#<- has been doing fuck all for the past few weeks and has thus accumulated tonnes of work

[frotting-corporations]

why cant i get 10 hours of sleep in 6 hours of sleep

[sirowsky]

The Flowers Always Know

Description: When a mad scientist uses you as an experiment while you’re on holiday, the Heroics only just manage to save you. And in your recovery you become very close to the leader of the group. (Slow burn)

Warnings: Language

Link to Masterlist

Comment:��Hint to what the title is all about, and plenty of Máma Moreno.

Chapter 6

  The house was a mess, to say the least. You had left in a hurry that evening, after things had taken a very sharp turn towards very bad, shortly after your dinner. You’d been glad that you had only eaten a light pea soup, when it came back up again some ten minutes later. You’d only just made it to the bathroom, but after the food had been coughed up, a large amount of fresh blood had followed, and you knew you were in trouble.   Why you hadn’t called for that ambulance was anyone’s guess, but then, you had never liked being a bother, and you had been perfectly capable of walking out to the cab.    It was just that, in the twenty minutes that the drive had taken, you’d gotten significantly worse. Your whole body had started hurting, you’d begun bleeding from the nose and ears, and just as you got to the hospital, you had begun to get spasms and cramps in your spine and legs.   When you staggered into that emergency-room, you did it truly convinced that you’d leave it in a coffin.

  You shuddered slightly with the memory, as you walked through the house, opening all the blinds and pulling all of the curtains back again. It was already late, and thus dark outside, but you wanted to wake up to a house that bathed in sunlight in the morning.   The kitchen was probably the worst, in terms of the amount of cleaning that would need to be done. The remnants of your cooking that evening where still on the counter and in the dishes, and the amount of mold that was growing in there was somewhat disturbing.   You couldn’t leave that for the morning, you’d lose every ounce of appetite waking up to that crap. So, you set about throwing away everything that had been left out on the counters and in the sink, and quickly scrubbed all the open surfaces clean, before handwashing some of the glasses, plates, mugs and cutlery, that had gotten dusty even sitting in the cabinets, in the four months you’d been gone.   Once the kitchen felt usable again, you went to the bathroom to check what state that was in. It wasn’t too bad. You flushed all the pipes and let the water run in the sink and the shower for a good half-hour to clean them out, and begin to work away the smell of stagnated water. The toilet needed a decent scrub too, but it could wait until morning.   It was after midnight when you’d finally changed the sheaths in the bed and settled in for the night.

  A sharp rapping on your door woke you after what seemed like mere seconds. But the sun was up, so you looked at your wrist-watch – 06:15 – and sighed. Who the fuck would be there at that hour?   Grumbling into your pillow, you turned over and decided that whoever it was would have to come back at a more decent hour.

  “Come on now, mujer, I don’t have all day.”

  You physically jumped at the sound of Anita Moreno raising her voice behind your front door. She wasn’t shouting, just applying a good amount of force to her voice. Just enough to make you feel a size smaller than usual.   You scrambled out of bed and grabbed a robe which you put on whilst walking towards the door. You had no idea what you looked like, but you hoped there was an air of scarecrow to you. You’d found her intriguing when you first met her the day before, but she was little more than a damned annoyance right now. You were not a morning person, and especially not today when your body was tired and sore from the tests.

  “I’m not gonna ask if you know what time it is, because you obviously do, and you obviously don’t care, so don’t beat around the bush and just tell me what the hell you want so I can go back to bed and finish waking up.”

  “You always this cheerful in the morning?”

  “Yep.”

  “I’ll be sure to let Marcus know.”

  “What does my morning mood have to do with Marcus?”

  “Nothing. Yet…”

  What? No, no, don’t let her distract you, idiot.

  “What do you want, Mrs. Moreno?”

  “Tell me, what kind of flowers do you like?”

  Nope. You’re not doing this, whatever it is, you’re not doing it at 6 fucking 15 in the morning.

  “Have a nice day, Mrs. Moreno.”

  As you went to close the door, she simply barged right in, straight past you, and completely unbothered walked into your kitchen while you scrambled after her, shocked and abruptly furious.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”

  “Don’t you cuss at me, mujer.”

  “If you want me to treat you politely, then don’t fucking barge into my house uninvited.”

  “Calm down, I’m not staying for breakfast. I just want you to answer a few questions.”

  Unbelievable.

  “You’ve got some nerve.”

  “I’m old, mujer, I don’t have time for intermissions. Now, tell me, what kind of flowers do you like?”

  You were fuming, but this woman was a super. She wasn’t leaving until she decided to leave. So, you took a breath.

  “Dahlias.”

  “Interesting choice. Why?”

  “What does it matter? What do you want from me?”

  “Do you know the origin of Dahlias?”

  “Why? Am I to expect a pop-quiz banging on my door tomorrow?”

  “The Dahlia came from my ancestors, the Aztecs, they called it The War Flower. Nowadays, it’s known as the King of summer flowers, because of its wide range of shapes, sizes and colours. It has something of a demanding presence, you never walk past a Dahlia without seeing it. And yet, it doesn’t ask you for much.”

  “Do you have a point, or is this becoming a lecture on the mythology of flora? Because I will go back to bed and ignore you until you leave.”

  “It’s an observation. What’s your opinion on supers?”

  “Are you serious? Ugh, forget it, of course you are. Fine. I have nothing against them, but I don’t adore or idolize them. They’re flawed just like the rest of us.”

  “What’s Marcus’ flaws?”

  “He’s… too kind for his own good sometimes. He let’s people walk all over him if he thinks that it’ll keep the peace. And he… tries to carry the whole world by himself if you let him.”

  She smiled.

  “Good. You’re hired. I expect you at Heroics HQ at 7 am tomorrow morning.”

  …what THE FUCK…?!

  She walked back towards the door, while you stood dumbstruck just staring after her. She had reached the door by the time you unfroze and ran out to the hallway.

  “Wait, what the hell are you talking about? Hired for what? I didn’t ask you for a job.”

  “No, you didn’t. But you need one, and I’ve got one. Take it or leave it, if you’re not there by 7, I’ll know what you chose.”

  You stood in the door, watching her disappear into a black SUV, and drive off.

  Did that actually just happen? It must have, there was no way in hell you’d ever even dream something like that. You shook your head, and decided that there was no point in going back to bed now, your head was buzzing, so you might as well have breakfast and get the cleaning going.   As you went to the bathroom you caught your reflection in the mirror, and smiled to yourself. There was definitely an air of scarecrow.   You turned the TV on while you made tea, and tried not to think about what had just transpired in your kitchen.   You had always loved coffee before, never started the day without it ever since you were 16. But your body seemed to have become oversensitive to it after your cellular breakdown. You’d had your first cup about a month ago, and it had really done a number on you. You’d been hyperactive for hours with uncontrollable twitches and insistent trembling in your hands.   You’d given it a second try a week later, but even just half of a small cup had resulted in the same outcome, so you had accepted that your coffee-days were over. You were actually really starting to like tea, especially the spicier types.

  The news showed a highlight reel from the Heroics latest outing, and you found yourself glancing at the footage, looking for a glimpse of Marcus. You saw him flash by as he fought someone, or something, you weren’t sure, and then again when the fighting was over. He looked confident and strong when he was out there. When he had an enemy in front of him, and a clear task.   It was enticing to watch. Oh, who were you kidding – it was fucking hot!   You shook your head and turned the TV off as you finished your breakfast. There was a lot to do to get the house in order, and you had a plan to get it all done. The problem was that a certain uninvited guest kept popping into your head, distracting you with thoughts about flowers and what the hell that job was all about?   So, by lunchtime, you weren’t anywhere close to where you’d hoped to be. You’d managed to wipe down all the surfaces where dust accumulated, and the vacuuming was done. But you’d hoped to have washed the floors and beaten the carpets and cleaned the refrigerator and freezer by then. 

  Oh, well. Rome and all that. 

  You decided to have pizza for lunch and called in an order.   But later, as you were eating said pizza, you had something of a lightning moment. You didn’t need to sit there and just fidget and wonder and worry about what you were gonna do tomorrow. You could just go back to HQ and talk to Marcus. He’d only be happy to see you, he’d said as much when you went to find him to say goodbye.   It hadn’t been a very long exchange, since you’d been eager to get going, knowing there’d be things you’d have to do before going to bed. But he had said that he’d miss you and that you’d always be welcome to visit them.   So, why not? If anyone could tell you what Máma Moreno was up to, it’d be her son.

Authors’ Note: I love criticism, don’t be shy to let me know if there’s anything you like/don’t like/have questions about.

@blueeyesatnight​ 

@farfromjustordinary​

[pseudorganized]

The Bachelor(s)

Summary: (Sequel to My Best Friend's Wedding)

"It's the night before the Big Day. Are you ready? See you at the Bachelor Parties tonight! #bakahusbands"

Or Daiki and Ryouta are getting married but Daiki needs to get through the bachelor parties first.

Characters/Pairings: Aomine Daiki, Kise Ryouta, AoKise. A bunch of cameos.

Notes:  After two years, #bakaboyfriends will finally become #bakahusbands because it took me two years to write up the sequel lolAnyway, here is my actual offering for AoKise Day but I am fashionably late, it seems. There will probably be mistakes and those are mine. But anyway, I won't delay you any more. Hope you enjoy!

Also available over at Ao3!

"Aomine-kun, Akashi-kun has a problem."

Tetsu's eyes were huge in his face like they usually were but for some reason, they gave Daiki an uneasy feeling just then. The feeling didn't ease when Daiki found himself meeting eyes with Akashi who looked too calm and too serious as always..

"Aomine, I apologize." The apology felt sincere and Daiki wished Akashi would blink. "I don't have smaller bills."

Not for the first time in the past few days (weeks, months) Daiki had no idea what was going on. "...What?"

"For the night's… entertainment," Akashi non-explained delicately, quietly, still very seriously and Daiki really wished he knew what he was talking about.

Satsuki only told him to come pool-side where “his” side of the bachelor party was going to be. No one told him he was going to have any part of keeping things organized, never mind having to hold Akashi Seijuuro's hand through commoner pre-wedding festivities.

He probably looked like the actual idiot he was because Akashi's face was actually starting to look a bit pinched. You kind of start to notice his shifting expressions after spending some time with him and he often told you to run laps until you dropped dead.

"I don't have the necessary denomination for tipping the exotic dancers--"

"Wait."

Daiki felt like his head had exploded. He held up his hand to Akashi's face to stop him. He must have really just experienced brain damage because he actually dared to just put his hand up to Akashi's face within stabbing distance.

What the fuck?

Daiki looked urgently at Tetsu. "Exotic--I thought Satsuki said no strippers?"

Tetsu looked at him quietly for a long time.

Big, innocent eyes on his stupid, fucking child-like face.

"Yes, Momoi-san definitely said no strippers," Tetsu confirmed.

Daiki absolutely felt his blood pressure shoot up. "Then why did you--"

"Oh, I understand now." Akashi interrupted Daiki mid-mind explosion #2. Now those eyes were on Tetsu.

Tetsu turned his head and looked right back at Akashi.

No fear, ice cold. He just needed a milkshake and a pair of sunglasses.

Akashi looked back at him like he was about to wage some kind of war. It felt like the Winter Cup Finals back in first year high school all over again. "That was not funny, Kuroko."

In turn, Tetsu smiled a little, the Rakuzan ass-kicking asshole. "I kind of thought it was, Akashi-kun."

And Daiki left them there because he did not need the added stress on his already huge pile of it the day before his wedding. Where the hell was Kagami when he needed him?

Two years ago, Satsuki got married and Daiki had been involved with some tasks and responsibilities for the wedding. He had seen first hand what kind of stress and turmoil one had to go through just for one special day and he had thought himself adequately prepared for it. As usual, he was wrong. It was a whole other ballgame when it was you on the way to be shackled and it was your soon-to-be spouse who was stressed because no, Daiki, we can’t just do it at our favorite outdoor court! Among other things.

And now they were at this beach resort with a bazillion of their family, friends and acquaintances (It’s just about a hundred people, Daiki, don’t be dramatic--) for the ceremony. Tonight was the bachelor parties which took up the bar and restaurant and pool areas. Too many people they knew and vaguely did were milling around socializing, eating, drinking and having a great time before the big day tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Daiki was overwhelmed and kind of tired but that wasn’t anything new nowadays.

"Hey, Aomine!"

Daiki stopped then sighed before just turning towards the voice, not at all surprised to find himself face-to-face with his brother-in-law. Well, sort of brother-in-law.

Hamada Tadashi was a robotics engineer who was involved in developing technologies towards making the world a better place. More importantly, he also happened to be married to Satsuki, thus explaining his presence in the party. What was strange was how he was seated at a table with his old Touou Captain, Imayoshi Shoichi, and one Kuroo Tetsurou. Looking at all three of them together already made Daiki's head hurt a little bit more.

"Are you okay?" Tadashi asked, looking genuinely concerned. Daiki might not have gone out of his way to befriend the guy until he did the right thing and proposed then married the girl Daiki considered his sister but he had always, grudgingly, thought the guy was a decent one. Always friendly and accommodating and wasn't deterred by Aomine's attitude one bit. "You want to sit down with us for a while?"

"You do look kinda overwhelmed," Imayoshi put in and Daiki was pretty sure his old Captain was giving him a surveying look.

Beside him, Kuroo hummed in agreement as he looked around idly. “It’s kind of a madhouse around here right now, huh?”

A madhouse was right and if Daiki thought about it a bit harder, his brain would most likely die. He had no idea how he and Ryouta were able to accumulate these many people as friends and acquaintances through the years. Take for example Kuroo here who was a member of FC Tokyo and was currently sitting in the smart kids’ table. Before Tadashi noticed him, they must have been talking about something brainy, like Tadashi’s latest project that had something to do with robot nurses or whatever they were called. It almost always flew over Daiki’s head whenever Satsuki tried to explain it to him.

“I have no idea where all these idiots came from,” Daiki grumbled as he took a seat beside Kuroo which faced away from the chaos happening in the pool area behind him. Normally, Daiki wasn’t one for socializing but people were here for his wedding and he supposed he could spend some time being welcoming.

“Well, you’re gonna have a wedding in a beautiful beach resort plus food and booze. Most everything’s free,” Imayoshi shrugged easily before taking a sip of his own drink, something amber and expensive-looking. “Are you really that surprised, Aomine?”

Daiki gave his old senpai a bit of a glare. “And all of you didn’t have to come.”

“Come now, Aomine, you can’t be this annoyed about us accepting your and Kise’s invitation, are you?” Kuroo has a hand over his heart, shit-eating smirk on his face, and right then Daiki knew how he and Imayoshi could get along like a house on fire. “I’m hurt. It wasn’t cheap coming out here, you know?”

Was it too late to regret his choice to sit down? It probably was.

“I think Satsuki and Kise did a great job organizing everything, though.” Tadashi came to his rescue with a winning smile, that smile that always came out when he talked about his beloved wife.

“They’re a powerful combination,” Imayoshi noted with a nod and even Kuroo had to smile at that.

It looked like Kuroo had something to add to that but then a loud whoop swelled from the pool area. Daiki looked over to that direction and found Midorima walking away from the ruckus with a bit of a pinched look on his face and the day's lucky item in one hand. It seemed to be a rolled-up sock.

“What’s going on?” Daiki asked, a bit worried that someone might come in and call everything off.

Midorima looked at Daiki like this was all his fault. “An arm-wrestling match.”

“Between who?” Kuroo suddenly asked, looking far too interested for anyone’s good.

“Iwaizumi-san and Matsuoka Rin.” Everyone turned to find that it was no other than Nijimura-senpai who spoke and tagging along was Himuro, of course. It was still kind of strange seeing their old Teiko Captain with Himuro Tatsuya but apparently they were friends. Or something.

Himuro was almost grinning. “We’re on our way to witness an epic gun show, according to Matsukawa-san.”

“Any bets going around?” It was Imayoshi who asked, unsurprisingly, as he rose up from his seat.

“Not that we know of as of yet but we can always ask around, Imayoshi-san,” Himuro replied with playful cheek and it didn’t take long before Imayoshi was walking off with them followed by a very curious Kuroo.

“Are they going to be okay?” Tadashi suddenly asked from the side.

Midorima pushed his glasses up against the bridge of his nose as he did. “I expected better from Iwaizumi-san and Matsuoka-san both but I suppose the occasion inspires a reckless sense of fun.”

It still sounded like Midorima was blaming Daiki but he had known Midorima long enough that he knew just to just ignore it.

"They're grown ass adults," Daiki said with a scoff. "They should know what they're getting into."

Thankfully, Midorima made no further comment and politely excused himself.

The noise level behind them was rising and normally, Aomine would have been in the middle of that. An arm wrestling match between Iwaizumi Hajime, his old College roommate and former volleyball ace, and an actual Olympian? Aomine would have been all over that but not today.

He sighed and he noticed Tadashi just kind of smiling at him sympathetically.

"...What?" he asked with a bit of a frown.

The smile on Tadashi's face barely shifted. "You want to take a breather? I can cover for you."

Daiki actually took a bit of time to think about it. What were the consequences if he stepped away from this circus for a while? How painful would they be? Could he actually trust Tadashi?

"Can I trust you?" he asked and Tadashi got points for not making a fuss about even being asked.

He just smiled that friendly smile and Daiki could really sort of tell why Satsuki fell for him. Tadashi was just a really nice guy.

"I think anyone would want a break every now and then."

And wasn't that true? Daiki was pretty sure Tadashi would even have some science to back all that up.

With a sigh, Daiki got up from his chair and made to go, nodding at Tadashi as he went.

"Stay outta trouble, Hamada. Don't get into any arm wrestling matches or whatever."

Tadashi's laugh sent him off. "See you later!"

Daiki raised a hand and quickly made his escape. Finally.

Walking down the path toward the restaurant and bar area made him realize that it wasn't long before sunset. The path leading to the restaurant cut through a well-maintained garden with a sea view. The sky was slowly turning into a mix of yellows, pinks and purples and even Daiki could definitely appreciate the sight.

Honestly, he could get married anywhere, even just a basketball court (wearing his favorite Jordans, of course), but he had to admit it was a good idea to have their wedding in a beautiful place like this.

"Oh there you are, Aomine-kun."

He had to look away from the view to find Mibuchi Reo coming up to him and he felt an instinctual urge to flee. Mibuchi was one of Ryouta's so-called Groom Squad, a group of Ryouta’s friends from all over who offered their assistance to Ryouta and Satsuki as the wedding approached. Daiki barely ever saw the lot of them the past few weeks without it involving some wedding-related task.

"Hey, Mibuchi-san," Daiki greeted, deciding to try and make this as painless as possible for his own good. "What's up?"

"I'm so glad you're here, Aomine-kun," Mibuchi replied, waving a well-manicured hand toward the direction that Daiki just left from and making an annoyed-looking face. "Imagine if I have to go over there where all the brutes are? No, thank you."

"You were looking for me?" Well, that was a dumb question but Daiki asked anyway.

"Yes, Mr. Husband-to-Be--" Daiki thought Mibuchi was about to reach out and pat or pinch his cheek; he didn't. "--Ryou-chan says to meet him by the Sandbar."

It was probably super sappy to say that his heart thumped when he heard that Ryouta was asking for him. "At the Sandbar?"

Mibuchi waved him off. "Yes. Go on now. He's waiting."

And after what felt like years, Daiki felt like smiling.

"Okay," he said with a nod but before he went, he took a moment to look Mibuchi over. "You look tired, Mibuchi-san."

Mibuchi made a less than elegant, very weary face and Daiki would have laughed if he could but he got it.

"Satsuki-chan runs a tight ship,” he quipped dryly. “But I love her and Ryou-chan so Neesan will persevere. I will tell you this, though, Aomine-kun.”

Mibuchi lifted a finger poignantly. “Yu-chan and I are most definitely eloping."

And that did make Daiki laugh. "I don't know if Kasamatsu-san would agree but hold on just a little bit more. This’ll all be done tomorrow."

"Thank God."

Daiki didn't waste time on making his way to the Sandbar after talking to Mibuchi. Now, the Sandbar wasn't some piece of land that sprouted up from the sea. The people who came to the resort just called it that because there was a lot of sand and there was a bar. It was an area by the beach where a bar and dining area was set up. Low tables were placed down on mats over the white sand where you could sit or even lie down comfortably and enjoy some drinks or a meal while looking out towards the beach. And if you decided to go for a swim, you were just a few steps away to doing just that.

He found Ryouta some ways away from where the early dinner crowd was, looking over to the direction of the sea and away from his phone, finally. The setting sun's golden light reflected on his hair and eyes, making him glow and look even more beautiful if that was even possible. He seemed to sense Daiki's stare as he came closer and he turned his head to smile at him.

"Aominecchi~!" Ryouta called, drawing up the old nickname teasingly that Daiki had to scoff and lean down to give him a kiss for it.

Ryouta smiled when he kissed him back and it made Daiki feel warm. That little detail was something about Ryouta that he would never get over.

Daiki sighed when he drew away. During the kiss, he had gotten a hand down to lightly cup by the side of Ryouta's neck to end up with fingertips caressing his nape. Ryouta was smiling still, looking fond and sweet and also a bit like he was tired. Daiki kissed him again for good measure. When was the last time they were alone and this close?

"Daiki must have missed me," Ryouta observed with a grin a moment later after Daiki settled beside him. Daiki didn't care to occupy his own side of the table, happy enough to just squish up against Ryouta as much as possible that he was almost on his lap. He even leaned his head by Ryouta's shoulder and closed his eyes. When he breathed in, he smelled Ryouta's lavender shampoo layered with the sunblock he must have just reapplied. Ryouta smelled so good and familiar he could fall asleep right then and there.

"Could we leave and go to bed already?" Daiki asked with his eyes closed. He bothered to ask even when he knew the answer would be "no".

A soft giggle and Daiki felt fingers playing with the hair by his nape. A shiver ran through his spine and he almost groaned. Ryouta and his magic fingers...

"But we still have the ending program for the bachelor parties, remember?"

Daiki actually groaned at that. "There's more?" He almost turned his head and nipped Ryouta on the shoulder.

Another giggle, more petting, this time more soothing and indulgent rather than playful. "Just some games and we gotta give a 'thank you' speech for the guests. Poor Daiki. I'm sorry, baby." Finally he got a kiss for his troubles. "You must be tired. Daiki needs to recharge, hm?"

"Do I get a lapdance from you at least?"

Ryouta tugged at his ear kind of hard even if he did laugh at the question. "No, Ahominecchi! Not when my sisters are gonna be watching, come on…"

That tug hurt a little and Daiki frowned but he just grumbled under his breath and took more cuddles for compensation.

If you asked him, this big, flashy celebration was not really Daiki's style. It was something he decided after having to follow Satsuki around for months to make sure she wasn't obsessing over little details too much and that she got enough rest. Wedding planning was stressful as all hell and he would prefer to not have anything to do with it if he had a choice. He could get married anywhere and have it done anytime. All that mattered was that Ryouta would be the one standing with him and that he would say "I do".

But Ryouta wanted the big, flashy wedding because it was his style. In his own way, Ryouta loved the planning, the hassle, the stress. He wanted to make memories and have people to share them with. Plus, Ryouta just loved a good party and why not make his wedding the best one ever?

And since Daiki loved him and knew what it took when it came to getting together with Kise Ryouta, he agreed to the beach resort wedding with the bazillion guests. Also the crazy bachelor parties though his batteries were drained and he would prefer not to see anymore people for the next year or so.

But for now it was okay because he was in a corner away from all that with just Ryouta and he was getting his hair petted while waves coming up the beach sounded in his ears.

"Daiki."

"Hm?"

"You awake?"

