#'we all need to train ourselves to not reflexively reply to all responses until we check' oh im going to be so bad at that

[thedeafprophet]

apparently there's bots on bluesky that literally are just setup to leave a confrontational response on posts. and damn if thats not something i'd absolutely fall for akfkfkgkj

[the-l-spacer]

Summary: In which Madeleine's latest attempt to hash things out with Espresso gets a little... out of hand.

This is my first cookie run fic i. genuinely can’t believe im writing for this game now. Anyways, hope ya like it!!

- 

He sees the knight striding towards him, spotless armour clinking smartly with each step he takes, cloak billowing ever-so-slightly behind him.

His lip curls, practically a reflex.

“Espresso. Do you have a moment?” Madeleine's voice, like his appearance, is meticulously crafted to capture the attention of anyone in his vicinity. A deep, resonant baritone that carries authority, brooks no room for disagreement, least of all disagreement from a particular surly practitioner of Coffee Magic.

Or at least, that’s what Madeleine likes to think. For all his chivalrous acts and airs seem to have no effect on Espresso in the slightest, who simply sighs and rolls his dark, bespectacled eyes.

“Do me a favour; skip the pretence that participation in this conversation is optional, and get to the point. I have research that needs attending to.”

Perhaps a few months ago, Espresso’s brusque reply would have stopped Madeleine in his tracks, wiped the genial smile off his face. But as it is, they’ve spent far too much time together (unwillingly, on Espresso’s part) for the other to be fazed by mere unfriendliness. So he simply barrels on as if Espresso had never spoken. “It appears as if that young band of cookies are keen on having us join their party.”

As one, they glance over to the campsite a little ways away, where Gingerbrave and Chilli Pepper are engaged in a mock-swordfight, wielding pieces of gathered firewood, with Wizard, Strawberry and Custard cheering on. Gingerbrave rushes forward, ‘sword’ held aloft, but Chilli Pepper sidesteps his attack, and before his momentum can carry him too far, grabs the scruff of his collar, and turns him to face her. “Sloppy work, kid. I could catch that coming from a mile away. Next time, try-” She pauses mid sentence, noticing Espresso and Madeleine’s gazes. She winks, and gives a two-fingered salute. “Hey! Wanna watch me spar with a buncha kids? There’s plenty of room on that log over there, but just a little warning, I charge adult spectators.”

Madeleine waves a hand. “No need to relieve our pockets just yet, friend Chilli Pepper. Espresso and I are perfectly content watching from afar.”

“And besides, we have better things to do,” Espresso adds, “Like being corralled by a paladin into having pointless conversations.” The last bit, he aims at Madeleine, who’s response is to grin wider.

If the irony in Espresso’s statement registers to Chilli Pepper, she doesn’t show it, and simply shrugs. “Don’t let me interrupt. You boys might wanna head a little further away to have that ‘pointless conversation’ though, it’s probably gonna get noisy up in this joint.”

“An excellent idea! My humblest thanks!” Madeleine sweeps into an exaggerated bow, and takes Espresso by the elbow. “My compatriot and I shall head a little further into the woods for our chat.”

Custard perks up at that, and shouts, “Be careful! There might still be cake monsters running around, and as king, I can’t let my subjects be hurt!”

“Not to worry, we’re more than capable of defending ourselves. If our previous encounters with those beasts suggested anything...”

As Madeleine talks, Espresso discretely tries to wriggle free from the hand on his elbow, but his attempts prove futile, Madeleine’s grip is loose but firm, forming a little cage around his arm.

He lets his arm go limp, and when the grasp loosens slightly in response, he flicks his free hand, around which (unbeknownst to the jabbering knight) shadows had been gathering for quite some time.

A tendril of magic whips around and strikes Madeleine’s wrist.

“-And as Knight of the Madeleine House, I was trained since I was but a little cookie, much like your merry band, to- ah!” When the tendril connects with a small thwack, he releases Espresso, jerking away as if burned (in actuality, the magic was really just a moderately heated slap. Espresso didn’t want to do any serious damage to Madeleine, after all.)

The seemingly permanent smile on the knight’s face falters, just for a second, and Espresso allows himself a moment of schadenfreude.

“Is... is everything okay, Madeleine?” Strawberry pipes up from her spot on the log.

“Quite alright, quite alright.” The ten-carat smile is back in full force, and once again, he waves his (non-injured) hand airily, though Espresso notes with some satisfaction the displeased side glance Madeleine shoots at him.

Espresso’s face pulls into a smile of his own, falsely sweet. “Well. Shall we be off, then?” He begins walking into the woods. True, he would much rather be tucked away in some quiet corner, poring over magical scrolls, but if he has to be subjected to this... chat, at least he can try to have some fun while doing so. Make Madeleine regret initiating contact, make him trail behind for once.

And sure enough, Madeleine follows after him, making long strides to catch up.

As they retreat into the forest, Gingerbrave shouts, “Come back in time for dinner! We’re having sweet jelly stew!”

“We’ll be there,” Madeleine replies, not needing to raise his voice for it to carry across the clearing where they had set up camp.

The other cookies give their final waves, and return to sparring, the sounds of cheering and wood striking wood fading the deeper in Espresso and Madeleine travel.

- 

Eventually, the noises from the campsite fade entirely, replaced by the chirping of birds, and the soft rustling of trees. The last of the day’s light dapples through the jelly forest’s leaves, and Espresso might have called the whole scene pleasant, if not for the cookie next to him.

They come to a stop in a forest clearing. “Is this far enough for your liking, oh Knight-Commander of House Madeleine?”

Madeleine leans against a tree, the light glinting off his armour. “You know, the attitude really isn’t necessary, and neither,” he cocks his head, glossy hair spilling over one shoulder, his reprimanding smile akin to a teacher lecturing a particularly irritating student, “was the use of dark magic back there.”

Espresso smirks. “Ah. Have I discovered your weakness? Is the pride of House Madeleine scared of a little magic? I just meant for it to tickle, really.”

A scowl begins to form on Madeleine’s face, before he schools it back into careful neutrality. “You must be intelligent enough to grasp my meaning. It’s not the act itself, it’s the…” He gestures loosely in the air, his right hand still slightly red, “... the spirit of it all. Cookies who fight together shouldn’t turn on one another. It simply isn’t right.”

“Mmm. Mm hmm. Of course it isn’t.” Espresso, in a bid to minimize the dirt from the forest floor getting on his robes, opts to hover just a little above the ground, and Madeleine has to crane his neck to meet his gaze. “And I’m sure wrestling the cookie you’re supposed to be fighting with into the woods is so much more excusable.”

Madeleine bristles. “You wouldn’t have agreed to this conversation otherwise, as you’ve made so abundantly clear in the past. All I did was ensure you wouldn’t be able to weasel your way out of the inevitable yet another time.”

“What about our current situation makes you think this conversation is inevitable?” Espresso snaps. “I’ve told you time and time again I don’t care for your company. Our paths crossed once, we travelled together briefly to achieve our own goals, and parted ways. We work together acceptably, and we tolerate each other, barely. What more is there to be said between us?”

“Well, for one,” Madeleine says, standing just a bit straighter, as if to deliver a set of prepared lines, “I was telling you, before we were interrupted, that Gingerbrave and his fellows seem eager to have us as travelers alongside them.”

“Yes. And?”

“And I’m sure you are as keen as I am on accepting their offer.”

Espresso stiffens. He hates cookies who presume things about him, and more than that, he hates when those presumptions are right. After a moment, he bites out, “Even if I was, what of it.”

“We’ll be traveling together once again. Serving as their protectors, and all that.”

“So what? As I said, we’ve travelled in each other’s companies before.”

“Yes, but I believe this will be our longest journey yet. They seek answers, a way to defeat the evil forces rising, and this is no easy feat.”

“I seek no such thing,” Espresso scoffs, folding his arms. “I only know that they’re searching for the Forgotten Academy, and that particular locality has a library I’ve been meaning to peruse for a while. I plan to travel with them until that point, where we will then part ways.”

“Even then, according to my maps the Forgotten Academy is weeks away. Maybe a month. Months, if we keep up our current pace. A considerable amount of time that allows for sour dough to spoil further. I simply think it… unwise, to allow things between us two to reach such a point.” Having finally said his piece, Madeleine pushes himself off the roll cake trunk, and starts towards Espresso, open palm outstretched.

No, not again. They had done this dance before, and Espresso isn’t planning to retrace those steps. He whizzes backward, out of Madeleine’s reach.

“I’m not interested in becoming friends, knight,” he spits. “And I tire of your constant overtures.”

Madeleine’s hand returns to his side in an impatient motion. “Must you insist on being this- this difficult?” He asks, voice fraught with frustration. “It is a simple offer. Put our differences aside and work together amicably, if only to to make our journey more tolerable for us and our companions.”

“Ahhh but there’s the rub, Madeleine,” Espresso retorts, “I’m afraid our differences are too great to reconcile. If that is all you have for me, I think I’ll be returning to camp. I would say it’s been a pleasure, but… you know better.”

He makes to leave, floating quickly away to leave the knight behind, but catches a blur of movement from the corner of his eye. Before he can react, Madeline moves forward, his armour and shield glowing. With a flash, the shield comes down on the edge of Espresso’s long, dark cloak, pinning it to the forest floor.

Both of them hear the telltale sound of ripping fabric.

“Don’t move.” Madeleine warns.

Espresso’s vision goes red. He gathers the shadows to him, wreathing his clenched fists in black swirls of magic.

He doesn’t move.

A pause, then the shield lifts.

Espresso doesn’t wait to rush backward, heading straight for Madeleine. This time, it’s the knight that finds himself unprepared, as Espresso grabs him, and with the help of his magic, lifts him in the air, slamming him against the trunk of the nearest tree.

“Don’t. Touch. Me,” he growls.

Their faces are close enough now that Espresso sees the tiniest twitch of fear in Madeleine’s expression. He doesn’t yield, keeping him pinned to the trunk.

Madeleine speaks, holding both hands up in a conciliatory gesture. “Now, now, I admit I was rather hasty, but there really is no need for-“

“- doesn’t feel nice, does it? Being trapped against your will?” Espresso cuts him off.

“Listen. I’m sorry things had to come to that point.”

Espresso sneers. Just as he predicted, Madeleine’s ‘apology’ is anything but. His mouth forms the syllables, but like a pedestrian one accidentally jostles on the street, his ‘sorry’ is merely a formality, said to hear the sound of his own voice.

Espresso doesn’t buy it, is what he’s saying.

“Save it. Save your pithy little apologies and insincere attempts at friendship for some other cookie.”

