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seacottons · 4 years ago

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uni!au with ateez — [ part one ]

—[ san - performing arts ]

ironically, you met when you helped him after a taller male shoved him down whilst in a heated argument.

he burst out laughing when you asked if he was okay.

“don’t worry, we’re just practicing our lines!”

you quickly glanced up at the building and grimaced once taking sight of the gleaming silver ‘performing arts building’ plaque.

of course.

to say you were embarrassed was only scratching the surface.

you had no regrets, because the incident was the catalyst that formed your friendship and eventual relationship.

will never let you live that moment down.

“remember when you tried to save me from mingi?”

“i thought we promised not to bring that up again-”

“why can’t i? i was saved by an angel that day?”

san invites you to both his dance and theatre shows.

will appear to be very professional on stage, but you catch his eyes frantically darting to the crowd to try and spot you.

and once he does, he will repeatedly smile and wink in your direction.

you’re always early, so you manage to snag a seat in either front two rows.

likes when you bring him bouquets as a congratulation gift after his performances.

gets very loud backstage just to let everyone know you bought him a gift.

a huge show-off.

is very good at facial expressions.

you fall for every time he pretends he’s crying or hurt when you don’t give him attention.

he will imitate different characters and repeat after actors while you two watch movies together.

“it sounded sexier when i said it, right (y/n)?”

is a very clingy cuddle bug.

and a leech.

will always have his arms around you while walking at campus.

loves to give you back hugs.

is the type to wait outside for you until you finish class.

and takes you to the cafeteria afterwards for lunch.

embarrasses you in said cafeteria by spinning the lunch tray while waiting in line.

also likes to spin your phone just to freak you out.

also the type to excitedly text you about the donuts and coffee they’re giving away at the library’s breezeway.

likes to refer to you as ‘angel’.

will beg you join the different clubs he’s in.

and then brag about you to the others once you do.

will hype your choice of attire even if he’s already seen you earlier that day.

the type to also sneak you a latte in the middle of your class.

also the type to sneak in with you during your auditorium classes.

you regret it sometimes because he leaves no room for you to pay attention to your professor.

often times, so much so that you have to lightly pinch his side in protest.

“do you want me to fail this class?”

he likes to participate in the many events held at campus.

everyone knows him.

challenges you to dance offs in the middle of campus.

you refuse and push forward a startled mingi instead.

“mingi wants to have a turn this time!”

also likes to lay in your arms whilst you play with his hair.

“were you a cat in your previous life?”

he will then proceed to meow in your ear.

“i’ll take that as a yes.”

—[ hongjoong - fashion design ]

dating him would consist of always admiring his new projects.

supplying him with unhealthy amounts of coffee.

trying out new pieces he made.

offering to carry his overly large portfolio binder sometimes.

sitting down and listening to him rant about how his roomates fail to wash clothes properly.

he has a guide taped to the washing machine with the different symbols of clothing labels.

“no, san, you can’t use shampoo as detergent.”

“but seonghwa finished all the detergent!”

using seonghwa’s lint rollers to remove all the fabric fibers stuck on hongjoong’s clothes.

you scold him while cleaning the bleeding scratches on his fingers from his sewing needles and pins.

“don’t worry, it’s nothing i can’t handle.”

“but i don’t like seeing you get hurt, you bum.”

you bought him strawberry bandaids because he thought they were cute.

sometimes, when he has time, he’ll custom make clothes just for you.

he insists on having multiple matching outfits.

will ask you to model his work for his social media page.

thinks you look best in skirts.

you’ll be the source of comfort during presentation week.

he’ll be a wreck whilst making a new collection.

but you’re always there to pick him back up.

most of the time, you’re the source of his inspiration as well.

you insist he shouldn’t sit for hours writing essays or sketching numerous ideas for future work.

but he’s stubborn as a mule.

nights with him include binge watching fashion shows or cute cartoons.

or painting your nails.

you both enjoy coffee dates when you have time.

he tells you he wants to open a fashion line one day.

you’re trying to stand still as he plucks numerous pins into the dress you’re trying on.

“what do you think i should call it?”

“hj couture? does that sound too basic?”

he pauses momentarily before spooling the leftover red thread.

“(y/n). i’ll call the line (y/n).”

—[ wooyoung - culinary arts ]

invites you to his dorm and cooks for you.

his apartment always smells of warm spices and comforting meals.

pretends his roommates’ teasing doesn’t affect him, but the tips of ears always glow red.

will always bring over leftovers he made in class.

“i just thought you wanted to try this mille feuille.”

“which one is better? the salted rosemary loaf or the oregano and olive oil one?”

loves to bake and cook with you.

will make your birthday cake from scratch and will go all out decorating it.

has an annoying habit of taking pictures of you mid-bite.

“delete that right now.”

“but babe, you look so cute.”

“jung wooyoung!”

will wrestle with you as you attempt to take his phone away.

“okay, look! i swear i’ll delete it!”

he saves it in a hidden folder.

calls you his ‘cupcake’ or ‘sugarplum’.

teases you nonstop when you fail at something in the kitchen.

“babe! no! gentle folds! you pulverized those poor blueberries!”

“but the instructions say to mix!”

“the dough isn’t supposed to be blue!”

he’ll whine nonstop about how much he hates baking bread in class.

“do you know how abnoxiously long the fermentation process is!? i’m losing my mind.”

will wave and yell your name to catch your attention if he spots you nearby at campus.

you hear him every time.

he’s just that loud.

drags you to new restaurants just so you can rate them with him.

also drags you to go cutlery shopping.

accidentally dropped a plate in the store.

and when the employee came sauntering in the aisle suspiciously-

“(y/n) did it.”

once gave you food poisoning by accident.

you never wanted to eat scallops again.

you don’t mind his hands smelling like garlic or ginger most of the time.

or stained with spices.

“turmeric is a bitch.”

“woo, who wears white while cooking with turmeric anyway?”

will show off and brag about his knife skills.

demands to race with you to see who can chop the vegetables the quickest.

“you’re going down, (y/n).”

“uh- i don’t think i ever stood a chance to begin with.”

he lets you win sometimes though.

will beg you to visit him at his part time job at the cute cafe not too far by.

you always try to when you have the time.

and when he finds out you went to the rival cafe across the street one day..

“on a scale of 10 to 10, how bad is kang yeosang’s cooking?”

“what?”

“answer the question, (y/n).”

“woo, it’s 3 a.m.”

the next day, you explained that you were merely invited by your classmates to that particular cafe because one of them was a former employee there.

he childishly ignored you with crossed arms and a subtle pout.

“your jajangmyeon is much better. they didn’t even like the food there!”

he finally perks up with a large smile.

“wait, really?”

you think he looks endearing with his apron and chef’s hat.

will post cheesy captioned pictures of you after serving you delicately decorated plates of food.

‘two delicious meals for tonight, hehe.’

“gross. did you really have to say that?”

—[ jongho - kinesiology ]

you met him at the university gym and instantly clicked.

found yourself months later agreeing to go out with him.

a giant goofball.

sometimes makes faces at you while you exercise across the gym.

makes sure you watch him when he deadlifts.

loves when you hype him up.

opens all the jars for you.

and cuts all the fruit for you.

“why use a knife when you have my hands, love?”

you nearly choked on your saliva when he punched open the watermelon.

“can we ever just have a perfectly sliced watermelon!?”

“no- unless i break my arm one day.”

insists you jog with him around campus early in the morning.

likes to practice wrapping elastic tape on you.

you own half of his hoodies.

takes you to watch basketball matches.

then challenges you to a match when you go on dates to the park.

will persistently tease you about your poor aim.

and will absolutely not let you have the ball for more than a few seconds.

“stop cheating!”

“i’m not cheating! you just suck!”

joined you in some of your elective classes.

will also wear sleeveless shirts because he knows how flustered you get while his sculpted muscles are on display.

“what did professor kim just say?”

“what?” you tore your gaze from his biceps to glance at his face.

“are you staring at my arms again?” he snickers.

“no,” you say too quickly, face heating quite considerably.

despite his teasing, he’ll always baby you and take care of your needs.

has the cutest gummy smile.

you like to call him your gummy bear.

he hated the name at first, but grew to accept it over time.

likes to randomly pick you up.

sometimes will throw you over his shoulder.

has a habit of patting your thighs.

sometimes asks you to sit on his back while he does push-ups.

your eye bulged at the sight of a mop of ruby hair.

“don’t say anything.”

“you like apples so much you dyed your hair red?”

“i lost a bet.”

“you look cute though.”

you tugged at his tresses, smiling as you admired the shade against his tanned skin.

“baby?” you brushed his bangs away to display his forehead.

“hm?”

“you’re the apple of my eye.”

“i’m-,” he sucked on his teeth and pursed his lips, face scrunching in a mock grimace, “i’m going to throw up.”

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devnny · 5 years ago

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CHAPTER FOUR.

JTRM — THE “R” STANDS FOR RECOVERING!

PREVIOUSLY.

[sobs] this is such a Mess!! A MESS I TELL YOU!

He didn’t do his homework. Devi wished she could say she was surprised.

If she was being literal, what he offered her was one singular page of lined paper that he had scribbled disjointed, crossed-out panels of attempted comics and ugly caricatures of his neighbors all over. So it wasn’t that he didn’t do his ‘assignment’, but rather he hadn’t finished it. She hadn’t been to school in quite some time, but she was pretty sure that would constitute an “F” from most crusty public-school educators.

“Johnny.” Devi spoke with a pointed tone. He ducked his head into his shoulders nervously.

“You didn’t specify what the, er, “homework” was, exactly.” Johnny offered weakly. Even if that was true, he knew that her expectations for him were higher than something that was more mistake-correcting-squiggles than actual drawings. Something complete, at the very least. Devi groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose, making his shoulders hike up even higher.

