fuck!”

“Are you okay?” Janus asked, twisting around in the small space to look at him.

“Yeah, fine, fuck, I just hit my head on the table—”

Logan’s face was an amusing mix of highly concerned and completely mortified. “Oh my God, Virgil, I’m sorry, let me help you—”

He shifted forward, but Virgil reared back on instinct, hitting the back of his head against the rolling chair. “Shit!

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“Wait, wait, who’s on my jacket?” Janus said, yanking fruitlessly at the billowy fabric that was much better suited for walking in the brisk winter weather than crowding under a tiny table.

“I— I don’t know, I don’t know,” Logan babbled.

“Well, someone’s on my jacket, so get off!”

“Um. Lo?”

Logan looked over Janus’ head, and his stomach flipped as he realized that Virgil had successfully picked up one of the stray cards from the floor, and was reading it.

“Virgil, please,” he pleaded. “Please, just let me explain—”

“Seriously, whoever it is, move your hand off of my jacket, because I can’t move—”

Virgil lifted his hand, and Janus suddenly flopped forward at the lack of resistance, face planting directly into Logan’s chest.

“Janus!” Logan yelped. “Are you okay?”

The man in question spluttered, shoving himself away from Logan’s chest (and trying his hardest not to flush when he realized he’d placed his hands directly on Logan’s pecs to do so).

“That’s it!” he announced sharply. “Time out!”

Everyone stopped moving. Virgil on one side. Logan on the other. Janus stuck between them.

He exhaled, hard. “Okay. Take a deep breath.”

The other two followed his instructions on instinct. None of them counted aloud, but all three of them seemed to follow the same loose pattern of 4 seconds in, 7 seconds holding, and 8 seconds release.

“Okay,” Janus said when they were finished. “Let’s— let’s lie on the floor.”

If the energy weren’t so fucking weird at this moment, Janus would’ve laughed the baffled looks on the others’ faces. Instead he allowed himself to flop to the ground and clumsily roll onto his back. He folded his hands across his stomach and looked up at the others.

“Are you coming?”

Virgil and Logan shared a look. After a few seconds, they joined him. Virgil kicked one of the rolling chairs away to make room for his legs, while Logan tried to push as many of the cards to the side as possible.

Finally they were in place: just three grown men, chilling on the floor of a library study room, staring up at the dirty bottom of the table above them.

“...Reminds me of junior finals week,” Virgil commented idly. Janus snorted, and even Logan managed to give a shaky laugh.

“You spilled coffee on my lab results,” he remembered. “I cried.”

Virgil looked sheepish. “So did I.”

“I didn’t,” Janus reminded them. Logan laughed again, a little louder.

“No. You just emailed my professor on my behalf, told them I had mono, and asked for a week long extension.”

“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”

Virgil giggled loudly, not even bothering to hide the sound. “I forgot about that.”

“I didn’t,” Logan said softly. His words brought the other two into relative silence as well.

Then Virgil passed the note card to Logan. He took it, squinting to read its now slightly smudged writing, before his face went pale again.

“You read it,” he said. It wasn’t a question, but Virgil nodded.

After a few moments, Janus added, “Well, I didn’t, so…” His voice was jokingly impatient, but both Virgil and Logan could recognize the genuine curiosity in his eyes.

Eventually Logan sighed and passed the card to him. Janus held it close to his face to read it in the table’s dim shadow.

“Resources for telling friends and family about… about…”

He squinted for a moment more. “I’m so sorry, does that say ‘parallelogram replenishment’?”

Logan scoffed and reached over to whap his chest. “It says ‘polyamorous relationship’, you bastard, and I know you could read that.”

“Oh, could I now?” Janus replied lightly. He crumpled the note card and tossed it somewhere toward their feet. “Darn these old eyes of mine.”

Virgil snickered softly, then again. Logan sighed and bit his lip. Janus coughed.

And then the three of them burst into laughter— deep, loud, laughter, the kind that they couldn’t stop even if they’d wanted to. Logan rolled on his side as much as he could to face away from the others, Janus covered his face with both of his hands, and Virgil yanked the collar of his shirt over his mouth as if that could silence it.

It was honestly a blessing no one looked into the room; between the notecards all over the floor, the legs sticking out from underneath the table, and the near-screams of laughter seemingly coming from nowhere, it would probably be a surprising scene. Not that they’d care in the slightest.

After some indeterminate amount of time, the laughter tapered off. They weren’t sure exactly when or how it happened, but by the time they were silent again, Logan and Virgil were both lying on their sides facing inward. Janus had both arms out, and the two of them were using his upper arms as pillows.

“Logan,” Janus said softly. Logan looked up at his somber expression.

“Yes?”

Slowly, Janus let his eyes roam from Logan’s eyes to mouth and eyes again. Then he smirked.

“How many note cards were in your stack?”

Logan blinked. His face flushed immediately, especially when he saw Virgil lift his head to smirk at him as well.

“I— I don’t know the exact number.”

“Oh, well, that already means it’s in the high double digits,” Janus confirmed.

“And the projector, Lo?” Virgil asked with far too much glee in his voice. “Please tell me you had a powerpoint prepared.”

“With APA citations, I should hope.”

“Oh, yeah, of course, you gotta cite your sources, L.”

“And please, please tell me that you prepared a study guide for the readings you assigned us about healthy modern polyamory. Wouldn’t want to fail the quiz you’re inevitably giving us when we get home—”

“Enough,” Logan insisted, or maybe begged; it was hard to tell since he’d moved closer to hide his face in Janus’ shoulder. “Please do not mock me now. My heart can’t take anymore stress.”

Janus quirked his head. “What about this was stressful?”

Virgil giggled again, shoving his face into his hand to keep his laughter from building. When he pulled his hand away, there was a moment of hesitation in his eyes before he reached across Janus’ chest to take Logan’s hand.

Logan looked at Virgil’s fingers intertwined with his like he didn’t quite know what to do with them. Then, looking between Virgil’s eyes to Janus’, he slowly lowered their combined grip until their hands were laying in the middle of Janus’ chest.

Virgil and Janus both flushed, eyes darting towards each other and away again. Logan squeezed Virgil’s fingers, Virgil nuzzled into Janus’ neck, and Janus released a slow, shaky breath that seemed to remove some weight off of his shoulders.

“How long until they kick us out?” he joked weakly.

“I don’t care,” Logan and Virgil said in unison. They blinked, and the three devolved into quiet snickers once more, holding each other close.

For the rest of the afternoon, and the evening, and their lives, they did not let go.

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #tsus challenge #analoceit #virgil sanders #janus sanders #logan sanders #my writing #my posts #anyways. this was so much longer than i'd anticipated ajshdsjk #and i LOVE it pls read it it's my fave

[alittlewhump]

Unbidden - Act 2, chapter 8

Masterlist | Previous | Next

Content warnings: None

Morgan followed the sound of voices through the archives. He'd taken a more familiar route this time, one that skirted closer to the markets than he'd liked. Blaise and Cain were discussing something, but Cain stopped mid-sentence when he spied Morgan.

"Morgan! It's good to see you again, friend, though I had not expected you so soon." Morgan allowed himself a small smile. He'd missed Cain and his stories, his easy friendliness.

Blaise spun around to face him. "What are you doing here? You-" She seemed to lose her train of thought briefly as her eyes lingered at the collar of his shirt. "You should be resting."

"I want to make up for the time I've lost," Morgan said, growing serious again. He didn't feel tired, exactly, and anyway there was no respite to be found in his shared room. "There are demons seeking the tomb of Tal Rasha as well. Time is of the essence. What is it you've found?"

He couldn't read Blaise's expression as he came around the table to look at the books laid out across it. It turned out that finding the tomb would only be half the problem. There was a specific artifact needed to open it, and it had been split into pieces. A staff, which Morgan recognized from a tour of the local museum, and an amulet, which Blaise had already managed to recover from the demons who had held it. But it was not as simple as just having the pieces; there was a strange device required to bind them together, and that was guarded in yet another tomb by magical traps set by an ancient order of mages known as the Horadrim. Cain was familiar with this order, luckily enough, and was certain that he would be able to use the device once they'd located it, and it looked like Blaise had already eliminated several options from a long list of possible locations for that tomb.

It was growing late in the day, though, and Blaise flatly refused to start a new expedition before the morning. "You might be fine," she groused, not sounding as though she believed that to be the case at all, "but I'm hungry and tired. I'm going back to the palace. You can come with me, if you want. You could probably use the rest."

Morgan didn't want to go back, not yet. He looked down at the map on the table in front of him. Most of the marked locations were far enough from the city to be troublesome, but within a reasonable distance of a waypoint. Potentially good ways to keep himself occupied, to make sure his skills hadn't suffered too badly from disuse. Unfortunately, he'd never accessed most of the waypoints. He would need help with that.

"I'll stay here for the night. I can catch up on research." He paused. Perhaps someone else could act as a guide, someone he wasn't already deeply indebted to. "Is there someone who could show me to these waypoints?"

"Yeah. Me. Tomorrow." No luck there, then. Blaise put one hand on her hip. "Are you really sure you want to stay here?"

"Yes." He'd fled his room for a reason. If he didn't have something useful to focus his attention on now, he was going to come apart at the seams. He just needed to occupy himself, and that was going to be much easier here.

"All right, fine. But I'm not going to take you anywhere tomorrow if you haven't gotten any rest."

