#I mean I have had hard hijab days because of the heat here

[faithful-diaries]

.🧕🏻

[pogueswrld]

✧･ﾟ: * two worlds apart *:ﾟ･✧

pairing: peter parker x Muslim!fem!reader summary: peter seems to grow a liking to the pretty girl in a hijab working in the bookstore down the road from the daily bugle, but he's too shy to make a move. now they're both stuck on a few-hours train, it won't get better than this. warnings: none, just an absolutely simped peter and an equally whipped reader, teeth-rotting fluff, sharing headphones, super halal! &lt;3 this is written with gender-neutral pronouns but the reader is fem presenting which means they're wearing a hijab! note: hello hello, this is 100% based on one picture I saw on Pinterest of a guy and a girl sharing headphones on the subway and it got me thinking of them <3333 enjoy!!

It was getting dark. The clock is ticking to four p.m. and y/n was growing worried that they might not make it home on time. The subway TVs keep announcing delayed trains and they're wondering if they should've called their brother to come and pick them up from the bookstore.

They'd say this week has ended on a good tone, from the good sales they've made and the tips they've received, and that pretty cute guy in the navy-blue jacket with a thin hood... yeah, it's been a great week.

If they're being honest, y/n is in no rush to get home. They're in a good mood, and that will be crushed the second they step foot through the threshold of their home, so every second spent standing on this platform was cherished.

Until the speakers went off announcing the arrival of the train leading to their destination. With a sigh, y/n stashed their hands in their puff coat's pockets and stepped towards the lines on the floor that indicated the location of the automatic sliding doors.

Meanwhile, a brunette boy with glasses was skipping the stairs to make it to the platform, trying his best to catch the next train out so he won't be any later than he already was.

He promised his aunt he'd make it on the clock this time, and yet there he was, fixing up his wrinkled tie and straightening out his unpressed suit jacket. He was a mess, he knew it, and the familiar person next to him knew it too.

He had to do a double take because this is so not how he wanted to be seen by his crush, but when he did, and their features remained the same, he went red in the face. The tips of his ears fired up and the heat traveled down to his necklace-adorned neck.

He wanted to disappear.

But they were here, the single person he's been thinking about non-stop for the past two months. The only reason he was falling back into his reading habits, the only cause he'd think about while reading romance, the single person he'd dream of when annotating said romance books.

And they... y/n's process march halted the moment Peter stepped onto the train. It was like every rational thought had evaporated and was replaced with endless screeching. Their eyes widened and they zapped their gaze to the ground, a hand slapped their mouth in shock.

He was a well-put-together mess. y/n kept sneaking half glances at him to see the way the black suit complemented his figure so well, the way it stuck to him, and how unironed it was.

They almost felt bad, but the next glance cast to his face only to see it beet red erased that thought.

For a split moment, y/n thought he had noticed them staring and felt embarrassed either by his look or by being stared at, so it was their turn to blush.

The two of them spent a good, stretched-out, awkward ten minutes staring ahead with heated cheeks and awkward stances before Peter cleared his throat.

He's been trying so hard for the past three weeks to gain this person's attention, and so far has only succeeded in spending too much money on romance books recommended by them and a simple "have a great day" while leaving the store, and every time he'd face-palm.

But this, this is the perfect opportunity to talk to them, get to know them, maybe even give them his number-

"I've seen you before, haven't I?"

And they're the ones to break the silence, staring at him with hesitant eyes and pressed lips, Peter realizes half a minute later that he's just been staring open-mouthed at them. He immediately shuts his mouth and hums a tight-lipped "mhmm", not moving his eyes away from them.

Their lips stretch into a simple smile, and they nod, "I knew it, you looked familiar. Did you come by the bookstore-"

"Off 39th and Second Avenue? yeah," He laughs, a sound so gentle and sweet it makes y/n sigh in disbelief. "Visited twice this past week alone."

They clap, their almost fake enthusiasm replaced with genuine excitement, "I knew it! I've seen you around a lot. You always get romance books."

Peter chuckles, almost feeling like he's been caught. He bows his head with a shy smile and nods, "And you always recommended the best ones."

y/n blushed, smiled, and waved it off, "You can obviously tell I daydream a lot." they laughed, and peter chuckled along with them. "Oh don't worry, I've been doing my fair share of daydreaming lately too."

The underlying message didn't go unnoticed by y/n, in fact, they paused and stared at him for further explanation, but Peter stuttered and mumbled his words that they both ended up just laughing it off.

y/n recognizes how risky what they were doing was, talking to a boy, a complete stranger, on the train going home. It sounded like every Arab kid's dream and nightmare wrapped in one. But they were risky, that's what they do. They were never ones to go along with the rules, never ones to follow tradition, but it wasn't like they were kissing or touching, right? It could be worse, but it's not.

The silence that followed was comfortable, and Peter got brave enough to ask for their number, but y/n apologetically turned him down, "Can't give you that, sorry. It's personal."

He didn't argue, only nodded in understanding and assured them that it was alright. For a moment, when they had started to feel bad and give him some sort of media to contact them on, Peter held out one of his wired earphones for them to wear.

y/n glanced between the earpiece and him with furrowed brows, but they took it nonetheless. Peter put the one in his hand in and gestured for them to do the same. y/n gently pushed the earpiece through the front of their hijab and into their ear before making sure it was secure in place. Peter held up a thumbs-up and they reciprocated it, then he pressed play, and "talk" by Hozier began to play.

y/n can confidently say that must've been their best and most enjoyed train ride ever, and they'd definitely be seeing the pretty boy with a head full of fluffy brunette strands again.

[deepdonutkid]

Baklava

Authors note

This is supposed to be timeless. So it could take place in a modern setting or around season 4 … or whatever actually but Finn is at least 15 or so.

It’s very fluffy, be prepared for teeth rotting sweetness

Finn x female reader, the reader is female, Muslim and of Arabic heritage

I really love baklava and Turkish food, but I know baklava are not just Turkish food, many other countries have similar dishes or variations of this dish

It’s a little haltering… I’m sorry, I’m not getting used to write in the x reader style, especially in english, but I hope you still like it.

Warning: the reader thinks that somebody followed her

You were wandering around in the same five streets after a fight with you parents. Usually you wouldn’t run off, but this time was different. You just couldn’t stay home anymore. Just some time off was all you needed.

But then it turned dark and suddenly you realized you got lost. You lived just for a few months in Small Heath and until now you have never been out in the dark of these streets.

After a while you just sat down on a bench, starring at the other side of the canal. It was pointless, you thought. You wouldn’t find your way home until the sun was rising again.

Then you heard steps behind you. Your heart was racing. You peeked over your shoulder and whimpered. There was a guy with a flat cap coming closer and closer.

That was not a good sign for you. So you stood up and hurried away the opposite direction. Not actually knowing where you went.

But the steps behind you didn’t disappeared, they became fast. Now, you know that guy was following you. So you began to run. The fear made your head empty. You kept looking behind you.

“Your… your headscarf is coming off!” the guy yelled twice until you noticed what he said.

Again you peeked over your shoulder, but this time you needed to know who that was, because that voice did sound familiar. Your hands tapped the back of your head, just to become aware that this stranger said the truth. Your hijab was coming off. In the midst of this chaos you still kept walking. Looking back, that might not be the smartest idea, as you stumbled over something lying on the ground.

You had fallen straight into the dirt and your knees hurt as well. When the pain finally faded, you tried to get up on your feet. But suddenly there was a helping hand, which pulled you up.

Your eyes followed the hand to the origin and you were quite surprised to recognize a class mate. Now you were standing, but you pulled the hand way up to fixate your hijab, so it would fall down completely.

“I’m sorry”, was the first thing he said. On his lips was an apologetic smile. “I really didn’t mean to scare you.” He scratched his neck and shrugged.

But you needed a little more explanation than that, so you waited until he added: “It was just… I saw you sitting there and I thought you might need help, and then you run away from me… and then your headscarf became lose.”

You were still pretty aware of your panic just moments before. A shy nod was all you could do right now.

Of course, you knew him and Finn Shelby didn’t seem like a bad person, but there were certain rumors about his family. From far you didn’t recognize him. Just now you remembered his name.

“Wait”, he said and fumbled in the pockets of his jacket. “I still could be of some assistance. Sometimes I still have a safety pin in my pockets.”

With a big and heartwarming smile he pulled out just what you needed now.

He handed it you and you mumbled: “Thank you” while putting the pin in the fabric of your hijab.

Now that everything was back in place, you felt relieved. Maybe the world wasn’t as bad as you always thought. The guy didn’t want to chase you and turned out to be helpful.

“You’re y/n, right?” he asked “I saw you in class”

Then you even smiled a little. “Yes, that sounds possible.”

“And your dad owns the bakery down the street.” He noted with a grin on his freckled face. Even in the little light from the street lamp you could see his freckles. You thought they looked cute on him.

But you hated to be reminded of your parents again. You still were angry at them. So you just answered: “Yes, that might be my dad.”

His eyes lit up and with such a glee he proclaimed: “I love these sweet little treats.”

You raised an eyebrow and laughed. “You mean baklava?”

“Yes!” he replied: “They are so delicious. I could eat em all day.”

He was so sweet. It really warmed your heart. After all and even when your dad wasn’t your favorite person right now, you could eat loads of baklava as well. Your laugher filled the street, but then when you managed to calm down, you agreed: “They are so good.”

“And what’s the book about? The one you have been reading the past few weeks now.” He said and again, you were surprised how fast he could change the topic completely.

Your cheeks burned in shameful heat. When you were reading back in class, you thought nobody would notice you, as you were always so quiet. Now, you knew somebody did notice you and he was also pretty cute.

“It’s just a collection of poems, but they are not written in English…. So you wouldn’t understand them.” You answered while rubbing your hands on your fabric. Somehow you became nervous, but you didn’t know why.

Then he asked: “Do you have a favorite one?”

This question made you think. You knew all of the poems in the book, because you had read it over and over again. To pick just one was pretty hard.

“There is one about flowers in summer.” You mumbled after a while of thinking

Finn nodded as he had thought about that possibility too. “Maybe you can tell me how it goes one time. I’m not much of a reader, but I love to listen.”

You bit your lip and stared at the ground. The thought of reading a poem to someone seemed so intimate to you, but reading it to him would be so sweet as well. Just lying under a tree or sitting on a bench in the sunlight and reciting poems always have been your favorite dream. So you just said: “Maybe”

“But what are you doing here anyway? Isn’t it a little late for a lady to walk around town?”

Again he was right. You shouldn’t be here and you knew it so well. “I got lost on the way home”, you explained and signed.

“Then…”, he suggested: “Let’s bring you home.” But he didn’t move an inch.

With blinking eyes you registered, that he didn’t know where you lived. “Just back to the bakery. My family lives over the shop.”

Now he nodded and held out his hand for you to take. It took you a second, but after some time to consider, you decided to lay your hand into his.

The walk back to the bakery was delightful. You finally got warm with him and asked him some questions as well. He was a lot funnier than you thought, but also very kind. After you had seen his brothers, you were scared of the Shelby’s, but Finn seemed to be alright.

When you arrived at your door, you let go of his hand. Somehow you were afraid that your family could see you and then they would just ask all kinds of wrong questions. “That was fun”, you remarked: “We should do this sometime again.”

With a smile he accepted this invitation. “That would be awesome.”

You went to the door to get inside, when he stopped you one last time. “You still have some dirt on your cheek”, he noted and took his sleeve to brush it of very gently. The fabric tickled your nose, so you laughed… and he had to laugh with you, because your laughter was warm and filled with joy.

“Thank you”, you whispered and realized how close the two of you were all the sudden. It was so easy to diminish the distance between you.  You didn’t thought at all, when you kissed him. It just happened. He was so sweet and caring and so was the kiss.

With the glimpse of a second it was over. His head was all red and you face felt so steamy as well. “Then good night…”, you mumbled: “See you soon.”

You rubbed your face a couple of times, to get rid of the heat that radiated from your cheeks. When you entered the house, you were a little scared your parents might notice it, but they didn’t. They were just so relieved you came back. They though you ran off, but then you told them, the truth… minus Finn Shelby and how he helped you. Your parents wouldn’t understand this.

Somedays after this incident you sent a package to him to say thank once again. But you didn’t know… When he opened the little brown package with the baklava inside, that he was so flushed, even his brothers noticed it and of course they had to mock him, for getting his first girlfriend. Finn was so happy, he didn’t listen to his brothers at all. He just knew the present was yours, because you drew a sun and a flower on the card and not your name, but the message was clear. And the baklavas were the best he has ever had.

[guiltgoreglory]

Heat Waves (Chapter 2: An Ego Check)

(Very) Brief Summary: Reader is a government contractor joining the team in Benghazi.  (Eventual Tanto x Reader) (2626 words)

Chapter 1

Tagging: @abitofpablo​ @kimburgss​ @ceyruh

You watched as the dust clouds trailed behind the buggy. The rest of the trip you all sat in silence, taking in the events that had just occurred. When you saw the base from a distance you decided it was safe to holster your weapons. You wiped the sweat of your palms on your thighs as you willed your heart to slow down, and so it did. The second you felt back at equilibrium, Rone took a quick turn into the base. To no surprise, it was the most conspicuous looking place you could have imagined. You expected better from the CIA. Several armed American guards stood at the gate which was surrounded by obvious cameras. You rolled your eyes knowing that if anyone wanted to target us, it wouldn’t be hard. One guy even wore a New York Yankee’s cap. It’s like they didn’t even try.

“Check the new rides. Gaddafi had a going-out-of-business sale on armored vehicles…” Rone gestured towards the Mercedes amongst several other high-end vehicles. He whistled. Leave it to Rone to keep the tone light. “Max-leveled armored, man. We got a great deal… We stole ‘em.” Rone stared down Jack with the biggest smirk plastered on his face. He seemed extremely proud of himself for that one. You watched as a similar smile tugged at the corners of Jack’s lips. You behaved similarly, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a shitty joke. 

You gathered your things as the car came to a stop. Rone hopped out, throwing the keys to another man wearing a vest, “Sat unattended at the airport.” His stride paused as he watched someone from afar. You followed his gaze until you saw the Chief. This was definitely going to be something, you didn’t know what, but you could feel the subordination getting ready to bubble out of Rone. “Hey, Chief,” Rone called, nonchalantly, almost mockingly. The Chief looked like any middle-aged man who worked in business. Blue blazer, khaki pants, glasses, the whole shebang. His posture screamed superiority complex, you knew from the get-go you wouldn’t get along, not like it mattered anyway.

“I don’t want to hear it, Tyrone.” He called back, shuffling his way back into the building. Rone strutted towards him, duffel in hand. 

“No, no, I understand.” He turned his head for a moment, keeping out of the way of a car

driving past. “I see what you’re going for here,” he called, on the verge of yelling, “Secret spy base with fortified walls, gate cameras,” He fumbled to get his id badge in hand. “and blue-eyed Westerners! walking in and out of this place all day long.” He did a lovely spin for emphasis, pointing towards all the obvious Americans walking around the base. You followed close behind, knowing you were going to need to speak with him as soon as Tyrone was done tearing into him. “But if you want to avoid..” His words were cut off by the Chief slamming the squeaky metal door in your face. His voice dropped a decibel and he spoke, mostly to himself, “That’s so rude”. He placed his phone into the tray mounted on the wall beside the door, before scanning in his card to gain entry. “Can’t believe he just did that to me.” Your heart started to pick up once again. Nothing made you more frustrated than a cocky man being too good to have a goddamn conversation.

The door let out a loud buzz before Rone pushed open the entrance. “Chief, if you want to avoid an international incident,” He continued to track in the Chief’s footsteps, “you send me my guys when I ask for them.” Many of the agents sitting at their computers peeked up to watch the drama unfold. Some took a look at you, the new face, before returning to watch the catfight.