“Yeah, sure, okay.” She said finally, dropping her hand to her side again. Johnny breathed a small sigh of relief.

Devi withheld her frustration, and tried to coerce herself to be satisfied with his meager attempts. Seeing as they’d only had one real art session, she doubted that an incomplete batch of doodles over the course of three days would undo any creativity-healing that might have occurred, if any healing occurred at all. Maybe it even helped, since he likely would have done nothing without her intervention. It was better than nothing, she reminded herself. Some amount of self-assertion over his creative processes was better than none at all.

She had decided, during their time apart, to dedicate her time to this massive endeavor in intervals of three days – three days in a row of nightly arting with her would-be pupil, and then three days in a row of Johnny-less time to work properly on her freelance projects. The block of time she’d be with Johnny consecutively made her weary just to think of it, but she’d persist for those three beautiful days where she wouldn’t have to worry about him. Or worry about him too much, anyway.

With the loose-leaf paper still in hand, she ushered him away from the entryway of her apartment and into the living room. Johnny settled in front of the coffee table again, knees in odd angles that were somehow comfortable to him, and Devi did her best to ignore that this was going to be her new normal.

THE FOLLOWING WEEK:

Tutoring – if that’s what you wanted to call it – was going well.

Devi felt a small amount of pride for her efforts, and for Johnny’s, she had to admit, as the nights wore on. Sure, he had a couple of fits the first two evenings, but his complaints where directed at his own ineptness, not her instruction. By the third night, he seemed to be getting a better handle on his bitterness toward his own art, and successfully completed a few things without her having to yell at him.

And as she expected, the three days that she had to herself were all filled with near-constant, speculating thoughts about Johnny. The insistent flow of what-ifs was very irksome as she worked on painting a cover for a local underground magazine, but Devi did her best to ignore it and work, with mixed success. The piece got done, of course, but it took much longer than she would have liked. It would have been done much sooner if she didn’t have a new form of ‘parasite’ picking away at her free time that should be devoted to painting for herself.

And, knowing that Johnny would be arriving tonight, her sleep from the early morning hours to the afternoon was horrible. She hated that his looming presence still gave her a rush of adrenaline. Devi stubbornly refused to be afraid of him, but part of her still reacted with a twinge in her stomach, cold sweat, and a quickening of her heart – he was just too unpredictable. Johnny had sworn his gratitude to her up and down since the truth came out about that phone call, but Devi had a healthy – or maybe unhealthy – amount of cynicism, and doubted that any words he said held the weight that he claimed they did.

She made sure, while she griped to herself, to ignore any pleasantries exchanged between them the previous week, such as Johnny pointing out her purple hair and saying he liked the color on her, or laughing over the same shit while watching TV during break time. The last thing she need to do was get even remotely attached to him – she was investing enough emotional labor into him as it was.

Just a few minutes shy of 6:00PM, there was a knock at the door, and Devi sighed with mild disappointment that Johnny was so punctual.

“Hi!” Johnny greeted her eagerly as soon as the door was open.

“I had the strangest drive over here. I think that little chihuahua is following me again – I wish I knew what it wants from me, but like Hell I’m going to stop and ask.” He rambled while he walked to his usual spot in the living room. Devi quirked an eyebrow at his bizarre comments, but chose to ignore it and closed the door before following after him.

“It happened earlier,” Johnny continued. “like, maybe a year ago. It followed me for blocks and blocks! I had to run to get away from it! Creepy little…”

Devi was only partly listening while she watched him paw at the air, only to notice then that he was without something rather important.

“Johnny, you didn’t bring your work up with you?” She asked in the middle of his rant. Johnny stopped abruptly, his wide eyes somehow wider. Devi frowned when he looked around nervously.

“Er, well—” He scuffed his foot on the floor and webbed his fingers together. “I couldn’t… really… think of anything.”

Devi’s pupils shrunk in surprised irritation at that.

“What!?” She yelled at him and he turned while he tried to avoid her fury.

“It’s just—! More difficult when I’m alone!!” Johnny looked around the room, too wary to look her in the eye. “I tried but nothing really came out so I… didn’t… do anything else.”

His admission came with a guilty smile. Devi fumed.

“Are you KIDDING me, Nny!?” Her voice raised more. “You sat around for THREE DAYS doing NOTHING?”

Johnny stepped back to avoid her frustrated pacing.

“I told you! I did try, I just—”

“You call that trying? Starting once and then giving up!? How long did you “try” for?” She asked accusingly.

“I don’t know, like, an hour??” He offered. Why was she so difficult to placate?

“AN HOUR.” Devi seethed. “One WHOLE hour out of seventy-fucking-two hours! Did you break a sweat!?”

Johnny felt the familiar heat of embarrassment rise to the surface of his cheekbones.

“That’s so easy for you to say! You’re good at this!”

“Well you could be too if you put in the effort, you moron!!” Devi’s arms stuck straight back while she hollered at him. “Do I have to just constantly babysit you to make sure you don’t get any crazier!?”

Johnny didn’t like being called a moron, or the implication that he was a baby.

“YOU—YOU…!” He tried to hold in his rebuttal, but failed. “YOU only care so much because of your own benefit! Don’t say it like you’re worried about my sanity!”

Devi gargled a scream while she clawed at her hair, then whipped back around to glare at him.

“OF COURSE I care for my own benefit!! You tried to murder me, you jackass! And the sooner you’re in control of your stupid FOURTH voice and out of my life again, the better!” She huffed. “What did you THINK this was?? Fun-pally-art-time? I’m trying to keep your crazy ass in line!”

He knew that was the truth, but hearing it said so callously pinched his emotions in ways that made his gut hurt and his arms shake. Johnny glared at the floor, thin irises darting around while a barrage of bad thoughts and hurt feelings twisted through his head.

Devi groaned and turned away to rub her forehead and brush her hair back. She hadn’t meant to say all of that, but she had, and now all her backed up resentment was in the air and bogging down the room. She needed to say something to nurse his poor, bruised ego now, as pathetic as that made her own ego feel. The likelihood that he’d comply with anything she instructed him to do tonight without her offering some kind of apology was laughably small.

“Look, Johnny—” She turned to speak to him, only for her sentence to end in a silent gasp when she caught sight of Johnny’s wild eyes. She barely had time to notice that the fist at the end of his raised arm brandished a rather shiny, pointed pen, but still managed to avoid a stab to her shoulder as he swung downward.

The shock hardly registered with Devi as she stared Johnny in the face, who only looked surprised and angry that he’d missed. That expression alone immediately boiled her blood – that piece of fucking shit! He was really trying to murder her again! All of his bullshit about gratitude and promising not to hurt her was as big of a load as she had suspected!

Johnny squared himself again and moved to thrust the pen directly at her this time. Devi was too enraged to be afraid of mortal injury, and grabbed his wrist as he jutted his opportune weapon forward. Her nails dug painfully into the skin of his arm as she yanked him forward into her awaiting fist. She slammed her curled knuckles into the center of his sternum, and the blow was enough to knock the wind out of him. That wasn’t enough for Devi, who retracted her arm quickly and rammed her palm immediately upwards, hitting Johnny in his jaw and closing his mouth with a very audible CLANK.

He stumbled backward, and Devi released his wrist only after she had snatched the pen from his grasp. Johnny brought his hand up to his vibrating jawbone and rubbed it roughly. That shot was enough to bring him out of his murderous rage, but no amount of levelheadedness would spare him from Devi’s wrath.

“JOHNNY YOU FUCKING ASS-HOLE!” She roared at him, and he was suddenly aware of the severity of his actions. Palm still curled around his jaw, Johnny backed up a few steps, but Devi showed no apprehension in following him.

“D-Devi I, I didn’t—” He was panicked. What had he just done? And why would he do something so stupid?

“Oh shut the HELL up!” Devi glowered down at his shrinking form. “You fucking ingrate! You absolute FUCKER!”

Johnny could only cringe, the increasing fear that Devi would never forgive him for this transgression rising with each passing second.

“YOU TRIED TO STAB ME… AGAIN!” She seethed. “AFTER ALL YOUR FUCKING TALK ABOUT LOYALTY AND GRATITUDE AND ALL THAT BULLSHIT!”

His opposite hand crossed over his other’s wrist, franticly rubbing and squeezing the joint there to ease himself, though it had little effect.

“Devi I—I swear, I didn’t mean to—!” Johnny winced at how shaky his voice was. Fear was not something he was very accustomed to, but Devi seemed to instill it in him with such little effort. His response was also apparently, not the right thing to say.

“You didn’t MEAN to!?” She hissed at him. Devi couldn’t take his piss-poor excuses – just the sight of him trying to pass himself off as a hapless fool that simply ran his mouth off was making her so mad she thought she might go literally blind from rage. She brought up his own pen to threaten him with like a shank.

“Get the Hell out!” Her voice was firm, and sent Johnny into a redoubled state of panic.

“—W-Wait! Please, Devi, I’m sorry I—I really – I promise it won’t happen again!” He pleaded with her, the fear that he had single-handedly ended his renewed position in her life so soon consuming him further. Devi scowled at him.

“You bet your ass it won’t!” She jabbed the pen in his direction a few times. “LEAVE.”

Johnny felt like he could cry. He very much did not want to go, but couldn’t see any way that Devi would let him stay, at least not now. His posture lowered more as he scooted back toward the door, but his focus remained squarely on Devi, with his eyes begging her to reconsider. Again, his feeble expression only angered Devi further. He dared to try and play weak and sorry after he had just moved to stab her?

“Johnny get the fuck out of here before I give you a full-frontal lobotomy with this damn pen!!” Devi extended her arm out in his direction, gesturing said pen at him aggressively.