Anger flared suddenly hot in Morgan's chest. She kept insisting he rest, as though he hadn't just lost - how much time exactly wasn't clear, but it was certainly at least a few days of precious time, while she apparently picked up the slack. Did she still think of him as a child, someone who needed to be taken care of? Just another responsibility to shoulder? He slammed his open hand down on the table, growling "I don't want-"

He caught himself there, squeezed his eyes shut. Took a deep breath. Control. She had every reason to see him as an inconvenience, and that wasn't important. How others perceived him was inconsequential, he reminded himself. The only thing that really mattered was the Balance. His most important task was to find and stop the demons intent on upsetting it, and he wasn't going to get any closer to that goal by antagonizing a person who could help him. What he needed was her cooperation, not her respect.

"I apologize for that outburst," he said, opening his eyes but keeping them deferentially cast down. "It was not called for. I have had my fill of sitting idle, but I will rest when I need to."

Blaise was silent for a moment. "That's... whatever. Fine. See you tomorrow." She left without further comment. Morgan smoothed down the paper he'd rumpled in his childish show of temper. Not counting the claw vipers, it had been a long while since the last time he'd let himself get agitated to the point of lashing out. He was still on edge, not feeling quite settled in his skin after all that had happened. How long was it going to take him to get back to normal? He would have to focus his meditation on regaining emotional control for a while. This type of behaviour was totally unacceptable.

Cain cleared his throat. "Shall we continue? I believe I have at least another half hour in me today." He smiled warmly and Morgan relaxed a little. He could count on the scholar to leave well enough alone, to focus on the task at hand as he so badly needed to do.

"Yes, please."

Cain dedicated the better part of the next hour to filling in details about the Horadrim and their role in imprisoning Baal. He had managed to put together a diagram of the runes he suspected would be holding the demon lord in place, which Morgan set aside carefully to memorize later. He also had a general idea of the area where the Horadric cube, the device required to reunite the staff, was located, and what manner of traps would be securing it. The trouble was that the desert landscape had shifted over the intervening years, so none of the nearby landmarks were there any more. It was in this general area that Blaise had been concentrating her efforts, having gotten clearance from her superiors to pursue the lead. She had made impressive progress. Hopefully she would still be willing to work with Morgan after he'd repaid her efforts with nothing but a short temper. She didn't tend to accept apologies well, though. He'd just have to work harder at making himself useful.

After Cain retired for the evening, Morgan settled into what felt like a reasonable pattern of alternating between study and meditation. He had to ease himself into it at first; the urge to focus all of his energy on the problem of finding the cube was very strong. But the longer he studied, the more he realized he did need to rest himself properly. Once he passed the initial hurdle of forcing himself to stop and meditate, it was actually a relief to do so. It was good to meditate with peaceful intent again. The familiar, uninterrupted mental exercises were calming in a way he'd sorely missed, and it felt like a luxury to be able to sit in a comfortable chair again. Of course, everything felt like a luxury, compared to... well. It was nice to have a fresh appreciation for the small things.

By the time the sun was coming up, Morgan was satisfied that his understanding was at least adequate. Blaise and Cain found him leaning over the table comparing two maps, trying to pick out notable landmarks from the older one that might still be recognizable in some way.

"Good morning," he greeted them, looking up from his comparison a few seconds later. Both appeared to be in reasonably good spirits.

"Morning. So, do you still want to go out today, or do you want to keep studying?" Blaise lingered at the threshold while Cain made his way around the large table.

"I'd like to join the search today. I've rested," Morgan added quickly at the expression that flickered across her face. "More than I expected. I can keep up."

"Right. Get your gear and some breakfast then, we should go before it gets too much hotter."

Morgan flinched as a hand came down on his own. He'd almost forgotten Cain's tendency towards this sort of casual contact. The old man patted his hand twice, smiling encouragingly.

"Do stay safe out there. Good luck."

"Thank you," Morgan said, sliding his hand away. "I'll meet you at the waypoint," he suggested as he headed past Blaise. She didn't agree or refuse, instead following him out of the archives wordlessly. She only broke her silence once they were outside.

"You know you don't have to do this," she said, uncharacteristically quiet. Morgan searched her face, but couldn't identify the expression on it.

"No, I do. I can't just stand by and do nothing as evil gathers its forces. As a follower of-" he caught himself, remembering they were out in public. "I am obligated to do everything in my power to ensure that Darkness does not triumph over the Light," he explained instead.

"After all you - I mean, don't you think you've done enough by now?" Her unreadable expression didn't budge. At least it wasn't anger, he decided. That was a positive.

"No. There is no 'enough' until the Balance is righted. And even then, there will always be more to do." It wasn't a single task to be completed, it was a duty that extended past the definition of 'lifelong' as most people knew it. Long after his body was dust, even long after his spirit faded, there would still be more to do. It just wouldn't be his to do any more. But since there was still life in him in this world, he had to keep working toward the larger goal.

Blaise seemed unsatisfied with his response, but they had reached the waypoint. "Well, I guess I'll scout ahead while you get yourself together. If I'm not here when you get back, just wait for me."

"Very well." He turned to head towards the palace. If he was fast enough, he could get equipped and still visit the marketplace before it got too busy. There was a vendor who sold nuts and cheeses, good nutrient-dense foods that would be suitable for eating while travelling. It would save time if he could avoid larger meals altogether.

Morgan was relieved to find his room empty when he reached it. It wasn't that he didn't want to see Jemali, exactly, but he wasn't looking forward to it either. Not before he managed to get a handle on his emotions. To dismiss the lingering ache of disappointment that he'd invited in by allowing himself to believe briefly, stupidly, that the kindness he'd received had been anything other than a transaction. Of course he knew better, but it had been a moment of weakness. Nothing to do for it but try to get stronger.

His equipment was still as he'd left it. Despite not wanting to keep Blaise waiting longer than necessary, he let himself fall into an easy rhythm of tightening and checking buckles, running his fingers along the edges of the straps to find any thinning or splitting spots. It was a pleasantly tactile exercise, and the familiarity was a comfort.

The small bag of trinkets had been placed back with the others. It was tempting to go through them, to satisfy his vague curiosity about the cost of Jemali's service, but he'd already spent more time than he intended here. It was time to move on to the marketplace, then the desert. Yes, it was good to have an itinerary again.

#my writing #story: unbidden

[daebakinc]

A Rearrangement (Preview)

Pairing: Jae x Female Reader, ft. DAY6, Kard, and Mina Genre: Arranged Marriage AU, Angst, Romance  Summary: Blackmailed by your parents, you’re forced to alter your life plan and enter an arranged marriage with the male heir of the Park family. The even bigger surprise comes when you find out that heir is your friend Jae. Thrust together, as the two of you become closer than before, will it strengthen your friendship or be the unexpected start of something else?

You always imagined the path to doom would be violent, dark, and storm-filled. Who knew it would actually be paved in gold-veined marble and lined in bouquets of hydrangeas and lily of the valley bound in silk ribbons in slender silver vases. But then, only the finest auction block would do.

The temptation to fidget grows as you wait with your parents in the quietly decadent lobby. Your feet beg to be free of the pointed heels, too accustomed to sensible flats. The chiffon dress is light and beautiful, you won’t deny that, but it feels like a lie. Dresses like this are for special occasions, not a dinner. Even getting dinner during a normal hour seems odd given you’re usually too busy dealing with a revolving door of patients. Patients who you could be helping with now but—

It is only years of training keeps you from crying out when your mother delivers a sharp pinch to your underarm.

“Smile. You look like you’re attending a funeral,” she hisses beneath her breath, a gracious curve pasted on her own mouth.

“Aren’t I?” you whisper back. Your impudence is rewarded with another pinch, but every bit of defiance is worth it. If nothing else comes of this, you remind yourself, soon she won’t be able to touch you or anyone and anything you hold dear.

“It appears the other party is already here,” the tuxedo-clad concierge tells your father. “Shall I lead you to the room?”

With all the dignity befitting an assemblyman, your father nods and lifts his arm, looking back at the two of you. Another part of your heart breaks away at that look. The warmth that lay in your father’s eyes when you were a child is no more than a memory. Cool calculations necessary of a career politician extinguished it long ago. Instead of his only child, all he sees is another bargaining chip. Until yesterday, you were able to lie to yourself that an ember of affection still survived. But no more. That delusion is dead, forever buried alongside the many other dreams slaughtered by your parents.

“Remember what is at stake for your father,” your mother whispers as she releases your arm to reach for your father’s. “Remember what is at stake for you.”

As if you could forget. Otherwise, you would be hundreds of thousands of miles away. You would be penniless but for the paltry savings you squirreled away, friendless but for the few who didn’t know your family, homeless but for your own skin. And it would be worth it to be completely out of reach of their conniving hands. Free, totally and completely, for the first time in your life. But she was right. What was at risk was far greater than you.

You fall in behind your parents, precisely three steps as you’d been drilled since your father first ran for public office. Shoulders back and spine straight, chin up and eyes forward. None of the growing trepidation or swirling sick feeling in your stomach betrayed in your countenance. A true lady just as they wanted. If they could have, they would have broken and reconstructed your soul in their image as well. But you had at least held out on that.

The concierge reaches a plain, eggshell-colored door flanked by two more bouquets. He knocks, then opens the door for your parents. You stick out your fingers to subtly touch the flowers as you pass through the door. The fragile silk softer than the real fabric proves they’re real. As real as the people within are fake, your parents included.

An older couple are the only obvious occupants, rising from their seats at a rectangular table set with exquisite crystal and silver that twinkles in the light streaming from the bay windows. Distinguished gray touches the man’s hair while the woman’s is jet black, doubtlessly dyed to hide the age that lies in the makeup-covered wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. Both are simply but finely dressed. Yet together, you know their wardrobe costs enough to send a student to a decent university for a year. At least.

The stink of old wealth, enhanced by the surroundings, is as heavy on them as your mother’s perfume. You hate it.

The man rises, smile broad and hand outstretched. “Assemblyman! Welcome!”