He must have dozed off for a bit because when he opened his eyes, the lights around them had been turned on and night had fallen. It was cooler and with a deep sigh, he shuffled even closer against Ryouta. He wrapped his arms around him and was prepared to get settled for a bit longer when a smell distracted him.

A waiter had come up with a bit of a smile, a tray held over one hand. On the tray were two plates of food and he laid them down carefully before them.

One plate had some beautifully grilled chicken and a hefty vegetable salad on the side. On the other plate was a burger, the patty thick and juicy and topped with finely shredded cabbage, paired with wedges of potatoes.

"I ordered us dinner!" Ryouta chirped after sending off the waiter with a smile of his own. "Did you know that they served Teriyaki Burgers here? I thought you might want to give it a try."

His burger definitely didn't look anything like the ones he got at Maji Burger but his stomach rumbled at the sight of it. When was the last time he ate?

"Do we have time for this?" Daiki asked even as he already reached to examine the burger. He wasn't sure about the cabbage but well, he was hungry.

"I asked Momocchi for at least an hour," Ryouta answered as he picked up a knife and fork and immediately pierced one of Daiki's potato wedges. Rude.

Daiki took one of the bite-sized pieces of chicken Ryouta had sliced up as payment.

"An hour?"

Ryouta hummed in answer. "An hour to have dinner and just to hang out." He offered Daiki another piece of chicken with his fork and Daiki obligingly ate it. "I told her I missed you."

Daiki cut up about two bites' worth of his burger and placed it over one side of Ryouta's plate.

"I missed you too…"

Ryouta gave him that pleased, happy smile that always crinkled his eyes, very unlike those polished ones he gave cameras, and Daiki sighed. He reached to wipe off a bit of dressing that was by Ryouta's lip with his thumb.

"Now eat,” he told him. “And you better finish all of that."

Ryouta nodded obediently. "Yes, Daddy."

And then laughed when Daiki scowled and rolled his eyes at him.

Sometimes, Daiki really couldn't believe he was actually marrying this annoying (precious) brat.

The burger was juicy with the right amount of teriyaki sauce and the cabbage added a good crunch. It was pretty good and Daiki enjoyed it as he and Ryouta had their dinner. It was their first time having a meal alone since they arrived at the resort and it was a nice break. They got to catch up a bit with each other and how the whole day had been so far. As usual, their conversation flowed smoothly, hardly a dull or quiet moment.

Daiki watched Ryouta as he told him about his day, voice lilting and always in motion. Ryouta had always been animated, full of life, glowing and golden, and Daiki often had a hard time looking away. He had long grown past the embarrassment of getting caught staring at Ryouta for too long and now, they had come to the point where Daiki knew he wouldn't really be able to look away ever again. And that thought was…

Ryouta was smiling at him, amused, and Daiki knew he was caught just staring again.

"Ah, Daiki is so in love with me," Ryouta sighed wistfully as he lifted a hand to his forehead like he was going for a swoon. "How is he to survive another night without being married to me, I wonder? This must be my curse for being so handsome."

"Oi, stop that," Daiki grumbled as he reached and took the hand that Ryouta had to his forehead, the one with the ring he gave him. "You really need to stop picking up shit like that from Oikawa-san."

Ryouta was laughing again, flushed from giggling too much and that random cocktail he ordered, while he held onto Daiki's hand and looked like, well.

Daiki's Forever.

"Ki-chan! Dai-chan!"

Satsuki appeared with a wave and a smile and Daiki sighed because he knew it was time to go back to the party. Joy.

"Momocchi!" Ryouta waved back with his other hand that was not holding Daiki's. "And Cheekinui too!"

"Can you just go back around and take that demon with you?" Daiki asked as he eyed Satsuki and the plump plushie in her arms. The plushie that resembled Ryouta down to the blond hair and big amber eyes. Daiki had no idea why Kise Ryouta plushies existed but there was probably a method to the madness and it included fangirls and wishful thinking.

Satsuki shook her head just as she handed over the plushie, Cheekinui, to a Ryouta making grabby hands. "You're always so mean to Cheekinui, Dai-chan. What did he ever do to you?"

"It's a trespasser," Daiki answered just as he avoided soft sausage hand pats that Ryouta was inflicting on his cheek via Cheekinui. "We're on a dinner date. And it’s evil."

The plush might look like Ryouta but it was evil to its core, Daiki just knew. He could tell by its penetrating, judging stare.

"Then I’m a trespasser, too," Satsuki said with a shrug and ignored Daiki's answering groan. "It's time for you two to come back and make an appearance at your party."

"Tell them we're busy," Daiki insisted and no, he was not whining. What are you talking about? But he stopped and just sulked a bit instead when Ryouta kissed his cheek.

"Give me just 10 minutes, okay, Momocchi?" Ryouta said as he got up, smiling that professional Kise Ryouta smile. "I'll just freshen up."

Satsuki beamed. "Okay, Ki-chan!"

Ryouta turned to Daiki and wordlessly held out Cheekinui like the plushie was a baby, hands under the plushie’s armpits while his feet dangled. Cheekinui had a wardrobe change--blue and white Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts, usually he wore a tiny Kaijou jersey--and somehow he had white angel wings strapped to his back. Daiki really didn't get it but he took it like a man and just accepted the Ryouta-looking plush. He was rewarded with a happy beam from Ryouta.

"Be right back!"

Daiki watched Ryouta go with a sigh before sitting back on his chair and putting Cheekinui over his lap. It was weird, sitting a plushie over his lap like it was a child, but he had probably done weirder for Ryouta and would continue to do so in the future for sure.

He felt Satsuki's eyes on him and he turned to meet her gaze.

She was smiling at him, something soft and fond, and it made him just hold Cheekinui closer for some reason.

"Are you ready, Dai-chan?" she asked and Daiki knew she didn't need to elaborate.

He knew what it was she was asking and he also knew his answer.

"Yeah," he replied easily, calmly, and he looked back to the direction Ryouta went.

"I am."

[squaaash]

something familiar

a fic inspired by this lovely drawing by @sidetrek because the idea just would not leave me alone

Read on AO3

Summary: Aziraphale is laid out on the couch, seemingly asleep. This is not shocking.

What is shocking, however, is the giant black snake coiled around him from head to toe.

Anathema and Newt drop by the bookshop and make a startling discovery. Aziraphale and Crowley are just trying to have a lazy Saturday morning.

Keep reading:

Aziraphale and Crowley had recently developed a tradition on Saturday mornings.

The past winter had been particularly cold and bitter, and Crowley often had a bit of an issue keeping warm. His cold-blooded origins weren’t helped by his lanky form and bony extremities, so he enjoyed spending his nights snuggled up against his space-heater of an angel.

Aziraphale woke one morning to very peculiar sensation. He felt almost swaddled. The gentle pressure and weight elicited a pleasant feeling in his chest that warmed him to his very core.

He opened his eyes to find a large serpentine head resting on his sternum, still dead to the world, with an incredibly peaceful expression on his face. Crowley has shifted forms (likely without waking, Aziraphale surmises) and successfully coiled himself around Aziraphale’s entire body, the end of his tail brushing against his ankles as it lazily swung back and forth. The warmth in the angel’s chest grows. He can feel the love radiating off of the sleeping serpent, and does his best ensure that he feels the same in return, extending his contented aura outward and brushing his thumb gently over the snake’s head.

But then Crowley wakes and the lazy Saturday morning spell is broken. The serpent’s eyes widen, and suddenly they’re peering out of Crowley’s human face instead. He’s lying flush on Aziraphale’s front, his arms and legs wrapped soundly around him. Aziraphale would find himself endeared by the blush rising on the demon’s cheeks if it weren’t for his absolutely shamefaced expression.

“Sssorry, I didn’t mean to–”

Aziraphale rests his hand on Crowley’s cheek, running his thumb across his cheek before carding his fingers back through his hair. Crowley closes his eyes, sighing pleasantly at the sensation.

“Don’t apologize, my love.”

Crowley rests his cheeks against Aziraphale’s chest, still looking somewhat crestfallen. He focuses on the steady thump-thump of his angel’s human heart. “But I–”

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

“Surely you’d rather not cuddle with a reptile.”

“I think you’re underestimating what a good cuddler you are in your serpentine form.”

Crowley tilts his head to better see Aziraphale, a look of quiet awe on his face. A look that reveals all his fear. That he doesn’t deserve this, that Aziraphale is simply humoring him, is too good for him, that he’ll misstep in his usual demonic way and Aziraphale will leave him and that’s just the way the world is meant to be.

Aziraphale kisses the doubt right off of Crowley’s face.

Slowly but surely, Crowley allowed himself to become comfortable sleeping coiled around Aziraphale in his serpentine form. On Saturdays, Aziraphale would leave the shop closed until the late afternoon so that he and Crowley could bask in the sunlight that streamed in through the front window and onto his well-loved sofa. (He knew that Crowley was particularly fond of the way that the golden light warmed his scales. On the rare occasion that Aziraphale woke first, he loved watching the serpent sleep, tracing his fingers along his spine. He rarely saw him so relaxed.)

This random Saturday morning in March, while rainy and dreary, should have been like all the others. Except for the fact that it wasn’t.

---------

Anathema Device knew that Crowley and Aziraphale were not… people, per se.

Their auras were tinged with something pearlescent and odd-looking that her eyes could never manage to focus on long enough to truly see what it was. Not to mention the odd little magic tricks they would perform now and again, under the impression that Anathema wouldn’t notice that there always happened to be a tray of fresh tea and little sandwiches on the coffee table whenever she and Newt would pop in for a visit. (She did notice.)

Not long after the failed Armageddon, Anathema had come across an unfamiliar contact in her cellphone saved under the name of “A.Z. Fell and Co.” Upon calling the number, Aziraphale feigned ignorance as to how the number came to be in her possession but invited her to stop by the shop anytime if she’d like to take a peek at his extensive library.

And thus, Anathema and Newt had a very odd new friend.

Whenever they were in London they’d stop by the shop, knocking on the door if it happened to be closed. (Anathema learned very quickly that the shop wasn’t for the purpose of selling books so much as storing them, but after a few trial runs to ensure that she was trustworthy, Aziraphale was more than happy to let her borrow to her heart’s content.) While bumbling and awkward at times, the man was sweet as all get-out and knew his books well enough to debate them to the earth’s end. Eventually, Anathema was dragging Newt into the city at least once a week to accompany her and discuss Aziraphale’s vast collection of literature, so it really should have only been a matter a time until they ran into his red-headed companion.

Except Anathema was fairly certain that Crowley was avoiding the bookshop whenever she and Newt were there. In fact, she was absolutely certain. Mainly because she once spotted him out the front window of the shop over Aziraphale’s shoulder as he was ranted passionately about Oscar Wilde’s Garden of Eros. He stopped in his tracks when he spotted the young couple on Aziraphale’s couch and slumped his shoulders dramatically, making an exasperated expression before turning on his heel and briskly walking away. So, yeah. Anathema could say with confidence that Crowley was avoiding them.

It all came to a head on a rainy morning in March.

Anathema and Newt had plans to be back in Tadfield in the early afternoon for Pepper’s birthday party, but Anathema had accumulated a rather large hoard of finished books and felt too guilty to hold onto them for any longer. She figured that Aziraphale didn’t really seem the type for a lie in and that popping in and out around ten in the morning shouldn’t be too much of an inconvenience.

Perhaps she should’ve thought that through.

Anathema can immediately tell that something is off. She’s holding a stack of books up to her chin so Newt knocks heavily on the door, knowing that Aziraphale sometimes can’t hear from his back room, but the door swings open easily. They exchange a look. Aziraphale generally does whatever he can to keep people out of his shop At All Costs, and leaving the door unlocked is… out of character, to say the least.

Anathema worries her lip between her teeth as she nudges her way past Newt, opening the door further with her shoulder, quieting his stuttered protests with a quirked eyebrow in his direction. Surely, if something was wrong, Aziraphale wouldn’t mind them letting themselves in. She looks back towards his desk, as they often find him wrapped up in his notes and annotations, but his chair sits empty. She’s only distantly aware of Newt following her timidly into the store until she hears a strangled gasp.

She whirls around and follows Newt’s wide-eyed gaze before squeaking in shock at the sight.

Aziraphale is laid out on the couch, seemingly asleep. This is not shocking.

What is shocking, however, is the giant black snake coiled around him from head to toe.

It appears to be sleeping as well, resting its large head on Aziraphale’s chest, slung over his shoulders and wrapped around his torso, winding around his right leg with its tail curled at his ankle.

“What the– I mean, well I can tell that it’s– But, I–” Newt whispers, struggling to form proper sentences. “What the fuck is this? Is he a witch? Is this a witch thing?”

“I mean, maybe,” Anathema hisses back. The snake, which doesn’t look like anything she’d imagine is native to the UK, is bigger and heftier than anything she’s seen in a zoo. The longer Anathema looks at it, she realizes that it’s giving off an aura of its own, intertwining with Aziraphale’s until one is indistinguishable from the other.

“Has he been, like, cursed or something?” A look of realization passes over Newt’s face, and he gapes anew. “Oh my god, is he dead?!”

Anathema narrows her eyes, studying the man carefully for the rise and fall of his chest. “I don’t think so.” She steps forward to look more closely, but her movement startles Newt and he throws his arm out, instinctually wanting to put himself between Anathema and the snake.

But all he succeeds in doing is sending her very impressive stack of books to the floor with a large crash.

A couple of things happen at once.

Aziraphale starts awake, clutching at the large serpent, still sluggish from sleep as he slurs, “Wha’s goin’ on?” Simultaneously, the snake’s eyes fly open, a brilliant gold hue, as it rears up protectively over Aziraphale, hissing in surprise and ready to strike against its perceived attackers. As people with just an inkling of self-preservation, Anathema and Newt scurry backward, but Anathema trips over one of the fallen books, taking Newt down with her when she scrambles to steady herself on his arm.

Anathema stills as she sees something peculiar in the snake’s eyes. It’s a startlingly human expression that looks almost like recognition before transforming into something akin to embarrassment. And then the snake is gone.

And red-headed gentleman is in its place, staring back at them with the same golden, serpentine eyes. Crowley.

What the fuck.

Unfortunately, the sudden appearance of a grown man on the couch sends (a still very sleepy) Aziraphale careening off of the couch and onto the floor with a pathetic sounding oof, from where he finally spots Anathema and Newt.

“Oh, lord. Crowley, dear, did you lock the door when you came in last night?”

Crowley sits stock still on the couch, his voice thin as he deadpans, “Obviousssly not, angel.”

Anathema regains her voice first, tentatively venturing, “So, you’re a snake?”

Aziraphale winces. Crowley maintains a carefully blank expression as he says, “Uh-huh.”

Something occurs to Anathema. Between the strange auras and generally peculiar behavior, it wouldn’t be the craziest conclusion to draw. “Are you Aziraphale’s familiar?”

“As in a familiar to a witch? You think that I’m a witch?” Aziraphale asks with an odd look on his face, not dissimilar to a parent trying their hardest to not let a child know that they’re displeased.

Anathema nods hesitantly.

Crowley sputters and then absolutely cackles. Aziraphale shoots him a thoroughly unimpressed look and he laughs even harder, tears streaming down his face. Eventually, he stops wheezing and wipes the tears from his face. “Oh, that was really good. Thank you for that, I’ll never let that go. A witch. Ha!”

“So,” Newt furrows his brow, “If you’re not a witch and a familiar, what are you two?”

Aziraphale exhales, looking rather chagrined.

“You know, I thought you said they knew?” Crowley asks, raising one eyebrow.

“Well, I thought it was fairly obvious.”

“It’s not actually–Hey!” Newt attempts to interject, only to be cut off when Anathema elbows him in the side. It makes her feel slightly guilty, but she has a desperate need to be in control right now, as there’s nothing she hates more than feeling out of her depth.

Aziraphale and Crowley exchange a look, seemingly have an entire conversation in a few moments without saying anything at all, each man wearing a combination of sheepishness and exasperation, until they appear to reach an agreement.

“Get up off the floor, angel,” Crowley tugs Aziraphale up off the floor to sit next to him on the sofa, before looking to Newt and Anathema. “Alright, kiddies, pull up a chair.”

They scramble upwards, not particularly interested in disobeying the unknown supernatural entities, no matter how many times they’ve shared tea.

“Well,” Aziraphale clasps his hands together, suddenly smiling pleasantly. “In the beginning, in the Garden, there was– Well, he was a wily old Serpent and I was technically on apple tree duty. And I–” He cuts himself off as Crowley sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose.

“I love you, angel, but you do this every time,” Aziraphale opens his mouth to protest but Crowley turns to their guests. “Anathema. Newton. This is Aziraphale, Principality and Guardian of the Eastern Gate. He is an angel in the literal sense. My name is Crowley. I am a demon, also in the literal sense. Any questions?”

It’s painfully quiet for a moment. Newt chuckles uncomfortably. Anathema shoots him an incredulous look. He stops. She needs to process this.

“So you’re, like, the snake? From the Garden of Eden?”

“Yup.”

“And you’re an angel? Halo? Wings? Harp?”

“Wings, yes. The halo and the harp are a bit of a stereotype, my dear.”

“And you guys are,” She searches for the right word, “Partners?”

Crowley snorts at her dumbstruck expression. “Yup.”

“Well, that’s…” Newt weighs his words, “Bizarre.”

“I suppose so, Mr. Pulsifer,” Aziraphale says, more to Crowley than Newt as he takes the demon’s hand, smiling sweetly at him. Crowley smiles back before averting his gaze to downward, clearly attempting to contain a much bigger grin. “Now was there something you two needed, barging in here on a Saturday morning?”

“Oh!” Anathema hops on from her chair to gather the books from the floor as she abashedly explains. “I was hoping to return these to you because we have to be a Pepper’s birthday party this afternoon, she’s a friend of Adam’s. We’re really sorry for intruding, but your door was unlocked, and that was so unlike you that we were a bit concerned.”

“Ah,” Aziraphale’s expression softens at that. “Well, I understand my dear, an honest mistake. Do pass our regards along to young Miss Pepper.”

“Of course! And would it be alright if we stopped back in tomorrow? I just finished The Cloud Atlas and I’d really love to discuss it with you.” She smiles hopefully, if somewhat sheepish.

“That would be delightful, Anathema.”

As they're making their way out of the shop, Anathema pauses and turns back for a moment. “And I’d love to see you around sometime, Mr. Crowley, and maybe we could all get to know each other better.”

Crowley quickly masks his surprise, settling on a subtly content expression. “Why, yes, Miss Device, I think that would be lovely.”

Perhaps now they would have two very odd new friends.

Once they’re sat in Dick Turpin once again, on their way back to Tadfield, Newt asks Anathema, “So, that all really happened right?”

“Mhm.”

“Giant snake?”

“Mhm.”

“Your book club buddy is an angel.”

“Yup.”

“And his boyfriend is a demon.”

“Seems so.”

“Right. Just checking.”

[artificialqueens]

living on the edge of the law (biadore) - lily2

bianca is beginning to feel the heat from her old job in brisbane as a personal assistant and planner for a large cooperation record label and now she is being transferred and thrown in the middle of santa monica where she is assigned and paid to be on the tail of up and coming singer and songwriter, adore delano: who is definitely the most lazy and adolescent thing bianca had ever encountered thus far but things can change, can’t they? [ au where adore is a famous singer and bianca has to chase her around and be her personal assistant to get her income, mainly biadore but side ships and plots of course ]

blog

— *.✧

Bianca was a bit unsure what to think, what to do even, while she stood in the midst of Brisbane Airport. Clenching her carry-on as she just had her two suitcases weighed and sent off to what would hopefully be Santa Monica in thirteen damn hours, unless the Qantas airline staff somehow threw her luggage in the fucking Pacific Ocean she should be safe and so should her luggage which mainly was a accumulation of clothing, cosmetics, stationary & a dozen other things that Courtney had helped her pack yesterday as they shared one last drink before forcing themselves to wake up almost three in the morning for Bianca’s early, early flight. The coffee in her hand making her the only thing fully able to function, she prayed to get some sleep on the plane and was thinking she would since her best friend she should upgrade to the new business class seating, just to try it out and what better time to than a flight that would take more than half a day off her life, over the clouds, planning to do nothing but get wasted on discount white wine’s and gaze her eyes on her laptop which was already harboring a million emails from her transfer company about her position, her hours, schedule, whatever the fuck they wanted to write about they seemed to write about and send to her. “Wonderful.” She muttered to nobody but herself as she sat dull and already half asleep in her gate’s seating. It would be about another twenty minutes before her section would get to be boarded though Bianca didn’t expect so many on a casual six in the morning flight to Santa Monica, landing in LAX. — “I think you should accept the job.” Courtney spoke as she hit her best friend’s shoulder and grinned ear to ear, knowing it would be fun to be back in her own country of birth, “You’ve been trapped down under for almost six years, go and see the motherland again!” The Australian’s lips curling into a viciously attentive smile as the girl next to her simply rolled her eyes and clutched her glass in hand, swirling the alcohol around as their eyes meat briefly.