Finally, the man turned to look at Tyrone, squinting in disapproval like a man reprimanding his toddler. “Local faces need to resolve local conflicts, Tyrone.” Aka, your life means little to nothing to me; the incident was just a wrinkle in my daily schedule. He flipped mindlessly through papers within a manilla folder. Wow he’s so important look how busy he is. “We’re guests in this country.” You and Jack came to stand a few feet behind Rone, trying to stay close without poking the bear. 

“We’re unwanted guests, Bob.” Rone rebutted. He’s not wrong. 

“We’re spies, you’re security guards.. Your job is to keep us out of trouble, not get into it yourselves.” God, he’s pretentious. Rone flipped through some files pinned onto a pillar, looking through some photos of notable people of the region. 

“Well help me do my job and give me my guys.” He didn’t bother giving the Chief the privilege of his eye-line as he continued to search through the photos. You heard a buzz, and quickly turned to see the other members of the squad you were now a part of. Perfect timing. You made eye contact with one of them, Chris Paronto. Based on your prior research everybody called him Tanto, the mischievous one. Just then the Chief said some absolute bullshit.

“Here’s what you guys are good at: working out, eating five hot meals a day. What you’re not so good at is doing what you’re told.” God, he was so fucking proud of himself. Look at you little man, showing off your power in front of your team. You let a little of your annoyance slip out. 

“Ironic considering without us, everyone’s a sitting duck.” You whispered softly. The men all turned their heads towards you. Well, I guess now is as good a time as ever to get this over with. 

“Excuse me? And who are you? Some ex-army nobody who can’t let go of the glory of war?” 

Alright, time to rip off the bandaid. You stood a little taller, stepping closer to the Chief, just beside Rone. “Honestly... I’m someone out of your security clearance.” You said assertively. Jack shared a hesitant look with Rone.

“Bullshit.” He turned away from you, readying to remove himself from the conversation. 

“Alright, I think it’s best if we get a phone call over with now.” You dropped your duffel onto the tile, squatting down beside it. The armed men gripped their guns just a little bit tighter. The Chief stood, watching you confused. You unzipped the bag, reaching in to wrap your hands around a satellite phone. You zipped it back up but left it on the ground for now.

“I don’t have time for this.” The Chief began to walk towards his office as you stood, clicking a number on speed-dial. 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The director doesn’t like waiting.” You held the phone to your head, keeping a straight face. That definitely made him pause. He turned back towards you, squinting his little face up. 

“Director of what?” He sighed. 

“Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.” You responded casually as if you were telling him the forecast for the next week. You waited as the phone continued to ring. 

Everyone stood in silence except for one guy. Tanto leaned over to whisper in Boon’s ear. “Who the fuck is she?”

Finally, a voice came over the line. “Y/N.”

“Good morning, Sir. We have arrived at the location.” Everyone had their eyes on you, curiosity getting the best of them.

“Any incidents?”

“One en route to base. Resolved without violence. I’ll have a report to you within the hour.”

“Great.” He took a deep breath and you could hear him adjust in his chair. “I take it you’d like me to speak with Bob.”

“That would be appreciated, Sir.”

“Alright hand me over.” You took steady, calculated steps towards the Chief, holding the phone out for him to take. He gently took it from your hand. His eyes bore holes into the crevices of the tiled floor.

“Hello..” The Chief said tentatively. You stepped back, giving him some room. You crossed your arms across your chest, shrugging in Rone’s direction. You could tell he was living for this. “Yes, Sir…. I understand, Sir. Of course…. Goodbye.” He stood like a dog with his tail between his legs. He stepped back towards you, holding out the phone. You took it gladly with a polite smile. Pressing the phone back to your ear you concluded with a quick farewell before going back to put your phone into the duffel. As you squatted beside it, you looked up towards the Chief. 

“Are we good?” You said. You no longer wanted to squabble and your tone reflected as such. 

“Yes.” He said curtly, returning to his office. The second the door closed, the chatter of the room returned back to normal. You turned back to the men of the team looking at Rone expectantly. 

“Alrighty then.” Rone turned to walk towards their lounge and the guys began to follow. Tanto sucked in his lips, trying to stifle a chuckle. The burly man next to him, Boon, jabbed him in the side before moving towards the room. You waited for Jack, giving him a genuine, small smile before trailing behind. 

“Well, that was fun.” Mark Geist, also known by the team as “Oz”, stated monotonously, walking into the room as he disassembled his rifle. 

“He gets his jollies pushing around alphas because he can.” John Tiegen. Called “Tig”. He’s the brains. The first one to be stationed here. You stood in the corner watching as he placed his things into his cubby. 

“We had this commander back in ranger school, he was a real cockbag…” Creative insult. Tanto began to remove his vest as he narrated on. You figured you’d be here for a minute so you pulled the straps of your cello case off of your shoulders placing it onto the floor, along with your duffel. Now that you were within the compound you took off the hijab, throwing it on top of the luggage. You flipped your head forward shaking out the matted hair before you pulled it into a bun. It was a mess but it did the job.

“So on our last night, me and a buddy, we stole his beret.” He placed his vest down on the table before plopping down onto the worn couch. “Whole barracks chubbed it.”

“Chubbed it?” Boon replied, his tone made you think he really didn’t want to know, whipping out his knife to fidget with.

“Yeah, rubbed our dicks on it.” Tanto replied, the widest smile crossing his face. He looked like the Cheshire cat as he reached for the gaming controller. You coughed, stifling your laugh before your face turned quizzical. He turned back towards you, noticing your reaction before giving you a quick up and down and returning to his game. You sauntered over to Jack to join in the awkwardness of being new. You tuned into Tig as he was beginning to talk work to Rone. He leaned forward over a desk that Rone was sitting at. 

“Leader was a former Gitmo detainee.” They scanned the rugged laptop, you presumed that they were looking for who you’d tangoed with this morning.

“Yeah, those guys usually don’t hold a grudge.” Rone said in his usual sarcastic tone. 

“Hey guys,” Oz’s voice pulled you from your concentration as you turned to face him with a friendly smile. “Mark Geist, Oz.”

“Pleasure.” Jack went to shake his hand and you followed suit.

“Ah guys I’m sorry.” Rone spun on his office chair to face the rest of the crew. “Everybody, this is Jack Silva. It’s our third contract together so he knows the drill. We met training SEALs at Coronado.”

Tanto turned back for a second. “How do you get them to balance that beach ball on their nose?” A few chuckles could be heard from the guys.

“It’s tough.” Jack’s shoulders relaxed slightly, letting himself become more comfortable around his new team. 

“And this” He gestured his hand towards you. “is Y/N. She’s uhh..” He paused for a split second, trying to find the right word to describe you. “black-ops and apparently has the government at her fingertips so she’ll probably be of use.” You smirked, nodding your head towards the guys. Rone rose from his spot, spreading his arms across the room. “So we got three ex-Marines here and one ex-Army retard who likes to rub his dick on things.” Tanto stood proudly facing you two. 

“Kris Paronto. Call me Tanto.” You both shook his hand. You found Tanto’s demeanor amusing, and much to your dismay, his confidence was undeniably attractive. Despite the tall crowd, he still somehow towered above them. You shared eye contact for a brief moment before turning towards Tig. Although he felt easy to get along with, you hoped his casual demeanor didn’t affect his work. In your experience, the joker usually got people killed. Despite this, what you had researched, he seemed to be doing alright so far. 

“Hey. I’m Tig.” He waved towards you two.

“Tig’s been here the longest, so he’ll get you up to speed on the area,” Rone said, stabbing a red pin into a map. Looking in more detail you noticed it was the location of your incident. “This is Boon. Scout Sniper, Zen Master, Holder of Tanto’s leash.” He pointed to the man sitting in the sturdy armchair. 

He looked up from his lap. “Welcome to Club Med.”

“It hasn’t rained since June. It’s not gonna rain again until September.” He walked right up to you two strolling past slowly. “You two will be double-bunked. Not me, because I’m in charge. Gym sucks,” damn “food’s actually good.” Lose, win. 

Tig walked to the center of the room, a few feet from the three of you. “Base Chief is kinda a tool, but who knows, maybe now that you’re here he’ll be moderately tolerable.” 

You shrugged. “No promises but if he gets too snippy I’ll whip out the phone again.” 

“Maybe he just needs a new hat” Jack quipped. Tanto looked up from the TV to point appreciatively at Jack. 

“Don’t encourage him,” Rone said as if talking about his puppy.

“Come on. He’s just a guy with a job to do.”Oz said. Based on the dynamic he was the dad of the group. Honest, serious, tough-love type of guy. Makes sense given he’s the sniper.  “He’s playing his string out, but if you talk to him, Bob did some shit back in the day.” You’d heard it a million times, some badass joins the CIA works his way up until he’s practically just a desk jockey with a power problem. Didn’t gain him any sympathy from you.

“Alright, Jack, Y/N, this is the whiteboard that’s gonna run your life for the next sixty days.” You looked over the various points of the board as Jack made his way towards the couch. Given the limited space you preferred standing just behind, leaning your hip against the back. “I want you to check it every hour cause last-minute moves pop up every minute, such as... where shotgunning it in three hours.” Everyone in the room except you, Jack, and Rone let out an audible groan of annoyance. Tanto slapped his controller onto his lap, looking up to the ceiling. Before concentrating back on the game, he looked at you. You took this opportunity to raise an eyebrow in his direction given his childlike reaction to the news. He responded with a strong but blank stare. You rolled your eyes slightly, breaking eye contact to pay attention to Rone. You were used to being dispatched on the drop of the hat, acclimating to the schedule here probably wouldn’t be too much of a pain.

“Three hours. I’ll let you know when I’m briefed.”

[brianamorganbooks]

Even for an all-girls boarding school, the first day of classes feels normal. I wake up a little before my alarm, anxiety roiling in my gut. No way can I go back to sleep. Waking up early turns out to be an unexpected blessing, though, as a knock sounds at the door. I glance over to the other bed, but Charlie isn’t there.

I yawn and manage to roll out of bed. When I answer the door, a security guard informs me that I have two visitors, but I’m not expecting anyone. To my surprise, two movers, both men, stand in the hallway. The security guard supervises as they haul two giant trunks into the dorm room, setting them down at the foot of Charlie’s bed.

“Here you go, Miss Masters,” one of them says to me.

With Charlie missing, it looks like I’m living in this room alone. I kind of feel like I am. I’m not so sure that Charlie unpacking will change that.

“I’m not her,” I say. “I don’t know where she is.”

The first mover grunts. “We need someone to sign for this. Do you think you can do that?”

I shrug. “Yeah, I’ll do it.”

The second mover passes me a tablet, and I scrawl my signature on the screen. He hands the tablet to his colleague and nods to the trunks. “Clothes and everything. Mr. and Mrs. Masters said if she’s missing anything, just let them know.”

That must mean they’re not coming to help her move in. As awful as she is to me, I feel a pang of pity. I may not be on the best terms with my parents right now, but at least they cared enough to make sure I’m settled.

The first mover nods. “Well, have a nice day.”

“You, too,” I answer.

Without another word, they shuffle off, talking loudly down the hall. The security nods and escorts them out.

Once they’re gone and I’ve closed the door behind them, I look over at the giant trunks—large, ornate, and ancient-looking—and wonder what to do. Charlie isn’t here to unpack them herself, and I wouldn’t dream of helping. She’d probably kill me for it.

The movers also brought an easel, a plastic storage tub labeled PAINTS AND ART SUPPLIES, and a bucket full of paintbrushes. Charlie’s an artist? Now the Monet makes more sense.

I finish my routine without touching her stuff, somewhat surprised when she doesn’t show up. My uniform is stiff and scratchy, but it doesn’t look too hideous. The Livingston standard is a red-and-gold pleated skirt, white dress shirt, red tie, and tan blazer with the Livingston crest emblazoned on the chest. As far as uniforms go, it could be so much worse. Still, my knee-high red socks and low-heeled shoes make me feel like a Catholic schoolgirl.

I sit alone at breakfast, fighting the urge to dump my tray and crawl back to my dorm room. I nurse my glass of orange juice like it’s something stronger and push my scrambled eggs around my plate with my fork.

I knew it would be hard for me to make friends here, but so far, I haven’t met a single person who isn’t in a clique. After my weird encounter with Charlie and the other girls in the bathroom, I’m less sure that was a fluke and surer that it’s par for the course. My mom thinks opening up is the key to getting closer to people, but how can I open up to anyone if I can’t get them to look at me, let alone maintain a conversation?

Not far away, Charlie, June, Billie, and Ronnie all sit together, eating and laughing. Some girls in hijabs sit at the table closest to me, also laughing. A squeal of delight cuts through the air, and I turn to see a group of black girls reenact a story. Nearby, more girls trade food items with each other.

I would give anything to know what that inclusion feels like.

After halfheartedly pushing my eggs around on my plate until my phone reminds me it’s time for class, I dump the content of my tray in the trash and sling my bag over my shoulder. Charlie and her gang are still seated, still laughing. I don’t want to bother them.

Classes are predictably boring. Thankfully, because this isn’t a movie, none of the teachers single me out for an introduction as a transfer student. None of the students pay me much attention either. I’m getting used to being ignored.

By the time my English class rolls around, I’m beyond grateful to see two familiar faces—Ronnie and Billie. Unlike June, however, they don’t seem keen on making me feel included. They don’t even acknowledge me as I slide into the desk adjacent to Ronnie’s.

“Hey,” I try.

“Hello,” Billie says.

Ronnie takes a brush out of her purse and runs it through her hair without saying a word. She digs out an eyeshadow palette and a rainbow-handled makeup brush.

Billie takes out her notebook, turns to a new page, and scribbles something across the top of it. Hand-lettering, it looks like. Fancy penmanship stuff. I bet she keeps a bullet journal.

“Have you had this teacher before?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Ronnie says. She doesn’t elaborate.

“Not me,” Billie says. “Doesn’t matter. Heard he’s easy, anyway. Also, it’s English, which we all happen to speak.”

This is probably the most they’ve ever spoken to me, and I’m not sure how to keep them talking. In my earlier classes, I didn’t dare try to even speak to anyone. My nerves got the best of me. Plus, I was too busy making sure I was in the right classroom. This school is too big.

I lean forward in my seat. “I like your glasses, Billie.”

“Thanks, Daisy.”

“It’s Rose.”

She flicks her gaze toward me. “Are you certain?”

“Positive.”

She presses her lips together. “You’re settled in with Charlie then?”

The change in topic pricks my ears. “She say something bad?”

“Not in so many words.”

I look to Ronnie, hoping for some kind of tell. She pulls old receipts and tubes of lipstick out of her purse.

“Charlie’s nice,” I say, and then feel like a giant idiot. Charlie isn’t nice. Anyone can see that, surely even her friends.

Billie quirks an eyebrow. “Is she though?”

“I… no, I guess not.”

I swear to God she smiles. “Haven’t lived with her long and you already get the gist. She’s a right terror. You’re in our thoughts.”

“I’d rather live outside than bunk with her,” says Ronnie. “You’re stronger than I am.”

“Well, so far so good.” I mirror Billie’s smile, hoping I look more comfortable than I feel.

The teacher, a man named Mr. Preston, enters the room and calls us to attention. I spend all of class trying not to look too eager, either to impress the teacher or for friendship, even though I’m starving for both. Once class ends, Billie and Ronnie get up. I start to follow them out when the teacher pulls me aside.

Billie and Ronnie either don’t notice, or they don’t care. I’m not sure which is worse.

“Uh… Rosemary, is it?” Mr. Preston begins. I can already tell from his tone of voice that this won’t be a fun conversation.

“Rose,” I say.

He falters, then forgoes my first name altogether. “Miss Abbott, I wanted to let you know… well, given what happened at your last school…”

Wait, he knows about that? My face catches fire. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not discuss that.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t. I just wanted you to know, I’m happily married. And, if you want to make a good grade in this class, you’ll have to work hard, like everyone else. Any… extra credit will be announced in advance and will be open to everyone. During school hours.”

My whole body burns. “Excuse me?”