Madeleine’s face twists in indignation. “I’m not being insincere!”

Espresso drops him unceremoniously, the knight’s armour clattering when he lands on the soft earth. He tries not to betray his own fatigue, both in mind and body. Madeleine is heavy after all, weighed down further by his armour and weapons, making the act of holding him aloft (even aided by magic) one that had taken a not-insignificant toll on him. His feet touch down lightly on the ground, the glowing aura around him fades.

“Oh, spare me,” Espresso says coldly. “Every action, every toss of your hair or flick of your cloak, every word that comes out of your mouth betrays your insincerity.”

Having gathered himself, Madeleine finally snaps, drawing his sword from its scabbard with a metallic hiss. “How dare you.” His voice, a dangerous murmur, grows louder and louder, until it carries to the treetops. “I don’t know what I have done to offend you so. I attempted to be friendly, and reach out with offers of peace, as my family taught me to do for years, but you insist on rebuffing me, sullying my good name with your.. your insolence!”

The sword is pointed at Espresso’s throat, now, and the magician takes a careful step backward, keeping an eye on the gleaming blade. Madeleine doesn’t seem to notice, however, as he barks, “I’ve been lenient in the past, but as a cookie of honour, I can’t let such words continue to slide. The Divine, protect me!”

Celestial light bathes the forest clearing, surrounding Madeleine in its radiance. He lunges forward and swings his sword, a ray of light arcing from its blade. Espresso, caught unawares, finds himself knocked back, sent stumbling to catch his footing.

He regains his balance, clutching on to a tree branch, and counters the next light ray with an explosion of coffee beans that makes Madeleine's attack fizzle out.

“You know I’m right about you,” Espresso taunts, “in fact, we both know this is all a little charade you put on, because-” he plants his feet firmly in the ground, bracing himself against a third wave of light magic. “- beneath all your bravado, your shiny armour and fancy new weapons, you are empty.”

“That’s not true!” Madeleine roars, attempting to close the distance between them. But Espresso splays his hands, and a swirling vortex forms, pulling the paladin backward and into its dark center. Madeleine staggers in pain.

“You’re just a selfish glory-seeker, as slow and soulless as the monsters that- gah!”

Dexterity had never been his strong suit, so when Madeleine’s retaliating attack comes, he doesn’t dodge quickly enough. He sees the sword swing, feels an impact across his face, before his world goes blurry.

His glasses!

A lance of panic spikes through his chest.

He can’t see. He can’t see and he can’t look for his glasses either because if he steps on them that’s it. And Madeleine will win or worse he’ll just leave him here, in the middle of the woods.

The attacks stop coming.

The forest is silent once more, but for the two cookies’ heavy breathing.

Then, Espresso hears the crunching of leaves, sees the blurry shape of Madeleine stride towards him. He readies his magic. Madeleine passes him, and bends down over a spot Espresso can’t quite see.

A familiar metallic object is pressed into his hand.

“Your glasses.”

In a flash, Espresso has them on again, and exhales in relief when the forest comes back into focus.

“I never meant to knock them over. I’m sorry.”

Espresso is about to respond, but Madeleine says, “We should not have let our discussion escalate like this.”

“I’m sorry. We?!” Espresso’s recently restored vision colours. “When it was you who dealt the first blow? You, who initiated this discussion in the first place, who-” He trails off, righteous indignation fading slightly when he sees Madeleine, who stands at arm’s length away from him, both hands resting on the pommel of his sword, his expression unreadable.

“..Yes. Fine. As allies, we shouldn’t have turned on each other like this.”

Madeleine says nothing, so Espresso continues. “But as our previous attempts at civility have shown, you are incapable of holding a conversation without trying to domineer over me, push me into situations I do not want to be in. And I… I admit that I went too far in my personal assessments of you, but the fact remains that I simply cannot work with you beyond what we already are. Allies, and nothing more.”

For the second time, Espresso begins walking back to camp. Madeleine makes no attempt to stop him. “Thank you for retrieving my glasses. Good evening.”

Before he can fully retreat into the copse of trees, he hears Madeleine’s voice, saying, “Wait.”

Espresso pauses for a moment, and continues walking.

“Wait. Please.”

The word ‘please’ sounds so strange on Madeleine’s lips, and Espresso realises he can’t recall if the cookie had ever said the word in all the time they had worked together.

He turns his head.

Madeleine is leaned against a tree, arms folded and a foot kicked up against the trunk. His face is hidden by a curtain of hair.

“You are from The Republic, yes?”

Thrown by the sudden question, Espresso says, “Yes. The both of us are.”

“You’re aware that The Republic is a peaceful nation. No conflict within its gates, no monsters to be found without.”

Where is this going? Espresso responds, “Safe, sterile, and utterly boring. I’m aware.”

“Then what,” Madeleine turns his face away from Espresso, addressing the trees, “what use do you think such a nation has for soldiers? For knights?”

Oh.

Madeleine laughs, not his usual hearty guffaw, filled to the brim with bravado, but a short and bitter exhalation. “Do you know what it’s like to be, as you called me, the ‘slow’ one, in a family of scholars and politicians? For your only prowess to be your physical strength, in a place where that skill is entirely unnecessary?”

“But the knight order you lead-”

“- is purely for show. Just cookies dressed up in shiny armour to remind the other kingdoms we’re not to be trifled with. None of them have actually seen a day of real combat outside of sparring.”

Espresso is back in the clearing, picking a position next to Madeleine so he doesn’t see his sympathetic expression.

“Then… the reason you and all the knights were sent out?”

“As I said, my mission was to seek the legendary Soul Jam that is supposed to grant us cookies eternal life. Not that anyone in the Republic really expects us to find it.”

“They wanted to get rid of you, then.”

Madeleine visibly flinches at Espresso’s words. “I wouldn’t put it so bluntly, but… yes. I’m welcome back home, of course. If I were to return, I’d be met with trumpets and fanfare, but not much else, and certainly not anything approaching respect from those who truly matter.” The knight clenches his fist. “This quest is to be my saving grace. My only purpose, and the only way one like me can conceivably bring pride to House Madeleine. The only way I can be of use”

Espresso regards Madeleine, the revelation casting the cookie in a new light.

“So.. yes, Espresso. I am a selfish glory-seeker. Perhaps I have no other choice but to be.” Madeleine’s previously ramrod-straight posture is gone, and in its place his fists are clenched, shoulders hunched inwards, his hair tumbling forward, shielding his face from view.

And a small part of Espresso feels the strangest urge to push that hair back, to place a comforting hand on the paladin’s shoulder. Anything to stop what has to be the strongest — the most annoying, surely, but the strongest nevertheless — cookie he knows from curling into himself, from hurting like this.

But he holds himself back. All he lets out is a soft, “I think I know how you feel. Not entirely, but some of it.”

Madeleine turns to look at Espresso, a blank expression on his face. “You do.”

The mage lets a spark of magic fly from his hand - a single, glowing coffee bean surrounded by dark shadow. “You have called what I do ‘black magic’ in the past.”

Madeleine, suddenly stricken, says, “I wouldn’t go so far as to call it ‘black magic’, but-”

“- Listen. You have, countless times. And it annoys me to no end, but I understand why. It does look like it, no?” He conjures more coffee beans, letting them spin in circles around him. “I’ve had this ability since I was a child. It did not come from dark origins, I did not make a pact with evil forces to obtain it, as some have believed. It simply was. My magic, like your physical strength, is a part of me.”

Madeleine simply nods.

“But people don’t understand Coffee Magic. Whenever I demonstrated my abilities, I’d be shunned, the respectable citizens of our beloved Republic saying that I was a child of Dark Enchantress Cookie.”

“Espresso…” His magic fizzles out, and now, it is his turn to look away, incapable of facing the pity that is surely in Madeleine’s gaze.

“I was barred from every magic school. I had to learn, and practice, and make it on my own. If I didn’t have Latte Cookie, I don’t know how I would have-” Espresso shakes his head. “No matter. All I am saying is that I do know how it feels, not to belong. To have to carve a place for yourself among people who can’t respect you.”

A hand settles on his shoulder, and Espresso almost flinches. He looks up, and his gaze meets Madeleine’s, earnest and apologetic. “Espresso, first and foremost, I am sorry that I ripped your cloak in trying to keep you here.”

Espresso’s eyes travel to his torn (and expensive) wizard’s cloak. “It’s fine. I’ll just have to get it repaired once we return to camp.”

Madeleine continues. “And I’m sorry, truly sorry that I misjudged you based on your magic. That I pushed when I should have respected your wishes. Respected you.”

And this time, Espresso believes Madeleine’s words. He lets his own hand creep upwards to rest over the knight’s.

He sighs. “And I apologise, too. I made undue assumptions about you, and let these assumptions colour my actions. I treated you poorly, and for that, I’m sorry.”

When their eyes meet again, it is as if the forest goes silent, nature’s rustle and hum being forgotten as the two look at each other, and for the first time, understand.

Of course, no moment can truly last, and it is Espresso who breaks the spell, gently moving Madeleine’s hand off his shoulder. “Naturally, don’t think this means I’ll let you strongarm me into doing whatever you want me to. You still irritate me. Incessantly.”

Madeleine chuckles. “Naturally. Besides, I do not imagine such actions will be necessary in the future. I think we understand each other perfectly clearly, now.”

Espresso lets a grin creep across his face. Rolling his eyes, he says, “Don’t assume you know everything based on a tidbit of my past. I encompass multitudes, Knight-Commander.”

“In turn, I request that you not write me off just yet,” Madeleine responds teasingly. “I may not know everything about you, but I would be very interested to,”

Both their eyes widen, Madeleine realising the forwardness of his statement. “That is. I will give you the space you need, certainly, but if you ever feel like-”

“- Wait. Stop.” Espresso takes a breath, lets it out. “I- I do feel the same way. You’re a good fighter, and I did not let myself give you a fair chance.”

He crosses the short distance between them, and extends a hand. “I’m Espresso Cookie of The Republic. Founder of the Coffee Magic School. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

Madeleine regards the outstretched hand in wonder.

"... Don't make a big deal of it, knight."

He puffs out his chest, taking Espresso’s hand. “And I’m Madeleine Cookie of The Republic. Servant of The Divine, Knight Comm-” He stops himself, clears his throat. Then, he smiles and simply says, “I’m Madeleine Cookie. It’s an honour to get to know you.”

