#I may lower the price because I’m struggling with knowing if they’re even worth as much as I’m asking | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

softyoongiionly · 4 years ago

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Portraits of a Tiger|| 01

Legends of a great and equally terrifying warrior nicknamed the Tiger have been emerging from your fellow villagers for quite sometime. Stories of his skill, his stealth and his supposed wickedness have been passed around to the point where he is more prophecy than person. You have lived your life with a strong sense of conviction, rarely letting gossip influence your opinion. However, you would be lying if you said that his legacy didn’t intrigue you. When the Tiger and his infamous army arrive in your village to refuel, you come face to face with the man behind the myth.

And no amount of marketplace gossip would ever be enough to capture the true complexity of his nature.

Pairing: Merchant! Reader x Warrior! Yoongi

Genre: Adventure, Romance, Smut (later), Fluff, Angst

Word Count: 12k

Warnings: language, depictions of violence both verbal and physical however they are fairly mild, mentions of war and power dynamics, there will be smut in future parts so, (18+ only please).

Current Tag List: @bulletproofbirdy @gldnrecs @naajix @bluewhale52 @nikkikenji @lustedkisses

A/N: oh okayyyyy HELLO!!! Its here!!! Warrior! Yoongi is finally emerging from the depths of my writer blocked brain and I am SO happy you get to meet him. Once again, this series will be posted in parts just as Mama Mia! is and it may not necessarily follow a linear timeline.

Also, I know I mentioned her in the tag list post but, SERIOUSLY you guys this story would not be possible without my wonderful friend @bulletbroofbirdy aka Rachel who has literally spent so much time dreaming up with wonderful universe with me. My sweet angel, you are the greatest in the world and I love you. Please go follow Rachel and send her all the love in the universe and thank her for her genius brain because, without her, this fic wouldn’t exist.

War.

It’s not an uncommon occurrence where you’re from.

The ever-present shifting of the borderlines is a constant reminder of the struggle for power.

Many see it as a valiant effort, a noble cause...

But, war is something that doesn’t appeal to you.

It doesn’t sit right with your perspective on the world.

Sure, you understand it’s strengths and why it could be seen as necessary.

However, the consequences of war, of violence- never seem to be worth it.

Death.

It’s not an uncommon occurrence where you’re from.

When war is constantly raging on the background, it should be expected.

It should be normal.

To most of your district, it is.

To you?

Every single rise in the death toll sends icy despair into your heart.

Every drop of blood spilled feels as though it’s your own.

You’re desperate to find the solution for peace but, you know it’s not that simple.

Man is never content.

The struggle for power is never ending.

As you grow up, you learn to adapt.

Learning a trade is the easiest way to establish yourself so, you take up knitting and medicine.

You sell your wears and remedies in the market every other day and spend your off days replenishing the stock that you sold.

Your parents live comfortably but in order for them to do so, you’re in the market for hours on end.

Today starts as any other.

You’re gathering your wears in your family’s home as the sun is beginning to peak over the mountains.

The colors it throws through your window are breathtaking and, if you weren’t so exhausted, you’d be able to enjoy them a bit more.

Thankfully, your preparations don’t wake your parents as they sleep soundly in their bed.

You wish for nothing more than for them to be at peace every chance they get.

They have sacrificed so much.

The market displays its usual scenery.

The fishermen are always first setting up their catches from the evening prior, the butchers are hanging up their kills from the overnight hunt whilst the farmers arrange seasonal produce on their carts...

You always have your cart near the end of the market.

It’s easier for people to think about softer things such as knitted blankets or healing elixirs once they’ve purchased their food.

Thankfully, business is decent.

Your wares are well-made and your elixirs have an exceptional success rate.

The prices are fair so you attract all walks of life but, you focus more on serving the lower class folk such as yourself.

One of the fisherman, who you’ve grown acquainted with over the last few months, nods to your cart as you’re setting it up.

“What do you have today __?”

With a smile, you hold up a mauve woolen blanket which you’ve spent nearly two weeks on.

“This is the item of the day. I used a root dye to get the color- what do you think?”

He purses his lips, nodding in consideration, “I’m sure someone will snag that right away. It looks warm. It will be very useful over the next few months. Do you have any of that uh- “ Lowering his voice, he cranes his neck to assess whether or not any of his team can hear him, “ginseng mixture that you sold to me last week?”

You bite back a smirk as you nod towards the woven basket containing your various medicines, “I do. I made a new batch last night. Did you need some?”

A rapid nod is sent your way along with a handful of coins, “Thanks. It worked wonders last time. My wife sends her gratitude.”

Your cheeks heat up immediately but given that you’ve heard worse things in the market place, you merely giggle and file your payment away.

Ginseng is a natural stimulant that you often recommend to men experiencing issues with sex or fertility. Whilst you completely stand by its effectiveness, you won’t deny that it’s slightly awkward working with the men you’ve helped. Especially since they often insist on loudly announcing how many times they had sex the night before.

The rest of the setup goes smoothly and by the time the sun fully takes its place in the sky, you are ready for the market to open.

As your adjusting the sign on the front of your cart, you hear an interesting bout of conversation ignite in front of you

“Did you hear? The Royal Army is arriving today to refuel.”

“You’re lying. Are you serious? Do they- do you think they have him with them?”

“Of course! They aren’t stupid enough to travel without him. They’d be ambushed immediately.”

“Yah, what are you talking about?”

“The Tiger. He’s coming through town today.”

Instantly, your heart stalls in your chest.

You try your best to appear unbothered but, it doesn’t stop the panic from seeping into your bones.

The Tiger and the fleet of warriors he oversees are well-known in your village.

Word of mouth is truly a powerful mechanism for spreading information and, stories of The Tiger had been circulating for quite sometime.

They started out simply depicting a powerful new recruit into the Royal Army.

Despite his initial inexperience, The Tiger quickly rose through the ranks due to his otherworldly fighting skills.

According to the rumors, The Tiger was known for his silent destruction.

By the time his enemies could grasp what was happening, The Tiger and his men had already completed their mission.

They had already killed, maimed or destroyed whatever they were after.

A recent success had led to The Tiger becoming the General of the largest fleet in the Royal Army.

From what you had gathered, he wasn’t much older than you so the fact that he essentially lead an entire army is quite impressive.

However, given the stories of his cruel and cold blooded nature, it makes a lot of sense.

“I heard he beheads the enemy general on the battlefield after he wins...”

“I heard he killed 3,000 men all on his own in the middle of a thunderstorm!”

“I heard he keeps a viper on him at all times and he sets it loose on anyone he disobeys him!”

“I heard that he never sleeps.”

“Do you think he’ll come here? Would he be seen out in public like that?”

“Why wouldn’t he? He has nothing to fear, there isn’t a single soul in this village who could take him on.”

“Plus, he never travels alone. He’ll have his men with him.”

With a snort, you continue displaying your cart as normal and, only then do you realize that you stand out amongst the other merchants.

Every single one of them has an offering for the warriors.

It’s not customary to do so and, you’re only viable guess is that it has something to do with the market fawning over this tiger character.

“Were we supposed to put something out?” You murmur to the woman beside you, brows knitting in confusion.

She chuckles heartily, “When a normal fleet enters, no. We usually just offer them food and the resources we can spare.” A bit of excitement flashes through her eyes as she adjust the basket of radishes on her cart, “However, this is no ordinary fleet. I suggest you put something out too dear, that pretty face of yours could land you husband on the Tiger’s army, any one of his men would be a worthy mate. They aren’t shooting blanks like my husband over here!”

Her body jostles with laughter as she shoves her hand up against the man beside her, who looks whole-heartedly unamused.

“Jane, please...” He grumbles

You can’t help the grimace that comes across your face when Jane mentions finding a husband but, it’s quickly replaced with a mixture of amusement and sympathy.

“I have something for that.” You offer in a hushed tone and, the man seems to unfurl from his submissive position as he offers a meek smile.

“You do?”

You don’t have time to answer him before the mood of the market shifts into quiet chaos.

“I think they’re coming!” The fisherman whispers frantically, adjusting the sign on his cart for the millionth time.

As much you hate to give in to the hype, you feel compelled to go with the flow and, put something out for the warriors.

You settle on a basket of your most popular anti-inflammatory ailment that’s proven to be quite effective amongst your customers.

The long strips of white wood are haphazardly placed into a woven basket as you brace your ears for the piercing sound of trumpets.

Magnificent as the musicians in your village are, the blaring cacophony of noise is far from something you wish to be apart of this early in the morning.

However, the noise never comes.

The gates open up as normal as a reasonable size crowd begins meandering throughout the market.

You turn towards Jane with confusion painting your features, “Where’s the music?”

Jane is adjusting her radishes once again, glancing eagerly towards the crowd of people, “The Tiger does not allow fanfare of any kind. A far away village defied his orders once and played for him and his fleet anyway and- well...” She smirks bemusedly, “it didn’t end well for them, so we respect his wishes.”

Your eyes widen at that as you nod, swallowing back any fear that threatens to crawl up your throat.

“Got it.”

The usual slew of customers begin filing in and as business begins to pick up, you slowly forget about the famous warriors that were to enter.

Roughly, an hour later, your basket of willow bark remains untouched and, you begin to consider putting it back in its normal place. This particular bark is quite annoying to obtain and you don’t feel great about giving it away to some warrior after you’ve spent hours trying to procure it.

However, as you glance at other offering baskets, you notice that some of them have been emptied.

This means of course that either your fellow merchants put their offerings away or, the warriors are already in the market.

A strange and unsettling feeling washes over you at the thought of deadly warriors perusing throughout town. You expected that they would be recognizable, especially given their reputation but, nothing seems to give away their presence.

As a paying customer leaves your cart with an armful of various items, you notice something that normally doesn’t garner your attention: hair.

You see it amongst the crowd, peeking over the tops of heads.

It’s a shimmering icy platinum and it’s tied up atop a strangers head with a beaded string. It moves throughout the crowd slowly, stopping at various points, likely exchanging words with another merchant before you finally make out the face it belongs to.

A man dressed in cotton linens maneuvers out of the crowd, dark eyes scanning his surroundings almost anxiously. As he moves closer to you, you’re able to fully take in his features.

Pointed and smooth, his face is the epitome of contradiction.

Deep brown eyes, rounded button-nose, pouty lips and strong eyebrows adorn his face whilst his rather large hand flexes instinctually towards the object hanging off of his hips.

It’s a sword.

This man certainly isn’t a civilian.

Unfortunately, you’re unable to ignore the beauty he possesses. He is quite ethereal once you get a closer look at him; you don’t think you’ve ever seen another person that looks quite like him.

As he speaks with the fisherman, your ears perk up to in an attempt to hear the sound of his voice.

Faintly, you can discern a bit of rasp and calculation in his tone but, you aren’t able to absorb it over the sound of the market.

Its then you realize that you’ve been staring at this stranger for far too long and, if you’re ever going to meet your quota today, you need to avoid distractions.

You sell another one of your blanket moments later, increasing your daily total by a reasonable amount. Making blankets is enjoyable yes but, it’s extremely time consuming so it feels good when someone rewards you for your hard work.

“Please have some radishes! They’re grown in top soil from the northern region! It gives them a certain uh- “ Jane’s shrill voice pulls your attention towards her cart which now brandishes a new visitor: the stranger with the blonde hair.

You're realizing that Jane is pausing mid-sentence because, she is desperately looking to you for answers.

You've assisted Jane with her produce before as she was having trouble with the flavor of some of her vegetables. This was mainly due to the fact that she had been using the wrong kind of fertilizer but, you had also given her several tips to improve the overall taste of her produce.

“A certain crunch...” You finish for her, stabilizing your tone as you brave a glance towards the man. “The mixture of the soils helps with the texture.”

His feline gaze rushes towards you at the sound of your voice, as if he wasn’t expecting you to speak.

At the sight of you, his lips part momentarily before quickly sealing in a tight lipped smile which directs toward Jane.

“Thank you.” He nods toward her as he takes one of the radishes and tucks it into the pocket of his linen pants.

“Of course! Um thank you- sir for your...services...” She stutters and it’s then you notice that she hasn’t made eye contact throughout the entirety of their conversation.

A bit of discomfort flashes through his eyes but otherwise, he merely grunts in acknowledgement.

Jane’s comment is the last bit of confirmation you need that this man is indeed a warrior.

However, his reaction to her words strikes you as odd. Warriors rarely shy away from gratitude. They are often proud and boastful regarding their positions but, he seems to be bothered by what she said.

The man never looks back at Jane as he makes his way to the next cart. Every so often, you notice him looking over his shoulder or glancing towards the entrances/exits of the market. His presence doesn’t necessarily make you uneasy but, his behavior sure does.

He acts as though he is in danger.

It puts you on edge but, you direct your attention back to the customer in front of you.

“Good morning.” You smile, “Anything catch your eye?”

The man cards a hand through his salt and pepper hair as he leans over your cart, eagerly scanning the items you have on display.

“Eh do you have anything for dry skin? With winter around the corner, I gotta start thinking about this old skin of mine. The wind does a lot of damage on my knuckles.”

“You know what? I think I have just the thing...” You bend down to access the crate beneath your counter and grab a medium sized glass bottle, “This is an olive oil and honey treatment, it will treat dry skin immediately but, it’s meant to treat dry skin over a longer period of time too. I also-” You bend down once more to grab a tin of cocoa butter and place it on the counter top, “have this. This should help with daily wear and tear. You only need a little bit so this tin should last you through the winter.”

The man smiles eagerly and quickly reaches for his pockets before he freezes. You don’t notice until you look up from your counter but, the platinum haired warrior is back and, he’s standing right behind your customer.

“O-Oh go ahead, go ahead. I uh- I'll go next...” The man stutters, gesturing frantically to your cart.

With a quirked brow the warrior moves to step in front of him until you raise your hand.

“No sir, it’s ok. You’re in the middle of a transaction.” You insist, eyeing the warrior sternly, “I’ll be with you in a moment.”

The immediate crowd surrounding your cart seems to pause, nervously glancing towards the warrior who merely nods and steps back into place.

The shock is apparent on the faces of the crowd but you ignore it and send a reassuring smile towards your customer, “Ok, that will be 11.50 and-” You slide a bundle of rosemary towards him, “take this too, on the house. Brew it in some hot water to aid digestion, winter food tends to be a bit harsher on the system.”

The man swallows nervously, dragging his items toward his chest, “Thank you—uh so much. Thank you.” He turns towards the warrior, directing his gaze towards his feet as he bows his head, “Thank you for your service...”

The man doesn’t allow the warrior time to respond before he rushes off back into the crowd but, you get the feeling that it wouldn’t matter regardless.

The warrior doesn’t seem interested in anyone’s gratitude.

“Let me know if you have any questions.” You nod your head towards him, pushing the basket with your offering towards the edge of the counter before busying yourself with putting a few things back in their place.

He says nothing but, he approaches the counter whilst his eyes shrewdly observe the ins and outs of your set up.

He’s even more striking up close. His smooth, tan skin is mostly unmarked except for the giant scar running down the center of his right eye. It goes up the center of his eyelid and disappears right above the center of his brow. It’s still red and angrily risen against his otherwise angelic looking face.

A warrior indeed.

The bit of people around your cart haven’t stopped their staring but, they are at least making an attempt to look like they aren’t paying attention. It doesn’t stop you from wishing that you didn’t have an audience.

“Tree bark?” He questions with an arch to his brow

You look towards the basket he’s gesturing to before returning your gaze back to his.

“White willow bark.” You correct, almost defensively and it cause his lips to twitch.

“Is this some kind of decoration?”

You shake your head, placing your fingers on the edge of the basket, “No. It’s meant to be chewed. It reduces inflammation. I figured it would be useful since I imagine you deal with muscle soreness quite often.”

He smirks, “Amongst other things yes,” With long elegant fingers, he points to the basket, “So- if I chew on this, I should feel relief from any pain I might be experiencing?”

An all too rapid nod comes from you as you continue your explanation, “Well it’s mainly used to treat pain in your muscles and joints. If you’re looking to treat other types of pain, I have other options...”

He shakes his head, his hair swishing to the side as he does, “This should do, thank you.”

You suspect that he’s done, given that the bark is (annoyingly) free and he’s only seemed to be interested in the offerings thus far so, he surprises you when he asks yet another question.

“Do you have any more of that salve?”

“Of course,” You offer him a smile now that the initial tension is starting to lift, “Did you want a big tin or small tin?”

He purses his lips in thought, looking towards his hands, “What do you recommend?”

Without a second thought, you step towards him and take one of his hands, bringing it closer to your face for inspection.

The man seems to freeze in place, eyes widening in absolute shock, his own limb betraying him as it goes limp.

His hand displays evidence of the life he lives.

Rough, calloused and blistered...

His nails are bitten down to a point that almost looks painful but, the thing that stands out the most is how beautiful his hand is to you.

The strength in his skin is palpable and the indigo veins protruding against his hand are a firm reminder of what he is likely capable of.

What you don’t notice however, is the utter panic that flushes across his face or the way his eyes dart nervously between you and his hand.

Just as you would during any consultation, you briefly run your fingers over the palm of his hand and up the length of each of his fingers

“Hmm I would recommend the big tin, I think...you have a lot of rough spots but the skin between your callouses is quite smooth so,” You carefully set his hand back onto the counter and return your eyes back to his, “what that tells me is that your skin is roughened by your environment rather than by an actual lack of moisture.” You slide the big tin towards him, “Apply this to the dryer areas as needed throughout the day but, every night before you go to bed, make sure to put this on. Sleeping with it will allow it to seep into your skin and heal the dryness over time.”

The warrior’s eyes are transfixed on you and for a moment he is completely speechless, his hand lingering on the counter before hurriedly places them back at his side.

He can’t understand you and why you just touched him.

But what’s worse, is he can’t understand why his mouth is suddenly dry.

Or why his skin is on fire...

Or why his heart is thrashing around in his chest.

He clears his throat and nods, “Very good. I’ll be sure to follow your instructions.” He sticks the hand you didn’t touch into his pocket, fishing around for something, “What’s my total?”

“That will be 3.50.” You say with a smile, holding out your hand.

He dispenses his payment into your palm before stowing his items away in his free pocket.

“Thank you.” He grunts, the hand you touched still kind of awkwardly lingering away from his body.

Was he going to wash it as soon as he got the chance?

Did you smell weird?

“Of course, have a nice day. Safe travels.” With a wave, you send him off, missing the small smile that momentarily appears on his face.

You’re genuinely relieved that the encounter is over but, you’d be lying if you said that it didn’t intrigue you.

Before you’re able to get your bearings and move on, Jane is rushing over to you frantically.

“What on Earth was that??? Do you know him??? Why didn’t you tell me you knew him?!” She swats your arm, her eyes wide with incredulity.

“Ow!” You grip your arm, “What are you talking about?”

The man has already disappeared back into the crowd but, you’re still attempting to keep your voice at a reasonable level.

Jane does not follow suit.

“You just put your hands on the Tiger!” Jane shrieks causing you to recoil in response, “He could kill you for that! What were you thinking?”

“He’s going to kill me because I touched his hand?” Your brow arches in amusement, as your lips threaten to smile, “I had no idea who he was Jane, I was just helping a paying customer.”

She doesn’t like your answer and quickly swats your arm again, “Y/N this is not a joke! He’s a dangerous man. I nearly fainted when you looked him in his eyes but, then you touched him and-”

“Jane, that’s enough.” The fisherman hisses, gesturing wildly to the crowd of people, “You’re making a scene and he’s still out here somewhere.”

She huffs her hands rushing to smooth out the apron over her dress before rushing a finger into your face, “You won’t be laughing if he shows up at your house with a sword in your face. You need to be careful.”

You smirk at this but otherwise comply, not wishing to fire her up any further, “Thank you for your concern Jane, I’ll make sure to carry my sword around too, you know, just in case.”

Jane snorts then and rolls her eyes, scurrying back to her cart and mumbling something along the lines of:

“That mouth is going to get you killed...”

You can’t help but giggle.

There’s no doubt that the man you just spoke to was a warrior and, maybe he was some almighty warrior but he other than an intense staring problem, he didn’t scare you at all.

Thankfully, business is booming for the remainder of the day and although you’re thrilled at the money you’ll be taking home, you aren’t looking forward to all the replenishing you have to do.

The last order of business before heading home is picking a few things for your parents and grabbing the last of the steamed buns for your best friend.

Rachel has lived beside you ever since you can remember. The two of you spent most of your childhood running around the village, causing mini bouts of chaos everywhere you went. Despite the challenges life had brought the both of you, you grew together rather than apart.