“I won’t repeat myself. Do you understand?”

All I want is for the ground to open up and eat me. “Y-yes, sir.”

“Excellent. Have a good rest of your day.”

How can I do that, though, when my teacher insinuated that what happened with Nathan is my fault? That I’m a predatory temptress who lured someone saintly off the straight and narrow?

The rest of my day follows a similar pattern. I have no classes with the other girls, save Charlie in my history class. Relief washes over me when I realize that none of them see the way the teachers here treat me. If it’s any consolation, at least none of the faculty single me out during class.

I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around the idea that news of what happened has traveled over here. Sure, what happened in Salem was local news, but I didn’t think it made it all the way out here. Clearly, I was wrong.

Maybe the faculty have all seen my file.

After my classes, I head back to my dorm room. I pray Charlie isn’t there, but even if she is, it’s not like she’ll talk to me.

Meyer Hall sits sad and empty. Most of the other students must be out in classes, at the library, or hanging with their friends. I get on the elevator and head up to my floor without running into anyone else. While I fish my keys out of my purse, I consider calling my parents. It’s been less than two days, and while they’re not exactly thrilled to speak to me, at least it might be nice to hear a familiar voice.

Then again, if I call them now, it will feel like giving up. Like I’m a scared little girl who still needs her mommy and daddy. I’m not sure I’m ready to give up yet.

When I open the door to my room, Charlie is sitting on her bed. Ronnie, Billie, and June are sitting on mine. Their heads all snap up as they notice me. It might be my imagination, but I swear they all frown.

Ronnie snatches something out of Billie’s hand and holds it to her chest, hidden from me. “What is your roommate doing back here?”

“I don’t know. I thought she was in classes all day.” Charlie shoots me a look, like it’s somehow my fault that she hasn’t memorized my schedule. “Rose, do you mind? We’re in the middle of something.”

It’s the first time she’s gotten my name right, let alone tried to display any semblance of manners toward me, but anger heats my blood. “It’s my room, too. I’m staying.”

Charlie’s eyes narrow. “It’ll just take a second.”

Is she serious? Are they all so self-absorbed they think I’m not offended? This is my room as much as hers. She has no right to kick me out.

I square my shoulders. “I’m taking a nap.”

Ronnie mutters something under her breath. Billie titters. I probably don’t want to know what she said, especially as June won’t look at me or her—or anyone, for that matter. Ronnie is still holding whatever it is tight against her blazer, hidden from sight. What could it be?

I keep my eyes locked on Charlie’s, daring her to try again. Maybe it’s not wise to cross her but they’ve all treated me like shit so far and I just want to crawl under the covers and forget about the day.

Charlie blinks. Ronnie looks to her for guidance, as do the others.

“Fine,” Charlie spits. “Guess we’ll go somewhere else.”

She gestures toward the other girls. Ronnie rolls her eyes, tucks the object she’s been holding into her purse, and heads for the door. June and Billie follow. June shoots me a look so warm, it could almost be sympathetic. Even her sunflower earrings seem to smile at me. Charlie gets up from the bed and glares.

I try my best to ignore her, but she’s not leaving until she says her piece. “What is it?”

“Watch yourself.”

“What?”

From the open doorway, Billie laughs again. Charlie shoots her a look, then returns her attention to me. “You need to work on your attitude.”

Jesus. “You’re the one with the attitude here.”

She clenches her jaw, but she doesn’t say anything else. Instead, she grabs her purse and keys and heads out into the hallway. When the door slams behind her, it rattles the hinges.

I sink down on my bed and flop onto my back, staring up at the ceiling once more. Maybe I’ll never find my place here.

I roll onto my side and stare at Charlie’s bed. It’s unmade, the comforter rumpled from where Charlie sat on it. Her belongings haven’t moved since the movers brought them this morning. Maybe she’s not unpacked yet as some form of protest. Though I don’t know her well, I can see her doing that.

Maybe she hates her parents as much as she hates me.

Keys jangle in the lock, and I sit bolt upright. Charlie rushes in, flushed and anxious. Speak of the devil.

“Forget something?”

“My phone.” She grabs it from her nightstand, pausing to look at the unpacked trunks. “You didn’t touch them, did you?”

If I weren’t so tired, I’d be offended. “Why would I do that?”

“Why would you touch my vial?” Charlie counters.

I bristle but don’t take the bait. I’m too tired to start any more fights with her. One of us needs to be the bigger person.

Charlie checks her latest-model phone, frowns down at something on the screen, and types something out. She mutters a curse. “Gods, I hate boys. They’re so stupid sometimes.”

Surely, she’s talking to herself, right? She can’t possibly be trying to strike up a conversation with me.

I don’t respond. After a second, her gaze flashes toward me, like she’s only just registered she said something to me, someone she hates.

“I’m sorry about your vial,” I say. “I didn’t mean—”

“Charlie!” Billie shouts from the hall.

“I’ll buy you a new one,” I continue.

“Don’t worry about it.” Charlie tucks the phone into her pocket and heads for the door. “Thank you.”

Once the door closes, I lie back on the bed. Despite the shitty day I’ve had, I feel a tinge of hope. Maybe Charlie and her friends will come around. If not, I can reach out to other girls, right?

tag list (let me know if you’d like to me removed/added): @lady-redshield-writes @smokescreens-n-otherillusions @cogwrites @nicholewrites @fireflys-locket

[actualmuslimwomen]

CHAPTER 4

ANALYSIS OF THE LIFE CONDITIONS AND ISSUES OF MUSLIM STUDENTS

    It must be rather hard for the students who are studying abroad to live away from their family while having to survive and be successful in their study at the same time. Pressures come from all directions and their success depends on how strong they are to overcome obstacles in their life. The stories of their life in Japan will be shown below.

4.1. Islam as a faith

    In the previous chapter, I have described two Japanese women who had converted to Islam and wore hijab as one of the ways of showing their faith. But, here in this chapter, I will point out two students who admitted that they did not wear the hijab despite of being a Muslim. The reasons are related to their interesting backgrounds. 

    Fadiya is a Bangladeshi and a born-Muslim. According to the Pew Research Center, Bangladesh is currently the fourth country in the world with the largest number of Muslims after India as the third ("Mapping the Global Muslim Population", Pew Research Center, www.pewforum.org/2009/10/07/mapping-the-global-muslim-population/. Accessed 28 December 2017). This means that Fadiya was born in a Muslim-majority country. Her family members are all Muslims and her mother habitually wears hijab, but Fadiya does not wear one. Fadiya argues that it is not mandatory to wear hijab for Muslim women in Bangladesh and there is no government's regulation for Muslim women to wear hijab, either. Fadiya continues her argument that it all depends on the individual and the family culture. Fadiya's mother always encouraged her to wear hijab, but she never actually said that it was a must for Fadiya to wear hijab. Because her mother never forced her, Fadiya decided not to wear hijab. Nevertheless, she still observes other Islamic law related to Muslim obligations such as performing prayer and fasting. 

    Iesha has a different story on her choice in Islam and, to be honest, it is quite a startling story. Iesha came from Turkey, which is considered as the eighth country in the world with the largest number of Muslims. But, even though Turkey is considered as a country with a large number of Muslims, not everyone practices the faith so well. That is also the case with Iesha's family. Iesha's mother does not wear hijab. She performs prayer but only sometimes practices fasting. Though Iesha's mother does not wear hijab, she knows that she ought not to wear clothes that are too vulgar, so she wears clothes that rather covers her body. Iesha followed her mother as a role model, by just wearing casual clothes and not wearing hijab. One of the other reasons Iesha decided not to wear hijab was that there are situations in Turkey that forces women in headscarves to wear wig or take off their headscarves completely. By wearing wigs, they comply with the state regulations and try to fit in with the definition of the Modern Turkish women, at least in appearance. In turn, they were given access to education and workplace (Kavakci, 2010: 96). So, instead of forcing herself to wear hijab, Iesha chose not to wear one at all.

    Now let us examine the cases of Eneng from Indonesia, Aishah from Malaysia and Tedha from Turkey. These girls were raised in an environment where they were taught the law of Islam well and their awareness of the duties as Muslim women was also grown. Although Aishah and Tedha did not clarify about how they decided to wear hijab at the beginning, they indicated that they already had worn hijab since they were younger (Tedha specifically told that she had started wearing hijab since she was fifteen years old). They were already used to wearing one and their behaviors did not change even after they came to live in Japan. Eneng told that she had started wearing hijab since her high school days. It was her mother who first encouraged her to wear one. Eneng's mother already wore hijab and she wanted her daughter to understand that it was about the time for her to wear hijab to fulfill one of the Islamic laws. 

    As far as I could understand, the reason for someone to decide something important is often due to a few simple keywords that came out of other people's statements or attitudes, especially those of parents. Fadiya interpreted her mother's statement and she decided not to wear hijab. Iesha saw her mother and thought of her mother as a role model and that made her not wear hijab just as her mother. This author too, decided to wear hijab because of my mother's statement. When my aunt decided that it was free for me to wear hijab or not during the wedding, to my surprise, my mother stated the otherwise. Since she wanted everyone to be uniformed whereas I was the only one who was not wearing hijab, she wanted me to wear hijab, too. It was only because of this kind of trifle matter shown by her attitude that I felt encouraged to make a big decision. 

    This section has shown some of the histories of the students regarding their religious faith. The students discussed above grew in an Islamic environment and they were all given the knowledge of Islamic law in their family. Despite of being so, they all have their own ways in practicing their faith. For them, Islam is fascinating yet complex religion and each individual chose the best way for them in practicing Islam in their daily life. How they live their daily life will be analyzed in the next section. 

4.2. Activities as a Muslim Student

    Since they came all the way to Japan, these Muslim students have also been involved in many activities in their daily life other than studying for the main purpose. For some of them, to have other activities else than just studying has really been precious, while not so for the others. 

    Iesha came to the University of Shizuoka as an Exchange Student and has been much involved in several other activities, inside or even outside of the campus. As a foreign student, Iesha participates in the International Friendship Community at the university. In that community, she would meet other foreign students too, and enjoy communication and sociality with the Japanese students. They sometimes hold events for international cultural exchange. Outside of the university, Iesha participated in many English Clubs. She often participates in international cultural exchange meetings after finding them out through Facebook. Iesha admits that she really enjoys this kind of events, because people would learn English and she would learn Japanese at the same time and both would learn each other's culture more deeply. Iesha also says that she is doing arubaito (part-time job) as an English conversation teacher. So, basically Iesha is involved in activities that she has always been interested in and she is really interested in meeting new people to exchange ideas. By the way, Aishah, Eneng and Tedha also participate in the same International Friendship Community because all of them are studying at the same university. Only Fadiya does not join this community because she only wishes to focus on studying according to her. In case that she is to participate in other activities, those are the kind of activities that she attends once or twice a month. She admits that she has an English Language Club to attend sometimes if her dormitory friends happen to gather. But, she spends most of her time at her research room.

    Let us go to the next case of Tedha. She participated in the Photography Club during the first semester of the University of Shizuoka, but it did not last long because she could not bear the heat of summer while they often had to go out to look for photo objects. Although it did not go well, Tedha kept trying to do other activities. She was actually doing arubaito as an English teacher, just like Iesha was. Tedha taught English to some Japanese people who were mostly employees and then taught them English through practical conversation. The English Conversation lessons are usually held at coffee shops, which the students had chosen. To correspond to these students’ activities, this author also had the experience of joining the activities of the International Friendship Community. The community had a schedule once a week for everyone to gather during the lunchtime. On Wednesday lunchtime, they would have small conversations among the foreign and the Japanese students. Before the lunchtime is over, the community's leader proposes a discussion and voting session for their next events. The events are various. It could be a field trip, cooking party and even Christmas party. This author only participated in some of the events that seemed interesting like the field trip, because it was necessary for me to go somewhere that seemed unreachable by myself. I quitted the IFC after the second semester set in because I was starting to be very busy with my classes.

    Different people might have had different attitudes. Eneng was in the same situation as this author, being busy in studying because Eneng and the author were both pursuing the Graduate Degree Program. Despite of her being busy, Eneng actually managed to participate in many activities inside and outside of the campus. She took part in the International Friendship Community too, although she only attended the big events without attending the weekly lunchtime gathering. Outside of the university, Eneng was engaged in two functions, namely, the Shizuoka Muslim Association, which was responsible for connecting the Muslim students at the University of Shizuoka and other Muslims who live especially in Shizuoka City, and Shinzen Taishi, which focused on introducing Indonesian cultures to the Japanese at schools. She also joined many study meetings with people from small and medium enterprises. Eneng who came for studying in Japan seemed to have taken a good chance in spreading her wings to get to know people better and get more knowledge. She considers that meeting people is precious for her, especially when she meets people that are admirable for her. Compared to the other students, Eneng was quite active in these organizational activities. Sometimes she would not only introduce Indonesian cultures, but also introduce Islam to the Japanese. She also often participates in events that the Shizuoka Muslim Association holds, such as in Ramadan. There is the breaking fasting event that gathers Muslims and any other Japanese who are interested from all over Shizuoka. This author attended this breaking fasting event once and it was pretty amazing with a great number of non-Muslim Japanese who were interested in and respecting the religious event by it themselves. 

    Other than participating in activities like those mentioned, Eneng also had arubaito. During her earlier years in the university, she was already doing arubaito in a hospital where she was mostly assisting the nurses to clean the surgery rooms after surgeries. But when she entered the second year of Graduate Degree Program, she had a different arubaito in a factory, packing pork meats into boxes. In Islam, it is not allowed to consume pork and any derivative of it. As mentioned in the Holy Quran, "He has only forbidden to you dead animals, blood, the flesh of swine, and that which has been dedicated to other than Allah. But whoever is forced [by necessity], neither desiring [it] nor transgressing [its limit], there is no sin upon him. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." (Al-Baqara: 173) Therefore, Eneng worked in a factory, packing meat, but she did not consume it, so it was still permissible. This author was also in the same situation as Eneng. I was working in a tonkatsuya restaurant (restaurant specialized in pork cutlets) and the main tasks were to cook and serve the pork cutlets. But, of course, the author had no single desire to consume pork and everyone in the restaurant understood my choice.

    To summarize, study is definitely the main reason these students came to Japan. Aside from studying, these students also participate in several community activities and services. As Muslims, even if they have to practice one of their duties according to the Islamic law in between their activities, they never stop doing their works. Practicing the religious faith and doing the secular activities can sometimes be contradictive, but there is always a solution to let both practices to be in accordance. These girls also try to balance their personal issues related to their faith. The next section will point those out. 

4.3. Personal Issues

    As the five students all came from a Muslim majority country, they would have had concerns before they came to Japan. Those concerns could be anything from how to get halal food, where to perform prayer and fasting, how to communicate with the local society, and even about experiencing of living alone.

    Aishah was quite eager to tell about her experience. After she graduated from the high school, she decided to take a chance of studying in Japan through scholarship. She then took the test and preparation lesson for the scholarship and then she was chosen. Aishah admitted that she had been concerned about many things before coming to Japan, because she had never experienced living abroad. She just imagined how the situation in Japan would be. She was also concerned about food and friends, because for the first time in her life she was going to live alone in Japan, away from her family. As a child who was still young and had been living with her family all of the time and suddenly had to stay separated from the family for four years, it was a big concern for Aishah. She was very careful in making preparations to go to Japan. Aishah said that she had brought food, medicines and her hijab collections to Japan. When Aishah arrived in Japan, half of the predictions that she made actually came true. She thought that it would be hard to get halal food in Japan and it turned out that the only place she could get halal product near her area was the Gyomu Supa (supermarket for business retail). Since then, she always bought halal chicken meat and other halal products that she could get there. She also brought medicines and vitamins from her home country because she was not sure whether the medicines in Japan were safe to be consumed or not. Aishah's first experience in living abroad had made her do something that she was not previously used to. That was cooking. Aishah told that she could not cook, but somehow her survival instinct worked and she had to prepare her own meal every day, especially since she was living by herself. In fact, she told that she would not mind eating chicken every day because that was the only halal meat that she could obtain and also because she did not like seafood.