“I’ve never been to Honduras or Cuba—” correcting Courtney on the fact that America was indeed not the true motherland, it was where she was born and grew up and New Orleans itself could be considered a different fucking continent with all the culture and languages and diverse communities living in one big, united city. “I haven’t heard the best of things about America in general.” Referring to the news in which Courtney could only snicker, “Bad things go on in every country, every city and everywhere! Go and have fun, you know I will come to visit anyway.” They embraced in a small hug before the Australian girl wiped her growing red eyes, Bianca moaning.  “Bitch if you dare get one tear on me I will make sure to whoop your ass so you hard you certainly won’t need a ticket to be in Santa Monica, I’ll express mail you.” Her tone only teasing though she knew deep down, Courtney was the only real person and best friend she had currently, struggling to get back in contact with old friends from America as the time came. “And maybe you’ll meet someone cute—” elbowing Bianca until she almost rolled Courtney off the bed with a yell, “Don’t even think about it, I came to work and maybe party once in a while, get better money but not for love. Besides, name me one decent American who isn’t taken, straight or a celebrity? You can’t, that’s the point.“  “Whatever happens you know I’ll annoy you and call you constantly, just the usual and casual girl things.” She hummed, the singer folding one of Bianca’s last articles of clothing. “If you didn’t I would murder you and unfollow you on all your social media, don’t test me motherfucker!” She spat as Courtney collapsed into her lap, “You can cry on Instagram live to all your five million Instagram followers!“  — Finger tips pressing against her IMac’s keyboard she begun to respond to a work email, this was one of the more interesting ones, about as interesting as assignments and work went but still something to do in whatever time she had left before she would just repeatedly listen to whatever shuffled on her phone once the airplane was in the air. She had already found out that her job was basically to do what she did with Courtney: boss her around, manage her social media, make sure she was healthy, laughing, whatever shit she needed and help with planning any kind of events, concerts, meetings, anything the record label asked for and needed. To: biancadelrio@gmail.com Bianca,  We are so excited that you have accepted the offer and I’m hoping the weather pulls through for your flight, you are our first new hire in a few seasons if I may be honest, most can’t handle the pressure, American records and singers are far more different than what it sounds like in Australia!  I have made sure to tell Katya, our head in our department, to ship the packet to the address you provided! I understand the move, I went from Chicago to Santa Monica and it can be alot so please if you need a place to stay let me know! The packet should have exactly what you expect and a few other goods because we try and make it as welcoming as possible, not us being cheesy, us trying not to get fired to be completely real.  Do not lose your ID, even if you use the pin to get in, security is really strict especially with all the mass hysteria with guarding and violence in the past few years, it’s required to clock in, clock out and even enter the bathroom, it sucks, I know but safety comes first I suppose.  Thank you and see you Monday! — Shea (sheacouleee@me.com)  Atleast it was an actual human beyond the emails so far, better than some rich executive who was scarfing down his fifth coffee of the afternoon and forcing his personal assistant to quietly tap against the grain and send all emails with the same format, copy and paste all day. “Gate 10 will now boarding flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles, California.” She stood and reluctantly shut her laptop before putting it in her case, in her carry on and bringing out her passport and boarding pass, chugging some of her overpriced bottled water that she had to purchase after security along with a stash of dark chocolate large enough to last for most likely a week. Bianca made a very decent salary at her last job and would be making even more at this one however she was not ever one to spend more than she had to, Courtney for a singer who was booming in media and charts was suprisingly frugal with her spending most days, which made it twice as fun when they both would go all out and do their once a month goose chase of a spree around town, getting in all the stores they wanted in the span of one single day. “Well, let’s do this thing.” The words leaving her lips as she sent one last picture to Courtney of her passport and coffee, sending it with the text message of: If you don’t hear from me in twenty hours, I’m probably drunk!  *.✧ The announcement came on and the lights flashed for them to be able to take off their seatbelts and Bianca completely had crashed course after one Hallmark movie, some wine, a Sprite and one entire chocolate bar. She was quick to jump up before she felt completely lagged and dizzy, quickly sitting back down until the rest behind her had gotten their luggage and begun approaching the exit of the plane, cleaning her garbage before she tossed it and grabbed her carry on, absolutely bolting for the door as fast as possible knowing it was a good forty minutes in a regular car to make it to her new studio apartment for god knows how long, Courtney didn’t tell her a thing about it expect her cousin had hooked them up and leased it. Thanking the staff she quickly felt her entire body want to collapse and throw up, maybe both at the same time, on the rugged floor of LAX, turning her phone off airplane mode and turning on her date plan she had decided to buy the night before just so she could be ready and set for when she landed, knowing Courtney would throw a hissy fit if she wasn’t the first person she texted. Fingers gliding across her iPhone she grinned, I’m in fucking america! can’t wait to grab some damn takeout and just collapse, meeting someone to take me, call you probably whatever the next time I wake up is! She had done the math in her head, it was about 7:20 PM here but almost 2:20 AM in Brisbane, timezones were about to be hell on Earth but they would make it through. An absolute dumpster dive of suitcases later she had found both of her own luckily, now heading for the International Arrivals entrance, Bianca had only been to LAX recently and it was for Courtney’s tour, before that she hadn’t really cared for or visited California much, staying in her own bubble. It truly was the epicenter of an entire universe however, as far as crowded airports went, this one was definitely the winner! “Jinkx!” She shrieked to her auburn haired friend who quickly winced out of her own delusional fantasy and screamed, running towards her oldest friend and happy to have collapsed and almost blacked out in the one person who could understand what it was like to be sleepy and tired though Jinkx had explained a million times that narcolepsy was very different than what movies and shows showed it to be, it was just in very relaxing and quiet surroundings, when she wasn’t doing anything and wasn’t focused on a task. “I’m so tired but I don’t even care, it’s so great to see you—” Jinkx shaking her friend in her own arms happily before Bianca had to pull away, not wanting to cause a meltdown or throw up on the expensive sneakers she seemed to have on. Grabbing a suitcase much to her newly arrived childhood friend’s concern, “Let’s go, my car is parked and she’s all charger for the trip!” “I forgot you have a fucking electric car.” “It’s red to, it has a seat warmer! That’s the biggest perk but also you can program it to do some cool things, I only got the car recently, DeLa was begging me to—” the mention of her college roommate who was also from Seattle made Bianca realize how long she had actually been gone. “I hate to be an absolute prune the first ten minutes but can we please stop and eat if that’s okay, I don’t wanna eat in your car but fast food inside is fine by me, I texted everyone I need to so now I’m all yours and I’m sure traffic will delay us another fucking three hours.” Finishing her water she tossed the bottle as Jinkx almost smacked her across her back, causing Bianca to choke a bit. “You really think I won’t let you eat in my car! Jesus Christ, this isn’t our senior year of high school where I had to keep my car spotless, of course we will get food, since you’re in California now we have to start with the local favorite, ever had In N Out?” A stammer before a tilt of her head came, Jinkx gasping, “I can’t believe self proclaimed critic of food, Bianca Del Rio hasn’t even tried it, much less heard of it.” Cackling, Bianca raised a hand, “Now hold on you shady bitch!” They made their way to the wonderful Tesla after an influx of stop signs and people shoving to simply get out of the airport. Bianca was definitely impressed, she had seen the cars before but they weren’t her style, it was much more different to actually sit next to Jinkx who immediately pulled out of the car and had her music blasting before Bianca lowered it a bit so she and Jinkx could atleast have a conversation, the girl beside her seeming to know what to do and where to go from here. “You can type in your address after we go and get some food, so tell me about what it’s like down under, I’m sure you have some stories.” Smirking, Bianca relaxed into the leather seat and sighed in relief, leaving her phone to charge with her portable charger as she crossed her arms and stared out the front view with Jinkx who was barely even focused on driving given the fact she had the rules of driving out of LAX down, the clouds and sky beginning to turn into a wonderful assembly of warm colors mixed with a vibrant purple. “Well since you asked.”

[watchtheblog]

the girlfriend experience

my birthday is coming up (september 26) so i wrote 1200 words about nonsense so that i could bury a birthday wish list at the bottom of this, rather than tastelessly flaunting the fact that i’ve compiled a list of things i would let strangers buy me for my birthday… which i do every single year!

(if you came here looking for the blog about being ghosted, here.)

                                                          *******

it is my understanding that “dating” is “eating dinner with someone who wants to fuck you until they actually get to fuck you and then you just get really invested in serialized television shows and have sex until the next ‘yanny/laurel’ debate inevitably tears you apart.”

it is also my understanding that once i meet someone i like, he’s my boyfriend so, historically, “dating” has been me interviewing someone to be a handyman i’ll pay in kisses.

but i am an ever-evolving, discombobulated little bug, so i recently gave *auditioning to be someone’s girlfriend* a chance.

please strap in and come along on this journey through what it is like for me to go on one single date as a person who cannot complete any task without overthinking it to the point of absolute ruin because her brain is a defective rube goldberg machine.

(if you don’t care, please scroll to the end to find the list of things i’d like for my birthday (and then do with that information what you will). if you care a lot, please also check out what it’s like inside my brain when i have to go to a party.)

A SUITABLE DATE

i have a v specific “type” from which i never stray. the main sine qua non are: over 6’3”, 200lbs+, 45+, appears to be afflicted with a football related brain injury, will disrespect me, not currently under the influence of essential oils.

further than this, what i’m also looking for in a man is someone with at least one divorce under his belt, an angry ex wife, 1-4 kids, and a complete inability to figure out what makes me happy (but someone who is in relentless pursuit of that formula).

six men meet these requirements.

THE PLAN FOR THE DATE 

i prefer to make plans with 2 - 5 hours notice because this effectively mitigates the chance of me cancelling, but this often isn’t feasible because other people have lives that don’t only involve sitting at home waiting to take me out on a date.

also, people who make plans like this are usually trying to hook up, and as we all know… i don’t even fuck!

so a date is scheduled in 2-3 days — any farther in advance i cannot plan without first consulting a psychic and my hormones’ advisory board. 

THE LEAD UP TO THE DATE

i can do nothing but spiral. i wonder if my date is on another date, if i can compete with this hypothetical other date, if i should cancel because i’m certain no one will ever love me as much as my ex, if i should cancel just to be problematic, or to exert cancelling power, or to perpetuate cancel culture?!

no, don’t cancel. we could fall in love and be really happy for a few years, and then i could get really into learning to cook or become a pilot or something. anyway, worst case scenario: he doesn’t like me, and i obsess about him for 400x the length of our courtship… but on the plus: i get to talk about him on the internet forever!

should i go blonde? should i wear a wig? i wonder if there will be hotdogs on the menu at the restaurant.

how can i unlearn every repellent personality quirk i’ve developed from birth in the next 48 hours? 

“how do you… kiss?” i wonder, right before i consider tranqing myself.

luckily, i am promptly choked to the point of syncope by these thoughts of uncertainty and self doubt. 

DAY OF DATE PREP

eventually, by the grace of God, i wake up on the morning of the date.

getting ready for anything i’ve ever done in my entire life, including a black tie wedding, has taken me 9 minutes, but i’m going to spend 2 hours sitting in a chair next to someone i’m not going to fuck, so i’ve chosen to block out a full 10 hours for no reason.

i fill the day applying every type of scrub and mask to my face, body, and hair. i try on every item of clothing i have accumulated over the past 5 years, including a $20,000 couture tom ford gown that a celebrity i forget once wore to a televised award show.

i’m now trying on sweatpants. i’ve put a heel on. “who is stopping me from wearing this?” i ask myself, knowing no one is stopping me from leaving my house and going on a date with a man i could easily get to fall in love with me in 2 hours if i don’t show up to dinner dressed like i just came from a fashionnova casting.

~ wow, time really does fly when you’re watching all your neuroses exit your body to perform a recital for you ~

moments before i have to cut this shit out and decide on something to wear, i lather my entire body in the richest lotion i can find, which notably takes 4-6 hours to sink in.

now it’s time to wiggle into the only outfit i ever leave my house after sunset wearing - a pair of black jeans that i’ll never fit into and a baby’s white tee shirt.

oh. we’re now not going to a restaurant. dinner is at his house.

i set myself on fire.

THE DATE

i am v rude for the first 45 minutes because i have no manners.

no. it’s because i’m nervous, and thus if i’m not cantankerous, filling the space with my shitty attitude, i will have nothing to say because my mind erased all logical ideation as soon as i stepped foot in this man’s home.

it becomes clear that this behavior will no longer be tolerated, so i pivot before i’m cancelled. i change the narrative. i’m nice now.

usually, when i find myself at a man’s house, the only thing i’m thinking is “please don’t have an acoustic guitar” and that thought repeats ad infinitum until i am free… but i know this man does not have an acoustic guitar (or i assume), so all i’m thinking is “does this man like the personality i’ve whipped up for him using a recipe i found in a cosmo from 2002??!”

he does to some degree - or he’s pretending - because he asks to see me again (yay!), and then shows me his house, and then my favorite part comes…

we kiss. 

we kiss and i’ve forgotten entirely how to kiss. literally no idea. never heard of it. i am a human shrug emoji.

“i don’t know how to do this.” - me, talking about kissing to the man i’m “kissing”.

he seems unbothered by this - more acting! - because we move locations, and he is doing his thing while i continue to be an oral cadaver.

that stops for a reason that seems natural and not because he realizes i am an embalmed corpse. and we talk, and that’s nice because my brains have returned for a brief guest appearance.

and then i leave, excited because i like him and it feels like he likes me. 

in the uber, he texts me the same thing he texted me before the last time i never heard from him again... and then i never hear from him again!*

and that, my friends, is a date!

*(i’m kidding. i heard from him one more time. he was cancelling plans we’d made to hang out!!) 

                                                       **

thanks for reading - or scrolling prodigiously - here are some things i’m interested in receiving for my birthday:

(if for some perverse reason you’d like to see my prior innocent but spectacularly misguided registries, please go here. it’s a doozy! however, please note i will only be accepting gifts from this year’s registry. so stay current!)

THE LIST

1. someone bullied me out of leasing a car i really wanted and so now i have no car which is unfortunate. would be nice if someone would throw half the cost of this vehicle at the mercedes store so i could pay a small amount every month to drive this until i’m bored of it in 9 months. it would also be nice if the inside were red because that’s a new kink i have - red leather seats.

2. i can’t tell if it’s basic to want this, but i also do not care at all. it’s perfectly sized to carry all of the 300 notebooks i scribble in. apparently it’s possible to have your name embroidered in lieu of the brand’s… that would be nice; my name is mercedes.

i also like this even though it looks like the only thing it can hold is a small stack of x-rays…

or this. (definitely indisputably basic. but again. i don’t care.)

this is cute

3. one of these dresses even though the only things i do are go on vacation or lie in bed. i’m a size 0 or 34 or whatever the smallest size is.

option one, option two, option three, option four (for the zero people considering purchasing a gift for me. this is my favorite, of course, because i am insane), option five 

4. a vacation - because (see above) i don’t like to be in los angeles for longer than 10 days at a time. here are some ideas:

a local vacation, a vacation in montana, a vacation in mexico. also in mexico. also in mexico.

5. either of these v big suitcases (vacation things!)

6. these shoes or these shoes. i’m a size 38.

7. gift card for an in home massage or one a week for the month of september? up to you!

8. any of these candles. they’re the only candles i’ll allow in my home now, so please don’t stray.

9. a book. i love to read, and i thought it would be nice to remind you i’m a thoughtful and educated thot.

have never read this. one of my favorites but have only read on my iPad... sad! first edition of the aforementioned

10. a necklace. a custom one (18 inch) or this long thing

misc:

an erewhon gift card, this perfume, or this perfume, a robe, a weekly delivery of macarons…

[effulgcnts-blog]

⋆ ° ⟡ has ADDISON SAINT-CLARE, the FIRST DAUGHTER from THE UNITED STATES arrived yet? i heard they can be quite BELLIGERENT, but also RESOLUTE. there’s rumours they’ve come to genovia for TO ESCAPE HER DIVORCE DRAMA AND TO REINVIGORATE HER DESIGN INSPIRATION, but you never know. DEEP RED LIPSTICK STAINS, GLIMPSES OF BLACK LACE LINGERIE BENEATH UNBUTTONED BLOUSES, and THE ABANDONED HEELS AT 4 AM always remind me of them.

FAMILY

*** some of this might change after plotting 

“How has your family changed since your mother came into office?” A question asked many times to Addison and Theodore after Rosa Saint-Clare came into office, and though Addison is know to always have been elusive and shrewd towards the press her answer here wasn’t just dismissive. “It’s as if nothing’s changed at all.” She would say because her mother was after all a politician long before she ran for the highest office in the country. Because President Saint-Clare was under the lens right from the start when she took on the role of county commissioner at the age of 20, and her family came long after that even.

Addison never got along with her mother, always daddies little girl having her father wrapped around her fingers from the start. As a little girl she had quite the flair for dramatics a trait that doesn’t present itself so plainly anymore however there somewhere nonetheless. She grew up seeing her mother prioritizing her platform over all else and back then she couldn’t really appreciate just how prolific the work she was doing was, she simply wanted her mother’s attention and affection. Something she never got, and become something she took on the habit of demanding.

Time after time she could be seen doing exactly what her mother didn’t want. The final nail in the coffin of any salvage of their relationship was when her father cheated and her mother instead of standing up for herself, simply swallowed the pill and decided to move on as if nothing had happened all for her image. Not only had she lost all respect for the father she cherished, but also her every anguish with her mother was validated. And those she separated herself from them entirely.

The one family member who never let her down, of course being her twin. Theo is the only person in the world Addison trusts, and loves without condition. Because her love for everyone else certainly has conditions. There isn’t anything Adde wouldn’t do for her brother, there is a chance she might once consider letting go of a slight against her, but never against Theo. She is fiercely protective of him, as well as unconditionally loyal. If there is one person who can convince her to do something, to change her mind on something it’s him, and so often for this reason he’s made the mediator between her and their mother.

IN THE PUBLIC EYE FROM START

At the age of 11, Addison was scouted and offered a role in a major movie franchise, think something to the effect of Harry Potter or the Twilight Saga in it’s hay day. She pursued it in vain of a challenge at first, though did end up loving the unconventionality and excitement of working in showbiz more than anything else. Even at that age she had that renegade desire to always be doing more, different and better always. Discontent with the mundane.

However she didn’t pursue acting in front of a camera any further than that instead opting for theater for a few years, though at this point she’d definitely cemented herself as a public figure, at times relishing in the attention, but also often loathing it. 

EDUCATION

No one can accuse Addison of not being smart, though it was rather hard for her to have a normal high school experience while working on film sets and traveling around for shoots. Then lost in the pursuit of working as a more serious stage actress. Her creative pursuits seeming to always stir her away from a formal education, thus she succumbed to what life seemed to telling her and decided not to attend college for the time at least. That’s not say she didn’t get the proper college experience visiting her brother at Yale, outside of the lecture halls that is. If the affair her father had and how her mother handled it the final straw for Addison, her decision to not go to college was definitely it for her mother.

PROFESSION

Theater was wholly fulfilling for the young woman in more ways than one as it brought her closer to her true calling. Fashion design. Always having been very interested in her look and costumes even while working in movies (though with far less consideration), she began to work more closely with the costume designers outside of the stage. Soon she was exploring more than just the art of assembling outfits, and simple seam work in. Putting together vision boards, drawing up rough sketches anything to further visualize and express her artist vision and the desire to see the garments she envisioned to come to actuality.

Calling up a few designers that had previously dressed her for carpets and events she was able to talk one into allowing her to apprentice for them to really learn the proper ins and outs of the industry, that was four years ago. Not someone with a lot of patience and more than enough confidence and recklessness to take risks she slowly started to work towards creating her own fashion line, putting all the money she had accumulated from continuing royalty from movies to good use. The first year was tough, she had a huge advantage to anyone else just starting out but her work just wasn’t connecting and she herself wasn’t seasoned to failure. There was a period there when she began to spiral more than usual. It didn’t help that this was around the same time as her mother taking office and her being launched back into the media spotlight in a whole new way.

But after a period of darkness she was able to find a whole new drive and channel that same emotion into her work, something sparked and before long she was doing all the right things. fashion week nyc, paris, milan, high profile faces wearing her designs, major brand deals, and then the launch of her flagship store in the span of two short but endlessly productive years. 

APPEARANCE

alternating between a platinum blonde pixie cut and dreads

warm brown eyes, often bloodshot, hidden behind aviators

loose, often semi sheer clothing over satin and lace undergarments. 

multiple studs and hoops in her ears, sometimes a small ring in her septum.

small diamond always in her left tragus

at least three dainty rings on her fingers

PUBLIC PERCEPTION

Addison is a media darling, her mother and Sonia would say for all the wrong reasons. Her give no fucks attitude having always contributed greatly to the press concocting all sorts of stories about her with the young woman providing plenty of inspiration. “Addison Saint-Clare a ticking time bomb at state dinner.” “First daughter on the verge of meltdown after a run in with the authorities.” “Newlywed miserable already.” “A closer look at the Saint-Clare sex swing, amazon driver reveals all” “Addison Saint-Clare pregnant & alone” “72 Hours with Addison Saint-Clare and a Macedonian Graffiti Crew Member” the list goes on, and gets even more outlandish. 

RELATIONSHIPS

Far to many to count, in more ways than one. There’s never a time when her name isn’t connected with someone, and it’s rarely without reason as she tends to go through partners quite liberally. She has always been completely transparent and unapologetic about her promiscuity, she doesn’t give a fuck about much in life least of all what anyone has to say about her sexuality, and how she chooses to express it. Given her lack of faith in commitment she never likes to let things stick, finding reasons to end things when there might be none. Because leaving is always better than to be left. It happened once and she’s not going to ever let it happen again.

As the first daughter, obviously her indiscretions haven’t been the most palatable to the conservative masses, and this is has been one of many places where she’s bargained with her mother to reel it back, not without getting something in return for it. However her Vegas wedding last November was a PR nightmare, even more so when the marriage lasted all of five minutes. Two and a half months, to be exact. The divorce proceedings having gone on longer than the actual relationship itself at this point. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Past flings

Close Friends

The one who left first

I’ll add more to a separate post or something later!

PINTEREST BOARD

[limitededitionsanderssidesblog]

Speech Impediment - Chapter 6

Ships: Logicality, pining prinxiety, platonic dlamp

Summary: From one birthday to another, it’s now December and Virgil’s birthday is coming up. Roman, desperate to finally win Virgil’s hand, asks Dexter to help him plan the perfect gift. On top of helping his friends, finals are coming up and Dexter is getting lost in his studies. Stress builds up, and a phone call awaits him.

AO3 - Here

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5  Chapter 7

Creative writing, English Literature, Calculus, Biology, Anatomy; finals were in three days, seventy-two hours. Five classes, five tests, two hours each, ten total hours of testing. He has approximately thirty hours to study given all accountable variables. 

Over the past few days Dexter had practically lived in the library. Between tutoring lessons with Logan, where he and the rest of the gang would study together, and independent study, Dexter only ever left to go to class, eat, and sleep. His bodily fluids were practically composed entirely of caffeine at this point. This was his very first final as a college freshman, he needed to prove that it wasn’t a mistake to come here.

Dexter shook his head, ridding his mind of those thoughts, and brought his attention back to the paperwork before him. He was currently working on his anatomy study guide. Looking at the time on his cellphone he saw that it was past eight, the library would be closing in half an hour.

With a heavy sigh, Dexter closed his textbook, placed his work back in his bag, and got up to leave. There were only three other students still there besides himself, all looking wiped out from their studies as well.

The sun had surrendered to the moon long ago, leaving the world around him cold and dark, snow falling sleepily down to the earth from the heavens in a chilled kiss. Yep, that was overly descriptive, he must be a writer. The breeze nipped at his heels as he walked back to his dorm. A student was here or there, but most all were gone from the campus.

A fifteen minute walk brought him back to the tall, brick building. Once inside, Dexter shook off the snow that had accumulated on him. Dexter nodded to the dorm manager as he went by, heading up the flights to his room. He planned to simply shower, snack, then go to sleep, but once he saw Roman on his doorstep he knew that wouldn’t be the case.

Hearing footsteps, Roman looked up hopefully, then stood when he saw who it was. 

“Dex! ‘Bout time you got here. What the heck were you doing making me wait so long?”

“Huh? What don’t you mean?”

“I sent you a text dude!”

“Yes you did, I-” Sure enough the text was there, or rather several texts were.

Roman: Hey Dex meet me at you’re room in an hour Roman: im here Roman: Hellooooo? Roman: dude what the duck? where you at? Roman: **fuck autocorrect

“Resent me, I didn’t have my phone on silent.” Dexter apologized, scooting to the door to unlock it. “Why did you call Patton?”

“He’s staying at Lo’s tonight.” Roman replied simply, following Dexter in and making himself at home, just as they always did. Dexter had long since given up on trying to stop the others from taking his food from the mini fridge. Still, it stung to watch Roman take his favorite lemon yogurt.

“Oh.” Dexter said quietly, trying not to think to hard about what that meant. “So what don’t you want?”

Thus a flip was switched. Roman lost his confident composure, no longer sitting tall, instead he curled in on himself and awkward ate yogurt in a lame attempt to hide his blush. If Dexter had to take an educated guess, it probably had something to do with Virgil.

“Well uh- Virgil’s birthday is uh- in a few days and I’d like to um, I’d like t-to ask him o-out. Could you help me?”

Seeing Roman stutter and blush like a high school boy was the cutest thing ever. Only seeing Virge do the same would be better, and Dexter planned for that to happen.

“Well of course not.” Dexter told him, “But why me? Wouldn’t it be better to ask someone without experience? Logan and Patton wouldn’t be better.”

“Are you kidding? Logan may have been the one to ask Patton out, but he sucks at romance, and Patton... well he isn’t exactly helpful when it comes to wooing someone. Besides, I saw how amazing you are at gift giving from the heart, and you’re the second most creative here outside Virgil and I.”

“If you mean creative by not writing gory horror and suspense then sure.” Deceit mumbled under his breath as he looked through his messy desk for a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. Finding one he began to write a list of every idea he could think of and a list of what they’d need for each one. Once complete he handed it over to Roman for him to chose what to do.

He read through it carefully, mulling over the pros and cons of each suggestion. It was a good few minutes before he looked up with his final decision.

“Number four.” He said with a grin.

Four. The scavenger hunt. Roman and Dexter would have to work together to take Virgil on a hunt, having clues leading him to the undecided final destination.

“So where aren’t you going to have him meet you?”

Roman smiled warmly, as if he was reliving the sweetest memory he ever made. Perhaps it was.

“Where we first met.”