His shoulders sunk further, and he hesitantly settled a hand on the doorknob, only looking up to Devi once more to make sure there was no indecision in her eyes – there wasn’t – before he slipped out the door and quietly shut it behind him. Devi wasted no time in locking it.

She screamed to the high heavens, uncaring about what neighbors, or if Johnny himself, heard the rampant storm of expletives and primal hatred that bellowed out from her heaving chest. As one final act of violence toward him, Devi threw his pen against the adjacent wall with all her strength, sending it flipping off out of sight. She felt the same betrayal pooling in her that she had felt the first time he had tried to kill her, only this time, there was no loss of love or ungodly fear to distract her from it. No, this was a bloodthirsty hate unlike any she had felt before.

“Don’t let him get to you, mother.” Came a whispering, prideful little voice.

Devi’s eyes popped open, face suddenly cold, before immediately heating up again with renewed anger.

“SHUT THE HELL UP!” She yelled into the room.

Johnny was distracting her too much; she hadn’t heard Sickness speak in weeks! That stupid asshole was jeopardizing her life in more ways than she could count – she couldn’t believe she’d even humored the idea of enjoying his company again, the prick! She couldn’t be worried about his sanity if it was going to cost her her own!

A sudden, tight set of knocks directed Devi’s aggression away from her incapacitated parasite and to her door again.

“JOHNNY,” She seethed. “I told you to FUCK OFF!”

A few seconds passed.

“It’s me, Tenna, not nutso Johnny-guy.” Tenna’s voice was laced in concern.

Devi blinked, startled by the reminder that anyone else existed nearby besides herself, and that obviously people had heard her and Johnny’s fight, and that Tenna was surely worried about her well-being. After a moment she moved to unlock the door, but seeing her friend did little to relax her frenzied state.

“Devi, holy shit, what happened!?” She leaned in close, looking back a few times to make sure no one else was in the hallway.

“Tenna I—I really don’t think I can talk right now.” Devi bit out, doing her best to not take anything out on the innocent woman in front of her.

Like usual, Tenna was uninterested in Devi’s attempts to keep her at arm’s length, and urged herself further into the apartment.

“He tried to stab you??” She whispered in disbelief. Devi stared at her, fingers twitching at hearing the words played back to her, then turned to walk madly around the room.

“HE TRIED TO FUCKING STAB ME, TENNA!” Devi yelled again, once more unconcerned with what her neighbors thought about it. “He talks all this stupid crap about how I’m so wonderful and benevolent, and how he owes me SO MUCH, and then he tries to STAB ME!!”

Her fingers bent into her hair as she gripped it in frustration.

“That asshole! That absolute fucking asshole!” Devi’s body shook as her hands slid from her hair down to cup her face. “With all that I RISKED to do this…!!”

A sudden burning in her eyes was enough to horrify her into holding back any bitter tears that dared to bubble up. She wouldn’t lose a single one over him, not again. All the same, her throat tightened, and she decided not to speak again until the wave of emotion passed.

Her motives were selfish, that much was true, but he had everything to gain through this, while she had everything to lose if it failed. Johnny hardly seemed miserable to go on being an anti-social bastard that murdered from time to time – but if that Meat voice won out against him, there was no doubt in her mind that she would be Johnny’s target if the need he had to fill was social, or God forbid, physical. Consume to excess, that was what he said his new parasite wanted for him, and she did not want to find out what that meant when it came to her.

Devi fell into a seated position on the couch, her face still buried in her hands.

“I wish he had just fucking died, Ten. I wish he had just… died, and stayed dead.” She lamented quietly. Tenna frowned and sat in the spot next to Devi, again patting her shoulder like she was a sad puppy.

Far below, on the darkened sidewalk that ran beside the building, a thin figure watched Devi’s window mournfully, before slinking away from sight.

NEXT.

#jtrm #an absolute damn mess #mine #devnny #chapter

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istheresomebodywhocanimagine · 6 years ago

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A Want or A Need

anonymous said: 1970s Freddie comforting you while you’re having an anxiety attack (or when you’re depressed)

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of depression, not explicit, but implied

“Knock, knock!” Freddie called out as he entered your apartment without warning, shutting the door behind him before carefully kicking his shoes off. As he picked them up to store them to the side, he looked around and furrowed his eyebrows at the state of your flat.

It looked dusty, as if it hadn’t seen much movement in weeks, and no lights were on at all. There was no music softly droning on from the shoddy old record player, which was usually running at all times. Slowly making his way through the living room, he was greeted by the sight of half-drank cups of water, dirty dishes that had gone stale, and used tissues laying around.

Your design homework was unfinished, laying haphazardly across the couch, but there was no sign of you in the living room or kitchen. This wasn’t you. You never neglected your homework, not once.

Freddie was dismayed – he hadn’t seen you in class for a week or so at this point, and he thought it was because you’d been working nonstop, or possibly sick. Now, signs were beginning to point in the other direction. Walking across the living room, he carefully slid the window open and pulled the drapes back, letting some air in before he made his way back to your bedroom. “Y/N, darling, it’s Freddie,” he called out, his voice less aggressive than before. Something was wrong.

Your bedroom door was shut but not locked when Freddie tested the handle, so he threw caution to the wind and slowly opened the door. It didn’t appear that anyone was in the room at first. It was in a similar state of disarray to the living room, as there were piles of unwashed laundry that appeared untouched, and what Freddie thought was a small pile of blankets on the bed. But then that pile of blankets moved, and out popped your head.

His heart dropped when he saw your own personal state of disarray. Your hair was partially matted on one side, and you looked like you hadn’t showered in a bit because of it. Your cheekbones were more prominent, eye sockets sunken, lips chapped – you looked like a skeleton, wasting away.

“Y/N,” he murmured, mouth slightly agape as he stood in the doorway, not sure whether to cry or comfort you. For your sake, he chose the latter, and he quickly made his way over to the bed, crawling in and kneeling in front of you as he took your head in his hands.

“Hello, Fred,” you murmured, your voice a bit weak as you attempted a smile. “Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. Wish you would have let me know you were on your way, I would have cleaned the place up a bit.”

“I’m not worried about your place,” Freddie almost laughed, an anxious expression crossing his face as he saw the unhealthy pallor of your skin. “I haven’t heard from you in a week, I decided to drop by to see if you were sick, to see if I could get you anything. But, no offense, Y/N, you look like death warmed over! I’ve been worried sick, lovie, what’s wrong with you?”

“Oh, nothing,” you murmured, leaning against one of his hands and giving him another smile, this one a bit more convincing. “I’ve just been sick, like you’ve said.”

Freddie pursed his lips, noticing the redness of your eyes and the way your cheeks almost looked tear-stained. “I find that hard to believe,” he answered softly, and you felt your chest tighten as you heard the genuine concern lacing his voice.

He was right. You knew so well that he was right, but your mind was telling you to push him away, to make him leave so you could be alone with your thoughts again. What good had that done you this week? None. It had destroyed you both mentally and physically. But why would your brain care about that? It was the reason you were this fucked up in the first place.

“Freddie, don’t worry about me,” you sighed as you reached up and took one of his hands, squeezing it before letting it go. “I’ll be fine, you go out and have a good night with the crew.” He shook his head. Freddie was not about to let you spend tonight alone, and he wasn’t about to leave your apartment without making sure one of his closest friends knew that they were loved and appreciated.

“Scoot,” he demanded, keeping his tone gentle so he wouldn’t upset you. You frowned and complied, Freddie settling down in the bed next to you and wrapping his arm around your shoulder. You cuddled up to him, resting your head on his chest and draping your arm across his stomach as your mind lurched and reeled at the sudden human contact. It wasn’t ready for this much attention, and you would have preferred none at all so you could continue to wallow in your sad state. “So what’s got you down for the count, dear?” he asked sensitively, his touch gentle and reassuring as he began to rub your back.

A shrug was all you could give him. “Just bummed out of my mind,” you almost whispered, your eyes zoning in and out on a fly that was picking its way over one of your half-eaten plates.

“Anything in particular?”

You gave him a small shake of the head this time, a pout forming on Freddie’s lips as he looked down at your motionless being. “Too much happening up here, I can’t focus. I try to eat, but it just makes me feel worse.”

“Well, you have to eat, honey.” He was frowning now and growing more alarmed by the second. The physicality of your deterioration was bad enough, but he wasn’t beyond believing that it could be even worse than he anticipated. “Here, let’s go to the kitchen.”

“M’not hungry,” you mumbled, your voice apathetic to match your reluctance to get up when he tried to lift your arm. He tried again, and again you let your arm flop back down onto his stomach.

Freddie was never one to be discouraged. You knew this, and yet you still were surprised when he simply lifted you up off the bed and carried you like a sack of potatoes into the kitchen. He sat you down on the counter and started to rifle through your cabinets, humming as he did so and finally taking out some rice and a pot to cook it in. “Butter and soy sauce?” he asked, looking up at you with a raised eyebrow, and you pursed your lips before nodding at the fridge. Nothing sounded appetizing, and the fact that Freddie was about to make you eat simultaneously sparked a miniscule amount of joy and a large amount of distress in you.

“Freddie, really, it’s not worth your time-“

“Y/N, it’s alright that you’re feeling this way,” he cut you off before you had the chance to protest any further, your mouth hanging slightly agape as he casually retrieved the butter and soy sauce from the fridge, walking back over to the stovetop. “You aren’t broken, and you certainly aren’t alone in this. I want you to know that. You have me, Mary, hell, even Brian and the boys – we’re all here for you, and we all want you to know that we love you no matter what.”