    The other girls also had issues with halal food and each of them got different ways to solve their halal food issues. Fadiya explained that, although she sometimes went out eating noodles or vegetables, she also often cooked by herself at her dormitory. She also went to the Gyomu Supa to buy halal meat and some seasonings. Iesha and Tedha, who were living together as roommates, also often shopped at the Gyomu Supa. Meanwhile, Eneng had more options to shop for halal meat. She would sometimes shop at the Gyomu Supa too, but she also liked to buy halal meat from other Muslim women. From one of the women she knew at the Shizuoka Muslim Association, she could order halal beef, sausages, minced-meat, and even meat-balls. She only needed place an order through a private messenger and, when the products arrived, Eneng would pick up the ordered goods at the Musalla, the prayer room that functions as the official place for the Shizuoka Muslim Association. Looking at this, this author sometimes asked Eneng for her help to order meat for myself. Actually, if Eneng had not told me that ordering halal meat was this easy, I would probably have only shopped at the Gyomu Supa or just eaten fish and vegetables every day. So, it was quite helpful for the author, too. 

    Basically, trying to survive in Japan is easy, provided that information is passed on correctly. As an example, Fadiya told that there were other Bangladeshi students who were studying in Shizuoka and they were all connected through a social media. Through this social media, they were sharing information about obtaining halal food or simply just connecting with other Bangladeshi Muslims. Fadiya also told that she could not speak Japanese and therefore often asked her friends to translate and explain for her, so she still should buy the items that she needed even though she could not read the kanji. 

    Aishah also explained that she connected herself with other Malaysian students through an online application called Hangout. Aishah was affiliated with a Malaysian Muslim Community through this application. She got information on halal food and could chat with other Malaysian Muslims. Besides chatting with people online, Aishah also said that she sometimes saw some of her Malaysian friends in Shizuoka and they often hung out together by playing bowling, going to the beach, watching movies and many others. It was just because Aishah did not want to feel lonely. While Iesha and Tedha were relying on each other because they were roommates, Eneng was always asking for her senpai's (senior) advices before she got everything by herself. Remembering that she used to be unable to speak Japanese so well like now, she often asked her senpai to help her a lot in many things. She was blessed with good senpai, because her senpai taught her where to pray in public places, for example, by pointing to the fitting room or the stairs space near an emergency exit. Or her senpai would take her to the restaurants that were safe for Muslims to eat at in Shizuoka. 

    This author also had been in almost the same situation as these students. I relied on my senpai who was my colleague back in Indonesia and also she always taught me what was to be avoided and what was to be acquired. What I felt really important was when I experienced shopping and talking at the customer service or even answering a phone call or making a taxi order. It was precious to understand these know-hows and, of course, to practice relying on self. 

    Another personal issue that is important is probably for Eneng and Fadiya, because they are already married, whereas their husbands are away from them. If the other girls probably sometimes called their families and told how they missed the people at home, Eneng and Fadiya missed their husbands. Living separated from their husband is sometimes hard and it would be nice to have supports from them most of the time, but they have to hold themselves for now only by calling their partners whenever they have the time. Eneng probably has to wait until she graduates to see her husband again, but Fadiya had her husband once come to visit her in Shizuoka and that might have made her a little bit stronger than Eneng. 

    From the data presented above, it can be concluded that, in fulfilling their daily meals, these students need to get products that are allowed in the Islamic law. The needed goods are not always easy to get, but they try their best to acquire themselves. Since most of them are living alone, however, sometimes they miss their family members and need friends. They are all fighting their loneliness and difficulties to survive. In the next section, they will tell stories about some merits and demerits living in their home country and abroad. 

4.4. Home country versus abroad

    In this section, there are some interesting stories to be unfolded. Each of the students tells how it is different to live in Japan in comparison with their living experience in their home country.

    Aishah told her story about performing prayer. Unlike in Malaysia, it was not always easy to pray in public places in Japan. When Aishah went to the university, she would go to the International Meeting Room that was meant for foreign students to hang out with the Japanese students, and also performed her prayer there. But if Aishah went out of the campus, she would have to find a secluded place to pray, such as the fitting room at shopping malls, stairs space near emergency exits or even beside a car in a parking lot. If Aishah were not careful, she would have been told to leave or warned. But, that never happened. Anyway, in Malaysia, the prayer rooms were abundant and provided everywhere. Even if people go along the highway, they will see a rest area with prayer rooms, or even when people go to stations, they can easily find prayer rooms as well. In Indonesia, the prayer rooms were provided everywhere as long as people wish so. Even at schools, because the Islamic lesson is included in the curriculum, having a prayer room is a must. Even the Christian or Catholic Schools had their own chapel inside the school. For the girls who all came from Muslim countries, mosques must have been everywhere to be found, unlike in Shizuoka. 

    Speaking about prayer, the author found out that they all had different styles in performing prayer. The Turkish and the Malaysian students stated that, when they were performing prayer, they only needed to wear clean clothes or the clothes that they were wearing if they were traveling. For the Bangladeshi student, it did not matter whether she wore short-sleeved shirt but, as long as she covered her head using long scarf, she could already perform prayer. The Indonesian students present the most unique case of all. It was a characteristic for Indonesians to wear abaya or mukena (both were dresses for performing prayer) to pray. This probably was a tradition in order to be more careful in performing prayer, because it was meant to present oneself to Allah with a cleaner and holier outfit. Besides the prayer outfit, there were also differences in the hijabs that the students wore. Tedha and Aishah liked to wear hijab with no pattern and the colors were usually darker. Meanwhile, Eneng liked to wear hijab with patterns although sometimes she wore the plain ones. For Eneng, it was important to match her hijab with her outfit. This author was different from Eneng, although both came from the same country, and I like to wear no pattern hijab and very rarely wear hijab with patterns. Eneng and I both like to wear colorful hijab, although I prefer more dominant bright colors. Compared to Tedha and Aishah, those are totally different choices. 

    The next story comes from Iesha. As previously mentioned in 4.1. about her faith, actually in Turkey, many people only put Islam on their identity cards but do not practice Islam completely. Her father is one of the examples and that is probably why her knowledge about Islam is lacking. Above all, in Turkey, discrimination occurs frequently. Tedha agreed this statement, too. Tedha experienced being stared in the street with disturbing eyes, and they just seemed to be impolite for Tedha. Regardless of whether they are in a Muslim country or in their home country, they are still stared disturbingly. While they are in Japan, they would sometimes be stared, but those might be curious stares and eventually the staring people would approach them and greet them. But this might not work for all foreigners, because this author had some experiences where I was stared by kids, and they were looking at me with a worried face. A kid even jumped at once when he saw me walking into a shop wearing a cap and a mask. Then he ran toward his mother but his mother spoke nothing. Some people are not yet used to seeing people with hijab, but for parents, at least they could have told their children that women wearing hijab were not bad people.

    One of the best things that could happen to a Muslim when Ramadan already finishes is to enjoy the Eid-al Fitri. In Indonesia, it is called Lebaran, a festival to celebrate finishing Ramadan for a whole month. There is another celebration, Eid-al Adha, the moment to sacrifice animals to show the believers' faithfulness to Allah. In those two traditions, it is common that people pray together in a mosque and, after the prayer is finished, everyone would gather and have a meal together. In Japan, unless somebody had a wide space to accommodate a lot of people, it is impossible to hold this event. Another thing is about sacrificing animal. In Japan, it is not allowed to slaughter an animal at places other than what has been designated so by the authorities. In Indonesia, regarding the Eid-al Adha, digging a hole at someone's lawn by the owner's permission, of course, or at a mosque's lawn is common. It is the whole process from praying together, slaughtering the animal, preparing the meat and having a meal together up to giving away the meat to those who need it, that is called iman (devout). 

    Lastly, there is another story from Fadiya regarding a Bangladeshi acquaintance that had passed away in Shizuoka. The deceased was a woman, but during the burial ceremony, no women were allowed to come. Only men were allowed to perform the prayer for the deceased in front of the body and only the men were allowed to enter near the grave. Fadiya had her husband to attend this burial ceremony at that time. This burial ceremony tradition was totally different from the Indonesian tradition. In Indonesia, before burying the deceased body, both men and women would gather and pray in front of the body. After the family agreed on the time for burial, some men and women, including the family, would also come to the burial ceremony and give the last prayer. 

    With all of the differences in culture and tradition, it seems that there are many efforts done to adjust themselves with the Japanese society. The Muslim students mentioned in this section arrived in Japan with the history of their home countries on their back. Some had bitter experiences in their home country, but, on the other hand, they felt accepted warmly in Japan. Some even wished the tradition that they had back in their home country could be celebrated in Japan, too. Although some of these students experienced being prejudiced, those were considered as small obstacles, considering their success of survival in Japan. In summary, despite of Japan being a non-Muslim country, they mostly keep trust and hope in Japan as a country that can accept diversities.

[littleoldrachel]

Fifth chapter is up! Read it here on ao3, or here on ff.net, or under the cut.

***Shoutout to a real life angel @mysticalightwood for sending me the loveliest message about this lil thing and making a rubbish day so much better <3***

100 Ways to Say I Love You

Summary: In which actions speak louder than words, Sirius and Remus sort of fall in to a relationship, and even though neither of them have said those three all-important words, they both know it anyway.Or: 100 Ways to Say I Love You by Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

Previous |  chapter 5/100 - “I’ll walk you home.” | Next

Based on this post by p0ck3tf0x

Tw for mentions of anxiety, mentions of depression, some real intense self-hate, a blink and you'll miss it reference to past self harm, ANGST.

Remus plops himself down in to an armchair, hissing slightly as his muscles shriek in protest. Alice grimaces sympathetically from where she’s curled in her own squishy chair, and Lily drops in to the final seat with a sigh.

She raises her mug of almond-milk hot chocolate, and clinks it against the others’. “The three spoonies ride again!” Alice lets out a little whoop, jingling her silver ‘I’m epileptic!’ bracelet, and Remus smiles behind his cup, unable to match their enthusiasm, because his stomach is killing him. (His whole body is tender and fiery just beneath his skin, but the cramps are fierce and relentless. He surreptitiously cradles his hot mug against his belly; the heat that seeps through his shirt helps a little, but not enough. The chatter and buzz of the café are doing nothing to help his headache either, and he wants nothing more than to crawl in to his bed with a hot water bottle and stay there for the foreseeable future).

“How are y’all?” Lily asks, taking a huge bite of her Danish, and groaning around the mouthful. “This is fucking delicious.”

Alice shrugs a little. “Not terrible, الحمد الله. Haven’t tranced in like, a month?”

“That’s great,” murmurs Remus. “Did you get your meds adjusted?”

“Yeah, they’re better now, I’m less sleepy all the time. The weight gain’s a pain, but,” she pulls a face. “Every time I complain about it in front of my parents, I’m told that I should be grateful that they can even treat it, blah blah blah.”

Lily scoffs. “Spoken like a true Able.”

Alice makes a noise of agreement in her throat. “Anyway. How about you, Lils?”

Lily pulls a face, cramming the last of the pastry in to her mouth. “Had a bit of a flare last week. Also, J made his own ice cream – what a nerd, can you believe he makes his own? – and obviously, I couldn’t resist, and my UC did not appreciate that at all. But this week: so far, so good.”

“It’s only Monday,” Remus points out.

“And I am trying very hard to be positive. What’s gotten in to you, Mr Grumpy Guts?” Lily retorts.

Remus flushes a little guiltily (selfish, selfish, selfish). “Sorry… I’ve had this stomach ache for like four days, and everything hurts. I just – sorry.”

“Oh no, habibi, don’t do that,” Alice shakes her head, and Remus is momentarily distracted by the way her pink, glittery hijab sparkles under the warm, café lighting. “You’re absolutely allowed to be grumpy. Anyone would be.”

Lily nods in agreement. “We don’t have to apologise for our illnesses making us moody here, remember?” She stretches out a hand to Remus, and he smiles back at her, squeezing his fingers. “There’s something else the matter though,” she says, and her eyes narrow as she scrutinises him. “You look awful. And not in an I-can’t-stand-up-straight-and-shower-because-everything-hurts sort of way.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“She’s right,” chimes in Alice, and somewhere, beneath the pain in his gut, Remus feels the stirrings of panic, and even further below that, the churning shame-rejection-disappointment-sadness that he’s been suppressing for the last few days. “Uh oh, what’s that face?” She shuffles a little closer to him, laying a protective hand on his forearm. Remus takes a deep breath, staring down at his hot chocolate, and it trembles a little in his hands.

“I did something really fucking stupid.”

There’s a silence, and then Lily says – her voice low and urgent – “Remus, are we talking I’m hurting myself again kind of stupid, or I’m not taking my meds or – “

“No!” Remus says quickly, hating himself that these are even things that they have to worry about. “Nothing like that.” He feels Lily relax, and Alice lets out a barely-audible sigh, and the ball of self-loathing that wraps around his heart tightens a little more. “I… uh...” he runs a hand down his face, and whispers through his fingers, “I sort of kissed Sirius?”

“What?” Alice yelps, and Lily jolts, going rigid once more. “I have so many questions. When? Where? Sort of? What??”

Remus can’t meet their eyes, as he lowers his shaky hands, and begins twisting them anxiously, pinching at the skin on his wrist. “At the party thing. Last week.”

There’s another pause as they digest this. “Sort of?” Alice repeats. “What does that even mean?”

He lets out a sigh, feeling the guilt-shame-self-hatred writhing low in his belly, and a sharp pain twists through his stomach. (He deserved that, he deserves that and worse for fucking everything up. Sirius hasn’t texted or called in five days since it happened, and the thought of seeing him again makes him feel dizzy and nauseous with nerves… though there’s a smaller part of him that isn’t sure why he’s making this such a Big Deal – it’s not like he hasn’t kissed Sirius before; Sirius is affectionate, and they’ve been friends for long enough that this shouldn’t be causing such turmoil).

“We were kind of just… sitting next to each other, and then he squeezed my hand, and just… didn’t let go? And then I kissed his hand?” He goes to hide his face once more, but Alice catches his arm and holds it fast.

“You kissed his hand? What is this, the 1600s?”

Remus is burning – the pain in his stomach is a boiling, bubbling mess, the pain throughout his body sets his skin on fire, and now, the flush rises over his cheeks – hot, hot, hot with embarrassment.

“Lils, you’re being weirdly quiet,” Alice continues. “Any input?”

Lily has sat back in her chair, and is studying Remus, though not harshly. “This explains a lot,” she says eventually, and Remus’ already roiling stomach lurches.

“What do you mean?” he asks, a little too desperate and raw. “Has he said anything?”

“No,” Lily says carefully. “But he doesn’t have to. He’s been in a kind of… daze? J and I thought it was because of the new job – anxiety, you know? But this explains it.”

“Shit,” Remus murmurs. “Shit, shit, shit.” He draws his legs to his chest, curling up as small as his aching body will allow. (He wants to drop off the face of the planet, or sink in to a deep, dark hole, or fade entirely from existence-)

“Stop spiralling,” Lily says sharply. “It’s not a bad sort of daze. That’s why it didn’t add up. He’s… happy, I think?”

Remus looks at her disbelievingly. “Please don’t lie to me to make me feel better. Not about this-“

“Look,” Alice cuts in. “What did he say when you did it?”

Remus swallows and looks down. “Nothing… it was just silence and then I ran and I’ve ruined everything.” He buries his face in his knees, because he doesn’t have the courage to face either of them right now, and he especially doesn’t deserve their kindness.

“How have you ruined everything?” asks Lily calmly, and Remus snaps his head up incredulously.

“Are you kidding? Now he knows that I – that I – “

“Yes?” Alice says gently, when he tapers off.