Dexter bolted from his classes to the parking lot where he’d be meeting Roman to help him shop for materials. Careful not to slip as he went. If they were fast, he’d be able to make it in time for tutoring.

Shopping took longer than thought due to traffic caused by an accident on the road. Stupid black ice. Now they were both running late for tutoring session with Logan. When they had gotten there, Patton and Virgil were already at work, asking Logan questions for different subjects he could help with. They sat down and began to work to, saying nothing of their plans while Virgil was there.

Dexter wasn’t able to get as much done during tutoring because of their lack of time, but now he had to go help Roman with the planning and getting Logan and Patton to help them, without the emo present.

By the time he got back to the library after the planning session he had a little over and hour to study before it closes.  

When he had finally arrived at his dorm after all that it was nearing ten o’clock. Dexter had to stop at a nearby fast food place to grab an unhealthy dinner since the dorm kitchen was closed. This time Patton was there in their dorm, already preparing for bed. Exhausted, Dexter decided to skip dinner, putting his take out in the fridge and crawling into bed as well.

This went on over the next few days, back and forth between his studies, school, and assisting Roman. Now Dexter had to include helping Roman with his already overflowing workload. He was falling behind, which was cutting into his sleep schedule, which was messing with his productivity. He was happy to help Roman, but he wished he had asked him before finals week.

Even with all the stress, he had managed to make it work. He had just finished his last day of finals, and was rewarding himself with a nap. Other than his occasional spacing out, interruptive thoughts, and tired brain, Dexter thinks he did alright. Definitely didn’t fail any of them, but definitely didn’t ace them either. Ah puns, Patton’s rubbing off on him, Logan wouldn’t be pleased. 

After tomorrow he’d finally be able to relax and hibernate until the next semester.

At eleven am the next day, Logan delivered the note to send Virgil on the hunt. According to his text in the group chat, it took a while for Virgil agree to going on this hunt.

The first clue was in Patton and Dexter’s dorm, specifically the fridge he always raided for soda. A little doodle of a fridge and lemonade ginger ale led him there. Once he arrive, Patton was there to give him the next clue.

The second was at the coffee shop where Dexter first told them about his writing. Hinted at by the drawing of a coffee cup, a notebook, and a snake. When he arrived, Dexter was sitting in the booth, a cup off coffee and a note for Virgil.

The third clue was a picture of a ticket booth and a theater. With an annoyed groan, Virgil left to go after the next clue. Once he was gone Dexter left to help with the final step.

The fourth clue was a giant red, paper sign taped over the ticket booth sign on the side of the school theater. On the giant sign were the words: Go Where We First Met - R, accompanied with the drawings of a desk and a chair, and musical notes. Virgil smiled when he saw those words, because he knew that this was such a Roman kind of thing to do for his twentieth birthday.

He knew exactly where to go next from there. Heading the building right next to the theater, Virgil walked up to the floor where the drama room was. When he entered, he was slightly disappointed to find it empty. But in the center of the room was a lone laptop with a CD right next to it and a note that said “Play Me”.

Doing as the note said, he played the video and on came the song they had met to. American Idiot. As the song played on, bold letters came on the screen, detailing their story, as if he didn’t already now it.

They had met during Virgil’s audition to play in the band for the American Idiot Musical. The theater was busy that day, so auditions were held in the Drama room. 

Roman had been there to pick up the materials he had forgotten after class.

And that’s where he saw him.

Virgil hadn’t noticed him watching, too entranced in the song. But he did notice when a buffoon tripped over a chair and interrupted his audition.

Virgil chuckled when he read those words, remembering when that happened. He had sworn that he’d failed the audition because of a clumsy stranger. And a little more than pissed.

Virgil Black got the part and was sent to rehearsal four days a week. It was there that he got to know Roman Sanchez. 

What started as a silly rivalry soon turned to an awkward friendship. Which then turned to the friendship of a lifetime.

But as time went on, and the two entered into their second year of college, Roman’s feelings began to change. He wanted something more.

Virgil’s breath got caught in his throat. His heart began to beat faster. 

But Virgil seemed content with what they had and denied any attempts by Roman.

Roman could have given up and move on, but he wanted this to much to do so.

And I still do.

Will you go out with me, Virgil?

Virgil was in tears as he heard the song fade away, leaving him in silence, staring at a blank screen.

“Will you?” Roman’s voice sounded behind him.

Virgil whipped around to see Roman walking in from the teacher’s office. Having been hiding there the entire time until his cue. Virgil breathed heavily as he hastily rubbed at his eyes, trying to hide the fact that he had been crying.

“Couldn’t you have asked me like a normal person?” He bit back harshly, but Roman new he was simply embarrassed. 

“Would you have said yes?” He asked him, walking over slowly.

“Yes!” He shouted, still hiding his face in his hands, unable to stop the tears. “Princey I thought you were just kidding this entire time, I knew that you had a long history of dating guys so I thought you weren’t being serious.”

“That was back in high school.” He told him softly, kneeling down to his height, gently taking Virgil’s hands from his face. “I’ve never been more serious about anyone.” Virgil looked up at him slowly, eyes puffy and red. Roman thought it was absolutely adorable. “Virgil Black, will you go out with me?”

“Of course, stupid.” He said back, another round of tears falling, but he wasn’t the only one, as Roman began to cry as well. 

Dexter watched from the doorway, the rest in tow with him. They all silently cheered for their two friends, happy that their dumb tension was finally relieved.

“It’s about time.” Logan stated, leaning against the hallway wall, not needing to spy on them to know what happened.

“This was a really good idea, Dee.” Patton said to him gratefully, tears were also in his eyes as he watched from the doorway.

“Nope, I’m not glad they-” suddenly the buzzing of his cell in his back pocket stopped that train of thought. Good thing Dexter had made sure they put all of their phones on vibrate as to not disturb the new couple. 

Pulling out his phone he felt his hand go limp once he saw the Caller ID. The device fell from his fingers in what felt like slow motion. The sound of the crash alerted everyone around them. Pat and Lo were there first to ask him what was wrong, Roman and Virgil following a second after, their moment now forgotten.

They all asked what was the matter, concern washing over them as he didn’t say anything. However, they all went silent once they heard the fake sweet voice of his mother leaving a message on his phone.

“Hello Dexter, It’s your mother. I called to let you know that your Father, sister, and I will be visiting your campus before the start of the next to talk with all your professors. And of course to see you, haha. Please prepare for our arrival. Also, don’t trouble yourself with visiting us for Christmas, were sure you’d like to enjoy your break by yourself as you do with everything else. See you soon.”

The line went dead, the buzzing the only sound being made. The others looked to each other in confusion and concern. Dexter still said nothing. Picking up his phone he walked away, ignoring the calls directed at him from his friends.

Dexter didn’t mean to interrupt the moment or kill the mood, but he had to leave. He could allow his negativity to affect the rest of them.

His parents were always skeptical of him becoming a writer and tried to discourage him from doing so. It wasn’t because they weren’t sure he’d be successful, even they could see his talent for it, but rather because they were scared of his mind’s creation. His parents have always been frightened of the things he enjoyed, of the things he’d imagine, of him. They were worried that his writing would influence others to be like him, that they’d no longer be able to keep his existence in the dark.

But when Dexter came here, it was because he convinced them that he’d only use his skills to write non-fiction. He’d lied about it, but it was the only way to gain their support. However, if he failed a single class, or if they got a word from his professors about his writing, they’d take him out of school and he’d be forced to work in his dad’s shop.

In the back, stacking and unloading, hidden from the world so that no one could see the monster they had brought into the world.

.

.

Gosh I once again was getting emotional over my own freaking story. Love Prinxiety. 

Y’all are going to be meeting Dexter’s parents soon, to be warned, they’re cynical assholes.

Tag List:

@noneed4thistbh @romanasanders @fuckingemoace @bunny222 @sea-blue-child @astraastro @helloitstimetofight @blue-wolfbane @applecannibal @ryuity @anxiouslyfred @i-identify-as-a-mango @shadowjag @scorching-scotch @cyberpunkjinx

[verbjectives]

team rood session 39....

we spent about a week total hanging out in the sewer

during that time faylen managed to find a potential ally within the city and managed to convince her to help

said ally also managed to scrounge up some other people willing to help team rood in their aid

she also said that she got in contact with someone who was friends with her parents/who is a member of the rebellion group team rood had been working with thus far

there was a meeting in the basement of the tavern in the poorer part of the city where faylen made a speech 

one person stood up and challenged her motivations (3 guesses who)

faylen stood her ground beautifully

said challenger revealed himself as the member of the rebellion group

and ovak filled in the people on their plan for taking back the throne

team rood hung out in the basement for about an hour after everyone left just to be safe, but it was roughly an hour later that city guards stormed into the tavern looking for them

they were forced to make a quick escape: laucien (warlock npc) could dimension door everyone but ovak back to the sewers

but it’s ok because ovak had a sending stone

and eryk had the other

“all you have to do is hold the stone and think of eryk”

and ovak just looks at eryk

and

KISSES

HIM

before he’s swept away through laucien’s dimension door

the poor boy fainted and was very out of it for quite some time

he makes her a little amulet necklace of moradin’s anvil using his carpentry tools :’))))))

they’re so cute i love them i can’t believe it finally happened

And so team rood was finally able to begin to enact their plan re: assembling their forces and preparing to storm the city

they also explored the sewers a bit more just to get a good layout and map out possible escape routes should they need it

valko’s basic knowledge of sewer systems came in handy identifying and operating sewer controls

the gang actually found the controls for the wealthy/palace district, which they later use to infiltrate said district

valko continues to roll poorly against the blood curse put upon faylen and her family 

he started accumulating effects of the curse: first his soul was split in half, with one half being stuck in a very very old raven, and other effects 

this also meant that he was getting increasingly paranoid and hateful about faylen

he prayed to pelor about it because he was scared and pelor told him to fight it

and valko tries...he tries so damn hard

but eryk gets a real nasty ‘bout of curse that was basically possession and made him feral and made him go after faylen while it was just faylen and valko on watch

valko jumped in the way (had to roll for it), which allowed faylen to cast a greater restoration spell on eryk to end the effect of the curse

eryk was aright but he was unconscious

this event brought all of valko’s hatred and paranoia up to the surface and he said some not very nice things....

ovak successfully diffused the situation (along with some good rolls on valko’s part) and he left the room to go sit in some sewage to calm down (as one does)

faylen fucking astral projects into the past during one of her rests to a moment that happened to her as a child, where she fell down into the ruins of the old palace, where she was born/used to live, and bby faylen wandered into a room with a mirror that had the soul of her father inside it

and “spectral”? faylen knocked her unconscious to keep her from peering into the mirror (and because this already happened)

she carried bby faylen out of the room and sealed the door to said room with vines (which we had originally thought her mentor had done)

and when she turned around, she came face to face with the past version of her mentor, and he recognized her, and he took young faylen from her before she was brought back to her own body

LAUCIEN is MVP and once he realized what kind of curse it was (a blood curse) he was able to tell us how it was probably cast (by the empress making a deal with vecna) and how to break the curse

breaking the curse is pretty involved and requires very specific things and circumstances

and there are only three days a year on which the curse could be broken

one of which is coming up in like 10 days of where we are currently

....it also happens to be nerull’s holiday.....

valko’s raven (you know, the really old one that has half his soul in it?) is starting to look really sickly and start loosing feathers....that poor raven is well past its time....

faylen eventually comes in to talk to valko

he’s still a little terse with her because he still doesn’t trust her, but he apologizes for what he said because deep down he knows it wasn’t true

they try to figure out what’s up with the raven. faylen casts greater restoration on it to see if that’ll do anything, but it doesn’t do anything. 

she tries again to cast it on valko, but when she moves her hand closer to him, the bird freaks out and tries to stop her.

so she just keeps her hand reached out for valko to take

he very hesitantly does so (had to roll for it) and she casts it.

that half of valko’s soul was reunited with the half in his body and the poor raven dies....in the sewers....

faylen casts skywrite and makes the clouds form the symbol of the rebellion group to signify that their plan is to be put in motion very soon and for the people outside to send in two people (erd and thia) to meet up with team rood in the sewers

they hang out for a little bit, waiting for it to get really late, n then they go through the pipe that comes from the palace bath house to sneak in

they get in pretty easily and find the bath house empty because it’s late and because everyone is inside/somewhere safe while the guards deal with the threat of the gathering army at their walls

they clean themselves off a little bit because hoo boy they smell and they can’t get all the shit smell off them but they do the best they can

they hang out for another few hours before they have laucien cast seeming on all of them to make them look like guards before they start to make their move and get a layout of the palace district

the session ended with valko casting thaumaturgy on ovak to make her voice boom and she shouted “ONWARD TO FREEDOM!!!!!” to signal to their army outside the walls to start marching to the other gate and to begin their assault

[thesportssoundoff]

“A great HW fight, a few great prospects, Jimi Manuwa and .500″ The UFC returns to the UK Preview

Joey

March 11th, 2018

Fights: 12 (11?)

Debuts: 5 (John Phillips, Charles Byrd, Magomed Ankalaev, Hakeem Dawodu, Dimitry Sosnovski)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 4 (Rustam Khabilov OUT, Stevie Ray IN vs Kajan Johnson/Dmitry Prohebetz OUT, Dmitry Sosnovskiy IN vs Mark Godbeer/Alex Reyes OUT, TBD IN vs Nasrat Haqparast/Elizeu Zaleski OUT, Brad Scott IN vs Jack Marshmann)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 5 (Fabricio Werdum, Alexander Volkov, Jimi Manuwa, Jan Blachowicz, Stevie Ray)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC:  2 (Terrion Ware, Paul Craig)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC:  7 (Fabricio Werdum, Alexander Volkov, Jan Blachowicz, Leon Edwards, Peter Sobotta, Mark Godbeer, Kajan Johnson)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 18-8

Alexander Volkov- 3-0 Fabricio Werdum- 3-2 Jan Blachowicz- 3-2 Jimi Manuwa- 2-1 Tom Duquesnoy- 1-1 Terrion Ware- 0-2 Leon Edwards- 4-0 Peter Sobotta- 2-0

Too High Up- Terrion Ware vs Tom Duquesnoy

Terrion Ware is the sort of fighter every MMA organization loves to have. He's a guy who can test your prospects, give them a few unique looks and test what guys can and can't do. Thus far, Ware has given some dicey moments to Cody Stamman and Sean O'Malley so you know he can be your prospect tester dijour. The problem is Ware is fighting third up on the card vs Tom Duquesnoy in a fight entirely designed to get Duquesnoy back on the right track. I'm not opposed to young fighters getting opportunities to rebuild their stock because it's just smart business but Duquesnoy-Ware should not be third fight on the card. Thus far Ware's agent has got him on International Fight Week, the co-main event of an FS1 card and now this premier slot on Fight Pass. Dude's out here putting in work.

Too Low- Danny Henry vs Hakeem Dawodu

In his UFC debut, Canada's top prospect gets what is the usual "hyped guy debut" fight---a really fucking tough matchup where nobody respects his opponent. Henry is a former AFC champ who debuted vs Daniel Teymur and had a hellacious war with him in a FOTN bonus earning win. Henry looked huge for 155 lbs so lord knows what he'll look like at 145. Henry is a flawed fighter who Dawodu should be able to style on BUT there are no guarantees under 155 lbs and Henry has a lot of tools (power, size and cardio) which should give Hakeem some issues. This fight should be on the main card.

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 6-9):  John Phillips, Charles Byrd, Magomed Ankalaev, Hakeem Dawodu, Dimitry Sosnovski

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 6-2): Stevie Ray, Dmitry Sosnovski, Brad Scott

Second Fight (Current number: 8-9): Oliver Enkamp, Danny Henry, Nasrat Haqparast

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 5-9):  

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 11-8): Hakeem Dawodu, Dmitry Sosnovski

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- I'd actually like to begin by doing a bit of an exercise if you'll so indulge me. There are 17 European fighters on this card from top to bottom if you remove the in limbo fight for one Nasrat Haqparast. Removing the debuting fighters, that number drops to 15. Of those fifteen fighters, how many of them are some combination resulting in 2-2 in their last 4 fights?

Jimi Manuwa Jan Blachowicz Danny Roberts Jack Marshmann Brad Scott Paul Craig Stevie Ray

So of the fifteen fighters on this card from Europe who have set foot in the UFC octagon, seven of them are 2-2 in their last 4 fights. That fifteen also includes guys like Tom Duquesnoy, Alexander Volkov and others who don't even have a four fight minimum in the org.

The point was to illustrate the challenges of the European fight scene. MOST of these guys fight in Europe and the UFC goes to Europe, what, six times a year? That leaves these guys taking fights outside of Europe but never in America; like Mexico, Canada or Brazil primarily. That creates a pretty weird dynamic where most of these fights are outside of their comfort zones and on the road in enemy territory where they're really just there to be "an opponent." All of this leads to an erosion of fan support as more and more European fighters get smelted out of their home markets, creating the illusion that they're just not good enough. It all leads to a challenge of balancing the desire to showcase international fighters in front of their fans with the fact that there are X amount of cards to fill up with guys who have to fight X amount of times across X amount of dates. When SO many local fighters are in a state of "win one, lose one, win one, lose one" there's no semblance of momentum.

2- What fighter in Fabricio Werdum's past does Alexander Volkov best represent? I can't think of somebody who he's faced who provides the combination of workrate, size and striking depth that Volkov has. That's not to say Werdum can't win (or won't win) but I'm at a loss for a real good comp for Volkov.

3- It's amazing the level of durability Fabricio Werdum has displayed throughout his career. Not even looking at the level of growth he's displayed as a fighter, we're talking about a guy who has fought at a high level since at least 2007 when I first got reintroduced to MMA. He's fought everybody under the sun and only two guys have managed to put him down and out; Stipe Miocic and JDS. That includes fights with Overeem (three times), Cain Velasquez, Mark Hunt, Fedor, Big Foot, Andrei Arlovski, Big Nog (twice), Travis Browne (twice) and Gabriel Gonzaga. All of that is to lead into the obvious; at SOME point this dude is going to crack. He's over 40, fought three times last year and might fight three more times this year given how often the UFC calls upon him. It's just the nature of the human body to EVENTUALLY erode from prolonged damage. Volkov isn't blessed with the one hitter quitter that can put a dude out on impact but he is very active and aggressive. It probably wouldn't happen early but if this fight drags, accumulation of damage could be a serious problem.

4- So this main card is actually not bad considering it's a European Fight Pass card. Werdum/Volkov is a really good HW fight (and the winner probably is facing the winner of Lewis/Ngannou for a #1 contender spot), Blachowicz/Manuwa I was an awful fight but this is a relevant fight between big dudes at 205 lbs including one dude who will always be a "maybe sorta" #1 contender type because he creates highlight reels. Peter Sobotta vs Leon Edwards isn't the world's sexiest fight on paper but Sobotta has really turned his career around since coming back to the UFC and he seems really confident in his hands right now. On the other hand, Leon Edwards has lost his fight finishing spark but still has fights which suggest he's growing somewhat as a fighter. Even Duquesnoy/Ware should be tons of fun. The prelim slate is just so "UFC Fight Pass in Europe" level that it really dampens the excitement. Brett Johns getting on this card wouldve been huge for him.

5- Jan Blachowicz has sort of had a chance to mentally reset his stock on the lower half of the 205 lb division and gets rocketed RIGHT back up the top of the division. Blachowicz has really struggled around this level with losses to Pat Cummins (in a fight he could've won), Jimi Manuwa (fight he should've won), Alexander Gustafsson (in a fight he probably shouldn't of taken) and Corey Anderson. The level of competition there is pretty intense and it's not like Jan has been completely outstyled in those fights. He's just NOT on that level (or wasn't enough to win those fights). He gets a second crack at Manuwa now.

6- I'm really beginning to lose faith in Danny Roberts as a prospect. On the regional circuit, he always seemed to put himself in various states of peril but it seemed to be more out of inexperience. In the UFC, he's continued to put himself in bad spots defensively and his chin has been cracked on a number of opportunities. Dominique Steele had him hurting in a bad way, Mike Perry finished him in a fight where Roberts just couldn't get out of the way for a fifteen minute period, Bobby Nash had Roberts all sorts of thrown off before Danny Roberts finished him off and Nordine Taleb finished Roberts in violent fashion in December. Roberts draws Swedish karate ace Oliver Enkamp in a pivotal fight for both guys.

7- Can Leon Edwards somehow finish Peter Sobotta and keep pace with the other 170 lbers who seem to all be getting their careers on the right track?

8- If Leon Edwards wins, do they try to put him vs Ponz in Chile? I really like Edwards but since nearly finishing Claudio Silva and smelting Seth Baczynski, he's had 6 fights and gone to a decision in all but one of them. There's really no reason somebody with his tools should be so....not fun. His fights are heading in the opposite direction at a time where Kamaru Usman, Darren Till, Ponz, Max Griffin, Elizeu Zaleski, Jake Matthews, Mike Perry and others in that  "fun new WW to care about" are all having damn fun fights.

9- All Magomed Ankalaev has to do is finish his fight and be the savior of 205 lbs. It's not asking too much.

10- Alright Mark Godbeer, what stupid shit you gonna get yourself into this time?

11- So about the Godbeer fight, maybe this exposes my lack of knowledge but I could not tell you the differences between Dmitry Sosnovskiy and Dmitry Poberezhets, the guy who was originally scheduled to fight Godbeer. The UFC seems to have like a bevy of heavyweights who they signed but can't seem to actually get to get into the cage, it's almost infuriating if you're one of those OCD guys who wants to keep up with everything going on.

12- Stevie Ray getting a new contract to try and smelt Kajan Johnson is very UFC of the UFC. It's almost like a Batman TAS plot from the Joker.

Must Wins

1- Fabricio Werdum

I feel like all of Werdum fights are must win given how much trouble he seems to bring with him. The last time we saw Werdum, he was throwing boomerangs at folks and shouting out Chechen warlords while also decisioning a very good HW in Marcin Tybura. The time before that he took a fight on thirty minutes notice vs Walt Harris and was caught on camera using the unacceptable f word in Spanish like six times. Werdum vs Volkov is a great HW fight that pits the old dog in the race vs the seasoned in his prime pro who is peaking. Good fight but a must win for the always controversial Werdum.

2-  Tom Duquesnoy

This entire thing is tailor made for Duquesnoy. He's getting a guy coming off two losses who is a glorified opponent. He's in Europe, he's on the main card and this entire showcase is built to make him look good and like the star. He truly cannot fuck this up.

3- Magomed Ankalaev

Mr. Ankalaev, I do not know you. I do not necessarily believe I have to know you at this point. All I know is you're a new light heavyweight. God speed, my dude.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Alexander Volkov vs Fabricio Werdum

2- Tom Duquesnoy vs Terrion Ware

3- Hakeem Dawodu vs Danny Henry

4- Jack Marshmann vs Brad Scott

5- John Phillips vs Charles Byrd

[blackshowtime]

Dreams Made of Milkshakes (18/?)

Words: 4,342

Summary: Turning point.

As Kuroko continues to study for the rest of the day, his mind keeps on straying back towards the message Akashi had sent him. Every fiber of Kuroko’s being wants to deny any truth in that message. Akashi’s claim has to be false, because it’s too ridiculous.

He knows better, though. He should trust Akashi’s words, since he’s not the type to be pulling Kuroko’s leg like this. Although, he does wish that Akashi were just joking. Even now, hours after reading that message, he has a hard time wrapping his head around it.

From the most enjoyable moments to the most nerve-wracking, Mayuzumi has been with him through every dream. And because Mayuzumi had kept it from him, it might mean that Mayuzumi had intentionally trapped him in these dreams. It might mean that Mayuzumi had wanted to put him through dangerous situations. It might mean that Mayuzumi had wanted to keep him asleep for a week, maybe even longer.

