#I recommend viewing this as big as possible to appreciate all the detail :D

[devilrose]

Lake Rumare and the Imperial City

[tundrainafrica]

Title: Lovebug (11/14)

Summary:

“It might be a bug.”

“A bug?”

“Sometimes the developers of this application make mistakes. This is our first time meeting I’m sure so…Isn’t it a bit weird that we just met for the first time and it rings like this? And for two strangers to coincidentally ring each other’s alarms?“

Levi is the developer of the Love Alarm App and Hange is married to Zeke.

Link to cross-postings: AO3

Other Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Notes: Feedback is very much appreciated :D

Levi could only be grateful that Petra had taken charge.

He was in no mood to do much but sit down, maybe get the gears of his brain moving when questions on coding or troubleshooting were directed to him. When the questions were on expected behavior of application, on known bugs, the motions in his mind were automatic, the responses that followed were second nature.

In that particular role, he was certain he’d be functional at the least.

There were questions about the overall testing process though that required more consideration, more planning and maybe some drawing. They weren’t formulaic. They required an overall different approach, a different part of the brain and Levi was only further convinced of that as he watched Petra draw over the floor plan with pencil.

He didn’t make sense of it at first and maybe all he needed was just a little push in the right logical direction.

Petra’s explanations were a godsend. “With the size of the gym, we can manage thirty tests at once…” She drew circles over the gym, evenly spaced. “We do it all at once, then we have them exit through here. ” She continued to trace the path from the front of the gymnasium to the back. “Then they answer the questionnaire over here, then one of the facilitators will submit it to the moderator’s table.”

The line that weaved efficiently through markers was a sign enough that she had put much thought into the overall planning process.

The moderator's tables was strategically positioned on one corner of the gym, angled in such a way to be inconspicuous.

Levi looked back for a second, noting, it's almost invisible presence next to the stage and the stored sports equipment.

And all I have to do is sit here, listen and answer questions right? Levi wished he could have asked it out loud. What kind of head engineer would he seem like if he did though? He went for the less desirable option of just keeping quiet, instead letting whatever questions in his brain out as one raised eyebrow.

“We want to make the most of our resources here so Eld, Oluo, Gunther, can facilitate. Make sure that none of the Love Alarms are on silent, that all the questionnaires are answered then mark on the box if it did ring. And Levi…” Petra turned to Levi. “I recommend you stay in the moderator’s table, encode the data, and stand by for any issues that may come up.”

Levi nodded. “That sounds like a plan.” He forced those last words out of his mouth while brushing off the almost guilt inducing relief at the confirmation of his own job and soon after that, the painful awareness of his own strange disconnect from the overall testing process

Petra though, had proven more qualified to take over. She had taken it upon herself since even the planning stages, coordinating with the logistics team, coordinating with the marketing team. Thus, she was in a better position anyway to brief people.

More importantly, she was admirably calm and professional about the whole process of presenting a plan in front of one of the biggest investors of the company. A very glaring reminder why she had been assigned to front office work since the start.

It wasn’t at all difficult to admit that Petra deserved to manage it.

So he let her take free rein. Levi leaned back on the wall, arms crossed as he watched the hand drawn lines darken under Petra’s delicate motions. He was tempted to doze off and a few times he did, especially when Petra took some time out to mention the specific responsibilities of facilitators.

When she mentioned the data encoding process, Levi forced himself to listen. Moments after that, when Petra shifted to other topics, he found himself darting his eyes across the small crowd, letting his eyes land on Zeke. The view of Zeke standing on one side of the table, looking deep in thought sent a rush of urgency through him, a very natural reaction to money, corporate obligation.

And something else.

Something unfamiliar and unwelcome. Sadness? Before Levi could even pin down the emotion, he was already following Zeke’s gaze.

Those blue eyes were tracing the plans on the table. Levi observed for a while, making quick guesses of what Zeke had been watching on the table, maybe to get a glimmer of what the man could have been thinking. Just behind the table though, on their side, there was something that had caught his attention more quickly than some overly detailed plans and some notes he had seen too many times already.

There were two hands clasped together and before he even noticed it himself , Levi was staring, tracing the thumbs with his eyes. Soon, he concluded, the grip of one of those hands was all too familiar.

Levi looked up, only to confirm what he already knew.

Hange could have known he was watching but Levi liked to guess that she didn’t. After all, she didn’t meet his gaze, instead, her head shot up, her eyes shifted towards Zeke.

It felt like an unspoken rejection.

A very out-of-place feeling of rejection.

Why would she look at me? Levi looked back down at the plan, letting the mood whiplash that followed rush through him. In those few moments, nothing much had changed. The markers were just a little clearer, the black ink a stark contrast to the white paper but he only found as he continued to follow it, that he couldn't make much sense of it anymore.

“Are you okay with this plan?” Petra asked.

Levi wasn’t looking so he couldn’t be too sure who she was talking to. Her voice was careful, gentle, and her tone was very respectful. He took the risk of making eye contact.

“Boss, are you okay with it?” She repeated. “If you have any feedback…”

Out of instinct, Levi nodded. “Yes, it looks like a great plan.” He could only thank whatever god, or whatever natural forces had made his voice naturally toneless and uninterested. That was the most he could have feigned anyway in such an unexpectedly tense situation.

Petra nodded and moved on from there. And whether or not the others had been looking at him, Levi couldn't tell too much. Their eyes fell back on the table in front of them, Petra continued to prattle on about logistics and upkeep.

Soon, Levi decided, he could probably just learn along the way. All he had to do was keep watch on the moderator’s table and encode data anyway.

Right? “I’ll go to the toilet first,” Levi whispered from behind Petra.

Petra saw him off with a subtle eyebrow raise.

With that bout of freedom, Levi broke away from the small crowd and made his way out of the gym. There probably was a toilet inside the gym but he didn’t bother to search for it. The point of the toilet break was the break more than the actual toilet.

Over the long drawn orientation, Levi realized he was tired, unmotivated and maybe a little desolate. Everything had the potential to tick him off and he just needed some time to breathe.

Maybe a long walk could help. Maybe pretending Hange didn’t exist for just a few minutes would help.

His emotions were a mush and he found himself in some strange in-between state as he strolled aimlessly through the campus. He was looking for a way to get lost while at the same time, he was looking for the most efficient way to make it to some empty toilet.

After a good number of unproductive minutes and a not-too-comforting toilet break had passed, Levi conceded. He might really have to do a quick search to even find his way back in such a big campus. After opening the maps app and confirming location, Levi made one last check on one certain application to satisfy his curiosity.

Purple. His emotional alarm confirmed. He was going to have to be productive despite being very purple.

Levi pocketed his phone and made the familiar trek back to the gym.

**

The gym exploded into a cacophony of rings from that familiar alarm and very annoying echoes that never seemed to end, both sounds Levi was all too tired of hearing already.

It didn't help at all that booting up his laptop and opening the sheet had been also an excruciatingly slow.

When he organized the stack of questionnaires into a pile next to his desk, he was just a little disconcerted. Disconcerted enough that it took him some time to notice that someone had settled onto the seat next to him.

Recognition came quickly, the first question came out instinctively. “Why are you here?” They were still close enough at least that Hange seemed to have gotten his question even with the little effort he put into speaking over background noises.

The flash of surprise in her eyes, beautifully framed as Hange furrowed her brows was very telling of Levi’s tone. Was he too abrasive? Well, they had a pretty good send off yesterday. Right? He eventually concluded, he probably could have been a little nicer.

Hange was a distraction. When Hange was next to him on the moderator’s table, it felt like a carrot was being dangled in front of him. When it was him and her, in front of hundreds or other people, some of them people who could potentially ask about Hange, he couldn't even act naturally around Hange.

Levi could only entertain the possibility that it would have been easier if she wasn't present.

It didn’t help at all that Zeke was just a few feet behind Hange. Sometimes, the blonde was rattling on about possible investment plans with some very irritating enthusiasm. Sometimes, he was talking to some other school official and sometimes he was on the phone with god-knows who. And every now and then--- No, not every now and then--- In very regular intervals, Levi would notice the way Zeke would stare at the both of them for just a few seconds.

Not infrequently enough for Levi to blame his own paranoia, yet too often for Levi to have noticed some pattern.

Hange though, hadn’t been very helpful. She started to type on her laptop much louder. “I volunteered to help encode data. Petra said during the briefing that you wouldn't be able to do it alone. Weren't you listening?"

Maybe he hadn't been listening. That didn't mean he had to admit it. “Only one person needs to do it,” Levi responded.

“We’re looking at hundreds or even thousands of data points.”

“I’ve dealt with worse.”

Hange turned to him, her eyes observing. “And you seem tired.”

“Do I?” That last syllable came out as a croak. Hange’s own conjecture had left Levi thinking, then he was suddenly more aware of his own vulnerability.

When she stared at him for a while longer, her lips curling up into a soft smile, Levi had to acknowledge her ability to just see through him. He cleared his throat, swallowing that crack in his voice from a second ago.

“How are you feeling?” Hange asked. She continued to type, sometimes she shifted to clicking with the mouse, maybe preparing a spreadsheet.

The question had come out of nowhere and in the air between them, it seemed almost out of place. What could he expect though after their last encounter?

He silently stumbled upon the answer. Nothing. There was no well-backed formula to navigate such complex circumstances.

Levi didn’t answer immediately, allowing himself a few minutes to at least come up with something fair. He leaned back on the metal chair and stared up at the ceiling. He dug into his pants, searching for anything to hold onto, dryer lint, a few odds and ends to distract himself with. He was a naturally fastidious person and consequently, digging into pockets had left him empty handed. With no choice but to answer, He opened his mouth slowly, before he could even come up with something. “Purple,” he eventually whispered.

It was still loud enough for Hange to hear. She responded soon afterwards. “I’m feeling green, very green.”

Happy sad? Or sad happy? Those questions never left his mouth. Maybe he was a little terrified to know the answer. Maybe he just didn’t trust himself to function if by some chance she said something he didn’t want to hear.