[twinklysmiles]

Not a Word of This to Anyone! (Or: A Ticklish Spa Day)   Part 1: Pedicure

A Star Trek Tickle Fic

Fandom: Star Trek TOS / AOS Characters: Leonard Bones McCoy, James T. Kirk (McKirk at a stretch), Nyota Uhura, Christine Chapel  Warnings: Tickling  Word Count: 2,488

Summary: Kirk and McCoy get roped into joining Chapel and Uhura on a spa day, which turns out to be a rather ticklish experience. They seriously regret their decision as they helplessly suffer through a pedicure and a full body massage.

Inspired by this gif:  (although I can actually picture AOS Kirk and McCoy even better in this one)

“So, what are you up to today, girls?” Kirk asked Uhura and Chapel over breakfast in the luxurious hotel most of his crew had booked into for shore leave on this amazing recreation planet’s gorgeous “Earth Island”, a resort specifically designed to cater to human tastes and needs. They had certainly earned some real R&R after what they’d been through recently.

“Oh, we’re treating ourselves to a long overdue spa day, aren’t we?” Uhura beamed, glancing at Chapel and sighing contentedly. “Want to join us?”

“Where’s Spock?” McCoy cut in quickly, hoping to distract Kirk before he started to seriously consider Uhura’s suggestion. “Is he skipping breakfast today? I haven’t seen him yet.”

Knowing Jim, the doctor was afraid that the captain might actually take Uhura up on her offer, and he really didn’t want to have a spa day. The thought of having his body touched and prodded for a whole day made him uneasy. He was … sensitive.

“Spock, Scotty and Pavel already left for a conference on warp engineering or whatever,” Uhura replied, rolling her eyes at the idea of wasting precious shore leave time on something like that.

To McCoy’s regret, however, Chapel took up the spa day subject again.

“So, what’s your answer, Captain? Doctor? Are you coming with us? Treat yourselves to some pampering, too?”

“I don’t think that’s for us,” McCoy muttered, casting Kirk a glance that clearly said, ‘Don’t even think about it!’ Which, of course, only served to pique the captain’s interest even more.

“Don’t be a spoilsport, Bones!” he exclaimed, giving McCoy his broadest grin. “I think that’s a splendid idea! We should definitely try it!”

“Oh, come on, Doctor,” Chapel chimed in. “You, of all people, seriously need to relax!”

“And I will,” McCoy insisted, “just not at a spa!”

“You’re not turning into a macho man, are you, Leonard?” Uhura teased, and the doctor knew that she had him. He just couldn't let her get away with an accusation like this.

“All right,” he grudgingly agreed, “maybe for a couple of hours. What are you starting with?”

“A pedicure,” Chapel smiled. “They’re so relaxing!”

“A pedicure?” McCoy gulped, sounding almost as horror-stricken as he felt. “How on earth can that be relaxing? I couldn't handle a pedicure, I’m far too…”

He broke off midsentence, catching himself just in time before giving away too much.

‘Ticklish!’ Chapel thought gleefully, silently completing the sentence.

That was why she’d suggested the pedicure in the first place. As a nurse, she knew a lot of intimate details about the crew members of the Enterprise, like people’s various tickle spots, for example, most of which were inevitably brought to light during physical exams. If a crew member was ticklish, Chapel probably knew it. And where, too. And she absolutely loved to exploit that knowledge a little, although no one would suspect.

McCoy, for example, was more than a little ticklish on the soles of his feet, as she’d found out when he’d sprained his ankle a while ago. Especially on his heels and the balls of his feet, which practically screamed for a little pedicure fun.

Chapel also knew that Kirk was seriously ticklish. He was incredibly sensitive on his belly. To the extent that she had to pin him down, his fingers desperately digging into her arms, whenever Dr. McCoy had to check his abdomen. She had no idea about the sensitivity of his feet, though. But she’d certainly like to find out.

“Well, let’s go!” Kirk threw his napkin on the table and got up. “Time’s a wastin’! There’s only so much shore leave left!”

McCoy shook his head at his friend’s enthusiasm, debating whether it was still possible for him to chicken out. But when he looked at the women’s challenging faces, he knew there was no way they’d ever let him live it down if he did. How he was supposed to live through a pedicure, however, he wasn’t so sure, either.

‘Dammit, I’ll somehow survive it,’ he thought, trying to convince himself.  After all, a lot of people got pedicures, and a lot of people were ticklish. Especially on their feet. Although maybe not as acutely as he was. He suppressed a shudder.

Besides, just like physicians, pedicurists were bound to be trained in how not to tickle, weren’t they? As a doctor, and being excruciatingly ticklish himself, he was always careful to make his touch as little ticklish as possible, always very attentive to any tell-tale reactions, and trying not to tickle his patients more than necessary.

‘Not so, Christine’, he thought wryly. Over the years, working with her, he’d almost got the impression that she actually enjoyed tickling patients, and rather liked to exploit tickle spots when she found them. He’d even wanted to talk to her about it several times, but found the issue too embarrassing. Too close to home. So, he’d contented himself with trying to keep her away from the more ticklish patients, at least the ones he knew of. Like Jim or Chekov.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Uhura and Chapel enjoyed themselves immensely, watching their friends having their pedicures. Like a lot of men, Jim and Leonard were clearly not used to having their feet touched, both of them quite obviously finding the procedure terribly ticklish, although dealing with it very differently.

While Kirk was just giggling away unashamedly, enjoying a good laugh and warning his pedicurist that he couldn't be held responsible for his reflexes and possible resulting injuries, if it tickled too much, as well as telling her that he didn’t think he could last all the way to the end, McCoy desperately tried to hide his growing distress, clearly deeply embarrassed about his ticklishness.

But Chapel guessed that his feet were way more ticklish than Kirk’s, and was pretty sure that he’d soon lose the fight. His lips pressed tightly together, his expression almost comically rigid, tears starting to spill from his eyes, he was a picture of ticklish agony.

No matter how hard he tried, the doctor couldn't hide what a harrowing ordeal this was for him. His spasming body treacherously betraying how the pedicurist’s ticklish touches were killing him. And she hadn’t even started on the serious scraping and scratching part, or used her super-weapon, the rotating pumice stone, yet.

Gripping the armrests of his chair so hard, his knuckles went completely white, McCoy did his best to keep a straight face and not show how unbearably it tickled. But the pedicurist, of course, immediately noticed his predicament and, exchanging a mischievous glance with her colleague working on Kirk’s feet, made her touches extra ticklish until the doctor finally burst out laughing and just couldn't stop again.

By the time the two pedicurists were done with their respective ‘victims’ first foot, the two Starfleet officers were a ticklish mess. Even Kirk’s laughter seemed forced now, and poor McCoy had nearly fallen off his chair several times, what with all his writhing and bucking.

And while the captain had issued a continuous, if incoherent stream of half-hearted pleas for mercy, which he’d seemed to get more serious about when his pedicurist had started to work his soles over with her spinning pumice stone, the doctor had been helpless to get a single word out from the moment he’d first erupted with laughter.

McCoy had been bouncing up and down in his seat like mad, shaking his head from side to side, holding on to the armrests for dear life, and visibly just hanging on by a thread, trying to somehow get through this excruciatingly ticklish ordeal.

Chapel couldn't tear her eyes away, mesmerised by how incredibly ticklish the doctor’s feet really were, and even Uhura was clearly enjoying the show.

Kirk regained his breath shortly after his pedicurist had finished his first foot, but it took McCoy almost a minute to calm down and stop giggling.

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Enough,” the doctor finally gasped, “one foot is enough for life.”

“Oh, don’t be an infant!” Chapel and Uhura said almost at the same time, then looked at each other and burst out laughing while McCoy gave them his best scowl.

“I’ve had more ticklish patients, believe me,” his pedicurist said, grinning widely, and McCoy blushed furiously, hating to have his embarrassing ticklishness so bluntly addressed. Then she cheekily added, “At least I didn’t have to strap you down!”, the mere idea almost giving the doctor a heart attack. “But usually,” she continued with a reassuring smile that could or could not have been sincere, “once you’ve made it through your first foot, the second one isn’t so bad anymore. Your feet just need some time to get used to the sensation.”

McCoy was just about to politely decline, much rather enduring Uhura’s and Chapel’s eternal teasing than going through such atrocious tickling again, when Kirk challenged him, “Come on, Bones, you’re tougher than that! If I can take it, so can you. Besides, we haven’t laughed nearly enough lately. And you always say “laughter is the best medicine”, don’t you?”

“I never say that,” the doctor grumbled, but when he saw three pairs of eyes wickedly smirking at him, he put his second foot back up on the footrest with a sigh. So, his friends had discovered his greatest, most shameful weakness. He’d show them that he could take this like a man.

Only he couldn't. Not even for a second. He regretted his foolish decision the moment the pedicurist put her first tickle tool to use on his sensitive sole, causing him to instantly double over and dissolve into uncontrollable laughter once more.

The sensation was so unbearably ticklish, he couldn't even beg her to stop again, the air being forced out of his lungs as he helplessly fell into silent laughter. It most certainly didn’t tickle any less than it had on the other foot. In fact, it seemed to tickle even worse. Pure, unadulterated tickle hell.

Just the pedicurist’s grip on his toes, as she trimmed and filed his nails, was insanely ticklish, but the torture multiplied, when she started scraping his calloused heels, and again, when she set to work on the horrendously sensitive balls of his feet. He wriggled around in his chair, covering his face with his hands and laughing harder than he could ever remember.

McCoy vaguely noticed Kirk howling with laughter next to him, too, but his considerations whether or not Jim’s other foot also seemed to be more ticklish, were cruelly cut short when his pedicurist turned on this diabolical pumice device, clearly invented by the devil himself with the sole purpose to tickle him to death.

Suffering through the longest, and certainly most humiliating minutes of his life, he didn’t even care what a ridiculous and sorry sight he must be anymore. All he cared about was for this horrendously ticklish nightmare to finally be over.

One might almost think the pedicurist was prolonging his ordeal on purpose, but then again, she might just be doing her job, without any intention to torture him. After all, his feet had always been unspeakably ticklish. Definitely his second most ticklish spot.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Watching the men writhe and wriggle, doubled up with laughter over a simple pedicure, was greatly entertaining for Uhura and Chapel. And when Uhura asked her friend in a whisper, “Do you think they’re tickling them deliberately?” the nurse just nodded with a huge grin on her face.

They certainly were. Not only were they still going strong, while the women’s feet were long finished, but even though Chapel knew that McCoy’s feet were horribly ticklish, and had anticipated the spinning pumice stones to seriously torment him, this was way more intense than your average pedicure.

She almost pitied Kirk and the doctor. Almost. It was just too much fun to see the strong and proud men being tickled out of their minds. For a tickle fiend like Chapel, this was almost too good to be true. But Uhura didn’t seem to mind too much, either, Christine thought wryly. But then, of course, it was “only tickling”, right?