“That I – hngh, never mind,” Remus can feel a lump in his throat, and the words are trapped beneath it, unable to escape. The burning sensations throughout his body have reached the backs of his eyes, but he refuses to cry – he will not cry. (This is why this is a Big Deal – this is what makes it different to any other time that Sirius has kissed him).

“Noooo, don’t do that.” Lily grabs his hand back, and strokes the back of it with her thumb reassuringly. “Go on.”

Remus wrenches his gaze to her face, and then feels an icy bucket of dread-horror-panic tip over him because she knew. The tears spill over his cheeks before he can stop them. “You knew,” he mumbles, “shit, shit, shit, is it that obvious?”

“Is what obvious?” persists Alice, taking his other hand.

“That I like Sirius!” Remus bursts out, and then shrinks in his seat as a couple of heads turn in his direction.

“Oh, praise the Lord!” Lily whispers, a smile splitting across her face.

“You finally admitted it!” Alice says, radiant with how wide she’s beaming.

Remus feels – overwhelmed. He’s horrified that this secret that he’s kept so close to his heart for so long was apparently blindingly obvious, he’s terrified by the implications of everyone knowing, he’s still a mess of guilt, shame, and embarrassment. The odd sense of relief at sharing this burden juxtaposes painfully with his utter panic that he’s shared this burden. It’s been his secret (or apparently not a secret, but still), and only his, for as long as he can remember – for weeks, months, years even, and a secret that’s outlasted every other crush he’s had on men, women, people just as kind, brave, smart, funny, gorgeous as Sirius.

(Except that there’s nobody quite like Sirius – not many people are capable of making Remus feel so good about himself just by being around them, not many people give him the confidence to feel like he can accomplish anything he puts his mind to – not many people make him feel like enough, just as he is. But Sirius does).

He doesn’t know what to do with this tidal wave of conflicting emotions, and he tries to suck in a shaky breath, to combat the tears that are trickling down his cheeks, but it’s like he’s lost all control.

“Shh shh shh, you’re alright,” Lily’s gentle voice cuts through his meltdown, and he’s startled to find that she’s moved directly in front of him, and is pulling him in to an embrace. He buries his face in to her shoulder – disoriented, but agonisingly aware that he needs to get a grip – and forces in a few calming breaths like his therapist has taught him. As Lily releases him, her face tense with concern, Alice presses a tissue in to fists that he didn’t realise were clenched.

“S-sorry,” he whispers, wiping his eyes on his sleeve, whilst still struggling with the whole even-breathing thing.

“We didn’t mean to push you,” Alice says, and Remus shakes his head a little too violently; it twinges sharply at the movement.

“It’s just been – a shitty week, and I’m loopy with the pain and – everything – I – argh,” Remus scrubs at his eyes, smearing the tears on his cheeks, and presses until he’s seeing stars. (Sirius is a star, his mind supplies unhelpfully, and he snaps his eyes open again). “I’m a fucking mess.”

“Yes,” says Lily, easing herself back in to her chair. “But we love you more than life itself. Now, we need to talk about this.”

“Whyyy?” Remus whines, hiding his face again, “I’m fine just burying my head in the sand and pretending it never happened.”

“I think we just saw that’s not true,” Alice says quietly.

“Agreed,” says Lily, “so. What’s so bad about Sirius knowing that you have Feelings for him?”

“Because nothing can ever happen and so it will make our friendship super weird – it’s already making our friendship weird, and-“

“Why can nothing ever happen?”

“Because he’s – everything,” Remus waves his hand, unable to explain quite what Sirius is – but knowing that Lily and Alice will understand anyway, because they adore Sirius just as much as he does. “And I’m-“ he gestures vaguely at himself, “this.”

Alice slaps his arm – gently, obviously, because she’s thoughtful and good and Remus loves her so much – and says sharply, “careful now. It sounded a lot like you were about to be down on yourself.”

Remus sighs, “I just mean that compared to him –“ Lily raises her eyebrows and Remus changes track sharply. “My life’s not going anywhere, and sometimes it feels like I have nothing going for me, and I know that’s not true, and I’m working on it, but I can’t help it, and – I just – Sirius deserves everything.”

When he finally looks up, he’s not entirely unsurprised to see Alice and Lily staring at him. What is surprising is the near unbearable sadness in their eyes.

Lily’s voice is heavy and a little tired, “one day, Remus, I swear to God, you will see yourself the way we all see you.”

“You deserve everything too,” Alice adds, the corners of her mouth tugging down uncharacteristically.

“Can we not?” Remus loves his friends – unquestionably, unshakeably; they are the best part of him, and he is frequently overwhelmed by the thought that these incredible, wonderful beings love him too. But sometimes it’s not a good overwhelming, and right now, he’s uncomfortable enough as it is, and any more of their unbounding affection, and he’s going to start crying again.

Lily makes a slightly frustrated noise, but lets it go, and Alice purses her lips a little. “Okay. So, ‘worst case scenario:’ Sirius knows that you have a crazy big crush on him. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Remus frowns, because Alice and Lily are two of the smartest, fiercest women he knows, but they’re asking the most inane questions. “He gets weirded out, our friendship is ruined, it splits the group and everyone sides with Sirius.”

“Habibi, never.” Alice looks aghast. “If you really think that we would all abandon you over something like this, then we’re failing you as friends.”

“You are just as important to us as Sirius,” Lily says firmly, and Remus screws his eyes shut. (He’s screwing this up, just like he’s screwed up his friendship with Sirius. He doesn’t want to talk about his shitty self-worth, he doesn’t want to have to explain to them all the reasons why Sirius will absolutely never reciprocate his feelings; all he wants is to curl up in bed with a hot-water bottle and feel sorry for himself).

He’s vaguely aware that Lily and Alice are silently communicating whilst his eyes are shut – probably in BSL, James paid for everybody to have classes the moment Peter joined their group – and he’s resigning himself to yet another pep talk about how loved he is, but –

“Okay, what if this is a classic example of your anxiety working everything up, and he doesn’t actually know, and everything stays the same?”

Remus opens his eyes in surprise. “That’d be the best solution,” he says, like it’s obvious, because that would be ideal, right? That’s what he wants, isn’t it?

There’s a pause, and Alice and Lily exchange another Look, and Remus realises he’s missing something significant. He sort of wants to ask what it is, but his stomach is hurting worse and worse by the second, this conversation is draining more and more of his energy – not a good sign considering he has work later.

“I promise we’ll drop this if you promise us that you’ll talk to him,” Lily says finally.

“Soon,” adds Alice.

The thought of hashing all this out with Sirius makes Remus’ anxiety spike, and his head spins a little even as he finds himself nodding in agreement. It seems to satisfy his friends for the time being though, because the conversation shifts to their jobs – Lily and Alice take lead of the conversation, whilst Remus leans back in the armchair, focusing on breathing through his nerves and massaging his stomach through the pain. (Neither do much to ease his suffering).

He loses track of time – it’s only Alice nudging him and reminding him that he needs to get going for work that forces him to his feet.

“Thank you for putting up with me,” he says, pulling his arms around himself, and his heart warm a little as the two of them scoff.

“We love you so much, sweetheart,” Lily murmurs before he leaves, and he nods, pecking her cheek, before turning to Alice.

“Don’t lose hope. Things will work out, إن شاء الله,” she presses a kiss to his other cheek, holds him tight in her embrace for a moment longer than necessary.

(His friends are the best things in his life; he will never stop being grateful to them, and he can only pray that this thing with Sirius isn’t about to fuck it all up, because it will tear him apart if it does).

It’s not a long shift – only four or so hours, but Tom tries to convince him twice to go home in that time – and every time he catches sight of his reflection in the pint glasses, he has to resist a shudder, because he’s all blotchy and clammy and a fucking mess. He has a minor moment of panic when his brain is too foggy to comprehend a customer’s order, but Tom rescues him (“if you won’t go home, lad, then you’re gonna at least take a fuckin’ break,” and Remus spends the entire fifteen minutes in the breakroom curled in a ball on the floor).

Closing finally – finally – arrives, the last of the regulars slope off, and Remus begins wiping down the tables and bar top, moving slowly to accommodate his aching everything. The soft music – usually obscured by the noise and bustle of the pub – drifts over the empty room, and he’s so fucking tired.

“Can I get a drink?”

“We’re closed,” says Remus automatically, before he tenses as he recognises the voice. Sirius is leaning across the bar with his playful smirk, and he looks – fantastic, of course he does. (And Remus is pale and sweating with how much pain he’s in, and the bags under his eyes are now taking up most of his face, he looks – dreadful, of course he does).

“Hey,” says Sirius, his smirk fading in to something a little more cautious, and his gaze flickers over Remus concernedly.

“Hi,” Remus says, because, in spite of Alice and Lily’s best efforts to prepare him for this moment, he doesn’t have a fucking clue what to do now that he’s actually face-to-face with Sirius.

Sirius clears his throat, clearly just as aware of the awkwardness as Remus. “How’ve you been? S’been a while.”

Remus grips the underside of the bar for support, feeling a little weak with panic. He knows Sirius is anxious too – he’s picking at his cuff with one hand, and he keeps adjusting his stance from one leg to another, and Remus doesn’t know what to say.

“Oh… uh, I mean, you know, busy…” he winces at his own excuses, looks down at the glasses he’s wiping dry, desperate for some sort of distraction. “How have you been?” He chances a glance back up at Sirius.

He’s frowning, studying Remus – taking in the way his hands are shaking slightly with the effort of putting the glasses away, at the way he’s cradling his stomach with his arm. He takes a breath, and meets Remus’ eyes squarely. “Not that great. Anxious as heck. Missed you,” he chuckles self-consciously.

Remus’ throat is dry and his stomach is churning, but if Sirius can be brave enough to be honest, then fuck it, so can he. He swallows, “I missed you too.”

“Then why didn’t you text? Or call, or something?” Sirius blurts, and the way his eyes widen shows that he didn’t mean to say that out loud. Remus sees Sirius’ fingers clench around his thigh – a sure-fire sign that he is Anxious -  and his fingers itch with the urge to reach out and take it, to help in some way. But he can’t. He doesn’t have that right.

He can’t hold Sirius’ gaze any longer. He looks away, breathing through his own anxiety, and forces himself to be honest. “I think – I – uh, I made things weird between us, didn’t I?” His chest tightens painfully as he admits it out loud, hate-guilt-shame tearing through him.

“What makes you say that?” Sirius’ voice is careful and measured, and Remus wants to scream, because Sirius is actually going to make him say it – he can’t he can’t he can’t –

He can’t do it. Lying to Sirius makes him feel like the scum of the Earth – he is the scum of the Earth for even considering it, but what choice does he have? Lily and Alice were wrong – he doesn’t deserve Sirius, nobody deserves Sirius; Sirius is too good and amazing and wonderful, and Remus could never give him the life he deserves.

(This is for the best).

(Right?)

He keeps his voice as light as possible, forces a smile to his lips, which probably looks a little too-brittle, but he can always blame it on his fibro. What’s one more lie between them? “Not sure really… it’s not like we haven’t kissed before – I just, on the hand, it’s a bit weird, right?”

(His heart is doing something wrong and painful – a different kind of pain to the pain shooting up and down his body, but no less real. This pain is buried deep, a sort of tearing in his chest, like someone is actually trying to rip his heart out and squeeze the bloody tatters out through his ribcage).

(This is how his heart breaks).

There’s a pause. It’s tense and wrong and overwhelmingly bad. And then –

Sirius laughs, only it’s wrong, there’s something wrong – Sirius’ laugh should be delighted and joyful and loud and this, this is none of those things; it’s forced and uncomfortable and a little awkward, and Remus’ heart aches a little, because he doesn’t know how to fix this. He’s fucked up, he’s ruined everything, he’s in so much fucking pain and he’s fucking exhausted and he can’t – he just can’t.

The sob rises in his throat, even as Sirius is choosing his reply. “A little, I guess. But that’s no reason to go all AWOL on me, okay?”

Remus ducks his head to hide the tears forming on his lashes, and nods. “Sorry – I won’t do it again.”

“Please don’t.” Sirius’ voice is too soft and tender and full of something that Remus can’t place – the sincerity though nearly breaks his resolve to not tell Sirius everything, and he bites down his lip hard enough to taste copper to stop himself from spilling it all.

He nods again, not trusting his voice, and takes a few deep breaths, licking at his lips where they’re oozing blood.

“Are you nearly done here?” Sirius asks, and the change of subject is both relieving and distressing.

“Gotta finish with the sweeping,” Remus mumbles to the floor, and the thought of that much movement makes him want to give in to the tears completely and just sob on the floor.

Sirius claps his hands. “Go sit. I’ll sweep.”

He’s already marching towards the cleaning cupboard by the time Remus is stumbling for a reply. “No – I can – you shouldn’t-“

Sirius is back, broom and dustpan in hand, and he presses his spare palm against Remus cheek gently. “Remus. You look like shit. You’re obviously in pain. Please, for the love of God, humour me and go sit down.”

Remus wants to argue. He really intends to, except he finds himself wandering in a zombie-like state towards the soft sofa seats, and watching through half-open eyes as Sirius makes short work of the sweeping. (Another reason he doesn’t deserve Sirius).

A shadow falls in front of his face, and then there are warm hands in his, helping him to his feet. He staggers a little, and an arm slides around his waist, supporting him until he’s steadier. “I’ll walk you home,” Sirius says quietly, and it’s not a question, but Remus still nods his assent, too tired to argue with him.

The walk back (and Remus insists on a walk, because he absolutely cannot spare the cash for a taxi, and Sirius had already done too much for him this evening) is a sign of how strong their friendship is – it’s quietly pleasant, comfortable, in spite of the recent tension, everything is exactly as it should be. And yet, something has changed between them, Remus is sure of it – there’s something different behind Sirius’ eyes, something more in his smile, and Remus desperately wishes he could place exactly what it is, if only he weren’t so bloody tired. Sirius keeps up a stream of only-slightly-nervous-chatter, and Remus lets it wash over him, too focused on his own pain and self-loathing and guilt to really focus on what he’s saying. (Ironically, the thought of his self-absorption only adds to his self-loathing and guilt, and he knows vaguely that this is going to spiral, that he is Not Okay).

(He misses the way Sirius’ smile is a little sad, his eyes a little disappointed, as they say their good nights in front of Remus’ apartment block. He has no way of knowing that the second he disappears through the door, Sirius is on the phone to James – “Prongs, I thought you said he felt the same, I don’t understand, I thought – I hoped –“. He’s busy crashing fully-clothed in to bed, the guilt and the pain and the shame digging their claws tightly in to his body, and pulling him away from a restful sleep).

[atfelt-letters-to-j]

1 December

Auckland

Woah it’s night now and the area near this place is really noisy. I need to sleep. I’m imagining you’re here with me on this bed and wondering how it’ll be like traveling together. My parents are constantly miscommunicating and having mini disagreements, I wonder if we’ll ever get to that point in this relationship. And when I mean mini, it really is minor as compared to the ones we’ve had. Like arguing over what goes into which bag? Or like arguing over whether to keep the soap or not? I feel like most of the time my dad isn’t listening and he’s just hearing. I hope I’ll never reach that point with you baby.

Anyway, so today was animals day! We went to Kelly Tarlton Sea Aquarium and it was very nice to me. I like these things. Hehe. So my fave point of this place was that they really focus on conservation and rescue of the sea creatures and the various ways we can help the ocean. It’s a really nice angle and doesn’t feel commercialized that much. Oh and Kelly Tarlton is the man who started it all (he’s dead). My sis and I were surprised it was a man haha which brings my thoughts to gender norms.

Hmmm there was something really disturbing that the photo staff said to me while trying to sell keychains. She said these were popular items for guests and usually the girls go crazy about it, but I replied “No it’s alright”, which led her to say “oh? Coz you’re not a girl? You’re a boy? Haha”

I think that’s really disturbing for someone to say that, like your preferences over items determine your gender? I was stumped and just walked away. I wasn’t offended per se, just surprised I suppose because I never saw it coming. I used to get that a lot about how I looked like a boy when I was a kid but never again since I wore the hijab. I don’t know I guess I’m just appalled.