Besides, this was a professional relationship. They were colleagues, business partners.

And once again, Levi reminded himself. Why should she think of him as anything more than that?

“You’re not joining testing?” Levi asked.

They had been silent for a while, long enough for Levi to get tired of staring at Zeke and Erwin who had been engaged in some other conversation on a table towards the corner of the gym, some area concealed by some makeshift stage. From the moderators table situated right beside the stage. Levi couldn’t make out conversations but he could make out some of the gestures and mannerisms

There was another man, someone Levi didn’t recognize. A School Official?

It didn’t seem necessary for him to think too much of it. After all, it had seemed like a more casual conversation. Zeke though, always seemed to be having a relaxed conversation while Erwin never looked like he was having one.

“I left my phone...” It had felt like ages before Hange replied.

He didn’t even notice he had been waiting for her reply until he turned back, and returned her gaze. Until he found himself unable to respond, possibly out of shock.

She continued. “Back in the house…” Her words came slowly. Maybe she had been too engrossed in something else in her laptop to tell.

We have test devices. The suggestion seemed almost automatic

Levi’s mouth was already halfway open when she interrupted. “I’d personally rather I didn’t test the Love Alarm today. He might insist we test it but I thought it worth a shot to at least not have my phone with me, to make it less convenient.” She shrugged then gave him a knowing look.

You know why… Those had been the silent words between them. And there could have been a silent conversation after that, or a silent moment of comprehension. Something only two people whose love alarms rang under the mercy of the most complex of circumstances could have ever understood.

In the silence that followed, Levi kept himself busy encoding some of the data that had already come in. He was grateful there were still parts of the spreadsheet that needed fixing. He managed to prolong his busy-ness and as they continued, he was committed to keeping both of them occupied.

The answered questionnaires came more quickly, in thicker stacks and Levi only got enough to seem productive, leaving Hange with a slightly bigger stack. The unsynchronized clacks of the keyboards were enough to fill the air of the room, for a good long hour.

He tried to take control in his own way, maybe find rhythm with Hange's typing.

A part of him was desperate to fill the air between them with some casual conversation but when he opened his mouth, nothing much else came out. They were doing what they were supposed to do but Levi felt like a fish out of water.

With time and the right prodding, his thoughts flew back to Hange’s words just yesterday. Maybe she had been right. They were at the mercy of circumstances.

An hour or so could have passed before Zeke sauntered back into their table with Erwin trailing behind. Zeke slammed both hands on the table in some strange greeting. "Did you have our chauffeur pick your phone up?"

Hange looked up at Zeke, her expression unreadable. "No, I didn’t.”

Zeke had the face of a wounded monkey. “So you really don’t plan on joining the testing?”

Hange shrugged. “I’m fine just helping out here. I’ve done enough testing with the app already.”

“I want to test it with you,” Zeke said.

Hange returned Zeke’s look with her own consoling one. “We could always try it together another time?” She suggested.

Zeke didn’t seem satisfied. “I’ll call someone to bring it over.” He pulled out his phone.

Hange put her hands up in defense. “No need, besides, there might be something wrong with my phone. I plan on having it checked.”

“You could use one of the test devices here?” Erwin suggested.

A very unwelcome suggestion. Levi was tempted to look at Erwin, shooting daggers with his stare. Instead he bent over, just a little hiding his face behind the laptop screen.

“No no, don’t trouble yourself, other people might need it more,” Hange said.

"We could always buy a new phone?" Zeke seemed pretty certain about his suggestion. He had pulled out his phone as he spoke.

If Levi had been drinking then, he could have spit it out. Instead he had to settle for choking on his own saliva. What?

Erwin raised both eyebrows in shock. "Mr. Jaeger, do you mean buying a new phone for testing? We have a few test devices here. You shouldn't put yourself thought the trou--"

Zeke shook his head. "Believe me it's no trouble." He started to type. "Leave the test devices for people who actually need them. Buying a phone is no problem for me.”

Hange had opened her mouth to protest. Something could have caught at her throat and she looked back down at her laptop. She started to type faster, much faster than a while ago. The quick and off rhythm clack of the keyboard mixed with Zeke’s very firm orders at whoever poor sap was on the phone.

“Any particular model you’d like?” Zeke asked.

Hange shook her head. “You know my stand on this Zeke.”

“It’s a quick test,” Zeke justified. Seeming unbothered, he turned to Levi. “What type of model does the love alarm work best in?”

Erwin had been looking at him expectantly then and Levi found himself dropping a typical model, muttering it under his breath.

It hadn’t done much anyway. Zeke acted as if he hadn't been listening to Levi in the first place. Maybe he hadn't, his focus completely on whoever he was talking to on the phone. “Just buy the best model available and get it down here stat... Money won’t be a problem.”

Still, it was a total waste of money. Levi snuck a glare at Zeke from just above his laptop and a part of him was hoping he had gotten the message.

It was just like Erwin to find a diplomatic way to make his own thoughts known. “You really didn’t have to go through the trouble. We have some working phones which Hange could have borrowed.”

Zeke put one finger up as if to silence Erwin. “I think it’s a fair price for convenience. Besides, if your phone is broken, better to replace it right?" He turned to Hange with those last words.

To Levi, it seemed almost like a challenge.

A challenge to what? There were too many things running through his brain, useless things like estimations of phone prices and a price that would have meant installments to most people, so casually dropped by someone as insufferable as Zeke Jaeger.

He didn't trust himself to speak. So he encoded the last few papers in front of him onto their electronic sheet, slowly yet very carefully, willing his eyes to run through each number multiple times.

His brain was barely moving though.

When the new stack of papers came, care of Eld, Levi was an odd mix between grateful and exasperated.

When Zeke invited Hange out for lunch, he was an odd mix between relieved and just slightly offended.

By what? Of course Zeke wouldn't invite him.

Still, maybe it hurt just a little bit to have the seat next to him empty.

***

Levi settled for a lunch of a sandwich and whatever drink he got his hands on first. Nutrition facts and long term consequences to his overall health could wait another few decades.

Just like with toilet breaks, Levi went for the farther convenience store for no specific reason. Maybe to see a little more green or to allow himself some brain space to think and walk.

And maybe to run into Hange and Zeke again. He found himself thinking back to Hange at the hotel restaurant. It had happened only last Friday but somehow, it had felt like ages ago.

He shifted his gaze, looking subtly through cafe windows, searching for a mop of brown hair or maybe the well kept golden blonde. He came up with nothing.

With time, he gave up, and turned back to the school, passing through one of the nearby entrances, quietly looking through the map on his phone for assurance that he was still on the right path back.

The uniforms were the first sign he was on the right path. The students that had strolled purposefully through the characteristic red brick roads of the school were another sign.

All he had to do was follow the signs to make it back to the gym.

And as he walked on, he noticed other signs, like people with their phones held up, as if looking for an app, maybe? He couldn't be too sure. That was until he noticed two people hunched over, screaming obscenities about love, relationships and some ridiculous app, to surmise he must be nearby.

"Why the hell did it ring?"

"Relax Connie, it's just an app."

"Just in case you forgot, you're in a relationship. Niccolo could kill me for this."

Levi looked back fast enough to catch the nonchalant shrug of the brunette.

"He won't," the brunette continued. "Besides, who cares about what an app says. I already committed to a relationship with him ----”

“I care!”

“Okay then,” She looked dumbfounded or maybe that had been her natural face. She paused for a second, looking upward, seeming deep in thought before she spoke up again. “Why are you so worked up over this?”

There was a bench nearby and for a good few seconds, Levi was eyeing it, especially while the two young students continued to chatter on about his application. The conversation got a little more interesting and it had been all the easier to decide to take a moment to settle on the bench and scroll through his own phone.

“Sasha, tell me… What did you put in the questionnaire.” Connie asked, only confirming the girl’s name for Levi.

“Isn’t that confidential?” Sasha challenged.

Technically it was confidential. Levi had to note and the two were talking in such a recklessly loud manner and even Levi a good few feet away was within earshot. Just to seem less like a peeping Tom, he put both earbuds on.

“I said I trusted you, that I’m happy with you. I think about you a lot. Maybe that’s why it rang for me.”

Levi noticed it from his peripherals, the way the girl named Sasha tensed up and froze on the spot. He found himself cheering silently for the young boy.

Connie, that’s his name right?

“Connie, we’ve been best friends for years… Of course I’d feel the same way about you.”

“So… If the alarm rang for both of us…” Connie never finished his sentence. Or maybe he did, his voice had slowly deadened into murmurs and in response.

Sasha’s jaw dropped, reminiscent of only Hange’s face just yesterday when they separated by the boarding gate.

In shock? In confusion? There were only too many reasons for that expression but Levi was feeling conservative with his guesses. They were a bunch of teenagers, what did they know about love and relationships?

Sasha’s expression softened into a kind smile. “We’ve been best friends for years...even if it is true…”

Their voices had softened to a whisper as the conversation only got more and more serious and Levi was starting not to make out most of what they were saying. He did notice though how she mentioned something about a man named Niccolo, something about a choice to date someone.

And he concluded, maybe it was for the better that he left the two alone to discuss their problems.

He silently scolded himself for even getting invested in that conversation in the first place.

***

Whatever results Connie and Sasha gave were completely anonymous and as Levi scrolled through the datasets on the sheet, he felt almost guilty for prying so deeply into some stranger's personal business. Embarrassingly, it had reached a point where he had been invested enough to guess which of the results were theirs based on the conversation a while ago.

After half an hour of fruitless searching, he let the guilt take over and he stopped himself. Instead, he turned back to the stack of papers that needed encoding.

Maybe one of the papers is there. Levi guessed then he mentally slapped himself for that bout of desperation.

“You should put a minimum age on this Love Alarm app.”

Levi looked up to see Hange had pulled back the seat and settled down next to him. “Why?” he asked. The question seemed more for posterity. Levi was starting to guess the answer himself.