When the men’s ordeal was finally over, and they slowly recovered, wiping the tears off their faces, McCoy taking considerably longer to regain his breath and his composure than Kirk, Chapel couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that the fun was over again already. Therefore, the pedicurists’ unexpected next words totally made her day.

“You poor guys!” McCoy’s pedicurist sweetly smiled at both men, the sympathy on her face appearing almost genuine. “You really have it bad, don’t you? To make up for all the suffering you’ve just gone through, we’d like to offer you a full body massage at half-price, if you’re interested.”

Kirk and McCoy immediately declined, clearly just wanting to get the hell out of this torture chamber, hopping off their chairs as soon as their tormentors released their feet, and hastily putting on their socks and shoes. But when one of the pedicurists grinned and gave Chapel and Uhura a mischievous wink, the two women instantly got the message and started talking their friends into accepting the offer.

“This is one of the most famous spas in the whole galaxy!” Uhura gushed. “You’re so lucky!”

“She’s right, Doctor! Captain?” Chapel agreed. “They’re always fully booked. People pay good money to even get a spot, and you’re being offered one right away. And at a 50% discount, too! You’d be crazy not to take it!”

oOoOoOoOoOo

“Thanks, but no, thanks,” McCoy croaked, his voice still hoarse from shrieking with laughter, a panicked look creeping onto his face, as he recognised all the signs of Kirk actually contemplating the offer.

“Well, I could certainly use a good, relaxing massage now,” the captain smiled at his pretty pedicurist. “Come on, Bones! You’ve been pretty tense, too, lately!”

Of course, Jim would fall for a lovely face and a suggestive smile, the doctor thought angrily. And maybe he should. Just because McCoy was too damn ticklish, why shouldn’t his friend enjoy a good massage?

“I’ll pass,” he said, trying to sound amiably despite his feet still tingling and twitching irritatingly. “You just go ahead, and I’ll find something else to do today.”

“Oh, come on, Bones, give it a chance!” the captain all but whined, “Just one little massage, and then we’ll do whatever you want for the rest of the day.”

McCoy heaved a sigh. Who could resist Jim’s puppy dog eyes? And when Chapel smirked at him and suggested, “You could always ask for your feet to be excluded!” it became a matter of pride. This was ridiculous. Surely, he could get a massage without being tickled half to death!

And practically already feeling the soothing effects of strong hands kneading the muscles in his tight neck and back, he grudgingly nodded and followed Kirk and the two pedicurists across the beautifully kept lawn of the resort to the massage parlour.

Part 2: Full Body Massage

Disclaimer: Sadly, I own nothing of Star Trek

[aubergineanathema]

Murder of crows

Part 1 - The ruin in the clearing: Preface Part 2 - Whispers in darkness Part 3 - Käsdorf and Wulvosburg Part 4 - Secrets behind stone walls Part 5 - Wind chimes and wildflowers Part 6 - Beneath the hillock Part 7 - Evidence of a struggle

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Part 8.

The waning moon hung high in the sky, already half-hidden by rolling clouds.

A young man stood motionless on the road in the darkness. He wore a simple undyed linen smock and a weathered leather waistcoat over top. His belt, only loosely done up, bore a cloth bag and a small sheath for a dagger. His flaxen-colored hair was shaggy, and unkempt, and a bit dark with grease. Carelessly brushed up over his hairline, it was inevitable that stray strands gradually slipped down and obscured his vision, and he was forever brushing it up out of the way again.

He listened quietly for any sign of approaching traffic. With eager eyes he squinted to see down the tunnel formed by the canopy only using the light of the fading moon. He peered in one direction, and then the other, seeing only darkness in either direction on the road.

It was quiet here, almost peaceful. The trees were almost still, but above the canopy it was clear that the wind was picking up high overhead.  The clouds were building in the night sky, obscuring stars and as he watched they were overtaking the place of the moon entirely. Tension was building in the air, as the woods were plunged into an even more profound darkness.

He saw the lightning flashing far off in the distance, and heard faint thunder rumbling. The hair upon his arms prickled slightly with the changes in the air, and he smiled to himself. He relished in being so far out in the middle of nowhere. There was something exciting to him about a storm in the woods at night. Better than the crowded stinking city where he had grown up. Whenever it rained there, it just brought up the smell of piss and manure. You couldn’t even hear the thunder over the crowds. Here, the prospect seemed much more majestic.

“Gunther!” A sharp voice came from the woods behind him. “Get off the damn road already! We don’t want to give ourselves away!”

Snapped from his reverie, the young man looked back and forth down the road, seeing even less than before in the dimness. If anyone were coming, he assumed they would have a lantern and carriage anyway, and that they would be easy to spot at a distance. All the same, he hopped down into the ditch, and carefully slipped through the trees into the underbrush. He didn’t have to travel far before he saw the warm glow of a fire. Before him opened up a small clearing, the faces of three other men illuminated by their campfire.

The clearing still smelled like freshly broken branches, as they had spent the day clearing it out themselves with the help of their two horses. At the edge of the clearing their two horses stood near to each other, preoccupied with the multitude of weeds available for them to eat in this place. A few small shelters of cloth and branches stood too, off to one side, erected earlier in the day. The men sat on fresh cut logs, in an intimate circle around the small fire. Roasting over the flames, and beginning to smell quite enticing to Gunther, were several skinned rabbits.  

“Dark out there now!” Gunther announced the obvious as he plopped down on the log beside the man who had beckoned him.

“What were you doing out there anyway?” The man asked, exasperated. This man had oily brown hair and a lined face. He seemed somewhat older than the other three, and was clearly more prudent than Gunther.

“Easier to see the sky up there. I was looking at the moon. Rudolf was right. We better hunker down. It’s going to storm before morning.” Gunther explained. “Stop worrying, Bertrand! I was careful. There’s not a soul on the road.”

Rudolf turned the rabbit meat upon the improvised spit. He was a rather rotund man with small watery eyes. He nodded along with the conversation. “My head always aches before a storm. And it’s been aching for awhile now. Hard work making camp.” He licked his lips. “But this rabbit’s going to be worth it. How are you so good at catching them Henry?“

Henry sat beside Rudolf on a log opposite to Bertrand and Gunther. A wiry young man with a shock of reddish hair, he grinned. “Oh, it’s easy as long as you can find a warren. Dozens of rabbits in those things. Just have to be patient, and have quick reflexes.”

Gunther had never tried such a thing, but Henry seemed to have a natural talent at it, and so it had been his job as long as they had been traveling. He watched the meat as it rotated and browned, and felt his mouth water. Before long, Rudolf was handing a generous portion to each of them on a stick.

“So, Bertrand, tell us again this grand plan of yours.” Rudolf asked teasingly, shaking his stick in Bertrand’s direction.

Bertrand grimaced, having explained multiple times before. “Okay, so. This road is long, and heavily wooded on each side. Even so, it’s a road lots of people need to take, especially merchants.” In spite of his irritation, his eyes seemed to light up with excitement as he told them his plan.

“What we’re going to do, is set up a blockade a few miles up the road. When merchants and other folk try to get through, we tell them they can’t. We tell them the only way they get through is if they do us a favor. We send them to Lord Alastair of Vorsfelde in that great old castle down the road—this road is his responsibility—and they pass on the message that we’ll block the road until he let’s us try our hand at being sellswords for him.”  

“I still don’t like it.” Rudolf complained. “Why don’t we just ask an audience with the guy, Bertrand? Maybe he’ll listen to us.”

“No.” Bertrand replied angrily. “Why would he? We’ve tried that half a dozen times now. Most lords won’t even grant us an audience, and the one that did laughed at us.”

“Well, we’re not really that well trained.” Henry shrugged.

“Enough okay? This is different. I can feel it.” Bertrand snapped. “Nobles like guys like us working for them. They don’t like to get their hands dirty. If we can prove we can hold the road, that proves we can protect the road. We get a contract, and he doesn’t have to worry about this road anymore. Everyone wins. We’ve been trying to find work for months now, and if we don’t figure something out soon, I don’t know what we’ll do.” He finished with a sigh.

“Why don’t we just rob ‘em, or charge a toll? That’s what bandits do.” Henry asked as he ripped off another strip of meat with his teeth.

“We’re not bandits, Henry.” Bertrand said with exasperation. “I told you already. We’re just, proving our worth as motivated mercenaries. If we start extorting the folks we want to send our message, no one is going to trust us. And besides, people who’re being robbed are liable to get violent.”

“I’m not killing anyone.” Gunther interjected.

There was a pause and Bertrand looked at Gunther with a frown. “I know you’re still green, kid. I know that you’re still used to picking pockets and digging through other people’s garbage instead of standing up for yourself, but now you can change that. You can make something of yourself. You told me you wanted to see the world outside the slums. You wanted adventure. This is your chance to do it—but you need to understand something.”

He sighed and rested a hand on Gunther’s shoulder, speaking softly. “Sometimes you’re going to have to do things you never thought you’d do. You might have to kill someone if you’re going to be a mercenary. Sometimes they’ll deserve it, and sometimes, it’ll be you or them. Trust me.”

Gunther grew sullen and did not bother continuing the conversation, shrugging Bertrand’s hand away. He knew that Bertrand was right, and that he would not always have a choice, but he was still distraught about the whole idea. Ultimately, however, he didn’t see any other option right now. He had no idea how to ‘make something of himself’ without Bertrand, and he owed the man much. He did trust him, but he still wondered. So what if they weren’t bandits? How was anyone supposed to tell the difference if they started blocking roads and intimidating people?

Rudolf was talking about some story he had heard a bard telling the week before at the inn they had stayed at. “And so this guy looks for this chapel for a whole year and he can’t seem to find it, but he does find this castle...”

Gunther just finished his rabbit and listened. The thunder grew a little louder, and it was clear they were going to have to shelter under their tents sooner than later. He was sitting with his cheek in his hand when he heard a fluttering above them and glanced upward, expecting to see the briefest silhouette of a bat or a moth against the dark canopy. Instead, he watched as a black crow fluttered down from a tree above them, landing soundly beside Henry upon the log. Henry jumped, startled, and they all stared in confusion at the animal. It did not seem at all afraid of them, or of the nearby fire. It just watched them all intently, cocking its head every few seconds. Its eyes were red.

“Must’ve smelled the food.” Rudolf muttered. He offered the crow a small strip of flesh off the end of his stick, but the crow didn’t seem at all interested.

“Shoo it away, someone. Please.” Henry whispered, sitting stiffly beside the creature.