So then we went to Auckland Zoo, which I thought was a nice zoo because there weren’t many animals in their enclosures and there’s a lot of room for them to roam about such that most of the time we had to spend ample of time finding them. The animals don’t appear stressed (like pacing about) which was a relief to me or I would’ve felt so bad and probably cry. Some of the animals weren’t on display or they were just really hard to find. My fav part of this is that I got to see Kiwis! Hehe it was in extremely low light and they were simulating night time for them. I could only mostly make out the silhouettes of the kiwi but not much details because it was that dark. My sis thought the zoo wasn’t worth it for the price because there weren’t much animals and she preferred both aquarium and zoo of Singapore.

Throughout the day for both attractions I kept thinking about which animals you would like and those you wouldn’t. (The aquarium was easy coz I know you hate fish and the like)

And as you know I also met with the cat at the house that accompanied me for awhile. It was really cute and fluffy. I wish I had a brush to brush out all the fur it was shedding. It was really nice and cute and enjoyed my lap as much as you do when you sit on me. Hehe 😉

Gosh I miss you so much babe. Everyday I think about you. Everything I do I’ll be thinking of you. Oh I just had a thought of us making out in the showers here. Oops.

I hope you know that I love you dearly and you mean the world to me.

(Ps. So many animals in the zoo were humping I think it’s mating season? Maybe coz it’s summer and they’re in heat)

[apsbicepstraining]

These are the words that encapsulate 2016

LONDON It’s been an fateful time. From Britain voting to leave the European Union to Donald Trump being elected president of the United States. No one can accuse 2016 of being monotonou. Some words and terms grew in standing during the past twelve months, some new words were invented and some existing messages amassed fresh sense. Here’s a selection of the words that encapsulate 2016.

Alt-Right

Alt-right is a word used to described various groups including white supremacists and white-hot patriots who situate a focus on “preserving” and “protecting” the white hasten in the United States. It has been described as a mixture of racism, white patriotism and populism and exists online( in the form of molestation and hate memes) and IRL.

In November, a video published under The Atlantic showed the founder and ideologue of the alt-right Richard B. Spencer, wailing “Hail Trump, acclaim our people, herald victory”. It made heated reaction on social media because of the stark parallel to Holocaust history.

The so called “alt-right” movement backed Donald Trump during the presidential election though Trump himself said he forswears and denounce them.

Brexit

On 23 June, Britain voted to leave the European Union by 52 percentage to 48 percentage. In the consequence, the value of the pound dropped to a 30 -year low-pitched. Prime Minister David Cameron abdicated, the first political fatality in “whats being” arguably be described as the year that anti-establishment politics travelled mainstream. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, governor of the UK Independence Party( and foremost Leave campaigner) acclaimed the referendum solutionsas the UK’s “independence day.”

Final causes on our Lego Brexit map. Blue expanses voted be retained in the EU; cherry-red localities voted to leave. #EURefResults pic.twitter.com/ cJfzBNsY6y

Mashable UK (@ MashableUK) June 24, 2016

Bigly

One of the many verbal mysteries of Donald Trump during the campaign was whether he was saying “bigly” or “big league”.

Trump on immigration: “We’re going to speed up the process bigly.” #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/ Sc8w2QSPGV

Mashable News (@ MashableNews) October 20, 2016

Linguists weighed in. Susan Lin, an helper linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, posted her definitive answer to the linguist Facebook group Friends of Berkeley Linguistics.

“‘Bigly’ or ‘big league’? The latter, I’m quite sure, ” Lin said.

Barb( Stranger Things)

Barb’s atrocious fatality was one of the most debated Tv deaths this year, contributing scores of Stranger Things fans to ask: will there be right for Barb?

The Netflix series, been developed by friends Matt and Ross Duffer, became one of the biggest pictures this summer. Set in a small town in Indiana in 1983, just after a 12 -year-old boy reputation Will goes missing, the eight-episode succession peculiarity a top-class child ensemble that provoked a religion following.

Image: Netflix

Unfortunately, the show’s architects confirmed that Barb, last-place discovered dead after a being grasped her while she was sitting on a pool’s diving committee, is genuinely dead. Although it looks like she’ll get some sort of justice in Stranger Things 2.

Coulrophobia

Coulrophobia is defined as a rare, extreme or irrational fear of comics. This summer the suspicion reached another level.

Clown sightings started in Greenville, South Carolina, where groupings of clowns apparently tried to entice kids into a thicket of trees outside an apartment complex. Similar sightings spread up to North Carolina, where a male said he chased a clown into a forest with a machete.

From there, the fear of jesters increased and eventually increased across the pond .

Here’s a map of all the sightings.

Image: Mashable/ google maps

Dabbing

Dabbing, or the Dab, is an Atlanta-based hip-hop dance that was disseminated by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton during his MVP 2015 -1 6 NFL season.

Originally used to describe a flesh of marijuana application, the word ‘dabbing’ went on to have a second meaning in 2016.

The dance originated in Atlanta, where a handful of rappers, most notably rap group Migos and frequent traitors Jose Guapo, Skippa Da Flippa, and PeeWee Longway, popularized dabbing in their music videos and mixtapes.

The dance acquired it to social media, where people shared Vines and videos of themselves thumping the dab.

Later in 2016, Newton testified the Dab dead, saying: “I have to put that aside.”

Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers establishes his logo “dab” against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd part during the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Bank of America Stadium on January 17, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Image: Getty Images

Fake news

After the victory of Donald Trump, Facebook came under ardor from the public and the media for its perceived persona in helping the spread of “fake news” during the U.S. ballot. Tallies of beings in locations as remote as Macedonia created fake word sites and churned bogus pro-Trump word that sprang up on the programme. In the final three months, imitation referendum stories caused more engagement than top floors from major report outlets.

Image: ap photo

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially said the company “must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of actuality ourselves.” But then he announced that Facebook was looking to implement “better technological systems” to see fake bulletin, including asking useds to help identify misleading stories.

Fake news had real-world results. In early December, the #Pizzagate hoax led to a gunman firing shootings inside a eatery, which was embroiled in the conspiracy. The gunman, 28 -year-old, Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, North Carolina, was apprehended after participating Comet Ping Pong forearmed with an attack rifle and burning a shot.

Welch claimed he was investigating conspiracy conjectures about Hillary Clinton and safarus chairwoman John Podesta running small children sex trafficking ring inside of the pizzeria.Though The New York Times debunked the story back in November, the buzz generated on social media continued.

Glass cliff

“Glass cliff” was among Oxford Dictionaries’ terms of the year. Fabricated by S. Alexander Haslam and Michelle Ryan, glass cliff is used to refer to a situation in which a woman or a member of a marginalized group “ascends to a leader posture, defying cases when health risks of failure is high.” The current UK Prime Minister Theresa May fits this description.

Theresa May at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, October

Image: Getty images

Harambe

Harambe is the gorilla who was shot and killed in August after grabbing a 4-year-old boy and dragging him across an exhibit in Cincinnati Zoo.

The incident was criticised online by many who accused the child’s parents and the zoo for Harambe’s death. Three months after Harambe’s death, beings were still attacking the zoo with coarse texts, petitions and protest memes.

The trolling was so hard that it action the zoo to remove its social media accounts.

If you think you have it bad, be happy you don’t guide the Cincinnati Zoo Twitter chronicle. pic.twitter.com/ Ygpc2PWYeM

Anth (@ __Kessel) August 20, 2016

Headphone jack

Apple’s annualiPhone launch always touches the mobile world like a glossy glassmeteor, but the newiPhone 7 had an aftershock this is gonna be felt for years: the removal of the headphone jack.

Image: AP/ RICHARD DREW

Despite being a near-universal standard being implemented in devices worldwide, the eminently functional3. 5mm jack couldn’t survive Apple’s determination to shape thefuture one where audio is wireless. In the current, nonetheless, lines still rule, and Apple’s big move has given us all dongles to misplace, basically mainstreaming disadvantage.( It’s likewise forcinggrown adults to say the word”dongle.”) Whether you call that mettle or hubris , Apple has put a stake in the soil, one other smartphone producers will steer around, or perhaps trip over, for years to come. Pete Pachal, Mashable Tech Editor.

Hodor!( Game of Thrones)

Hodor had been among the first Tv anguishes( and revelations) of the year and certainly the hardest to forget.

Game of Thrones followers learned the inceptions of Hodor in a zombie-filled conclusion that ended with the soothing giant being swarmed by a rabble as he held a opening to shield Bran.

Hodor= “Hold the Door”. This certainly changed the room GoT followers experienced about holding the door.

HOLD THE DOOR HOLD THE DOO HOLD THE DO HOLD THE D HOLD THE HOLD TH HOLD T HOLD HOL HO H HO HOD HODO HODOR

Chora Minha Nega (@ guip) May 23, 2016

Islamophobia

Reports of Islamophobia and racist happens spiked in the consequences of the the Brexit referendum. From 16 -3 0 June, the reporting of hate crimes went up by 42% to more than 3,000 charges. The reported felonies mainly consisted of persecution and menaces against “visible minorities” as well as people from Eastern Europe.

Twitter useds documented prejudiced chapters on the programme, use hashtags like #postbrexitracism and #postrefracism. On Facebook, an book announced “Worrying Signs” curated reported incidents.

The burkini ban in some French coastal municipalities too rekindled controversy beyond France’s borders. Many people regarded the prohibitions as sexist, Islamophobic and counterproductive to welcoming Muslims into the country. The outlaw had now been been overruled in some municipalities. An illustrator from Paris created a steer for bystanders who meet Muslims who are being harassed.

Image: maeril.tumblr.com

In the aftermath of the U.S. election, some Muslim maidens uttered fear that they may be targeted by hate crimes.Many took to social media to caution Muslim females not to wear the hijab, niqab or burka in public. These panics were validated as women in the U.S. were apparently targeted in hate crimes following Donald Trump’s election.

Latinx

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, Latinx was first used in response to an important matter around gender identity. How can a language like Spanish, in which nouns and adjectives have grammatical gender, be used in a gender inclusive channel?

Latinx replaces the gendered ‘a’ or ‘o’ pointing with ‘x’. Its still uncommon, but widely used on American university campuses.

Lemonade

Lemonade was one of the few lustrous events in an otherwise gruesome year. Beyonces visual album, which debuted in April, is both an ode to black women and a deep personal love story, told in 11 evenly earnest chapters. Some chapters hollered “I came to slay, bitch.” Others were so specific and pointed in their anger that some wondered if Jay Z and Beyonce were getting divorced .

Image: Beyonce

Featuring candidly beautiful verses from the Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, the book is a dazzlingly complex project in which pop culture meets spirituality, gratifies vulnerability. Scenes from the album have become religion, and quite rightly so, such as the one in which Beyonce is covered in a yellowish nightgown and golden jewelry, opens doubled doorways to tell the liquid flow on the stairs. After a bit son sides her a baseball bat, Beyonce is off, destroying automobiles and cameras, crushing open a fire hydrant and twirling in its water.

So potent was the panorama and the entire book that the University of Texas at San Antonio decided to offer students the opportunity to sign up for a class announced Black Women, Beyonc& Popular Culture.” Students who take the course will invest the semester searching the singer’s visual album, Lemonade , and its relation to black feminism. Isnt that everyones dream?

Nasty wives

In the final presidential conversation, Hillary Clinton, while discussing Donald Trumps tax pays, was interrupted by the Republican nominee who said, leaning into the mic: such a nasty woman.

The phrase, uttered so soon after Trump roundly contended that no one has more respect for women than him, speedily became a trending hashtag. #NastyWoman took over Twitter and soon became a war cry for numerous women.

Twitter user @thecultureofme even acknowledged to buying the world’s most delightful domain name, NastyWomenGetShitDone.com , then configuring the sheet to redirect to Hillary Clinton’s officer website. And Will Ferrell boasted a Nasty Woman T-shirt in support of the democrat.

Pokemon become

In a year of unlikely resuscitations and throwbacks Pokmon Go took “the worlds” by squall. It was just the perfect make for those who grew up in the 1990 s and had fond childhood retentions of the insanely successful Game Boy tournament . The conclude Pokmon Go is so cunning, though, is that it’s all tied to the real world .

The app trails your site IRL, which means you hunting and catch Pokmon on the same system of roads and parks that you’re walking through in real life. PokStops( where you stock up on items) are linked to real world places like local post office, and gyms( where you contend competitive Pokmon coaches i.e. other people playing video games) are happenings like religions and train stations in the real world.

Soon after it the app was wheeled out, pokmania spread all over the world . And its not over. On Monday, government officials Pokmon Go account shared the exciting word that brand-new Generation II Pokmon have been added to the game.

Post-Truth

The annual Oxford Dictionaries “word of the year” can divulge a lot about the world we live in. And this year it’s very telling. Post-truth is defined as an adjective “relating to or designating cases in which objective points are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to ardour and personal belief”. Over such courses of 2016, mentions of the word snowballed in the framework of Brexit and the US presidential election. Read more about the sources of the word here.

Post-truth is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016. Find out more: https :// t.co/ jxETqZMxsu pic.twitter.com/ MVMuMyf8 3K

Oxford Dictionaries (@ OxfordWords) November 16, 2016

Peach emoji

The peach emoji when it looked like a butt.

When Apple exhausted the first beta form of iOS 10.2, numerous people were frantic because of an update on the peach emoji, which appeared more like a normal peach and less like a butt.

noooooo they’re changing the peach emoji pic.twitter.com/ CmHkef9MlM

alix (@ freckledbutt) November 1, 2016

Thankfully, after some serious internet backlash, Apple appears to have redesigned the emoji to to once again resemble a butt.

Spectacles( Snapchat )

The brand-new smart sunglasses , rolled out in November, furnish a whole new ordeal in snapping, earmarking filming in terms of the user.

The product is sold in interactive vending machine announced Snapbots , in very limited quantities throughout the US. Instead of selling them online or in stores, Snap Inc. is exploiting the vending machine, along with an interactive map, to drive the Spectacles promotion train.

Since the launch they’ve been used everywhere from in the sack to in surgery.

Surreal

While “post-truth” was Oxford Dictionaries parole of its first year, “surreal” was Merriam-Webster’s 2016 word of its first year .~ ATAGEND Defined by the dictionary as “marked by the intense irrational actuality of a dreaming, ” “surreal” is a relatively new word in English, having been first is contained in the dictionary in 1967.

Never before have so many beings felt compelled to look it up on their dictionary as they did in 2016. Terrorist strikes in Brussels and Nice and the struggled takeover in Turkey were the tragic events that led to a spike in the numbers looking up the word. But the most significant spike was after the US election in November.

Trolls

Image: ap photo

From Reddit’s CEO to the Royal Family, everyone this year had to deal with the rise of the trolls.

Trolling is a phenomenon as old because the internet and it gained renown during the U.S. poll.

An military of so called “alt-right” trolls was already a significant online violence before Americans cast their votes. After Donald Trump was elected president, they made it clear they were not about to go back to the dark angles of the internet from where they came from.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman had his own headaches around the trolls. He riled Reddit users after declaring changing abusive posts about him to mention the moderators of Reddits biggest pro-Trump subreddit, r/ the_donald. I abused my capability to give the bullies a hard time, he said.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Image: pa

Even the Royal Family had to deal with the racist and sexist trolling of Prince Harrys girlfriend Meghan Markle . In November, Kensington Palace said in a statement that Harry’s girlfriend has been subject to a “wave of abuse and harassment”.

Woke

Woke was used in 2016 in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, often in hashtags like #StayWoke. But its own history is much older. As is attributable to Nicole Holliday in the Oxford Dictionaries blog, the word originated in the black community in the mid 20 th century with the implications of being is cognizant of social systems of pitch-black oppression.

In 1962, woke was shall be included in a lexicon of African American slang with the description ‘well-informed, up-to-date”. “By the following decade, we have evidence of it being used in a more explicit political situation, ” Holliday explains.