Rachel is the village’s most treasured teacher and she’s been running the school for the past few years. She’s kind of the best and, you have a feeling she’ll be interested to hear about the rather interesting events that had transpired over the course of your day.

As you turn down the dirt path towards her home, you start to wonder where the Tiger and his fleet would be staying.

Your village wasn’t run-down but it wasn’t exactly luxurious by any standards.

The rubble near the beginning of the street along with the various empty wooden barrels doesn’t exactly count as décor and, the occasional drunken argument outside the village’s tavern certainly doesn’t add any class to the area but, its home.

Rachel's house is easy to spot amongst the rest of the street as it’s the only one completely covered in plants.

She’s had a love of greenery for quite sometime and, it’s amongst the many things you two bond over.

Adjusting the bag on your shoulder, you immediately reach for the handle and use all your weight to shove the front door open.

Rachel is sitting on her sofa and despite the fact that she was expecting you, she still jumps at the sound.

“Oh my goodness!” She exclaims “Have you ever heard of knocking???”

You giggle but otherwise ignore her and lean against the door dramatically, “Rachel, you better get one last look at me because, this might be the last time you ever see me.”

She laughs lightly and folds her arms, “What did you do this time? Did you call the apothecary a fraud again?” Wiggling her fingers, she reaches out for the snacks your holding.

“Ok first of all, he is a fraud but no....it’s much much worse.” You shove the snacks into her awaiting hands before flopping down on the armchair, “I touched a man’s hand...”

She freezes, the bun lingering near her mouth, “Alright, now I am officially curious, why is hand touching worse?”

You smirk, “I touched...the Tiger’s hand” You point a finger at her quickly as her lips part, “Before you even make the joke, no it wasn’t a real tiger...it was THE tiger.”

Rachel snorts with laughter before going wide-eyed in shock, “You...wha--the Tiger? THE Tiger??? You TOUCHED the Tiger?!!?!? What were you thinking?!? Oh my god, did he bite? Wait, focus, Rachel---Why did you touch the Tiger?!?”

Whilst she’s rambling on you burst out in a fit of giggles, snuggling back against the chair, “He came to my cart looking for a good salve for his hands. All I did was do an assessment as I normally do to see what he needed. I don’t understand why everyone is freaking out...he seemed pretty harmless to me.”

She leans forward on the couch, “Harmless? He seemed...harmless?!?” She whispers frantically, “He has personally slain hundreds of men with those very hands!!!

“Why are we whispering?...”

Rachel returns to normal volume, rolling her eyes “Fine. More like thousands if you count how many his army has obliterated. And you just pawed at him--are you insane? He has killed people for less! At least that’s what the rumors say.”

You keep giggling, completely unfazed as you make yourself at home, “The rumors also say that he killed an entire village because they played their trumpets for him. I don’t know how credible these rumors are.”

“Well....what was he like then? You cannot drop this information on me and not give me every detail.” She insists, gesturing wildly at you before leaning back and sipping from her mug.

“Uh he was fine. I mean- he was normal I guess, I don’t know. He has really long hair, its blonde- like really blonde. He looks young, way younger than I thought he’d be. He has a big scar over his eye. Jane was practically drooling over him...”

Realization crosses Rachel’s face as she watches you intently. She relaxes back into her chair as a knowing smile spreads across her face, “Ohhhh young, blonde, mysterious...Jane must really HAVE been drooling. Seems like she’s not the only one, though...”

“I mean- the fisherman guys were pretty excited too I guess. I don’t know what the big deal is honestly, I know he’s supposed to be good on the battlefield but they were treating him like he was some kind of king or something.” You narrow your eyes “Are you suggesting I was drooling over him? Because I definitely wasn’t...I even told him to wait his turn in line.” You insist, shifting around on the chair.

Rachel crosses her legs dramatically, steeping her fingers as she observes you, “Was that before or after you found out he was handsome? Hmm?” She smirks again, holding her hands up innocently, “I am implying nothing, I am just NOTICING that you are definitely affected by him. I haven’t seen you impressed by....well, anyone.”

She’s not wrong.

“Hey hey whoa...who said anything about impressed?? I’m not impressed. I’m not impressed at all.”

Rachel eyes you suspiciously”...right...not impressed at all. Well, did you at least hear anything about them? Any word on how long the army will be here? We’ve got to be the safest village in the country as long as they are in town.” Suddenly, she facepalms in realization, “My students will be so distracted as long as they are here.”

“Not impressed. He’s just a man with a scar and sword...” You insist, twiddling your thumbs “I guess they are just refueling, I’m not sure how long they will be here. Jane told me I need to watch my back so, hopefully not for long...” You giggle again, thinking of how excited the schoolchildren will be now that the legendary Tiger is in town, “maybe you can make an assignment out of it...”

She stares off into space for a moment and mutters, “that’s not a bad idea...we could get outside, maybe a soldier could come speak to them? There’s got to be at least one that’s not terrifying?...” Rachel shakes her head, unimpressed with your lack of understanding, “Just a man with a scar and sword—he is the most feared military leader of our generation! And I wouldn’t worry TOO much about watching your back. After all—none of the legends involve the Tiger killing civilians, do they? At the very least his presence here means good business for the village. If you can get the Tiger as a repeat customer I can only imagine the profits you’ll turn at that little stall!” She muses, laugh heartily, “Buy the salve that soothed a beast! I can hear the gossip already...”

You point a finger at her, “I like the way you think. If you ever want to stop educating and enriching the minds of our youth and be my business partner, let me know...” Suddenly the humor within you dissipates as the reality of your situation seems to sink in, “You don’t think I should be worried though right?”

Rachel lets out a short laugh, “Thanks for the offer...” She shakes her head, “As far as this Tiger business is concerned...I don’t think your safety is under any threat. How did he react when you touched him? Did he seem angry?”

“He just froze...” You recall, your eyes unfocusing slightly, “It was kind of weird honestly. I’ve never had anyone do that before. It’s pretty normal to get checked out during an apothecary visit. I guess I wasn’t supposed to look at him either but, how the hell am I supposed to do an exam if I can’t look at his face?”

“Hmmm...that is strange. I’ll be honest, I thought he would have scolded you or pulled away based on the stories. Unless...” Rachel slumps back against her sofa, her face relaxing into a smirk, “...he was just as surprised by you as you were of him.”

You wrinkle your nose, “Ew no. Definitely not.”

Rachel doesn’t look convinced but you continue nevertheless, suddenly wishing to change the subject.

“He looked nervous I guess- I don’t know. His hand just sort of hung there after I finished. Today was weird...anywayyy-” You nod to the dough between your palms, “How are the buns? Did anything interesting happen in the education world.”

“Oh three boys got in a worm eating contest and threw up on their practice parchment so I could go without that kind of interesting for awhile. The buns are transcendent as usual but you-” She narrows her eyes in your direction, “- are dodging. Why would a general be nervous around you hmm? You said he is young...is he also handsome?”

“Ah god I love kids...” You note with a giggle before shrugging, shrinking back into the chair, “I don’t know. Objectively he- he definitely wasn’t ugly.”

Rachel raises an eyebrow, “I sense there is more to it than that.”

“Fine. He was easily the most handsome man I’ve ever seen in my life. There! Are you happy now?” You grumble before dramatically staring off into the distance, “Oh to be murdered by the most handsome man alive...how romantic.”

This prompts a twinkling bout of laughter from Rachel who has finally finished the first of her many snacks, “I can think of worse ends my friend. Perhaps that was your only interaction? I am sure he is busy making preparations; too busy to be executing smart-mouthed apothecaries. I wouldn’t fret too much Y/N.”

With you sigh, you accept her analysis, sending a nod her way, “You’re probably right and, that’s probably for the best.” Despite the conviction in your tone, you can feel the disappointment on your face, “Thank you for calling my mouth smart.” You smirk before nodding toward the door, “I should probably head home. My father has a nasty cough and I seriously doubt he’s taken the medicine I left for him.”

Meeting you at the door, Rachel pulls you in for a big hug, “The smartest mouth in town- that's why I keep you around. Give your father my love and tell him, if he gives you a hard time—I will find out!”

You laugh, hugging her tightly, “The second smartest mouth in town...” You insist, “let’s do the tavern this weekend please. The children have been taking all your time and I miss my best friend!”

“Of course! No pack of tiny ruffians can get between me and a night out.”

You pat her shoulder gently before stepping out of the doorframe, “That’s right.” You smile, thankful to have someone like her in your life, “love you, have a good night.”

“Good night, sleep tight...” She sings, slowly closing the door, “don’t let the Tiger bite!” She laughs wildly before slamming the door shut to prevent your retaliation.

She’s a menace.

The walk back home is pleasant, the fall breeze nips at your skin through your sweater but, it feels refreshing against your flushed cheeks.

Your parents are asleep by the time you return home.

It’s common for you to arrive well past their bedtime but, despite your lack of contact, they still manage to make you feel loved.

On the kitchen table sits bowl of stew and freshly baked bread, along with a new blanket for the winter.

Your mom makes a fresh one everywhere with thicker fabric to combat the icy freeze of the winter climate. The stew will be cold but, your heart will be warm and your stomach will be full.

In truth, these are the only things that matter to you.

Living simple certainly has it’s drawbacks but overall, you are comforted by it. Your parents raised you to be thankful for the things you have and to only set your sights on obtaining things that truly matter to you. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have goals but, your parents have always stressed that external success can be fickle and, material possessions only take you so far.

Being content is truly priceless and, you’re thankful they instilled these values into you.

Climbing into bed, you allow your mind to wander to the man you met today.

You couldn’t quite understand the legend behind him. Not to say that he wasn’t worthy of such folklore but, it’s more so that you didn’t exactly understand the warnings behind it.

He didn’t seem scary.

Although, it’s possible his demeanor is something he uses along with his beauty.

It could be that the Tiger lives up his animal comparison.

Beautiful and deadly.

Village gossip shouldn’t keep you awake longer than necessary, you think, it’s time to rest up so that tomorrow’s work day doesn’t feel like a never-ending task.

With the sound of the whistling wind just outside your home, you slowly close your eyes and drift off to sleep.

Your plan for a peaceful nights rest is completely demolished when you feel the frantic hands of your mother shaking you awake.

“Y/N! Wake up! Wake up! Raiders- they are raiders outside, hurry!” She drags the covers off of you, “We have to go!”

In a haphazard blur, you spring to your feet and arm yourself with a few important possessions and your sword.

Your parents tow behind you as you make your way out of your home.

The village is in utter chaos; shouting, clanking metal, screaming, amber flames peaking out from above the rooftops.

You grab your mothers arm, keeping her close to you as you try your best to follow procedures.

Like most smaller villages, your area is equipped with a protocol that will ensure the least amount of damage if there were to be an invasion.

Collect the essentials and gather your loved ones

Arm yourself

Make your way to the town square; there is strength in numbers.

Allow the raiders to take what they want (with the exception of human lives)

Negotiate

Simple in theory but, rarely in practice.

It’s difficult to keep up with a protocol during times of intense stress.

Amidst the chaos, you see Rachel scrambling out of her house, with a bag slung over her shoulder.

You cry out for her, desperately hoping she will hear your voice over the madness,

“Rachel! Over here!”

With wide eyes, she reaches out for your mother’s hand, bowing her head to shield from any possible debris.

“The army is here, they will protect us.” Your father murmurs solemnly beside you, his face stoic and rid of any bit of positivity

This could end very badly.

The four of you rush into the town square, trying your best to remain calm throughout the screaming, back up against a wall. Your grip tightens on your mothers hand as you spot the tents of the armed guests currently residing in your village.

The raiders continue their plundering throughout the town accompanied by the sounds of glass breaking and shouting.

Suddenly, there is a different sound: the clanking of swords. Briefly, you can see glimpses of armor peeking out of homes, the sight causing your eyes to widen.

“Look!”

Rachel and your parents crane their necks to see what you’re pointing out as the sounds coming from within your village begin to change.

Grunting, groaning, more clanking swords and a bit of shouting shoot out of the main street like fireworks.

“Clear the path!” An unfamiliar voice shouts and it’s then you can see what’s going on.

The raiders have been captured thanks to the ominous group of tourists that arrived yesterday.

Oddly enough, you don’t even remember seeing them leave their tents and it makes you wonder how the hell they managed to move so quickly undetected.

There are several men, dressed in black and gold armor, dragging the raiders by their shirts to the center of town square. One of them is a tall, doe eyed looking man with shaggy brown hair and biceps that could likely snap a neck if they so desired. He has his sword to the back of one of the raiders who scuffles along on his knees to meet with the rest of his captured teammates.

As the rest of the soldiers file in, another leader of the troop, tall and equally broad, gestures to Bambi with the biceps.

“Jungkook-ah! Bring the leader to the center; let our general deal with him.”

Jungkook does just that, quickly the toe of his boot into the back of the raider and jerking his head to the center of the plaza, “You heard him- move.” He grunts and the raider reluctantly shuffles forward.

Your fellow villagers are reasonably alarmed but, they all seem to freeze in place as they watch the show unravel before them.

This is already more excitement than your village has had in ages and, you’d be lying if you said you weren’t eating it up.

The man who has now been identified as Jungkook, steps away from the raider, still pointing his sword at him, a smug smirk on his face, “You know for a master thief, you were far too easy to catch. Lucky for me, I made a bet with my brothers here that I would catch you in 10 minutes,” Jungkook walks back towards the man, entangling his fingers in the roots of his hair before tugging backwards, “, and according to the clock tower, it only took me 8.”

Beside you, Rachel seems to swallow back her surprise before subconsciously starting to fan her face,

“Goodness, he really is something huh?”

Despite the tense nature of the situation, her demeanor makes you giggle,

“Stop drooling over the calvary...”

She smacks you playfully which causes your father to shush both of you, a moment which reminds you of your schoolyard days.

A bit of immaturity is actually refreshing after the events of this morning.

“Jungkook-ssi,” A voice bellows throughout the plaza, sending a chill down your spine, “What have I told you about placing bets on our captors huh?”

As the voice grows louder, you see him: the Tiger, stepping out from the main street, his long platinum hair flowing freely in the wind. His hand brandishes a sword, one that most certainly possesses the ability to inflict some serious harm.

Sheepishly, Jungkook smirks, releasing the man’s hair roughly and stepping back to his original spot, his sword posing to strike.

“Sorry hyung, this one was just too easy. I saw him skirting the perimeter last night, I know it would be a sure win once I saw his technique.”

So that’s how the army was able to move so quickly; they already anticipated this attack.

The Tiger chuckles darkly, his eyes alight with pure delight, “Aish- what am I going to do with you people hm?”

He moves like his name; slow, deliberate, deadly- you know that you’re about to witness an execution and you aren’t sure if you can stomach the sight, even if these raiders deserve it.

Its your turn to swallow back your reaction to him which doesn’t go unnoticed by your best friend standing beside you.

“Now look who’s drooling...” She teases, giggling as you playfully shove your elbow into her side.

The crowd is dangerously still, hanging on each syllable the Tiger speaks whilst his men, six other soldiers roughly his size, watch intently.

The rest of the raider clan are being held captive by the remainder of the fleet, bowing their heads in shame and fear but, the leader seems unaffected by their defeat.

“You lot aren’t men.” The man spits, his accent thick, “you’re narcissistic little boys who like to play dress up. You’re cowards, hiding behind your swords, killing everything that stands in your way. You have no idea how the other half live. You have no honor.”

There are gasps throughout the crowd then as your village grows shocked at the way he’s spoken to the Tiger.

If you had any hope that this wouldn’t end violently, it’s been squashed by the time the leader finishes his sentence.

The Tiger however, merely chuckles again, a light smirk on his carnation lips,

“It’s odd that a man who earns his keep by stealing from others would have the authority to lecture my men and I about honor.” He kisses his teeth and slowly raises his sword to brush against the man’s cheek, “Look at all these poor people hm? You've terrified them. Your lack of intelligence isn’t their burden to bear now is it? But you have made it their problem; ripped them from their homes, terrorized their children, their livelihoods and, all because you’re too incompetent to learn your own trade.”

The Tiger’s words infuriate him and the next thing you know, he’s lunging off the ground towards the Tiger, a snarl arising on his mouth.

It prompts your hands to fly to your face and your feet to nearly trip over themselves as you brace for the inevitable fight.

But it doesn’t come.

With one swoop of his arm, the Tiger has the leader knocked to the floor and underneath his leather boot. Jungkook has reacted quickly as well, his arm raising in the air to slice his sword through the man’s body. With one twitch of his hand however, the Tiger stops Jungkook from following through,

“See? You can’t do things like that my friend. Because if you do, my big friend here with the sword will slice your greasy head in two.” The Tiger smirks again, before turning his head over his shoulder, “You folks wouldn’t want to spend the day cleaning blood of your beautiful plaza now would you?”

Overexcited villagers quickly shout various commentary at him,

“Kill him!”

“Cut his head off!”

“Make him pay!”

The Tiger chuckles once more, raising his brows as the man struggles beneath his boot, “Well, I guess you’re lucky they aren’t in charge of your punishment...” He looks up towards the remainder of his fleet, nodding his head at the other prisoners, “Namjoon, Jin: ensure that none of these men are here against their will. If the rest of you are here by choice, I suggest you make yourselves disappear into the forest before I allow these fine people to get ahold of you.”

Immediately, the Tiger’s fleet begin following his orders and take the men away towards their tents. As they walk out of the plaza, only Jungkook, the Tiger and the clan leader remain.

You notice Jungkook scan the crowd then, peering out at the eager faces watching the show he is willingly apart of. Very briefly but noticeably, his eyes land on your best friend and as they do, they seem to linger.

He looks curious, almost boyish in a way as his ways seem to memorize her face but before Rachel even realizes what’s going on, his eyes quickly return to the raider.

“If you’re going to kill me, just do it. Don’t be a coward, I can’t listen to you ramble any longer.” The man growls which prompts the Tiger to push his foot down a little harder upon his back.

“I’m not your executioner, thief. Your fate resides with the Queens.” He explains, matter of factly before jerking his head towards Jungkook, “Put him in the portable cell. I’ll send a notice to the council that we have a criminal that needs to be dealt with.”

Jungkook nods, eagerly crossing the bit of plaza and kneeling down to restrain the man with handcuffs.

He grips the chain linking them and heaves him upwards so he’s standing between the two men.

“I’ll hose him off first,” Jungkook wrinkles his nose in disgust, “I don’t want him stinking up our camp.”

“Fuck you-” The man spits, jerking his wrists in Jungkook’s grip which then causes the Tiger to raise his sword once again.

“Behave yourself, thief.” He commands, his eyes darkening for the first time, “I’m assuming if you’ve heard stories of my fleet, you are privy to the fact that we don’t miss our target. Please don’t give me a reason to live up to my name.”

With that, the two men drag off the clan leader towards the rest of their fleet, not bothering to look back at the dozens of people they just saved.

They ignore the applause, the gratitude, the pleas for them to return and feast.

You have to admit that you’re shocked.

The supposedly wicked and ruthless Tiger sure seems to have quite a bit of restraint and diplomacy.

“Did he- did he really just let him go? Unharmed?”

Rachel asks a very good question and it seems to be the one on your parents minds as well.

“It’s extremely odd. I was fully prepared to witness an execution, he would have been within his right.” Your father notes, his eyes still trained on the center of the plaza.

Generals have a certain level of freedom with the prisoners they choose to capture; they are expected to have good judgement and carry out punishments if necessary.

In essence, the Tiger had every bit of authority to end that mans life and, given that he an eager crowd behind him, it genuinely perplexes you.

“Organized raids come with an automatic life sentence, the leaders are usually executed within a few days of their trial.” Your mother notes and it’s then that Rachel notices your silence.

“Well I think it’s safe to say that you didn’t make it on his hit list. You can’t be worse than a lead raider...” She grins, knowing full well that your confusion also comes with an annoying amount of curiosity.

She also knows that you plan on finding a way to speak with him again.

And she is absolutely right.

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

“Should I say hi to Jungkook for you? Ask if he’s betrothed?” You tease and Rachel promptly throws balled up dress your way.

You went to her house after the excitement in the town square to bake a batch of fresh bread for the Tiger’s fleet.

Bread is increasingly hard to come by these days due to a crop shortage in the northern region so despite what people may think, most military diets consist of salted meat and corn.

Doughy, fluffy, cheesy, rosemary bread is a luxury.