Bertrand grimaced and threw some kindling at it. The sticks bounced harmlessly off the crow, which remained solidly perched upon the log. It stood unnaturally still now, and did not even flutter its feathers as the pieces of wood pummeled it.

“Uh...” Rudolf shifted uncomfortably away from the animal.

Behind them, their horses had begun to whinny and stomp their feet, tugging at the reins that held them fast to the trees on the edge of the clearing. Gunther looked to the horses, and then back to the crow. He wanted to go sooth them, but he could not seem to will his legs to move. Above them, he saw the silhouettes of more crows fluttering their wings, landing on nearby branches overhead. Two more, then four more. Then too many too easily count.

“What is going on?” Rudolf stammered.

A flash of lightning lit the clearing, followed by a crash of thunder. Henry whimpered. The wind was picking up now. The storm was almost upon them. But there was another sound, too, hard to make out above the rustling leaves. It sounded like the coming rain at first, but slowly it dawned on Gunther that the sound was coming from the crows themselves. They all seemed to be whispering something, over and over, and over. Each one was whispering a different part of the phrase in unison, like children singing a nursery rhyme in a round.

“For—vors—...unt—land—or—den—pes...fel—unt—en...”

Gunther couldn’t help but try to understand the sounds, but it was impossible for him to make any sense of it. He didn’t even know if they were words at all. The whispers grew gradually louder and the men could only look at one other, uncertain what to do as they all felt an unstoppable surge of dread.

“What in God’s name is going on here!” Bertrand suddenly managed to shout.

Suddenly, all the crows fell silent. One last time, the crow perched upon the log barked the words, sharp and clear this time: "It is forbidden for the peasantry to hunt on Vorsfelde land!”

Mutely, the four men stared at each other, their mouths agape.

“What--” Henry made to stand up, but he was not able to rise more than an inch or two from his seat before the crow took flight at him. Talons gleaming in the firelight, they plunged with a sickening squelching sound straight into his eye sockets. ------

This has been Part 8. For more, see my Fiction Updates post.

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If you like this or my other original work, please feel free to share with your friends (with credit of course). I would really like feedback, so don’t be shy to talk to me about it!

[kyunsies]

MADCH MADCH <3

hello fam - I've had a weird day, I'm super happy I can take the time out to reply to you. always thinking of you though, I hope you're always having a great day. today's been a bit of a non day - a family member has to deal with operations and that's on top of me too so i've just felt a bit winded in life?

YES to you finally conquering that damn cold! do you feel properly replenished now? omg i hate sore throats too - okay i hope this doesn't give you nightmares but when i was a kid i saw a documentary about this terrible disease that manifests at its worst a bit like alzhemiers but it can hit anyone of any age and for the majority of people who get it... one of the first symptoms is a sore throat and i have literally lived in terror of sore throats ever since. but luckily it's a very rare disease. so basically, yes, i understand you.

OMG you know when you're like eight and you don't want to sleep and you're like no i will adult and stay up and it will be glorious - i'm like, CHILD YOU FOOL you could have gone to sleep XD and ugh no responsibilities?! i remember working most of the time when i was a kid and i kind of wish i had wreaked havoc? what was your childhood like? did you get to do lots of fun stuff? i know my mum wishes she had been able to spend more time with me when i was a kid and i'd like to have a family and i'd love her to be able to relax and just spend time with her grandkids? OMG well when you come to europe let me know and then i can show you around and give you a hug in person!

so we're mainly cofe here though cahtolic culture is still big and honestly i'm with you. like religion can be a great influence on you if it's not used in nefarious ways and can help you learn so much - like even if there are things you don't end up agreeing with at least you learn about then so you can make a choice for yourself as opposed to not really knowing anything? agree - people that are really boastful totally put me off, i just can't deal with it at all. but you're right, like it makes us so so hard to forgive ourselves for anything right? like, even if we've done nothing wrong and we shouldn't have to punish ourselves? like i swear i'm apologising for everything haha XD once someone pushed me off the tube and i ended up apologising like ON REFLEX? hasjdkahds XD but i really hope you have people around you that keep bigging you up too! if not i will keep bigging you up :D :D so you know that you are worth it.

i'm sorry you're not looking forward to your final year of uni! think you're almost there though - like this is the final stretch and you'll have like conquered everest you know?! and even if your landing at the end of it isn't as perfect the fact you landed at all means so much and that means you can stand up again and keep going! day at a time and moment at a time you know? i kind of had this moment today (hence my wierd day) when i was worry about everything and i literally sat there like - have i made the right choice and done the right thing and surely i've made the wrong choices in my life and do i actually have any talent cause if not people would actually like my stuff and i had to just be like... a moment at a time sometimes you know? like, just bit by bit and don't sweat the stuff you don't have to? idk i find it hard to do but i hope that helps you - like you'll surmount every little thing bit by bit and before you know it you'll have made it! you were born ready you were <3 <3

TINY SQUAD IS GO! the pant dilemma is truly a massive issue, like IDK how to deal OMG OK SO LAMPSHADING is like when you do big baggy like tops and then like leggings or tights or something skinny on the bottom so... you look like a lampshade? like i guess it makes you look cute and then also it's such an easy way to dress without worrying if you look like a kid that's wearing your mum's clothes?? ahsdjakdhsa XD

AHHHH YES BASIL ME TOO!! what scent did you end up buying? i'm sure it was lush - are your parents near you or is it like a massive special occassion to get to see them? YES agree with your take on musk though! like it feels like idk, something a 50 year old with a cigar in a stuffy country club would wear? like, there's no energy to it but not in a chill mellow way either??! like even if i was going to a dinner thing I would still rather not wear something musky? like i'd still rather it be something a bit sweeter? also like some musk perfumes can be SO STRONG? like i'm like - my nose is choking on this perfume XD

YES BLUE MOON SQUAD AAAAA it is literally one of their finest ever, it's always stayed on my top faves list by them. like ugh yes to the lofi stuff sometimes i just wanna VIBE and be in my feels but not so much i'm too angsty but enough that I'm FEELING feels ya know? what did you think of kiss or death? it really wasn't that kind of vibe but yh i hope they do more lofi jazzy stuff - also cause like not a lot of korean groups play with that sound a lot?

hello mädch's mom as always! nerer apologise for being late, always just happy to hear from you and i hope you are super super well and looking after yourself first and foremost! more than anything <3 (also i take ages to reply too ya know and omg this is so so long ahsdjakhdaskjdh)

love you lots and lots and lots xxxxxxxxxxxx

ANGEL ANGEL !!!!!!!! <3 i know i'm really late to this LKDFJS i've had such a busy week getting some overtime in and then visiting my grandparents' house so i didn't really have a lot of energy to reply to all of this BUT IM HERE AND i can finally give u a good response <3

firstly is your family member okay??? i hope so ;____; how was the rest of your week, and how was your weekend angel? i hope u were able to enjoy your weekend and that everything is okay in the family <3

but YEAH my mom and i are over the stupid cold ;_____; i hate colds,,,, they last way too long lol like i say i know the flu is a little more serious than a cold but i would rather have it for a day or 2 than being stuck feeling lousy for a whole week :( ALSO SLDKFSJDFKLJ OH GOD SEE we are both hypochondriacs ( that's not the best trait to have as a nursing major lol ) but tbh i'm really curious about this rare disease ????? :o sounds really scary tho goodness gracious i wonder what it could be ;____;

also god i was always awful at staying up late as a kid LOL but i know what u mean !!!!!! honestly there was only one time i can recall i had a sleepover with my friend in like the 3rd grade and we tried pulling an all nighter so i think we made it to like 5am but i had to go to bed omg i felt like such garbage LKDSFJ </3 it's just funny bc like as u get older u realize that staying up late is really nothing special and if anything u feel like a train hit you the next morning and adults are so sleep deprived as it is we just *try* to prioritize sleep SLDKFJSDKLJF :') you worked a lot as a child bub?? what kind of things did you do? i didn't start working until i was 15 bc most places here don't allow u to work until this age (unless you're in a family business i guess lol) but all the jobs i had in high school i hated so much ;_____; but my childhood? i would say it was relatively normal LOL like we say all the time i've had a single mom so life was really stressful for her but i always felt loved <3 i always had my mom <3 and we took trips to the beach with my family every year, it was our little tradition !! i went to san diego to visit disney, you know little trips here and there !! and then when i got into my sport and i started getting older my mom and i spent a lot of time and money investing into my sport so most of my weekends consisted of a lot of tournaments and driving far away for me to compete :') i do remember when i was really young like in kindergarten my mom's work was really far away from my school and we had a recital ; i was the "host" where i would introduce all of the songs and stuff and my mom didn't get off of work until like 6 and by the time she made to my recital, it was over :( she told me she cried a lot that night :( i don't remember her doing this (i don't even remember the recital all that much lol) but now that i'm older and i understand more about adulting, i'm sure she was so devastated thinking about it now :( anyways about visiting europe LOL I WILL DEF GIVE U A CALL AND LET U KNOW SO U CAN SHOW ME ALL OF THE COOL PLACES <333333

and about the religion ....... yes ;____; i think it's a great thing if a family decide that they want to do this when they're families; i hope to continue to practice it (even tho we aren't regularly going to church at all hhhh gotta work on that) but there is something about catholic guilt specifically that just makes it soooo hard to like, be easy on yourself? but ,,,,,, i guess it keeps me grounded :( in a self depreciating way ??? LDSKFJ I KNOW U UNDERSTAND ... it's weird for me to put into words ;____; and YEAH :( i think i'm getting a little better at this but i used to apologize all the time for things i never needed to be sorry for hhhh (still do) :')

and yes babe honestly i'm really terrified to start uni :( i think i have this weird anxiety issue i've had it ever since last year but i don't know why i'm so scared and anxious about things that haven't even happened yet ;____; are u like this too? is it normal? i wish i knew :( i guess i won't really feel better until i have made it to graduation, but i just want to do well this year. whatever i do, whether it's exams, or clinical rotation or my preceptorship, i just want to do well ;____; i don't want to do poorly, i want to make my mom proud and i want to work at a place i'll be excited to work at, and most of all i just want everything to work out ,,,, i wish someone could just sit me down and say listen i know what you're going thru is hard but you CAN get thru this and EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE OKAY NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS bc no one in my family is in the health sciences (besides my cousin who is studying to be a doctor but she doesn't give a shit about what i do lol) so ;_____; yeah ,,,,,,,,,,, lots of anxiety and apprehension of the unknown :(