He doesn’t want to believe any of those reasons, but he can’t help it. He can hardly even say he knows Mayuzumi.

He focuses on the words in his textbook, getting more distracted the more he thinks about any ill will behind Mayuzumi’s actions. He somewhat convinces himself that none of the reasons could possibly be true. He flips the textbook closed.

After studying his morning and afternoon away, Kuroko finds himself losing steam. He’s memorized too much about science and math and now he’s itching for a break.

Stretching in his seat, he contemplates falling asleep now and confronting Mayuzumi as soon as he can. He’s both somewhat fearful and somewhat determined to hear the truth from the other, to confirm everything once and for all. Still, falling asleep now would do him no good. Not only would he not meet Mayuzumi, but he’d ruin his sleep schedule.

He squeezes his eyes shut as he yawns. No good, he’ll fall asleep at this rate. He’s got to get his blood flowing.

Exiting his room, he tells his parents he’ll be back soon as he grabs his jacket and basketball before heading out the door.

--

Akashi was already gone when Mayuzumi managed to wake up at some ungodly hour in the morning. His head is throbbing, and he can feel a huge bruise on his forehead forming. There’s no trace of other, and neither his stuff.

He’s half convinced that Akashi had only carried that suitcase for show, and hadn’t actually filled it with any of his belongings. It takes him a moment to reorient himself and ignore the pounding in his head.

The spare key has been left on the coffee table, and the slippers placed back into their proper spot.

Mayuzumi takes a deep breath, placating himself after how angry last night made him.

Let me keep an eye on you, my ass, he thinks. Akashi fucking tricked him. He had planned this sequence of events from the beginning. And now that Mayuzumi thinks about it, Kuroko was probably also planted in his dream last night. After all, Akashi disappeared with Kuroko in hand, so it’s highly unlikely that Kuroko was the real Kuroko.

He stares down the spare key on his coffee table, feeling his temper rise by the second. Fuck Akashi. He snatches the key up, gripping it in his fist tightly while suppressing the urge to chuck it across his entire apartment in anger. Instead, he returns the key back into the drawer of his bedroom, staring at the imprints left from the key on his hand.

He wonders if Akashi will tell Kuroko, and if the brat will do something about it.

He shakes his head, nearly scoffing at himself before immediately regretting it with how dizzy the movement makes him.

Of course Akashi will tell. He’s seen how shitty Mayuzumi treats Kuroko, so why wouldn’t he? It’d be too stupid of a move not to tell.

Of fucking course Akashi had to be meddlesome. Just right when Mayuzumi thought that he could ignore the brat and let the dreams die, Akashi had to shove his nose right into it, throwing everything into disarray. Now the brat is going to want answers, one way or another. He’s persistent enough normally; Mayuzumi doesn’t need him hounding his ass in real life too.

Akashi had better keep his goddamn word, otherwise Mayuzumi will need to deal with two nuisances rather than none.

Mayuzumi had better not see Kuroko tonight.

He collapses onto his bed, holding his head in pain while trying to remember if he has any pain medication stashed somewhere in his apartment.

--

It’s right around Kuroko’s bedtime, and he’s got school to attend tomorrow. Despite his earlier determination, he’s not so adamant now about confronting Mayuzumi tonight. After turning it over in his head while shooting some hoops, he’s nearly become sick with apprehension. He’s staring at the bottle of sleeping pills, ready to uncap it and pop one into his mouth. One more night of avoiding dreams wouldn’t hurt, right? It’s clear to him that he’s emotionally unstable right now, and for good reason. He hasn’t felt unnerved like this for a long time, where he needs to reassure himself just to move forward and resolve problems.

He breathes in deeply, putting the bottle back into the cabinet and shutting the door so that he can’t chicken out.

Getting ready for bed, he attempts to quell his nerves by focusing on his breathing. He won’t be able to even fall asleep if he can’t calm down, but his hands won’t stop trembling.

It’s no big deal. He has pretty much done this every day for the past few weeks. It’s just Mayuzumi.

He lies down in bed, clenching his hands over the blanket as he tries to breathe evenly.

It takes him awhile to completely calm down, but eventually he finds himself opening his eyes to a clear view of the blue sky atop what appears to be a school rooftop.

His eyes land on the familiar figure of Mayuzumi in the distance towards the railings of the rooftop, facing away from him. He is sure that this is meant to be Rakuzan’s rooftop.

Putting one foot forward, Kuroko halts in place upon seeing that Mayuzumi hasn’t noticed him. He finds himself getting cold feet before he even begins, eyes straying down towards the ground. He spends too long stuck in place like that, doubting his will and decision. He can feel his earlier anxiety arise, locking him in place. Why is he so nervous about clearing this up? It’s not like he’s under the real threat of injury here. Forcing himself out of his wavering confidence, he swallows thickly and directs his gaze towards the other. It takes much too long to tell himself that he can do this, as told by the sweat he feels on his hands when he unclenches them.

He approaches calmly, gathering up courage with each step. Beginning to feel more confident, he calls out the other’s name.

“Mayuzumi-san.”

It comes out weaker than intended, but he doesn’t back down.

Mayuzumi turns to face him, using his back to lean against the railing while regarding Kuroko with an indecipherable look.

Looking at Mayuzumi with a renewed sense of the situation seems to be backfiring for Kuroko right now. He feels like he’s reading too much into Mayuzumi’s expression, and yet at the same time he feels like he can’t discern anything.

Kuroko gulps, finding himself at a loss for words. Everything up until now, every last event, every moment they’ve spent…

Sweat accumulates on Kuroko’s temple. He does not like the way that Mayuzumi stares him down. Or maybe he’s so nervous that he’s misinterpreting the other’s expression.

Mayuzumi regards Kuroko carefully, scrutinizing his every move while trying to school his expression into something lackadaisical.

Kuroko’s usually blank demeanor exudes nervousness now. And that says all that Mayuzumi needs to know.

He’ll start it off by playing it safe.

“I thought you weren’t coming back here.”

It takes Kuroko a moment amidst his agitated state to even begin to comprehend the other, and yet he only feels more lost with the question. Somehow, he manages to not stumble over his words. “What do you mean?”

“Akashi had told me you weren’t, and he usually keeps his word.” Mayuzumi shakes his head, already finding this situation cumbersome and unnecessary. Akashi was supposed to prevent the brat from coming back. He was looking forward to finally never seeing Kuroko again, but apparently Akashi can’t do his job right.

Kuroko just stares, completely bewildered. “I have no idea what you mean.” He thinks about what Mayuzumi revealed, and all Kuroko can pull out from it is that Akashi confronted Mayuzumi, thus leading to Akashi uncovering the truth.

Mayuzumi lets some of the anger from being deceived trickle into his voice, “You know what you’re here for. Get to the point.”

Kuroko nearly flinches, but his rigid form keeps him locked still. Akashi may have uncovered the truth, but it seems that Mayuzumi also knows that he did so.

Kuroko reminds himself that all he seeks are answers. He needs to do this. It’s now or never.

“You know that I know now...about all those dreams that I had—we had,” he trails off after correcting himself, having not prepared his words too well, “did we really experience the same dreams?” He needs to hear it from Mayuzumi himself.

Mayuzumi stares, looking like he couldn't be more bored out of his mind. After a few moments of just staring straight at Kuroko, he settles with, “Yeah.”

The moment he says that, his temple throbs painfully. His jaw tightens in a vain attempt to ease it. He had thought the medication was working, but apparently his dreams just won’t give him a break.

“How—how long exactly have you known?” There has to be a mistake, because Kuroko shouldn’t feel this double-crossed. He’s already had time to digest it. He doesn’t know why he can’t accept it. He had thought that hearing it from Mayuzumi himself would have left him with some finality, but his gut only wrenches more. Mayuzumi can’t possibly—can’t be—the real thing. It’s unthinkable. It’s beyond impossible. Kuroko knows that this has to just be a nightmare, and nothing more.

Mayuzumi continues to look uncaring. He stares at Kuroko, but almost appears to be staring straight through him. He stands there like that for another solid minute, setting Kuroko on edge.

“Why did you keep this from me?” Kuroko prompts further. Normally he can be patient enough and wait as he receives an answer, but it’s almost tortuous for him now.

Mayuzumi’s poker face betrays nothing, and it seems that he can keep this up as long as Kuroko persists.

Kuroko’s confidence falters as the silence continues, suffocating the both of them. Mayuzumi continues to refuse to say anything. Both stand motionless, one waiting for something to occur, the other waiting it out. Kuroko just wants Mayuzumi to make a move, and yet the other continues to endure the heavy silence. An unstoppable force versus an immovable object, caught in a stalemate.

Kuroko can’t recall the last time he’s been this anxious for a reply.

Finally, the other speaks.

“None of that matters,” Mayuzumi dodges the issue, the throbbing in his head now dull and only uncomfortable at most. He turns his head away, seemingly to show how uncaring he is.

Kuroko’s mouth presses into a thin line, trying to stifle the turmoil of feelings that threaten to leak out. His earlier pessimism about Mayuzumi’s behavior resurfaces for the briefest of moments.

This is far from okay. The way Mayuzumi replied to him, it confirms everything. Kuroko feels an indescribable amount of betrayal, anguish, and bitterness all jumbled together, but all he can manage is a weak glare. He wants to say more, no—demand more. Why doesn’t the other answer? How had this happen? Did Mayuzumi plan this all along? Why didn’t Kuroko realize this sooner? Why did everything end up like this? Why, why, why—

He feels trapped, despite being the one trying to trap Mayuzumi.

Kuroko trembles. He inhales, trying to regain his lost ambition. He’d call it a success, but not with the way he grows aggravated.

“What does matter,” Mayuzumi pushes himself off the railing to stand straighter, “is that I would’ve gotten away with lying, had Akashi not revealed it.” His temper rises upon thinking back to Akashi, but he continues to reassure himself that he has this under control. “You weren’t supposed to find out, but it’s whatever.”

So Mayuzumi had never planned to reveal it to Kuroko. And what? Would he have just continued with the lie for forever? “Why then, why didn’t you want me to find out? Was it just so—” he cuts himself off, knowing that he’s getting too swept up in his emotions. Was it so that you could continue laughing at my ignorance?

“Because it would’ve resulted in this.” Mayuzumi gestures with his chin towards Kuroko.

Kuroko doesn’t appear to understand, his confused expression edging more towards a fierce glare each passing second. It’s getting harder to be patient. “What?”

“You. Demanding answers. You. Bothering me and being a persistent little shit. It’s more trouble than it’s worth,” Mayuzumi just about hisses out that last part, his bitter resentment for both the situation and Kuroko rising sharply like a rubber band snapping into place. “You’re more trouble than it’s worth.”

There’s nothing new about Mayuzumi’s opinion about Kuroko, but his words still feel too much like getting splashed with ice water. For as long as Kuroko can remember, he’s always been able to brush off insults directed towards himself like nothing. He can’t remember the last time he’s taken personal offense to being insulted this easily, and if he weren’t so already fed up with the other, he might’ve been able to step away and tell himself that he could be the better person; that he’s just a sleeping pill away from never having to see Mayuzumi again.

But he doesn’t, and he exemplifies exactly what Mayuzumi wanted to avoid. “I just want answers, Mayuzumi-san,” he struggles to keep his voice even, “I won’t leave until you shed some light on this situation between us.”

How presumptuous. “You think I care?” Mayuzumi snaps. “You think I’d be willing enough to answer your stupid questions? Oh, of course. I’d be honored to,” he rolls his eyes. “Even if you had all the patience in the world, you would never get an answer from me. You’re fucking lucky that I even spared some time to talk you like this.” His expression has twisted into a nasty scowl. “I could choose to rain hell down upon you, or I could completely ignore you. But either way, you get nothing from me.”

Kuroko grimaces, having expected an answer like that. Still, it doesn’t make him any less infuriated. Ignoring the tight, nauseating feeling in his chest and anger pooling within his gut, he takes a steady breath to quell the nervousness that builds too quickly for his liking. “Don’t you think,” he nervously wets his lips, and finds that he can’t keep his gaze trained on the other, “don’t you think that you’re being unfair?”

“What, you thought that I was fair from the get-go?” Mayuzumi sneers. At Kuroko’s indignant glare up at him, he continues. “You say that like I owe you something.”

You do, Kuroko wants to scream, until his voice is raw and hurting. “It’s not my fault that I didn’t know better, Mayuzumi-san,” is what he grits out instead. Maybe if the other had fessed up sooner, they wouldn’t have to be in this argument. Maybe they both wouldn’t have had to been in a coma for a week. Maybe they could have even worked together to fix the problem.

“So what? You’re saying it’s my fault?”

“I never said that—”

“You know what? It doesn’t fucking matter,” Mayuzumi interrupts, his headache now more intense than before, “whether it was intentional or not doesn’t change the fact that you’re a pesky little brat who’s been an annoying thorn in my side since day one.” Mayuzumi huffs a sharp laugh, and he steps closer to the other. “You’re the one who came here after me,” he stabs his pointer finger at the other with each emphasized word. “You’re the intruder. You’re the one who encroached on my fucking privacy. I had already been dreaming for a while before you showed your sorry ass here, which means it’s your fault,” his anger rises, and his scowl deepens.

Kuroko looks appalled, so enraged that he’s trembling and fumbling with his words. “How—What—This is not my fault, Mayuzumi-san,” he stops to gather his disorganized thoughts, “you left me in the dark this whole time, and you still don’t care to clue me in, so how could it be my fault? Why are you blaming me for something that you should have told me earlier about?”

“Didn’t you hear me?” Mayuzumi clenches his fists and digs his nails into his palm, “I don’t owe you anything,” he presses on, his anger continuing to flare. “You coming here is the last thing I could ever want, and I’ve been trying to drive you out of here since ever since you showed up.” Mayuzumi faintly registers that he’s only spilling half lies through his tirade. Not all of what he’s saying does he fully agree with, but he’s letting his rage do all the work now. The fury is bubbling over, and he can’t find it in himself to stop.

“Sure, I hadn’t known at the start that you happened to be dreaming the same dream as me, but it was easy enough to find out,” he shrugs offhandedly. “I had known that you were always an idiot, but never to this extent of stupidity, where it took Akashi’s guidance in order to make you realize anything. You’re a dumbass. It was so easy playing you for a fool this whole fucking time. And after everything? I now know that all because of a fucking head injury that wasn’t even my fault caused this whole tiresome ordeal. I now know that I went comatose for a whole goddamn week because of you, and I still know you’re an insufferable little piece of shit that I hate,” he bites out, finally finishing his rant. He heaves after exhausting all of his pent up fury that has been building up since the day they met.

Mayuzumi doesn’t know what he expected as a reaction, but he certainly doesn’t expect for Kuroko to punch him across the face.

It’s jarring, to say the least.

Kuroko waits briefly until Mayuzumi shakes off the pain and affixes him with a menacing glare until he speaks, “I only came to get some questions answers, and I thought that you could have been reasonable, but I guess I thought wrong.” His voice wobbles and it frustrates him. He can’t help it. Kuroko is furious, but he can’t help the way that most of that fury has already turned into misery. The beginnings of tears prick at his eyes. He presses his lips into a line, and finally the betrayal and hurt settle in his gut like sediment. “Maybe if you had been a better person, we both could’ve walked away from this,” he gestures with his hands, “we could’ve both been happy if you hadn’t been—”

A jerk. A prick. An asshole. Awful. Despicable. The lowest of the low. The absolute worst.

Mayuzumi knows he’s all of these things, and Kuroko should hate him for everything he’s said and done. But strangely, he doesn’t want to bear the weight of those words coming from Kuroko himself. So he doesn’t let Kuroko finish his sentence, already reaching his hands forward and shoving Kuroko towards the wall, but doesn’t move to pin him in place.

“You just don’t quit, do you?” he snarls. “What does it take for you to give up and leave?”

“I won’t leave,” Kuroko snaps back at him. “Why are you avoiding all my questions? Why is it so hard for you to just answer me?”

Mayuzumi glares unblinkingly at Kuroko, who glares back with a fury that parallels his own.

He hadn’t realized it through his rage, but the stabbing of pain in his head is impossible to ignore now. The migraine is worsening, and Mayuzumi doesn’t know how long he has till his head splits itself apart.

Something clicks in Kuroko’s expression, like he’s finally connected all the dots. “You...are you scared of telling me? Scared of what I might think and ruining this—”

“Shut up.”

There’s no hesitation in the way Mayuzumi brings his leg up, and before Kuroko can move to escape, he crushes his heel into Kuroko’s abdomen, ripping a choked sound of surprise out of the other.

“Mayuzumi-s—?” Kuroko’s wheezes, but is then sharply cut off when Mayuzumi delivers a punch across his face.

Mayuzumi is not a violent person by any means. In fact, he’d even say that he doesn’t even get angry often. Irritated, yes—rather often, but not full blown rage.

He hates anger. Anger is loud and anger attracts attention. Anger comes from being around others.

Mayuzumi almost isn’t able to believe what he’s doing himself. There’s a part of him that is shouting at himself to stop, but that teensy tiny doubt is stamped out by his outrage.

He digs his foot further into Kuroko, hearing the choked sounds of pain, watching Kuroko seize his ankle and try to remove his foot.

Maybe letting go of his rationality might even turn out better for him. After all, Kuroko had it coming. No matter how much Mayuzumi tried to push him away, to distance himself, Kuroko would find a way to close in on him again. Always testing him. Always so annoying. Always so persistent. Always wanting to get closer.

He had it coming.

It’s high time that Kuroko learned his lesson.

“P-please…” Kuroko struggles to speak, fighting just to form one word, “stop it…you—“ He claws at Mayuzumi with shaky hands, Mayuzumi’s foot like the edge of a blade piercing through his stomach.

“Shut. Up,” Mayuzumi hisses.

He lets the cruel words slip out and lets all sympathy drain out of his heart.

Kuroko thrashes, pushing and striking against Mayuzumi’s leg.

“You—” Kuroko gasps sharply upon Mayuzumi adding more pressure.

“I’m not scared of anything when it comes to you.” Mayuzumi’s expression twists in fury, deranged like a monster. “You’re the last person I want to hear that from!”

Kuroko doesn't know Mayuzumi in the slightest. And he's arrogant for believing so.

Kuroko yelps, the pain nearly unbearable at this point. His fingers tremble against Mayuzumi’s ankle.

Mayuzumi never asked for this. Never asked for the stupid brat to interfere.

Kuroko summons up all his energy and elbows the other’s ankle as hard as he can, successfully breaking away from the hold. He collapses onto his knees onto the concrete. He has no time to even nurse his abdomen before Mayuzumi is forcefully pulling him up by his collar to meet gazes.

Kuroko rasps, finding it a bit difficult to catch his breath and look the other in the eye. Still, he’s not going to let himself be manhandled any further, and promptly knees Mayuzumi in the abdomen. Upon being dropped, Kuroko then throws an uppercut, hitting Mayuzumi squarely in the nose. In a matter of seconds, it starts oozing blood.

Kuroko kneels in pain, one hand on his abdomen. “We’re not getting...anywhere with this,” he wheezes out behind clenched teeth.

Mayuzumi just scowls at the ground, a hand pinching his bleeding nose and migraine causing excruciating pain. He doesn’t have the fucking patience for this. As much as he wants to crush Kuroko’s resolve and finally cut ties one and for all, Mayuzumi knows that it’s a futile effort. All he needs to do to remind himself of Kuroko’s perseverance is to replay their basketball match together, where Kuroko defied all odds and overwrote him. He has been nothing but a nuisance to Mayuzumi. He’s supposed to be a stain upon the floor, a shadow that’s eliminated in the obscurity.

There’s no room here for someone like Kuroko in his mind space, but Kuroko won’t have any of it. Kuroko has never been the type to bend to other people’s wills, and especially not to Mayuzumi. He has always stayed right here, right by Mayuzumi’s side. He has always rejected being silenced, and would only continue to do so. A shadow like Kuroko does not fade away into nothingness.

And Mayuzumi is fucking sick and tired of it.

If he cannot get the other to listen to him, then he’ll approach the problem differently. It was never a necessity for Mayuzumi to put forth the effort to make the other obey, but his blind rage drove him to do something that he wouldn’t have done in normal circumstances.

His eyes slide towards the edge of the rooftop.

Everything can be resolved if he just avoids it. He’s never needed to play the main character, because others seek out the trouble when he can watch from afar, away from conflict.

It’s always been that way. There’s no reason why the same method wouldn’t work.

He’s never needed to take needless initiatives. So why start now?

He can continue dreaming in peace. He wants to keep dreaming in peace. He will keep dreaming in peace—

Sleep. He just wants sleep. He just wants a dreamless sleep without the brat there to always bother him. He couldn’t care less about what Kuroko feels, and he thinks that if Kuroko rots away while waiting for him, then so be it.

“I better not see you again,” he bites out, sending one last glare.

He runs.

He jumps off.

--

 A/N: So the thing is that I rewrote this chapter like four times and I’m so done I don’t wanna look at this anymore ugh  

Thanks for reading and sticking with me _(:’3

[finn-nelson-for-the-win]

Hiya! So I may have gotten a little carried away...

But here I am with a surprisingly long 7th chapter in the series even though it took fucking ages for me to actually post haha…(I really feel like this series of stories should have a title…oh well, that’s a matter for me to address at a later time) Seriously, the word count is nearly 6,000 at my last count…I sort of just got started and could not stop!

This chapter is mostly just a transition to help me move the story line along, but some events and overheard conversations are leaving both Finn and Rae a bit confused (it may also address some of the suspicions some of you have had based on events from previous chapters, just saying) so I can get to more drama and flirtiness in the next two chapters that are to come…so be on the lookout for them some time in the next week(s).

As always, your comments, questions,messages, likes, reblogs, etc. are welcomed and much appreciated! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. 😁

Misunderstandings and Mixed Messages

Sunday morning at work began much the same as every other morning at work this past week: Rae sat next to Archie and Izzie and when Finn came into work he would greet all three of them and then greet Rae individually before sitting at the closest pair of empty desks with Hannah by his side.

After the peculiar events that occurred with Finn in the middle of work the previous day, Rae had anticipated there to be some awkwardness or an elephant in the room that needed to be addressed; however, everything that had happened thus far during her shift was astoundingly…normal.

The hours at work were passing dreadfully slowly and it was taking a lot of effort on Rae’s part to keep focused on her work. She still had nearly an hour left until her scheduled break, but her contact lenses were beginning to feel dry in her eyes from staring at her computer screen for so long. Rae finished the message she was typing and then closed the conversation and laid her head on her arms that were propped up on her desk, gently rubbing her eyes with her hands.

Is anyone else as bored as I am right now?

Rae looked over her shoulders briefly to determine if there was anyone else who was visibly struggling to stay awake and concentrated on their work like she was when she noticed Finn and Hannah sitting with their chairs nearly touching and they were leaning close to one another, speaking quietly.

Don’t be a creep, Rae! Just get back to work and let Finn talk to whoever he wants to talk to…

She turned back to face her computer screen and resume helping the customers that were requesting help, but curiosity got the best of her and Rae found herself straining her ears to pick up on bits and pieces of what Finn and Hannah were talking about.

“Hannah, I need to ask your opinion on something…I need a female’s take on this, but you can’t go telling Chop, or the guys, or anyone else, okay?”

“Yeah, of course Finn, what’s up?”

“Well, there’s this girl…that I think I really like…”

Fuck, I knew it was too good to be true…

“I haven’t known her too long, but we get on really well and…well, I sort of wanted your opinion on what I could get her as a Christmas present…”

Hannah laughed a little too loud, drawing the attention of the people sitting around her, which made Finn scowl.

“Hannah, if you won’t take me seriously and help me out, just forget I mentioned anything.” He leaned away from Hannah and began moving his chair back to its original position in front of his desk when Hannah grabbed the armrest of his desk chair pulling him back to her.