“I have a feeling you’ll be preoccupied with your mission to court the Tiger.” She retorts but a deep frown comes over her then, as she wraps the last loaf in parchment paper, “Are you sure you should be doing this? Waltzing over to a tent full of dangerous soldiers doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“I want to thank them.” You insist, loading your basket with the rest of the loaves, glancing up at your worried friend, “All the village ever talks about is how ruthless they are, how cruel they are known to be but, the reality is: they saved us. It must be frustrating to refuel just as any other fleet would and have people gossip about you or fear you unnecessarily. I’m not planning on staying for tea or anything, I just want to show my appreciation.”

Rachel raises her brows, “That’s all hm?”

You nod, “Yep.” Your lips pop with the sound of the p and Rachel remains unconvinced.

“This has nothing to do with the Tiger?”

“Of course not.” Your answer tumbles past your lips far too quickly and, it causes your friend to grin knowingly at you.

“I know that look-”

“Ugh what look?”

“The look. That one-” She points at you, “You’re about to do something you know you shouldn’t.”

Her smile is far too contagious and her knowledge of you surpasses anyone you’ve ever known in your life.

She has your number and there really is no point in lying to her.

“Fine, ok maybe it has a little something to do with the Tiger-” You smirk, trying to stifle the giggle that threatens your disposition, “Don’t laugh at me!”

Rachel’s twinkling laughter fills the room as she rounds the counter. Placing her hands on your shoulders, she smiles fondly at you, “Just be careful ok? I know he intrigues you and honestly I’m not at all surprised but, don’t let your curiosity get in the way of your safety. That’s the most important thing.”

“I won’t.” You promise, smiling back at her, placing your hands on hers, “I promise, I’ll be careful.”

Rachel helps you out once again, insuring you have everything you need before her soft voice is answering a question you asked moments earlier.

“And uh about that Jungkook boy-”

You smirk, “He’s definitely not a boy, did you see his muscles? He looks like he could bench press a mountain lion.”

She grows flustered, “No, I didn’t see any muscles, I have no idea what you’re talking about-”

“Oh so you also didn’t notice him staring at you in the plaza today right?”

Rachel’s eyes widen, “Wait he was?” She clears her throat, amending her eagerness as you giggle, “He definitely wasn’t staring at me don’t be ridiculous. What I was going to say-”

“What you were going to say is that ‘no Y/N, I don’t want you to check on Jungkook’s marital status directly but, should you happen to come across his left hand, let me know whether or not you see a shiny band around his finger, not that I would care or anything. Because, I totally don’t have the hots for him.’ “

Her mouth opens and then closes like a fish before she playfully nudges you through her doorway, “Shut up.”

With a laugh and a few parting words, you are off to visit the tent of your village's heroes.

You would be lying if you said you weren’t nervous.

But you’d also be lying if you said you were nervous for the right reasons.

The concept of walking into the basecamp of a supposedly elite and ruthless fleet is one thing but, talking to someone you find attractive?

Absolutely terrifying.

Your presence is immediately noted by the men inside the camp.

Two of them are seated at a table outside of one of the tents, hands and teeth full of meat, their motions freezing in place as they see you.

As you pass by one of their horses, you notice of them is speaking with a group of raiders.

The conversation seems amicable, suggesting that many of the raider clan was indeed in your village against their will.

You approach the main but, before you are able to make ring the bell on the outside, you are crashing chest first into a very firm and very broad chest.

“Holy-” The voice sounds familiar and as you look up, you are meet with the bambi with biceps himself: Jungkook.

“Hello I-” You attempt to begin but his panicked voice interrupts you.

“Yah hyung??? Uh there’s a-” He swallows thickly stepping away from you, “There’s a girl here!”

The word seems foreign on his tongue and his behavior genuinely surprises you.

Where was the cocky warrior from this morning, brandishing a sword and placing bets on his captors?

“Jungkook, for the last time- we don’t use that word. We say young lady or woman...” Another voice, one you don’t recognize fades into your scope of hearing before pushing open the fabric of the tent. He is arguably just as beautiful as the other men, tall, dark haired, buff- as if he would be anything else.

“Oh, hello. Are you...” The man narrows his brows as he looks towards the group of raiders speaking with one of his counterparts, “Are you with the group or?”

You shake your head, your basket swinging when you turn back towards the village, “Oh no, no I’m from the village. My name is Y/N Y/L/N...” You bow your head slightly, “I came here to bring you this,” You gesture to the basket, “It’s fresh bread. I wanted to thank you for saving my people today.”

You feel the need to rush out your explanation as the rest of the fleet continues to stare at you. In fact, the way they are looking at you is rather unnerving.

It isn’t disrespectful just intrusive; they are looking at you as if you’ve sprouted a second head.

“You-” The man before you cocks his head, looking befuddled, “You came here to- thank us?”

“Well yes, I know bread is hard to come by and I figured you could use a pick-me-up after your fight this morning.”

He smiles now but his incredulity doesn’t change as he takes the basket from your hands, “It’s warm.” He notes, “Did you bake this recently?”

“Yes I baked it today, just now actually uh-” You decide to speak candidly now since the possible threat margin seems to be closing, “You look confused.”

Jungkook is practically hiding behind the man you’re addressing and it takes a large part of you not to laugh at his behavior.

“Forgive me.” He chuckles, “We aren’t exactly used to hospitality. Most villagers avoid us like the plague, it probably has to do with our General but regardless.” He bows his head, “We appreciate the gesture. I’ll make sure to pass along your gratitude to him once he returns.”

“Oh is he not here? I was hoping to thank him myself.” You try and mask the disappointment in your tone, not wishing to come across as stranger than you already did.

The man shakes his head, “No. He often takes a walk after an invasion; gotta make sure the perimeter is secure.” He smiles and you are taken aback by how white his teeth were, “My name is Seokjin, I’m the outreach expert on the fleet and unofficial chef. I promise your bread will be put to good use, it’s been months since we’ve had any decent carbs.”

His comment makes you smile and you are delighted that his demeanor is so welcoming.

“I’m sorry to heart that. Will you be in town long? I can try to set you up with a few more baskets before your departure?”

Seokjin chuckles warmly before snorting as Jungkook paws at the basket, “Easy.” He admonishes but its too late, Jungkook already has half a loaf down in his mouth, his chest rumbling with the sound of his groan.

“Oh my god hyung, it’s so good...”

Seokjin looks disgusted with him but hands him the basket anyway, nodding to the rest of the fleet, “Share. Make sure you save a loaf for Yoongi and I.”

Jungkook happily obliges but not before turning towards you and bowing, “Uh thanks for the- for the bread....”

His sentence is choppy and over before it even begins as he goes bounding off in the direction of his team.

“Pardon him, he’s been in the army since he was fourteen. We haven’t done an amazing job at socializing him but, he’s getting better. He’s still a bit antsy around women though.” Seokjin chuckles, fondness in his eyes, “Ah but to answer your question, yes. We've decided to set up here for a few weeks to train our new recruits. I would love to more of this bread if it’s not too much trouble.”

You smile, waving him off, attempting to conceal your happiness at the news he’s just delivered, “Nonsense, I’d be happy to bake some more.”

“Excellent!” He chirps, clasping his hands together, “I’m sure Yoongi would be happy to know we’ve finally manage to contact with a villager. It’s been an issue for us, stories spread like wildfire you know? And just like wildfire, they tend to do more harm than good.”

“And Yoongi is?”

Seokjin chuckles, “Ah I believe you’d know him better as...” He flutters his fingers dramatically, “ the Tiger.”

Yoongi.

So that was his name.

“Oh yes,” You amend, “I’ve certainly heard of him but, I prefer to make my own judgements rather than succumb to the gossip.”

He smirks, “That’s very noble of you Y/N. I for one,” He places a hand on his chest, throwing a wink your way, “, live for the gossip.”

Your meeting with Seokjin ends soon after that with a promise that you would return with more bread.

As much as you wanted to rush back to Rachel’s house to inform of your meeting with the ‘most dangerous fleet in the world’, you remind yourself that school is in session; a necessary but annoying inconvenience.

However, there are plenty of ways you plan on keeping busy for the remainder of the day and one of them involves visiting the river to collect more herbs for your remedies.

You obviously weren't able to sell your wares today as the marketplace was still littered with evidence of the robbery. Your parents had insisted you take the day off to restock and recuperate whilst they helped the village leaders clean up.

Reluctantly, you agreed and you are now very grateful that you had.

The river has always been one of your favorite places. It was rich, green, buzzing with life and, always a few degrees colder than your village. Surrounded by mossy trees that seem to stretch as high as the clouds, the river is encased with life. Rabbits, squirrels, tortoises, frogs and a plethora of birds all coral in the area the river resides in whilst bears, big cats, wolves and monkeys hide behind the dense forest. It’s any apothecary’s paradise as it is also the residence of any herbs capable of growing in damp areas.

Angelica, Blue Vervain, Marshmallow, Stinging Needle and more: the river is your one stop shop for so many of your essential ingredients.

Today you’re after a particular herb though and armed with another woven basket, you make your way towards the large bushels of it growing at the base of a tree trunk.

Valerian is an essential herb in your arsenal and due to its popularity, it’s something you’re consistently having to restock.

Gathering it carefully, ensuring you don’t disturb the root of the plant.

You are so enthralled with your current task that you don’t even notice that you are no longer alone.

“Is this where the tree bark grows?”

You jump nearly six feet out of your skin, whipping your head around to face your intruder.

Standing before you is the myth himself, the Tiger or as you’ve recently learned: Yoongi.

He’s still in his armor from earlier, his long tendrils pulled back away from his face into a low ponytail. Between his lips, which are curving slightly, is a piece of the bark he had taken from your cart the day prior.

He is chewing it as you instructed.

“You of all people should know not to ambush someone like that...” You breath, placing a hand on your chest, “I could have wacked you with this basket or something.”

He just smirks, “I’ve had worse.” He notes, taking the bark from between his teeth, “I’m sorry I frightened you though, I didn’t expect to see anyone here.”

“Likewise.” You retort, nodding your head at the bark, “Is it helping?”

He shrugs, “Too early to tell I suppose but, it’s tending to my oral fixation so, either way it has a purpose.”

You straighten up a bit more and smooth out your dress, “It will work, it just takes a bit of time.” You assure him before adjusting the herbs in your basket, “I came by your tent earlier to offer my thanks for what you and your men did today, your outreach coordinator Seokjin told me he’d pass along the message but-”

“You did what?”

His tone doesn’t entirely lean one way or the other and you quickly grow worried that you offended him.

“I brought a basket of bread to uh-” You swallow thickly, meeting the intensity of his gaze, “to your camp as a thank you for saving my village.”

Several emotions flicker across his face before he settles on surprise, “I see. Were they polite?”

You can’t help but smile, this day truly has been full of surprises and, Yoongi’s demeanor is only adding to that list.

“I only had the privilege of meeting Seokjin and well- I kind of met Jungkook but, he seemed a little-”

“Awkward?” Yoongi smirks

“A little.” You amend, “But both of them were very polite. They explained that they often don’t receive any hospitality on stops like this; I was very sorry to hear that.”

Yoongi’s teeth seem to catch the inside of his cheek as he nods curtly, “There’s no need for apologies. Hospitality is welcome but, never expected. I try to teach my men that we should never expect gratitude for what we do as it so often comes with a price.”

“I suppose gratitude should be offered situationally then, there was very little draw back to what you did today. Our village is privy to raiders; maybe if word gets around that you all were in town, that might prevent this from happening again.”

He purses his lips before nodding in consideration, “I see you’re point. Regardless of its necessity, gratitude is always welcome: especially when free food is involved.”

His comment makes you giggle and your laughter makes his lips itch in a way they never have.

“I wholeheartedly agree with that. I get a surprising amount of baked goods sent my way doing what I do so, I’ll have no problem dolling out the gratitude while you all are here.”

Yoongi’s brows knit in confusion, “Do you people often pay you in baked goods?”

Laughter flows freely out of your mouth then and you shake your head at his question, “Definitely not, I sell my goods for currency as does any obedient member of society,” At this Yoongi smirks again, he likes your wit, a lot, “but I do receive muffin baskets, cakes, pies and whatnot from happy customers. They’re mainly from women whose husbands have taken my ginseng remedy.”

His curiosity blooms, “And why is that?”

You feel a bit of heat rushing to your cheeks, “Ginseng enhances uh- drive, often times it can be used a stimulant to promote you know-” You’re hoping Yoongi will put the pieces together but instead his eyes remain expectant, “passion.”

The word makes Yoongi straighten up a bit and in an effort to look casual, he nods quickly and hums a little too loudly.

“Ah yes. Of course. Well, as I said- free food is free food right?” He wagers, his fingers rubbing at the bit of bark.

Its your turn to smirk now but, you quickly change the subject when you ask, “Is the leader of the clan secure? I didn’t see him when I passed through your camp.”

He clears his throat, bringing the bark back towards his mouth, “He is. I have him locked up just behind the trees so he isn’t able to influence the new recruits. He had an alarming number of unwilling participants within his group, many of them claimed to be brought there with the threat of physical harm.”

You kiss your teeth and shake your head, “I don’t understand that kind of behavior. I understand that sometimes desperate people do desperate things but, to exert power or harm over another person without a viable cause...it just makes no sense to me.”

He’s intrigued now and as he brings the bark back to his lips, his brow knit with curiosity, “Hm. So do you think there is a justification to steal but not to commit violence?”

You can’t figure out why your opinion would matter to him but, you sure as hell aren’t going to question the length of this conversation.

“I think that some people believe they have no other choice but to steal. Wealth and power aren’t possible without a poor man to stand on, to oppress- I don’t support the idea of taking what doesn’t belong to you but, I could see why people are driven to do so. People are growing tired of being the poor man. Senseless violence isn’t something I could find a justification for. What the raiders often do, is both so I guess-” You hesitate, “I’m conflicted.”

Yoongi is captivated by your explanations, not because they are particularly ground breaking but, because they are particularly human. You aren’t afraid to discuss the complexity of life nor are you afraid to admit when certain things confound you.

“That’s a fair assessment. Do you agree with today’s outcome?”

Your smile returns, as you adjust the basket on your arm again, “I did. Especially because it seemed to surprise everyone, myself included.”

His lips return to his smirk, “Why? Because I didn’t behead him?”

“Exactly.” You breathe out a laugh before continuing, “I for one was shocked to see you deal with the situation without your trusty viper...”

His face turns to one of incredulity, “Oh my- you're not serious are you? Do people genuinely think I keep a viper on me at all times? Do they have any idea how unpractical that is?”

Yoongi’s reaction sends you into a fit of giggles and the sound makes his lips itch again.

He decides he enjoys the sound very much.

“I’m sure you’ve set a few people straight after this morning,” You offer, wiping a bit of moisture from the corner of your eye, “I doubt the rumors will repopulate the same way after you leave.”

“What do you think of them?”

“The rumors?”

“They’re entertaining.” You shrug, “But I don’t like to make assumptions about people unless I’ve met them, not even scary and supposedly cruel generals like yourself.”

The ghost of a smile shows itself on Yoongi’s mouth and his eyes seem to glimmer, pleased with your answer.

“I wish more people had that mindset.”

It’s all he says before promptly dropping the subject again, nodding in the direction behind him, “I should probably head back to camp. I have a feeling that the longer I am away, the smaller my chances of getting any of that bread become.”

“You’re probably right, I have to be back before sunset anyway.” Your parents don’t like it when you’re out at the river after dark, “It was very nice meeting you Yoongi. I hope you enjoy the bread.”

His lips as he realizes something vital, “I’m sure I will. Forgive me, I don’t remember catching your name...”

At his observation, you extend your hand towards his, “Oh of course, my name is Y/N. Y/N Y/L/N.”

Without looking down, he grasps your hand gently as if he were afraid to break it, “Y/N- I’ll remember it.” He promises unnecessarily but it still sends a flutter through your heart, “Get home safe.”

When he releases your hand, you step back towards the bushel of Valerian before smiling once more,

“You too.”

As Yoongi departs from the river, he smirks to himself.

Perhaps this wouldn’t be the routine stop he had planned on.

Perhaps this would be so much more.

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hobidreams · 4 years ago

Text

TES Minis: IV {M}

to celebrate yoongi’s first big break, you give him a proper treat.

pairing: yoongi x reader genre: smut, fluff words: 2.4k contains: condomless sex, dirty talk, oral (m), they get it on in semi-public (there is a limo), yoongi gets spoiled <3 a/n: this is a drabble for The Early Shift, but can be read as a standalone. this was written as a commission for Black Lives Matter!

It’s not a big deal.

Okay, it’s a little bit of a big deal. But is it a big enough deal to warrant all this splurging? Yoongi doesn’t know, as he watches you swipe your credit card on the machine, his stomach pleasantly full of extremely expensive steak. (He doesn’t even know how much the bill actually comes to; the menu didn’t have prices, that’s how fancy this place is.) But damn, was it tasty. And watching you try not to spill anything on your only nice dress was very entertaining indeed.

“Babe, stop it,” you snap, drawing his attention to your slight pout.

“Stop what? I’m not doing anything.”

“You’re thinking again.”

“It may surprise you, but I do that sometimes.”

You roll your eyes. “You know what I mean. Get out of that snarky,” he gives you a look, “but cute mind. All of this is worth it, Yoongi. Your song, going platinum? Of course we have to celebrate!”

“But it’s just one song and there were four other producers—”

“No. You’re not allowed to downplay yourself like that.” You reach over the table, grabbing his hand. You squeeze until he’s smiling (a little exasperatedly) right back at you. He likes the attention, even if it does make him squirm. He deserves to feel proud of how hard he worked. Speaking of, you check your watch and wince at the time. “Come on, we have to go!”

“There’s still more?” Yoongi asks, downing the bit of bubbly alcohol left in his flute before pulling on his blazer.

“Duh. Have you ever known me to half-ass anything?”

“Nope. Never.” His eyes wane as he laughs, flashing those pink gums. “Drives me nuts.”

Stepping into the elevator, he bundles you close against him as it begins to descend. He presses an easy kiss to your cheek while he links your warm fingers together, wordlessly rubbing his thumb on your skin. His tell, for when he’s feeling especially close to you. Your heart grows two sizes bigger.

You’re right on time when you reach the ground floor, dragging Yoongi along to the front of the building. You swivel your head, looking for—ah.

When Yoongi sees the sleek black limousine pull up in front of you, his jaw absolutely drops. You resolve it was worth every won to rent the thing.

“You didn’t.”

“I totally did.”

The young chauffeur steps out of the driver’s seat with a friendly smile and a bow. You return both when he opens the backseat door for you two. “Thank you,” you say, and climb in.

“Where did you even find one of these?” Yoongi is still incredulous as he follows you inside, running his fingers along the nice leather. Limos of this size are rare around town, so you get his disbelief.

You shrug like it was no biggie. “Jungkook knows a guy who knows a guy.”

“Wow. He’s well connected for a kid.” He says it without malice; Jungkook is who he went straight to when he was looking for a flower guy for your first anniversary. That bouquet had been damn magnificent.

Yoongi’s still looking at the full bottles of wine and whiskey that line the sides when the car starts to move. “Where’re we heading?” Some notes of an R&B influenced song float through the air.

“Taking the long way home, so settle in.”

Among all this luxury, Yoongi’s a sight to behold in his dark suit, legs slightly spread, arms stretched, plump lips still a bit wet and doubly enticing. It’s with a smile that you shuffle towards him, messing up your tint on his mouth as a simmering heat lights in your veins.

“Your home or mine?” He whispers when you break for a breath, amused at the baby pink that now rims the side of his lips. He’s also panting a bit more, the crotch of his nice pants starting to feel tight.

“Soon to be ours.”

Yoongi’s eyes soften as he strokes a few strands of your hair. “God, I love you.”

“Sap.” You laugh, squishing his cheek with a finger before going back to get another kiss. This one gets a little steamier than you both intended but you roll with it, tongue slipping into his mouth to meet his in an easy rhythm. Then his hand is on your chest, sliding between the fabric to cup a bare breast in his palm, to squeeze in a way that never fails to make you moan.

“Wait, fuck, shit,” he mutters when he opens his eyes to watch you react, and he remembers where the hell he is right now. He hurriedly pulls his hand away, casting a glance at the poor driver who definitely does not deserve to witness the two of you behaving like horny teenagers.

You quirk a cheeky eyebrow at him. Then to his surprise, you shove him, making him fall backwards onto the leather seats.

“What’re you—”

“Shhhh, we’re celebrating.”

You feel around near the sunroof, and grin when you find the button you’re looking for. With a quiet whirr, the partition starts to go up, blocking the driver from view.

“D-Did you drink too much champagne?” He knows all the ins and outs of your expressions, and this one is dangerous.