“On the way back from lunch, we ran into a few students fighting.” She chuckled, her voice was light, her tone almost mischievous. “It looks like the love alarm might have started some drama.”

Levi wondered how she could even manage such a conversation when there were more pressing matters on hand. Still, he decided to engage. “I ran into two kids outside too. They were talking about their results with the love alarm.”

Hange raised one eyebrow in interest. “Oh?”

“And one of them’s in a relationship already.” Soon after those words leaked out, Levi wondered if he should have even admitted it. They seemed too painfully familiar.

“So, it just proves, even in a committed relationship, it could ring. Right?” Hange asked.

“Of course it would. The love alarm wouldn’t be able to tell if you’re in a relationship right?” Levi responded. “All the app measures is…” Love. He was careful that second time around. “Compatibility. Unable to multitask at that moment, he dropped his hand right next to the laptop. He looked to Hange, only to notice she hadn’t even started on the second stack yet.

Her eyes were on him and she was still looking very much invested in the conversation. “And I told you, I think your app is working fine.”

Levi continued. “But they’re high school students.”

“Are you saying high school students aren’t capable of love?”

Levi almost choked on his own saliva. “What? No, I never said that.” He took a deep breath. “But there are nuances when considering compatibilities right, something people wouldn’t figure out for themselves early in life.”

“Your application is able to detect those nuances even if people aren’t aware of it themselves then. Going back to those two kids you ran into, let’s assume the love alarm was correct and those two really were compatible with each other. Explain the situation Levi.”

Levi had to pick at his brain. He had to do and undo knots from inside him so maybe it had taken him a bit longer to get those words out. He stared in front of him, trying to find organization in the way Petra had guided the new set of volunteers in.

Luckily, Hange had been patient.

He didn’t spend too much time wondering how long he had made her wait, he looked up at her, and leaned his cheek further into the palm of his hand. He spoke up. “One of them is in a relationship already. Her name is Sasha. The other one—I think his name is Connie— is a childhood friend.”

“Oh, childhood friends to lovers huh?” Hange gestured playfully for him to continue speaking.

Levi had momentum in the conversation, so he willed himself to continue. “And it rang for both of them, and they were talking about it. I couldn’t tell too much from the conversation but---”

“Do you think Sasha would leave her boyfriend just because the love alarm rang?” Hange could have been a mind reader and it was just like her to go straight to the point. Her voice was a little louder. At that point, she leaned back on her chair, and stared straight ahead. Her expression was painfully unreadable.

That had shortened Levi’s tirade by minutes, maybe seconds. That unexpected query left Levi frozen for a while.

“Should a love alarm ringing be worth two people reconsidering long term relationships?” Hange pressed.

Even if he didn’t have an answer for himself. Levi bit his lip and stared straight ahead. It was an easy enough question to answer, a very logical one. All he had to do was look back at whatever snippets he got of the conversation back in the schoolyard to grasp for some right answer.

Even if it is true, we made our choices. And a high school student admitting that of all things, should have been a glaring sign that maybe Levi had been a little immature, having been bothered by the prospect of ‘love being a choice’ for so long.

No, a love alarm shouldn’t be worth it. Levi had opened his mouth, ready to answer it with a simple and most objectively correct answer.

Even if the love alarm was correct, we made our choices. He had accepted it already weeks back, a sad kind of happiness.

Acceptance. But why was a part of him still resisting? He was looking for something. He looked back at Hange who sat, unmoving, he continued to search for it, studying whatever features his eyes would land on, from her cold eyes right until her pursed lips.

Acceptance. Levi repeated to himself. That had been enough to quell the drive to search within him

“Is a loving alarm ringing, really worth it?” Hange asked again. She had more to say, it was very much apparent in her cold professional demeanor. He could have sworn he saw something else, something that made him reflect on whether that question had been rhetorical or whether Hange really expected him to answer.

Worth throwing our lives away? Levi finished the sentence for her in his head and he almost regretted it. His heart ached, he found himself almost unable to breathe. It had been a miracle he managed to continue speaking.

Acceptance. He had accepted it a long time ago already. Maybe that had been the reason he had still managed to look her in the eye then. Levi took a deep breath. “It isn’t,” he admitted.

Hange dropped her shoulders and leaned back on the chair. She closed her eyes and let out an exhale.

A natural response to the thick tension between them. Still, something inside him was desperate for an inkling of her truth and he continued to search.

Hange looked back at him. In those few seconds, she had managed to compose herself and Levi was just having a much harder time reading her.

She spoke up again. “Are you okay?”

“No I’m not,” Levi admitted.

“Is there anything else you wanna talk about?” Hange was once again cold and professional.

Brushing away disappointment, Levi shook his head. “No. Let’s go back to work.” It looked like that 'casual' conversation had taken some turn for the worse and he was just a little tired from that.

***

After an hour or so, Levi had attempted again to loosen whatever tension blanketed both of them with another light conversation topic.

The few times he tried, he was interrupted. Events were only happening one after the other and he was starting to realize how difficult it was to keep a calm and disconnected conversation. Every other few minutes, they were coming at him with new reports, new stacks of paper, new developments.

“This is the last time we’re testing on high school students,” Levi muttered. He was almost relieved their last conversation had ended on an abrupt note. Maybe that wasn’t a conversation they should have been reaching in such a hectic situation.

“I’ll tell Zeke about this,” Hange responded calmly.

A huge chunk of Levi’s attention was on the scene in front of him just a few rows back There were, two girls, a small blonde and a dark lanky brunette a few inches taller, right next to them was a burly blond man. The blond man seemed almost devastated, the brunette seemed defensive and it looked like the small blond girl was trying to pacify both of them with a rattled Oluo in tow.

“How did you even convince a bunch of high school students to volunteer to test the app?” Levi asked half heartedly. That seemed like a casual conversation starter. He kept a good amount of his focus to his side, just in case Hange spoke up, he wouldn’t miss it.

Hange put one finger to her chin. "Zeke was pretty smart about it…” He pointed out something. "Teenagers are very simple minded yet very cynical at the same time. Just put the right bribe in front of them, concert tickets, front row tickets to a game in exchange for testing some product which seemingly tests their status with love? Most teenagers took the bait. " She grinned and spoke up again, her tone a little higher. “What can a simple phone app say about something as complex as love? Besides, the love alarm is a pretty harmless app right?”

She didn't really believe that right?

I mean, technically it is. Theoretically, all it did was measure compatibility. Most people should have chalked it up to something similar to horoscopes, superstitions or fortune telling. That information was on a nice-to-know basis but not necessarily life changing.

Levi only had to look ahead again to be reminded, maybe the Love Alarm just had that effect on people. Maybe users were underestimating their own ability to be unaffected by some reading on an application. The success of the Love Alarm was enough of an answer. The proliferation of app usage in the dating sphere was another hint. And the love alarm and the emotions alarm having some reign over Levi’s moods lately should have been another huge, visceral hint.

Levi set aside that last hint as soon as he articulated it in his mind. Instead, he turned his thoughts to an exhausted Oluo who was making his way to the table.

"This is a good lesson boss. We really should put a minimum age restriction on this," Oluo said as he sat back down on the chair next to Levi, seeming completely spent.

"You're not the first one to tell me that," Levi responded.

"You see that couple there? That small girl and that brown haired girl are in a relationship already. And that big guy, he has a thing for the small girl," Oluo explained. It looked like he had tried to keep a facade of disinterest, a shoddy one.

Levi saw easily through it. "I can see that." He kept his own tone seemingly unaffected. He wondered if it showed.

Either way, Oluo seemed too invested in whatever love stories he was speculating. "And the love alarm just made things slightly… complicated."

Levi narrowed his eyes, following the trio that only a while ago had been fighting.

He focused then on the brunette and the blonde, the subtle way they held hands, the wide eyed, seemingly permanent smile on the small blonde’s face. The brunette on the other hand seemed to wear a permanent scowl on her face. That was, unless she was staring at the smaller girl. He then looked down at the two hands, held close to each other.

He shook his head when he realized he had been staring at it for a little too long. He looked back at the burly blonde man, who stepped back, seeming disappointed, almost embarrassed.

"It helps articulate emotions. That’s the point of the Love Alarm because some people don’t even know they’re feeling something until someone—or something points it out right?" He turned almost instinctively back to Hange, only to feel a slight drop in his stomach.

Hange didn’t look back at him, seeming focused on whatever was in front of her. Her concentration made it difficult to see what had caught her eye.

Oluo continued. "There are two blondes over there. I think their names were Aaron… Arnie…? Anyway they have almost similar names." He subtly pointed towards another pair.

Still, it had been easy for Levi to trace the view to the two blondes next to each other, seeming nervous as they made their way through the crowd then to the table with the questionnaires. There was an awkward air about them, but he couldn’t help but notice the subtle smile plastered on both of their faces.

It only pushed Levi to look more closely at the papers as they were submitted to Petra. Petra had conveniently piled them on top of the stack and Levi followed it all the way until the mods table.

He looked over the answers.

All Yes boxes were ticked. Did they trust each other? Yes. Did they think about each other a lot? Yes. Levi double checked the question on the remarks filled up by a facilitator.

Did the love alarm ring? The ‘Yes’ box was ticked on both papers

"It looks like the Love Alarm can tie up romantic loose ends," Hange commented.

Levi only noticed when she had spoken up that she had craned her neck to read the questionnaire next to him. It looked like she had been listening the whole time. She gestured towards the exit of the gym where the two blondes seemed to be deep in conversation. From the distance, he noticed the red tint in both of their cheeks.

Then one raised their hand slightly, the other clutched it. Then Levi conceded, there was some truth to Hange’s comment. But he was tempted to challenge it. "Maybe because they mustered the courage to confess," Levi suggested as he encoded the numbers onto the spreadsheet. “They allowed themselves to feel whatever they were actually feeling.”