In a 1972 romp entitled Garvey Lives !, generator Barry Beckham writes. I been sleeping all “peoples lives”. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, Im gon stay woke. And Im gon help him wake up other pitch-black folk

Image: VICKY LETA/ MASHABLE

After the Trayvon Martin slay in 2013 and the Black Lives Matter movement, awake has made a comeback though sometimes it has been used inappropriately in non-political, ludicrous tweets.

” Woke has been racially cleaned for a mainstream gathering. Woke has been removed from its ties to black communities as well as its reference to black consciousness and political motions, ” says Holliday in her blog.

Glossary 2016

So there you have it. A Glossary of 2016. Who knows what statements waiting for us next year.

BONUS: This super precise handwriting robot is so satisfying to watch

The post These are the words that encapsulate 2016 appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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[apsbicepstraining]

These are the words that encapsulate 2016

LONDON It’s been an fateful time. From Britain voting to leave the European Union to Donald Trump being elected president of the United States. No one can accuse 2016 of being monotonou. Some words and terms grew in standing during the past twelve months, some new words were invented and some existing messages amassed fresh sense. Here’s a selection of the words that encapsulate 2016.

Alt-Right

Alt-right is a word used to described various groups including white supremacists and white-hot patriots who situate a focus on “preserving” and “protecting” the white hasten in the United States. It has been described as a mixture of racism, white patriotism and populism and exists online( in the form of molestation and hate memes) and IRL.

In November, a video published under The Atlantic showed the founder and ideologue of the alt-right Richard B. Spencer, wailing “Hail Trump, acclaim our people, herald victory”. It made heated reaction on social media because of the stark parallel to Holocaust history.

The so called “alt-right” movement backed Donald Trump during the presidential election though Trump himself said he forswears and denounce them.

Brexit

On 23 June, Britain voted to leave the European Union by 52 percentage to 48 percentage. In the consequence, the value of the pound dropped to a 30 -year low-pitched. Prime Minister David Cameron abdicated, the first political fatality in “whats being” arguably be described as the year that anti-establishment politics travelled mainstream. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, governor of the UK Independence Party( and foremost Leave campaigner) acclaimed the referendum solutionsas the UK’s “independence day.”

Final causes on our Lego Brexit map. Blue expanses voted be retained in the EU; cherry-red localities voted to leave. #EURefResults pic.twitter.com/ cJfzBNsY6y

Mashable UK (@ MashableUK) June 24, 2016

Bigly

One of the many verbal mysteries of Donald Trump during the campaign was whether he was saying “bigly” or “big league”.

Trump on immigration: “We’re going to speed up the process bigly.” #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/ Sc8w2QSPGV

Mashable News (@ MashableNews) October 20, 2016

Linguists weighed in. Susan Lin, an helper linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, posted her definitive answer to the linguist Facebook group Friends of Berkeley Linguistics.

“‘Bigly’ or ‘big league’? The latter, I’m quite sure, ” Lin said.

Barb( Stranger Things)

Barb’s atrocious fatality was one of the most debated Tv deaths this year, contributing scores of Stranger Things fans to ask: will there be right for Barb?

The Netflix series, been developed by friends Matt and Ross Duffer, became one of the biggest pictures this summer. Set in a small town in Indiana in 1983, just after a 12 -year-old boy reputation Will goes missing, the eight-episode succession peculiarity a top-class child ensemble that provoked a religion following.

Image: Netflix

Unfortunately, the show’s architects confirmed that Barb, last-place discovered dead after a being grasped her while she was sitting on a pool’s diving committee, is genuinely dead. Although it looks like she’ll get some sort of justice in Stranger Things 2.

Coulrophobia

Coulrophobia is defined as a rare, extreme or irrational fear of comics. This summer the suspicion reached another level.

Clown sightings started in Greenville, South Carolina, where groupings of clowns apparently tried to entice kids into a thicket of trees outside an apartment complex. Similar sightings spread up to North Carolina, where a male said he chased a clown into a forest with a machete.

From there, the fear of jesters increased and eventually increased across the pond .

Here’s a map of all the sightings.

Image: Mashable/ google maps

Dabbing

Dabbing, or the Dab, is an Atlanta-based hip-hop dance that was disseminated by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton during his MVP 2015 -1 6 NFL season.

Originally used to describe a flesh of marijuana application, the word ‘dabbing’ went on to have a second meaning in 2016.

The dance originated in Atlanta, where a handful of rappers, most notably rap group Migos and frequent traitors Jose Guapo, Skippa Da Flippa, and PeeWee Longway, popularized dabbing in their music videos and mixtapes.

The dance acquired it to social media, where people shared Vines and videos of themselves thumping the dab.

Later in 2016, Newton testified the Dab dead, saying: “I have to put that aside.”

Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers establishes his logo “dab” against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd part during the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Bank of America Stadium on January 17, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Image: Getty Images

Fake news

After the victory of Donald Trump, Facebook came under ardor from the public and the media for its perceived persona in helping the spread of “fake news” during the U.S. ballot. Tallies of beings in locations as remote as Macedonia created fake word sites and churned bogus pro-Trump word that sprang up on the programme. In the final three months, imitation referendum stories caused more engagement than top floors from major report outlets.

Image: ap photo

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially said the company “must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of actuality ourselves.” But then he announced that Facebook was looking to implement “better technological systems” to see fake bulletin, including asking useds to help identify misleading stories.

Fake news had real-world results. In early December, the #Pizzagate hoax led to a gunman firing shootings inside a eatery, which was embroiled in the conspiracy. The gunman, 28 -year-old, Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, North Carolina, was apprehended after participating Comet Ping Pong forearmed with an attack rifle and burning a shot.

Welch claimed he was investigating conspiracy conjectures about Hillary Clinton and safarus chairwoman John Podesta running small children sex trafficking ring inside of the pizzeria.Though The New York Times debunked the story back in November, the buzz generated on social media continued.

Glass cliff

“Glass cliff” was among Oxford Dictionaries’ terms of the year. Fabricated by S. Alexander Haslam and Michelle Ryan, glass cliff is used to refer to a situation in which a woman or a member of a marginalized group “ascends to a leader posture, defying cases when health risks of failure is high.” The current UK Prime Minister Theresa May fits this description.

Theresa May at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, October

Image: Getty images

Harambe

Harambe is the gorilla who was shot and killed in August after grabbing a 4-year-old boy and dragging him across an exhibit in Cincinnati Zoo.

The incident was criticised online by many who accused the child’s parents and the zoo for Harambe’s death. Three months after Harambe’s death, beings were still attacking the zoo with coarse texts, petitions and protest memes.

The trolling was so hard that it action the zoo to remove its social media accounts.

If you think you have it bad, be happy you don’t guide the Cincinnati Zoo Twitter chronicle. pic.twitter.com/ Ygpc2PWYeM

Anth (@ __Kessel) August 20, 2016

Headphone jack

Apple’s annualiPhone launch always touches the mobile world like a glossy glassmeteor, but the newiPhone 7 had an aftershock this is gonna be felt for years: the removal of the headphone jack.

Image: AP/ RICHARD DREW

Despite being a near-universal standard being implemented in devices worldwide, the eminently functional3. 5mm jack couldn’t survive Apple’s determination to shape thefuture one where audio is wireless. In the current, nonetheless, lines still rule, and Apple’s big move has given us all dongles to misplace, basically mainstreaming disadvantage.( It’s likewise forcinggrown adults to say the word”dongle.”) Whether you call that mettle or hubris , Apple has put a stake in the soil, one other smartphone producers will steer around, or perhaps trip over, for years to come. Pete Pachal, Mashable Tech Editor.

Hodor!( Game of Thrones)

Hodor had been among the first Tv anguishes( and revelations) of the year and certainly the hardest to forget.

Game of Thrones followers learned the inceptions of Hodor in a zombie-filled conclusion that ended with the soothing giant being swarmed by a rabble as he held a opening to shield Bran.

Hodor= “Hold the Door”. This certainly changed the room GoT followers experienced about holding the door.

HOLD THE DOOR HOLD THE DOO HOLD THE DO HOLD THE D HOLD THE HOLD TH HOLD T HOLD HOL HO H HO HOD HODO HODOR

Chora Minha Nega (@ guip) May 23, 2016

Islamophobia

Reports of Islamophobia and racist happens spiked in the consequences of the the Brexit referendum. From 16 -3 0 June, the reporting of hate crimes went up by 42% to more than 3,000 charges. The reported felonies mainly consisted of persecution and menaces against “visible minorities” as well as people from Eastern Europe.

Twitter useds documented prejudiced chapters on the programme, use hashtags like #postbrexitracism and #postrefracism. On Facebook, an book announced “Worrying Signs” curated reported incidents.

The burkini ban in some French coastal municipalities too rekindled controversy beyond France’s borders. Many people regarded the prohibitions as sexist, Islamophobic and counterproductive to welcoming Muslims into the country. The outlaw had now been been overruled in some municipalities. An illustrator from Paris created a steer for bystanders who meet Muslims who are being harassed.

Image: maeril.tumblr.com

In the aftermath of the U.S. election, some Muslim maidens uttered fear that they may be targeted by hate crimes.Many took to social media to caution Muslim females not to wear the hijab, niqab or burka in public. These panics were validated as women in the U.S. were apparently targeted in hate crimes following Donald Trump’s election.

Latinx

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, Latinx was first used in response to an important matter around gender identity. How can a language like Spanish, in which nouns and adjectives have grammatical gender, be used in a gender inclusive channel?

Latinx replaces the gendered ‘a’ or ‘o’ pointing with ‘x’. Its still uncommon, but widely used on American university campuses.

Lemonade

Lemonade was one of the few lustrous events in an otherwise gruesome year. Beyonces visual album, which debuted in April, is both an ode to black women and a deep personal love story, told in 11 evenly earnest chapters. Some chapters hollered “I came to slay, bitch.” Others were so specific and pointed in their anger that some wondered if Jay Z and Beyonce were getting divorced .

Image: Beyonce

Featuring candidly beautiful verses from the Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, the book is a dazzlingly complex project in which pop culture meets spirituality, gratifies vulnerability. Scenes from the album have become religion, and quite rightly so, such as the one in which Beyonce is covered in a yellowish nightgown and golden jewelry, opens doubled doorways to tell the liquid flow on the stairs. After a bit son sides her a baseball bat, Beyonce is off, destroying automobiles and cameras, crushing open a fire hydrant and twirling in its water.

So potent was the panorama and the entire book that the University of Texas at San Antonio decided to offer students the opportunity to sign up for a class announced Black Women, Beyonc& Popular Culture.” Students who take the course will invest the semester searching the singer’s visual album, Lemonade , and its relation to black feminism. Isnt that everyones dream?

Nasty wives

In the final presidential conversation, Hillary Clinton, while discussing Donald Trumps tax pays, was interrupted by the Republican nominee who said, leaning into the mic: such a nasty woman.

The phrase, uttered so soon after Trump roundly contended that no one has more respect for women than him, speedily became a trending hashtag. #NastyWoman took over Twitter and soon became a war cry for numerous women.

Twitter user @thecultureofme even acknowledged to buying the world’s most delightful domain name, NastyWomenGetShitDone.com , then configuring the sheet to redirect to Hillary Clinton’s officer website. And Will Ferrell boasted a Nasty Woman T-shirt in support of the democrat.

Pokemon become

In a year of unlikely resuscitations and throwbacks Pokmon Go took “the worlds” by squall. It was just the perfect make for those who grew up in the 1990 s and had fond childhood retentions of the insanely successful Game Boy tournament . The conclude Pokmon Go is so cunning, though, is that it’s all tied to the real world .

The app trails your site IRL, which means you hunting and catch Pokmon on the same system of roads and parks that you’re walking through in real life. PokStops( where you stock up on items) are linked to real world places like local post office, and gyms( where you contend competitive Pokmon coaches i.e. other people playing video games) are happenings like religions and train stations in the real world.

Soon after it the app was wheeled out, pokmania spread all over the world . And its not over. On Monday, government officials Pokmon Go account shared the exciting word that brand-new Generation II Pokmon have been added to the game.

Post-Truth

The annual Oxford Dictionaries “word of the year” can divulge a lot about the world we live in. And this year it’s very telling. Post-truth is defined as an adjective “relating to or designating cases in which objective points are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to ardour and personal belief”. Over such courses of 2016, mentions of the word snowballed in the framework of Brexit and the US presidential election. Read more about the sources of the word here.

Post-truth is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016. Find out more: https :// t.co/ jxETqZMxsu pic.twitter.com/ MVMuMyf8 3K

Oxford Dictionaries (@ OxfordWords) November 16, 2016

Peach emoji

The peach emoji when it looked like a butt.

When Apple exhausted the first beta form of iOS 10.2, numerous people were frantic because of an update on the peach emoji, which appeared more like a normal peach and less like a butt.

noooooo they’re changing the peach emoji pic.twitter.com/ CmHkef9MlM

alix (@ freckledbutt) November 1, 2016

Thankfully, after some serious internet backlash, Apple appears to have redesigned the emoji to to once again resemble a butt.

Spectacles( Snapchat )

The brand-new smart sunglasses , rolled out in November, furnish a whole new ordeal in snapping, earmarking filming in terms of the user.

The product is sold in interactive vending machine announced Snapbots , in very limited quantities throughout the US. Instead of selling them online or in stores, Snap Inc. is exploiting the vending machine, along with an interactive map, to drive the Spectacles promotion train.

Since the launch they’ve been used everywhere from in the sack to in surgery.

Surreal

While “post-truth” was Oxford Dictionaries parole of its first year, “surreal” was Merriam-Webster’s 2016 word of its first year .~ ATAGEND Defined by the dictionary as “marked by the intense irrational actuality of a dreaming, ” “surreal” is a relatively new word in English, having been first is contained in the dictionary in 1967.

Never before have so many beings felt compelled to look it up on their dictionary as they did in 2016. Terrorist strikes in Brussels and Nice and the struggled takeover in Turkey were the tragic events that led to a spike in the numbers looking up the word. But the most significant spike was after the US election in November.

Trolls

Image: ap photo

From Reddit’s CEO to the Royal Family, everyone this year had to deal with the rise of the trolls.

Trolling is a phenomenon as old because the internet and it gained renown during the U.S. poll.

An military of so called “alt-right” trolls was already a significant online violence before Americans cast their votes. After Donald Trump was elected president, they made it clear they were not about to go back to the dark angles of the internet from where they came from.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman had his own headaches around the trolls. He riled Reddit users after declaring changing abusive posts about him to mention the moderators of Reddits biggest pro-Trump subreddit, r/ the_donald. I abused my capability to give the bullies a hard time, he said.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Image: pa

Even the Royal Family had to deal with the racist and sexist trolling of Prince Harrys girlfriend Meghan Markle . In November, Kensington Palace said in a statement that Harry’s girlfriend has been subject to a “wave of abuse and harassment”.

Woke

Woke was used in 2016 in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, often in hashtags like #StayWoke. But its own history is much older. As is attributable to Nicole Holliday in the Oxford Dictionaries blog, the word originated in the black community in the mid 20 th century with the implications of being is cognizant of social systems of pitch-black oppression.

In 1962, woke was shall be included in a lexicon of African American slang with the description ‘well-informed, up-to-date”. “By the following decade, we have evidence of it being used in a more explicit political situation, ” Holliday explains.

In a 1972 romp entitled Garvey Lives !, generator Barry Beckham writes. I been sleeping all “peoples lives”. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, Im gon stay woke. And Im gon help him wake up other pitch-black folk

Image: VICKY LETA/ MASHABLE

After the Trayvon Martin slay in 2013 and the Black Lives Matter movement, awake has made a comeback though sometimes it has been used inappropriately in non-political, ludicrous tweets.

” Woke has been racially cleaned for a mainstream gathering. Woke has been removed from its ties to black communities as well as its reference to black consciousness and political motions, ” says Holliday in her blog.