“Nope.”

Your smile may be lopsided, but he can tell it’s a hundred percent genuine as you stoop between his legs and run fingers across his belt. You’ve got it unbuckled in seconds, his cock out just as swiftly. Despite all his protests, it’s already half-hard, firm between your fingers.

“Babe, is this even legal?”

You dip your head and Yoongi hisses when your tongue meets his bare skin, unabashedly lapping a stripe across the frenulum. “Who knows,” you hum.

“Baaabe...” He thinks he might lose his mind, watching how you draw back to let a trail of spit drip from your bottom lip right onto his dick, smearing it all over the now-turgid head with your thumb. His girl, still so beautiful even though the only lighting comes from the blurry rows of streetlights that speed past.

You keep your hand slightly slack, sliding it along the shaft at a teasing pace so all you hear is the sensual beat of the current song and your boyfriend’s supressed moans. Occasionally you’ll use your mouth, suck the head into sudden heat to watch how Yoongi’s eyes glaze over with pleasure. But if he thinks this is all you’ve got, then he doesn’t know you at all.

“Open your hand,” you whisper, lips wet against him.

He does. Then gives a groan of disbelieving arousal when you deposit something slinky and black onto his palm. It’s still warm, and he can smell how aroused you are from here. Yoongi had watched you put on the tempting thing a few hours before dinner, but he never imagined he’d be touching them in this scenario. When did you even remove them? It’s a question that no longer matters when you lift your skirt up.

“Damn, I’ve got to write more songs,” Yoongi growls, still keeping his voice muted and low.

You laugh as you dip the hand that’d been on his dick between your thighs. It’s a bit of a challenge to keep yourself balanced on this rather narrow seat, but your determination (or stubbornness) wins out. You part your folds enough so he can hear how ready you are for him.

The sound makes Yoongi eager, already pushing up so he can feel for himself, but you shake your head. “Let me spoil you,” you purr, collecting some slick with two fingertips before slathering it onto the cock that twitches with interest.

“This is more like a punishment.” But he shuts up fast when you start to lower yourself, when he feels the first bit of your tightness accept him, squeeze him. You take it so achingly slow, swallowing an inch just to ease off and make him savor it, all with mischief in your casual expression.

Reality is, though, it’s a struggle. Oh god, you definitely wish you followed Jungkook’s leg and core workouts more strictly now, as you fight to keep from just sinking fully down in one move. At least your muscles haven’t started trembling yet, though they’re getting there as you lean forward, try to alleviate some of the strain by resting your elbows beside his head.

“Hi,” you whisper when your eyes meet, then kiss away his quiet moan as you drop another inch. The limo seems to hum beneath you as you get closer to home, the apartment that now houses two of your newly adopted plants, and a music producing station now truly on its way to becoming fully-fledged. A space that’s slowly becoming seamlessly shared. “Yoon, I’m so fucking proud of you.”

“I can—” he chokes when your cunt clenches, “I can feel that.” It’s getting harder and harder for him to keep his mouth shut. You love that, when he can’t help but groan at how well you fit together.

Lower you go, letting your mouth run. “Fuck babe, you’re stretching me out, so goo—”

The pressure comes all at once. Your bodies suddenly jerk forward with the car and in your surprise, you slam down, crying out when his cock smacks against your cervix. The burn quite literally knocks the breath from you, lethal when coupled with the sharp spike of pleasure at being so full. There goes your plan of slow seduction, but neither of you are complaining.

“Sorry!” The driver calls, his voice coming through alarmingly clear through the partition. “Sudden red light!”

You look at Yoongi, and he looks at you. Silly smiles bloom across both your faces before you bury your nose into his neck. His white shirt is getting wrinkly, but who cares because you feel him shift inside you, nudge against your sweet spot and bliss pools in your stomach while you whimper.

“You should be quieter, since the divide is that thin,” Yoongi mutters, hand fondly squeezing your ass. “Even if I like hearing you scream.”

You roll your eyes. “The question is, can you?” It’s a little cramped still, but you work with what you got. Swivel your hips, grinding your clit onto him so he feels how much tighter you become. You scrunch the dress up, wanting to give him a view of how you sheathe all of him with every stroke. He groans appreciatively despite himself.

But it stops being about teasing him soon enough, once that haze of need takes over your brain and you start moving faster without even realizing it. It isn’t long before you’re practically bouncing on his cock, dragging you both closer to your ends with each sloppy squelch. “Shit, if you do that—”

“It’s all you,” you gasp, and it’s true. Yoongi always feels this good in you, no matter if it’s on your tiny single bed or in the backroom of a coffeeshop or an expensive ass luxury limo. On that delicious thought, you press two fingers to your needy clit and whine so loudly it makes Yoongi look at you in alarm. (It’s still fucking hot.)

You cum first, but that’s no surprise. It’s a point of pride for him to never leave you on the edge, and he’s happy to stave off his own orgasm for as long as it takes to get there. Sometimes even twice. But there’s no need for that now when your cunt is leaving him with no other choice than to unravel and fuck his cream as deeply inside you as possible. His hands clamp down on your thighs as his face screws up in concentration, enjoying every last pulse before he’s left with just pants and aftershocks. Just for fun, you manually give him a squeeze of your walls, just to watch him scrunch his nose in oversensitivity.

“Devil.”

You stick your tongue out at him.

It’s only when his cock softens enough to slip out of you that you gingerly shift back onto the seat, sitting with your ass slightly tilted up until he can hand you back the scraps that make up your panties. You feel humid, but it’s kind of nice with his cum still stuffed inside you.

“I think we should rent limos at least once a year,” you say, glowing with sweaty satisfaction. “That was fun.” While this night had cost you a whole paycheck, you’re graduating this year anyway, hopefully into a full-time job. You make a cheeky mental note to set 1% of your future paycheck aside for limo rides or other sex-cursions.

“Yeah, it really was.” Yoongi chuckles as he watches you smooth out your hair.

Seconds later, post-nut clarity evidently settles into his brain because his face falls. “I’m going to have to tip that poor driver everything I have, aren’t I?”

You flash all your teeth with your grin.

Groaning, he glares at his cock before tucking it back into his boxers. “Your pussy is gonna be the death of me.” But he makes you cuddle with him anyway, even though you’re both sticky and your fancy clothes definitely need some heavy dry cleaning.

Outside, you’re starting to recognize the neighbourhood and shops, your scenic route coming to an end. Yoongi sees it too, so he pulls out his wallet and starts flipping through the bills. He looks up every so often, as if doing the mental gymnastics as to figure out how much this kind of thing is worth. He looks so earnest that it makes you feel a little bad for him.

“Yoongi,” you say, after he pulls out way too much money. “Remember when I said Jungkook knows a guy?”

“Yeah...?”

You shut his wallet for him. “The driver does this kind of thing often. So, don’t need to worry about it. He’s used to it.”

Yoongi stares at you blankly. Then his eyes narrow, bottom lip jutting out in a pout that is not supposed to be adorable but totally is. “I was panicking this entire time! I was so worried that—I thought—You just—! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” You cackle, planting yourself squarely in his lap before leaning your head on his shoulder. He’s so warm and solid against you, effortlessly comfortable. “Love you,” you say with a smile, “super proud of you.”

Yoongi’s still grumbling when he presses his face into your hair. You don’t hear exactly what he says but you’re pretty sure it’s something like “you’re the worst.” Or maybe (probably) it’s “you’re insufferable.” Either way, it means you’re the most precious person on this earth.

a/n: i can’t tell you how much i love writing soft Yoongi! i hope you love him too 💕 bonus: how did Yoongi ask you to move in? ♡

#ficswithluv #yoongi smut #bts smut #bts imagines #yoongi x reader #yoongi fluff #min yoongi #the early shift #rain writes #<3 <3 <3

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cheri-translates · 4 years ago

Text

[CN] Idle chat about the Spring Festival

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a feature which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

There’s a feature in CN called 随便聊聊 (“Idle Chat”), where you can select a mood and talk to the love interests about various topics :>

Idle chats on work, life and studies: gavin l kiro l lucien l shaw l victor

[ Gavin - Happy Mood ]

MC: Today, I did something which left me incredibly fulfilled - I did a thorough cleaning of my house! I can now welcome the new year with ease~

Gavin: I’m also doing a cleanup, but my progress has been a little slow.

Gavin: Without realising it, lots of dust accumulated at home.

Gavin: Cough. Could I leave Thorny in your care at your place?

Gavin: I’m afraid it’d die from breathing in too much dust.

[Note] SO GAVIN WAS REFERRING TO MC IN HIS RECENT WEIBO POST HNNGGHH

[ Gavin - Upset Mood ]

MC: I might really have no talent in picking gifts. All the New Year gifts I bought for the elders were criticised. They’re either too flashy but without practical use, or not worth the price...

Gavin: Who said so?

Gavin: The gifts you’ve given me - I like them all very much.

[ Gavin - Angry Mood ]

MC: Horrible! I had arranged to meet up with high school schoolmates for a meal over the New Year celebrations. In the end, they stood me up!

Gavin: There’s no need to get angry with people who don’t keep their promises.

Gavin: Where were you originally planning to go? I’ll accompany you.

Gavin: Strictly speaking, I’m also your high school schoolmate.

[ Kiro - Happy Mood ]

MC: I bought tons of firecrackers that I used to play in my childhood! We could set them off on the eve of New Year’s together, and scare away all the bad luck of the new year~

Kiro: Don’t worry, Miss Chips.

Kiro: If the firecrackers can’t scare them off, Superhero Kiro will take action!

Kiro: P.S. Savin says the “Double Kick” firecrackers are really fun. Have you bought them?

[Trivia] The “Double Kick” firecrackers (二踢腿) contain two layers of gunpowder. The lower layer of gunpowder will send the firecracker into the sky, and the upper layer will explode in the air after it reaches a height of 10-20 meters!

[ Kiro - Upset Mood ]

MC: I’m a little speechless at myself. I was actually so busy that I forgot to do Spring Festival shopping... which is why I keep thinking my mouth is missing something on this spring evening.

Kiro: This time, I’ll have to criticise Miss Chips.

Kiro: How could you forget such an important thing?

Kiro: But the good news is, I’m already carrying items for the Spring Festival and rushing towards your home.

[ Kiro - Angry Mood ]

MC: Huhuhuhu... Just now, my relatives came to visit. In the end, the children broke my beloved action figure! I’m going to fight it out with this bunch of little rascals-

Kiro: Don’t be impulsive - they’re just children!

Kiro: Little children can’t gauge their strength - what if they hurt you?

Kiro: Leave it to Flower Guardian Kiro to meet them!

[Trivia] Kiro’s last line is a reference to a Chinese song called 护花使者!

[ Lucien - Happy Mood ]

MC: Let me tell you a secret - I’ve prepared a humongous lunar New Year’s Eve meal. May Professor Lucien return home early to eat~

Lucien: No wonder the developments of the experiment went very smoothly today.

Lucien: Turns out it’s because MC is waiting for me at home.

Lucien: Looks like I’ll have to leave early for once.

[ Lucien - Upset Mood ]

MC: I’m caught in a struggle between eating glutinous rice balls or dumplings for lunar New Year’s Eve...

Lucien: Since we’re celebrating the New Year, what I would suggest is that

Lucien: You could actually be a little greedier.

Lucien: Eating these two dishes together wouldn’t be too much for the both of us.

[ Lucien - Angry Mood ]

MC: If the neighbours didn’t knock on my door to inform me, I wouldn’t have realised that the spring couplets outside the door were pasted upside-down! No wonder you smiled meaningfully when standing outside my door yesterday...

Lucien: I just found your clumsy side very adorable.

Lucien: Sorry, I didn’t tell you in time.

Lucien: Could I make up for it with a warm cup of cocoa?

[ Shaw - Happy Mood ]

MC: Today, something incredibly, explosively happy happened! A faraway aunt actually gave me New Year’s money, and I felt like I once again turned into a little kid~

Shaw: Be confident, and remove the “felt like”.

Shaw: Being incredibly, explosively happy over such a trivial thing

Shaw: If you aren’t a little kid, who is?

[ Shaw - Upset Mood ]

MC: I keep feeling that celebrating the New Year is so boring... Is the issue with me or the year?

Shaw: Do you need to ask?

Shaw: Who else spends their New Year’s cooped up at home.

Shaw: Come downstairs. I’ll take you out for a stroll.

[ Shaw - Angry Mood ]

MC: I’m so mad! When I visited my relatives earlier, I played games with my male cousins. They actually felt that I was too bad at the game, and didn’t care if I lived or died!

Shaw: I can empathise, and they aren’t to blame.

Shaw: Enough talking. Log in.

Shaw: You should know by now that aside from me, no one else can handle your skills.

[ Victor - Happy Mood ]

MC: Today, I specially bought a new outfit for New Year’s. I feel myself having more strength to welcome the new year! A certain someone who’s still working right now can’t experience such happiness~

Victor: You enjoy happiness on your own,

Victor: Yet pull me into experiencing your pain when you stay up all night to rush review reports?

Victor: You truly don’t suffer losses.

[ Victor - Upset Mood ]

MC: Ooh... we agreed to stay up all night on lunar New Year’s Eve. Why did it become the morning of the next day when I opened my eyes again?

Victor: It’s within expectations.

Victor: The reason why I didn’t wake you up was so that you’d completely give up on such ideas in the future.

Victor: Breakfast is on the table. Heat it up before eating it.

[ Victor - Angry Mood ]

MC: The older generation cheerfully said they’d accompany me for a game of mahjong. Afterwards, they won all my New Year’s money! Did I fall into a trap??

Victor: ...dummy.

Victor: I remember telling you not to touch mahjong again after the last time we played.

Victor: You haven’t learnt from your mistakes.

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #I'm still waiting for good quality recordings of the calls hnghgn

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himbeaux-on-ice · 4 years ago

Note

Hello! I was wondering if you could please explain to me what Robin Lehner said yesterday about vaccination and competitive edge? English isn't my 1st language and from what I gathered NHL and PA promised VGK that if they get vaccinated the restrictions on them will lessen and they can freely leave their houses. And when they players got vaccines, NHL changed their promise and said players can't do that until all of the teams across the league are evenly vaccinated (shitty move from NHL, 1/2

2/2 as always). But what did Robin mean talking about competitive edge? I rewatched the video 3 times and I still don't understand :( Did the league make it a competition between the teams? "The sooner you all get vaccinated, the sooner there'll be no resctions on you?" I hope, I'm not completely missing the point, sorry about that. Big respect for Robin for speaking up and calling out the league. I'm really happy seeing players speaking up for themselves and their teams

Hi anon! I’ve spoken about this already a bit here and here, in case you haven’t seen those yet and think they might answer some of your questions. But I’m happy to elaborate further! I hope I can clear this up for you.

First, just as a note: Right now it doesn’t seem to exactly be clear what the NHL and NHLPA did or didn’t promise players in terms of easing restrictions, but it seems like Lehner was definitely given the impression by somebody that a team getting fully or mostly vaccinated was the ticket to not being under such strict isolation. The NHL for their part seems to be claiming they promised no such thing, but it’s hard to know right now whether that’s just them covering ass, or if there was just a misunderstanding somewhere in which what they actually said was not fully clear to the players. [Elliotte Friedman voice] More news may be yet to come on this.

Right. So as far as “competitive edge” goes, I can definitely explain that. You’re only a little off the mark. What he means in this case is that the NHL is concerned that letting more fully vaccinated teams live under a less intensely restrictive set of internal rules (regarding things like dining together, exercising together, sitting next to each other on planes and busses, having more group off-ice social time, sharing hotel rooms, having in-person coaching meetings again, etc) will lead to that group having an on-ice advantage in their play over other teams who are less vaccinated and still have to live under full restrictions.

Because the NHL is intensely obsessed with “parity of sport” (trying to make the conditions of competition the same for all teams regardless of outside factors wherever possible), they always in as many situations as possible want to eliminate any potential leg up one team could have over others. This is why we have things like the salary cap, rules about scouting players, rules about how draft picks are distributed that try to make sure struggling teams have a chance to draft well, rules against signing your best players for 20-year contracts so nobody else can have them, etc.

In general theory, being parity-oriented is good! It aims to make sure that the success of teams on the ice and in the standings is determined by the hockey play/skill alone as much as possible, not by franchise wealth or other things they did to get an unfair jump on the competition. And that should make the games more fun and less boring/predictable in most cases! As far as sports leagues go, the NHL has pretty good parity of play overall — there are only a few REALLY good teams and only a few REALLY bad ones, and everybody else performs within a pretty similar range most years. This is why back-to-back Cup wins are so rare in the current era, because due to all the rules to enforce parity there are relatively few teams that are THAT dominant over the competition for a long stretch of multiple seasons in a row, and the odds of any given team winning each year are much more similar. (As compared to like that period in the late 70’s when it was like “who won the Cup? oh surprise surprise it’s the Habs AGAIN 🙄” lol).

However, sometimes the NHL gets unrealistic in its pursuit of making sure everything is exactly the same for all teams. We’ve seen it already this season with the stubborn insistence on making sure the Canucks play a full 56 game season like everybody else, regardless of whether it is safe or reasonable to do so in the time they have left.

This time, the fixation on parity seems to be rearing its head in the form of the League insisting that even if a team has most or all of their players and staff vaccinated, they still have to maintain the same intense restrictions within team spaces as other teams which may be WAY further behind in getting everyone vaccinated, rather than getting to benefit from the lowered risk that being thoroughly vaccinated brings within a closed group like that. And they seem to be insisting on this not because it would be unsafe to change things for vaccinated teams, but rather because of concern that doing so might make that team perform better as a hockey team.

That’s the key part here: The NHL seems to consider getting to (safely) return to a mode of team life that is somewhat more similar to what these guys have been habitually used to pre-pandemic, to be something that could translate into an unfair on-ice advantage in the quality of their play, over other teams who are still doing it all “the hard way” under strict restrictions because they haven’t been vaccinated yet. And because of trying for parity, they want avoid giving teams that “advantage” by basing restriction changes around each team’s individual situation, and instead plan to ease restrictions for all teams at the same time at some point once all teams are similar levels of vaccinated.

Now, US teams seem to be getting vaccinated faster and faster every day, but Canadian teams probably have not started vaccinating their players or any team employees under age 50 at all yet, because Canada’s vaccination process has been painfully slow. So waiting on them to catch up could leave US teams who are already mostly/fully vaccinated still stuck in those restrictive mentally draining conditions for quite some time before the other teams catch up — again, not because it isn’t COVID safe to ease their restrictions if done properly (that doesn’t seem to be a problem), but because the League sees the improvements to their mental state and team morale/cohesion that would come from living a less restricted life together and getting to return to familiar off-ice hockey routines as gaining a “competitive edge” over unvaccinated teams, which would lead to them playing better hockey to a level that can’t be matched as a result.

Which, Lehner is right, is a pretty fucked up way to look at it! “It’s an unfair advantage for you to not be miserably alone and depressed by that and frustrated and doing everything with 16 extra steps you’re still not used to, it’s an unfair advantage to get to actually act like a team off the ice when playing a team sport, so no, we’re not gonna let you eat lunch together or share hotel rooms or whatever” is not exactly a compassionate argument!

Anon I’m also really glad Robin said something about it, and I was glad to see VGK captain Mark Stone put full and vocal team support behind him when asked about it last night on the broadcast too. The mental price of these intense restrictions is something that has been weighing on my mind ever since I first heard they would have to spend all their time on the road locked in hotel rooms alone when not playing and thought “oh god, five months of that is going to be psychologically devastating”. It’s a relief to hear it acknowledged.

I’m not fully sure what the best solution is here, but that mental wellbeing factor absolutely must be discussed in all decisions. It would be fucked up if the League is treating that as something purely technical to be controlled like the salary cap, rather than as a key determinant of health and life (in the short and long term) that is just as important as COVID safety. The old hockey culture of “just suck it up” cannot cut it anymore.

Aside: I think it’s also worth mentioning while we’re here, that I think I do understand why players may be angry about have been talked into getting the vaccine because they thought it would lead to eased personal restrictions, and why I don’t believe that anger necessarily represents an “anti-vaxx” mindset. There are reasons they may not have planned on getting vaccinated just yet which aren’t necessarily “anti-vaxx” cult thinking (though that doesn’t mean they’re smart reasons lol) and would likely seem reasonable to players in-context. I’m gonna put that under a cut though bc this is already really long!