“Fred, I-“ you faltered for a moment, overwhelmed by what he was saying. Tears were quickly threatening to spill over if you didn’t get a grip, and get it quick. “I don’t doubt that, thank you. But I’d just want to be alone.”

“I understand that,” he replied, looking up at you and smiling softly before pouring the rice into the boiling water and turning it down to simmer, putting a lid on it after stirring it. “But do you need to be alone, or do you need to talk about it?” You didn’t have an answer for that, and stared blankly at him as he came to rest on the counter next to you. “Because I’ll listen, darling, believe me. I wouldn’t ever get tired of your voice.”

That brought a small laugh bubbling up to your lips, and you smiled sadly as you rested your head on his shoulder, letting the tears just roll down your cheeks. “You’re a ham,” you scolded softly, and Freddie chuckled quietly at that, his smile broad as he went to rest his head on yours.

“That’s sort of my specialty, if you haven’t noticed,” he teased, getting another soft giggle out of you. “How do you feel about some dinner, and then we’ll clean this place until it’s spotless? That sound good? You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to, but I want to help you however I can tonight.”

You nodded, sniffling a bit and raising your head when Freddie went to turn off the rice. You grabbed two bowls out of the cupboard as he grabbed spoons, and he mixed the two ingredients in before filling two bowls with rice and carrying them to your table, which was the cleanest part of the flat. It took a minute, but once you started eating, it felt renewing, like you were recharging after a full week spent on a low battery. And so you started talking, and Freddie started listening. He never interrupted, not once. It was your time to speak, and his time to hear you and your words. Only when you paused to allow his questions did he dare to utter a word.

“So have you been sleeping all week, or where have you been?” he asked, wondering if you’d left the flat.

“Here,” you sighed, playing with your spoon and sniffling a bit. “I’ve just been laying in bed mostly, some journal writing, reading here and there. I don’t remember the last time I tried to eat, though.”

“Any particular reason you decided to stay in?” he asked gently, trying to be hyper-aware of what questions would irk you.

“I’m just exhausted, and I keep getting overwhelmed by all of the work I have to do,” you said, leaning your head back as you stared at the ceiling, having finished your rice. “As soon as I finish one project, it feels like I’m right on to the next and there’s no room to breathe. I have no clue how I’m going to catch up from being gone this whole week, and it stresses me out.”

“Well, how about we take tomorrow night off and get through all of last week’s work together? My place, we can order delivery and just spend the whole night knocking it out,” Freddie offered, picking up both of your bowls and taking them to the sink.

“Oh, you don’t have to deal with me two nights in a row,” you quickly countered, but Freddie shook his head and started washing the dishes.

“It’s not dealing with you, you ninny. I want you to come over.” You smiled as he said that, hugging yourself and suddenly feeling a wave of guilt for assuming he was pitying you. Freddie was your best friend, after all, and it was horrible of you to think that he didn’t truly care about you. Here he was, washing your dishes, about to help you clean up after a rough patch, letting you vent. You had a lot to be thankful for, and you wanted to let him know that.

“Fred, you’re seriously the best,” you said, standing up and walking over to him as he put the bowls back up in the cupboard after drying them. He pulled you into an affectionate hug, letting you bury your face in his chest, and you both just stood there. It was nice, just having him there for you, knowing that he was present.

“You’re the best,” he corrected, smiling as he rested his chin on your head and rubbed your back slowly. “You’re so strong for doing this and not kicking me out. I’m proud of you, Y/N, really. It’s a lot to deal with, and you’re being so brave.”

Tears welled in your eyes again as he spoke, and you cleared your throat as you wrapped your arms around him tighter. “I’ll never be able to thank you enough.”

“Oh, darling, you don’t need to thank me,” he replied, humming a soft melody as he started to sway back and forth with you. “Just let me help you, and that would be enough for me.”

taglist - @crosmopolitan @just-ladyme @rogerfxckingtaylor @fourmisfitz @shae-is-not-ok @moreinfinite @fruityfreddie @poachedhazontoast @strawberryfields-forever @imladrs

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#freddie mercury #freddie mercury imagine #queen imagine

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sterekchub · 6 years ago

Text

Part 1.

A/N: I’m really sorry. This got SO far away from me and....yeah.

OCTOBER:

Legend has it that that the Being created the Gods and Goddesses to bring balance to the newly created Earth. Heaven was split into two groups – the Virtues and Sins. The God of Giving and the Goddess of Greed. The Goddess of Moderation and the God of Gluttony. Chastity and Lust. Forgiveness and Wrath. Truth and Heresy. Peace and Violence. One day, Greed decided she wanted total dominion over the Earth. Joined by the other Sins, they tried to overthrow the Virtues.

As punishment, the Being cast the Sins out of Heaven. Unable to destroy immortal beings, they were sentenced to their own domain in the Circles of Hell. The Sins would be cursed for all eternity, unable to partake in their own sins, only able to watch over other sinning souls.

Once every hundred years, on All Hallows Eve, the Sins can cross from the Circles of Hell into limbo into the mortal world. Only by possessing a kindred soul can the Sins stay in the mortal world for twelve lunar cycles, before returning to - .

The last word got smeared out by a large blob of ketchup.

“Shit!” Stiles hurriedly grabbed a napkin to clean off the offending strain. He only succeeded in turning the majority of the page a dull red. Shrugging, he stuffed another handful of fries in his mouth, marking the page down as he did so with a blue sticky note, indicating a true myth, rather than a “myth likely to be factual.”

“How’s it going?” Scott stopped and sniffed the air. “Your room reeks like a drive-thru. Have you been eating fast food all week?”

Stiles waved a fry at him. “Hey, this is all brain food. Deaton gave me all these books and I think half of them are all nonsense. Werewolves and banshees and wendigoes are one thing, Gods and circles of Hell are just made up stories.”

“Have time to take a break and catch a movie? It’s the Halloween double-feature: Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street.”

“Hell yes, Dude!”

***

NOVEMBER:

Two weeks after Halloween, Stiles finally caved and went to see Deaton. It took a while to explain his problem. He wasn’t being possessed like he had been before. There were no periods of time he couldn’t remember, no second voice in his head influencing his decisions. He wasn’t watching helplessly as someone else controlled his body. There was, however, something in his head constantly suggesting foods, regardless if he had just eaten or not. Stiles would eat his usual Chinese take-out order and suddenly find himself desperately craving pizza, his mind buzzing and unable to focus on anything else.

Deaton, as his usual expressive self, didn’t say a word until Stiles was finished his explanation. Then he pulled out the book Stiles had been pouring over weeks ago and opened to the ketchup-stained, blue tagged page.

“Are you kidding me? I thought it was a myth.”

“Most of the supernatural world is a myth.”

“So I’m possessed by an immortal being. Again.”

Deaton nodded. “Gluttony is not malicious in nature. The Sins only possess humans to ah – live vicariously through them. It cannot control you. Likely it will seek to share and intensify any of you experiences, not try to manipulate you into new ones.”

Stiles’ stomach grumbled. “Really?’

‘It can offer suggestions and perhaps forceful persuasions but aside from the cravings, it holds no actual power.”

“Great. So I’m a demon’s personal eating machine.”

“You could try fighting it. It will only last a year. It may be beneficial. Typically Demon possession does offer the host with extra strength and stamina to ensure their health.”

“Wonderful.”

***

DECEMBER

Stiles had never been happier to have a job that allowed him to work from home. It turned out the trick to keep the cravings down was to either eat a lot at once, or be constantly snacking. So long as Stiles kept munching on things every few minutes, he could actually focus on his work, rather than focusing on his next meal. It had taken him a few weeks of trying to fight against the constant grumbling of his stomach and fleeing images of food running across his head, but finally Stiles had gotten into the swing of living with a Gluttony Demon residing in his head.

It started with Oreos. Stiles had pulled open his desk drawer to finish off the last row of Oreos, needing something sweet after his afternoon of munching on chips. Apparently, finishing those off wasn’t enough and Stiles found himself compelled to run to the store for more. Stiles felt a thrill of excitement that definitely did not belong to him when he saw just how many varieties the stored offered. Stiles supposed that, not having tasted food in a hundred years, the choices of the 21st century were overwhelming.

One of everything went into his basket, Oreos thins, mini, double-stuffed, golden, birthday cake, mega stuffed, mint, red velvet, cinnamon bun, lemon, mystery flavored, peanut butter, chocolate, chocolate hazelnut, chocolate peanut-butter, brownie batter, apple pie, fudge covered, and completely unnecessarily, regular. Stiles gave the Demon credit – he wasn’t picky and wanted to be very thorough in his attempts to try everything possible.

The boxes were finished by the end of the week. It really wasn’t a hardship. Stiles always had a big sweet tooth. Plus, who didn’t love Oreos? He tried not to think about how it took a few seconds longer to force his button his pants on Sunday. Or about how his normal junk-food cravings were becoming alarming frequent and a staple of his daily diet. Stiles’ always had a fast metabolism. For the amount of pizza and cafeteria food Stiles ate during college, he only had put on the freshman fifteen. So he could handle a few hundred Oreos. No problem.

“It’s really not that bad,” he told his father one night on the phone. “It’s an excuse to eat anything I want.”

“You have always been a model of restraint,” John replied sarcastically.

“Someone had to keep the unhealthy stuff away from you.”

‘Just take care of yourself, kid. And don’t call me when you get stuck in a doorway.”

“Haha. It’s under control, Dad. Don’t worry.”

***

JANUARY

Things were becoming less “under control” when the Demon had gone through all the possible snacks Stiles could think of and progressed to wanting full meals. Multiple meals. Several times a day. It was becoming increasingly frustrating to try and work on his novel. He was either focused on what he was going to eat or was sleepily watching dumb videos online as he fell into a food coma. Optimistically, he told himself it was just a phase. Last month it had been snacks, this month it was meals, next month maybe it would be fruit or salads or something.