LSDKFJSD FOKAY NOW I KNOW WHAT LAMPSHADING IS LMAOOOOOOOOOOO yes i wear those clothes on lazy days LOL the thing is i'm really picky about the length of my oversized crewneck sweaters hhhh the can't be too long bc if it goes below my butt i look like i'm wearing rags LOL so i have to be careful :') but most days i do like, reverse lamp shading lDLKFJSDLKFJ i like wearing flowy pants with a more tight top or like baggy jeans with a tighter shirt or a blouse i can tuck into my jeans LOL but omg its so funny i didn't know what that was :') thank u for the explanation my love <3

OKAY BUT HALF THE REASON I DIDN'T RESPOND IS THAT i was saving this weekend to go to the jo malone store in my mall and !!! I GOT A NEW SCENT AND I'M IN LOVE WITH IT SO MUCH BABE ;____; you have to go smell it if you go there soon and tell me what u think !!!!!! it's called wild bluebell (here is the scent description lol) but the guy behind the counter helping me was soooo amazing and helpful like they really do treat u the best at the store and AH i’m so happy with my purchase <3 my wallet isn’t so much LDSKFJ but nonetheless i know i’ll have it for a long time :)

KISS OR DEATH !!!!! i actually really enjoyed it lol i have seen some ppl not really like the rapping so much but i loved it ;____; i’m super biased obviously LOL but gosh i thought they were all great and minhyuk + hyungwon killed the song for me <333 wouldn’t expect anything less from our monstas !!!!! and my mom is sending her love lol i tell her the work u do and she’s always wondering how ur doing :(((( same for my moots she always asks me about 2 in particular LOL she’s always asking me <3 i love u so much bubbie !!!! iM SO SORRY FOR BEING LATE MY LOVE again i always just want to give u a quality response <3 i love u the absolute most and i hope u had a great weekend !!!!!!! this is my last week at work before i have a week long break before i head for uni so :’) can’t believe i’ve done all this LOL :’) i will be happy to hear from u whenever u come back hun !!!!! TAKE CARE LOVE U <3 

[asktemmie-frisk]

Baby Steps (ゴッドモードアーク (Goddomodoaku)) (God-mode Arc)

As everyone stepped into the skele-brothers' backyard, they all felt somewhat tense. Chara was especially nervous because she was thinking of what could happen if she couldn't manage. Undyne and Sans started setting up some targets; Papyrus got some test dummies ready to strike. Asgore got Chara a present that he had waiting for her for years. "Chara, I know you want to be able to fight, but I wanted to give you this." Asgore said, handing Chara a gift. Opening it up, Chara was surprised. "Dad..." Chara started, taken aback. "I...this...is for me? Why?" "If you are going to learn how to fight, you will need the proper tools and mindset. I cannot prepare you mentally, but what kind of father would I be if I did not at least give you the tools to succeed? I am not going to give you a handout, but I will give you a hand." "Dad...thank you." Chara gave her father a hug, and he returned it with a smile. "Don't worry. I'll make you and mom proud of me. I promise." "Chara, there is no need to." Toriel cut in. "Really? Why, mom?" "You already have." Chara teared up a little happily. "Thanks, mom." After the small family moment, Chara turned her attention to the make-shift training grounds set up in the backyard. "Okay, so I gotta admit, I'm very nervous right now. That being said, where do we start? Blocking, striking, dodging? What?" "Straight to business. I like that, but since when have you gotten yourself ready for a scrap?" Undyne admitted. "What?! What do you mean 'get ready'? Aren't you just supposed to fight or something?" "Nah nah nah. You're training right now. Normally, you WOULD be right, but since you've never did this before, chances are your reflexes could use some work. We're gonna start by doing a little stretching first." "Ah, come on! I just wanna do it already!" "Sorry, kid. This is how I did it when I was the captain of the royal guard. You think I'm just gonna bend the rules for you?" Undyne said, while stretching and prepping herself for training. "Well, I was thinking th-" "Nope! Sorry, kid. Now get to stretching. We got a long, hard road ahead of us." "Fine." Chara gave up and did as Undyne said. Asgore and Toriel practiced on their aim with their fire magic. Asriel and Mettaton sat and watched on the sidelines with a bored look on their faces. "Your majesty, aren't you going to train too, darling?" Asked Mettaton. "I don't need to train, remember?" Replied Asriel. "Yes, yes. We know what you were capable of as a flower, sweetie. I can't remember how many times you trashed my body. What was it? 10 times? 20 times?" "50 times." "Ah. Yes. Of course." Mettaton vindictively grabbed Asriel and threw him to his parents. "Oh, your majesty! Your son would like to train with you!" Asgore almost stepped on Asriel by accident before he heard Mettaton. "Huh? Oh, well that's gre-oops! Sorry, son. Almost didn't see you there." Asgore said giving his attention to his son. "So you wanna train with me, huh? Well, that's good. You will probably need it. You are not a flower anymore, so you cannot rely on your old attacks anymore." Asriel got up with his head tilted down. "You mean my...'friendliness pellets'?" Asked the young, cocky boss monster. Asgore simply tilted his son's head up to his gaze. "DO NOT get cocky with me, Asriel. If the situation gets worse, you need to defend yourself. Do I make myself clear?" Asgore's eyes flashed cyan and orange for an instant. "Crystal, dad." "Good. Now then, it is time that we teach you about magic. Unless you can tell us?" Asriel had a bored expression with a monotone so grating, he could be mistaken for a robot. "Magic is the expression of a monster's soul. It is through magic that shapes our very bodies. As our bodies shift and develop, our magic shifts and develops alongside it. It's also normal for magic to show traits about ourselves that are both good and bad in nature. For instance, say you can wield water. Water is flexible and freeflowing, but with the right conditions, its will is easily shaped." Toriel stopped the second she heard what Asriel said. "My my." Toriel said, astounded. "My child. So you DO know. You remembered what I taught you all those years ago. I'm so proud of you." Toriel and Asgore both stepped back. "Now Asriel, you see that target right there? I want you to use your magic to strike it." Asriel tried to summon an attack, but he couldn't muster up anything at all. He even pointed his fists at the target, but nothing happened but him making himself look like a fool. "You could not summon an attack, could you?" "Mom! Why isn't it working?! I thought something would just...like poof, or something, but nothing's happening, ma! Why isn't it working?!" Asriel started getting agitated, confirming that Mettaton and his father were right. Asriel then threw aside his pride, fearful for what could happen next. "Mom, dad, will you teach me how to use magic, please?" "Are you sure you are ready to learn, my child?" "Yes! Please! I'll do anything! Just please how to use it, mama! Please! I don't wanna die, ma!" "It is okay, my son. Calm down. Your father and I would be happy to teach you." "Really, ma?" "Of course! Your father and I have been waiting for the day we could do this with you, anyway! As long as you are willing to pay attention, we will teach you what you need to know." Asriel hugged his mother in relief. "Okay, mom. Sorry for the crap. I'll listen." "Thank you, my child. Oh, and one more thing your father and I wanted to ask you and Chara." "Yes, mom?" Chara asked while stretching her legs. "SINCE WHEN DID YOU TWO START SWEARING?!" Both Asgore and Toriel boomed at their children. "I want to know now! WHO TAUGHT YOU THOSE WORDS?!" Toriel was not amused at her childrens' language. "We got it from you, mom and dad!" Chara spat back. "Yeah, mom. Who do you think taught us those words? We got them mostly from you when you yelled at dad when we were younger." Asriel agreed with an almost blank look on his face. "You guys taught us those words. Didn't think we were listening, did you?" "I never yelled at your father; you take that back immediately, young man!" "If I'm wrong, then why did dad have bruises when you finished yelling at him for buying that one abandoned building in Snowdin?" "Yeah, Tori. I told you it could've be-" "AND I TOLD YOU THAT 'WE WOULD NEVER NEED THE GODDAMN PLACE'! FOR WHAT REASON COULD WE POSSIBLY HAVE TH-oh. Oh...no. So I really am the reason. Dammit. I knew there was something wrong when you said the f-word at dinner one night. I suppose I am to blame for another thing of our past, am I not?" "So not just a killer, an abusive wife, too? Yikes." Sans said, thoroughly weirded out and spooked by Toriel. "Awkward." Papyrus quiped. Everyone else just stared at the former queen in shock. "Hey guys, you can stop staring at mom now." Chara said, trying to defuse the situation while stretching her legs some more. "Hey, Asriel, can you help me real fast?" "Huh? Oh! Yeah, sure. Whatever." Replied Asriel. "Thanks. Now I need you to just grab my leg, and push it back. I need to really loosen things up." Asriel obeyed, but in a standing up position. "No, dude. I need you to get on your knees, and push back." Asriel was not in the mood to being embarrassed, but he did it anyway. "Sis, don't you think this is a little weird?" "Nah, it's cool. You're just helping me stre-oop. There it goes. Yeah, my leg just popped. That's better. Now push a couple more times, and we'll switch to the other one." Everyone was looking at the two, just snickering to themselves, except for their parents. "Okay, that's good. Now let's do this one." "Okay." Asriel was started to get embarrassed...and aroused, admittedly. He was really not in the mood to get turned on by Chara, whether or not they were related. "Come on, put your body onto it, and lean in. I wanna really make this one pop like the other one just did." Asriel started sweating upon hearing this. "Yeah, right there. Just like that. I really do appreci-whoa. Hey, Rei, what's that I'm feeling on the b-oh." Chara tilted her head up at her brother, only to see he was flustered, but didn't realize why until she looked at her leg. "Oh, man. Sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you. You should let go now." Chara whimpered with a blush. "Yeah. Thanks." With her permission, Asriel got to let go of Chara while they both sat down. They both shared an embarrassed glare at each other, blushing even more when Chara and Asriel made expressions to each other, with Chara's seemingly looking like she was saying 'did you want to fuck', with Asriel's expressions looking like a response saying 'yes, but that's gross, Chara'. Clearly both of them were noticeably embarrassed and aroused by the situation, even separating themselves from each other. They had never been more weirded out by each other than in that moment. "Asriel? Chara?" Toriel said, trying to get their attention. "Yes, mom?" They mumbled, still reeling from the moment. "Not until you're both 18. Also, let's get back to training." Toriel schooled her own children, and everyone just laughed. "MOM! HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN?! I DIDN'T ASK TO BE AROUSED! CHARA AND I ARE SIBLINGS! IT'S FUCKING GROSS, MA!" Asriel screeched, blushing wildly. "Yes, it is. Or it would be if you were both related by blood. Good thing you're not. It would be so much worse if you were." Asriel started angrily shedding tears, and Chara put her creepy face back on, fuming at her mother's words. Why the fuck would mom say that, she wondered. Did she know when I flirted with Asriel that one time? Whatever. After the awkwardness passed after 10 minutes, they finally got to the core of training. "Alright, kid. I think you're limber enough." Undyne said, congratulating Chara. "Finally. I feel limber, too." "Awesome. Now you see my hands? I want you to PUNCH THEM AS HARD AS YOU CAN! Act like my hands are your worst enemies, and PUNCH THEIR LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT! NNGGAAHHH!" Chara responded with a punch hard enough to almost leave a bruise. "Wow. Pretty hard punch for a human. Now those targets! Take that knife your old man gave you, and slice them up! NOW!" Chara let out a battle cry, and slashed wildly and swiftly, laughing maniacally while making her creepy face the entire time. She even jumped back, and threw her knife at one of the targets she decimated with a lot of force, enough to plant the knife enough to warrant force to get it back! Undyne was colored impressed...thoroughly. "Nice job." She admitted. "Thanks." Chara replied, catching her breath. "Now, if only those were real humans...then I would have...lots...of...fun." "You know, you remind me of how I used to be when you say that." "Oh, yeah. You used to hate them, too. With a passion. You and I would be best friends if you saw what they did to me. Makes me wish I wasn't one. That's why I love being with the monsters. Unlike those animals that call themselves humans, you guys have more humanity than my species is capable of." Chara shed a few tears in anguish, but snapped out of it quickly. "All right. Back to training." "Right! Now then..." Undyne said with an evil, almost murderous grin. "LET'S SEE HOW YOU DEAL WITH ME! FUH-HUH-HUH-HUH!!" "FINALLY! This is what I was waiting for! NOW LET'S GO, FISH LADY!" Chara roared, peeling out towards Undyne. "YOU GOT IT, KID! NNGGAAHHH!" They dashed toward each other without hesitation. Chara slashed at Undyne, but got blocked by her spear. Undyne countered with a spear blasting toward Chara, and it pierced her soul, knocking her back into the wall. Oddly enough, Chara only lost 2 hitpoints. "What the fuck?! Undyne, that...should've hurt more?" Said a confused Chara. "Come on, kid. I ain't trying to kill you. If I was, you would've felt a lot more pain. But you know what you will feel? THIS!!" Undyne motioned to the Skeleton brothers, and Sans levitated Chara up, only to slam her into the ground. "OW! Fuck, Sans! I felt that, you dickhead!" Sans didn't care as he lifted her again, but got her back on her feet. Chara then tried to sprint toward Sans, but found she couldn't move her feet. "What?! Oh, fuck." Chara noticed a green glow from her chest. "As long as you're green, you can't escape! Unless you face towards danger, you're going to hurt like hell." "Okay. What the fuck is that suppo-Ow! Oof! AHH! FUCK, THAT HURTS!" Papyrus and Undyne unleashed an onslaught of bones and spears at Chara. "Chara! When I said 'face towards danger', I meant FACE TOWARDS THE BULLETS!" "Oh! Well then, you got it! Now I'm ready! Go ahead and throw some my way; I'll block'em!" Chara wasn't just talk; she blocked the attacks well enough to the point where it was like they were never made. "Not bad! How about this!" Undyne said, returning Chara's soul to normal. Papyrus attacked Chara overhead, but she blocked it with her knife. She then got smacked in the stomach by some of his bones. As she was recovering from them, more popped up, but she ended up jumping out of the way. "Excellent, human!" Papyrus congratulated. "Now that you can dodge...you'll be taking me on." Both of Papyrus' eyesockets surged orange and yellow with his entire body gaining an orange aura, albeit faint. Chara got shaken, but snapped out of it before a bone could strike her again. She slashed through it, jumping around wildly, not knowing what Papyrus would do next. Then she heard a blast. A skull-like cannon burst a beam that headed straight for Chara. She couldn't dodge fast enough, but she only got grazed by her shoulder. "Dammit! Fucking..." She muttered to herself. She focused on the pain enough to forget her surroundings and got blasted again. She screamed in pain. She lost half of her hp, and fell to the ground. "Come on, human. You have to get up! You won't learn h-WHOA!" Papyrus got close to her, and let his guard down long enough for her to slash at him. She was injured, and she only had half of her usual hitpoints, but she stood up anyway. "Don't underestimate me; I can still keep going!" She managed, feeling the pain flow through her. "Oh! Still up to actually fight? GOOD! Still though, why do you say that?" Chara put a smug grin on her face, and pulled some candy out of her pocket. It was monster candy. "This is why." She put a piece in her mouth, and recovered 6 hitpoints. "All right! I'm back! If I gotta face you, that's fine, but I ain't hurting you." "Very well, then. It sure was a BLAST to train with you!" Papyrus said, aiming the cannon again, but this time, at Chara's face. She ducked out of the way before it could do anything else to her. Papyrus kept firing them more while she was jumping about, dodging the beams with an almost graceful tone to it. She then noticed the bones being used again in combination with the cannons, but jumped out of their way before they fired. "My, my! I suppose she is a match for me, the great Papyrus! But how? And where is she now?" Papyrus looked for her until she grabbed and subdued him. "To be honest, I don't know. Perhaps some of your greatness is rubbing off on me." Chara said with a smile. "Very well, human. I suppose you managed to defeat me this time." Papyrus said, admitting defeat. "I must admit, you seem to learn very quickly, and that could be useful, especially in combat." Chara got off of Papyrus, and helped him get back on his feet. "Nice job, kid." Undyne said with a sharp-toothed smile. "Looks like you take after your dad after all." "Thanks. Now Papyrus, what were those things you shot at me with?" "Those? Well, Sans and I call them 'Gaster Blasters'." Papyrus happily answered. "We call them that as a way of honoring our father because he was the one who created them. Sans and I have countless blasters at our disposal, but we don't use them unless we have no choice, for they are a strain to use on our end." "Then, when you stopped Frisk from...you know what, was that your special attack you were going to use on him?" "Yes, but it was stolen from me by that annoying dog!" "Yikes. Guess it's good that Frisk stopped before things got much worse."  "Yes. I suppose it is. Still, one thing eludes me. How did you manage to disappear like that before I blasted at you again?" "You shouldn't have closed your eyes a second before you shot it off like that. I only barely had enough time to get out of the way." "Well...in that case, I think we can consider your training done for the day. Everyone?" Everybody else agreed, especially after seeing the light show. "Good! You did well today, Chara. As for everyone else but Sans, you can all go home now." So they did. It was a long, tiring, eye-opening, emotionally exhausting day. But at least it was finished. Or at least that's what they thought. When everyone else got back home in the evening, what happened next was...unexpected.