"Well, circumstances were in their favor right? I'm sure there are a lot more cases where just admitting would be slightly more complicated than that, like those two kids you mentioned a while ago."

Levi turned towards Hange, keeping his face as serious as possible. "I wanna know, why would admitting it be hard?"

Hange hummed "Rejection maybe?" Her face seemed innocent, mockingly innocent.

A little ticked, Levi was uncharacteristically in the mood for a little back and forth. "You've been talking about reading and acting on circumstances so many times this past weekend, I'm sure you know it's not always about rejection."

For the first time in a while, Levi was raring to talk. From the messy facade of disconnect, Hange’s expression shifted to that of hesitance, nervousness. For a good few moments, she was frozen on her seat. And he started to realize why he had been so strangely talkative since a while ago.

He was in a strange state of mind, he desperately wanted answers to questions he couldn’t yet articulate. Was he just not satisfied? Or was Hange just deliberately not giving them?

"Do you think it's embarrassing to feel something for someone?" Levi broke the silence with one question he managed to forage from the back of his mind.

Hange answered with a quick sentence. “No, it’s not.”

"Of course it's not, but when you think about your situation and you realize you’re not supposed to be feeling a certain way... Should you be ashamed about feeling that way?" He pressed.

"We can't assume how we feel right? Before we even delve into that, we have to consider whether or not we really feel that emotion right?"

"But when we’re sure we already feel it,” Levi clarified.

"But if you allow your emotions to play a part, all you do is muddle your own ability to analyze. I think everyone should analyze the situation first with a very cal—"

"I think that's pride," Levi said firmly. "I think pride is refusing to let yourself feel it in the first place."

Hänge hummed. "Well, then assuming that circumstances are so simple that you can just feel whatever you want… that's prejudice right? You only get past initial prejudice when you learn to analyze what's beyond the situation. The more you know, the more you understand, the freer you are."

"But you're only free if you let yourself feel, then after that, you let yourself understand," Levi said. So maybe just letting go, enough to let yourself feel, maybe that's freedom?"

Hange shook her head. "Thinking while letting your emotions run free? It's not that easy. You’re just gonna end up a slave to your emotions."

“Well, would I rather be a slave to my cold calculating brain or to my emotions? We can’t control emotions. We can’t control circumstances either. So what now?” Levi said, looking pointedly at Hange. He only realized then when the hoarseness of his throat caught up to him, that somewhere along the way he had raised his voice.

Hange’s eyes were wide and when she spoke up again, her voice was notably softer. It looked like she had raised her voice as well. “I assess the situation, and then I decide what to feel, what to do.”

Levi sighed. "Hange, I have another theory,” he started. “What if freedom is acting logically and objectively despite emotions?" He only noticed it soon after, he had adopted Hange’s mannerisms with those last few sentences.

Hange seemed unsurprised. She shook her head. “You can take control of your emotions more easily than your circumstances.”

"I don’t agree with that. No one can control how they feel. So I don’t think anyone should be ashamed of how they feel? Why do people have to stop themselves from feeling?" Levi asked. "Connie, that guy I ran into, the love alarm rang... They're best friends...there's acceptance there… isn't what's important is what we do with the feelings? I understand the circumstan—"

"Do you really understand it Levi?" Hange asked. She gestured with her face towards what was in front of them. The voices, the background noise became somewhat clearer as he watched the scuffle in front of him.

Levi huffed. “I understand that the Love Alarm isn’t enough reason for anyone to switch up their relationships…”

Sasha’s words echoed in his head. We’ve been best friends for years...even if it is true…

He continued. “But if the love alarm was correct, if the love were true, real… shouldn’t the users just accept these feelings for what they are?” Levi only noticed it a second later, when his eyes had locked on Hange that he had mimicked her position, leaning back on the chair. “Is it really so wrong to just accept sometimes, that love is an emotion and sometimes we just can’t control how we feel right? Maybe there is still a lot we can learn from an unrequited love.”

Hange furrowed her eyebrows. “We?”

“‘We’ as in every single person, who ever had to deal with an unrequited love.”

Hange didn't respond to that, she made some other excuse about how they had to work on the next set of results conveniently stacked in front of them.

Another attempt at some light conversation had left Levi winded. The words on the paper then on the screen were starting to blur amongst one another. His head was starting to throb. He found himself lowering the screen of his laptop just a bit and staring straight ahead, just for a break from the soft white glare.

He snuck a glance at Hange, who seemed just a little exhausted as well, her shoulders dropped, her wrists falling more recklessly onto the table as she typed.

The more people that filed in through the entrance, the more Levi realized it was a busy day. They shouldn't have been spending too much time discussing the relationships of people they would never see again. They shouldn’t have spent too much time discussing some useless philosophy on love when there were more pressing things to deal with.

Levi couldn't help but wonder. How the hell did all of their light conversation topics end up so heavy?

Or maybe he was the only one feeling that way. It looked like Hange had recovered first from that casual conversation turned deep. She looked up in one swift movement and spoke up, breaking the ringing silence between them. "That's Eren, Zeke's brother," she subtly pointed her thumb towards the side and Levi had to crane his neck to see behind her.

It wasn't too hard to pick him up. Eren was a tall teenager and he was followed by a young girl with chin length hair and an almost demanding presence despite being a little shorter.

"And that's Mikasa, his best friend,” Hange added.

Levi followed Eren with his eyes to see that he had gone to that corner just to talk to Zeke. Whatever they were talking about, he couldn't tell much from his end.

He looked to Hange for answers.

There was a flash of excitement in her eyes and she looked very much like she was holding in some interesting story, torn between speaking and watching the developments closely.

"You wanna tell me about them?" Levi asked when the anticipation finally became unbearable.

Hange seemed particularly focused as she watched Zeke and Eren talk. Levi even guessed that she may have heard that hushed conversation between them.

"He and Mikasa have been best friends for years… You know it's funny, her last name is Ackerman too. Are you related?" She commented

Levi never had enough bougie connections to have any cousins in swanky private schools so he brushed that question away. "Okay, what about them?"

Hange tapped one hand on the space between them on the table then pointed their way as Mikasa and Eren started to tap at their phones, with Petra looking like she was explaining something on her own phone.

They were downloading the app.

A young boy, a few inches taller than Eren joined the crowd. Levi followed the taller boy's gaze as they landed on Mikasa.

He tried to make sense of the conversation. Lip reading had never been his forte though.

"I don't recognize the taller guy," Hange admitted.

It was someone else who answered the question. "That's one of Eren's friends, Jean."

Levi turned behind him to see Zeke, the latter making his way to the seat on the other side of Hange. And just like that, Hange had turned away from him and started to engage with Zeke. When Hange willed it, it looked like she had a way of just making her voice unintelligible to him. Levi considered craning his neck, just to pick up some of the conversation, yet it seemed almost intruding.

That was Zeke and Hange’s conversation not his.

So he stared at the trio in front of him. When he had nothing else to do but encode the stack of papers next to him or make some mental detour about how they should automate such an archaic process, he found it easy to remember the names of the three kids, all an even distance away from each other, their eyes all on their phones.

Eren, Mikasa and Jean. Levi leaned back and watched the events in front of him unfold.

The gym was a constant slew of echoes and alarms and he couldn’t really tell the exact alarm that could have been from any of the three of them. He had to rely on expressions.

Jean turned a bright red. Mikasa had made a seemingly apologetic look at Jean. Then at Eren?

Eren didn’t blush, but he had seemed a little uncomfortable at the turn of events, apparent in the way he had tensed up, the way he turned his head sharply towards Jean.

Mikasa walked in between both boys, holding her hands up as if to separate the two. Maybe the dark glare she had given both boys had done the trick. The tension remained but there seemed little to no threat of a scuffle anymore.

Somewhere along the way, Eld had appeared next to the three with six sheets of paper and three pens. Eren came from behind Mikasa, walking notably nearer to her than a while ago.

They were whispering. Mikasa turned behind her to Jean who was following behind, a wide eyed look on her face and soon after Eld left, Zeke appeared next to Eren. He looked like he was pacifying the young teenager while the latter had gripped at his two sheets a little too hard.

Talking to him? Advising him? Levi didn’t ponder for long. He decided he didn’t want to think about Zeke.

“Zeke filled me in.” Of all things, that had been Hange’s conversation starter.

Levi didn’t know if he should be grateful or just irritated that of all things Hange had to mention him. “Go on,” he said as if just speaking would be enough to get rid of that twinge of irritation.

“It looks like Eren doesn’t know yet that he likes Mikasa. Or that’s Zeke’s speculation. So Zeke expected it to ring.”

“Wow, your husband takes the time out of his busy schedule to actually speculate on the love life of his younger brother.” Levi attempted not to lace his tone with sarcasm. As it turned out, even a sentence like that sounding emotionless or even friendly would seem sarcastic.

If Hange did notice it, she ignored it. “With the looks on their faces, I’m guessing it did ring.”

“For both of them?”

“For both of them maybe,” Hange said.

Another stack of papers were dropped in front of them, a few greetings were exchanged care of Gunther and once again, Levi was sifting through the pile for the more crumpled papers.

There were no names but he could make an intelligent guess. The crumpled papers were Eren’s definitely.

Did the alarm ring with your partner? Yes.

Just under it were two more papers.

Did the alarm ring? Yes.

Did the alarm ring? Yes.

“That looks like Eren’s hand writing, and that one’s Mikasa,” Hange pointed out. “I knew it.”

“So this means, Mikasa’s alarm rang with both Eren and Jean,” Levi said as he ran his hands over the papers.

Did the alarm ring? Yes.

“Then maybe, Jean’s alarm rang with Mikasa?” Hange guessed, giving him an expectant look. “Jean is one of Eren’s close friends from school apparently, and according to Zeke, he has the hots for Mikasa too.”

Levi looked at Hange. Her eyebrows were raised, her mouth played into a wide grin and for just a second, Levi could have felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

“Well who do you think Mikasa will pick?”