Glossary 2016

So there you have it. A Glossary of 2016. Who knows what statements waiting for us next year.

BONUS: This super precise handwriting robot is so satisfying to watch

The post These are the words that encapsulate 2016 appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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[apsbicepstraining]

These are the words that encapsulate 2016

LONDON It’s been an fateful time. From Britain voting to leave the European Union to Donald Trump being elected president of the United States. No one can accuse 2016 of being monotonou. Some words and terms grew in standing during the past twelve months, some new words were invented and some existing messages amassed fresh sense. Here’s a selection of the words that encapsulate 2016.

Alt-Right

Alt-right is a word used to described various groups including white supremacists and white-hot patriots who situate a focus on “preserving” and “protecting” the white hasten in the United States. It has been described as a mixture of racism, white patriotism and populism and exists online( in the form of molestation and hate memes) and IRL.

In November, a video published under The Atlantic showed the founder and ideologue of the alt-right Richard B. Spencer, wailing “Hail Trump, acclaim our people, herald victory”. It made heated reaction on social media because of the stark parallel to Holocaust history.

The so called “alt-right” movement backed Donald Trump during the presidential election though Trump himself said he forswears and denounce them.

Brexit

On 23 June, Britain voted to leave the European Union by 52 percentage to 48 percentage. In the consequence, the value of the pound dropped to a 30 -year low-pitched. Prime Minister David Cameron abdicated, the first political fatality in “whats being” arguably be described as the year that anti-establishment politics travelled mainstream. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, governor of the UK Independence Party( and foremost Leave campaigner) acclaimed the referendum solutionsas the UK’s “independence day.”

Final causes on our Lego Brexit map. Blue expanses voted be retained in the EU; cherry-red localities voted to leave. #EURefResults pic.twitter.com/ cJfzBNsY6y

Mashable UK (@ MashableUK) June 24, 2016

Bigly

One of the many verbal mysteries of Donald Trump during the campaign was whether he was saying “bigly” or “big league”.

Trump on immigration: “We’re going to speed up the process bigly.” #DebateNight pic.twitter.com/ Sc8w2QSPGV

Mashable News (@ MashableNews) October 20, 2016

Linguists weighed in. Susan Lin, an helper linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, posted her definitive answer to the linguist Facebook group Friends of Berkeley Linguistics.

“‘Bigly’ or ‘big league’? The latter, I’m quite sure, ” Lin said.

Barb( Stranger Things)

Barb’s atrocious fatality was one of the most debated Tv deaths this year, contributing scores of Stranger Things fans to ask: will there be right for Barb?

The Netflix series, been developed by friends Matt and Ross Duffer, became one of the biggest pictures this summer. Set in a small town in Indiana in 1983, just after a 12 -year-old boy reputation Will goes missing, the eight-episode succession peculiarity a top-class child ensemble that provoked a religion following.

Image: Netflix

Unfortunately, the show’s architects confirmed that Barb, last-place discovered dead after a being grasped her while she was sitting on a pool’s diving committee, is genuinely dead. Although it looks like she’ll get some sort of justice in Stranger Things 2.

Coulrophobia

Coulrophobia is defined as a rare, extreme or irrational fear of comics. This summer the suspicion reached another level.

Clown sightings started in Greenville, South Carolina, where groupings of clowns apparently tried to entice kids into a thicket of trees outside an apartment complex. Similar sightings spread up to North Carolina, where a male said he chased a clown into a forest with a machete.

From there, the fear of jesters increased and eventually increased across the pond .

Here’s a map of all the sightings.

Image: Mashable/ google maps

Dabbing

Dabbing, or the Dab, is an Atlanta-based hip-hop dance that was disseminated by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton during his MVP 2015 -1 6 NFL season.

Originally used to describe a flesh of marijuana application, the word ‘dabbing’ went on to have a second meaning in 2016.

The dance originated in Atlanta, where a handful of rappers, most notably rap group Migos and frequent traitors Jose Guapo, Skippa Da Flippa, and PeeWee Longway, popularized dabbing in their music videos and mixtapes.

The dance acquired it to social media, where people shared Vines and videos of themselves thumping the dab.

Later in 2016, Newton testified the Dab dead, saying: “I have to put that aside.”

Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers establishes his logo “dab” against the Seattle Seahawks in the 2nd part during the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at Bank of America Stadium on January 17, 2016 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Image: Getty Images

Fake news

After the victory of Donald Trump, Facebook came under ardor from the public and the media for its perceived persona in helping the spread of “fake news” during the U.S. ballot. Tallies of beings in locations as remote as Macedonia created fake word sites and churned bogus pro-Trump word that sprang up on the programme. In the final three months, imitation referendum stories caused more engagement than top floors from major report outlets.

Image: ap photo

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially said the company “must be extremely cautious about becoming arbiters of actuality ourselves.” But then he announced that Facebook was looking to implement “better technological systems” to see fake bulletin, including asking useds to help identify misleading stories.

Fake news had real-world results. In early December, the #Pizzagate hoax led to a gunman firing shootings inside a eatery, which was embroiled in the conspiracy. The gunman, 28 -year-old, Edgar Maddison Welch of Salisbury, North Carolina, was apprehended after participating Comet Ping Pong forearmed with an attack rifle and burning a shot.

Welch claimed he was investigating conspiracy conjectures about Hillary Clinton and safarus chairwoman John Podesta running small children sex trafficking ring inside of the pizzeria.Though The New York Times debunked the story back in November, the buzz generated on social media continued.

Glass cliff

“Glass cliff” was among Oxford Dictionaries’ terms of the year. Fabricated by S. Alexander Haslam and Michelle Ryan, glass cliff is used to refer to a situation in which a woman or a member of a marginalized group “ascends to a leader posture, defying cases when health risks of failure is high.” The current UK Prime Minister Theresa May fits this description.

Theresa May at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, October

Image: Getty images

Harambe

Harambe is the gorilla who was shot and killed in August after grabbing a 4-year-old boy and dragging him across an exhibit in Cincinnati Zoo.

The incident was criticised online by many who accused the child’s parents and the zoo for Harambe’s death. Three months after Harambe’s death, beings were still attacking the zoo with coarse texts, petitions and protest memes.

The trolling was so hard that it action the zoo to remove its social media accounts.

If you think you have it bad, be happy you don’t guide the Cincinnati Zoo Twitter chronicle. pic.twitter.com/ Ygpc2PWYeM

Anth (@ __Kessel) August 20, 2016

Headphone jack

Apple’s annualiPhone launch always touches the mobile world like a glossy glassmeteor, but the newiPhone 7 had an aftershock this is gonna be felt for years: the removal of the headphone jack.

Image: AP/ RICHARD DREW

Despite being a near-universal standard being implemented in devices worldwide, the eminently functional3. 5mm jack couldn’t survive Apple’s determination to shape thefuture one where audio is wireless. In the current, nonetheless, lines still rule, and Apple’s big move has given us all dongles to misplace, basically mainstreaming disadvantage.( It’s likewise forcinggrown adults to say the word”dongle.”) Whether you call that mettle or hubris , Apple has put a stake in the soil, one other smartphone producers will steer around, or perhaps trip over, for years to come. Pete Pachal, Mashable Tech Editor.

Hodor!( Game of Thrones)

Hodor had been among the first Tv anguishes( and revelations) of the year and certainly the hardest to forget.

Game of Thrones followers learned the inceptions of Hodor in a zombie-filled conclusion that ended with the soothing giant being swarmed by a rabble as he held a opening to shield Bran.

Hodor= “Hold the Door”. This certainly changed the room GoT followers experienced about holding the door.

HOLD THE DOOR HOLD THE DOO HOLD THE DO HOLD THE D HOLD THE HOLD TH HOLD T HOLD HOL HO H HO HOD HODO HODOR

Chora Minha Nega (@ guip) May 23, 2016

Islamophobia

Reports of Islamophobia and racist happens spiked in the consequences of the the Brexit referendum. From 16 -3 0 June, the reporting of hate crimes went up by 42% to more than 3,000 charges. The reported felonies mainly consisted of persecution and menaces against “visible minorities” as well as people from Eastern Europe.

Twitter useds documented prejudiced chapters on the programme, use hashtags like #postbrexitracism and #postrefracism. On Facebook, an book announced “Worrying Signs” curated reported incidents.

The burkini ban in some French coastal municipalities too rekindled controversy beyond France’s borders. Many people regarded the prohibitions as sexist, Islamophobic and counterproductive to welcoming Muslims into the country. The outlaw had now been been overruled in some municipalities. An illustrator from Paris created a steer for bystanders who meet Muslims who are being harassed.

Image: maeril.tumblr.com

In the aftermath of the U.S. election, some Muslim maidens uttered fear that they may be targeted by hate crimes.Many took to social media to caution Muslim females not to wear the hijab, niqab or burka in public. These panics were validated as women in the U.S. were apparently targeted in hate crimes following Donald Trump’s election.

Latinx

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, Latinx was first used in response to an important matter around gender identity. How can a language like Spanish, in which nouns and adjectives have grammatical gender, be used in a gender inclusive channel?

Latinx replaces the gendered ‘a’ or ‘o’ pointing with ‘x’. Its still uncommon, but widely used on American university campuses.

Lemonade

Lemonade was one of the few lustrous events in an otherwise gruesome year. Beyonces visual album, which debuted in April, is both an ode to black women and a deep personal love story, told in 11 evenly earnest chapters. Some chapters hollered “I came to slay, bitch.” Others were so specific and pointed in their anger that some wondered if Jay Z and Beyonce were getting divorced .

Image: Beyonce

Featuring candidly beautiful verses from the Somali-British poet Warsan Shire, the book is a dazzlingly complex project in which pop culture meets spirituality, gratifies vulnerability. Scenes from the album have become religion, and quite rightly so, such as the one in which Beyonce is covered in a yellowish nightgown and golden jewelry, opens doubled doorways to tell the liquid flow on the stairs. After a bit son sides her a baseball bat, Beyonce is off, destroying automobiles and cameras, crushing open a fire hydrant and twirling in its water.

So potent was the panorama and the entire book that the University of Texas at San Antonio decided to offer students the opportunity to sign up for a class announced Black Women, Beyonc& Popular Culture.” Students who take the course will invest the semester searching the singer’s visual album, Lemonade , and its relation to black feminism. Isnt that everyones dream?

Nasty wives

In the final presidential conversation, Hillary Clinton, while discussing Donald Trumps tax pays, was interrupted by the Republican nominee who said, leaning into the mic: such a nasty woman.

The phrase, uttered so soon after Trump roundly contended that no one has more respect for women than him, speedily became a trending hashtag. #NastyWoman took over Twitter and soon became a war cry for numerous women.

Twitter user @thecultureofme even acknowledged to buying the world’s most delightful domain name, NastyWomenGetShitDone.com , then configuring the sheet to redirect to Hillary Clinton’s officer website. And Will Ferrell boasted a Nasty Woman T-shirt in support of the democrat.

Pokemon become

In a year of unlikely resuscitations and throwbacks Pokmon Go took “the worlds” by squall. It was just the perfect make for those who grew up in the 1990 s and had fond childhood retentions of the insanely successful Game Boy tournament . The conclude Pokmon Go is so cunning, though, is that it’s all tied to the real world .

The app trails your site IRL, which means you hunting and catch Pokmon on the same system of roads and parks that you’re walking through in real life. PokStops( where you stock up on items) are linked to real world places like local post office, and gyms( where you contend competitive Pokmon coaches i.e. other people playing video games) are happenings like religions and train stations in the real world.

Soon after it the app was wheeled out, pokmania spread all over the world . And its not over. On Monday, government officials Pokmon Go account shared the exciting word that brand-new Generation II Pokmon have been added to the game.

Post-Truth

The annual Oxford Dictionaries “word of the year” can divulge a lot about the world we live in. And this year it’s very telling. Post-truth is defined as an adjective “relating to or designating cases in which objective points are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to ardour and personal belief”. Over such courses of 2016, mentions of the word snowballed in the framework of Brexit and the US presidential election. Read more about the sources of the word here.

Post-truth is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016. Find out more: https :// t.co/ jxETqZMxsu pic.twitter.com/ MVMuMyf8 3K

Oxford Dictionaries (@ OxfordWords) November 16, 2016

Peach emoji

The peach emoji when it looked like a butt.

When Apple exhausted the first beta form of iOS 10.2, numerous people were frantic because of an update on the peach emoji, which appeared more like a normal peach and less like a butt.

noooooo they’re changing the peach emoji pic.twitter.com/ CmHkef9MlM

alix (@ freckledbutt) November 1, 2016

Thankfully, after some serious internet backlash, Apple appears to have redesigned the emoji to to once again resemble a butt.

Spectacles( Snapchat )

The brand-new smart sunglasses , rolled out in November, furnish a whole new ordeal in snapping, earmarking filming in terms of the user.

The product is sold in interactive vending machine announced Snapbots , in very limited quantities throughout the US. Instead of selling them online or in stores, Snap Inc. is exploiting the vending machine, along with an interactive map, to drive the Spectacles promotion train.

Since the launch they’ve been used everywhere from in the sack to in surgery.

Surreal

While “post-truth” was Oxford Dictionaries parole of its first year, “surreal” was Merriam-Webster’s 2016 word of its first year .~ ATAGEND Defined by the dictionary as “marked by the intense irrational actuality of a dreaming, ” “surreal” is a relatively new word in English, having been first is contained in the dictionary in 1967.

Never before have so many beings felt compelled to look it up on their dictionary as they did in 2016. Terrorist strikes in Brussels and Nice and the struggled takeover in Turkey were the tragic events that led to a spike in the numbers looking up the word. But the most significant spike was after the US election in November.

Trolls

Image: ap photo

From Reddit’s CEO to the Royal Family, everyone this year had to deal with the rise of the trolls.

Trolling is a phenomenon as old because the internet and it gained renown during the U.S. poll.

An military of so called “alt-right” trolls was already a significant online violence before Americans cast their votes. After Donald Trump was elected president, they made it clear they were not about to go back to the dark angles of the internet from where they came from.

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman had his own headaches around the trolls. He riled Reddit users after declaring changing abusive posts about him to mention the moderators of Reddits biggest pro-Trump subreddit, r/ the_donald. I abused my capability to give the bullies a hard time, he said.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

Image: pa

Even the Royal Family had to deal with the racist and sexist trolling of Prince Harrys girlfriend Meghan Markle . In November, Kensington Palace said in a statement that Harry’s girlfriend has been subject to a “wave of abuse and harassment”.

Woke

Woke was used in 2016 in the context of the Black Lives Matter movement, often in hashtags like #StayWoke. But its own history is much older. As is attributable to Nicole Holliday in the Oxford Dictionaries blog, the word originated in the black community in the mid 20 th century with the implications of being is cognizant of social systems of pitch-black oppression.

In 1962, woke was shall be included in a lexicon of African American slang with the description ‘well-informed, up-to-date”. “By the following decade, we have evidence of it being used in a more explicit political situation, ” Holliday explains.

In a 1972 romp entitled Garvey Lives !, generator Barry Beckham writes. I been sleeping all “peoples lives”. And now that Mr. Garvey done woke me up, Im gon stay woke. And Im gon help him wake up other pitch-black folk

Image: VICKY LETA/ MASHABLE

After the Trayvon Martin slay in 2013 and the Black Lives Matter movement, awake has made a comeback though sometimes it has been used inappropriately in non-political, ludicrous tweets.

” Woke has been racially cleaned for a mainstream gathering. Woke has been removed from its ties to black communities as well as its reference to black consciousness and political motions, ” says Holliday in her blog.

Glossary 2016

So there you have it. A Glossary of 2016. Who knows what statements waiting for us next year.

BONUS: This super precise handwriting robot is so satisfying to watch

The post These are the words that encapsulate 2016 appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

from WordPress http://ift.tt/2y0HZrL via IFTTT