“Oh come on now, Finney boy! You know I’ll help you, it’s just I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this…this new girl, whoever she is, must be pretty damn special.”

“She is…which is exactly why I can’t fuck this up! I want to get her a gift that will make a good impression and be something that she will really like and appreciate…”

“Well what does this mystery girl like?”

“Well, uh, she likes…” Finn looked briefly over his shoulders before turning back to face Hannah and continuing, his voice somewhat quieter now to ensure that the people around them could not hear what he was saying.

 “She likes coffee and tea…and she hardly wears makeup, but when she does she always has the most interesting lipstick colors I’ve ever seen…and she really loves her music, which is a big reason why I think we click so well, ya know?”

Great, some coffee/lipstick/music-loving girl has captured Finn’s attention…I should have known that it was too good to be true thinking that Finn could like someone like me…

Rae had known that she shouldn’t get her hopes up too much before confirming her suspicions that Finn fancied her back, but she was still feeling hurt after overhearing Finn talk about how much he liked this mystery girl.

***

Sunday evening as Rae lied flat on her back on top of her bed, starring at the rhythmic spinning of her ceiling fan, she reached for her cellphone where it sat on her bedside table while charging when she heard the phone buzz audibly.

Chloe: RAAAAEEEE…whatever happened with your fit af bad boy from work? I expected an update by now, surely…

Rae: Hey Chlo. You were right, I was reading too much into things with Finn. We’re just coworkers, nothing more.

Rae didn’t realize that she actually believed the words she was typing until after she had already sent the message, but the conversation she overheard between Finn and Hannah had cemented it in her mind that another girl had won his affections and she and Finn were just coworkers, or perhaps friends, but that’s it.

Chloe: Aw, that sucks. But think of it like this…NOW YOU CAN GET ON TINDER AND GO ON LOTS OF TINDER DATES AND WE CAN SWAP STORIES!!!

Rae: Yeah…I don’t think I’ll be joining Tinder or any online dating website anytime soon…

Chloe: Why, Rae? Do you think you’re too good for them? I met my last 3 boyfriends on Tinder…are you saying that you are better than me, eh?

Bloody hell, Chlo! Why must you be so quick to overreact every fucking time?

Rae: No, that’s not what I’m implying, Chloe. I just don’t think those sites are for me…

Rae was already exhausted by this conversation with Chloe and as much as she wanted to fall asleep, she tossed and turned restlessly in her bed until well past 3am.

***

Monday when Rae walked into work, she walked over to where Archie was sitting, noticing that there was not an empty seat, so she walked further down the row toward the first desk in the area that was not occupied.

Rae had been on-edge and was feeling annoyed by her conversation with Chloe from last night and as the clock in the lower right corner of her computer screen showed the time to be 7:58am, she was regretting her decision to stay up as late as she did and not get coffee prior to coming to work.

Well, I have a few minutes before I have to actually get to work, maybe I can just rest my eyes for a moment…

Rae readjusted her body in her desk chair to comfortably lean forward until her head was resting on her left arm where it was positioned atop her desk between her keyboard and the neighboring desk to her right. She closed her eyes and tried to enjoy a few minutes of relaxation before having to endure a long day of work without caffeine to keep her going.

Rae was vaguely aware that someone had sat down in the desk to her right; however, she did not decide to open her eyes until she could feel the faint tickle of someone’s breath against her skin and could just barely smell the minty scent of toothpaste on their breath and she knew that she was being watched.

Rae hesitantly opened one eye, not entirely sure whose face she expected to be staring back, and was met with a very familiar pair of warm, dark brown eyes that scrunched slightly as a wide grin spread across her observer’s face. She gasped and her other eye flew open to take in the sight before her. Finn sat at the desk to Rae’s right, mirroring her position with his face mere inches from hers, but Finn’s eyes were open and he appeared to be analyzing Rae’s features to take in and memorize every detail of her face.

“Good morning, girl. I didn’t mean to disturb ya, but you looked so comfortable and I wanted to give it a try too” Finn’s voice was soft and hushed, but given their close proximity, Rae could hear him without trouble and was that much more aware of the minty smell of his breath as it tickled her face.

Rae’s head shot up and she adjusted in her desk chair to be sitting upright, causing Finn to chuckle as he lifted his head off his arm and sat up in his chair again as well.

“Hiya Finn, sorry about that. I didn’t get much sleep last night, so I wanted to rest my head for a bit.” Rae smiled shyly at Finn, trying to ignore the blush creeping into her cheeks, as she quickly turned away from him to log into her computer. She saw a look of concern flash across his face and it looked like he was trying to gather his thoughts to speak, but Finn was interrupted before he could ask his question.

“Hey Rae! How are you?”

“I’m alright, Hannah, thanks. And you?”

“I’m doing very well, thank you!”

Rae did not expect Hannah to make conversation with her, but since Hannah was sitting in her usual seat on the opposite side of Finn, she figured that it would be rude for her to ignore Hannah’s attempts at small talk.

“Oh, hi…” Rae mumbled as she turned away from Finn to face her computer screen and noticed that her coworker named Liam was seated at the desk to her left.

He mumbled what Rae assumed to be a greeting without focusing his attention away from his computer, and Rae just rolled her eyes and redirected her attention to the customers she was helping.

As they worked through the queue of customer messages that had accumulated, Rae, Finn and Hannah made casual conversation and Rae and Finn fell back into their habit of arguing about music and scoring the songs that came on the radio out of ten.

“So the semester is almost over…are you two getting excited for Christmas and the holiday yet?” Hannah asked when there was a lull in the conversation.

“I suppose,” Finn began “I’m gonna do some traveling before Christmas, but I think I’ll be spending Christmas Day with all my family and sisters who I haven’t seen in a while, so that should be fun.”

“Aw, that’ll be nice to see all your family. What about you Rae? Are ya excited for Christmas?”

“Honestly? Uh…no, not really…” Rae did not turn her attention away from her computer screen as she said this and she had no intention of elaborating on her response, but in her peripheral vision she could see Finn glance over at her with a sad and concerned look on his face.

“Why not Rae? Is your family too far away to visit them for Christmas?” Hannah inquired.

“Uh, no…there’s just always lots of family drama during the holidays so I don’t really look forward to seeing my family for Christmas. It sounds bad, I know, but it sort of ruined the holiday for me for these last few years.”

It was clear that Rae did not wish to go into more detail than that on the subject, which Finn luckily caught on to and quickly changed the conversation topic to the radio station they were listening to at work that had played three Oasis songs within the two hours they had been working thus far.

“Hey Finn, can I get some help with this customer’s question?”

“Of course, Rae-Rae! Just let me finish this message…” He replied as he hurried to finish the response he was typing to send to a customer.

Rae chuckled slightly when she heard Finn’s new nickname for her but was sitting quietly in her desk chair and waiting for Finn to assist her with the situation this customer had contacted Customer Service about. Suddenly Rae felt heavy breathing on the back of her neck over her left shoulder and an arm wrap tightly around her to rest on the armrest on the right side of her desk chair.

“Well…it looks like our security system is stopping the customer from logging in, they’ll have to call us.” Liam stated, still sitting too close to Rae for her to feel comfortable.

“Uh, it’s not the security system, but thanks for trying to help.” Rae replied to Liam, trying to move her chair away from him to put some distance between them.

“Lemme read the whole conversation…” Liam leaned in the direction of Rae and positioned his right arm on the left armrest of her chair, taking up the majority of her space in front of her desk as he read through the messages.

Rae typically managed to interact with Liam as little as possible at work, willing to be courteous to him since he was her coworker, but avoiding any conversations that were not absolutely necessary. Liam had been working here for as long as Finn and a number of their other coworkers, but from what Rae has gathered, the general sentiment toward Liam in their workplace is negative.

When Rae and Izzie were first training for the job back in September, Liam had been one of the mentors that they were advised to go to with any questions or concerns they had after training ended. From the first time Liam had assisted Rae with a question she had during training and he got too close for comfort, she had gotten a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach about him. And even now, over two months later, her first impression of him remained unchanged and she often got the feeling that whenever he was in the area, Liam gravitated toward Rae for the sole purpose of making her feel uncomfortable.

Rae moved her chair away from Liam when she felt his hand move until his fingertips brushed against her thigh just above her knee while his elbow remained positioned on the armrest of her chair. She kept scooting her chair away until the opposite armrest of her chair was nearly touching Finn’s chair, making Liam’s arm fall. He huffed an annoyed chuckle, shaking his head in disbelief slightly, but continued reading through the conversation, his body still occupying a large portion of the space in front of Rae’s desk.

“Oi, Liam, give this poor girl some space! I know you’re tryna help, but she didn’t ask you for help and she certainly didn’t ask ya to encroach on her personal space, now did she?” Finn’s tone was casual, but firm enough to convey that he was dead serious.

Liam huffed a disgruntled chuckle and moved his chair back into position in front of his desk, sinking his tall yet burly frame further down into his chair and angling his body as far away from Rae as possible.

“You alright girl?” Finn asked, his voice just above a whisper, and Rae could clearly see the concern and anger evident in his face and tensed jaw.

“Yeah, I’m alright…I was just a little uncomfortable, but it’s not the first time he’s done that…” Rae muttered, barely audible.

“Are you fucking kidding me, Rae?” Finn’s voice was increasing in volume but when he met Rae’s eyes and saw the panicked look she was giving him he allowed his anger to subside before continuing, his voice just above a whisper again.

“Well, that doesn’t make it okay. You don’t deserve to be treated like that and touched if you don’t wanna be touched.”

“It’s not that big of a deal, I just have a thing about people getting into my personal space and touching me like that…I might of overreacted a bit, but I just don’t like being touched or having people get too close to me if I’m not comfortable with the person, you know?”

Finn slowly moved his chair a little bit further from Rae, trying to give her the space that he assumed she would prefer to make her feel more comfortable, but Rae rested her hand on top of his where it sat on his desk, which distracted him from moving his chair, as she continued.

“Luckily, he backed off when you stood up for me, so thank you for that.” She lightly squeezed his hand with hers that was still resting over his hand and returned both her hands to her keyboard to keep typing the message she had started as she continued, “But I think we can just forget about it, there’s no need to cause trouble right now…” Rae pleaded quietly and Finn nodded begrudgingly.

“So…did you still want my help on the question you had?” He asked with a smile, which Rae returned as she nodded.

To Rae’s relief, Liam was only working a four hour shift, so before long he logged off his computer and sped out of the building and Rae could finally relax and return to her designated space in front of her desk, opposed to the farthest corner of her desk with her chair nearly touching Finn’s chair.

“Ugh, I find him intensely irritating some days!” Rae exclaimed, rubbing her temples slightly with the tips of her fingers.

“Only some days?” Archie asked with a laugh.

Rae picked up a new customer conversation to handle but was caught off guard by a massive yawn, reminding her of just how tired she still was.

“Are you still feeling low on energy, girl?” Finn asked as he locked his computer.

“Uh-huh…” Rae replied with a nod as she sighed lightly and rested her head on her hand that was propped up on her desk.

“Alright…I’ll be right back then.”

Rae was going to ask Finn were he was heading, but he was speeding away from his desk in the direction of the break room door too quickly for her to grab his attention.

“Liam is such a prick. Are you okay Rae?” Archie asked, having moved his chair so he was now seated in front of the desk Liam had vacated.

Archie and Izzie had known from the beginning that Rae did not have a good first impression of Liam and that he made Rae feel uncomfortable at times because of his disregard for her personal space; however, this was the most forward and direct Liam has ever been with Rae. Archie was concerned about how his friend was doing, knowing what he does about some of her past experiences and the problems she has about people getting too close to her and invading her personal space without her permission, but Archie knew that he had to approach the topic carefully.

“Yeah, I’m alright…When Liam put his hand on my thigh, I almost had a proper freak out, but” Rae looked around before continuing in a hushed voice, “‘Alphonzo’ came to the rescue and stood up for me. I’ve never seen him get mad like that before, but the look in his eyes when he was talking to Liam and when I mentioned that Liam had done the same thing before…it was pretty fucking sexy!”

“Rachel Earl! Please keep in mind that we are still at work! I’m gonna log into this computer to keep an eye on you and make sure that you keep things professional for the rest of the shift,” he replied with a wink as he moved the empty chair to where he was previously sitting and logged into his profile on this computer.

Rae and Archie continued working and began keeping themselves entertained by trying to describe how they imagined the customers who contacted them to look based on the name on their account.

Rae was about to tell Archie about the fictional person she thought up based on the customer she was currently assisting when Finn walked quickly toward his seat and placed two take-away coffee cups from the café across the street on his desk.

“For you, m’dear…” Finn said, sliding one of the cups toward Rae, “I wasn’t sure how you take your coffee, but I know all the coffee you bring in has the box for ‘soy milk’ checked, so I got your coffee with soy milk as well…I hope it’s alright…I just know how tired you are and I was hoping this coffee could help wake you up a bit…but maybe I should’ve asked first, I just wanted it to be a nice surprise for you…maybe I shouldn’t have…If ya don’t want it I can—”

Wait…did Finn really pick up on such a small detail as the type of milk I prefer in my coffee?

“Finn, it’s perfect, thank you! That was really sweet of you to think about getting me coffee and that you remembered that bit about me getting soy milk…” Rae smiled and gave Finn a reassuring nod to pull him from his ramblings.

She took a hesitant sip, wincing slightly when the hot coffee burned her mouth and the tip of her tongue a bit.

“Shit, it’s that bad, huh? I can add some more sugar to it if it’s not sweet enough? Or I can just dump it out and we can forget this even happened if it’s complete rubbish…”

“Finn, stop worrying about it. I pulled that face because I burnt my tongue on the coffee, the coffee itself tastes fine.”

“Oh, okay…” Finn grabbed his coffee cup and took a drink, wincing as well when he burnt his mouth, “Yeah, when they say ‘hot coffee’ they’re not joking…I’ll be right back.”

Finn stood from his chair and walked away again.

“Do you want a taste, Arch?” Rae asked offering her coffee cup toward Archie who accepted with a nod.

“Oh, shit. I’ll stick to my usual tea, thanks…I don’t think coffee is for me!” Archie replied, his face scrunching in disgust as he tried to get the taste of the coffee out of his mouth.

“It isn’t how I normally take my coffee when I make it or when I buy coffee, but it’s not too bad…”Rae replied, catching Finn’s eye as he returned to his desk with his coffee that he had added a couple cubes of ice to in order to make it a drinkable temperature.

“Thanks again, Finn. I really do appreciate it…And of course, I’ll be more than happy to return the favor or make it up to you somehow, if you’d like.”

“Oh! Uh, yeah, it’s no problem, girl. Anyone would have done the same thing…” Finn replied with a nervous smile when he saw the intensity of Rae’s smile as she waited for him to meet her eyes.

Rae thought back to all the other times when she had been a zombie at work from lack of sleep and it occurred to her that never once had one of her coworkers bought her coffee before. Rae also remembered back to how protective of her Finn had gotten during the Liam situation earlier in their shift and how he backed off despite his anger when he realized that Rae did not want to cause a scene.

“No Finn, anyone else would not have done the same thing for me…”

…but then again you’re nothing like anyone else, now are ya Finn?

***

On Tuesday Rae had the last of her final exams for this semester of Uni, so by Wednesday morning when she got to work, she felt like a massive weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She was officially done with all her classes for the semester—only waiting on the scores for her exams to be posted during the next week—and she could begin enjoying the nearly month long break she had before the next semester of Uni began.

Rae walked into the office alongside Izzie—venting her frustrations about the misunderstanding with Chloe on Sunday night—who Rae had not worked with since Sunday because of their hectic final exam schedules.

“And so she was saying how good it was that things didn’t go anywhere with Alphonzo because now I can get Tinder and hook up with people and go on Tinder dates freely…”

Izzie nodded to show that she was still paying attention to Rae as they both sat down at their desks and got logged into their computers.

“I just don’t see the point of Tinder, I guess…like I’m not judging her for using it, I just don’t think I’ll be using Tinder anytime soon…”

“What’s this about you using Tinder, Mae? You’re too good for every twat on there anyways, so don’t waste your time on there, girl!” Finn said, joining in on the conversation seamlessly as he sat down at the desk to the right of Rae.

“Uh, I were just saying that I’m not on Tinder, despite one of my friends’ valiant efforts…” Rae did not expect Finn to sit next to her for the second consecutive shift at work, not that she minded, and she had to admit that it felt nice to be talking to him like close mates again.

“How do you know so much about Tinder, Finn?” Izzie asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Well most of my mates are on there, and,” Finn blushed slightly before continuing, “well, I tried tinder a while back too. I didn’t find any one worth my time though…The girl I’m looking for isn’t going to be found on Tinder, I suppose…” he added, looking briefly at Rae before smiling at Izzie.

“So I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I heard you two talking as you walked in here while I was talking to HR about getting my work schedule changed for the month of December but, uh…Rae, I’m sorry things didn’t work out between you and your, erm, friend…Alphonzo” He added, not making eye contact with Rae as he logged into his computer.

Rae had taken a drink of her tea, which she had grabbed from the café across the street on her way to work that morning, and she nearly choked on the hot liquid when she heard Finn mention the nickname she used for him, burning the inside of her mouth and throat in the process.

“Are you alright, Rae?” Izzie asked, struggling to contain a laugh as she pat Rae on the back because she knew exactly why Rae was currently coughing on the tea she had swallowed forcibly, with her eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets.

“Uh, yeah, I’m just great, Izz…my tea just went down wrong, I suppose” Rae said when she finally ceased coughing, “What was it that you were saying, Finn?”

“Well I heard you tell Izzie that you and that guy, Alphonzo or whatever his name is, didn’t work out or something and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I’ve heard you mention his name to Izzie and Archie a few times, well actually…I hear you three talking about this bloke a lot…I wasn’t sure how serious things between you and Alphonzo had been, but if you need to talk about it, uh, you can talk to me…if you want to, of course.” Finn replied with an interesting edge to his voice that Rae did not recognize and made her doubt that he was genuinely sorry to overhear this information.

Was that jealousy that I heard in Finn’s voice? Well, obviously not…silly me…

Finn hesitated and seemed to be somewhat conflicted about saying his next statement, but proceeded anyways, his voice quieter than when he said his earlier statements, “Personally, I think anyone who’d let you go doesn’t deserve you in the first place, but…”

“Yeah, ‘Alphonzo’ has no clue that everything he wants in a girl was right in front of him the whole time,” Izzie said nudging Rae in the side gently with her elbow and laughing, which made Finn even more confused about what crucial information he was missing than he had been before. Rae simply sighed and started working, refusing to meet the eyes of either of the people sitting next to her.

Ugh, today is gonna be a very long day…

***

Lauren: Hi Rae! I haven’t seen you in so long!

Rae grabbed her phone off the desk in her bedroom where it sat as she cleaned her room that had become quite messy in recent weeks when Rae was busy with work and Uni on a daily basis. Today was Thursday and it was the first day off Rae has had in longer than she could remember and she thought it best to use this day to clean her entire apartment because she did not know when she would get the chance again.

Rae: Hiya Laur! I know, this semester has been crazy, but I was officially done with all my Uni exams on Tuesday. What about you?

Lauren: I have one more tomorrow morning :( I miss you like crazy and I’d really like to catch up before we get busy with Christmas and whatnot. Are you free to get lunch today?

Rae: Yeah, of course. Do you want to meet for lunch at about noon?

Rae had not had the chance to see her friend Lauren since October, so she looked forward to spending time with Lauren and talking about everything that has been happening in their lives in the past couple months.

Rae and Lauren had met in a class they shared during Rae’s first year of Uni and they had managed to stay friends and make plans to spend time together ever since, despite the fact that they no longer shared a class.

At almost noon on the dot, Lauren pulled up in her car outside of Rae’s apartment to pick her up so they could go to lunch together.

They drove to a small and cozy diner a few miles away, and after getting settled into a booth in the corner of the diner and placing their order, Lauren started the conversation by detailing everything worth noting that had happened to her in the past two months.

“Holy shit, Lauren! That’s crazy! I’m happy to hear that you were still able to save your grade in that class even through your professor was a total knobhead.” Rae commented when Lauren had reached the end of her story.

“So what about you Rae? Anything interesting in your life? Anything crazy happen in Uni…or at work…or are there any boys that have caught your attention,” Rae’s posture and smile faltered when Lauren asked about the boys in Rae’s life, which did not go unnoticed by Lauren.

“I saw that, cheeky Rae! Tell me about this boy…I need to know everything!”

“Well…do you remember the attractive guy with all the tattoos that I work with that I told you about the last time I saw you?” Lauren nodded and Rae took that as her cue to keep going “Well…he was pretty standoffish with me at first. But we sort of became friends, and well…there’s been some flirting at times…”

Rae continued to tell Lauren about the various times the she has noticed Finn flirting with her as well as the feedback she had gotten from her friends that she has talked to thus far when their waiter brought the milkshake Lauren had ordered and the basket of chips that Rae and Lauren were sharing.

“So what’s going on with you and this Finn boy now?”

“I’m pretty sure we’re just friends right now…he’s been a bit distant lately and we don’t sit by each other and talk as much as we did a month ago. I don’t really understand what’s happening between us, but I’ve been getting a lot of mixed messages from Finn..and I sort of eavesdropped on a conversation he was having with one of our other coworkers and I overhead him talk about a new girl in his life, so…”

“Well, what exactly did you overhear him saying?” Rae explained to Lauren everything she recalled overhearing during this conversation and a cheeky smirk spread across Lauren’s face as she neared the end of her explanation.

“Why are ya smiling like that, Laur?”

“Rae! Do you really not see it? The ‘mystery new girl’ in Finn’s life is probably you…I mean, he literally described you—music, coffee, tea, lipstick—and it would make sense why he’d be sitting next to this Hannah girl if they are friends so he can get relationship advice from a female’s perspective! HE WAS TOTALLY TALKING ABOUT YOU!” Lauren exclaimed with passion that seemed out of place on this chilly December afternoon in this quiet diner.

That’s impossible…loads of girls that Finn knows probably like coffee and lipstick and music as much as I do…he could not have possibly been asking for Hannah’s opinion about getting a gift for me, right..?

***

Friday after work Izzie was going on about how hungry she was, so she and Rae decided to grab dinner together at the Ramen Noodle restaurant down the street from their work to celebrate finishing another semester of Uni.

“So…I know you’ve been avoiding talking to me about this, but can we discuss what Finn said at work on Wednesday now or what?” Izzie asked as she lifted a noodle with her fork and slurped it loudly into her mouth.

“What do ya mean, Izz, I’m not avoiding talking about anything,” Rae did not look up at Izzie as she said this, focusing her full attention on adding the chili oil to the broth of her noodle soup to make it spicy enough for her liking.

“Great! So he was definitely trying to flirt with you Rae…”

“Not at all, Izz! He was just being friendly!”

“Fine, do friends normally get jealous of their friend’s nonexistent boyfriends as well, or is that unique to Finn?”

Rae rolled her eyes at Izzie as she grabbed a noodle with her chopsticks and brought it to her mouth, finishing her bite before she spoke.

“He was not jealous. And what was that all about, Izzie? Convincing Finn that I had broken up with my nonexistent boyfriend that just happens to have the same name as our code name for Finn? You’re gonna mislead him into thinking there is another guy in my life that I’m hung up on and confuse him more than he already is if he keeps overhearing you talking about ‘Alphonzo this’ and ‘Alphonzo that’…”

“Sorry, I may have gotten a little carried away with that,” Izzie replied with a giggle, “but would that really be such a bad thing? I mean, if he really is just your friend, it shouldn’t matter if he thinks there’s another guy in your life. Isn’t that right, Rae?”