First, there’s the fact that we don’t know what medical conditions some players may or may not have which could make them hesitant to get some of the vaccines out of an abundance of caution. More prominently you also gotta remember, these guys are athletes currently competing their way through an extremely intense and extremely important part of the season as they try to secure playoff spots, playing sometimes as many as 4 games a week. Looking at it that way, it’s understandable why some of them would be hesitant about getting a shot at this particular time which we all know is going to whammy you with a nasty little bout of mild-moderate side effects that hit you like a bad cold for as much as a week. They probably don’t feel they can afford to be laid up with muscle aches, sinus suffering, fatigue, and all the other little fun (and eventually harmless in the end!) things that your body runs through while activating that initial immune response — because in the couple of days that it throws them off for, their team could play 3 or more REALLY important playoff-clinching games, which they could end up underperforming in or having to sit out.

If that is the situation you’re in, and you already feel like the current League restrictions are doing enough to protect you, you can see why you would say “I think I’ll wait and get it during the offseason/during the week break between regular season and playoffs, and just suck it up for these last few weeks dealing with the same ol lonely isolation restrictions I’ve already gotten used to dealing with all season long, rather than be hit with that curveball of possible temporary vaccine side-effects during this time when I need to give it my all every game.” That may sound like a selfish mindset, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that is how at least some of these athletes are approaching it, especially ones who may be single guys without families at home to worry about protecting. (Lehner, for the record, has a wife and two young kids).

BUT, if the League told you (or it sounded like the League told you) “Hey, if enough of your team gets vaccinated quickly, we’ll be able to lift some of the internal restrictions for you guys and let you like hang out and do stuff together within the team again”, and if you were REALLY struggling with the mental stress of that isolated living style, you might weigh the two options against each other and say “Okay, I’m willing to power through a week of potential side-effects and get vaccinated with the fellas if it means I won’t have to be so goddamn miserable and depressed every day.” and then you get the shot(s).

And if you did that, and THEN the League said “lol no, even though your team is fully immunized you still have to sit in your room alone every night and eat by yourself and not leave your house, because it’s not fair to other teams if you guys are no longer mentally miserable like them”, well now you find yourself in the worst of both worlds — still stuck in isolation, AND you’ve still got to play through all the potential vaccine side-effects that will leave you a little off your game during some of the most crucial games of the year.

Plus, that leaves you not feeling like you got to give informed consent — you agreed to get vaccinated (ie undergo a medical treatment) under the expectation that there would be certain rewards to be gained in terms of relief for your mental health, which made you decide it was worth the potential dent in your performance for a few games and any other worries you had about the vaccine, because the prospect of that relief was so worth it. And now, you are told by the League “that payoff you expected never existed, we never promised that, what are you talking about? we can’t change things for your mental health because that might make you better at hockey than the depressed unvaccinated teams”. I can understand how that turn of events could leave someone, as Robin expressed, feeling like they were “tricked” or “forced” into making a choice that they may have done differently otherwise. They felt that they were promised something in return that they didn’t get.

Note at the end of all this: Again, we still don’t know whether the NHL and NHLPA actually made any promises, or if they simply weren’t clear enough in communicating expectations to teams and the players misunderstood what was said to mean something else. Regardless, using the idea that being freed from having to be miserably isolated to an even greater degree than most of the US general public is an “unfair competitive advantage” to now justify not allowing reasonable adjustments to the restrictions for fully vaccinated teams is fucked up, and treats mental wellbeing as just another gameplay-impacting factor to be controlled rather than a deeply impactful part of a person’s overall wellbeing which can even threaten their life. The players must be treated as people.

#long post #asks #anon #robin lehner #vegas golden knights #covid 19 #nhl #hockey

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whentherewerebicycles · 3 years ago

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hi! i wanted to say i love reading your reflections on teaching, and in general i really look up to/am inspired by your thoughts regarding education and academia. if it's not too much to ask (completely understandable if it is, in that case please disregard!) i would love to get your advice on college related things?

i had pretty significant academic struggles throughout grade school, and ended up dropping out of college after a year. i would've graduated this may, so lately i've been considering going back and finishing my bachelor's. but i've been waffling on this decision because of 1) anxiety about having to drop out again, and 2) some confusion about what i actually want to study. i guess i'm wondering, is it worth it to start from scratch? my struggles were mostly about mental health stuff & difficulty keeping up with coursework—i loved being in the classroom, working with professors, learning from other students. i like being challenged intellectually, but if i have issues with followthrough, is there a way to work on that??? i know these are Big Questions, lol--whether they are answerable or not, cheers and thank you and i hope you are doing well these days. <3

hey! happy to give my thoughts, for what they're worth. you know your situation better than i do so the specifics may or may not be relevant, but i can give some advice just based on seeing lots of students pass through four-year programs!

i've worked with a number of students who took time away from college and came back to finish later. i took a year off myself in the middle of college for mental health reasons, though my school allowed you to take a two-semester leave of absence for any reason (so i always had the safety net of knowing i could come back without having to reapply or start over). in my experience, time away is almost always a good thing. sometimes people just really need that break from the stressors of the college environment! but more importantly, i think people benefit from having a few years' experience living and working in the world.

even though it can be intimidating to come back to college as an older student, i think older students or nontraditional students who took time off and came back tend to underestimate how much more confident and assured in themselves they'll be once they're back in the classroom. working out in the world for a while, even if it's not a job that you especially love or feel is relevant to your long-term goals, tends to help you build more trust in your own ability to get stuff done, manage responsibilities, and be an adult person in the world. in your time away, you've probably grown more than you think, and you may find that some of the things you struggled with at 18 just don't feel as daunting anymore. or they might feel daunting, but you also have more experience talking and working with other people, and you may feel more confident in seeking out & using your college's various academic success resources.

have you considered a two-year college as a possible next step? one of my advisees this year was an adult student who went to college for a year, dropped out, served in the military for four years, came back to do an associate's degree, and decided he liked school enough that he wanted to transfer to our university and finish his degree. (now he's going on to do a phd next fall!!!!) he's one of the most passionate advocates for community colleges i've ever met, and he's stayed actively involved in our local CC community & now mentors recent transfer students at our university. he's talked at length about how CCs are this amazing way for students to explore their interests without having to take on the huge price tag of a four-year degree, within a learning community that's much warmer, more responsive to student needs, and more accepting of the diverse paths that lead people to & through higher education. i wonder if you might consider taking a semester or a year of courses at your local CC, to dip your toes back in and see if you're still feeling energized by the experience.

you might find that some of the courses aren't intellectually challenging enough, but this might also be a wonderful opportunity to create the kind of learning experience you want to have. i was a full-time community college student for a year during my year away from yale, and while i'm sure i was just INSUFFERABLE in many ways, i had a prof in my Western Civ course who was really generous with his time/energy and met with me outside of class to help me figure out how to make the papers into something that i found really exciting and challenging to write. so the class kind of became what i made of it, and i got to read some stuff (dostoevsky!!!) that sent me down all kinds of interesting unexpected rabbitholes. the former CC grad i mentioned above was an extraordinarily bright student who would always go to office hours and ask his profs for more recommended readings, and he ended up becoming a TA for one of his courses and helped them redesign basically their entire intro humanities curriculum as a student advisor. so your CC experience can absolutely be what you make of it. and even if your profs can't give you that kind of support, you could practice doing it for yourself, setting little challenges for yourself either focused on the intellectual aspects ('I'm going to read and cite two scholarly sources in this paper, even though it's not required') or on developing strategies for effectively managing the workload ('I'm going to schedule a writing center appointment on Thurs, so I have to finish this paper two days before the deadline—and then I can devote my weekend study time to practicing for my Spanish test').

CC would be a slightly lower stakes environment for you to try out college again— lower-stakes both in the sense that it's cheaper (so if you decide you don't want to continue, you're not out as much money / don't feel compelled to go on to justify the debt you've taken on) and in the sense that the workload might be more manageable for you as you readjust to academic life and build systems & structures that work for you. as you probably have gathered from this blog, i am a HUGE believer in doing lower-stakes things many times over to build your own confidence and your trust in yourself, and then gradually scaling up the difficulty. by the time you reach the hard thing, you've already built up this strong image of yourself as a person who can handle challenges (and you've also had the chance to identify areas where you struggle & experiment with developing workable solutions).

if a two-year college isn't something you're especially interested in, i think it's definitely possible to start a four-year degree again. if that's the path you choose, i would strongly recommend reaching out to students in some of the degree programs you're tentatively interested in. people are almost always happy to share their ~wisdom~ (see: this ask response, lol) and most people love being asked for their thoughts on the pros and cons of something they know well. so you could get an honest sense from students of what the program is like, what the workload is like, and how useful or engaging people find the required courses for the degree. but also know that it's pretty normal to take courses all over in your first year or two (you have the advantage of having done a freshman year before, so you probably know this!), so you might just want to plan to try out a bunch of different things, with the goal of narrowing your focus by the end of your first year, or midway through your second.

i would also HIGHLY recommend spending lots of time familiarizing yourself with the resources your university has to offer. learn everything you can about the kind of mental health counseling and support they offer to students, and see if there are things you can set up in advance for yourself before you even step foot on campus. for instance, our university offers individual counseling, but they also have free groups that meet every week or two around different topics (coping with stress, students in recovery, etc) that are led by a counselor. check out your university's writing center or peer tutoring centers, too, and set up a standing appointment once a month or once a week or whatever, to bring in something you're working on—so that you know that every week, you're going to talk with someone about what's going well and what you're struggling with in your assignments.

you might also want to look into your university's services for students with disabilities office, as they can help you figure out if you are eligible for various kinds of accommodations or additional support (extra time on exams, notetaking services, recorded lectures, etc). i know you mentioned that you've dealt with academic struggles in grade school, too. if you think it's possible that there may be underlying learning differences that are affecting your academic work, it might be worth seeing if they can help you find lower-cost testing, so you can get a diagnosis that qualifies you for additional accommodations and university support.

many schools, esp large public universities, also have resource centers and mentoring programs for students from specific demographics who may benefit from additional structure and support in their early years of college. my university has a variety of resource centers and programs for students from low-income backgrounds, first-gen students, students who transferred from community college, etc. you don't have to take advantage of ALL of these resources, but proactively establishing a support network long before you need it is a really good way to set yourself up for success. and even just doing the research will probably help you feel more confident in your capacity to 'follow through', since you'll know that you're going into this with your eyes wide open AND with a detailed plan for what to do if you run into some of the same obstacles you encountered the first time around.

speaking of detailed plans: i find it helpful sometimes to do IF-THEN exercises with students when they're stressed about something on the horizon or unsure about whether they can handle some new challenge. IF-THEN is just what it sounds like: 'IF this thing I'm nervous about happens, THEN I'm going to do X, Y, or Z.' what i like about this exercise (i use it with myself too aha) is that it acknowledges that sometimes the thing you're dreading DOES happen. sometimes the professor you emailed for an extension says no. sometimes the TA doesn't understand why you're confused about the assignment. sometimes you don't have time to finish the reading before class. sometimes you overschedule yourself and you have to pull an all-nighter to finish two papers on the same night. scary things, confidence-shaking things, happen all the time, but they are rarely fatal! and there can be something really powerful about acknowledging and naming the thing you're concerned about, and then generating a few next steps you could take, should the thing you're dreading come to pass. i could see you doing something like this as you start thinking about the things that tripped you up last time, or made it difficult for you to balance the workload. if X happens, then what could you try next? giving yourself a few options means that you already have backup plans, too, which can make the whole situation less terrifying. if this happens, i might have to try this, or this, or this, and those things might not be the most fun or the easiest to do or the 'best' thing academically, but they'll get me through this difficult moment mostly in one piece, and once i'm through it i can look back on it and learn from it, or adjust the structures i've built for myself moving forward, to reduce the chance that X happens again.

PHEW!!! sorry this got so long but that is just the RISK YOU TAKE when sending me anons 😅 i hope that some of this is helpful to you, or at least sparks some useful thinking for you, even if it's not all directly applicable to your situation. i would say that if you love learning and find being in the classroom exhilarating, then you should absolutely go back to college! but that doesn't mean you have to go back right away, or that you have to go back and do it exactly the same way you did the first time. there are lots of possible paths to higher ed, and there's no particular rush—college will always be there, if it's something you decide you want now or at some future point in your life. i would also just reiterate again one of the core Themes of This Blog, which is that the brain is NEUROPLASTIC, and that humans have a truly astounding amazing capacity to change, grow, and learn new things (including new ways of getting around old obstacles or working through old challenges). just because you struggled the first time doesn't mean you are doomed to repeat that pattern. if you can spend some time thoughtfully reflecting on what you found most difficult to manage the first time through, you are better equipped to make plans, design new structures for yourself, and build the support networks that will help you thrive in college.

#long post #mw #teaching #(kind of)

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russianwave · 4 years ago

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As someone with bad social anxiety, I put off finding a language tutor (or even speaking the language) for many months into my studies. I eventually plucked up the courage to book myself onto various trial lessons with tutors and I’ve decided to share what I’ve learnt.

1) Think about your learning style

Before even going on to a language tutoring platform, take some time to think about your learning style and what things you want to rule out. Having a checklist of criteria will make the process a lot less overwhelming, and it’ll give you things to look out for. There’s no point going for a tutor who teaches in a style that you already know doesn’t work. If you haven’t had any language classroom experience at all and/or really don’t know your style, that’s okay! But think about the materials you like to work with. Do you hate working through books? Some teachers just want to guide you through workbooks. Others are open to teaching through news articles, video clips, and so on.

For me, I know that a tutor not speaking any English to me would be too overwhelming. I wouldn’t be able to pick up new vocabulary through context and I’d find the process too stressful. Whilst this definitely works for other people, I knew that I could rule it out for myself. I also knew I could rule out tutors who don’t want to teach grammar - I knew that I wasn’t picking up grammar through patterns, so I looked for tutors that would do that. But also consider this: some teachers want to give you a lot of homework and then just have you discuss the answers and ask further questions in class whilst others will give you very minimal (if any) homework and have it be all about class time. Think about which style works for you.

2) What do you want out of tutoring?

For some people, tutoring is just a way to get quality speaking practice. They may find it hard to find people that are willing to give them the feedback they like, or a consistent / long enough speaking partner. Others are looking for a tutor to teach them the absolute basics, and others just want someone who can explain tricky concepts to them. Some tutors are only looking to teach people of a particular level, or just want to offer a particular kind of teaching (e.g. vocabulary or academic writing).

For me, I wanted tutors to be able to help me understand grammatical concepts as well as being a safe place to develop conversational practice. With a tutor it feels safer to make mistakes, and I feel like I’m less of a burden than trying to make an unpaid language partner correct everything I have to say. I also struggle with understanding grammar explanations, and I need the motivation that another person can bring to the lesson.

3) Think about your budget

This might seem really obvious, but it’s definitely something to bear in mind. £10 an hour might seem cheap now, but you’re likely going to be buying much more than one lesson. How many lessons can you afford to take each month? It might be better to turn down a good person that’s at the very max of your budget to go with someone (who’s still good) that’s lower priced and who you can have more consistent lessons with. Consistency with a tutor is a really good way to build upon work and progress through the programs and materials they have.

Some tutors will offer free or massively discounted trial lessons, but then have a very high hourly rate. It might seem great to take advantage of someone who’s usually £30 an hour for free, but you want to develop a connection with a tutor that you can actually afford. There’s no point trying someone out of your budget because your trial lesson won’t be enough to work from. You’d need consistent lessons with them and you can’t get that if they’re out of your budget.

4) How many tutors do you want?

This isn’t talking about how many tutors you want to try out, but how many you want to have in the long run. You could stick with just one tutor, but you might find you get too comfortable with them and lessons become less effective. It also means if they can’t explain a particular issue to you, then you may not be able to get an easy explanation than if you had more than one.

For me, I knew that I wanted two as it’d give me the variety I need to really stretch my language skills. This doesn’t mean going way outside of my comfort zone, it was about finding two people I could feel a comfortable connection with that I knew would push me. They have a slightly different approach with regards to explanations, material worked with, and their personalities. As someone with an attention disorder, I need variety to stop myself getting burnt out. If I was constantly having to use the same material and dealing with the same style I would get quickly burnt out.

Consider how you might want to approach having multiple tutors. It’s about striking a balance between seeing each tutor individually at a frequent enough rate to properly build upon material, as well as ensuring you’re not doing too many lessons each week. You might decide on alternating weeks with each tutor, or spreading each tutor out through the week.

5) What platform do you want to use?

There’s many different platforms for meeting a tutor, such as Tandem, iTalki, Verbling, Preply, etc. It might be worth checking each of these out and seeing what each of the platforms have to offer. A lot of tutors, no matter the platform, would rather conduct the lessons through Skype or something similar. So if you haven’t got one already, it’s a good idea to make a Skype account.

iTalki is probably the most well known tutoring platform, but it’s worth considering that another platform might be popular with people of your target language. Some platforms also require you to go through a proper vetting process or to have certain qualifications. Whilst this makes the quality of tutors better than those that have zero vetting process, you also have to consider how that might affect cost.

6) Properly watch their introductory video and read their profile description

Now that you’ve sorted out a lot of the crucial prep, it’s time to actually consider a tutor. Whilst it can be hard to judge personality through video and/or text, it’s worth seeing what they have to say. If they’ve barely put any effort into talking about themselves, then it’s probably best to give them a miss. If they can’t be bothered to even advertise themselves for money, how can you guarantee they’d put the effort in to teach you once they have your cash?

As someone who’s not very good at continuing a conversation, I looked for tutors who seemed like they could fill the awkward pauses. I also considered how clear their audio quality is (not to say it has to be super high quality, but if I can barely hear them then it’s going to be a struggle). If they offer demonstrations of how they teach vocabulary / grammar etc, I consider if their explanations are in a style that I like. As I’m very much a beginner to the language, I need someone that can demonstrate that they can explain concepts in English so I can understand them. Some tutors are aimed at more advanced learners that can comfortably discuss concepts in the target language, or might just be there for some professional speaking practice.

Check back to your criteria and see if they touch upon the styles that you’re looking for or the styles you want to avoid. They’ll also often list the material that they use, it’s worth considering if this is the kind of material that you like to work with. Some tutors are very workbook or quiz orientated, others like to bring out flashcards. It’s about what works best for you.

7) Look to the reviews, not just the star rating

On sites like iTalki it’s very difficult for a tutor to get below 5 stars. This is because we want to be polite, and we might just rate a lesson 5 stars and move on rather than voice our complaints. While a lot of reviews are just going to be very basic, some of them will touch upon teaching style and materials used. Also look to mentions of personality - e.g. stern, patient, outgoing, well prepared etc. Whilst these are all subjective, it can give you a better idea. Also look to see if students are booking multiple lessons. If most of a tutor’s students are only booking 1 or 2 lessons then it’s likely that they’re not going to be great. You want to see students returning again and again to a tutor as it demonstrates their ability to build upon content and remain a good tutor.

8) Send them a message before booking a lesson

Before booking any trial lesson I sent the tutors I was considering a short message briefly explaining my current level of the language and what I want to get out of it. I mentioned the concerns I had and included that I had never had language lessons outside of school.

I found this a really good way of assessing a tutor, as well as just a polite way to allow them to prepare for the lesson. It was nice when a tutor picked up on specific issues I mentioned, and it was a way of allowing them to talk about the material they’d use to address my specific points of concern. If a tutor just ignored all of that and was just like ‘yes yes whatever book a lesson’, then I didn’t. Tutoring is a job, and people are in it for money, but they also have to be in it out of a genuine interest in helping others. If I didn’t feel like they wanted to help me and just saw me as a future purse to dip into, then I didn’t book a lesson.

This doesn’t always work though. Some tutors seemed to forget by the time the lesson came around what things I had mentioned, and the lesson came across as unprepared. Whilst others referred back to the notes I had sent, and built upon that. It meant that I wasn’t just doing alphabet lessons again and again with tutors, and it gave me a much better assessment of their lessons as a result.

9) Prepare for the lesson

This can be tricky when it’s just a trial lesson and we’re likely not going to receive any material beforehand from the tutor but there’s ways we can prepare. Look over their tutor profile and through their intro video again, is there anything about them that you want to ask? Is there anything specific that they could help you with that day? Do they expect you to pay for additional material? Do they have a specific course of content, and how many tutoring sessions does it take to complete it?

Some tutors will already know what they want to cover, but some will be open to suggestions. Having questions is also a good way of finding out more about their tutoring without having to commit to further lessons. For example, you could ask them what kind of workbooks they use. Once the trial lesson is over you could have a look at previews of the workbook/s and see if that’s the kind of content you’d enjoy working with.