[raystart]

Brooklyn Music Label Fool’s Gold Records on Turning 10

When you meet Nick Catchdubs and A-Trak, the DJ founders of Brooklyn-based record label Fool’s Gold Records, you realize that for some people, there just aren’t enough hours in the day.

The self-proclaimed music nerds started down this path young. A-Trak, a.k.a. Montreal-born Alain Macklovitch, had his first record label after winning the World Turntablist title at age 15 – the youngest winner ever – and Nick, whose given name is Nick Barat, helped launch online magazine The Fader as a writer. Today they somehow manage to juggle their independent music careers with the demands of their joint business, and seem to relish the challenges of pursuing whatever it is that catches their eye or ear: Stoking the rigorous love of their craft that has given Fool’s Gold the cult following it has today.

Ask them about starting a record label and both will reply, “Don’t do it unless you’re ready for it to consume your whole life!” – while grinning from ear to ear. Carving an authentic path rather than following trends, Fool’s Gold has always danced to the beat of its own drum machine. The duo’s collaboration started out with their groundbreaking art of mixing hip-hop and dance music together; now it means opening up a brick-and-mortar store with a long lease – in Williamsburg, naturally – while everyone else is running temporary pop-up shops.

A-Trak (on the left) and Nick Catchdubs (on the right)

Always driven with a genuine goal in mind and motivated by what they call DHM (Deep Hidden Meaning), Nick and A-Trak have never shied away from diving headfirst into ventures that don’t necessarily make sense on paper but succeed through sheer determination and passion. On first impression it looks like Fool’s Gold Records has reached the pinnacle as the duo celebrates 10 years in business. But look a little closer at their worldwide hip-hop festival tour and the opening of their beautiful new store and you realize they are just getting ready for the next phase.

99U Contributing Editor Dave Neslon figured it was time to sit down with the creative partners and learn about their ever-evolving path to success.  

How did the two of you meet?

A-Trak: We met deejaying some parties together in New York. I grew up in Montreal and was on the road with Kanye, but I was discovering a new scene in New York that grabbed my curiosity. I would play these cool little parties, and at a bunch of them promoters would pair Nick and I up together, and we struck up a friendship from there. That was around 2005.

Nick: As much as our friendship was started amongst changes in the DJ world, there were probably changes going on in the media and cultural world, too, which made a fertile ground for the seeds of Fool’s Gold, as the big companies hadn’t figured that out yet. And being on the ground floor allowed us to see that before they did.

A-Trak: This can’t be overstated. In the mid-2000s, music magazines couldn’t figure out their online presence. The reality we know now, where music gets posted every day and the internet is faster than print press, hadn’t been figured out yet at that time. As DJs, we were living in an online reality where we were finding new music every day.

How does always looking for the “next big thing” flow into the ethos of Fool’s Gold?

A-Trak: When we started, it was considered novel to have a hip-hop song and a dance song together. Now it’s par for the course. It used to be dismissive to call a rising artist an “internet rapper.” Everyone’s an internet rapper now! The things that were new and weird when Fool’s Gold started – the rest of the world has caught up with that now. So it’s less about finding new variations and permutations and more about the quality level. For us, the challenge is taking what people are putting out there and making it better. We gravitate toward personalities that are compelling and look at how we can make them the best version of themselves.

Nick: When Fool’s Gold started, having good artwork was rare, so it was easy for us to stand out. Now we are living in a time with an aesthetic generation, raised on Tumblr and Instagram. Most people have it together in terms of presentation and art. Almost everything is good. Fool’s Gold’s job is to make it stellar. Anyone can make a record sleeve, but that stuff is worthless unless there is a bigger idea behind it. We often talk about this idea of “DHM.” It comes from a Nile Rodgers’ book where he talks about all his songs with artists, and making sure there was a “Deep Hidden Meaning” behind the things he did.

You have both been in the music business since you were young. When did you realize you wanted to start a label and why?