“Good to see you again, Mr. Park,” your father replies, shaking his hand and flashing that million-watt smile he practices in the mirror for the press and donors. “Especially on such a joyous occasion.”

“Yes, indeed. So this is your daughter.” Mr. Park’s gaze falls to you.

You steel your back against the shiver of disgust you feel as his eyes openly sweep you up and down. His wife follows suite from behind him. You can’t help the feeling that they would have pried your mouth open like a prize horse if you weren’t in a more civilized age. The irony of that thought amid your situation almost distracts you enough to give a real smile.

“Not as beautiful as her picture, but her career and your prestige will make up for that. She will be a welcome addition to our family,” Mr. Park says approvingly.

Bile rises unbidden from the bottom of your stomach with revulsion. Who the hell is he to judge you, let alone speak such an opinion out loud. You inwardly scoff. Just proof money cannot buy manners or decency.

“Where is your son?” your mother asks, looking around.

Mr. Park’s smile tightens a fraction. “He was temporarily detained at an appointment, but he’ll be here shortly. No need to worry. He’ll be here to sign the marriage contract.”

Marriage contract. Those words are enough to make the embarrassment at Mr. Park’s callous comments evaporate, replaced by the unforgiving chill of reality.

Today, you’re getting engaged to a stranger. To say the idea doesn’t terrify you would be the most vile lie. The idea of being “tied forever” to someone you’ve never met, never even seen, makes you sick. It makes you want to shrink, crawl away, and mourn. It makes you want to roar, storm, and seize your autonomy back. But all you can do is stand and wait, your face the vaguely interested mask you have perfected to a fault.

Mr. Park steps back and gestures to the table. “Shall we?”

Men in trim tuxedos silently appear to pull out your chairs. Mr. Park and your father take seats opposite each other, then Mrs. Park and your mother. You sit across from the empty chair. The chair where your soon-to-be fiance will soon sit.

Beside you, the older adults talk among themselves. Whether they speak of social niceties, specifics of the pre-nuptial contract, or plans for the wedding, you don’t know. Their words are noise in your ears and they make no effort to include you in the conversation. It doesn’t surprise you. You’re accustomed to it and you’re glad of it. They don’t deserve the civility you would be expected to produce. Not to mention your temper is shortened by the lack of sleep caused by an anxious patient’s hours-long call last night.

There’s a knock at the door and your heart stops. It’s him.

Demon or angel. Brat or saint. Executioner or savior. Bane or mate.

There’s no way to know and no way out. If someone in this day and age would agree to such a bond, he’s either an idiot, a pushover, or a victim like you.

You steel yourself for disappointment or pity, determined to keep any emotion to yourself. These parasites won’t get anything else from you.

The door opens and a slightly rumpled, lanky man ambles in. His long black overcoat covers a slate-gray suit jacket with matching pants and dark burgundy turtleneck. His blond hair is ruffled, streaked with bold swathes of highlights, and longer than you would expect of a wealthy scion. His messy bangs brushing the lenses of his round, gold-rimmed glasses.

Your mouth drops open. How…

“Sorry I’m late,” he says without a smile or sincerity. “I was—”

When his eyes fall to you, his mouth mirrors yours. You quickly snap your jaw back together and give the smallest shake of your head.

Don’t let them know.

His mother gives a polite cough to try to call him back. When he continues staring, his father speaks for him. “This is our son, Jaehyung.”

So that’s Jae’s real name.

Your father immediately gets up and holds out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, son.”

“I remember your hair being black this morning,” Mr. Park says, addressing his son as he greets your father. “Was there a mistake at the salon?”

Recovering from his surprise, Jae’s mouth twitches like it wants to smirk at the clear disapproval in his father’s voice. He smooths his hair, takes his seat and answers simply. “No.”

His parents’ mouths thin, but the first course being served saves Jae from further reprimand. The conversation picks up where it left off, articulated by the clink of silverware.

Again, you’re not invited to participate, but neither is Jae. You push the salad around with your fork, flipping the leaves as your mind attempts comprehension. Admiration for Jae’s blatant rebellion only briefly interrupts the bewilderment swirling around your head.

Jae, your friend since he almost killed you with his skateboarding antics in university and who constantly crashes on your couch to whine about being broke. This same man who usually dresses in some version of a T-shirt, jeans, and or plaid shirt combo and seems to have a guitar permanently attached to his hands. Reconciling him with the put-together heir in front of you, your almost fiance, is proving difficult.

Though now, certain gaps in your knowledge of Jae make a bit more sense. Despite claiming to be perpetually broke, he never fails to pick up the latest shoes he’s been drooling over or new production equipment when his band, Day6, needs it. He never mentions his family. During university, he always found a friend to go home with on breaks.

Just like you.

Maybe that’s why you felt drawn to him, became and stayed friends. A silent and unconscious recognition of similar ghosts haunting your shadows.

Your phone quietly vibrates against your thigh. You ignore it.

Something nudges your foot. Lifting your eyes from your plate, you find Jae staring at you. He glances down towards your lap, frowning and jerking his chin when you don’t move.

With a peek at your mother to ensure she’s not paying attention, you slip your phone from the pocket hidden in your dress.

Meet me by the bathrooms.- Jae

You immediately stand, smiling as the Parks and your parents finally turn their attention to you. Lifting your phone, you say, “Please excuse me. The doctor on-call has a question about one of my patients. I have to call him back.” Disregarding your mother’s annoyed expression, you turn on your heel and walk out of the room.

After asking for directions, you find the bathrooms and wait in the alcove beside them. You don’t have long to wait before you hear Jae calling your name.

He jumps when you poke your head around the corner, but rushes over, grabbing your elbow to bring you back out of sight. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asks, his voice a hoarse whisper and his eyebrows nearly forced together with a frown.

“You asked me to meet you here.”

“Not here, smartass,” Jae says, rolling his eyes. “I mean here here.”

“I could be asking you the same question, Jaehyung.” You pointedly look down at where he’s still holding you.

“Sorry.” Jae releases you, his hand immediately going to run through his hair. His mussing leaves it standing at odd angles so he looks more like the Jae you’re familiar with. You recognize the same struggle to reconcile your newly discovered realities on his face as well. “It's just... you’re the assemblyman’s daughter? You?”

“Sorry to disappoint,” you reply, not sparing the sarcasm. You sit on the bench and fold your arms, scrutinizing the friend you thought you knew. “But I guess we’re even.”

“What do you mean? You never your said your dad was an assemblyman.”

“And not once in all the years we’ve known each other, not once in all the times we fell asleep talking did you mention you were a friggin' heir, Jae. Never mind an heir of the Park family. You were probably born with twenty silver spoons in your mouth.”

Jae sighs and joins you, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. “I didn’t say anything because I never wanted it. Who wants to own up to a family that only wants you to become their version of you, you know?”

“Preaching to the choir here.”

He opens his eyes with a frown and turns his head to you. “I never pegged you as a “yes, daddy” kind of girl. A goody-two-shoes with an overdeveloped savior complex, yeah. Definitely. But this? You really going along with this?”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” you retort with a roll of your eyes. “I thought we were friends.”

“We are, which is why I’m really freaking confused right now. You’re a doctor, dude. A modern woman. You’re always going on about women’s rights. Totally support by the way, but—”

“You really think I agreed to this for shits and giggles?” you cry, anger bubbling over. Everything you’ve held back since this morning boils out. “You think I like your father making me feel like a piece of meat and telling me to my face I’m ‘not as beautiful’ as my picture? Oh, wait, that would require him to address me directly like I had my own mind. Yeah, Jae, I just woke up yesterday and said to myself ‘Hey, let’s toss my entire personality, morals, and career aside and agree to get married to some rich guy so my dad can profit from the family-man image and new connections boost this election!’ That’s exactly what happened. No reason other than that.”

Jae is uncharacteristically silent after your outburst, studying you. You can’t really blame him. In the entire length of your friendship, you’ve only seriously raised your voice at him maybe once. He’s mentioned more than once that that fact is one your more attractive attributes.

Letting out a sigh of your own, you lean against the wall as well. You shouldn’t have yelled at him. He doesn’t deserve to be the recipient of your pent up frustrations. Picking at the skirt of your dress, you say, “You know my friend, Mina?”

“Yeah,” Jae replies with a shrug. “The dancer who’s at that super fancy dance school for ballet or something, right?”

“She’s there on a scholarship. A scholarship my mother is on the board for. My parents didn’t even bother being subtle about it. As soon as I told them they were crazy for suggesting this, they threatened to take the scholarship from Mina or even get her kicked out of the school. She can’t afford the tuition on their own. Jae, she loves that place and dancing so much and with that kind of training, she has a shot at so many opportunities. I couldn’t let them do that to her. It would kill her.”

His face becomes somber. “Ow…”

You give a half smile and a shrug. “Figured I could suffer through a few years of this marriage ‘til she finished, then find a way to get divorced.”

Jae reaches over and squeezes your hand. “You’re a really good friend.”

“Thanks.” You return the pressure and keep your hand in his. The reminder of humanity soothes some of the anger and hurt that sits like a boulder in your chest.

“Though I guess I am too,” he says. When you just look at him, waiting for an explanation, he lets out a bark of laughter. “And you yelled at me for being a bad friend, ya hypocrite. You think that I, Jae, the Jae, would say yes to this kind of backwards shit?”

“No.” Adopting an awful Manhattan accent, you ask, “So what’re you in here for?”