10) Sometimes a tutor will look amazing in theory but not in practice

It’s unfortunate, but even with all the research we’ve previously done we can get it wrong. A tutor might seem really outgoing and friendly in their introductory video, and then be lifeless and bored during the lesson. They might be a really nice person and we just don’t click with them or their teaching style.

This isn’t a reflection on you, and it certainly doesn’t make you a bad student. It also doesn’t mean that they’re an awful tutor, it just means they’re not a right fit for you. This is why it’s so important to experiment with tutors and see which one/s are the right fit for us. Likewise we can have a tutor that we get on great with, but we don’t actually learn much from them. Sometimes this can take a few lessons to really shine through, but when we do notice it then it’s time to move on.

Don’t beat yourself up, and try and not fret over the lesson. It’s completed now. This person isn’t going to remember you, and you don’t have to do a lesson with them again. Just politely thank them for the lesson and move on. The next person you have a lesson with might be an amazing fit. It’s not all wasted time though, it can give us a better understanding of what styles work for us and what don’t. And just because we don’t click with a tutor, doesn’t mean we don’t learn anything about the language.

The opposite can be true also! One of the tutors I booked I started having second thoughts about before the lesson. But when the actual lesson happened I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was definitely one of the best lessons out of the wide range of tutors I tried. What this means is that it can be hard to tell how well we connect with someone until we have a trial lesson with them. It’s not your fault for picking a tutor that you don’t connect with, and it doesn’t mean that all the other tutors are going to be the wrong fit for you also.

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Hopefully this will help make finding a language tutor less stressful. I know for me that doing a lot of research on language tutoring, and on the tutors I enquired with helped me feel a lot less anxious. I personally found it useful to group my different tutoring trials close together, so I didn’t have to worry about weeks and weeks of trials. But for some people that might be overwhelming, and they might find it easier to spread it out over a longer period.

If you’re like me and struggle with the concept of ‘letting people down’, and feel like you might be pressured into sticking with the first tutor or two that you try then I would recommend setting a specific date which you then invest in a tutor. For me, even though I really liked the first tutor (and he was one of the ones I stuck with) I had upcoming tutors to meet. By having to wait until I tried out the other tutors, I could be confident in that I was picking someone as a result of being a good fit.

If you’re considering getting a language tutor then I would recommend the platform iTalki. I’ve tried out other platforms such as Preply, but this was the best one for me. It’s the platform I used to meet a wide range of tutors, and it’s through that platform that I found the two tutors I really liked. If you sign up with this link and buy some iTalki credits, then you and I will receive $10 iTalki credits as a free bonus. This could cover the cost of 1 or more lessons!

#Langblr #Studyblr #Language study #Language tutor #I will do a post about language tutors and social anxiety at some point #but I thought covering some of the research methods that helped me might benefit others #plus honestly doing a lot of research helped me feel more confident in doing it

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hillnerd · 6 years ago

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Hi, I was reading an ask you answered on shipping and you mentioned that people don’t like the weasleys due to classism, which I’ve never thought of but definitely makes sense. Have you made any posts that expand on this? I’d be interested to read more

You know, I believe I haven’t made any long posts regarding this issue. Time to remedy that, eh?

I suppose it’s important to define what classism is and how it instructs our views on things in the first place.

It’s defined as: “prejudice against or in favor of people belonging to a particular social class.”

Classism is very much built into our social fabric, and almost always has. The social classes of Western society (which are the ones I’m dealing with as this is an HP post) have been highly structured for thousands of years. The names and qualifications may have altered over time, but in general there are always about 4-5 social classes. Elite, Middle, Working, Poor being the general layout, with overlaps and extra subsets within each class.

On some level we are taught that ‘money doesn’t mean everything’- but that is constantly undermined by the continuance of the classist messages put forth in media and advertisements. We are bombarded by images of success meaning accumulated wealth. Every time there’s another holiday businesses can exploit for profit, they will trot out advertisements for cars, jewelry, toys, homes etc. And we’re supposed to buy into that mindset- to find objects to display our very worth, and convey worth to others. It’s ‘sexy’ to be ‘successful’ in these ways.

In fandoms there are certain tropes people gravitate to- and the rich man with nothing but time on his hands to shower his lover in riches? That is a highly beloved trope. Mournful giant mansions are ever so much more ‘interesting’ than a working class farmhouse.

Which brings us round to the Weasleys. They are very coded as working class/lower middle class, as well as ‘normal’ when it comes to looks, and red haired (which between their great numbers and red hair read as Irish Catholic to many audiences.) The father is tall, skinny and balding, the bother is short overweight and overworked. This is not the vision of ‘sexy and succesful’ we are told are the height of accomplishment. They aren’t glamourous, wealthy, or traditionally good looking. We know the Weasley kids all must deal with the reality of coming from a poor family. The twins bemoan the price of books in CoS, and we see Percy angry about his father’s lack of reputation- but the only child we see consistently dealing with the consequences of this poverty is Ron.

The consequences of being poor, and from a large family, are evident in many ways- and from the get go Ron is the only one we get to see them with.

The ‘look’ of wealth:

He’s in scruffy hand me downs, doesn’t have extra money to spend on things like sweets, has a fat old rat as a pet, and a wand that’s not even his own. This is all well and good when you’re eleven- but as he grows up, in some ways he’s expected to ‘be cooler’ ‘be sexier’ ‘be more together’- so when he’s still gangly, freckled, in crap clothes with a silly owl- well it’s not the sexy picture of wealth and success.

The confidence of wealth that comes with curating your life:

The confidence of wealth is something people expect others to exude as well. If you can’t be wealthy, then you’re supposed to at least be incredibly confident and self assured. The luxury of choice is denied Ron. He’s unable to have choices about anything, because it’s either except what you’re given, or go without (jumpers, sandwiches, pets, broken wands, dress robes, brooms etc). Ron is unable to curate his life at all. He can’t pick and choose much- and this comes across as ‘childish�� or ‘lazy’ to some. He is unable to be self actualized due to his wealth status (And the fact that he’s a teenage boy), and this is further compounded by the fact that he’s from a large family where all paths of selfactualization he could take, have already been taken- thus undermining anything he hopes to accomplish for himself until he’s out of school, minimum.

Classism as a means of bullying:

Ron is the only Weasley to be consistently mocked and belittled for his wealth status throughout the series. When we first meet Ron, Immediately his class is thrown in his face by Malfoy- and this is continued- coming to a head with the ‘Weasley is our King’ song, where he is sung at about how poor he is.

The emotional consequences of poverty are written off:

The poor are allowed to be poor as long as they never complain. But the moment they do, there tends to be a view of this as not only weak, but ‘ungrateful.’ How dare they not be happy to have what they have? How dare they not dociley and silently improve their status so we don’t have to hear them complain anymore?

Workingclass stereotypes at play:

Working class stereotypes are very much at play, especially when it comes to how people perceive Ron. Uncultured, stupid, lazy, violent, wife beaters etc. You see fandom littered with this view of him. And then it also likes to paint the Weasley women as the shrewish, provoking nag.

In some ways the Weasleys do fit into these stereotypes- the Weasleys are ready for a physical fight many times in the books, Mrs Weasley can be the nagging wife/mother stereotype, none of the youngest Weasleys are seen as erudite library lovers and instead are more sporty, and many of the Weasleys aren’t particularly motivated about school.

Rough and tumble is quickly painted as problematic and dangerous. Jovial and sporty is quickly painted as uncultured and lacking in intellectual pursuits. Lovingly protective is quickly painted as controlling and harmful. Being laid back about certain goals suddenly makes them lazy.

The thing is, when these same features come from other characters, they are not generally seen in that way.

Draco and his family are a prime example of that. The framing of these two families by fandom is tied to closely with class distinctions:

They are constantly threatening violence, both with fists (even if they are hired thugs) and wands- yet they aren’t painted as particularly prone towards violence.

Draco is never shown as particularly intelligent or learned- yet is portrayed that way by fandom despite his lack of accomplishments. His barbs aren’t even very intelligent- they’re just mean and sarcastic.

The Malfoys actually are controlling and harmful- they’ve abused house elves, threaten people left and right, and are highly influential- but that’s seemingly not as big a crime as Molly Weasley worrying over her children?

Draco is so supremely lazy he goes out of his way to have servants do things for him- including Ron in PoA- he does not earn his way onto te quidditch team- it’s given to him, along with new brooms for everyone. Yet Ron is seen as lazy because he’s not a school nerd, and Draco an erudite because he sarcastically comes up with barbs on the sidelines.

Meanwhile the Weasleys are fighting for justice, all of them are proving their intelligence and grit every book, the Weasleys are so loving and helpful that they take in other people (Harry and Hermione), are the ones making the parties at Gryffindor tower awesome, and are the main caretakers for the whole Order. They earn everything they ever have (with the exception being when Percy is handed a position in ootp so they can manipulate him) and work hard to achieve everything they do. Ron puts in the time with his sweat and body- but it’s rarely recognized.

Classist tropes heavily enforced in the films

Steve Kloves heavily changed the Weasleys in the movies. He simplified them, made them pretty stupid, lazy, unloyal, and fearful. They are the bravest family in the books, but in the films it’s not really touched on. He loves making them look a joke, though. The films played heavily into classist tropes of dumb/funny poor people basically being kept around to amuse the middle and upper class.

It’s rare the actual merit of the Weasleys was shown, and so it re-enforced the stereoptypes people already had. Basically look up any ‘irish stereotype’ and it is heavily applied to the working class- and it seems this continues with the Weasleys.

Technically, with Arthur’s job, they are considered low middle class in many ways. He has a job that touches on the political, he knows people and has some modicum of influence. They own property. They are the ‘noble poor’ (which is very much set apart from the truly impoverished like Lupin, problematic poor who are criminals and snatchers, or the slave-class poor of the elves.)

They struggle, though, to balance it all out- and in the films we see little of their merits. They are played for jokes throughout most of the series, and are rather cartoonish.

The actors are all very good- but they were given a script and followed it- and in the script it very much dictates buffoonery and silliness is the rule of the day for the Weasleys the majority of the time. When they are not cartoons, they are to stand idly and cry as they are victimized/put in danger (literally every single film with Ron) much of the fire is taken out of Mr Weasley in is Arthur v Lucius scenes, They just stand around as their home is burnt down. We don’t see any of them fight successfully except Molly Weasley, and few throwaway spells by Ginny and Ron towards the end of the series. Like… They are not shown as intelligent, fearsome, or important to the narrative/Harry much at all, despite their significance in the series. They’re window dressing, but not actual people.

The Malfoys are given more gravitas and reality, by contrast- and they added in moments of humanity and heroism even (such as the deleted scene of Draco tossing Harry his wand.)

Same for Curse Child. Draco’s journey as a father is important to the play- his son is one of the protagonists- meanwhile Ron is basically pure comedy, Ginny is quiet, and Rose is snotty and barely present.

CONCLUSION

Overall the treatment we’ve seen of the Weasleys both in the films, the play, and fandom shows a disdain/ambivalence towards them that seems steeped in the traditions of classism towards the working class. They’ve become a bunch of Punch and Judys, or bystanders, while the rest of the main cast is afforded a bit more dignity and gravitas. Their importance and power are minimized, and their internal struggles are minimized so that when they DO come up they are seen as out of nowhere (sometimes even mean), their cartoonishness is emphasized- and their overall character arcs/journeys are treated as jokes, because that is how the working class is treated in society. I find it interesting that as JKR became more and more removed from the world of poverty she knew, the more cartoonish moments were added to the Weasleys. :P Just sayin’. She obviously still cares about them, but there is a difference in their treatment from the earlier books to the later in many ways- especially Ron- not even touching on how she let him be portrayed in the films and play.

#classism #harry potter #meta #weasleys #malfoys #analysis #my wriitng #hillnerd writes #Anonymous

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songofsaraneth · 4 years ago

Text

housing thoughts/replies got long so under a cut!

@onionjuggler replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

I definitely would not go over 50%. Try to keep it at 40% if you can. While I was in grad school, my rent crept up to over 50% of my salary and I had to use my savings just to buy groceries for the month. It was really hard. Good luck!!

yeah like i definitely wouldn’t want to fall into that kind of trap, but I’m struggling to estimate things like that. At 50% of income remaining (rounding amounts down for taxes), I’d have about $800/month, so like $150/week factoring in bills. Which is a reasonable amount to live off of but would mean not a lot/any going into savings.

@swanwives replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

i would do absolutely maximum of 35%, esp if you can have roommates or whatnot. an old or less nice place can be made a lot nicer, but you might not be able to make more money

I had really really really wanted to try living without roommates for the first time ever (I’m 28 and have never lived alone and it feels like... well past time) but it may come down to a nicer place with roommates or a shittier place on my own and it’s gonna be a hard choice there I think :(

@wind-on-the-panes replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

I don’t think I can help much because Different Countries, but I set my bar at 50% at most - a bit more if it’s a GREAT opportunity. I always /say/ I’m going for 40-45% though, because people may be willing to negotiate (also if you say you to pay more it seems like

DAMN YOU PHONE - *if you say you’re WILLING to pay more for the place it often makes a good impression on you being generous and them sounding reasonable).

Btw it can be a good idea to find a few months sublease first, so you can meet people to eventually be roommates get a feel of the city and your spendings.

I’m not sure how much negotiating power I’ll have, especially coming from out of state, but I am an adult who’s been living on my own for over 6 years, has stable employment, and good references; which is gonna at least make me a more attractive candidate than the undergrads looking for housing, so worth keeping in mind!

Subleasing first is a good idea but at this point I also own a lot of furniture so would have to move it all again in a few months, or rent somewhere to store it in the interim, which would also be a hassle. I was hoping I’d be able to take weekends in June to drive down and look at places in person (to move in for July) but even with things re-opening in the US I’m still not comfortable traveling like that. Maybe I’d go down once to visit one place to be sure it’s not a scam before committing but certainly not gonna be having the week of apartment tours I’d planned on in early march.

@overnighttosunflowers replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

I would def try to stick at 40% or lower. You can always move to the 50% or 60% places after a year if you find you’d feel comfortable budget-wise. There’s often more variability in what’s available at a given price point than you’d think, too, so if you have flexibility, wait for a better-feeling cheaper place to show up.

That’s true about moving again to something nicer later, I gotta keep that in mind. Esspecially since it’ll be easier in a post-covid society and i’ll be able to see things in person. I do haaaate moving so would LOVE to just move somewhere I can stay for a couple years, but, good to keep in mind that I’m not actually locked in to wherever I end up. Flexibility is unfortunately low as my lease here ends at the end of July and I want a month overlap between leases to move my things to a new state since I am not allowing my parents to fly out to help me move and don’t want to ask other friends to put themselves at risk either. Since it’s a university town housing really opened up once May hit (i’ve been checking since late March) and I worry it’ll all be closed/scarce again after August too.

swanwives replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

DONT DO CRAIGSLIST, DONT DO CRAIGSLIST. there are so many more reputable websites, even Roommates.com is better.

yeah im getting that sense now unfortunatrly. The town I live in is too small to have craigslist (the nearest city that comes up in it is 2 hours away/in a different state) so while I’ve always heard it’s a place to look for housing/etc I am increasingly skeeved out and untrusting of it. rip.

wind-on-the-panes replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

Try Facebook!! Safer than CL, and cheaper, usually.

I found 4 facebook groups last night but unfortunately it all seems to be postings for places $700-800 & up. The cheaper places don’t seem to bother because I guess they know people will come to them out of force. Well most is houses for actual sale but I did do the math on mortgage+resell vs rent and it doesn’t benefit me any more so I’m not going that route.

onionjuggler replied to your post: seeking actual input: so whats the actual amount...

Does your grad school not have resources? That’s how I found my first place. Another grad student who graduated had been renting there, so I knew it wasn’t a scam or anything.

I took a look through their website a while ago but it’s focussed on on-campus housing, dormitory style. There’s some places advertised as single apartments that look to be sort of townhome style college housing, but they’re in the 40-45% range of my income anyway, so I’m not really gaining much by that. I’ve emailed my primary advisor like 3 times in the last week bugging her about registration/class questions but I guess I should send another to her & associated advisors to ask if they know anywhere specific or if the other lab members have opinions/advice too.

#onionjuggler #swanwives #wind-on-the-panes #overnighttosunflowers #replies #ramblings

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the-house-of-the-nine · 6 years ago

Text

In Depths Below, Masquerade, Part 5

Elsewhere...

“Yeah yeah. I see him. A nearsighted leper gnome could see him.” the gruff voice of the demonic Bladewarden snarled.

He was sitting atop the large walled structure with his lovely frozen counterpart beside him. His leathery black wings tucked up against his spine while the pair of them watched several large carts and mounted guards stroll through the first gate into the courtyard.

“. . .what does being a leper gnome and being able to see far away have to do with this. . .let alone one another?” she asked inquisitively as she shifting lich fire eyes locked onto him.

“Well you know. . .the. . .and then there's. . .because. . .” Koltun stumbled through his words as he tried to find a reason for it.

“Mhmm.” she hissed, turning back to the scene unfolding as her spyglass was placed back on her eye. “It’s Dawnseeker alright. . . I can see the emblem to his House on the back rider.”

“Lepers lose parts. . .maybe he lost his eyes? Or they’re just bad.” the demon continued to wrestle with his comparison. Straining to think behind that contorted face.

“And there is Sennaris. . .” Pyravari added.

They were both atop the large stone wall of the bell tower. Below in the court, several of their Illidari and the Harbingers elite personal guard were well placed as carriage riders, valets and groomers. Several of them were stable hands and others were just simply house folk who would be there to tidy the beautiful carts which were waiting to be taken home.

“And Zalra. . . Both of them with their meat shields.” Vari seethed while she scanned over the crowd of guards and nobles who were arriving in the entourage of the powerful Magister. “They are moving over to his cart. . .”

“I’ve got it. A leper gnome that lost his eyes due to the radiation. So even he could see it. . .” the demon proudly puffed his chest out.

“Focus. . .” she added, motioning with her hand toward the lavish and grand cart that was being surrounded.

Out from the cabin, a large elven man stepped out. His hair was a lovely flowing amber; hanging down to his middle back with braids of various sizes scattered throughout. His robes were that of the colors of their people; the brilliant gold and crimson that so many others adorned. He was slender, and rather graceful in his action as he was warmly welcomed by the stewards of the House Honeywell.

“And here we go. . .He is meeting with Sennaris and Honeywell now. . .Sunwood. . . they’re in. . .” Pyravari hissed when she lowered the spyglass and collapsed it in on itself.

“Go. . .You move to the southern entrance. I want a sweeping flank. Two moving, while two recover. No blood, no bodies and absolutely no sound. I'm going to take the front gate and start the pincer.. . .What?. . .what is it?”

“And you’re not going to say anything about the leper. . .” he groaned with a look of disappointment across his face, he too started to stand and prepare to depart from their bell tower. “Typical.”

“Sweet Kolty. . .” she said turning around where they had climbed up from. In her hands was the large braided rope which was attached to the grappling hook wedged in the wall. She wrapped the end around her back, funneling it around to her other hand and coiling it there. “Get over it. . .”

His hopes dashed, here he had half expected her to praise him for his efforts. And as she back peddled and leapt from their vantage, he heard her toss out a phrase.

“A blind seer.”

“Dammit!” he snarled as his bat link wings sprung from his back. His clawed foot stomped against the stonework as he clenched his teeth. “A blind seer. . .why couldn’t I think of that. . .that's good. . .”

Both he and the Harbinger separated at that point. His silent gliding wings taking him to his destination, and her own physical prowess carrying her down the side of the bell tower and into the courtyard where they would begin eliminating their threats.

Back within the ballroom. . .

There was a dead silence that fell across the gathered guests that evening. On the center stage, the mechanical musicians had been silenced via remote control. And the collection of servers, chefs and artisans were asked to hold their affairs.

From the front of the ballroom, the lord of the manor and host for the evening; Magister Honeywell took the opportunity to greet everyone who had come out, and start the evening off.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, my esteemed collages and fellow Magisters. It is my honor and the honor of my house to welcome you all to our thirty seventh annual Vintner of the Year ceremony. I would urge you all to mindfully keep away from the Sweetblossom Merlot; it is absolutely sinful.”

Magister Honeywell was greeted to a full room of applause. And at his wise crack about the wine; the audience in attendance would laugh and clap as if the words were some of the most rich to ever grace their ears.

In realty though, most of these people were probably just trying to muscle their way higher on the food chain in order to gain more for their respective houses. Bumping a few elbows always greased the wheel.