Currently, he was laying on his couch, polishing off the last of his Chinese takeout order, with reruns of some HGTV show playing in the background. He really did feel like a glutton when he ate like this. He should have stopped a container of sweet and sour pork and five egg rolls ago, but he had kept going. It was hard to tell if the cravings were the Demon in his head or the subconscious need to finish everything. Just to see if he could. Just to feel the weight of having his gut filled, swollen and protruding over his waistband, forcing him to take a few more bites of food, pushing the final egg roll into his mouth before leaning back against the couch with a soft moan of relief. He closed his eyes, listening to woman on television debating what house she wanted. He nodded off before finding out what house she picked, an arm resting over his belly.

Stiles dreamed of pizza. He was in the pizza parlor, sitting at a lone table in the center of the restaurant. Servers stood around him, each offering him different slices, acting like he was some grand judge on a food competition, insisting he had to try them all before he made his decision. Stiles was reaching for piece after piece, stuffing them into his mouth impossibly fast while his belly started to push out in front of him. Another couples of pizza slices, or maybe entire pizza’s later, his stomach knocked over the table in front of him as it kept growing in size…

He woke up with a start and reached for his phone. He already had the pizza place on speed dial.

“Thank you for calling Charlie’s Pizza. What can I get for you?”

“A medium meat lover’s pizza and an order of wings.”

“Is that it?”

“Ye – ” Another craving hit him. Stiles rubbed his still full belly and added resignedly. “ – and an order of breadsticks. And garlic bread.”

‘Your total will $21.27. See you in a half-hour.”

***

FEBRUARY

“Look, I get it. I’m getting fat and turning into a pig. You don’t need to bring me my – my daily feed or whatever!”

Derek stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“You! I know you’ve been having the pack cook for me! Even Jackson dropped food off. From his personal chef!”

Derek set the bag of carefully packaged food he was holding on the counter. “We figured you were getting sick of takeout.”

“I can cook for myself.”

“You haven’t been cooking.”

“And how do you know that?” Stiles asked angrily. “Busy stalking me but couldn’t be bothered to actually say ‘Hi, Stiles, want to do something?’ Or do you just get a laugh watching me do nothing all day but eat alone?”

“I can tell by the trashcan overflowing with take-out containers, Stiles. Don’t blame me for this. I’ve been texting you. Scott has been texting you. You’ve ignored everyone.”

Stiles shoulders sagged in defeat. “I know. I’m sorry. I thought I could handle this.”

Derek pulled the younger man against him, burying his face in the Stiles’ neck. “I’ve missed you.”

“Missed you too, Big Guy.” He wrapped his arms tighter around Derek. “I do appreciate the food.”

“Good. You shouldn’t be eating only junk-food.”

“Yes, Dad,” Stiles said playfully. “I make sure I’m eating vegetables.”

“Fried vegetables don’t count.”

“They sort of count.”

Derek growled. Stiles stayed still for a few more minutes, content to just be in Derek’s reassuring embrace for a while longer.

“Hey, Der. What if – what it I don’t really mind this?”

There was no answer for a few seconds. Derek merely stiffened, then pulled pack enough to press a gentle kiss to Stiles’ lips. “It’s okay.”

“And I don’t mind getting to eat so much.”

“Okay.”

“And maybe I like being this heavy.”

“Okay.”

Stiles swatted him on the arm. “Forget how to use words again?”

“Ever think I don’t mind either?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank god.” Stiles squirmed out of Derek’s grip and started pulling Tupperware containers out of the bag. “Because I’m starving.”

“Wasting away.” Derek agreed.

Stiles response was lost behind the food he had already started shoveling in his mouth. “This is amazing. Have I ever said that you’re my favorite person?”

“Hmm. Nope. Never came up. Good thing we aren’t dating, or anything.”

“Ass. But I forgive you for making this amazing food.”

“They’re my mother’s recipes. I don’t know if I got them quite right, but I thought you might want something new.”

“Any free food is good food. My entire paycheck has been going to food and new jeans.”

“You know I can pay – ”

“ I am not being the sugar baby in this relationship.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“But you love me,” Stiles grinned. He tossed the empty container into the sink and grabbed a second one. “Sorry, I’d offer you some but –” Stiles gestured to his protruding middle. There was a clear few inches of pale skin sticking out from under his shirt. Time to size up. Again. “Unless you want to hear this complaining all night, I need all the food I can get.”

The food Derek had brought was sufficient enough to keep Stiles’ stomach from growling through the night. In the early hours of the morning, before Stiles was even awake, his stomach started rumbling. Derek left him a stack of pancakes and bacon. Next to the plate was a credit card with a scribbled note: Use it. Please.

***

MARCH (Sorry for Derek and Stiles both being a little bad about respecting each other’s privacy in this section. Not that either of them mind…)

Derek never had a very interesting browser history. He had left it open on his computer, which was just unfairly asking for someone to take a quick peek. Stiles felt mildly guilty about it, comforted only by telling himself Derek eavesdropped on most his conversations and always pointed out when he was lying. Granted, Derek couldn’t exactly lose his werewolf abilities, but still, boundaries. Stiles considered it even.

The browser history had, unsurprisingly, nothing interesting. A few recipes, a couple of monster lore searches, a least once a week a visit to his credit card statement… That seemed unusual. Derek didn’t even have that card on him; it was the one he had left for Stiles (which he had reluctantly agreed to use after a few arguments. Stiles wasn’t a starving artist per say, but nor was he independently wealthy).

Now it seemed like an even trade off. His boyfriend pays for his food and then – Stiles grinned. Really, it was a miracle Derek hadn’t gotten possessed by the Lust demon. There must be a level of hell reserved for getting off this many times to their boyfriend, without telling them….

Stiles was still sitting in front of the computer when Derek came back to the loft. “So, worried I’m spending too much money, or just very interested in how much I’ve been eating?”

Derek turned so red Stiles was concerned he had forgot how to breath for a few moments. “I can explain.”

“That you’ve been getting off to how much food I’ve ordered? That’s pretty kinky, Derek.” He lifted up the hem of his shirt, letting his belly wobble out. It took up a considerable amount of space in his lap now. “I’d say you like thinking about how fat I’m getting.”

“Jesus, Stiles, I can’t pay my bills without being turned on. Do you know how many times you’ve ordered food in the past month?

Stiles grinned wider. “Just think that isn’t all I’ve eaten. I’ve been putting groceries on my card, and Lydia dropped off some pies and Mrs. McCall made the best mac&cheese casseroles for me….”

“I know,” Derek groaned. “Look at this, Stiles.” He knelt in front of Stiles, lifting his belly up, struggling to undo the button of his jeans, before letting it thud back into his lap jiggling. “You haven’t – stopped – eating.”

“Can’t help it. A glutton has to eat. ‘M getting so fat, Derek.” “Can’t believe how much food you order in a day. How much does it take to fill this belly now, Stiles?

“Why don’t - ah” Stiles moaned, leaning further back in his chair as Derek started mouthing at Stiles’ sensitive underbelly. “Why don’t you order some food and I’ll show you.”

#I have no excuse for this.#fat!Stiles #day6 #chubtober #sorry this is barely edited...

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limpblotter · 8 years ago

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Happy Friggin Borthday, Cheeseball

a/n: Everyone has nice drawings and art of Thomas. All I came up with is a crappy birthday party that ends semi-terrible for him. Oneshot/Drabble Summary: Thomas’s is taken back by a surprise party that leaves him wishing he wasn’t born Warning: hints of social anxiety, troubled childhood, unhealthy coping mechanisms, anxious ticks (raw draft/uneditted) Taggies: @hell-yes-puns-and-ships w/c:2811

Happy Birthday Thomas!

Screamed the google banner as Thomas licked open his web browser. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance, the words were almost ironic. His eyes rigidly scrolled down to the date at the corner of his computer. Indeed, it was April 13th, his birthday. The idea of it all sent sickening shivers down his spine. Quickly he slammed his laptop shut foregoing any and all work he had planned to do. Slowly he ran his hand through his fro, pushing back his springy curls only to have them bounce back to their original mane like frame around his face. His birthday, he pressed the top row of his teeth against his plush upper lip as he carefully pressed the home button on his latest Apple Iphone.

He had a flood of notifications. Facebook, twitter, all the social media he kept were all going off to the point he was sure his phone was overheating just by sheer amount. Social media did well for Thomas, a man who had popularity and money with none of the tolerance to handle people. Most of the time he could handle a small group of people at once, more comfortably if flanked by his closest cohorts. Naturally he was a skittish and quiet man, looks aside, he did not mirror the man he was trying to be. Through the third person vehicle of social media, keeping up appearances was as easy as uploading a charming picture of his biceps, or a status about how drab the exclusive club was that night, even the flirtations comment back and forth.

Slowly, he thumbed through what easily was thousands of surface deep compliments and well wishes. After searching through social media, voicemails and texts his frown deepened. Not a single one from them. He angrily flipped his phone over and glared, staring at library wall when the chair beside him screeched. His eyes darted to the sound, his body hunching away from the person…”Oh, it's you.” Thomas didn’t take back recoil. “What do you want, Aaron.”

Aaron Burr, a man who was eager to join into Jefferson’s exclusive world. Jefferson on the college campus was part of an elitist club that valued academics and active members of the socialite lifestyle. Aaron was on the list to join. He had everything going for him, good grades and an impressive background. What he lacked? Personality in Jefferson’s main opinion, in another he lacked a certain...thing. “I heard it was your birthday” Immediately Jefferson was cringing, he didn’t need reminding. “I got you this.” He smiled handing a coupon. Jefferson looked it over and his eyes might have inched less away from it's harden stare to a touch softer. “Discount to Mix-n-Mac” he might have the chance and the money to indulge in the fancier line of cuisine but mac’n’cheese held a special place in his heart. This line of mac was among his favorite. “Thanks, Burr.” Thomas tucked the discounted coupon away.