Your attempt gets a small laugh out of Jae, just as you’d hoped. The smile that accompanied it disappears as he says, “My parents found out about Day6… Before, as long as I kept my head down and didn’t do anything ‘embarrassing,’ they didn’t care what I was doing since my sister is going to take over the business. But now, if I don’t do this marriage thing, they were going to cut me off. I’d miss my Jordans, but I could deal if it was just me. But you know I’m the one who books our studio sessions, pays for the travel and new equipment when we need it. The guys chip in when they can, but they don’t make that much at their day jobs. I don’t make enough for it all either.”

You put your other hand over Jae’s. His band is his life. You’ve seen the shelves at his apartment filled with notebooks of music and lyrics instead of books. Some he’s actually played for you or let you read. He has his guitars named and arranged in order of favoritism for crying out loud. Making him abandon his music would be less painful than cutting out his heart while it still beat.

“We’re this close to a break, Doc. I can feel it.” Jae meets your eyes, none of the normal charm or ease there. Instead, they beg for reassurance, belief in him and his dream.

“I know you are. I come to every show I can, don’t I?” You smile, feeling the callouses from his constant playing rubbing against your own skin. “You're going to make it big. You have more talent than half the people on the radio. We just have to get the right people to listen.”

“Then I could support myself and I wouldn’t be in this mess.” He suddenly chuckles.

“What?”

“You could be too. You could be like our bus driver or roadie or something.”

“I have a job, you know. I just don’t work at the right place to make the big bucks. The clinic can barely afford our necessities, let alone big staff salaries. Besides, I don’t think it would matter.” You sigh again, unable to stop yourself from leaning against Jae. Everything feels too heavy and there’s a headache brewing in your temples. “I wouldn’t be surprised if my parents just found someone else to foist on me if this didn’t work out.”

“Damn. Seriously? We really won the lottery on the crappy parents, didn’t we?”

“That’s an understatement.” Looking down at your joined hands, you try to imagine matching weddings bands on your fingers. The idea is laughable. But nothing comes out of your mouth except the words, “We’re really going to do this, aren’t we? Get married.”

Jae’s shoulders lift beneath your cheek in a hopeless shrug. “For now, I guess so. Unless one of us wins the actual lottery. Or Day6 gets signed with a big bonus.”

You start nodding, then stop as an idea hits you, and groan. “Dammit… Jae, what’re we going to tell our friends?”

“What’d you mean? I doubt our parents are going to invite them to the wedding. Mine are too snobby and yours seem just as bad. Not like our friends read the newspaper either if our parents do one of those corny engagement ads.”

“I know my mother. She’s going to insist on an engagement ring and not a subtle one. Our friends know us. They’re not going to believe we went from friends to engaged. And what about what’s-her-name? The girl you’re talking to?”

“Oh,… yeah, that didn’t work out,” Jae says with a chuckle. “She didn’t like how much time I spent practicing. She told me it was either her or the band.”

Lifting your head, you stare at him. “What the hell were you doing dating someone like that?”

“She was hot?”

And he’s back. You drop his hand to smack his shoulder. “Gross!”

Jae raises his hands in defense, but a smile is back on his face, at least temporarily. “I’m kidding, jeez. Well, not really. She was hot, but I thought she really liked music slash the band too.”

“Sure.” Restless, you get off the bench and begin pacing. You think better on your feet. “But seriously, what’re we going to tell our friends? Us dating wouldn’t be too big a stretch, but no one would believe we’d do something crazy like get married out of nowhere. You’re impulsive enough for that, but not me. They’re going to know something’s up.”

“Firstly, I resent that impulsive comment. I'm just absurdly curious is all. And why not just tell them we’re dating?” Jae pulls in his legs when you almost trip over them. “But only if our parents make us move in together or something. Otherwise, we don’t need to. You don’t have to wear the ring unless our parents check in or whatever. Plus, like I said, crappy as it is, our parents wouldn’t think to invite them to the wedding. The only people there will be people we don’t care about. Then after we’re married, we just wait it out, not telling anyone, and then, like you planned, get a quick, quiet divorce when everyone’s safe. No one knows, we live our lives as normally as we can, and then we’re home free.”

Pausing in your marching, you look at Jae again. He looks far calmer than he has any right to be. Seems like he’s already accepted your predicament. But maybe he is right. Maybe this abrupt drop in the road of your life can be smoothed into a less dramatic sharp turn, or even a slight detour. Maybe you can do it. Together. The demons of uncertainty’s voices quiet for now.

Out loud, you say, “Alright.”

“Cool. Now that that’s settled,” slapping the edge of the bench, Jae pushes himself up, “we should probably get back. By the way, why’d you not want them to know we know each other?”

Raising your eyebrows incredulously, you ask, “You really want to give them one more thing to use against us?”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Straightening his clothes, he says, “Let’s go back to the lions’ den.”

Seeing his smile, that smile you know so well and love, relief hits you so hard, it makes your knees almost buckle.

You rush to him, burying your face in his shirt and curling your fingers around his jacket lapels. Your eyes burn, but your tears are thankfully exhausted. “Jae, I’m so glad it’s you. I really am.”

Fate and your parents’ scheming could have put anyone opposite you. Yet somehow, it’s Jae. A solid ally and friend instead of a dreadful unknown. With Jae, you have a fellow victim, a fellow survivor. A partner. One with no expectations except a continued friendship and reliance.

Although Jae had been stiff from surprise, his arms close around you and his body sags. Despite his boniness, the warmth of his embrace more than makes up for it. “Yeah, me too, Doc. Me too.”

“Were you scared too?”

“Fucking terrified. I thought I was going to be stuck with some prude princess. You know I can’t handle high maintenance. Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Laughing, you step back. As usual, Jae’s humor helps break through your cloud of ill mood. Beckoning, you say, “Come here. We have to fix your hair or they might think something happened.”

“Yeah, because they’re such examples of people who believe in love at first sight and get swept up in mind-blowing passion,” he retorts, but he leans down anyway so you can smooth his hair. “Thanks. You ready?”

“Yeah.” You nod. This time, you believe it.

#jae fic #day6 fic #kpopwritingnet #kwriterskollection #kwritersworldnet #kpop fics

[djmcleaningnc]

Move In Cleaning - How To Make The Process Go Smoothly

You are about to enter your new house or apartment. You have already scheduled the moving truck, made the signs for the yard sale, and even sent out an RSVP with your plan to share the news with family and friends. With so much in front of you, would you like to trust that someone else will take care of completely cleansing your new location? This article is about a Durham move-in cleaning service that has made life easier for many people.

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#Durham residential cleaning #Durham move out cleaning #Durham move in cleaning #Durham post-construction cleaning #Durham carpet cleaning

[bangtanstorytimetheater]

Virtuoso - A MYG Story

THREE

I was reaching into my entryway closet to grab my jacket when I saw Jin's headlights trail across the wall as he pulled into my driveway. I grabbed my things and quickly headed outside.

As I opened the passenger-side door to the white SUV, I noticed another guy sitting in the back seat. He was slouching, his shaggy, thick waves hanging over his eyes. He lazily raised one hand to wave and flashed a big, boxy smile. I could barely see his eyes through his hair, but could feel the warmth of his personality radiating from him.

"Hello!" I smiled and waved to the guy in the back as I got into the front seat next to Jin. "I'm Faye."

"Taehyung. Nice to meet you, Faye. So I hear you're going to do some Etta for us tonight." he sounded like he'd been looking forward to rehearsal. I turned in my seat to face them both and took a big breath. I noticed how unbothered Taehyung looked. He almost looked like he'd just rolled out of bed.

"I'm honestly a bit nervous about it. I hope no one judges too harshly. This is all new territory for me." I reached up and twirled my fingers in my hair, feeling a bit claustrophobic from my nerves all of a sudden.

"Hey, it's not like that at all. You'll like everyone. We're like a big family." Taehyung had a comforting personality, making me feel like I already knew him.

We pulled up to a large, old farmhouse overlooking a snow-covered cornfield. Not what I was expecting when Jin said it would be Yoongi's house we would be practicing in. I couldn't tell you what I had pictured, but it certainly wasn't this.

As we walked in through the oversized, ornately carved wooden front door, I saw the open door to a large practice space off to my right. It looked like it was once a dining room, but now served as a studio, full of equipment. The walls were painted navy blue, with both windows covered by thick navy blue curtains draped from ceiling to floor. The room seemed haphazardly thrown together, with stacks of amps lining one side of the room. There was a drumset that had seen some better days sitting on an unfinished plywood riser against the back wall. As I followed Jin and Taehyung into the room, I noticed Yoongi standing over a stack of sheet music on a music stand, talking to another musician standing next to him. He was yet another strikingly handsome guy, this time wearing a dark blue tee and some jeans.

I heard the familiar sound of buzzing as a tall, caramel-skinned guy with a perfectly angular jaw walked into the room, his silver trumpet tucked under his arm. He was buzzing his detached mouthpiece to warm up his lips. He walked over to his music stand and placed his trumpet on its floor stand.

Jeez. Are they all going to be this good-looking?

"Guys, this is Faye." Jin announced to the room as he made his way over to the stool in the back and started taking his bass out of its case.

The trumpet player pulled his mouthpiece away from his mouth and smiled widely, revealing two adorable little dimples, extending his empty hand to shake mine.

"I'm Namjoon. Pleasure to meet you. You can lay your things over there," he said, pointing to an oversized antique oak desk covered in a pile of jackets, bags and instrument cases.

By this time, Yoongi and the other guy had noticed our arrival and turned to greet us as well. The guy who was with him turned towards me to introduce himself.

"Hey, I'm Kookie."

He was a doe-eyed, crinkle-nosed younger guy who honestly just looked giddy to see someone new.

"It's so nice meeting both of you. I've been looking forward to this all day," I started, feigning confidence.