“Now many of you may also know that this night, marks a very special occasion. It is not only our annual tasting but also the anniversary of the splendid couple, our own Magister and Madam Sunwood.” He said in announcement; his hands beginning to clap as he looked about the ballroom at the shining faces. To his right, both Zalra and her ‘husband’ took a bow.

The room cheered when they shared a little innocent kiss, and hoisted their glasses in celebration of the wealthy couple. Sennaris stood beside her Master as he prepared to speak again; hands raised over his head while he quieted them down.

“We have one other reason for gathering this evening. As we share a common ground within the courts and magistrate respectively; one among us is celebrating his centennial marker. His house has served the court of Quel’thalas, and remained a dutiful supporter of the Sin’dorei for countless years. We would like you all to help welcome and honor. . .”

Around the room people were absolutely astounded by the fact that they were about to meet with a very influential person within their city. But elsewhere around the room, certain individuals were more focused on the fact that they were about extract their revenge. Siida was sitting in a chair at the table of Magister Sunwood. Her hands had been magically fused in her lap so she could not try anything.

She was dressed in a lovely ball gown, no doubt the same style that the Lady of the manor wore. Her hair and makeup had been done properly. Everything that presented her to look like a guest, and not a sacrificial lamb.

Marseille, Verzatea and her several magical wards all continued to watch for the lead man himself. Zalra would have to keep her emotions in check, being up front and with eyes upon her, being so close to the man responsible for all of this.

“Please. . .let us welcome Magister Darnallas Dawnseeker.” Honeywell said completing his sentence after holding for effect.

Blood was not something that would have been allowed tonight. Because of that simple rule, Vari and Koltun had agreed they needed to use stealth, and they needed to use subtlety.

Garrote wire, bludgeoning tools, anything that would make a softer and more silent attack. But this was not an all out war. They needed to specifically target the ones who were guarding these Magisters belongings and not harm the innocents.

Koltun and several of his elite moved with the shadows; their clawed hands and powerful wings encasing people. They were working from the back and moving forward.

“Thank you all, It is an honor to have served the courts of our beloved Silvermoon City these last few decades. I am but a humble servant to our people and it gives me great pleasure to continue serving; hopefully for another century. . .”

Koltun locked his under arms around the throat of a guard, his larger size easily allowing him to be hoisted upward. The guards feet dangled like two pendulums swinging as he struggled and grunted to escape the horrible choke hold. Beside him, another one his guards were having the same treatment. Both men watching the other die, and in a simultaneous -SNAP-, their necks were broken and they were dropped to the ground. A pair who were there to clean up the dead swept in after Koltun and his chosen fled, they would move the bodies as the others worked.

“Years ago, my father told me about the necessary steps that must be taken and sacrifices that must be made; in order for our people to prevail. He would say, you need to snap a few branches to get to the fruit, and that remains true even to this day. Nothing worth having comes without a price!”

The massive winged demon took another swing, the guard dodging to his left and attempting to cut him with a blade. “No Blood” he thought to himself and skillfully avoided taking a jab to the gut.

“When I was just a boy, I knew that I would go on to follow in his footsteps. And had it not been for the morals and values instilled in me when I was young; I would never stand before you, a beacon to our people for what it means to put your mind toward victory!”

Koltun stood atop the guard with his clawed foot firmly planted on his chest, his arms flexing as he proudly showed dominance over the dead man. He had also been a bit too aggressive there and snapped his spine when he delivered the killing blow of a back breaker across his knee. But subtlety was not always his strongest point.

The cleaners rushed in, scooping the last of the southern guards away and bounded over the wall which led to the wooded area. Koltun and the others would cling to the sides of the manor like little dark winged bats all arranged along the cave walls.

One after another, the dark demons would swoop down like vicious hungry birds snatching their prey and devouring them whole. It was a singular, and brutal attack which would only be relieved once the target was dead and the ones collecting would rush in behind.

“And nothing will tarnish my resolve! I will continue to dutifully repay the kindness our fare city has bestowed upon me with every ounce of energy I have. It is my honor, nay privilege to stand before you. So many faces I recognize, and so many more I hope to someday soon know very, very well!”

Vari continued to sweep through the corridors and path ways of the front part of the estate. Her elite keeping track and rushing behind her, their own blades were locked snug one their backs. “No Blood” She reiterated once more. And she and her several Valkyries charged toward the guards who were enjoying the night off.

“I hope you all enjoy our festivities this evening. Magister Honeywell has provided us with our food and wonderful beverages this evening. As well as a fantastic little surprise, I am sure he is eager to introduce. . .Aren’t you Aloysius?”

And what a surprise it was. She would slam her large plated forearm directly into the unsuspecting guard, while she climbed on top of him with two clawed, plated hands curling around his neck and suffocating him. Two other of her personal guard rushed in beside her, tackling the others and matching her near perfect delivery with similar attacks of their own.

“Magister Sunwood has organized the entertainment for this evening, from what I see it is a marvelous little robotic musical box. And of course, the many fabulous vineyards from around our beloved Quel’thalas have all entered their hat in the race to be crowned this years Vinter of the Year. And please, do not forget to fill out your voting cards and place them in the ballot box by tenth bell this evening!”

The bodies that continued to toss aside were cleanly removed and taken with the rest as the cleaners worked from both ends, swooping in and picking off any that were marked for delivery. One by one the Bladewarden and Harbinger would cut a swath through the enemies, and those who were innocent remained unharmed.

“Thank you Magister Dawnseeker!” Honeywell said as he clapped his hands in unison with the rest of the crowd.

A cupped wave would be made as one of his own personal guards handed Dawnseeker his own glass of wine as he made his way toward the rear of the presentation.

“Now, I would like to announce our very special treat for everyone. Along the waterfront while we have been enjoying meals and festivities, a wonderful treat has been set up for all to witness. We have a magnificent fireworks display that will carry us up to the announcement of Vintner of the Year, so please. . .if you all would follow our escorts down the carriage path out the rear balcony doors. They will take you all the short distance through the gardens and down to the water.”

Honeywell smiled and began to motion people in the direction of the large double doors that were leading them out to the gardens. It was this distraction that would help to ensure whatever was going to happen in the manor; stayed there. At the behest of the young lady Kash’ebahl, no innocents were to be harmed if it could be avoided.

To be continued... In Depths Below:Masquerade,Part 6

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ganymedesclock · 6 years ago

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Do you like Lotura?

I’m reasonably partial to it.

Considering how hurt both of them were leaving the situation, they may never hook back up again, but, I think in a meta sense there’s no particular reason to doubt that those feelings were genuine, both ways, as Lotor says they are- yes, he had an ulterior motive for Allura’s trust but the way he opened himself up and made himself vulnerable to her in a way she was immediately able to hurt him over is actively contrary to those ulterior motives.

He needed Allura’s help, but by the time things went downhill, she meant infinitely more to him than just a meal ticket. Considering we see their first kiss after the point the jig’s decisively up, it would make total sense for the writers to inject some thread of sinister insincerity into his behavior- we’d be on high alert for it. And yet that entire scene is...

Part of this is just the architecture of Lotor’s face and the expressions he makes, but he looks exquisitely vulnerable. Even when they’re so much closer, just like he did in s5e5, he’s holding her hand only by the very tips of her fingers- just this time he has them curled to his chest.

And yes- Lotor’s a damn good actor when he wants to be. It’s fair to question his sincerity. Except... if we look at Lotor’s established patterns as a character, two things stand out:

1. He tends to try and hide genuine vulnerability

and

2. When Lotor feigns or plays up vulnerability he is always trying to bait someone to attack him

Given that he (at least claims to) have set up the situation with his generals’ betrayal, it’s worth noting the way he talks and acts in s5e1- he repeatedly emphasizes how powerful and helpful he is. Even dealing with a bunch of avowed and dedicated protectors, Lotor never once frames himself as a vulnerable person in need of help, even when the situation is basically driving home how vulnerable he is.

To me, I think that’s the damning evidence of how much Allura meant to Lotor- because repeatedly throughout them growing closer we see Lotor put his vulnerability in Allura’s hands.

This is repeated throughout their interactions, and it is repeated very meaningfully at one particular point:

This scene.

See here’s the thing: Lotor is a quick-witted, light-footed agile combatant. Allura’s no slouch remotely- but you’d expect a direct engagement between them to be more drawn out.

But Allura drops him in one hit.

Why?

Because Lotor’s set wrong, he’s overbalancing forwards, and because he gave Allura the arm that she’s using as a leverage point to throw him.

This is a direct illustration of “Lotor openly made himself vulnerable in front of Allura and considering she was able to exploit it to actively drop him as an opponent, that was not a ruse and not according to plan.”

Now, I’m not saying that to tear into Allura about “how could she”. Because- we know exactly why she could. Allura doesn’t take kindly to people she trusted and respected breaking that trust. And however you think about the colony, however much more to that situation there might have been... it stands that, even in desperation, even in fear, even in feeling out of options, Lotor did something terrible.

It’s something he himself sees as terrible. The scene when he comes to collect Bandor’s body, he is not acting like he did catching Raht, or how he tends to be closing a leak in a plan. He has an empty, despondent stare, and without particular energy or zeal, just sets himself about doing what has to be done. Cleaning up the body. Destroy the evidence.

And maybe I’m beating a dead horse, but I come back to: we should not be defending Lotor by defending the colony. One of the people most avidly responsible for hurting Lotor, Haggar, was the only one to insist Lotor’d done nothing wrong, had “furthered [her] work” and he snarled at her and laid on some pretty significant threats in response. The most Lotor sees harvesting the colony as is a necessary evil.

And we see back in s6e1 how obsessed he is with the rift, and how unhappy he is at the idea of postponing it even for incredibly necessary operations. When Allura says that his plan has waited this long, it can wait longer... that takes a very different context when we consider that Lotor knows what Allura doesn’t- the price he paid to “wait” this long.

Every time Lotor time-crunches a delay, he’s weighing the possibility of having to add more names to that stone.

That might seem weird to talk about in Lotura meta, but, there’s a point to it.

Remember how Oriande was basically Lotor’s dream, but he gave up on it so quickly, and pronounced that only for Allura? Again, Lotor’s known about the colony this whole time. He’s had that thumping away under the hood. He knows what he did, he knows what, even if he harnesses the rift and is able to heal those who aren’t completely consumed, is not going to go away. And that’s a pointed concern because the two people Lotor hates most in the universe- Zarkon and Haggar- are both unapologetically parasitic people. They’re people who kill others for their own gain.

Knowing that he’s emulating them in that regard does not sit well with him, and I think this affects a lot of how he views Allura.

Because Lotor does a lot of fantasizing. About living in Altea before the downfall. About being a hero, a defender of the universe just like Voltron. About knowing Alfor and studying under him. About helping people.

Allura is most of what Lotor wishes he could be. She is that hero, that savior figure, widely beloved and recognized, a child of Altea who was protected, carried away from the war, so that she never had to struggle those long years alone and was able to wake up and immediately do something to fix the nightmare of the universe.

So I think in their interactions, there was genuinely an element of Lotor just being absolutely awestruck by Allura. And jealous of her- incredibly jealous! And that jealousy is a lot of what we see come out when they actually come into conflict. But admiration and envy are two sides of the same coin.

And on Allura’s end of things?

For Allura, Lotor’s something she never even let herself believe she might have- someone who’s able to understand her life situation. And Lotor’s royalty, and Lotor’s handsome, and, as they start working together, he’s actually quite well-mannered, and Allura’s used to this sort of thing- courtly love, expressing interest in people. She plays, he responds, move a little closer, see how he’s feeling.

And I think she could tell, once she got close to him, how miserable he was, and how he didn’t think very highly of himself- that’s when she starts talking about how she wouldn’t be able to do this without him. She doesn’t know the root of that guilt, that there’s a reason beyond abuse that Lotor thinks poorly of himself. But she found herself wanting to encourage him, because for Allura, ideals, values, these things are very important. It’s appealing to her that Lotor is so obviously trying to better himself.

But that’s just it. Allura’s ideals are very important to her.

We see basically an ongoing trend that Allura as a person is prone to sacrifice. If she’s challenged to decide between comfort and the demands of her campaign against the darkness and injustice of the universe... the comfort has to go. Her father’s AI, her castle, her crown... she surrenders these things not because they’re meaningless to her, but, because there’s something so much more important on the line- her allies’ lives, the fate of the universe, Shiro. She isn’t thinking of the circlet before Shiro goes into a seizure, and she doesn’t think much of it afterwards, from what we see- she just sees him buckling on the table and they’ve got to do something.

And that, I think, is the disservice people pay Allura towards Lotor. Allura didn’t suddenly decide her prince was actually a piece of shit and threw him out with the trash- but that relationship with Lotor was another sacrifice Allura made.

Because we see exactly where Allura’s eyes go before she makes that decision.

It’s this very specific shot of Romelle.

Now, the thing about Romelle is she puts a very brave face on things. She’s stubborn, she’s peppy, she’s got a lot of convictions. And in s6e4, the entire time she’s been trying to move forwards, trying to do what’s necessary. This isn’t doe-eyed fragility she’s showing. But what it is, is at a point where Romelle is awaiting Allura’s judgment. Everyone else has basically told her they cannot and will not make a specific move against Lotor while Allura’s with him.

And here, in this moment when Allura hesitates, Romelle’s brave face cracks just a little. The way her eyebrows are set, the stiff way she’s standing, looking like she’s bit her lip to try not to cry.

It follows the same formula. Allura’s not making this choice because fuck Lotor actually. She loves Lotor. She genuinely wants to hear him out, she genuinely wants to believe in the sincerity she’s seen out of him before.

But there’s a price tag attached to that, and that price is Romelle.

Allura cannot turn her back on someone who’s vulnerable like that. And yes, in this situation she’s caught in a double bind- someone has to go down here.

But her reflex, her knee-jerk sentiment- she can’t leave Romelle here. Romelle’s not begging her- but if anything, that failed attempt at stoicism pulls the heartstrings even more. The camera frames how Romelle looks in Allura’s eyes- and we see her as very small, and very alone, and very scared, and trying not to let it on how much she is any of those things.

Now, the second disservice people do Allura in this situation is they act as if Allura decided then and there Lotor had to die and she wasn’t going to hear him out. She dropped him, but she wasn’t about to kill him, and neither was the rest of the team- they started easing up and lowering their weapons once Lotor went down. Allura incapacitated him- the next step, given how our team operates, would probably have been detaining and questioning him.

(And we have to remember, at the end of the Sincline-Voltron battle, the team did not want to kill Lotor and didn’t even question whether or not they wanted to save him- just whether or not they could. The one time they talked about ‘destroying’ him, that was the rift getting to them and Allura immediately pointed it out as such)

They didn’t get to do that, and that was not on Allura, nor on Lotor. And it sure as hell wasn’t on Romelle, either.

It was on Honerva. She set off Shiro, she had the generals attack the base.And any analysis that tries to tackle the end of s6 without acknowledging Honerva’s role as a saboteur- a role she has often taken for Lotor- is one that doesn’t grasp the full scope of the situation. With dragging Lotor and the Sincline ships away, she guaranteed that when Lotor made it back to Allura, it wasn’t a stable situation, it was an armed standoff.

And Lotor’s hurt, and Allura feels betrayed, and if there’s one demon Allura definitely has, is that she doesn’t take betrayal well at all. And Lotor- there’s only so much he can deescalate without feeling struck in the heart himself because he’s got ten thousand years of instincts that say “don’t leave your heart exposed” and the way he relates to Allura, he’s been doing just that and he can’t just go take-backsies on all of those feelings. So it’s an armed standoff where both parties are bleeding from the heart and loading their weapons to make sure the other person hurts just as much.

So... at this point, I don’t really know where canon is going to go with these two. I’m deeply skeptical this is the end of Lotor’s story, especially with the Altean colony significantly stepping up in importance, but, while I’m hopeful that Lotor and Allura will have some manner of reconnecting, it may be they’re not exactly endgame ship here. Given Allura seems to be moving towards Lance now (making her earlier “oh...” in response to hearing he was in love with her more conflicted than distant) and the recently introduced Altean character seems an awful lot like Queen Merla, who’s fairly consistently been a love interest to Lotor, the point may be this is the end of the road for their romantic relationship.

Which is fine- because whatever form it takes in canon, I think their interactions and their dynamics are very interesting. I might explore AUs or fics where it works out better for them, but I’m not abjectly dissatisfied with what canon did to it. I can just be hopeful they do get to rekindle at least a platonic rapport- especially because given Lotor’s history in other continuities, it would be really interesting if VLD ends on a note of him genuinely accepting Allura likes someone else, seeing someone else himself, and moving on.

In many prior continuities, Lotor has been written as an egregiously entitled person who in part out of his own misery, obsesses over Allura. So if VLD ends with Lotor building a new relationship with, presumably Merla, and him and Allura merely ending on a note of friends or at least allies, it’d be a nice way to meta-nod to “Lotor is healing as a person” and also “being able to take no for an answer is an important skill.”

So TL;DR, Lotura- at least with this incarnation of the characters- will always inhabit a warm place in my heart, but it’s not crucial for my enjoyment of the series that it also inhabits a warm place in canon.

Also Allurance is kinda cute too and I genuinely didn’t think I was gonna say that but VLD’s admittedly done a bafflingly good job selling me on ships I didn’t think I’d get into.

#voltron legendary defender #vld #Lotor #Allura #Lotura #readmore #Anonymous

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trulymightypotato · 6 years ago

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On the Comparative Value of Labor

A few people have told me recently that I should pick up x or y thing and make money with it on the side: knitting, cross-stitching, so on and so forth. “You can sell little embroidered key chains for five bucks some weekend and make some pocket change!” they say, completely unaware that that’s nowhere near the right amount of money to even break even with the cost of material and time that I put into it.

Especially considering that I’m slower at these tasks than most people.

This is, largely, because knitting and cross-stitch are tasks with extremely fine motor control--tasks I struggle with on a daily basis due to both the strain it puts on my joints and my general lack of fine motor control in the first place.

I’m familiar with the basics of both trades. I’ve knitted (though the most complicated thing I’ve ever managed is a scarf, because uneven yarn tension doesn’t matter so much there) and I’ve done a wide variety of embroidery (my current project is a set of throw pillows for a cousin’s wedding gift--a project, that despite the low surface area of the pillows that’s being covered, has taken me six months and I’m still not done).

One of my roommates can pick up crochet and make a scarf in a matter of days.

And yet the scarf that I spent four weeks knitting non-stop to get done in time for Christmas and the scarf my roommate made in a week would be valued the same--if not hers as a higher worth, because she’s able to control the yarn and make for a smoother finished project.

Despite the fact that a keychain-sized cross-stitch item would cost me materials and about four hours of time, it would be valued at five dollars.

My work, at a detail that causes me pain, is valued at $1.25 an hour.

You might be able to see the problem here.

This applies to more than the physical crafts.

It applies to "The market price is crap and also based on people who work faster than you do because they’re not in pain.”

I do digital art. I do it when I have the time and a subject in mind, which means it happens less often than I’d like. I’ve done commissions before, too, and contracted work.

The thing is, even though my commissions are “too expensive,” they’re honestly not costly enough. Not only is someone paying for a digital product, but they’re also paying for my time, for the experience I have in digital work, my style, and the physical effort it takes for me to actually complete a piece with intensive feedback. A total of three (3) people have ever commissioned me, and while I’m glad one of them has repeatedly come back for more, it’s disheartening to see the vast majority of people aren’t interested in paying a still-too-low wage.

As for that contract work I did--legally speaking, I’m not allowed to divulge details, but know that because “it’s a lot of work you’ll get paid plenty by the time it’s all over” I did intensive pieces and got paid under half of what I should have been. By the time I found out how much work there really was, and the changes the other party demanded months after getting a final piece sent to them, I was locked into a contract that didn’t give me any hope for improvement. (Also, they wouldn’t pay me for months at a time and got upset when I refused to hand over the final products until I got paid.)

By the time everything was said and done, I was getting paid about $3 an hour.

Somehow, because some people can draw faster than I can for the same product, that means I get paid less than a fair wage.

It’s one of the reasons commissions haven’t been open in a while. I can’t handle that again--both the mental strain and the physical damage caused by both working a regular job and drawing for another 4-6 hours a day to get stuff done.

It applies to “Other people have more time to do things than you do, and yet you’re held to the same standard.”

I record videos and put them on YouTube for fun. There was a period of time, about two years ago, when I was able to put out a video nearly every day. It was expected of me, so why wouldn’t I? And then, very suddenly, videos stopped for several months. Why?

Well, because I was taking 15 credits of college classes and working.