“No problem, figured today was a special day for you, big man.” He nudged Thomas’s arm. “Any special plans?” “Nope.” Thomas kept it short and polite, slowly opening his computer back up.

“No?” Aaron sounded surprise, like most would have. “Not even with Sally?” “Not even with Sally.” Though some coital hanky-panky with his side piece might have been nice...even on his birthday he had trouble finding the libido for that. Personally he rather have the day go as quietly and calmly as possible. “I tend not to do much on my birthday.”

“But--” Aaron tried to interject and that’s when Thomas lost all his politeness. Thomas started packing up and looked around the library. “Sorry Burr, I’m just too busy.” And with that little white lie aside, Thomas made his escape. His birthday only came with bad memories. Still he glanced at his phone again, more notifications, none from anyone he wanted to hear from. He shouldn’t have been surprised. It was the same every year. The day went on with Thomas half assing many of the thank yous and embellishing what he wanted to do. Hinting at going out and drinking though nothing specific. No one could invite themselves that way, not like there was nothing to be invited to. These were all made up, Thomas had no intention on celebrating tonight. Though he would most likely post some typical hung over status in the morning to make it sound like he had a wild, college night out.

Instead he looked forward to a quiet night in his dorm room hopefully without his roommate. Thomas’s roommate almost made him want to go out and celebrate. He hated just the look of that weasley, wispy haired man. Someone who turned HIM down when he offered the club to him. A frat club that would have propelled his sorry, poor ass and he was told he had better things to do. Later to realize they were bunk mates after his friend James had failed to enlist in rooms before the deadline.

It was a Friday night, so he was a little surprised to find many cars were still in the parking lot. More troubling that the hallways along his floor were empty. It was like a ghost town inside. He walked to his dorm room and slowly opened the door, it was pitch black. “Thank God.” He sighed to himself, Hamilton must have been out with friends. The loser actually had friends… In that second he closed the door behind him and flicked on the lights he was met by the worse kind of surprise. “SURPRISE”

Screamed what felt like millions of people. It was though Thomas’s friend list had poured into his small two bedroom dorm apartment. The people were yelling and flashes were going off capturing Thomas’s less surprised more infuriated face. He tried to plaster a smile on as Sally, the girl he had casually been hooking up with looped her arm around his. “What’s going on…” he seethed between densely clamped teeth. “Isn’t it sweet? Aaron and I did it ourselves.” She beamed and suddenly Thomas was mentally shredding not only Burr’s invitation to join the club but his very existence. “Let’s go, you have so many gifts, so many people want say happy birthday.” Sally near dragged him through the crowd. Thomas looked around, the room felt like it was spinning. The amount of people densely packed in his dorm, some smoking, some drinking booze they had brought, others standing around wasting their breath only added to the heat.

He struggled to keep eye contact, he managed a few muddled hellos and thanks. He nodded towards gifts, people beamed and joked and all he could do was smile. Keeping his lips closed for the nausea began to rise. The door opened again.

“What the fuck Jefferson!” Hamilton had been out studying when he came back to what felt like a frat house party in his dorm. Already red cups littered his floor and his bedroom was surrounded by couples going at it. Hamilton, unlike Thomas, took a calming breath realizing he couldn’t curse out Thomas over the noise. His approach would be a little more subtle. Unlike Thomas, Hamilton might have been a poor scholarship student constantly fighting with FASFA to keep his head afloat, was able to blend. Alexander lit up the room. He shot a few words here and there, witty jokes, flirtatious compliments. People actually wished he’d stay in the conversation but he was a man on a mission. Well, he was a man on an assassination. He eyed Thomas, his tall and muscular figure being led on hilariously by his tiny woman of the night. He weaved through the people and once he got close enough to grabbed Thomas’s free arm and beamed at Sally, a blush warmed her cheeks. “Sorry, mind if I borrow the man of the hour?” He quickly grabbed Thomas and shoved him into the bathroom which now had a very potent smell of sex and vomit. “Jesus.” Hamilton slammed the door and flicked on the bathroom vent fan. “What the actual fuck Thomas?” Alexander began, “you think you can throw yourself a fucking party in OUR dorm?! I have a final in two weeks…” Thomas stopped listening to Alexander’s voice. A part of him was actually grateful Alexander had pulled him away. Now he was away from faces he needed to keep that careless, rich boy facade. Even if it was Alexander here, he didn’t care enough about him to pretend. His large hands grasped the smooth, porcelain edge of the sink and he bent his head over. “JEFFERSON ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING” Alex had been complaining the entire time, hands flailing to emphasize his point but Thomas had drowned nearly all of it out. “Thomas…” Alexander watched as his back trembled. “Are you going to…” He heard a dry gag and fell silent. Was he? A second dry gag followed violent heaving and suddenly Alexander was concerned. “...I can’t…” Thomas groaned, his head was aching. It felt like his brain was beating against his skull and every inch of his head was vibrating.

Hamilton might have hated having him as a roommate but he didn’t...hate the guy. He had some empathy in his voice as he sarcastically shot back, “what can’t handle your moonshine, Southern boy?”

More heaving came, and it was clear to Alexander it wasn’t involuntary. He was doing it on purpose. Before he could ask Thomas what was really going on Thomas managed to whine again in a softer voice, “...I can’t do this right now.” “Do what?” Alex looked around. “People...party...so many…” He fought back hot tears from how hard he was forcing the air up his throat. Suddenly the tall man’s knees gave out and he sank to the ground, his hands still clutching the sink. His body shaking violently. The tears trickling down his face sent Alex into a confused tizzy. “...ok...uh…” The party was the problem? Well getting everyone out wouldn’t be a problem. “Do you want me to call anyone?” He didn’t feel comfortable leaving Thomas alone. He got no answer now. Thomas hung his head, his curls fall over his face and he was nothing but a black curled mane, a shrinking form under the sink. Alexander took one long look at Thomas and closed the door after him.

Birthdays were never his thing.

He remembered every birthday he had. He remembered how poorly each and every one of those birthdays went. A dismal display of wealth for his family’s benefit. While Thomas was forced to the forefront, around people he never knew, forced to speak and constantly under intense scrutiny. If he said the wrong thing, stuttered, stammered, did anything to look less like a strong and proud Jefferson boy he was met with instant lashing and public displays of physical correction. All the while his innocent pleas for a simple birthday, one where he could be gifted something he wanted went unheard by his family. This birthday wasn’t his. It was just another day for the Jefferson’s to flaunt their power and wealth. Thomas started to feel another heave ripple out of him. He felt the heat of his body working to force some invisible lump in his throat out and his brain melting down overpower him. With a hard twist, he forced half his body into the white tub and retched the cold water knob open. He dunked his head into the cold water and held his breath letting it all wash over him.

For a moment, he felt a calm come over him. All that mattered was the icy sting of incredibly cold water wash over his face. He focused on his other senses, he could hear the music stop. The obnoxious bass was gone thank god. The door opened and closed. “Thomas” A voice so soft that it was practically drowned under the water that was pouring down on Thomas’s head. He felt two large hands pull his shoulders up and out of the water and suddenly Thomas coughed. He gasped, and sputtered realizing he had been holding his breath for so long it pained him to inhale. “Thomas what are you doing? Why is half the people on your friend’s list outside talking to Hamilton?” James Madison gently released him in favor to turn off the water. “A-Aaron ….sur-surprised me.” He hissed, teeth chattering from the cold water. His head started to slowly throb again. James glared a bit at the door, he would have a talk to Aaron. “You should have called me.” He turned around giving Thomas his back as he started to rummage through the shared items of the bathroom.

The taller man could hear the sharpness in James’s voice. “S-Sally, everyone, they were around me and…” He suddenly felt a towel flop on his head. His world went black as James started to dry Thomas’s hair.

“Thomas.” James spoke soft but curtly, his voice slightly rough from the fact he had been ill for a few days now. “You could have told them, no--”

“What Jefferson turns down a party?” He grabbed James’s hands and stopped him from massaging the water out of his hair. He looked up at James with wet eyes. “I’m me, Jemmy, I can’t say no. I’ve never been able to say no. Last time …”

“I know…” James was there. That birthday party, Thomas was fourteen. He had saved up birthday money for years so he could buy himself a gift he wanted. He bought himself a violin and practiced every night one song and one song alone until he was proud. On the day of his annual birthday celebration at the country club, Thomas had built up the nerve to play, the shy, timid Jefferson son who never seemed to shine like the rest of his family was now in the spotlight. He began to play in front of the family friends, the Madison family included, when Thomas’s father ripped his instrument from his hand. Publicly humiliated him and his craft before tossing the violin into the trash. Birthdays weren’t days of celebration for Thomas, it was time to show off and prance. Now that he was no longer in Virginia to be paraded around he hadn’t received a single message from his siblings or mother.

“You’re not fourteen anymore Thomas, this is your choice. You don’t have to be anyone’s shiny thing anymore.” James spoke softly, taking his hands back and started ringing his curls until most were just slightly damp. Once he was done he stood up and held out his hand for Thomas. Thomas’s eyes looked guarded, he didn’t want to leave the safety of the bathroom, he was nowhere near stable to join the masses. Madison nodded in understanding and slowly went back to Thomas and sank down beside him. The shorter college student slowly brought his head to Thomas’s shoulder and sighed.