A-Trak: I had another label before with my brother Dave [a musician in the band Chromeo], called Audio Research. We would release one single a year. We were really interested in the DIY reality of pressing vinyl and putting out our friends’ music. It was about not waiting for someone else to give you the keys to do something. It instilled a reflex in my brain where if you are working on a song and it’s great, you end up having this natural inclination to press it up and put it out. You don’t just stop with a piece of music sitting on a hard drive. I was trained to do that from running Audio Research. When I started touring with Kanye, my first label went dormant, so when I met Nick I remember having some conversations with him about putting some new stuff out, but it was a different sound from what I did on my old label. We started exchanging MP3s and it felt like a fantasy baseball version of having a label – and that just turned into us deciding to start something new ourselves.

Nick: For me, I just felt like it was interesting and at the intersection of all the stuff I had a passion for. It’s funny, because now when kids ask what advice I have for starting a label, it’s “Don’t!” But you need some of that naive “Fuck it, I’m doing it” to get it started, as logically there are so many warning signs telling you not to do it. If you can disregard those it means you still have the fire to keep it going when things get tough. You have to have something beyond a logical sense of it being something that can sustain itself.

A-Trak: Running an independent business takes up every minute of your life. It’s a constant challenge every single day just to balance out the time for creative endeavors you want to do yourself as an artist and running a company with friends. But the stuff I’m proudest of in my whole life are instances of going where you are not supposed to go and breaking ground in some way. There are reasons why it’s rare to break ground. It’s not easy. It will drive you crazy. But I kind of love it.

Nick: If you can see it’s nuts and still want to do it, that means you should do it. It’s kind of like the difference between the person who goes into the cave to find treasure and the person who says, “Fuck that, something’s going to eat me.” I know a lot of talented people who just opted out, thinking, “This is going to be a hassle; I’m going to hit the bong now.” At the very least we can say we have this beautiful store.

What was the biggest lesson learned operating the label over the past 10 years?

Nick: I think one of the biggest recurring lessons has involved a certain amount of planning and rigorous structure outside of our creative impulses. Our first couple of releases made money straight away, and then we found ourselves in year three or four where there was a big stash of money in the bank account. But we were losing money on all the subsequent ones and not realizing it until two years later. Everything was by the seat of our pants, and every couple of years we would realize we needed to tighten different areas. Even just having staff: There have been iterations of the staff over the years that have been progressively more professional.

Nick: The thing no one tells you about working with other people is that the key to that sentence isn’t “working” but “people.” Regardless of what your goals are, if you can’t nail the interpersonal aspect of it, you’ll never be able to get to the philosophical mission side. We are so used to just doing things ourselves, but Fool’s Gold is greater than any one person. It’s cool to look back and see how everyone has played their part.

A-Trak: In the last six months or so I have gotten more interested in the biz dev side of Fool’s Gold, and there is one record mogul in particular who was giving me advice a couple of months ago. I went to him and said I wanted to hire a COO for the company, and his response was “I could give you names all day long, but the most important thing is that whoever you get to hire has to hang out with the rest of your team and have chemistry with them and respect them.”

At a company like Fool’s Gold, with just 10 people, the interpersonal jelling between every single one of us is just as important as the actual accuracy of our work. We are all perfectionists and like to think our attention to detail is what makes us stand out, but I think there was a time when it took us too long to get anything out. In any creative field, there is this feeling that you have to get shit out there into the world. Learning how to fine-tune things to get stuff out the door regularly enough has been a big lesson for us.

How does running Fool’s Gold now compare to running it in the beginning?

A-Trak: Having an office is nice; I remember when our mailing address was Nick’s apartment. There’s a larger scale pattern with Fool’s Gold where we try to find the next move when everyone is stuck doing something else. In the mid-2000s, when we were founded, the major labels were terrified by what downloading was doing to their economy and didn’t know how to market their music. We founded a record label the year everyone thought the industry was failing.

Similarly, we founded a store with a five-year lease just when everyone else is doing a temporary pop-up. It’s just like when Eminem was first blowing up and every record label wanted to sign up a white rapper. That’s the opposite of what Fool’s Gold tries to do. We are never looking for a thing that already exists. We are just looking for stuff that catches our attention. Myself, Nick, and my brother Dave are the creative heads of the company, and we are hip-hop kids at heart.

And the braggadocio of hip-hop is the idea of stunting and making everyone around you go “Oh shit.” Everything we do here at Fool’s Gold has to have an element of that – whether it’s the lineups we put together for our events and finding an artist no one has thought of for the last 10 years and putting them together with the latest kid, or the architecture of the store itself, or Nick’s awesome accessories that he comes up with. It always has to have the “Oh shit” factor.

Fool’s Gold is a record label with a high aesthetic value. Where did that come from?

Nick: It boils down to taste. If you have good taste it extends to musical choices and visual ones alike. When we began, our art director, Dust La Rock, had a personal style that was very illustrated and detailed and highlighted his own esoteric interests in the Illuminati, etc. It became the early Fool’s Gold identity, but we evolved over the years and the artwork evolved with it. Our changing digital side has always been in response to the music primarily, but also the culture at large. We’ve never really followed trends or bucked them. If you have good taste, you have a sense of when your stuff needs to be refreshed or shaken up.

You both have a broad sense of style. How do you know something is authentic to the Fool’s Gold brand?

A-Trak: I wish we could put that in words, because every time we hire someone, that is the toughest part of the process.

Nick: At times it comes down to a level of intent, and you can tell who is sincere about what they are doing versus who is wearing the costume. That authenticity takes things to the next level. The idea of something being middle-brow is kryptonite to us. Of all the things that go into a professional career – you can learn the tech side and the business side, but you can’t learn to be cool. You can’t be a corny person and practice really hard and stop being corny! Charisma is natural, and we gravitate toward people with that charisma.

Of all the tracks the label has put out, which are your favorite and why?

A-Trak: It’s funny, because last night I was deejaying in Washington, D.C., and dropped an old Fool’s Gold classic, Treasure Fingers’ “Cross the Dance Floor.” Specifically, a Laidback Luke remix. Getting that Laidback Luke remix represented a time when some of these subscenes in dance music started intersecting. Up until the early years of Fool’s Gold, people rarely crossed those lines. When you go back to the older catalog there are odd choices that didn’t sell at all that I’m still fond of. The other day I saw the cover for an old Alexander Robotnick single and remembered getting the rights to a song by this Italian disco god and releasing it and losing money on it, and I am still so happy we did it.

Nick: Sometimes the misses are more interesting storywise than the hits. I love that we put a record out by the Susan, because we exposed people to it even if it didn’t sell well. The records I’m proudest of are the ones where we made something that is greater than the sum of its parts. The challenge of being attracted to such one-of-a-kind personalities is that some of them are particular, so you can’t always nudge people in the way you want to, so sometimes you just have to take what you get. My attitude to remixes is that they have to justify their existence.

We got GTA to do a remix for Giraffage–he makes Nintendo music, but it’s not a club thing. GTA is one of the best club music groups out there. So I thought if they remixed Giraffage it would be great. It was a challenge getting everyone into the idea, but they did the remix and it was phenomenal. GTA still plays that remix. I love that there is something that exists because I was stubborn enough to say, “Trust me, let’s do it.”

Fool’s Gold has grown beyond a music label. Why did you enter the clothing and events business?

Nick: It’s a very natural extension of what we’ve been doing. It’s cool that fans are educated, and the same person who cares about who produced a record cares about where the denim in their jeans came from. Record nerds are probably sweatshirt nerds too! We appreciate when craftsmanship goes into anything, and we want our product offering to reflect our sensibilities and respect our audience. We can bring in outside ideas in ways we can’t for an album project.

As a label owner, is there ever a situation where you see a big-dollar opportunity but know it doesn’t fit the brand?

Nick: That presents itself less on a signing level and more on a sponsorship level, as that’s the money that comes with strings attached, and we have to balance staying true to our values with the realities of our business. We have always had a very healthy respect for our fans and audience and would never do anything that felt like a sellout.

How do you focus when you have more ideas than money?

Nick: There’s no right or wrong way to do it. I think you need to be ambitious and realistic at the same time, and sometimes that’s easier said than done. You have to be crafty. I feel like we do more with less in certain ways, because the most important currency is ideas. Sometimes it’s better to have more ideas to get out of a situation than to just have a budget. For us it often boils down to outthinking people rather than outspending them.

As DJs and producers, how do you find time to run a business?

A-Trak: I have a natural tendency to take on too much, and I think it’s been a gift and a curse in my life. The challenging thing with that is finding the hours in the day, let alone the energy, to see through multiple projects. I believe that balancing multiple projects is why I have never gotten bored in my 20-year career and have stayed inspired. The thing that is fun and actually effective about having a music career and balancing that with Fool’s Gold is that there are all these synapses that feed each other.

As I’m researching music, I can find someone to sign to Fool’s Gold. As I’m out in the field deejaying, the opening DJ might tell me about his friend who is a rapper that is really killing it in that city, and I might end up signing them or collaborating with them. Nick is my partner, but for all intents and purposes he is my brain trust on the A-Trak side of things. I get access to one of the best brains when I am brainstorming for the next iteration of an A-Trak project. Everything is connected.

We are living in a time when the marketing ideas and the presentation are as important as the substance. There are a lot of lessons I have learned on the A-Trak side that will benefit Fool’s Gold, and the other way around. The biggest challenge is flicking off the giant switch in my mind. Most of my days are filled with the “hustle” work – the emails and the texts and project moving – until midafternoon. I try to dedicate the latter part of my day to some of my own projects and working on music. Going from Fool’s Gold email to trying to come up with an idea for a song are challenging persona switches.

What do you have planned to celebrate your 10-year anniversary?

A-Trak: The opening of the store is part of it, and we have events sprinkled throughout the year. The events side has become practically as big as the record label side of the company. We are hitting six cities with Fool’s Gold Day Off. At the same time, we are doing a new series of underground showcases in New York called “New York’s Loudest.” Even that sort of touches on part of our recurrent theme at Fool’s Gold: That when one thing gets big we try to nurture the next thing. The Day Off festivals have gotten big, so we want to do these little showcases. We are always mindful to have that three-dimensional approach to what we do.

Nick: We are working on a book. I’ve been a little like the keeper of the scrolls here when it comes to the label. There has been shit we’ve done that is almost like a surprise to me that we did it. The ups and downs of the label and the things we’ve released make it such a weird thing in a way. We have some weird little wavy sidebars that are important to the history of what we do. So with the book, I like that we’ll have this tome which you can go through chronologically, and it’s a thing I look forward to handing to a new employee that embodies the spirit of what we do. Right now I’m just going through everything and organizing, but the book part will come quickly, and it’s important that this 10th year ends first, as there is so much we are doing. As 2017 comes to a close, we will piece the actual bits together.