“Okay, well I’m not saying that he was jealous…but even if he were, his jealousy was out of context…he is basically unknowingly jealous of himself!” Rae scoffed loudly and rolled her eyes when she noticed that Izzie was giggling at the situation as she slurped another noodle into her mouth using her fork.

“Oh, shut up, Izz…” Rae’s tone began as joking, but quickly became somewhat disappointed, “I really don’t think he was flirting though. On Sunday I overheard him talking to Hannah about what to get the girl he is interested in for Christmas, so  I think he might have a new girlfriend already…”

“Rae…did you consider that he could have been referring to you when  he mentioned the new girl he is interested in? I overheard a bit of the same conversation between them and I could definitely see how he could have been referring to you…”

“Really, Izzie? Not you too! One of my other friends thinks the same thing! I don’t know…he’s just been sending a lot of mixed messages, so I’m not sure what I should or should not pay attention to right now…”

“Yeah, I know what you mean…How is he doing, by the way? I haven’t seen him at work since he sat with us on Wednesday.”

“Why do you assume that I would know, Izzie?”

“Well he talks to you the most out of anybody at work, even when he’s not sitting next to you…I figured if anyone would know it would be you.”

“Well…he did mention needing to change his schedule for December, so maybe he’s working different shifts now?” Rae knew that she and Finn were just friends and she should not be as upset as she was at the prospect of not working with Finn anymore, but there was an undeniable part of her mind that was wondering when the next time she would see Finn would be.

@eveerez @tinakegg @hey1tskat1e @bitchesbecrazy89 @kneekeyta @milllott @protectfinnnelson @arathewallflower @jackiewalsh2013 @pink-royaute @i-dream-of-emus @lurkernolonger @bitchy-broken

Wanna be added to the tag list? Your wish is my command, m’dear!

A/N: So I noticed that in previous chapters, some of you thought Finn could have been using Hannah to make Rae jealous, while others thought that Finn could be confused by the repeated mentions of this mysterious “Alphonzo” fellow, so I just HAD to tie both of those into this chapter a bit! 😉There’s still sooo much more to come with Finn and Rae, and I look forward to seeing your reactions to some of the drama and not-so-subtle flirting in the next couple chapters!!!

[witchofreveries]

Personal Update - October 2018

It’s been a while.

Continuing in the crazy chronicle of cosmic chaos that is my life, some things have happened since my last update. Many things. So many things there is no way that I could fit them all into one journal post. So I shall stick with the big ones. There are two.

First and foremost, the biggest event of my life in my entire 27 years on this planet has come and gone in the last six weeks. I got married. I got married to the greatest man that I have ever met, and in doing so I ultimately made the greatest decision of my life thus far (aside from moving away from my hometown at the drop of a hat).

My husband is my best friend in every adventure I have ever experienced since meeting him. He and I have changed each other and helped each other grow in only ways that soulmates possibly could. I can honestly say that since I met him five years ago, I am a better, more focused, and passionate person than I was. While I wont speak for him, I know that he has told me similarly, and I know that if we had never met each other, we never would have ended up where we are now, emotionally, mentally, and physically.

Yet, perhaps the most important way that my husband has inspired change in me is spiritually. When I first met Matt, I was only just discovering that I identified as pagan. While I had had my belief system for a long while, I was only recently looking into community and finding other, like-minded people. My impression of him was that he was far from one of those, so I opened up about my beliefs a bit hesitantly, expecting him to shoot me down. Well, he didn’t. Not the first time I talked a bit about them, not the second time when I told him a bit more, and not the third time when I spilled to him the basis of all the beliefs I held. Instead, he agreed. Over and over again we talked about the different concepts and ideas behind his religion and my own spirituality, finding more and more parallels and synchronicities. I was, and always have been an omnist, finding truth in every path, as well as lies. He was a Catholic with faithful parents who attended church every Sunday, and told him that their way was the only way. Yet, here we were, having late night talks about how similar our faiths were, and discussing concepts of creativity and art and how it overlaps with spirituality. It was pretty amazing for two people coming from two very different backgrounds and faiths.

Then came Dacus and Talia.

I have talked about Dacus on this blog before, so I don’t exactly feel the need to fill in any blanks about him. You can easily direct yourself to my Journal page, and find that he is a complex thought-form of mine. Talia, is his consort and wife. They are two of many characters whom my husband and I have created and written, though they are by far the most complicated and well developed characters that we have created together, if not period. The two of them began as simple creations for a project that was ultimately suppose to be temporary, after which they would likely have been forgotten. That didn’t happen, as never before have I had one of my own creations seem to take my hand and tell me gently that they wished to become far more than what they were. I followed that request, and Dacus evolved and became something far more complex and real than what he was meant to be. Talia, ever so fascinating, followed his lead, and the two of them joined to become a powerful representation and symbol of divinity.

This is the second thing.

This perhaps could do with some explaining. Around the same time that this glory pair was being devised, I was studying multiple different theologies and researching concepts of divinity that I had not yet explored. For one thing, I had always known I was a dualist, in that I believe in a Divine Feminine and Masculine (along with other simultaneous divine forms of gender or lack of it), and I was finding lots of information in other dualistic theologies, such as Taoism. Wicca also agreed with some of my beliefs with their concept of a Moon Goddess and Sun God, though Wicca itself personally never vibed with me. Being a monotheistic soft polytheist, I honestly struggled with these types of simplifications for a while, even though I was strongly called to the symbolism.

My study of this dualistic area however, lasted probably less than a year before I moved on to study other things that would also help me shape my own tradition. I had, after all, been designing my own practice for a little while, and needed to do more expansive research in order to complete my own pagan tradition. A tradition which I would later come to call Spirit Fire.

Leap three years into the future, and here I am, back at work on a Saturday afternoon, only a few weeks after marrying my husband, doing a bit of research on the slowest day ever. That’s when I come across the concept of Awen for the millionth time while on a Patheos article about the evolution of modern pagan symbolism. I should mention here that I had looked well into Druidry before, but had been confused about its actual purpose up until this moment.

Something suddenly clicked. Clicked that is, to the point of me shouting “Holy fucking SHIT,” into an empty lobby, and then picking up my phone to immediately text Matt about my revelation. In hindsight, I had had this same realization before, but something about the description of Awen I’d just read seemed to make the past four years snap into place like that sweet moment when you place the final piece into a 500,000 piece puzzle. I realized as well that from the moment Matt and I met, I was destined to come to this conclusion.

During their creation, Dacus and Talia had seemed to accumulate symbols that the two of us appreciated, many of them being very opposite and complimentary of each other, which made them work so well. I supposed this was because Matt and I worked very similarly. Dacus was always a creature of fire, and in all his incarnations, gravitated heavily towards the sun, flames, heat, deserts, the sky, sexuality, emotions, and the thundering of a heart beneath a strong chest. In him lived a crazed love for humanity, community, and togetherness. Talia, on the other hand, loved winter, the biting of cold air, the pull of the ocean, the light of the moon, rainy days, deep and dark forests, time alone, the soft hum of her own thoughts through her busy mind, and wished only for the escape from society. He turned into a mythical creature of thunder and flames, while she was a quiet huntress in the depths of the woods. They were the perfect compliment that the other had always needed, right down to their developmental backstories and their individual dreams for the future.

Back to Awen. Awen represents the fires of creativity which is brought about by the connection to the spiritual. It is essentially the Holy Spirit of Druidry, which is ultimately that wonderful feeling of connection and inspiration that you get when you have divine experiences. The two of them feed each other, as being creative brings you closer to the Universe, and being closer to the Universe sparks the creative fires, creating a fulfilling and wonderful spiritual cycle. By that definition, Awen is the exact “element” that I had created and written into my own tradition, before even knowing what Awen was. That element is what I had called the Spirit Fire, which later lead me to come up with my tradition’s name.

Awen also represents the divine femine and the divine masculine, and the balance between the two that keeps the cycle of creativity in the Universe alive. It is the source of all creation that lives within everything. A little later, Matt pointed out that Chatholicism has a symbol with very similar representation, known as the Sacred Heart, and stated that that very symbol is on the front of a book (a book NOT related at all to Catholicism, mind you) that ,even now, sits decoratively on our coffee table that I had bought only a week before.

Maybe at this point you see where I am going.

Since that Saturday, I have begun to look far deeper into Druidry, and have explored many different avenues that the philosophy has to offer. I have also shared all of this knowledge with my husband, who has been just as enthusiastic about the idea of becoming a Druid as I now am. My nonpracticing, laid back, Catholic raised husband, who before mentioning Druidry to him, had been pretty content with the idea of not really doing much spiritually at all aside from our late night talks. Yet, one or two good articles about the meaning of Awen (as well as Christianity in Druidsim) later, and he’s now asking to study Druidry with me, listen to Druid audio books, as well as take the first of the OBOD courses over the next year. As an artist, I suppose he can’t be blamed. His writing and his art are more important to him than anything, and finally finding a spirituality that includes it in worship is right up his alley. As I said, we’d always talked about how the two should go hand in hand.

Since then, we have also discussed Dacus and Talia more, and the crazy amounts of synchronicity that has entered our lives since that Saturday, and the even more synchronicity that we have BEEN experiencing for the past four years without noticing it. If you haven’t put it together already, here is the rundown:

I met my husband when I was only just beginning to deeply explore my spirituality. We talked about it in depth over the course of our relationship, finding more and more that though we had different religions, we believed the exact same things. At the same time we were creating Dacus and Talia together, two characters who chose to come together, and had then followed us into our own relationship. Over time, Dacus has seemed to gather more and more symbolism that connects him to the Divine Masculine, while Talia has seemed to gather more and more symbolism that connected her to the Divine Feminine. This was not intentional under any means, and was only realized within the last few months. Perhaps I should also mention that Dacus was my character, while Talia was my husband’s character, and they were never intended to even end up as a couple. That happened over time as well.

As their stories go, when they are together they create perfect harmony within each other and ignite each other’s best selves. Just like they helped the sources of Divine Feminine and Masculine subtly harmonize within our lives. Just like they helped ignite the fires of Awen within my husband and I. While they inspired me even more to explore my spirituality, my exploration of my spirituality lead me to develop our characters, our creations, into more developed and divine entities. I have been living within Awen for the last several years, without even knowing that it was alive inside of me. Perhaps the greatest thing about all of this though, is that Dacus and Talia practically brought my husband and I together. If we had not started that project together which required their creation, I can almost guarantee we never would have started dating, and none of this beautiful craziness would have ever happened, including us getting married, and me finally finding the pagan path that I have been searching for.

Since that Saturday, Matt and I have looked into the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, and both plan on taking their Bardic grade soon. I have completed the documents that I have been working on for the last two years that were the outline of my own tradition, and I’ve modified it so that he can take part in rituals with me. Our plan is to be spiritual partners, and we plan on taking this very seriously, having finally found where we both belong. We’re also planning on restarting our podcast soon, although we’ll be taking down our first two episodes, will be revamping its topics a little bit, and will discus our journey as spiritual and magical partners rather than as a totally interfaith couple that we once were. We plan on keeping the podcasts’ name though. After all, it’s called “Of Orthodox and Awen.”

As Above, so below.

As within, so without.

As the Universe, so the Soul.

We are a microcosm of the Universe. All that we create is simultaneously creating us at the same time. For as I told my husband this week, while talking about the inner Universes that we have yet to discover:

“The gods are real, and they live inside of us.”

[scottmapess]

BITCOIN $2,000,000 SUPER-CYCLE!!! WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS SINCE 1930 IMMINENT?!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

No. Hey. Don’t do it. Now don’t do it. No. Do it. Do it. No, no, no, no, no. Don’t even think now what’s going on, guys? It’s K-Dub here with another episode of Crypto Zombie. Welcome back to the channel. Hope you’re having a great day today. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies falling as I’m making this video. We could see that we also had breaking news that the Dow essentially has opened 700 points lower. In fact, we have the International Monetary Fund saying that the economy this year is likely to suffer the worst financial crisis seen since the Great Depression. They expect that the overall economy will contract by 3 percent and we may see a partial recovery by next year. This all depends on the health crisis. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, gold is absolutely skyrocketing. It’s seen its highest levels in over seven and a half years. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still going sideways. We are coming very close to the end of a critical level where this uptrend will meet this very important moving average. And I am expecting a massive move for Bitcoin. Now, having a look right here, we do notice that searches for inflation hedge are at a 1 year high. However, the question is, with gold prices soaring, physical gold and silver. Very hard to come by. Will Bitcoin follow or are we looking for lower levels? I think yesterday’s video, a lot of people really didn’t understand the severity of the potential ban on stable coins. And I do want to discuss that. Some people saying we could be looking for a multi year bear market. OK. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. I also want to talk about one scenario known as the bitcoin supercycle, which if it does play out, we could see Bitcoin hit prices upwards of two million dollars per bitcoin. You heard me correct. This is an actual possibility. And I’m going to show you why in just a minute. And also, we do have the fact that China is looking to launch their national blockchain platform next week. What does this mean for bitcoin and cryptocurrency? Well, stick around and we’ll find out if you’re not subscribed to the crypto zombie channel. Definitely consider it. And before we move on, I have one super quick announcement. We do have the blockchain influencer awards. Once again, as you guys know, I did win Influencer of the Year last year. Thank you so much for everybody that voted. I am up for a few different categories this year, including educational video, news, video, and they do once again have me up for Influencer of the Year along with some other great names as well. If you guys are interested, I will drop the link below you. If you want to vote for me. You can if you don’t want to. You don’t have to. Basically, you just go here. You basically pick whoever you want. And as you can see, the only category that you do have to actually fill out is the influencer of the year. You can leave some of them blank. But I just wanted to let you guys know. Thank you so much again. They are doing this again. I will drop the link below. If you want to vote for me, you can. You don’t have to. But obviously it would be much appreciated if you do appreciate this content. Now into the meat and potatoes of the video. So you can see right here we have this 50 day moving average basically about to come to a cross and apex with this uptrend. Bitcoin is getting squashed. You could see right here it bounces down, touches the top, bounces down, and we are looking for a massive move. Now, we have pointed out the potential head and shoulders patterns right here. So we could have a drop all the way down to the five thousand eight hundred dollar level. Know if we are to break to the upside. Well, then we could see Bitcoin retest right here at around the $7200 level where we have the most accumulated v PVR. And if we were to break above that, we could see a seven thousand eight hundred dollar bitcoin. However, some people have pointed out that on the four hour chart we do have a seemy futures gap all the way down at three thousand five hundred seventy. However, this is on the four hour chart. If we do go this low, I personally don’t think it has anything to do with the Sameem Futures gap. I like to switch this only to the daily for me personally. That’s what I look at. And you know, if we were to pretty much just zoom out and have a look at this, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m looking more at this giant one up here at around nine thousand sixty dollars, if anything. And having a look right here, you are noticing that on the grandis V.P., V.R. of all bitcoin has respected sort of this six thousand four hundred dollar level. And as long as we could stay above the five thousand six hundred fifty dollar level, which is the two hundred weekly moving average, well, then I think that we could say Bitcoin is still in bullish territory, in fact. You can see once again, Robert, he Osaki has come out and said amid the virus crisis, it is great for gold, silver and Bitcoin. The U.S. is printing ten trillion in fake U.S. dollars to save the U.S. Fed. Well, we all know how that’s probably going to end, right. But I know what you’re saying. Gold is absolutely pumping. We’re seeing inflation head searches basically at an all time high in the past year. What is going on with Bitcoin? Why isn’t Bitcoin enjoying the uplift that gold is enjoying? Well, one possible reason, according to Jeff Dorman, he’s the chief investment officer over at ARCA Funds. He says that physical metal is so much easier to buy. That’s especially true for traditional investors who have long turned to gold as a safe haven, even during times of economic crisis and market turmoil. He basically says, hey, look, gold can easily be purchased from the same brokerage accounts as stocks and bonds, whereas Bitcoin cannot. So a lot of these people that were selling their money are selling their assets, selling their stocks. Now they’re sitting in cash, right. And now they’re thinking, well, what can I do with it? Well, it’s a lot easier to just switch that instantly into gold than it is to do into Bitcoin. It’s as plausible as an explanation as any given that Bitcoin was launched just 11 years ago. Also, you have to consider that gold has served as a symbol of riches, at least since the Sumerians civilized messa put Tamia. Now I want to start off with one bit of sort of negative news and then we’re going to switch to the positive news. And I want to give a massive shout out to the crypto lark. If you haven’t checked out his channel, definitely consider giving it subscribe. Subscribe to the channel he goes into. Why? What is happening right now? Potentially, if we do have a ban on stable coins, it could cause a massive. He calls it a savage price fall if central banks get their way. And I want you guys to check this video out super quick before we continue with sort of the positive news of the day. I am going to give this video a quick like before we play it. If you are a Bitcoin maximalists and you’re out there cheering this on, say, yeah, take down all the stable coins, man, wake the fook up. The exact same reasons that they are citing today to justify a stable coin ban that will be used against Bitcoin in the future. Yes, today it’s stable coins, but tomorrow it will be basically anything that threatens the Fiat monopoly that the central banks have over society. And that thing, if you are really a believer in bitcoin, is bitcoin. And while the bankers cannot shut bitcoin down, they can certainly do a whole heck of a lot to regulate it into impotence. The fight for financial freedom is everyone’s fight. Now look at a practical level here. It will not stop all stable coins. Would it certainly shut down the regulated and semi regulated ones, things like U.S. D-C and paxos as well as course as Teather. Now these coins are uniquely vulnerable because there are people who can be arrested and forced to shut the whole gosh darn thing down. There are bank accounts which can be seized by authorities, thus shutting the whole gosh darn thing down. Di, however, will be much, much harder to stop because this is really a decentralized, stable coin and it may not even be stoppable since it is really just a crypto backed collateral coin. But that remains to be seen if they will be able to stop that or not should all of this go through. And hey look. Yeah, sure, Teather is a mess. I’ve been very critical teller for a long time, but others like Dai in U.S. DC, they are not stable coins or a very useful part of the crypto economy and they should exist. Also a stable coin band likely through bitcoin into what could be the worst bear market of all time. I mean this if this happens, we could see a sub $1000 bitcoin. Hey, nice time for buyers, right? I would totally be stacking some bitcoin at those prices, but such an event I think would actually destroy a lot of people’s faith in the crypto industry over all now long term. This could be a positive for bitcoin only being traded directly in and out of fiat. But it will also push the industry more towards really highly regulated exchanges and more into the hands of Wall Street in the long run. The FSB man. Seriously, what the fuck are these guys anyway? More on elected bureaucrats. Just pull in our pants down and given us a dirty old Roggeveen wiping out stable coins. It is potentially also a natural progression towards central bank digital currencies, which make no mistake, those are coming and they will be very impactful when they do. The banking cartels are going to do anything that they can to maintain power which screw bankers. Seriously, what a bunch of douches. Never is your freedom given priority. It’s only ever their power, their money, their mates, their rules, their profits, their game. What a sick system delivered in decentralized systems. There’s so much more exciting than what we have right now. We must stop bowing down and submitting to the poor versions of these ruling elites. But one thing does remain certain in my mind, even if stable coins get crushed. Bitcoin Bitcoin will carry on. Bitcoin is the steady survivor. Rain or shine, hell or high water. The blocks just keep coming. The fight for financial freedom is now entering. The next phase in Bitcoin remains the tip of the spear. So hopefully that somewhat clarifies the negatives and the potential positives to the scenario. Now, I do want to flip it over to actually surprisingly another interview that was done by the crypto clerk with the director of business development at Cracking Dan Held. Now he is a bitcoin Ðoge. He has been around since the beginning and he explains why he thinks that this is bitcoins time and why he sees bitcoin potentially entering a super cycle where we could see a $2 million bitcoin. He basically says that the industry as a whole has grown immensely over the years, citing the rise in the number of investors holding Bitcoin, as well as an increase in mainstream coverage from outlets like CNBC. Also, not to mention the fact that we have seen a lot of investors pulling crypto off of the exchanges and putting them into hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano s.. Now, according to him, the current macro brak backdrop is fuel for Bitcoin’s future. He points to a contrarian argument that Bitcoin could begin what is known as a super cycle and move far beyond even the most bullish predictions. He says We’re seeing a scenario where there is a literal infinite amount of fiat that will be printed and there’s only twenty one million bitcoin. It’s hard to predict, but long term, maybe even late 2021 is when a lot of the models predict that we will see these historical highs. The classic models show us maybe 80000, maybe a three hundred thousand dollar bitcoin. But he says we could see something even crazier. We could see bitcoin enter a super cycle where everyone’s seen, you know, the graph of the logarithmic chart of bitcoin where you get that little boom, that bus, that boom, that bust. But what if Bitcoin went a step higher? What if it absolutely skyrocketed? If the world truly fears that their money is being devalued, every institution, every sovereign wealth fund, every central bank, if they all truly fear that bitcoin is not going to stop at one hundred thousand or three hundred thousand or even a million. In fact, we could see it go as high as two million dollars. Or we’ve even seen some people like Carl from the moon, for example, calling for a five million dollar bitcoin. This is possible. You have to consider inflation constant printing of the dollar. What this inflation is going to do in turn to a capped supply, a hard supply of 21 million, four million lost forever. Satoshi still got his right. So let me know what you think about that moving forward. Also, super quick, before we go, we do have some fake browser extensions that have been targeting crypto users. I just want to give you guys a warning. Be careful. Make sure you only download the software directly from the manufacturers. They are targeting ledgers treys or as djax Electrum might or what it wollett met a mass exodus. So be very safe. And if you’re looking to get a hardware wallet, make sure you get it directly from a trusted source. In fact, Ledger has a sale going on right now. You can get 27 percent off of Ledger if you do buy a family pack, but make sure that when you download the ledger software, you get it directly from the manufacturer, OK? And if you are looking to buy a ledger, natto X or S, you can use my link below. It does help support the channel. Also, I do have a tutorial if you’re interested how to learn to set it up that will be dropping above. So I will leave links below for that as well. And on a final note, China is set to launch its national blockchain platform next week. The platform, called the blockchain based service network, is aimed at helping companies deploy blockchain applications faster and cheaper. Will this be a problem for things such as a theorem and other decentralized, smart contract platforms? In my opinion, no, I don’t think it will be. I think if a company or a project wants to be decentralized and they want to use something like a theorem or, you know, Tasos or something of that nature, they already know what they’re getting into. They already know that they love the concept of decentralization and they’re not interested. I think this is going to be more towards just sort of enterprises that, you know, maybe want to comply with this national blockchain. But personally, I mean, I don’t really see it affecting things like a theorem and other blockchain platforms could be totally wrong. But for me, I think that people that want decentralized applications daps, they’re already in it for that reason. They already know what they want to use. I don’t really see this as a big problem, but that is just my opinion. So let me know what you. I think below about the bitcoin price, let me know what you think about Bitcoin getting dangerously close to this sort of apacs, let me know what you think about the Bitcoin supercycle or what you think about the stable coin ban. You could drop that all in the comments below. Also, if you’re interested, you can join the crypto zombies community totally free. Links above. Thank you so much again for coming back to the channel. You guys rock. The reason that I do this every single day. My name is K-Dub. This script is zombie until next time. Stay Krypto. And of course, peace out.

source https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-super-cycle-worst-financial-crisis/ source https://cryptosharks1.blogspot.com/2020/04/bitcoin-2000000-super-cycle-worst.html

[heatherrdavis1]

BITCOIN $2000000 SUPER-CYCLE!!! WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS SINCE 1930 IMMINENT?!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