Having his best friend beside him always seemed to bring a courage out of Thomas. Madison was incredibly intelligent, equally as wealthy but he was meek in appearance. From the moment they met, Thomas had an overwhelming need to protect Madison.Over the course of their friendship it was clear which one of them truly needing protection. James had been there, standing there, giving Thomas that sense of security. After a childhood of constantly being redirected this Jefferson felt lost in a sea of empty wealth and titles. Jemmy kept him grounded.

Thomas’s hand gently crawled over James and laid there. In that moment James smiled a bit and nodded. “Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, dormez-vous? Dormez-vous?” James sung lowly, the same little song Thomas had tried to play on that awful birthday years ago. He felt a smile tug on his lips, even during that awful birthday James was there. He closed his eyes and felt everything ebb away. The aches, the heat. He focused every bit his energy on James’s voice, his breathing, the periodic squeeze of his hand. After a few minutes the bathroom door opened and Alexander leaned against the door-frame. “I got everyone out, told them you had a stomach bug and they empathetically left all your gift and booze.”

“Thank you again, Hamilton for telling me...about this.” James motioned to Thomas with his head.

“I figured when you didn’t show up that Burr must have not told you since you’ve been...sick…” Alexander shrugged a bit, “whatever, I’m taking a bottle as collateral.” He turned with a bottle of some expensive booze when Thomas croaked. “Thanks, Hamilton” He closed his eyes and rested his head on top of James’s. He gave James a small squeeze as he finally relaxed.

Alexander checked his watch, “a few minutes until midnight, consider this my birthday gift to you.” He smirked and closed the door as he spoke. “Happy fuckin’ birthday Thomas”

#drabble #hamilton #fanfic #oneshot #hamilton drabble #fanfiction #thomas jefferson #james madison #alexander hamilton #college au #modern au #jeffmads #jamilton?#kinda #not really #happy fucking birthday asswipe #angsty

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realtor10036 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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John Jantsch: There’s a lot of people that believe how you start your day is how your day is going to pretty much unfold. Your morning routine dictates how inspired you’ll be for the day. In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I speak with Benjamin Spall, he’s the author of My Morning Routine and also MyMorningRoutine.com, where they have collected all the morning routines of hundreds of successful folks, and it’s definitely something you’re going to want to check out.

Stuff like payroll and benefits are hard, that’s why I switched to Gusto. And to help support the show, Gusto is offering our listeners an exclusive, limited time deal. You sign up for their payroll service today, you’ll get three months free, once you run your first payroll. Just go to Gusto.com/tape

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch, and my guest today is Benjamin Spall. He is one of the founders of My Morning Routine, and also a co-author of My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired. So Benjamin, thanks for joining us.

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: I guess that’s true, yeah. We’ve, since buying the website about five and a half years ago, I think we’re just coming up on 300 routines on the website. And then, for the book, about 30 or 40 more. So yeah, it’s quite a collection now.

John Jantsch: So what, and this is a really hot topic, but, so I know there’s a lot of content out there around this. But I’m just curious what, in your research has shown, what are some of the known benefits of having a morning routine?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, so the main benefits, and we found, what was not surprising, when we spoke with people, especially kind of high level people that we could get for the book was that, basically, everyone we spoke with does have a morning routine. And of course you could say that’s somewhat self-selective. But we found that when people have this productive kind of healthy morning in which they can meditate, they can do some working out, or they can just spend time calmly in a calm environment with their family. When they have that time in the morning, they can take the benefits of that with them for the rest of the day. So many people, especially people who work out or who run, they mention that if they don’t do it in the morning, they’re unlikely to do it later on in the day. And that’s another benefit. Just actually kind of getting the things in that, they’re not your main task of the day. It’s not like a project you’re working on. Just something that you want to do every single day, regardless of how your morning goes.

John Jantsch: And it’s funny, you mentioned, we all have routines. And, I mean, we can call them habits, too, I suppose, in a lot of cases. And some of them aren’t necessarily healthy. So I think what you’re talking about are really, ideally, the subtitle is, Start Every Day Inspired. You’re talking about actually developing healthy routines. I remember when my kids were little, a lot of the routine was about getting them fed and out the door, and it was not necessarily about me meditating.

Benjamin Spall: Right. That’s exactly right. And we do actually have a chapter on parents, specifically focusing on parents with young children, in the book. Because we wanted to point out that even though having a morning routine obviously isn’t going to be as easy for parents of young children, we wanted to point out, for example, through some of the interviews we’ve got in there, that it is still possible. You just, for the most part, have to get up a little bit earlier and kind of figure out what your kid’s own routine is. But that’s your point about healthy verses on healthy habits. We do mention the book, kind of the importance of changing some of these habits.

So many of the people that we spoke with, both on the website and for the book, mentioned kind of a phenomenon of waking up, and the first thing they do is pick up their phone and kind of hold it a couple of inches from their face, while they scroll through Twitter, they scroll through Instagram. And that, for the most part, is an unhealthy habit. So we kind of give ideas to how you can stop doing that, and kind of replace it with something that’s a little bit better for your morning.

John Jantsch: Well and I know we talked about, or I know a lot of people talk about the mental health benefits of having that kind of time where you focus, you collect your thoughts, maybe you journal, that kind of stuff. Certainly, a lot of the routines involve physical activity. And I know from my standpoint, I think running your own business, like many of my listeners do, is physically demanding. And I think exercise pays off in spades from that standpoint. But I would also say that, I’m much more productive throughout the day, if I get the day started right. Do many of the folks that you talk about or talk to list that as, really, a benefit?

Benjamin Spall: Oh totally, yeah. We actually, at the end of every single interview, almost every interview, we ask the person we’re speaking with what they’d do if they fail to follow their morning routine. And so many people told us, if they fail, there could be a certain element, they could do the X amount say, for example, and not have time. Or it could be the whole thing. They could just wake up a couple of hours late, and in that case, you probably just need to get to work, whether you’re employed, or whether you have your own business, you probably just want to get down to it. And so many people told us that if they failed a part of their routine, if kind of messes up their whole day. And they really struggle to complete the work they would be getting on with, because they kind of have this spark of not working out, not meditating.

So although in that situation, we do encourage people to get back on at the next thing. You know, don’t see one mistake as failure. It does affect your day if you don’t kind of have that morning time in which you can settle into the rest f the day.

John Jantsch: Yeah I think there’s a lot of research about that idea of trying to start a new habit. They say it’s not the day you start, it’s the day you fail to do that new habit. That getting back up and doing it again the next day is actually the key to success.

Benjamin Spall: Yeah. We mentioned, in the book we mentioned, Jerry Seinfeld has this idea of, I can’t remember what he calls it, but he puts a, he has a calendar. And then every day, he writes a joke, he puts a cross on that day on the wall calendar. And the idea is to no break the chain. So every single day, he wants to do it. And he doesn’t want to break that chain. But we mentioned in the book, even though that’s a great idea, and it’s very motivating, if you do that, and then one day you do forget to do your thing, whether it’s writing, whether it’s something to do with business, you can feel pretty unmotivated the next day. You can think, “I’ve just broken a 60, 90 day chain. And that can make you feel like you don’t want to get back to it.

So we mentioned in the book, and it’s kind of mixed in with our failure question. If that happens, just don’t worry about it. Just start again. And just don’t see one missed day, or even two missed days, as a setback. Because the ultimate setback is giving up on the thing you want to do overall.

John Jantsch: I’m sure some of the folks that you … And we’re going to get into some of the specific routines. But I’m sure some of the folks that you talked to also expressed this. I know for me, in many cases, my morning routines sometimes starts the night before. Depending upon getting to bed at the right time, did I drink too much wine? You know, have I given some thoughts and sort of unpacked the day, and put that away? For me, that, sometimes, is going to dictate how I’m going to start the next day.

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, no, evening routines, whether kind of after you’ve finished work, the way that you finished your workday and actually before you go to bed, they’re incredibly important. And someone actually said to us for the book, something along the lines of her evening routine and her morning routine is just like one continual routine with sleep in the middle. But yeah, evening routines are very important. First to get you in the frame of mind to actually fall asleep, and that’s especially hard, as many of us nowadays, we check our phone, we have all that blue light kind of streaming in, keeping us awake. But also to kind of help you calm down and get ready for the day ahead.

So one thing we mentioned, and we steal this from Cal Newport, who we also spoke with for the book, he’s the author of Deep Work, among others. And he said something along the lines of, you have this shut down ritual. This is more at the end of your workday than just before going to bed. So he has this idea of, you kind of want to have all your chickens in a row, as they say. So you kind of shut down your computer, you kind of check to make sure that everything on your calendar is set, and you know what you’re doing the next day. And then you completely shut down your computer. You don’t fold the laptop, you completely shut it down. And that is intended kind of as a metaphor to shut down your mind, and make it easier for you to enjoy the evening, and then get to sleep at the end of it.

John Jantsch: I actually have the luxury of living about three quarters of a mile from my office. And I really cherish that walk home at the end of the day, because it really is my time to really kind of let it all go. Let’s talk about some of the actual routines. Did you discover patterns? I mean, were there things that pretty much everybody, or certainly a lot of people do?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah. I mean one of the things that, not everybody, but a lot of the people we spoke with do is working out. And that could be, it could be incredibly extreme. Like we spoke with General Stanley McChrystal, and his workout routine starts at 4:00am and it’s pretty intense. And it could be something as simple as just doing some light stretching, or going to the gym for 15, 20 minutes a day. But what we found that was most fascinating to us is, even though we spoke with on morning workouts in the book, and running in the morning and such and such. It’s actually not that important what time of day you do it, so long as it works for you and you actually do it.