I was admittedly a bit intimidated by them. They were good-looking, likely extremely talented if they were playing alongside a deemed virtuoso. Plus they were obviously comfortable with each other, making me feel a bit like an outsider just wanting to become a part of their inner circle. I looked toward the man to my left, who looked more like a frat boy than a professional musician, and tried to break the ice.

"What instrument do you play, Kookie?"

"I'm a drummer. I teach lessons at a few locations, and I play with these assholes a few nights a week," he cackled.

His manner of speaking was so energetic and playful. I watched Kookie hop over to the backside of his drum kit and slink down onto the stool as Namjoon interjected.

"Hey now. I'd like to think we're pretty decent most of the time," Namjoon let out a low, breathy laugh before picking up his trumpet to attach the mouthpiece, then glancing over at me, "Don't let him scare you away. I'm sure it's nerve-racking playing with a new group."

"Come on, guys. Jimin will be here any minute," Kookie said as he started doing some paradiddles on the snare.

As I walked over to the microphone, I looked down at my outfit then back up at the room full of men wearing various flannels, tees, and jeans.

This was a rehearsal, not a recital.

Why the hell didn't I just throw on some jeans like a normal person?

I couldn't help but feel out of place. My anxiety started to boil up inside me and I felt my palms begin to sweat.

I closed my eyes, taking in a deep breath of air, attempting to calm my nerves. As I exhaled, I felt long, smooth fingers wrap around one of my wrists and gently rub up and down my forearm.

I opened my eyes to see Yoongi standing by my side, a sympathetic and concerned expression on his face.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, seemingly trying not to draw the attention of the others. His voice was low and gruff, and he was so close to my face when he said it that I could feel his breath on my cheek.

Feeling a sudden rush of butterflies, my hand reflexively slid across my stomach to draw myself inward.

"I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I need some air." I confessed, feeling some relief that I might get a chance to better prepare mentally for singing in a few minutes. Being too tense and nervous greatly inhibits vocal performance, so I knew I had to pull myself together.

"Come on," he said.

The others continued on with their independent warmups without seeming even the slightest bit distracted by the sight of Yoongi pulling me out of the room by my hand. He walked me out to a back sun room and motioned to a large octagonal picnic table in the center of the room. As I sat down, I watched him walk over to the row of windows and start cracking a few of them to let in some air.

"Thanks. You know, as long as I've been a performer it still baffles me how I can comfortably perform in front of literally thousands of people and be completely at-home onstage, but you put me in an intimate setting with just a handful of people and I become an amateur." I confided in him, surprising myself at how candidly I was speaking about my feelings to someone who was in essence a total stranger to me.

"Oh, I doubt that. Jin would have never invited you if you were anything less than professional," he said as he crossed the room and sat down next to me on the bench. There was plenty of space at the table, but he chose to sit next to me, leaning his head in his hand and turning his face towards mine.

"That's half the problem," I sighed, "I take everything too seriously. I seem so professional because I am. Look at my clothes. You guys must think I'm some kind of try-hard. Overdressed. And don't even get me started on improv..."

You're spiraling again, Faye.

"Hajima," he said gruffly, in almost a barking tone, but playfully bumping me with his shoulder.

"Hajima?"

"It means Stop It. And you should stop it. If you're finding that you can't improv, you're overthinking it. The whole point of improv is to let go. Look at you. You're uptight about your outfit, you're uptight about your performance, you're uptight about how you come across to everyone here, but at what point do you make time for the music?"

I didn't know what to say. No one had ever said anything like this to me before. I was always trained to treat all music as a performance, even in solitary practice. It was deeply ingrained in me to be in 24/7 professional-mode, thanks to rigorous training since early childhood.

He continued.

"I used to be like you. I could see it on your face in the other room. You have to stop thinking and just let the music out of you. You are getting in your own way," he said laying his open palm in front of me on the table. I found myself mentally tracing the veins on his exposed forearm, my trance only broken when he asked, "May I suggest something?"

"Sure."

I looked up at him and it seemed as though his face had gotten a little bit closer to mine. If it did, it was a subtle move, maybe even subconscious. He was so difficult to read that I just got stuck there, waiting breathlessly for whatever it is he was going to say next.

"Do you know how it's impossible to have good sex if you're not relaxed?" he asked, so close to my ear now that I could feel the vibrations of his low voice, making me shiver.

(Gulp)

"Um. Yes." I answered, not sure where this conversation was going next.

"Relax," he commanded softly, "You aren't relaxed, so you are missing out on the music. So let's pretend this is your musical foreplay. Sing me a song right now."

"What?"

"Sing a song. Doesn't matter what song it is. Doesn't matter if it isn't perfect. Stop thinking and just SING."

I sighed and took in a sharp inhale, drawing my eyes closed.

"Open your eyes. You can't connect with your audience if you don't make eye contact." he said and I felt his finger slide under my chin, turning my face towards his. He was only inches from my face now as he whispered, "Breath."

Yoongi leaned back, allowing me some space and sat intently as I sang the first thing that came to mind.

"I love you a bushel and a peck, a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck..."

I finished the first full verse, not breaking my eye contact with him, as dreadfully uncomfortable as it was.

"Well that was mortifying," I said, feeling color flush over my cheeks in embarrassment.

"See, that was absolutely stunning. Your voice takes me straight back to the 40's," he said, seemingly energized by my song choice, "But you're holding yourself back, Faye. I can see it. You're doing the right thing facing your fears and facing me like this."

"What makes you think I'm afraid to face you?" I said playfully, trying to lighten the seriousness of his pep talk.

"Come on. I'm more perceptive than you'd be inclined to believe. I can see the way you move around me. You squirm when I get too close to you. What are you afraid of? You came all the way out here into this room alone with me, so you must not think I'm that bad." he smiled reassuringly.

"I'm not afraid of you. I guess I'm just a bit intimidated, and it doesn't help that you're as good-looking as you are, getting me all flustered..."

He laughed, flashing his big gummy smile.

His hand reached up and tucked some loose hair behind my ear.

"Flustered, huh? Does it bother you if I do this?" his hand slipping back from my ear and to the back of my head, his fingers combing into my hair.

I couldn't help but smile and lean into his touch, closing my eyes.

I whispered, "Not at all..."

I could hear him let out a sharp breath and felt him adjust himself in his seat. When I opened my eyes his face was again only inches from mine.

"But I barely know you..." I hesitated.

His eyes narrowed as he ran his tongue across his bottom lip.

Looking directly into my eyes, he smirked and said, "But that's half the fun."

#bts fanfic #bts smut #yoongi smut #jhope smut #bangtan

[anonwrite]

Into the Stratosphere (Part 1)

The author wants to be anon.

The author wants to know:

What readers would find interesting or boring in the story, as well as what feels out of place or unnecessary. English is not a native language, please point out what doesn’t sound natural.

“I write for myself and my imagination, but I know the pace or wording may not fit what most people expect from good writing. I want to know how to polish this up.”

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

Readers can give comments in reply or reblog to this post

Readers can send me anon comments with the title of the post

Readers can use THIS google doc - to do a deeper commenting

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Part 1

“Hey, check this out!”, a young voice resonated in the hut made of metal scraps and ship parts. One of the two girls sitting at the tables filled with broken mechanical devices and trash twirled around in an old leather chair bursting with its stuffing in several places.

“I’ve never seen a cloud this big before”, the girl in the chair pointed at a screen behind her, showing a bunch of glowing dots.

The other girl, not looking up from the scraps she was carefully taking apart answered in a soft voice, “So you’re getting excited at the *size* of clouds now”, laughing a little, “are you really that bored?”

Still trying to get the other’s full attention the girl beamed and got up. “It hasn’t rained in like half a year, maybe we’ll finally get some wetness up in this wasteland of a desert”

Pushing her messy chin length hair behind her ears the other looked up to watch the screen herself. Still filled with excitement the girl that had been looking at the signals from the sky was already stuffing a few things in a rugged bag. “I’m off to check if I can see it on the horizon, the wind should bring it further our way. Maybe I can already tell the others about it too”

And just like that, throwing it over her shoulder and wrapping her head in a light fabric she stormed out. “Be safe out there, Maya!”, the other called after her.

The hut was their home, and had been that for years. Once an abandoned and broken down building, only a few of the original walls had survived and gave the hut the base structure. Walls from shipwrecks and metal sheets held up and supported by metal streams filled out the rest and made it habitable. Years ago, when this place hadn’t been the girls home for long, they found old weather equipment in the ground that had been hidden by sand and dirt. Kora had spent months on trying to get it to work, only to spend several months more studying how it even worked.

Maya, as the older of the bunch, despite being sceptical, let her do this and gradually the hut turned into a weather station for the desert people who appreciate the forecast in the rough climate of the desolate planet from time to time. Though the desert people weren’t typically aggressive or dangerous, they were still not always to be trusted and Maya had found that out on several occasions on trips to the next big city.

Largely getting their food from old family friends and jobs fixing up broken things the two girls who once chose their home as a place of isolation had actually become an important piece of the community and were respected by the people that knew them.

As of now, Kora was working on a fusion cell worth enough to get them through the next few months, given she actually figured out how to fix the thing. “Damn it.”, she mumbled and placed her tools down. It was bent out of shape and she didn’t know if it would ever work again. Frustrated she got up to walk back to their kitchen, she started rearranging the containers of condiments, trying to take her mind of her apparent failure.

She thought about what they were actually working towards. Was there a goal for them to reach, something for them to discover? Kora thought her life had lead to a dead end where what lies ahead won’t ever be new or exciting to her. She started heating up a food packet they bought in town while her mind went different places. They were getting by, had enough food, essentially did what being adult was. Or was it?

She could try getting a job in town, stop hiding away in this desolate place and actually face the world. Was she trained enough to be able to prevail out there? The idea scared her and she retreated back to her sleeping mat, steaming food packet in one hand and a bent out of shape spoon in the other.