No. Hey. Don’t do it. Now don’t do it. No. Do it. Do it. No, no, no, no, no. Don’t even think now what’s going on, guys? It’s K-Dub here with another episode of Crypto Zombie. Welcome back to the channel. Hope you’re having a great day today. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies falling as I’m making this video. We could see that we also had breaking news that the Dow essentially has opened 700 points lower. In fact, we have the International Monetary Fund saying that the economy this year is likely to suffer the worst financial crisis seen since the Great Depression. They expect that the overall economy will contract by 3 percent and we may see a partial recovery by next year. This all depends on the health crisis. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, gold is absolutely skyrocketing. It’s seen its highest levels in over seven and a half years. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still going sideways. We are coming very close to the end of a critical level where this uptrend will meet this very important moving average. And I am expecting a massive move for Bitcoin. Now, having a look right here, we do notice that searches for inflation hedge are at a 1 year high. However, the question is, with gold prices soaring, physical gold and silver. Very hard to come by. Will Bitcoin follow or are we looking for lower levels? I think yesterday’s video, a lot of people really didn’t understand the severity of the potential ban on stable coins. And I do want to discuss that. Some people saying we could be looking for a multi year bear market. OK. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. I also want to talk about one scenario known as the bitcoin supercycle, which if it does play out, we could see Bitcoin hit prices upwards of two million dollars per bitcoin. You heard me correct. This is an actual possibility. And I’m going to show you why in just a minute. And also, we do have the fact that China is looking to launch their national blockchain platform next week. What does this mean for bitcoin and cryptocurrency? Well, stick around and we’ll find out if you’re not subscribed to the crypto zombie channel. Definitely consider it. And before we move on, I have one super quick announcement. We do have the blockchain influencer awards. Once again, as you guys know, I did win Influencer of the Year last year. Thank you so much for everybody that voted. I am up for a few different categories this year, including educational video, news, video, and they do once again have me up for Influencer of the Year along with some other great names as well. If you guys are interested, I will drop the link below you. If you want to vote for me. You can if you don’t want to. You don’t have to. Basically, you just go here. You basically pick whoever you want. And as you can see, the only category that you do have to actually fill out is the influencer of the year. You can leave some of them blank. But I just wanted to let you guys know. Thank you so much again. They are doing this again. I will drop the link below. If you want to vote for me, you can. You don’t have to. But obviously it would be much appreciated if you do appreciate this content. Now into the meat and potatoes of the video. So you can see right here we have this 50 day moving average basically about to come to a cross and apex with this uptrend. Bitcoin is getting squashed. You could see right here it bounces down, touches the top, bounces down, and we are looking for a massive move. Now, we have pointed out the potential head and shoulders patterns right here. So we could have a drop all the way down to the five thousand eight hundred dollar level. Know if we are to break to the upside. Well, then we could see Bitcoin retest right here at around the $7200 level where we have the most accumulated v PVR. And if we were to break above that, we could see a seven thousand eight hundred dollar bitcoin. However, some people have pointed out that on the four hour chart we do have a seemy futures gap all the way down at three thousand five hundred seventy. However, this is on the four hour chart. If we do go this low, I personally don’t think it has anything to do with the Sameem Futures gap. I like to switch this only to the daily for me personally. That’s what I look at. And you know, if we were to pretty much just zoom out and have a look at this, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m looking more at this giant one up here at around nine thousand sixty dollars, if anything. And having a look right here, you are noticing that on the grandis V.P., V.R. of all bitcoin has respected sort of this six thousand four hundred dollar level. And as long as we could stay above the five thousand six hundred fifty dollar level, which is the two hundred weekly moving average, well, then I think that we could say Bitcoin is still in bullish territory, in fact. You can see once again, Robert, he Osaki has come out and said amid the virus crisis, it is great for gold, silver and Bitcoin. The U.S. is printing ten trillion in fake U.S. dollars to save the U.S. Fed. Well, we all know how that’s probably going to end, right. But I know what you’re saying. Gold is absolutely pumping. We’re seeing inflation head searches basically at an all time high in the past year. What is going on with Bitcoin? Why isn’t Bitcoin enjoying the uplift that gold is enjoying? Well, one possible reason, according to Jeff Dorman, he’s the chief investment officer over at ARCA Funds. He says that physical metal is so much easier to buy. That’s especially true for traditional investors who have long turned to gold as a safe haven, even during times of economic crisis and market turmoil. He basically says, hey, look, gold can easily be purchased from the same brokerage accounts as stocks and bonds, whereas Bitcoin cannot. So a lot of these people that were selling their money are selling their assets, selling their stocks. Now they’re sitting in cash, right. And now they’re thinking, well, what can I do with it? Well, it’s a lot easier to just switch that instantly into gold than it is to do into Bitcoin. It’s as plausible as an explanation as any given that Bitcoin was launched just 11 years ago. Also, you have to consider that gold has served as a symbol of riches, at least since the Sumerians civilized messa put Tamia. Now I want to start off with one bit of sort of negative news and then we’re going to switch to the positive news. And I want to give a massive shout out to the crypto lark. If you haven’t checked out his channel, definitely consider giving it subscribe. Subscribe to the channel he goes into. Why? What is happening right now? Potentially, if we do have a ban on stable coins, it could cause a massive. He calls it a savage price fall if central banks get their way. And I want you guys to check this video out super quick before we continue with sort of the positive news of the day. I am going to give this video a quick like before we play it. If you are a Bitcoin maximalists and you’re out there cheering this on, say, yeah, take down all the stable coins, man, wake the fook up. The exact same reasons that they are citing today to justify a stable coin ban that will be used against Bitcoin in the future. Yes, today it’s stable coins, but tomorrow it will be basically anything that threatens the Fiat monopoly that the central banks have over society. And that thing, if you are really a believer in bitcoin, is bitcoin. And while the bankers cannot shut bitcoin down, they can certainly do a whole heck of a lot to regulate it into impotence. The fight for financial freedom is everyone’s fight. Now look at a practical level here. It will not stop all stable coins. Would it certainly shut down the regulated and semi regulated ones, things like U.S. D-C and paxos as well as course as Teather. Now these coins are uniquely vulnerable because there are people who can be arrested and forced to shut the whole gosh darn thing down. There are bank accounts which can be seized by authorities, thus shutting the whole gosh darn thing down. Di, however, will be much, much harder to stop because this is really a decentralized, stable coin and it may not even be stoppable since it is really just a crypto backed collateral coin. But that remains to be seen if they will be able to stop that or not should all of this go through. And hey look. Yeah, sure, Teather is a mess. I’ve been very critical teller for a long time, but others like Dai in U.S. DC, they are not stable coins or a very useful part of the crypto economy and they should exist. Also a stable coin band likely through bitcoin into what could be the worst bear market of all time. I mean this if this happens, we could see a sub $1000 bitcoin. Hey, nice time for buyers, right? I would totally be stacking some bitcoin at those prices, but such an event I think would actually destroy a lot of people’s faith in the crypto industry over all now long term. This could be a positive for bitcoin only being traded directly in and out of fiat. But it will also push the industry more towards really highly regulated exchanges and more into the hands of Wall Street in the long run. The FSB man. Seriously, what the fuck are these guys anyway? More on elected bureaucrats. Just pull in our pants down and given us a dirty old Roggeveen wiping out stable coins. It is potentially also a natural progression towards central bank digital currencies, which make no mistake, those are coming and they will be very impactful when they do. The banking cartels are going to do anything that they can to maintain power which screw bankers. Seriously, what a bunch of douches. Never is your freedom given priority. It’s only ever their power, their money, their mates, their rules, their profits, their game. What a sick system delivered in decentralized systems. There’s so much more exciting than what we have right now. We must stop bowing down and submitting to the poor versions of these ruling elites. But one thing does remain certain in my mind, even if stable coins get crushed. Bitcoin Bitcoin will carry on. Bitcoin is the steady survivor. Rain or shine, hell or high water. The blocks just keep coming. The fight for financial freedom is now entering. The next phase in Bitcoin remains the tip of the spear. So hopefully that somewhat clarifies the negatives and the potential positives to the scenario. Now, I do want to flip it over to actually surprisingly another interview that was done by the crypto clerk with the director of business development at Cracking Dan Held. Now he is a bitcoin Ðoge. He has been around since the beginning and he explains why he thinks that this is bitcoins time and why he sees bitcoin potentially entering a super cycle where we could see a $2 million bitcoin. He basically says that the industry as a whole has grown immensely over the years, citing the rise in the number of investors holding Bitcoin, as well as an increase in mainstream coverage from outlets like CNBC. Also, not to mention the fact that we have seen a lot of investors pulling crypto off of the exchanges and putting them into hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano s.. Now, according to him, the current macro brak backdrop is fuel for Bitcoin’s future. He points to a contrarian argument that Bitcoin could begin what is known as a super cycle and move far beyond even the most bullish predictions. He says We’re seeing a scenario where there is a literal infinite amount of fiat that will be printed and there’s only twenty one million bitcoin. It’s hard to predict, but long term, maybe even late 2021 is when a lot of the models predict that we will see these historical highs. The classic models show us maybe 80000, maybe a three hundred thousand dollar bitcoin. But he says we could see something even crazier. We could see bitcoin enter a super cycle where everyone’s seen, you know, the graph of the logarithmic chart of bitcoin where you get that little boom, that bus, that boom, that bust. But what if Bitcoin went a step higher? What if it absolutely skyrocketed? If the world truly fears that their money is being devalued, every institution, every sovereign wealth fund, every central bank, if they all truly fear that bitcoin is not going to stop at one hundred thousand or three hundred thousand or even a million. In fact, we could see it go as high as two million dollars. Or we’ve even seen some people like Carl from the moon, for example, calling for a five million dollar bitcoin. This is possible. You have to consider inflation constant printing of the dollar. What this inflation is going to do in turn to a capped supply, a hard supply of 21 million, four million lost forever. Satoshi still got his right. So let me know what you think about that moving forward. Also, super quick, before we go, we do have some fake browser extensions that have been targeting crypto users. I just want to give you guys a warning. Be careful. Make sure you only download the software directly from the manufacturers. They are targeting ledgers treys or as djax Electrum might or what it wollett met a mass exodus. So be very safe. And if you’re looking to get a hardware wallet, make sure you get it directly from a trusted source. In fact, Ledger has a sale going on right now. You can get 27 percent off of Ledger if you do buy a family pack, but make sure that when you download the ledger software, you get it directly from the manufacturer, OK? And if you are looking to buy a ledger, natto X or S, you can use my link below. It does help support the channel. Also, I do have a tutorial if you’re interested how to learn to set it up that will be dropping above. So I will leave links below for that as well. And on a final note, China is set to launch its national blockchain platform next week. The platform, called the blockchain based service network, is aimed at helping companies deploy blockchain applications faster and cheaper. Will this be a problem for things such as a theorem and other decentralized, smart contract platforms? In my opinion, no, I don’t think it will be. I think if a company or a project wants to be decentralized and they want to use something like a theorem or, you know, Tasos or something of that nature, they already know what they’re getting into. They already know that they love the concept of decentralization and they’re not interested. I think this is going to be more towards just sort of enterprises that, you know, maybe want to comply with this national blockchain. But personally, I mean, I don’t really see it affecting things like a theorem and other blockchain platforms could be totally wrong. But for me, I think that people that want decentralized applications daps, they’re already in it for that reason. They already know what they want to use. I don’t really see this as a big problem, but that is just my opinion. So let me know what you. I think below about the bitcoin price, let me know what you think about Bitcoin getting dangerously close to this sort of apacs, let me know what you think about the Bitcoin supercycle or what you think about the stable coin ban. You could drop that all in the comments below. Also, if you’re interested, you can join the crypto zombies community totally free. Links above. Thank you so much again for coming back to the channel. You guys rock. The reason that I do this every single day. My name is K-Dub. This script is zombie until next time. Stay Krypto. And of course, peace out.

Via https://www.cryptosharks.net/bitcoin-super-cycle-worst-financial-crisis/

source https://cryptosharks.weebly.com/blog/bitcoin-2000000-super-cycle-worst-financial-crisis-since-1930-imminent

[jeffrmayhugh]

BITCOIN $2,000,000 SUPER-CYCLE!!! WORST FINANCIAL CRISIS SINCE 1930 IMMINENT?!

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

No. Hey. Don’t do it. Now don’t do it. No. Do it. Do it. No, no, no, no, no. Don’t even think now what’s going on, guys? It’s K-Dub here with another episode of Crypto Zombie. Welcome back to the channel. Hope you’re having a great day today. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies falling as I’m making this video. We could see that we also had breaking news that the Dow essentially has opened 700 points lower. In fact, we have the International Monetary Fund saying that the economy this year is likely to suffer the worst financial crisis seen since the Great Depression. They expect that the overall economy will contract by 3 percent and we may see a partial recovery by next year. This all depends on the health crisis. Meanwhile, while all of this is happening, gold is absolutely skyrocketing. It’s seen its highest levels in over seven and a half years. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies still going sideways. We are coming very close to the end of a critical level where this uptrend will meet this very important moving average. And I am expecting a massive move for Bitcoin. Now, having a look right here, we do notice that searches for inflation hedge are at a 1 year high. However, the question is, with gold prices soaring, physical gold and silver. Very hard to come by. Will Bitcoin follow or are we looking for lower levels? I think yesterday’s video, a lot of people really didn’t understand the severity of the potential ban on stable coins. And I do want to discuss that. Some people saying we could be looking for a multi year bear market. OK. Now, it’s not all doom and gloom. I also want to talk about one scenario known as the bitcoin supercycle, which if it does play out, we could see Bitcoin hit prices upwards of two million dollars per bitcoin. You heard me correct. This is an actual possibility. And I’m going to show you why in just a minute. And also, we do have the fact that China is looking to launch their national blockchain platform next week. What does this mean for bitcoin and cryptocurrency? Well, stick around and we’ll find out if you’re not subscribed to the crypto zombie channel. Definitely consider it. And before we move on, I have one super quick announcement. We do have the blockchain influencer awards. Once again, as you guys know, I did win Influencer of the Year last year. Thank you so much for everybody that voted. I am up for a few different categories this year, including educational video, news, video, and they do once again have me up for Influencer of the Year along with some other great names as well. If you guys are interested, I will drop the link below you. If you want to vote for me. You can if you don’t want to. You don’t have to. Basically, you just go here. You basically pick whoever you want. And as you can see, the only category that you do have to actually fill out is the influencer of the year. You can leave some of them blank. But I just wanted to let you guys know. Thank you so much again. They are doing this again. I will drop the link below. If you want to vote for me, you can. You don’t have to. But obviously it would be much appreciated if you do appreciate this content. Now into the meat and potatoes of the video. So you can see right here we have this 50 day moving average basically about to come to a cross and apex with this uptrend. Bitcoin is getting squashed. You could see right here it bounces down, touches the top, bounces down, and we are looking for a massive move. Now, we have pointed out the potential head and shoulders patterns right here. So we could have a drop all the way down to the five thousand eight hundred dollar level. Know if we are to break to the upside. Well, then we could see Bitcoin retest right here at around the $7200 level where we have the most accumulated v PVR. And if we were to break above that, we could see a seven thousand eight hundred dollar bitcoin. However, some people have pointed out that on the four hour chart we do have a seemy futures gap all the way down at three thousand five hundred seventy. However, this is on the four hour chart. If we do go this low, I personally don’t think it has anything to do with the Sameem Futures gap. I like to switch this only to the daily for me personally. That’s what I look at. And you know, if we were to pretty much just zoom out and have a look at this, it’s really not that big of a deal. I’m looking more at this giant one up here at around nine thousand sixty dollars, if anything. And having a look right here, you are noticing that on the grandis V.P., V.R. of all bitcoin has respected sort of this six thousand four hundred dollar level. And as long as we could stay above the five thousand six hundred fifty dollar level, which is the two hundred weekly moving average, well, then I think that we could say Bitcoin is still in bullish territory, in fact. You can see once again, Robert, he Osaki has come out and said amid the virus crisis, it is great for gold, silver and Bitcoin. The U.S. is printing ten trillion in fake U.S. dollars to save the U.S. Fed. Well, we all know how that’s probably going to end, right. But I know what you’re saying. Gold is absolutely pumping. We’re seeing inflation head searches basically at an all time high in the past year. What is going on with Bitcoin? Why isn’t Bitcoin enjoying the uplift that gold is enjoying? Well, one possible reason, according to Jeff Dorman, he’s the chief investment officer over at ARCA Funds. He says that physical metal is so much easier to buy. That’s especially true for traditional investors who have long turned to gold as a safe haven, even during times of economic crisis and market turmoil. He basically says, hey, look, gold can easily be purchased from the same brokerage accounts as stocks and bonds, whereas Bitcoin cannot. So a lot of these people that were selling their money are selling their assets, selling their stocks. Now they’re sitting in cash, right. And now they’re thinking, well, what can I do with it? Well, it’s a lot easier to just switch that instantly into gold than it is to do into Bitcoin. It’s as plausible as an explanation as any given that Bitcoin was launched just 11 years ago. Also, you have to consider that gold has served as a symbol of riches, at least since the Sumerians civilized messa put Tamia. Now I want to start off with one bit of sort of negative news and then we’re going to switch to the positive news. And I want to give a massive shout out to the crypto lark. If you haven’t checked out his channel, definitely consider giving it subscribe. Subscribe to the channel he goes into. Why? What is happening right now? Potentially, if we do have a ban on stable coins, it could cause a massive. He calls it a savage price fall if central banks get their way. And I want you guys to check this video out super quick before we continue with sort of the positive news of the day. I am going to give this video a quick like before we play it. If you are a Bitcoin maximalists and you’re out there cheering this on, say, yeah, take down all the stable coins, man, wake the fook up. The exact same reasons that they are citing today to justify a stable coin ban that will be used against Bitcoin in the future. Yes, today it’s stable coins, but tomorrow it will be basically anything that threatens the Fiat monopoly that the central banks have over society. And that thing, if you are really a believer in bitcoin, is bitcoin. And while the bankers cannot shut bitcoin down, they can certainly do a whole heck of a lot to regulate it into impotence. The fight for financial freedom is everyone’s fight. Now look at a practical level here. It will not stop all stable coins. Would it certainly shut down the regulated and semi regulated ones, things like U.S. D-C and paxos as well as course as Teather. Now these coins are uniquely vulnerable because there are people who can be arrested and forced to shut the whole gosh darn thing down. There are bank accounts which can be seized by authorities, thus shutting the whole gosh darn thing down. Di, however, will be much, much harder to stop because this is really a decentralized, stable coin and it may not even be stoppable since it is really just a crypto backed collateral coin. But that remains to be seen if they will be able to stop that or not should all of this go through. And hey look. Yeah, sure, Teather is a mess. I’ve been very critical teller for a long time, but others like Dai in U.S. DC, they are not stable coins or a very useful part of the crypto economy and they should exist. Also a stable coin band likely through bitcoin into what could be the worst bear market of all time. I mean this if this happens, we could see a sub $1000 bitcoin. Hey, nice time for buyers, right? I would totally be stacking some bitcoin at those prices, but such an event I think would actually destroy a lot of people’s faith in the crypto industry over all now long term. This could be a positive for bitcoin only being traded directly in and out of fiat. But it will also push the industry more towards really highly regulated exchanges and more into the hands of Wall Street in the long run. The FSB man. Seriously, what the fuck are these guys anyway? More on elected bureaucrats. Just pull in our pants down and given us a dirty old Roggeveen wiping out stable coins. It is potentially also a natural progression towards central bank digital currencies, which make no mistake, those are coming and they will be very impactful when they do. The banking cartels are going to do anything that they can to maintain power which screw bankers. Seriously, what a bunch of douches. Never is your freedom given priority. It’s only ever their power, their money, their mates, their rules, their profits, their game. What a sick system delivered in decentralized systems. There’s so much more exciting than what we have right now. We must stop bowing down and submitting to the poor versions of these ruling elites. But one thing does remain certain in my mind, even if stable coins get crushed. Bitcoin Bitcoin will carry on. Bitcoin is the steady survivor. Rain or shine, hell or high water. The blocks just keep coming. The fight for financial freedom is now entering. The next phase in Bitcoin remains the tip of the spear. So hopefully that somewhat clarifies the negatives and the potential positives to the scenario. Now, I do want to flip it over to actually surprisingly another interview that was done by the crypto clerk with the director of business development at Cracking Dan Held. Now he is a bitcoin Ðoge. He has been around since the beginning and he explains why he thinks that this is bitcoins time and why he sees bitcoin potentially entering a super cycle where we could see a $2 million bitcoin. He basically says that the industry as a whole has grown immensely over the years, citing the rise in the number of investors holding Bitcoin, as well as an increase in mainstream coverage from outlets like CNBC. Also, not to mention the fact that we have seen a lot of investors pulling crypto off of the exchanges and putting them into hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano s.. Now, according to him, the current macro brak backdrop is fuel for Bitcoin’s future. He points to a contrarian argument that Bitcoin could begin what is known as a super cycle and move far beyond even the most bullish predictions. He says We’re seeing a scenario where there is a literal infinite amount of fiat that will be printed and there’s only twenty one million bitcoin. It’s hard to predict, but long term, maybe even late 2021 is when a lot of the models predict that we will see these historical highs. The classic models show us maybe 80000, maybe a three hundred thousand dollar bitcoin. But he says we could see something even crazier. We could see bitcoin enter a super cycle where everyone’s seen, you know, the graph of the logarithmic chart of bitcoin where you get that little boom, that bus, that boom, that bust. But what if Bitcoin went a step higher? What if it absolutely skyrocketed? If the world truly fears that their money is being devalued, every institution, every sovereign wealth fund, every central bank, if they all truly fear that bitcoin is not going to stop at one hundred thousand or three hundred thousand or even a million. In fact, we could see it go as high as two million dollars. Or we’ve even seen some people like Carl from the moon, for example, calling for a five million dollar bitcoin. This is possible. You have to consider inflation constant printing of the dollar. What this inflation is going to do in turn to a capped supply, a hard supply of 21 million, four million lost forever. Satoshi still got his right. So let me know what you think about that moving forward. Also, super quick, before we go, we do have some fake browser extensions that have been targeting crypto users. I just want to give you guys a warning. Be careful. Make sure you only download the software directly from the manufacturers. They are targeting ledgers treys or as djax Electrum might or what it wollett met a mass exodus. So be very safe. And if you’re looking to get a hardware wallet, make sure you get it directly from a trusted source. In fact, Ledger has a sale going on right now. You can get 27 percent off of Ledger if you do buy a family pack, but make sure that when you download the ledger software, you get it directly from the manufacturer, OK? And if you are looking to buy a ledger, natto X or S, you can use my link below. It does help support the channel. Also, I do have a tutorial if you’re interested how to learn to set it up that will be dropping above. So I will leave links below for that as well. And on a final note, China is set to launch its national blockchain platform next week. The platform, called the blockchain based service network, is aimed at helping companies deploy blockchain applications faster and cheaper. Will this be a problem for things such as a theorem and other decentralized, smart contract platforms? In my opinion, no, I don’t think it will be. I think if a company or a project wants to be decentralized and they want to use something like a theorem or, you know, Tasos or something of that nature, they already know what they’re getting into. They already know that they love the concept of decentralization and they’re not interested. I think this is going to be more towards just sort of enterprises that, you know, maybe want to comply with this national blockchain. But personally, I mean, I don’t really see it affecting things like a theorem and other blockchain platforms could be totally wrong. But for me, I think that people that want decentralized applications daps, they’re already in it for that reason. They already know what they want to use. I don’t really see this as a big problem, but that is just my opinion. So let me know what you. I think below about the bitcoin price, let me know what you think about Bitcoin getting dangerously close to this sort of apacs, let me know what you think about the Bitcoin supercycle or what you think about the stable coin ban. You could drop that all in the comments below. Also, if you’re interested, you can join the crypto zombies community totally free. Links above. Thank you so much again for coming back to the channel. You guys rock. The reason that I do this every single day. My name is K-Dub. This script is zombie until next time. Stay Krypto. And of course, peace out.

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