“That’s her choice right?”

“Zeke told me, one reason he wanted to test the love alarm here was to get his brother in one place with all the others who were crushing on Mikasa. He wanted Eren and Mikasa to realize something. Something that only the Love Alarm can prove maybe?"

"Love? Yearning?" Levi was spouting all too familiar emotions, or more specifically, he was spitting them out, like they were laced with poison.

Hange shrugged. "The love alarm causes chaos but sometimes it can tie loose ends."

Something inside him snapped. "Then why the fuck bring it up if you're just gonna answer with something vague."

Hange didn't seem surprised at all, and the more Levi stared, the more he realized he would have been annoyed either way.

A surprised Hange meant she probably didn't care. An expectant Hange meant she was hiding something.

"Levi…" Hange started. She took her time saying his name but she didn't say much else afterwards as if she was at a loss for words.

"We've been talking since a while ago. " Levi asked. "I wanna know, what are you trying to tell me? There must be a point to all these conversations."

"There's a point to this."

"Then, What. Is. It." Levi challenged.

"I told you, I don't want to rely on this love alarm to tell me how to feel. I want to decide how to feel."

"Want?"

"I will not allow it to tell me how I feel."

"Then I guess we won't agree. Look, I don't care about changing our circumstances right now. I don't give a fuck if after all this you leave." Levi mustered up some courage to look up at Hange.

She seemed lost in thought, yet at the same time, she seemed to be staring straight into him.

Levi only saw it as opportunity to continue but he was a little more careful that time, letting his voice soften into a whisper. "The most I want out of you is just some proof that this love alarm thing wasn't a sham. You said it yourself, it's not a bug right? Why did you say that? Why did you say that and now you're suddenly pretending that nothing happened?"

Hange opened her mouth to speak and she couldn't have gone any slower. He would have liked to blame the anticipation at first, the thick heavy tension that only made it harder to move.

When a box dropped in between both of them with a thump, Levi concluded, Hange had just been slow, fucking slow.

"We have a new phone. Download the app in, let's test," Zeke ordered. Who the hell was he ordering at that moment? Levi and Hange both couldn't tell.

Yet, their responses were surprisingly coordinated. Hange went for the box, quickly unwrapping it. Levi went for his laptop, pulling credentials from the system and a download link to be sent to the new phone.

It was only halfway through, when he was sending over the link did he notice it. Reciting the log-in details, he was only silently and peacefully walking to whatever chaos awaited them at the end. Yet, somehow he couldn't stop. Hange had seemed accepting too, overly professional about the whole process of testing and possibly inadvertently exposing her strange yet very personal love alarm results.

Around the time when Hange was going through the biometrics, Levi thought it polite to resist just a little. "You sure you wanna go through with this?"

"Who said I wanted to?" Hange asked.

"You know what I mean."

"Well, what do we tell Zeke then?"

Levi couldn't think up a response to that so he kept quiet. He let his mind wander. Then he agreed it wasn't a matter of Hange wanting to do something.

It was a matter of Zeke getting what he wanted.

Levi couldn't sit still. He couldn't bring himself to even get past the first paper on his new pile. His eyes were on the screen in front of him but he had snuck glances just above him towards the crowds of people so often that he might as well have just been looking ahead.

Eventually, he dropped the pile, gave up on getting any more done. He lost all self consciousness and just looked straight ahead.

It felt like he was watching an execution. It could have been his own execution, Hange’s execution or maybe even the whole company’s in slow motion.

He couldn't answer that particular question yet. With time, maybe he could. All he had to do was get past the few minutes that seemed like years, even decades.

Zeke was taking his sweet time, murmuring sweet nothings to Hange and Hange had taken her sweet time double checking those fucking biometrics. To the point where Levi actually spent a good amount of time brainstorming how to streamline the whole registration process.

The build up had been unbearably slow. Fucking slow. Petra stood next to them, preparing two sheets of paper and Levi found himself passing the time trying to answer it in his head.

The climax came very anticlimactically.

There were less people in the gym already, especially so late in the day. So when Levi craned his neck to hear it, he could almost pick it out, that one ring on their side of the gym. He only surmised that Hange's alarm rang when he noticed the way Zeke had wrinkled his nose and furrowed his brows.

Hange's back was to the moderator's table so Levi couldn't make out her face, as desperate as he was to know.

He wasn't that desperate yet. In fact, his own reaction to the chain of events didn't come as quickly as he had wanted to. Of all things, it had been Erwin’s expectant stare, the uncharacteristic panic in his eyes that had Levi standing.

“Levi could you check up on them?” It was Erwin’s order that had Levi making his way to them.

It had been the look of panic in Petra’s face that had him speeding up. And the closer he got, the more he realized how much he had wanted to see Hange’s face.

But business came first. “It looks like there’s still something wrong with the app.” Zeke’s words had surprisingly been polite. Levi’s first instinct was to search for the venom and the sarcasm and maybe he had sensed some.

For a mainly back office employee, diplomacy had seemed like the hardest part. There were only two things Levi would have been most comfortable doing then: turn to Petra and have her do the speaking or step forward, look back and take a peak at Hange who had stood unmoving since the alarm rang.

A sense of obligation was all he needed to meet Zeke’s eyes. He had to clench his jaw, he had to narrow his eyes just to keep some grip on the situation.

And it might only get worse.

He stepped forward, a few more steps then past Hange and it was only getting harder not to look back.

Zeke’s presence was domineering. His money, his power over whatever work Levi was doing was an unignorable reality. “It looks like the Love Alarm might not be working as expected," he said calmly.

Levi had his months worth of research and testing to look back to. And one thought, one long split second later, one deep breath later, he let it out, not confidently but just professional enough to at least get his point across.

“It’s working as expected,” Levi mustered. How many ways could he say something like that without insulting a billionaire? He wondered what Erwin would have said, what Hange would have said, what crazy lingo their marketing or public relations team would have come up with. Levi though had been the one who had slaved for years over that application. He would have been the only one to know the gravity of such a statement. “The love alarm is working as expected,” he repeated, just in case the message didn’t come across.

Maybe it didn’t. Zeke narrowed his eyes. “How can you be sure? Have you done the proper testing?”

“We’ve been testing this for months. Mr. Jaeger, it’s working as expected,” Levi repeated. He willed himself to keep the tone at the least, emotionless. At that moment, when he was also resisting the urge to look back at Hange it had been almost an impossible task.

Zeke let out one exhale. Then, his voice was soft, almost deathly cold. “Would you like to test again Mr. Ackerman?”

Test? Levi let his mouth drop just half way down. “Here?”

“You've taken a liking to Hange haven't you? I heard about it, if I've not noticed it myself.

Heard from who? Asking questions, Levi knew he would be only delaying the inevitable and a part of him wanted to delay it.

“Levi go turn on your Love Alarm,” Erwin ordered.

At the least, he had an excuse to look back. He caught Hange behind him for a split second. Her face was a strange mix between utter acceptance. The more Levi looked though, the easier it had been to pick out something else. A hint of pleading, too small that it could have been his imagination.

Levi looked away.

And Erwin wasn’t allowing him a second look. “Levi, is something wrong?” It wasn’t a question of concern. Levi had know Erwin enough to guess, it was merely a nice way of telling him to hurry.

Levi pulled his phone from his pocket, navigated to the application and activated in one quick motion. If he spared any more time, he might just hesitate.

There were three separate rings that filled the dead air between the four of them. At first, Levi had attributed the profundity, the implicit ringing in his ears to just the weight of the moment. Time was moving at a snail’s pace and by the time he had come to his senses, by the time Zeke had brought out his phone turning the empty screen towards him, Levi was suddenly aware that there were only three rings that graced the whole gym.

The gym had gone silent. All eyes were on them and the ringing of the three arms only continued, supplemented by whatever echoes followed.

And it would only continue unless someone moved to turn off their love alarm. Even in complete shock, Levi surmised that much.

Erwin had been the first to have composed himself. He took one to step back, then a few more. Then he was completely out of range of the love alarm.

The three alarms continued to ring.

Zeke was next to move. His face was completely unreadable and he had bent his head down, his eyes seeming glued to the screen.

From that angle, Levi could never be too sure of Zeke’s reaction.

Zeke eventually looked up, his face cold, almost expressionless. He held his phone up, only dangling it from the ground by three fingers.

The contents though were what had Levi still struggling to move. It had been expected, but to see it in the silence, when the air around them was heavy, when they were under close watch by tens if not hundreds of people, that had only served to make his stomach drop.

Zeke deactivated the alarm, and the alarm, barren of any hearts, shifted back to the title screen.

One sound disappeared. Two were left. And when everything else was silent, Levi couldn’t help but grovel silently at how annoyingly loud the ringing actually was.

He looked back at Hange. She had stood quiet and unmoving those few moments that seemed to last an eternity. When Levi looked back though, their gazes locked almost instantly.

Hange’s eyes were wide, her mouth pursed into some lopsided line and when Levi looked closer, he could have sworn he saw that flash of pleading again.

Pleading for what?

In such a fast paced world, on a Monday of all days, there was not much time to ponder. He had felt almost guilty staring, finding some way to placate her with his eyes alone. Eventually they were escorted out. Hange and Zeke went ahead and Hange as usual, had Zeke’s strong protective arm around her.

“Levi, we’re going to have to discuss this,” Erwin said. He walked ahead, gesturing for Levi to follow behind.

As always, Levi followed, slowly and sluggishly. It took him a minute more to realize he had almost forgotten to turn off the alarm.

***

“There’s no bug,” Levi repeated again. He attempted to compose himself but there was only so much he could do when he was the only one standing in the small conference room.

Zeke had settled on the sofa and as expected, no one protested. He put one hand to his chin, in mock surprise. “I could have sworn it had been working a few months ago.”

“We had a test build.” Hange spoke up from next to him, her voice was soft. It lacked the melody it usually had. “We needed the funds to continue digging into that bug so we created a build… for extra testing.”