Maya had ran over to visit their nearest neighbors in her excitement, a family with six children, ages ranging from a baby to a boy about the same age as her. The run was rather long, in the scorching sun Maya felt thankful she had water and fairly good health to get her through. The mother was feeding camels outside when she saw Maya walking towards them and waved at her.

Inside the house she was greeted warmly. Offered cold refreshments they sat down at the livingroom table with the kids running around, mother holding the youngest in her arm. “Are you dear girls alright by yourself? Have there been raiders? I’ve heard from town people are getting desperate in this dry heat-” “Don’t worry about us, we’ve been good and we’ll be good, actually - I’m here because of this heat”, Maya interrupted the mother’s words in a calming manner, “Our monitors show a big cloud, way in the east, coming towards us”

“I heard Mayas voice, is she here?“, the eldest son walked in, wiping motor oil off his hands with a rug. When he saw her, he threw her a big smile and sat down with them at the table with a huff. "She was just talking about possible rain, promise me you’ll go into town to buy us some new food and supplies, alright sugar?”, the mother turned to him and requested.

“Will do”, he smiled again and looked at Maya, “only if Maya comes with me though, of course.”, he said jokingly. Maya couldn’t help but laugh at that and the mother smiled and excused herself back outside to look after the animals and leave the two alone. “How much food do you still have?”, he asked after carefully waiting until his mother was out of hearing range, “I know we usually don’t have to worry about running out of stuff at all, with Dad working at the town suppliance office and our animals, but even he took me by the side and hinted things are looking bleak.” He laughed awkwardly to mask his concern.

“We’re all good, we stock for long and don’t exactly need thaaaat much. We’re only two people after all, unlike…”, she motioned around to three of the other siblings chasing each others through the house. “If I can help around here, you have to message me. Do you still have the radio phone Kora fixed up for you?” The boy lowered his voice and scooted closer to Maya. “Keep it in my bed. My mom still thinks it’s dark magic or something”, he shook his head and smirked. “I’ll use it for emergencies. I promise.”

He turned to one of his brothers and held his arm, “Why don’t you all play outside for a bit? It’s nice and bright out. Take your brothers and sisters.” When he realeased the boy’s arm he was already running out of the door with his siblings. “Don’t go too far from the house!”, he tried warning them before they completely disappeared out of the house.

It had gotten way more quiet now, besides the few animals from outside and the wind blowing against the desert structure, it had gotten peaceful. “I don’t know how you do it”, Maya said. The boy just picked up a glass from the table and turned it in his hands, looking at how the light coming in through the windows would pass through it at different angles.

“Once the ground is wet, supply and merchant ships can land and we’ll all be fine. It’s been worse before.”, he sat the glass back down on the big weathered table. His voice was determined and Maya questioned if he was trying to convince himself of what he said or if he truly believed it.

Maya nodded and looked around. After a while of sitting in silence he spoke again. “Do you know for sure it’s a cloud? And it’s not moving away?”, he asked hopeful. “Looked like any other cloud I’ve seen on our monitor before. But big. And the wind, the wind usually comes from the east. So it should carry it right towards us”, she said. The boy exhaled loudly and stood from his chair. “Come out with me to the back, I’ve been working on something.”, he called out already walking through the back door into the sun.

Outside stood a bike, with misshapen panels that looked like it could be solar powered. The boy walked over to the thing, standing next to it proudly and a motioned for Maya to come closer. “My dad brought this home the other day. Broken messenger bike from town, the motor wasn’t powerful enough to make it run smoothly to operate,” he crouched down and pulled at the side to open the bike, revealing the rusty and dirty insides. “It still needs normal fuel, but I hooked up some old sun panels so it should run way more smooth with the extra power.”

Maya walked around the misshapen thing, the colors scraped off the sides of bike, making her question if it was really let go because it didn’t run anymore or if there was an accident involving the bike. “Sit on it, it’s easy to control”, the boy told her. Reluctantly but intrigued Maya got onto the bike, putting her hands on the handles and feeling the bike react to her weight by creaking. Despite that, it felt sturdy and she thought about this being way better than having to walk. “I want you to take it.”, he said.

Maya turned to him in disbelief. “If there’s anyone deserves it or needs it, it’d be  you. It’ll be easier to get around. And it’s made to travel over this rough terrain.”

“You’re kidding”, Maya said quietly.

“Well, you got a message to deliver, don’t you? Go to town to tell them about the possibe rain. They can prepare for the landings.”, he smiled seeing her excitement grow.

She jumped off and gave him a big hug, throwing her hands around him. “Thank you so so much. This means a lot.”, she whispered.

He hugged back slightly and patiently waited for her to let go, overwhelmed by her closeness. “See, turn this for it to jump on.”, he taught her by showing. The bike stuttered and growled to life. “The petal down there will make it drive, the left handle lets you break. I tried it out, don’t put too much trust in the break.”

Maya was listening and could barely contain her excitement. Once she sat back on the bike, the boy held it and pulled away the safety break. Her start was wobbly, but she soon sped off into the desert, saying goodbye with only an energetic wave and driving off to the distance.

In the meantime, Kora had dug up an old book about trade from under her bed. Her empty food packed laid next to her, her nose was buried in the book. She didn’t know if it was fiction or not, sometimes it seemed like storytelling to her, but she did not care. The distant sound of a bike tore her out of her reading and made her jump, confused as to what someone with a motorbike was doing out here. Taking precaution she took a metal rod from the table when making her way to the door, only to soon realise the person on the bike was too familiar. Maya looked happy as she came closer and Kora knew already who had blessed her with the gift.

“Is that what he paid you for your hand in marriage?”, she taunted Maya when she came to a rough stop by the creaky old gate. Maya got off the bike and skipped over to Kora.

“Shush! We just have each others back, you know. If you went he would’ve given you this thing too”, she muttered smiling while hugging Kora. “If you say so. It looks like one of those city bikes, only-”, she made a face, “a little bit broken.”

“Well you saw that it works, so we shouldn’t complain”, Maya laughed and went inside, Kora following her.

“I’m going to town tomorrow, it’s too late now to make the trip. Even though this thing is substantially faster, I better not test my luck” Maya said while already shuffling steaming hot food in her mouth, huffing to cool it faster. She was now sitting at their cluttered table. She hadn’t eaten the entire day, but it was normal to ration out the food sparingly over long dry periods. Kora nodded without looking up, again occupied with her book, sitting across the room in her bed in the corner.

After cleaning up a little and making one last trip around the house to check if everything was in order, the sun had gone down and  they soon traded in the flickering light bulbs they had to illuminate their house for some well deserved sleep.

The heat of the morning woke the girls and Maya almost immediately fixed herself a bag for the trip to town. Kora took one last look at the monitor to confirm the cloud was still there, and it was, showing up closer and bigger than the day before. Before Maya left, Kora scraped together the last of her savings to stock them up on some food and water. Putting on her best clothes, Maya saw Kora slipping the money into her bag.

“We’re low on food and water?”, she guessed. Kora answered with a shrug and a mumbled “You know how it is, in case you find someone to trade with”

Bag strapped to the bike carefully, Maya was ready for the journey that’d easily take morning. Especially if she chatted with the people along the way, as she usually does. Kora trusted Maya’s social skills and knew she could look out for herself. Despite that, she watched her drive off with a little bit of worry in her stomach. When the bike became a small spot on the horizon and eventually disappeared in the glimmering heat over the desert hills, she went back inside to work on the fusion cell for now, hoping she’d fix it before the merchants would depart.

She needed a new approach to fixing it, this much she knew. She didn’t want to give up on this thing, if there was a way to fix this she swore to herself she’d find it. So she decided to wire it together with a generator and test the different circuits, checking which ones worked and which didn’t. She knew which ones didn’t work through sparks that’d be emitting from the thing, making her jump back every time they’d fly at her. She had to put away all the other electronics and devices to make sure nothing would get even more broken than it already was.

After the sun stood much higher than when Maya departed, she had tried every single one and could safely say what parts exactly needed fixing. Much to her dismay, the core seemed to not be connected correctly, throwing the entire thing off. She sunk back into her chair when she realized she had to open the entire thing to rewire it. She’d never done this and knew it wasn’t easy to do.

Frustrated she wondered if this was even worth trying. She looked around the home and her eyes stuck on the almost empty box with their food packets. She remembered their water tank outside being filled the lowest it’s probably ever been. She had spent a considerable amount of time creating a system that’d collect and purify rain, but that didn’t help when there was none.

Knowing she had to, she picked herself up and got to work.

Sweating and using most of the tools she had at hand, finally Kora had a break through. Carefully closing the cell that now glowed by itself, she knew she had done it.

Smiling at her achievement she wrapped it in cloth carefully and put it in a box. Maya would take it to sell it. They would be able to charge more for this than for anything else Kora had fixed up before. Satisfied with herself, she noted down some of her findings and what she did to fix the cell in her journal, for her to remember later if she ever got the opportunity to do this again.

A sudden continuous beeping tore Kora out of the situation. The monitor that was showing the distant big cloud before, carrying the hope of the desert people, was now blinking red and making jarring noises.

The girl walked to the monitor and inspected the old device. To Kora’s relief nothing seemed to be wrong, she figured it just picked up on the signals of starships that would land when the rain would dampen and thicken the ground terrain, allowing trade and an interchange of information that they had been starved of for months now.

Skillfully pressing a few buttons the beeping stopped and she tried to look further into how many ships were there to make a rough estimate. Any information like this would help prepare and make sure everything would go smoothly.