I would get all my homework done on my commute on public transport to and from college and in the breaks between classes. On particularly rough days I’d do a few more hours of it when I got home.

Then I’d have an irregularly-scheduled job where I’d work two 8 hour shifts back to back (either on sequential days or, on a few notable occasions, on the same day--you read that right, 16 hour days) and then a single 4 hour shift and then I wouldn’t be allowed to work more because then they’d have to start paying me benefits.

Because of this, money was so tight that some months I could barely pay rent, much less afford to eat.

I’d have chores I needed to do, ranging from the basic “clean room” and “dishes” and “laundry” (a task that takes several hours, assuming all the washers and dryers at the laundromat are working properly) to the more technically complicated “grocery shopping” (since I didn’t and still don’t have a car and had to rely on public transportation) and “scheduled appointments”.

I didn’t have time to put out videos, and yet I still felt I had to. My mental health was suffering to the point where my physical health was suffering (something I’m still dealing with the ramifications of to this day), and the only thing I could cut was videos.

So I did.

I stumbled through my last semesters of college (and I graduated with a GPA lower than I’d wanted but above a 3.0 so really that was nice) and got a new job--one that works me regular hours, even if those hours start at 4:30 in the morning.

And for several months into 2018, that was all I could do.

Sure, I managed to get out a few videos in that time, but I wasn’t really happy with them, and judging by the analytics on my channel, neither was anyone else.

It applies to “There’s a lot of invisible work that goes into this.”

I know I write fanfic for free. I’m planning on keeping it that way. It’s a good way for me to clear my mind and get creative, without the pressure of having a “final product” to show off at the end. I mean, I will have a final product, hypothetically, but I’m not really expected to show it to anyone in a professional context.

But then there are those comments--comments at the ends of chapters and in articles written by “professionals” and “experts.” The ones that say “Anyone can write. You’re just making things up for the fun of it, of course it’s not difficult” and “It’s been so long, when’s the next chapter going to be out?”

Except that it’s not so easy as that.

Yes, absolutely, I do it for fun. I do it for fun all the time. I do it for the satisfaction, and for the enjoyment of writing.

But the final product you see? Is not just something I tipped out onto the page.

In Royal Flush, for example, each and every chapter is started with a specific purpose in mind. A thing, a very specific thing, needs to happen. Maybe someone needs to learn information, or an aspect of 1920s culture needs to be showcased to better explain someone’s motives and actions.

All of this requires research. Research into clothing customs, and into social greetings and actions out in public and the customary ways to do such and such. Research into the vehicles of the time. Research into the medicine of the time (which is a particularly tricky one). Research into politics and public opinions and real-life historical figures.

The average chapter of Royal Flush takes me a week to a month to write.

This is a call to remember that just because a job looks easy, it’s probably not. If you think you can do it better, feel free. If you’re going to be That Person, then I don’t want to work for or with you. If you approach me on social media, I will block you.

Remember: for the vast majority of the “easy work for easy money” I perform, the work begins as soon as negotiations open--not as soon as I actually sit down and start working on the art, or the chapter, or the cross-stitch.

By engaging in someone’s work, you are agreeing to THEIR terms, to THEIR labor, to pay THEM a fair wage for the time and work THEY put into it--not your neighbor, not yourself, not a robot in a factory.

You are hiring a person. Rates may vary.

#value of labor #work is work #that's what it is #even if you don't think it counts as work #i promise #it's work #long post

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thesportssoundoff · 6 years ago

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“Friday Night With Marlon Moraes” The UFC in Utica Preview

Joey

May 28th, 2018

A casual perusal of the Fight Night in Utica, reveals a nothing special lower level card to the average eye at least. It's very light on star power on a not normal UFC night from a place nobody probably equates MMA with (sorry Utica!) without the usual big hook and sell to it. After watching a PPV with some big names then the first MMA card in Chile and then the biggest free WW fight in quite some time in Till/Wonderboy, it might be hard for some folks to then turn around and get giddy over a show in Utica on a Friday night. Making matters worse? Its headlined by bantamweight which is still one of those weight classes struggling to find some acceptance. Having said all of that? I really like this card. It's not a great show by any stretch of the imagination but the main event is sublime, there's a few debuts I'm excited about on the card and there are some damn good action fights on it. It's not going to compete with UFC 225 for card of the year or anything but I believe it's well worth checking out on a Friday Night. Maybe you'll be able to say you saw the next bantamweight champion debut live.

Fights: 13

Debuts: 4 (Jose Torres, Nate Wood, Sijara Eubanks, Chance Rencountre)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: (Bryan Barberena OUT, Ben Saunders IN vs Jake Ellenberger/Leonard Santos OUT, David Teymur IN vs Nik Lentz/Niko Price OUT, Chance Recountre IN vs Belal Muhammad, Hector Sandoval OUT, Jose Torres IN vs Jarrod Brooks)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 1 (Jake Ellenberger)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Ben Saunders, Jake Ellenberger, Gleison Tibau, Desmond Green, Walt Harris, Jessica Aguilar)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 6 (Jimmie Rivera, Marlon Moraes, Belal Muhammad, Gregor Gillespie, Vinc Pichel, David Teymur)

Main Card Record Since Jan 1st 2016 (in the UFC): 26-17

Marlon Moraes- 2-1 Jimmie Rivera- 3-0 Vinc Pichel- 2-0 Gregor Gillespie- 4-0 Walt Harris- 2-2 Daniel Spitz- 1-1 Ben Saunders- 2-3 Jake Ellenberger- 1-3 Daniel Teymur- 0-1 Julio Arce- 1-0 Sam Alvey- 6-3 Gian Villante- 2-3

Divisional Breakdown: Lightweight- 3 Welterweight- 2 Bantamweight- 2 Light Heavyweight- 1 Flyweight-1 Featherweight- 1 Heavyweight- 1 Women's Flyweight- 1 Strawweight- 1

Too High Up- Jake Ellenberger vs Ben Saunders

I feel bad for kicking two guys when they're down, I really do. Ben Saunders and Jake Ellenberger probably shouldn't be fighting anymore but this is MMA and you have to basically go out feet first. The winner of this fight will probably wind up getting fed to another dude way higher up in the food chain than them.The loser probably fights Michael Venom Page in Bellator. Both guys are on losing streaks with Ellenberger in particular rocking a nasty 3 wins in his last 10 fights. All of this paints the picture of a really sad fight on the main card because both Saunders and Ellenberger are still "names".

Too Low- Nik Lentz vs David Teymur

So why is this here on the prelims? Nik Lentz since moving up to 155 lbs is a cool 3-1 with wins over Will Brooks and Danny Castillo. David Teymur is 4-0 in the UFC with wins over Drakkar Klose and Lando Vannata plus he's normally good for either a snazzy finish or an exciting fight. Lentz isn't the same dude who would lay and pray his way to wins, dude's improved as a striker, has tremendous grappling chops and still brings pacing and cardio to all his fights. Color me bummed this one is buried on the prelims package since it's not even the prelim headliner (Sijara Eubanks vs Lauren Murphy is in that spot).

Stat Monitor for 2018: Debuting Fighters (Current number: 11-16): Jose Torres, Nate Wood, Chance Rencountre, Sijara Eubanks

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 12-6): Jose Torres, Chance Rencountre, David Teymur, Ben Saunders

Second Fight (Current number: 16-15): Jodie Esquibel, Julio Arce, Daniel Teymur

Cage Corrosion (Current number: 10-16, 5 straight wins): Jessica Aguilar, Jake Ellenberger

Undefeated Fighters (Current number: 18-13): Gregor Gillespie, Jose Torres

Keeping An Eye On But Not Really:

The UFC Win Check Test The records of fighters who have 4 or more UFC fights (or three full calendar years in the organization) but 0 wins against people still in the UFC: Nik Lentz. I would've been SURE that Gleison Tibau would be here but Tibau has two insanely impressive in hindsight wins over Francisco Trinaldo and RDA. Dude was really good once.

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Every fight is its own story and journey through the careers of two athletes. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out how friggin' insane the "How we got here" for both of these guys is. Marlon Moraes was 7-4 going into a fight with Miguel Torres on the first WSOF show, he was there to lose but apparently didn't get the memo. After beating Miguel Torres, Moraes was put up against WSOF's prized signing Tyson Nam. He finished Nam who was coming off an upset over Dudu Dantas which in turn made Moraes a bit of a fan favorite as this super underdog beating all of the hyped dudes. Moraes is now 20-5 which means that since his time as "the opponent" vs Torres until his UFC debut, he went undefeated and racked up 11 wins all over relatively quality competition. It's easy to accuse a dude on a run like his of can crushing but Sheymon Moraes, Josh Hill, Carson Beebe and Josenaldo Silva are quality regional fighters (Moraes has the ability to be a lot more). In the UFC, Moraes' lone loss is a "What can ya do?" split decision vs Rafa Assuncao who basically neutralized him as he tends to do. Since then Moraes decisioned John Dodson in a close scrappy fight and became the only man to finish Aljamain Sterling when he ruined his life with a step in knee. Moraes has proven his worth and his reward is his first ever UFC main event less than a year into his run with the organization.

The road was equally weird for Jimmie Rivera. Rivera's pre-UFC career is littered with fighters you'd know (Jared Papazian, Brian Kelleher, Willie Gates, Carson Beebe) in big time organizations (Bellator, WSOF, ROC and CFFC) but he never really stuck or found a home. Bellator used him frequently but for some reason, never featured him as a name. Perhaps that's because he was a guy who went to the decision more often than secured a dominant statement win. Maybe Rivera is just difficult to negotiate or deal with (more on that later) or perhaps he was just overlooked. He tried out for TUF and fought up a weight class in deference to his friend Louis Gaudinot. That decision proved to be the wrong one as Rivera drew Dennis Bermudez and lost by TKO in the try outs. Rivera eventually did make it to the UFC----as a short notice replacement on an international fight card. Since that point, RIvera has gone 5-0 with wins over Thomas Almeida, Pedro Munhoz and Urijah Faber. Jimmie Rivera has proven his worth in the UFC and his reward after being "the opponent" for what seems like his entire UFC run is his first ever main event spot in Utica.

There's a pride in this, I suppose. We see guys debut, get hyped and get main events far earlier in their careers than Rivera. We've seen guys be "the favorite" long after they've proven they're not the guy for the job while guys like Moraes have to just keep winning. For two guys who had to really earn it, I'm glad they're in a main event spot no matter if it's a Friday UFC event or a Fox spotlight. These guys earned it and in a sport where earn and deserve is more about timing and opinion, it's nice to have two definitive cases of "earning it" colliding at the same time.

2- I'd ALSO be remiss I suppose if I didn't point out how long it's taken this fight to come together. Both guys claim they were supposed to fight on the regional circuit but those sorts of "You might fight X" type rumors are what they are. What we DO know is that Moraes was offered the opportunity to fight Rivera in December as a fill in for Dom Cruz. Moraes said he couldn't make weight and depending on who you ask, he either needed to fight at 145 or higher to fight Rivera. The fight fell apart and THEN it was rebooked for UFC in Orlando. According to Moraes at least. Rivera has said that he wasn't offered a contract or wouldn't sign it or etc etc etc. Whatever the case may be or may not be, we've got it now. The whole back and forth created legitimate realistic tension. Sometimes it's nice to have dudes who dislike one another a little bit.

3- Jimmie Rivera is currently the slight betting favorite and while that might seem controversial for some, I think it's insanely realistic that he can take a decision. Marlon Moraes' weakness has been guys who can counter strike with him, force him to think and react more than he wants to and challenge him with either a size or a speed advantage. Rivera can fight going forward and backwards, has all sorts of versatility to his game and carries consistent pop in his hands. He's not a fight finisher by any stretch but we've seen him drop dudes like Thomas Almeida and Iuri Alcantara. He's also far more likely to be active during the lulls where Moraes seems to just be trying to patiently stalk a dude down for power shots. Conversely Moraes winning this fight by KO is pretty possible as well given that Rivera loves to exchange, often times abandons defense and security for swangin' n bangin' PLUS Moraes really does hit fucking hard.

4- Is the main event a #1 contender fight? The winner will probably have a hell of a case for the shot, no? The alternatives are Raphael Assuncao who I'd bet the UFC would rather cut than put in a title shot if they were given only those options (although Rapha vs TJ/Cody winner sounds like a fantastic way to kick off your ESPN run), Dom Cruz or John Lineker. Lineker is a guy who people assume is a draw but never really generates any numbers worthwhile of backing that up. Both Lineker headliners at BW did pretty poorly which, I suppose, helps create the mythos that BWs can't draw viewers. I also can't imagine an audience being that giddy for Lineker vs TJ 2 if Dillashaw wins again. You could make the argument that Dom Cruz has a case over both guys but if Garbrandt wins then whats the point? We've been there and Cruz was soundly handled by Cody. Cruz vs Dillashaw 2 might be a lot more intriguing a second time around for some folks? Still I couldn't count on Cruz to make it to fight night again since 2016 seemed like an anomaly across the board for him health wise. Perhaps the ultimate question mark is Rob Font who seems to be finally getting his act together en route to a clash with Raphael Assuncao in July.

5- So just WHO necessarily is it that the UFC is attempting to hype up and develop in the famed "special showcase third fight" slot? Will Harris is 34 years old and he's already been in the UFC for close to six years now on and off. Harris is coming off two straight losses and while he deserves credit for stepping up vs Fabricio Werdum on like thirty minutes notice, his performance vs Mark Godbeer was hilariously heavyweight. Is the focus on Daniel Spitz? Spitz is a newbie HW who has a 1-1 record in the UFC with a win over Anthony Hamilton and a loss to Daniel Spitz. Was this just a case of wanting a big guy in a key spot because you've got a bantamweight and a lightweight up top?

6- Sijara Eubanks attempting to make the cut to 125 lbs again seems....dicey. I suppose conversely the same could be said for Lauren Murphy as well so let's just hope everybody makes weight healthily.

7- It took me 7 spots to talk about Gregor Gillespie and at first it kind of bothered me that I had forgotten about. In hindsight, I guess I just don't know what would make him worth remembering to begin with. As a fighter Gillespie is fantastic and while he's slowly creeping out of his athletic prime (he turned 31 in March), he's pretty much dominated everyone he's faced. The only thing a detractor could cling to would be a short brief moment where he was hurt in a firefight vs Jason Gonzalez, a fight he ultimately won in the second round. He's a tremendous wrestler with serious control on the ground plus his hands are really powerful. I just don't know what else there is to really comment on about him. Seems like a nice enough guy, am I right? He fights in an insane division where thus far he's wiped out everybody he's faced----but it's likehe's the world's biggest afterthought. He's really good and really forgettable at the same time. I hope this fight vs Vinc Pichel showcases more of why we SHOULD be excited about Gillespie's prospects. Pichel is one of those guys who exists just below the level of good but way above the level of opposition Gillespie has faced thus far. I'd like a bigger step up for Gregor but in a showcase fight with a moderate step up in competition, you could do a lot worse.

8- If you pay your $9.99 for UFC Fight Pass, your reward for such is the debut of two fascinating prospects who figure to be players in the lighter weight classes. We can begin with Nate Wood who is the easier of the two to explain. Think of everything you liked about Brad Pickett and then make him slightly less chinny and slightly more athletic. The wrestling improvements (or lack thereof) will determine his upside his ultimately. I think he has a more fundamental game than Tom Duquesnoy but I feel more confident on Duquesnoy turning into a bigger deal. On the same card you have the long overdue debut of Jose "Shorty" Torres, a tremendous prospect who has shades of everybody from Chris Weidman to Kelvin Gastelum in his game. He has tremendous pop in his hands, great cardio, a stalking power style on the feet and the ability to absolutely mix it up on the ground as well. I don't know if Torres will be as good as a lot of us think he can be but he's the most excited I've been about a lighter weight fighters debut since probably the aforementioned Duquesnoy last year. Shorty is a really good fighter who I think can comfortably be a force at either 125 lbs or 135 lbs. Both guys get tough matches as Nate Wood gets Johnny Eduardo and Jarrod Brooks welcomes Jose Torres to the UFC.

9- If Sam Alvey vs Gian Villante leaves the first round, I think you're within your right to spend the next 10-20 minutes doing something more important.

10- Daniel Teymur with a full TC is going to give Julio Arce more problems than people imagine. I think that speaks more to the qualities Teymur has than it does about Julio Arce.

11- We're six fights into Belal Muhammad's UFC career and I have zero idea what kind of fighter he really is at this point. I know he's good (wins over Randy Brown, Jordan Mein, Tim Means proves you're quality) but I have no idea if he's anything more than a placeholder in an aging 170 lb division. The Niko Price fight would've told us a lot about him but now he's facing the pretty good Chance Recountre; a regional fighter who would've probably found his way onto the DWTCS eventually.

12- Is Demond Green contractually obligated to just fight massive wrestlers in the UFC? Four fights in he's had Josh Emmett, Rustam Khabilov, the oversized Michel Prezares who was basically fighting at MW vs him and now Gleison Tibau.

Under Pressure

1- Jake Ellenberger

We might as well start here. Ellenberger is no longer the dude who flirted with title contention on multiple opportunities. Those days are long and gone. What remains? Well....it depends. We can start with the cynical view; the raw numbers aren't pretty. Ellenberger is coming up on close to 50 pro fights before the age of 35 in the USADA Era where the dramatic "he's turning back the clock!" runs aren't going to happen. Since the start of 2014, he's just 2-6 with only one decision loss. He's taken damage in his losses and of his two wins, he's Matt Brown changing his mind again away from having 0 current UFC wins. He's chinny, spotty with his offense and it's fair to wonder if he's just been figured out by better fighters who have evolved quicker than he has. An optimistic POV? Ellenberger was far too good for far too long to fall apart this quickly. The quality of competition hasn't helped either given his losses are to genuinely top tier dudes like Rory Mac, Robbie Lawler, Jorge Masvidal and Wonderboy. Even in the losses, he had some moments of life to make you believe that something STILL is in there. In his most recent fight vs Mike Perry, it sure felt like the "old" Ellenberger was back----right before Perry exploded his face with an elbow. He had glimpses vs Masvidal and I felt like he did damn good vs Tarec Saffiedine as well. What if this is just a really bad ugly sort of slide that'll eventually even itself out? Maybe against weaker competition even? Ben Saunders is really the last in the line for Ellenberger. It's win or go home.

2-Jimmie Rivera

Jimmie Rivera's 5-0 run has been fantastic during his time in the UFC----but outside of the cage? It hasn't been as smooth sailing. We detailed the Moraes fight scuffle but beyond that, Rivera sort of got put in an awkward spot as his wife and Aljamain Sterling had a back and forth on twitter that was pretty cringy. Beyond that Rivera has been known to turn down fights in the past and we know that puts a spotlight on a dude. He's not the guy the UFC "wants" so to speak as much as he's the one they got. Rivera has his main event in what is essentially home turf against an opponent with a ton of buzz. You gotta step up and show out.

3- Sijara Eubanks

The Eubanks we saw on TUF was a hell of a lot better than the Eubanks from Invicta. Even with that said, she got yanked from the event the day before fighting for the title due to an awful weight cut. She might've had enough to beat Nicco Montano but alas and alack, it's back to the drawing board. Lauren Murphy is a really tough go of it in your UFC debut but if the TUF Eubanks shows up? Good chance she pulls this off.

4- Jose "Shorty" Torres

It's short notice and that normally is the caveat needed. This is a different situation though. It's not just some prospect but arguably MMA's best unsigned prospect. We're talking about a guy in Jose Torres who is too good to not have these sorts of expectations put on him. He has the ability to be a genuine lightning bolt in a struggling 125 lb weight class or a blossoming 135 lb weight class. It's a lot of pressure to put on somebody making a short notice debut but again, Torres is a different kind of fighter and a different kind of prospect.

5- Vinc Pichel

He is the opponent. Gregor Gillespie is the guy that everybody is excited about which leaves Pichel in the spot of "don't lose too badly!" which is always a bad place to be. Pichel is the sort of fighter who presents enough stylistic questions for Gillespie that even if Gregor is better, you're still looking at a guy who has the ability to give Gillespie some problems. The pressure is on Pichel to not get blown out here and test Gillespie.

Five Can't Miss Fights

1- Marlon Moraes vs Jimmie River

2- Jarred Brooks vs Jose Torres

3- Walt Harris vs Daniel Spitz on the Walt Harris factor alone

4- Julio Arce vs Daniel Teymur

5- Nik Lentz vs David Teymur

#MMA #UFC #Moraes #Rivera #Teymur #Ellenberger #Saunders #Utica

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