So we spoke with many people, including Bill McNabb, who’s chairman of Vanguard, the Vanguard Group. And he told us that he always works out around lunchtime. And I, personally, do the same. I work out just before lunch. Because, like him, I prefer to do kind of my creative, my productive work first thing. And then the gym kind of pumps me up for the rest of the afternoon. Whereas if I do it first thing in the morning, which I do do occasionally, it kind of just tires me out, if I’m honest. So working out in the morning definitely works for a lot of people, but just getting it in in general is the main thing.

John Jantsch: That’s interesting because I’m a morning, I mean, I’m a 6:00am workout-er. If I come to the end of the workday thinking, “I’ll just get it in later.” I’m just too mentally tired for that point to want to do it.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: But that could, again, just be habit. I do think one of the sort of downsides, if you will, to routine and habit is that it just makes it easy for you to go, “Oh well, I didn’t get it in this morning, so the day’s shot.”

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, we talk a lot in the book about habit stacking, which is effectively kind of having an order to these different routines. So if you meditate, after you meditate, you may do your workout, for example. And even though you don’t always have to stick to that habit, if you have kids running around, you’re probably going to have to change stuff from time to time. Just to stick to it if you can, because as you say, then you don’t allow yourself to push it later on. And that is one of the benefits of the morning routine, is you get these little things in. You get working out, and you get meditating, you get self care. Anything that can really help you with your life and with your business, you get that in first thing. So then the rest of the day is kind of golden, you don’t have to think about it anymore.

John Jantsch: Wouldn’t it be great if, in your business, all you had to do was the stuff you love? The reason you started the business. And not all that administrative stuff like payroll and benefits. That stuff’s hard. Especially when you’re a small business. Now, I’ve been delegating my payroll for years to one of those big, corporate companies. And I always felt like a little tiny fish. But now there is a much better way. I’ve switched over to Gusto, and it is making payroll and benefits and HR easy for the modern small business. You no longer have to be a big company to get great technology, great benefits, and great service to take care of your team. To help support the show, Gusto is offering our listeners an exclusive, limited-time deal. If you sign up today, you’ll get three months free, once you’re on your first payroll. Just go to gusto.com/tape.

In some of your interviews that you’ve done, especially on the website, are there a handful of what I would call quirky routines that kind of stick out? And you think really? You do that every day? Anything that you can categorize or characterize that way?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, there were definitely some where I kind of questioned how truthful people were being. I think, for the most part, I think people were saying the truth. But I do think sometimes people were giving a more idealized version of their routine. And there’s definitely some benefit to that. We’ve had a few people tell us, they told us their ideal routine, something that they do maybe two out of five days of the week, during the work week. And then after we published it online, they’re kind of like, maybe I should actually stick with that. So it kind of helped pushed them to actually do that every single day. So obviously, it’s now going to be published, the way I would say is a great way of helping you stick to your routine is actually just writing it down. Especially if it’s kind of a checklist for every single day.

I use this with Eleanor, I use this and that, and it creates a new note for me every day. And that just has my same things, every day, the same stuff comes around and I just have to do it again. I have to do it over and over again. And that’s a great way to remind me of what I need to do, even though you’ll very quickly remember, as long as you’re not changing things too often. Actually I’ve shown you, here’s another thing, you popped it off your list yesterday, but now you have to pop it off your list again. And even though, as I mentioned earlier, you’re never going to be perfect. You are sometimes going to forget parts, and you’re just going to have to be okay with that. It’s a great way to stop you from actually forgetting what you need to be doing.

John Jantsch: That’s interesting because there is a lot of power for a lot of people in the to do list. If it’s there on the list, they’re maybe going to check it off. So that’s a nice tip. So one of the things I love is, I’ve got about one, two, three, four, five, six, six journals on my shelf that all have one routine or another for kind of a morning and evening ritual. They’ve become really popular, as you know. In fact, I’m sure you guys probably have one in the works, a companion. But did you get any sense for, a lot of people have good intentions of doing those, the journaling, that’s an example. Is there, there’s research that suggests it takes 21 days or something in a row of doing something to actually establish a habit. Did you get any sense that people talked about how they establish something they wanted to do into their routine, but wasn’t something that they were naturally doing?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, no, for sure. We had many people, and I would say meditation is probably the thing that this relates to the most. We had quite a lot of people tell us, both for the book and the website, again. That they have tried to mediate, tried to create a meditation practice. But they struggled, and they eventually just gave it up because it wasn’t working for them. And although, many hardcore meditators may say that the struggle is what you push through, ultimately, and I said this in the book, ultimately, if something really isn’t working for you, and you’re not particularly interested in making it work, then that’s okay. As long as you give it a chance, give it a few weeks. We don’t say anything in particular like 21 days. We kind of just say, give it a little bit of time. And if it’s clearly not working for you, then that’s fine.

And we do hope people experiment with a lot of the things in the book. The morning workouts, the self care portion, kind of being productive in the morning. But at the same time, we don’t want to be really prescriptive, and we don’t want to tell people, for example, you have to wake up at 5:00am to be successful. Because we kind of think a lot of that is actually garbage, and you can wake up at 5:00am, but you know you don’t have to. So we don’t want to be too prescriptive. We wanted to give people a bunch of ideas. And many of these ideas have worked for people that we’ve spoken with, but we didn’t want to kind of tell people what to do.

John Jantsch: Yeah that meditation thing, I think what trips people up is that they think something’s supposed to happen while they’re meditating. And when it doesn’t, that’s like, really hard for us, especially type A type kind of people to deal with. So what is your morning routine look like?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, mine is very simple. It’s actually quite disappointing, compared to some of the people in the book. But okay, so the main thing I’ve done, and it took me a while to do this, which is why there’s a little bit of repetition in our book, and that’s on purpose, because we want to keep hammering home certain points. And so, as of about a year or so ago, I’ve been keeping my phone in the kitchen overnight, and I now have an analog alarm clock. And it’s on airplane mode in the kitchen. And if I can help it, if I don’t have an early morning meeting or call, I don’t take it off airplane mode until I either leave the house or sit down to work. And that has worked incredibly well for me.

Because it means, at night, for an hour or so before going to bed, I’m not scrolling through Instagram and letting that blue light in. And it means that in the morning, when I get up, I can actually just have a, as much as possible, kind of a calm morning. I might read a book while making breakfast. And then I can have breakfast with my wife without thinking about an email I just read, or something that kind of riles me up. So that has been a great addition to my morning.

Another thing I do is, I meditate for just 10 minutes. And this kind of goes to the point you said about expecting something to happen. When I meditate, nothing’s really happening except for the most part, I’m kind of just organizing my day, and maybe even my week. Trying to think through my tasks that day, or the tasks I can remember for that day. What is most important? What should I do first? What should I do second? And what is important, not just for today, but for the next week? For the next fortnight? For the next month? For a while out. And so that’s kind of what I do the meditation for.

And the reason I only do it for 10 minutes is, and I mention this in the book, because when you start a new habit, you kind of want to keep it as short as possible. Because if you start out with a half hour meditation, for example, or you want to run for an hour, you are not going to stick with that. You’re going to stop doing that within maybe one or two days. And you really need to start small. So I’ve brought my meditation practice back, say three or four months ago now. And I could probably extend it, at this point, I could probably extend it to 15 minutes, half an hour. But right now, I’m happy at 10 minutes. So I’m kind of just leaving it at that.

John Jantsch: So do you find yourself, because I think one of the things, to your point about, “I’m going to go run for an hour.” Do you, you see all these routines, and you collect these routines. Do you find yourself sometimes going, “Oh that’s a great idea, I should add that to my routine.” Or do you feel just completely comfortable in what you’re doing?

Benjamin Spall: It’s weird, yeah. So we’ve quit doing the website for five and a half years now, so I generally keep mine pretty simple. Even though I do get a lot of benefit in pretty much every interview, because I edit it before it goes off, pretty much every interview I edit, I definitely see some benefit in. And I’m like, “Maybe I’ll try that out.” So that’s kind of the beauty of it kind of going through the book as well. You can kind of jot down these ideas or underline, or draw between the pages. And you don’t have to add it in immediately, but just to have that idea in the back of your mind, so the leaving my phone in the kitchen, that was mentioned time, and time, and time again before I eventually did it.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah exactly. Even if I’m working from a coffee shop first thing in the morning, for example. If I’m waiting for my coffee to arrive, sometimes I’ll take out my phone and I’ll get this desire to check my email. And I’m like, well actually, my coffee’s going to be here, I’m going to be checking my email on my laptop in about five minutes time. I don’t need to look at it now. It doesn’t make any difference. So yeah, totally, just giving yourself that peace for a little bit longer is a great way to go.

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

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seoprovider2110 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#FEED 9 MARKETING

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piatty29033 · 6 years ago

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Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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constructionsworkr3053 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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vidmktg30245 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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realestate63141 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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repmrkting17042 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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seo90210 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

from FEED 9 MARKETING https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#FEED 9 MARKETING

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bathrem22032 · 6 years ago

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Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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mortlend40507 · 6 years ago

Text

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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This transcript is sponsored by our transcript partner – Rev – Get $10 off your first order

Benjamin Spall: Thanks for having me, John.

John Jantsch: So some people collect bugs, and some people collect coins, and you collect morning routines.

Benjamin Spall: Right.

John Jantsch: That’s probably something to work on, to look out for.

So you don’t have to do it right away. But especially when you start to hear these patterns, and hear these ideas that come up time and again, it really pushed you to do those things.

John Jantsch: And it is just a fact of email, no good email comes in the morning. So that’s why you don’t want to read it first thing in the morning, right?

John Jantsch: So Benjamin, MyMorningRoutine.com, is where people can find your routines on the website. And where can they find a copy of My Morning Routine the book?

Benjamin Spall: Yeah, pretty much everywhere.

https://ift.tt/2wtE9YT

#Transcript of How to Create a Morning Routine that Breeds Success

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