Bent over the device, focused on the screen, Kora was interrupted yet again. A static coming from the communication box next to the makeshift weather station caught her attention. Then, a distorted voice came from the ancient speakers Kora had presumed broken.

“Is anyone picking up this signal.”, the voice spoke barely distinguishable words.

Stunned and surprised Kora stood for a second. Usually ships would not try and make contact and if they did, they’d try to connect to town and not to here.  Maya and Kora used to have radio equipment to be able to make contact with ships and people from far away, but decided they wanted to avoid trouble and now had portable close range radio phones instead, to ensure communication between the people they knew and trusted, not outsiders.

“Is someone picking this signal up?”, the voice repeated and Kora started frantically digging through boxes to find an old microphone. When she found it, she hooked it up to to the dusty communication box. She took a deep breath and spoke.

“Yes. Not very clear, but I can hear you”, she said, somewhere between excited and scared.

The static responded after a few seconds. “Who am I speaking with?”, it asked.

Kora’s heart sunk as she realised this might be important business. They probably wanted to speak to the one in charge, the mayor or the few town officials that they had.

“My name is Kora, I live in the outskirts of Yilandir, the town”

The static took longer to respond this time and Kora bit her lip in nervousness. How deeply she wished for Maya to be there. Maya would know what to say, she thought.

“How big is the population?”, it said.

Kora responded explaining how there were about 11.000 people as far as she knew, many living right by the town but also quite a few living scattered around it. Yilandir wasn’t big and usually didn’t get much attention, she knew there were bigger cities at the opposite end of the planet, but there were a few skillful workers here that’d get jobs fixing merchant ships, or some ships that’d pass by needed to fuel up coincidentally when landing was possible. The people also liked buying food and other goods from merchants, making this a safe place to go to earn money for travellers.

Having said all that she could, Kora went quiet and waited for a response. Instead of a response, the static went away completely and left her confused in silence.

Kora had almost pushed all her thoughts about the weird static incident away when she noticed swirled up dust way off on the horizon. She was sitting outside in the shade of the home, sun going down behind her, already turning the sky all sorts of colors. She had been looking at the stars that were shining and becoming more in numbers by the minute. She knew it was Maya returning from her day in the city and remembered wanting to ask her what she would’ve done about the incident.

With Maya slowly coming closer, Kora went inside to fix her some hot food to welcome her, and decided to make some tea aswell. The crumbled packet of leaf she used for the tea was from a foreign planet, she was told, making it the most contact she’d had with the world outside of Yilandir.

Kora was stirring the tea when she heard Maya’s bike finally closing in. She closed the lid to let it sit and went to meet her at the gate.

Maya looked sweaty, understandable in this heat, but happy. When she got off the bike Kora could already see her bag was full of food and other stuff, more than the money she put in the bag could’ve possibly bought. What could you say, Maya was just that charming. She went in for a hug and Kora felt a bit more at ease now that she was back.

“Need help carrying that?”, Kora asked as they pulled away from the welcome hug.

“No, it’s not as much as it looks. Still quite a lot though-”, she struggled visibly to lift the bag, “everyone was super thankful for the info. Took my word for it, I told them maybe one or two more days max and the rain should come.” Kora couldn’t help but wonder what she did to get such a good deal. She was charming, sure- but not charming enough you’d gift her your scarce food. She hoped the old townfolk weren’t convinced the girls were the ones to credit for the rain, as she didn’t want to feed old superstitions.

The two went inside and Maya happily took what Kora had prepared for her. They both sat on the floor for a while, in silence, only Maya was eating. The tea had sat long enough and it looked almost like an oil spill glitter in the now dusty golden water, smelling refreshing and sweet at the same time.

“Think we should try and get away from here?”, Kora asked.

Maya took her time answering. “Why go somewhere new when we know for sure we’re just fine here”, she said after having a few more bites of the food.

Kora looked down and stirred the tea, making multicoloured swirls dance in the cup.

“This time when the ships land, I want to see if I can maybe find someone willing to let teach me. Mechanics and stuff. Like, fixing actual useful things and not just trash that’s thrown away or so old it’s from before we were even born.”, Kora spoke, still looking down.

“Don’t feel like you’re not doing anything useful, you’re fine the way it is. I can’t be sure you’re safe when you go off somewhere just to see a bit of the world”, Maya told Kora, “and you can’t look over me, either. It just seems so unnecessaryily risky”

Kora nodded, still avoiding looking at Maya.

“If you really want to do it though, you have to do it. If you think it makes you happy.”, Maya added.

Now Kora looked up at Maya and smiled. “Thank you”, she simply said, then went back to sipping her tea by Maya’s side.

The light slowly faded away until only starlight lit up the home. Light pollution wasn’t a thing here, countless stars could be seen in the night sky. Kora decided to finally get up and put away their now empty cups. “I’m going to check the monitor and then see if I can see the cloud from here already before heading to bed, want to come too?”, she asked the girl that was still cuddled up on the floor.

Maya yawned and stretched. “You can tell me if you see something”, she said in a sleepy voice.

The monitor showed the same as before, but the cloud had gotten closer now. Even though it wasn’t cold, Kora still threw on a jacket and went outside. Walking around the hut to the back she could already make up a dark outline in the sky where the starlight was blocked by the cluster of clouds. It stretched far and towered like a black wall over the desert dunes. When Kora concentrated on the outline, she could swear she saw it slowly but steadily moving towards her.

She stood and watched for a little, trying to see if she could make out darker shadows thrown by merchant ships everyone was desperately expecting. A few minutes went by before she noticed diffused blinking in the clouds. This meant there had to be at least one ship, flying in the cloud. A bit weird, she thought, the electromagnetic tension in clouds must mess with their equipment on board. Why were they not flying above it or below it? Or maybe she was way off and they had a perfectly good reason for flying in the clouds. One last look before going back inside and she noticed a few more lights up there. She turned her back on it and went inside, closing the door quietly, just to see Maya had went to bed already. It didn’t take long before Kora laid in bed too, mentally preparing for the rain.

The girls woke to the sounds of a caravan of camels and other indigenous animals on their way to the city. They must have noticed the clouds and wanted to use their chance to trade with the outside world. Maya immediately got excited and wanted to check out the strangers right away, but before storming out the hut Kora got a hold of her.

In a groggy voice Kora explained her concern. “We’re all running on our last reserves. At least most people by now are. We don’t know these people so-" "They’re not here for trouble, it’s a caravan for goodness sake.”, Maya interrupted Kora.

Kora shrugged, still in her bed, and pointed out of the tinted window next to their beds.

“At least check them out from inside first before you go and see what they’re up about”, she said before turning over and trying to get a few more minutes of sleep.

Upon further inspection, the fully covered people walking the caravan seemed to be fully armed as well, so Maya gave in. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to go out  to meet armed people when we can’t make sure if friendly or not, she admitted. She still insisted on watching the entire thing pass their home and stood by the window until the very last camel was out of sight.

Kora got herself up and had prepared breakfast for them, the same food packets from town she steamed and heated up every day. In the back of some shelves she found some spices she decided to throw in the sticky mess. The same food every day made even the best food taste bland, and the generic tasting food packets basically everyone was eating definitely already didn’t taste all too well in itself. They filled you up and did what they were supposed to, but not more.

They ate together before getting ready for the day. It looked like this was going to be the big day, the cloud had creeped far enough to block out the sun and was on its way towards town. The girls threw together a few essentials to take with them for the event.

It was certain they were going together, an event like this was celebrated and treated like a get together for everyone, plus it was an event to do business and find new contacts. Kora didn’t want to bring it up again, but she was set on learning more about mechanics. Even though she knew the road she was choosing may be uncertain, she felt sure of her decision and was ready to start a new chapter. Given she would find someone willing to teach her, of course.

Maya on the other hand was simply excited to see everyone together again. In her happy ramblings she talked about how the governor would deliver a speech, people would play board games the way it was last time, she could be meeting old and new friends and all the things Maya found cool.

Kora listened and smirked, knowing how gambling was running wild when everyone was feeling confident and steady with their finances right before the trade event. She doubted the people would take risks now, after the experience of how life could dry them out just by chance.

“They even let me play, were you with me when that happened?”, Maya was putting their radio phones into their seperate bags.

Kora carefully took her wrapped up fusion cell to sell once the market was up and going and placed it in her bag. And just like that, they were ready to take the trip, even ready to spend the night in town if needed.

The bike stuttered and moaned under the weight of them both and their bags, the way to town dragged on forever in hot anticipation.

When they arrived it was as if the anticipation had jumped over like a spark to everyone and snowballed into something that could almost be felt on the skin when walking through the dusty streets. The small capital, home to the people of the desert, was the only place to do business without having to already know your business partner for years, those few who could afford would gamble for rare fortunes from other worlds you could only find here. Sometimes even those who couldn’t afford it would gamble. And although you could not compare the small yellow city to a metropolis with its own heartbeat, it had its way of dealing with strays.

No matter who you were, sooner or later you would have to come here, the main water tanks and farmers selling produce were the base for survival. Now was the time where everyone wanted to come and see what travelers from other planets might have to offer, too. People like Kora would see if they could get a job on deck, working on one of the ships that would land. Very few of those had ever come back from their journey, which is exactly why Kora had felt guilty of her dream for so long.

Driving through streets which were of course way busier than usual, the girls saw preparations were happening fast, the sky had darkened already. The open field behind town hall was being kept open and barren as a landing spot, but people were already setting up market signs around it. There were a few women in dainty scarfs who had painted their faces, trying to appeal to the travellers. Maya averted her eyes, she thought even though her people were dependent on those travellers, they should take pride in their home and not sell themselves to those passing through.