“And I would have gladly given the funds either way,” Zeke said. “The burning question is, did you even find the bug?”

“There’s. No. Bug.” Levi kept his tone firm and professional. He wondered if the venom had made it out of his mouth.

“You gave up pretty fast,” Zeke commented.

And that was the moment Levi realized, there were things Zeke might never understand about the testing process. It was a complete waste of time explaining the difficulty of labor to someone who treated an ordinary person’s full time job as just another vessel for investment.

“Tell me, Mr. Ackerman. If there’s no bug, can you explain to me the reason behind the strange behavior of the application?” Zeke said.

The question had come as a challenge, something Levi was in no mood to take. When Erwin was giving him a long side eyed glance, he knew he’d have to make something work.

“It tests compatibility,” Levi said. “How well people would probably make as a pair, the potential to… get together.” He found himself dancing around definitions, avoiding the word ‘love’ like a plague.

But that wasn’t love. He would rather it wasn't love. Then and there, he almost considered applying for a name change.

“Zeke, love is a choice,” Hange said. “Whatever result the application gives is never going to affect this relationship. I wouldn’t let it.”

“Can you explain then why you have so much faith in this application then?”

Hange turned to Levi and nodded. “It has potential.”

“Potential for further research. You told me that before,” Zeke’s voice was only getting louder. “But can you really trust this application, this developer, after he inadvertently confesses, after your own application rings for him. And he refuses to admit to a bug.”

“Because it’s not a bug,” Hange said. “I was testing with him, I know.”

“So are you saying you’re in love with Mr. Ackerman?”

Hange dropped her shoulders, then looked straight ahead. “In another life, maybe we could have been compatible. If things didn’t end the way it did, maybe Levi and I could have gotten together and we would have been happy. I think that’s what the love alarm meant to say. Circumstances are different though. I’m married to you. I am committed to you.”

“But, are you in love with him?” Zeke pressed.

Hange shook her head. “I don’t think the Love Alarm measures love. It measures emotions, compatibility. Zeke, this thing between is, it's something we built overtime, something we grew together?”

Zeke narrowed his eyes at Hange and Levi followed his eyes back to her to see that pleading expression once again. Hange was still pleading, that time that expression was directed towards Zeke.

“Is it, Hange? Is love something which grows over time?” Zeke pressed.

Levi noticed Hange's face had fallen, her eyes widened but the pleading in her expression only grew. Then Levi made a silent yet outrageous guess.

Hange was pleading. Pleading for answers?

Zeke turned to Erwin then to Levi, his eyes once again cold and serious. "Can you give me and Hange some space first? We need to discuss something."

Maybe Zeke had guessed something similar and as Erwin led Levi out of the room, he was starting to accept that he might never know. Levi’s legs were heavy. The glass door had difficult to pull close and when he had shut the door behind him with a click, he felt like he had been lifting weights.

Or maybe he was just finding an excuse not to leave. There was that in between, something similar to the desolation of rejection and another pathetic emotion.

Denial. There was more to their circumstances for sure. Hange’s strange expression, the wide eyes, the almost seemingly curious glimmer and the pleading that never seemed to fall away.

Out of curiosity, or even desperation, Levi ended up waiting outside for a second longer, positioning himself somewhere where he wouldn’t so easily be seen.

The door was an orderly combination of frosted glass, wooden frames and transparent glass. When Levi sat on the sofa just in front of the doorway, burying himself into some social media timeline, he still had enough headspace to crane his neck up, and just make out positions just behind the frosted class.

Behind the portion of clearer glass, Levi could see Hange was still sitting on the sofa but her posture had shifted into something strangely uncharacteristic. She rested her forehead on her palm and she was bending over, staring at something at the palm of her hand.

The familiar silver of Zeke's phone. What was she staring at?

It felt almost intrusive asking, so Levi ended his own mental reflection there. Instead, he focused on how Hange had looked back up, a look of panic, concern. She was calling out to Zeke maybe?

In a few swift movements, Zeke had come right beside her, he pressed her towards the clear glass.

And he kissed her.

Head empty, thoughts elsewhere, Levi didn't feel it immediately. But eventually it did come. It was a strong wave and for a while, Levi was bombarded.

A second later, he was drowning.

Over a small view? Something between the slits of glass? When he got his grip back on reality, he let his eyes wander over the intricate design of the door and to to the only part of Hange that was reflecting some glimmer of protest.

The fingers of her right hand were pressed on the doorway and Levi continued to watch that less painful view from the one just above it. Hange’s hand continued to twitch, then it went back up and gripped Zeke by the waist. Then suddenly her arm had snaked over Zeke's back then pulled him into one tight embrace.

One tight embrace in front of him and Levi started to think it almost laughable that he had even searched for some rebellion in that intimate moment.

Why would she rebel? She told him herself, she loved him. Yet, why was he still searching for something? Why did he hyperfixate on such a subtle movement that could have meant nothing in that grand scheme of things.

And when Levi mustered the courage to look away from the hand, back up to the view of their heads pressed against each other, he noticed Zeke was looking in his direction. When their eyes met, Zeke narrowed them and raised his chin up in some strange indignance, some vague threat. Then his curled up into a small smile, not wide enough to have ever been genuine.

And the overall expression had Levi dropping his shadows in some cruel realization. Why did he feel like he had lost something? Not just someone but some game.

Had he even been playing?

With that strange expression directed towards him , Levi deemed his very small yet personal search useless and suspended it altogether.

Something pricked at his eyes, his lips trembled and by god, did he want to call it a day. His legs were jelly, deadweight at the same time. His hands didn't feel like his. Still, he moved mechanically to nothing, one step at a time towards the door.

Suddenly aware of social graces, he shook his head and scolded himself once again for getting in the way of such an intimate moment.

He met Erwin outside and by the time Erwin had asked why he had taken so long, Levi had already found ways to compose himself. “Just had to check something on my phone.” It didn’t make much sense but at that moment, sense was the last thing on Levi’s mind.

"I'm going to have a long talk with Zeke about that contract."

"Do you need help?" Levi asked.

Erwin shook his head. "No, this is between me and Zeke. Focus on the alarm."

"I will… No, Hange and I will." Adding her name had only made the prospect of bouncing back from such an ordeal almost stomachable.

But it had worked for only just a few minutes. When Hange and Zeke had left the office, it backfired magnificently.

And all he needed was that one-sided exchange to bring him back to that point of utter desolation.

"Hange, I'll see you tomorrow?" Levi asked.

Hange didn’t respond. Notably, she had been walking faster towards the exit of the gym, only trailing behind Zeke.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"Hange…" Before he knew it, he had followed her through the campus grounds. Before he even felt it, he had clutched a shaking hand.

'Levi, let me go, will you?" Hange didn’t seem at all angry. Hell, she had been smiling since even before their eyes locked. Her manner of speaking, her words, then that last expression before she turned her back on him, they all seemed to have a calming effect.

It was easier to let go of her hand, easier to watch silently as she and Zeke turned the corner towards the open parking lot.

But her final parting words burned into even the recesses of his mind. And those words stayed there, the whole train ride home, the whole trek back up to his small studio apartment.

For the first time, Levi went straight to sleep. Of course he would, it had been a long day, too many things happened and he was fucking tired.

But extreme exhaustion was never just exhaustion. Sometimes, he even forgot how much control emotions had over the physical.

Out of curiosity, he opened his alarm to make sense of that strange exhaustion. He noted the blur that came with his own bleary view.

Then the colors and contours settled. Then he noted a pale sky blue.

***

Levi had always been a stickler for cleanliness.

Hange's writings on the whiteboard was a nagging antithesis. They were a conglomerate of careless scribbles, some parts faint other parts dark. Hange never bothered to write over them, never bothered to write on the white board with the same pressure every time.

And she never even wrote in a straight line.

Wingsoffreedom123

Wingsoffreedom213

Wingsoffreedom231

Wingsoffreedom321

Wingsoffreedom312

Wingsoffreedom132

The lines only bent, fell over or climbed as she wrote them and they only acted as some sort of distraction especially when Levi was in a constant process of organizing and reorganizing both his thoughts and his actual belongings.

Yet somehow, Levi couldn't stop staring at the lines of used emails and the check marks next to them. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to erase it and write over it, despite the codes, the plans running through his mind, demanding to be let out.

Maybe he could ask her for permission, maybe scold her for not cleaning up.

At around ten that Tuesday morning, he called, only to receive a dial tone. And he listened to that dial tone for a few minutes longer, while staring at the messy white board on front of him.

Hange was an utter mess. He thought loudly to himself. Then he found himself a little more ticked to have a whiteboard with shitty scribbles on it.

The eraser was right under the board. Yet as easy as it would be to erase it, somehow he couldn’t.

He turned back to his computer, opened his workflow tracker and started a new project just for both of them. He added the resources, the codes and the latest build of that birthday present he had created just for her.

He opened a virtual drawing board on his tablet, drawing plans for new colors, plans to quantify emotions and plans to connect a phone to some desktop view dashboard.

He didn’t know what Hange would need, what Hange was envisioning or however way he could make sense of numbers or assign them into each emotion just yet.

If he just created a few formulas, suggested a few codes, Hange would give her feedback anyway. He booted his phone up and opened his chat with Hange.

11:00 AM

Hey, you’re going to the office today?

Lunch break passed without any hitches so Levi decided to stare at the whiteboard again just to annoy himself enough to want to message Hange again.

2:26 PM

Are you done with the whiteboard? I’m gonna erase what you wrote.

She didn’t reply.

He sent over those same questions, those same threats multiple times a day over the week and every time, the result had been the same.

No response.

As week turned into two weeks, then three, he realized he had never planned on erasing it in the first place. Somehow, he wanted that antithesis, that glaring reminder that it hadn’t just been his office space anymore.