By a crumbling fountain, drained of any water, the two came to a halt. Kora looked towards the sky while unpacking her stuff from the bike while Maya was thrilled by the lively atmosphere. The first drops of rain soon fell and so did the tension as everyone’s hopes came true.

“Town hall, with our stuff?”, Kora asked Maya fidgeting with her hands.

“I want to go say hi to everyone, people are still setting up their market stuff, outside a bit-”, Maya cut herself off by turning her face up and feeling the waterdrops hit her skin.

Kora laughed and her heart warmed up seeing Maya so excited, but she was for sure not going to miss the announcements in town hall.

Every time the travelers would come, just when the rain had started falling and the ground wasn’t fit for landing just yet, the people would gather and inform others of all important things, such as newly formed marriages or losses or big plans.

Kora saw the governor, an old soul named Hank Hill, already up front preparing to talk when she slipped by the townfolk into the massive sandstone hall. Kora trusted him. Though she also knew she was responsible for herself, it felt as if she wasn’t completely alone in times she needed help. This feeling was shared by many and was what had kept Hill in office for years.

“Hello my friends and - neighbours. Let us celebrate. Our land has given us the gift of water once again and we will savour it.”, the man coughed and continued, “-more efficiently, ever since last rainfall we have expanded our collectors and added an extra water tank-”, some people were cheering already, “so that we don’t come close to running dry like *this* again.”

The ‘like this again’ felt like a collective gut punch and concerned murmuring spread through the crowd. The governor sighed and continued. “It is true that we would have run out of water very soon if the rain hadn’t come now, but let us thank God for giving us this gift and not think about negative what-ifs.

We can be sure to welcome outsiders today, who will give us many opportunities and I encourage everyone to make friendly business with the travellers.”

“friendly business”, Kora thought. Normally there would be half a dozen small merchant ships, but when she thought about the lights in the sky the other night it looked like there was a bigger ship this time. More space for products, she shrugged and made her way out of the crowd as they were starting to announce all the new couples.

The air felt fresher and besides trying to not get the bags full of their goodies soaking wet, the water was something no one found irritating. Taking hurried steps towards the landing field Kora identified Maya waving at her from across, at a tent from the scavenger men who were something like police for the town, only way less official. Kora told herself the low humming she she heard was just her head anticipating the ships, as she thought it’d still be a bit until anyone would try landing. The field was big, when Kora arrived at the tent her drapings were wet and clinging to her skin, a funny feeling but not uncomfortable as it was not at all cold even though the sun was behind clouds now.

Chairs were set and you could almost think there was a festival going on from the look of some of the guys.

“Beer? It’s warm but it’s still good”, the guy next to Maya offered Kora a drink. She politely declined as she set down her stuff. “Made new friends? “, Kora asked Maya who seemed to be enjoying her drink and playing against the other guys in some foreign board game.

"Old ones, actually. Remember when I was sentenced to townwork because my behaviour needed 'disciplining?’ ”, Maya made weird faces when saying the words *behaviour* and *disciplining*. And no wonder she still wasn’t convinced her behaviour was too much sometimes. Kora thought that with these guys rules were bendable, you’d just have to prove yourself as a cool person.

Just as Kora was starting to get basics of the game, a faint metal surring yanked everyone’s attention back to the sky. People were hurrying around and making room, the rain had soaked everything and even though the water brought optimism, it clung and seeped everywhere even if it wasn’t as welcomed as it was for the desert people.

The mayor had made his way to the large field quickly after the announcements, the formal wear of dark cloth already wet from being outside a few minutes.

And that is when a large metal object burst through the dense rainclouds, the surring getting ever louder. The citizens were gathered and watching, many were overjoyed at the sight of what was expected to be a merchant spaceship. Only that it definitely didn’t look like just a merchant spaceship. It was big and looked sleek, landing in just a few seconds and blowing air and water everywhere, towering over the desert people shielding themselves from the impact of the vessel by just their arms and hands.

The governor wiped his hands on his clothes nervously and stepped to the front of the foreign ship. He was waiting to welcome the visitors, the people had quieted down and watched the ship.

A good thirty seconds went by before the ramp of the ship was finally lowered. The governor held his position and the people fell silent.

Suddenly a door slid open and figures stormed out, their faces obscured by helmets, seeming to know just what they were there for. Kora looked at Maya frozen still by watching what was unfolding in front of them.

“Just run. Now.”, she whispered at Maya.

#submission #submissions #I want feedback

[nadinelovescoffee]

Espresso So You: A Training Manual On Espresso Enjoying

Do you take pleasure in that day glass of joe? A lot of people do! What kind of coffee do you love to beverage? Take time out to look at the many alternatives. Take into account the suggestions that adhere to the next time you will make or acquire gourmet coffee.

Caffeine can be quite a wonderful accessory for a good lifestyle. Gourmet coffee is not really the trouble, but introducing extreme amounts of glucose and skin cream may be. Use stevia or soy products whole milk to keep your coffee healthier.

Whenever you acquire coffee legumes, keep these in other places in comparison to the package they came in. You will need a container that helps to keep the beans from the atmosphere and light-weight. This assists maintain their quality and know more to visit us.

Only buy natural and organic espresso. Espresso is an extremely absorbent crop, and derives a lot of taste from the earth in which it started. So, organic and natural gourmet coffee will preference much better than anything else in most cases.

It comes with an almost neverending variety of gourmet coffee from that you can pick. There are actually those who like darkish roasted legumes, while some choose milder flavours. There are also flavoured coffees, including raspberry and hazelnut. The majority of folks will stick with a flavored creamer to do the trick.

Generally perform a trial run manage with any new coffee machine. Manage the coffeemaker only using drinking water. That gets rid of dust or smells that will build up in machines ahead of purchase.

To obtain a excellent cool gourmet coffee beverage, produce an incredibly strong volume before you go to sleep and permit it to sit down within your refrigerator immediately. In this manner, you can have cool gourmet coffee that is not watered down right after being poured over ice cubes. For best effects, include additional items including sweetener and milk products well before chilling the gourmet coffee. This offers you wonderful iced gourmet coffee if you wake up.

For older or inexpensive coffee makers, you can have much better gourmet coffee by heating drinking water before making the espresso. Once you have a cooking pot of water at a sufficiently popular temp, place it into the coffee maker. This can ensure you a make which is the coolest and choices the ideal.

Excellent normal water is essential once and for all gourmet coffee. You really should use bottled water while you might think bottled water is a complete waste of cash, it will create your gourmet coffee style better. In the event you fail to use water in bottles, think about using a faucet purifier. You will not receive the identical style as bottled but it will be better than faucet water.

Left over caffeine should not be stored for later and reheated. Work with a thermal mug to help keep the coffee very hot for too long intervals. Otherwise, just make another cooking pot of gourmet coffee to be able to expertise the very best preference.

By no means just toss espresso grounds into a coffee maker without determining first. Match up the number of servings you'd like to the correct way of measuring of reasons. A cup of coffee is not really a mug as it is only around six oz .. The ideal percentage is six ounces of water that is clean to 2 tablespoons ground espresso. Avoid a measuring mug until you want watered down coffee.

Chocolates is a great option to merge with your coffee. Including flavours to coffee provides greater flavour and quite often an energy increase. If you wish an earlier day enhance of electricity, have darker dark chocolate coffee.

Hold back until the complete container of caffeine is finished preparing prior to preparing the first mug even if your machine features a pause work. When it's feasible to accomplish this with some equipment, it's not beneficial to the espresso. If you wish coffee prepared when you get up, have a look at designs by using a clock. Then, your coffee will likely be completely ready whenever you alert.

Many individuals use sugar substitutes with their coffees, and you will be one of those. This can alter how your espresso tastes which is probably not a good thing. Try enjoying black colored coffee and incorporating just a crunch of raw sweets to enhance the taste. If you fail to forego sweetener, try to use a smaller amount of it.

If you cannot locate what you would like within an personal produce, consider utilising combines. In case you are unclear which flavors to mix, chat with a cafe employee and request for a professional recommendation. Many merchants will offer you examples of the flavored coffees before you purchase a complete handbag.

If food store coffee isn't living around your anticipations, you might like to start to look in other places. Chances are, food store coffee isn't the freshest. By store shopping at a retail store specializing in gourmet coffee, you are sure to acquire very clean legumes.

If you're employing a type of drip gourmet coffee brewer, be sure the h2o you place involved with it is cold. Very hot water will not be employed in these sorts of brewers. In these kinds of machines, the caffeine is made as being the water receives warmed up. Very hot water for your gourmet coffee will likely scald espresso grounds. This will cause your caffeine to be bitter and could also be a security danger.

Create your espresso with charcoal filtered h2o. You can buy various filters that will help make the faucet water taste far better. You can even get a coffee brewer by using a built-in charcoal filter. An additional option would be to attend your food store to purchase charcoaled filtered drinking water.

If you appreciate iced coffee place the French click inside the freezer the evening prior to. This helps the equipment chill for a number of time ahead of the morning hours. In the morning, then add frosty h2o and then make the cleanest, sweetest gourmet coffee you might have ever tasted.

Make sure your caffeine is closed properly. Oxygen coverage can destroy the flavour of espresso. It could use a lifeless and smooth preference. Get it in the enclosed container so fresh air cannot get to it.

Coffee brewing time may have a huge effect on flavor. If you want the total flavor, you ought to brew it between four and a few minutes. If espresso usually spends less time making, it will preference fragile, and espresso brewed longer may be bitter.

With all the recommendations right here, you are prepared to have on the market are start experimenting. What kind of gourmet coffee are you going to attempt next. Do your pals like caffeine at the same time? In that case, take them out to the local retail store and get some exciting searching for gourmet coffee!

#Espresso Enjoying #Manual On Espresso #Espresso