Work and responsibilities had become some sort of a solace, a godsend in their own little way. With enough post release questions to answer, with enough data from the testing to make some sense of, Levi was constantly busy. With bugs constantly rearing their ugly heads, demanding to be solved, Levi had at least managed to pretend he wasn’t always thinking about her.

[criquette-was-here]

Long Due Replies

Hi everyone! It’s been some crazy few months for me. Real life has taken over completely so I didn’t have a chance to pay attention to my inbox. There are lot of asks on troubleshooting and I apologise for not being able to help on time. I hope everyone who needed help has got it somehow >.< There’s a crazy amount of messages, so I’m going to hide it under the cut.

@shutupshirley said:

Hi Criquette, I’m sorry because this is dumb, but I don’t understand how to install your neighbourhood lighting mod on an installation of Ultimate Collection... do I change out every lighting.txt file I can find across all the expansion and stuff packs? :/

Thank you!!!!

Hi @shutupshirley! I’m not a big specialist on windows version of TS2 and UC but I believe there are two folders you have to look at and they are ‘Fun with Pets’ and ‘Open for Business’

Anonymous said:

What do you imagine residents of Feverfew are called? I keep doing Peruvian but like Ferfewian or some

Oh, yes, I was thinking about this matter at some point! Feverfewian is what I came up with. I even found a wiki article about different names for different town inhabitants to sort of made it up a bit, but I haven’t write down the result I had and now I’ve lost it. I think feverfewians sounds best, it can even have some silly derivatives like ‘fewies’

@3sushiroll said:

Hi Criquette, I'm getting into SC4 and have been getting the hang of it while using the sims 2 hood planner. I've been starting to use bridges and have been using yours. When I put in the tile measurement into the hood planner (ex: 15 tile = 8 in SC4), it doesn't exactly line up in game. Does this usually happen for you and you put in a piece of fake road in the middle or am I just doing it wrong and it should line up super nicely? Thank you for all your wonderful creations!

Hi @3sushiroll! Yes, TS2 parses SC4 roads this way. I always put some decorative road in the gap or I make the shores narrower so that the bride would overlap the road. But to make slopes where the road ends equal, you have to use TS2 terraforming tool to make this flat empty piece of terrain right after the road end into slope so that it would look like the opposite.

Anonymous said:

Hi there, hope you're doing well! I downloaded your simple walkways set and noticed that they float. They don't sit on the ground properly. Is there anything I can do on my end to make them sit closer to the ground? Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Hey anon! Thank you! Yes, this old set of walkways was made this way. Maxis made neighborhood mode roads float, so I had to do the same with road related decorations. But now you can use these Cobblestone paths or side walks from the Rural Charm, they’re as close to the ground as possible.

Anonymous said:

hey! would it ever be possible for you to create recolors of the cobblestone sidewalks in red brick/cobblestone?

Hi anon! I don’t think so :| I can’t even find the time to fix some Ferverfew related issues >.<

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette. I liked Feverfew very much. I would like to make some of the houses multi-unit, keeping your doors in place. Is it possible to add the function of apartments to these doors? :)

Hi nonne! As far as I’m aware, you can only default replace those apartment doors which is quite useless. What you can do, is to put an apartment door right behind the front door. This, obviously, would eat up the space but could work as a solution.

Anonymous said:

Hello! I just downloaded Feverview and it's gorgeous! I can't believe all the little details you added, the effort and love you put into this project is incredible. I just had a small question: a few residential lots are fake apartments, I was wondering if you know how to turn them into functional apartments 

Hi anon! I’m glad you liked Feverfew! ^__^ In theory, you can use SimPE or Lot Editor to change lot type from residential to apartment and then implement apartment doors somehow, but since I don’t have AL in my Super Collection, I have zero experience in that.

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette! :) I just realized recently that if I delete objects in game, I have to delete first the recolors of it. I've already deleted a bunch of objects without knowing about this, so now my downloads folders has houndreds of recolors without meshes. Do you know about anything I can do to find and delete these orphans? (Delphys download organizer just can't make difference)

Hi anon! I’m definitely not a helper on the matter of keeping Downloads folder organised, sorry ^^’‘ I would thing about finding sets of files with similar names keeping eye on the absence of the word ‘mesh’ in the names, and looking at the file size at the same time. And that would take ages, obviously. 

@ardyyy4 said:

Hello Criquette. I love Feverfew so much. But I have a problem. The grass and NHood objects are flickering together and it looks bad. How can i fix it? Thanks.

Hello Arda! That’s because of the neighborhood camera you’re using. I’d recommend you to install this particular camera just to get rid of flickering.

Anonymous said:

Hello! First of great content! Always been a fan! I was wondering if you could give a bit of advice with hood deco, I have downloaded an Ocean floor from Gwenke, and in lot view it only shows up at the very far edges, around my lot it is missing (it does show when render is set to small though). And it shows on beach lots too, I was wondering if you know of way to make it so that it is seen no matter what the view distance is etc? (I have the relevant cheats on btw) Thank you in advance!

Hey nonnie! Thanks :) Have you ticked off object hiding in the settings? Other than that, it could be camera issues.

Anonymous said:

is there a way to stop neighborhood decor from fading? I know there is the „boolprop dontmergenhflora“ cheat, but I still get some fading. for excample when I look at the lot from the street the NH decor by the street fades

That’s definitely sounds like object hiding option from the game settings :}

Anonymous said:

Hey how are you ? I hope all is well. I was wondering how is it that ts2 has no ski deco but in ts1 we had ski slope and skate lake !?? I was wondering can you and the sim community make deco or interactive items such as a ski slope or even snow shoes or just something that goes with seasons n BV pack ?

Hello anon! I hope you’re well too! Ski slope and winter sports related decos is something I wanted to make since 2016, but never had enough time to do so. Sometimes I even think about available TS2 technologies to make an animated ski lift and umm.. may be in the next ten years? ^^’‘

Anonymous said:

hello!! i'm sorry if u already answered something like this (i searched but found nothing) but the better nightlife isn't working for me :(( i put the better nightlife+voielle water on download fold and the decorations still flashing in pink light, i did something wrong? (i use win10) sorry for the inconveniente

Hey anon! Sometimes you have to do these weird steps in order to make it work:

remove Better Nightlife + water mod from your downloads folder,

load the game, load the neighborhood, make some changes, exit game

put Better Nightlife with water back. Toggle day/night with ‘L’ key to see if it works. If it’s not, than the problem is somewhere else. Pink flashing also could be unrelated to Better Nightlife, so I’d recommend to check TS2 graphics setting for Win10 manuals available.

Anonymous said:

Hello there, I'm having a problem with the rural charm, on lot view the roads have yellowish boards (idk how to explain exactly). I saw that was because of CuriousB terrain, but I don't have it downloaded anymore so I'm kinda confused. What should it be? Sorry for bothering,,,

Hello, anon! What’s current season you’re having in your game? It can be the season lighting differences that make roadside and terrain grass colors different. If it’s not, I’d check the Downloads folder to see if there’s still some terrain DRs I’ve forgot about.

@pinkflamingosims said:

Hi criquette! I was wondering if you have any idea why some hood deco cc crashes on mac, like palm 1 to 4 from the tropical 4t2 set by leoz94. Leoz94 says the only difference is the high polycount, but I don't think that's it, it looks a bit high to me but not insanely so, I have  other stuff in that range with no problem... Have a nice - evening?

Hey @pinkflamingosims! I hope you’re doing well! Yes, some hood decos are really make the game crash and frankly speaking, I think that’s jsut package related issues like broken references in the resource tree. The best way to fix this type of hood decos is to make a clean and stable new clone and replace mesh/textures again.

Anonymous said:

Hello and thank you for amazing Feverfew map! I have a problem... ground is flashing red and I cannot fix it, do you have solution for this problem? It's been soooo long when I last played Sims 2 so apparently I did something wrong when installed CC. :(

Hello anon! Thank you! Oh, red flashing could be the result of lighting mod not being installed correctly. I’d start with getting rid of any lighting mods to see if it helps.

@marv61​ said:

Hi Criquette. I just downloaded your terrain of Forkshire, it looks great! I know it has been since 2009 that you uploaded the terrain but I was wondering if you have a completed Neighborhood with houses, trees and all for download? I would love to play your version. Thanks.

Hi Patchman! Oh, goodness no! :D That was 12 years ago, those TS2 files are long gone since then.

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette, first things first, I love your work thank you so much, you inspire me! Now the question: I have been using the dirt roads from your Rural Lanes set and found that sometimes it is difficult if not impossible to fit them to the slopes of steep terrain. Would it be possible to instead create road pieces as a texture like your Neighborhood Decals? That way they would "stick" onto the terrain regardless of shape. Wondering what you think? Love!

Hello and thank you, anon! The problem with the decals – we can’t see it in lot mode yet. And it must be a DR only so we’d have to ditch one of the Maxis’ decals for dirt road, which isn’t great too.

Anonymous said:

Hi Criquette! Will Betternightlife mod ever be updated to work with lighting mods with dawn and dusk? Is there any that already works with it? I really want to use the light up hood decos!

Hey anon! You can use it with lighting mods that add dusk and dawn to the game. For instance, there’s one here by @dreadpirate​.

Anonymous said:

Hey Criquette! I recently used your template to make lit-up hood deco buildings using the Better Nightlife mod. The day text was great! However, the night texture was being clipped by the day texture. That is, some parts of the day texture was showing through the night texture. Is there a fix for this?

Hello nonnie! I’d recommend to check the meshes to see if day/night parts clip through each other and if they aren’t I’d check if all the day/night TXMT data is correct.

@criquette​ said:

I've installed Fewerfew following all your istructions. Apparently it works but the night lamps are flashing pink even ig I've installed the mod better night light. It seems that this mod does not work properly. Any recommendation?

Being Criquette, you should know the solution to that issue yourself :P Just kidding, sorry, couldn’t resist! If it flashes pink only by night than you have to check your ‘Downloads’ folder for conflicts. If it’s flashing constantly day and night, than I’d better check graphics setting using some windows related guides available across the Internet.

Anonymous said:

Hello, I love Feverfew and it's amazing. I have a problem where Linden Tree 1A isn't showing up in my game even though it's in my downloads folder. Also the railroad tracks are flashing blue, and those are in my folder too. Thanks in advance!  :)

Hello anon! What type of the trees you’re using? Stand alone or default ones? If you’re using defaults, you can find the trees under Maxi’s oaks accordingly. As for the flashing blue railway tracks, check if you have this set in your ‘Downloads’ folder :)

Anonymous said:

Hello Criquette, before asking for help, I came to say that the Brazilian community loves your creations. But, to get to the point, anyway, I have been thinking about creating a Hood (inspired by Rio de Janeiro), so I would like to know how to create Deco Hoods for my game (the statue of Christ), I can't find that anywhere, Would you help me?

Hi there! Ah, most kind, thank you ^^ Well, there’s no big deal in creating hood decos. You have to switch your SimPE to advanced mode and after that neighborhood decoration will be visible in the catalogue to be cloned. I assume you already know how to make lot mode objects and know how to create, edit or convert meshes/textures though.

@hideshio​ said:

Hello! I found your train set (and it's AMAZING) on mts and was wondering if you had a railroad crossing sign? With the lights, X, and the red/white hand that goes down. Or the lights that go across a pole above the railroads. Thank you!  =D

Hello @hideshio​! Well, there is a railway crossing sign with lights and red/white hand included in this set :D it’s not animated though. But still!

Anonymous said:

Hi criquette, I’m a huge admirer of you work and I was wondering if you had any advice regarding road placement. Specifically the difficulty of road pieces that are deco only being able to be placed underneath the actually roads leaving it looking a little off.. if there a way to raise them higher before placing them or some kind of work around? 

Hey anon, thank you! Unfortunately, there’s no way to make decorative road pieces work for lot mode and neighborhood mode at the same time. If you lift them so they look okay in hood mode, they will float in the air in lot mode. Since my latest creations are lot mode oriented, I’ve decided to save my efforts on making road pieces even with neigborhood mode roads.

Anonymous said:

Hey Criquette. I noticed that in my Feverfew none of the buildings across the street of Feverfew Sports Hall show up. I know those are supposed to be hood deco and look like duplex buildings, but I can't figure out what I'm missing. I deleted and redownloaded everything and couldn't fix it. Also the river ends at the first bridge in front of the cathedral, so the boats next to it appear to be flying. What is going on?

Hey anon! There’s definitely some files missing. If you’ve checked and redownloaded all the files, try to replace the Feverfew neighborhood folder with initial one. The game never restores disappeared hood decos by itself. Even if they were placed in the folder after their absence is discovered.

@simping-simmer​ said:

Hi Criquette, am I remembering correctly that there is a trick you can do with SimPE to change the height of individual pieces of hood deco? I’m struggling with putting ships in my dock because if I change a CC ship’s placeability to be able to be on both land and sea, it just sinks, but if I only keep it on sea, it can’t get close enough to the shore to place it in my docks. Does this make sense at all? Lol

Hello @simping-simmer​, you’re absolutely right. You can change the height of placed hood decos via SimPE. Things you need to do are described here and here

Anonymous said:

Hello! I love all your work.  I was wondering if you had ever thought of making some desert roads along the lines of the Terrain Mod: Dusty Roads for Desert Neighbourhoods by Stev84? I love the way this looks in my desert, but unfortunately, this mod makes the road in live mode a floor, which then makes you unable to place driveways.

Hey anon! Thanks ^^ Frankly, I don’t have any plans on creating any desert related CC at all :|

Anonymous said:

Hello Criquette. I would like to thank you for all the amazing work you have done creating content for sims 2. Thanks to you all my projects are possible. My question is: Chainlink fences for neighborhood deco... Do they exist? Searching the web these past day only found for build mode. Do you know of someone who already make some for deco hood? Or kindly will you be able to make some if its not much work? My sports fields and Industrial zones will be pleased for sure! Once again, thank you! :)

Hey anon and thank you! I don’t think hood deco chainlink fences were created by someone yet, but they definitely would be a great addition to the game. I was going to create some while working on Feverfew, but never had enough time to do that. May be i’ll make one at some point in the future!

Anonymous said:

Hello, Criquette. Do you know of any way to place lots without the area around it moving? I downloaded Ousmeo's remake of your Dullsfielde and read his og post using the waytime machine. When viewing that post, Tumblr recommended similar posts, one of which seemed to be a tip to prevent good deco from moving when placing lots nearby, but that post wasn't archived, so I can't visualise it. My guess is that if anyone else knows about this, it must be the best hood decorator that ever was ;-)

Hello anon! Ugh, this TS2 ‘feature’ is driving me mad quite often too! Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to get rid of it. The only way to fix the consequences is to backup initial hood folder and when you finish placing lots, replace spoiled terrain with the initial one with SimPE or HoodReplace.

[chocoluckchipz]

Dance with Me, Chaton - 22

Read it on A03, WattPad, FF.net

Written for @ladynoirjuly2019

< Previous

22. True Love’s Kiss

Chat Noir: I think we’ve neglected this chat, My Lady. I demand to correct this injustice!

Ladybug: In other words, you don’t want to work.

ChatNoir: :offended: I am working. Do you know how much patience sitting around, waiting for my turn to be fawned over requires? Hard work!

Ladybug: Aww, poor you. How will you ever survive?

Chat Noir: By the thought of the promised lunch with my Lady, everything is possible.

Ladybug: Then may I suggest Chaton lets said Lady work as well? If he wants her to make it to that lunch.

Chat Noir: Absolutely. As soon as she tells him where she wants him to take her?

Ladybug: The Lady loves surprises.

Chat Noir: Alright. Then I should take her to Tom and Sabine’s bakery. The food is amazing, and I’ve heard they have a very beautiful and talented daughter. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get her number?

Ladybug: XD You have my number, you flirt.

Chat Noir: Correction: I have your Discord name, not your phone number.

Ladybug: Oh, true. XD Sorry, I didn’t realize that. Well, if you’d be a good Kitty, I’ll consider giving it to you during lunch.

Chat Noir: Define Good Kitty.

Ladybug: Someone who lets me work. I’m sorry, Chaton, but I’m kind of on a crunch here.

Chat Noir: OTL Alright. I’m sorry. Do you need help? I can help.

Ladybug: Unfortunately, it’s something I have to do myself. Plus, weren’t you supposed to be fawned over soon? How would you help me from over there?

Chat Noir: I can always ditch them for a few hours.

Ladybug: You are not doing that. Do you want me fired for disrupting the company’s flow right before the big show?

Chat Noir: No. Sowwy.

Ladybug: :blows kisses: I’ll see you in a few hours, and to ensure that I’m muting this chat.

Chat Noir: Are you muting me just like you turned off your phone at the party or are you muting me for real?

Ladybug: For real.

Chat Noir: :D Liar.

Ladybug: Chat, seriously. I’m sorry, but Mme Bustier is already looking my way. If I’m not done with this project before lunch, I’ll have to skip it.

Chat Noir: Understood. I’ll see you in a few hours.

Ladybug: ;)

Chat Noir: Last question: does anyone give you grief for that video?

Ladybug: :sigh: Some whispers and snickers are going around, but no one said anything to me personally so far.

Chat Noir: You let me know if they do.

Ladybug: Just so you know, I have muted you.

Chat Noir: :pout: Rude.  

Ladybug: Chat, seriously, I’d love to banter with you all day long, but unless you want to spend that lunch alone, you’d better let me work.

Chat Noir: Sorry. I’ll behave. I promise.

Ladybug: Thank you.

It was hard. Knowing Marinette was just a few floors away and that he could sit by her side instead of being fitted with that abomination his father planned to present this coming weekend was excruciating.

Adrien closed his eyes, tunes from his morning session echoing in his head. His muscles twitched to the muted beat. He’d only just started to dance, but he already loved it. The freedom it gave, that exhilarating feeling at the end of each song, the sweet soreness in his body after the session. He wasn’t sure he could let it go now. He didn’t want to. Marinette might have possibly changed his life by persuading him to stick with it. It’d probably be fantastic to dance with her. She was so good, though. It’d take him a while to get anywhere close to her level no matter how much potential Plagg said he had. Adrien needed to work harder because in their civilian lives they matched: she was a rising star-designer, he was a model/future CEO of Gabriel. In Kwami Kave it was different. She excelled. She was their princess. He was a nobody. Not even in the club yet. He had to work harder.

Half an hour before Marinette’s lunch hour, Adrien went down the street to buy her a bouquet. The one he gave her this morning wasn’t technically from him but Plagg. And Adrien was an Agreste; he could definitely do much more than a single rose. And while he was at it, Adrien stopped by a nearby jewellery store and bought Marinette a necklace, a delicate chain with a ladybug pendant. Simple, elegant and totally appropriate for the first date.

His phone chimed at five to twelve. Father wanted to see him after lunch. One o’clock sharp. As always. An appointment.

Adrien shoved his phone away and headed to the designer department.

“Marinette! I think someone’s here to see you,” Marc, one of the junior designers, shouted across the room as soon as Adrien entered.

Whispers echoed throughout the room. Marinette lifted her head up. Her eyes instantly widened and, grabbing her purse, she rushed to him.

“Adrien, what are you doing?” she asked.

“These are for you,” he grinned, offering her the flowers.

Marinette closed her eyes, exhaling. “Adrien, thank you, but please, don’t do this again. Not in the office at least.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re my boss’s son. People will assume things.”

“People who know you wouldn’t,” Marc interfered, standing close by.  “And those who would aren’t worth your second glance.”

“Thank you, Marc.” Adrien finger-gunned him. “Shall we go, my Lady?”

“I’m talking to you later.” Marinette glared at Marc, finally accepting Adrien’s bouquet.

“Looking forward to all the details.” Marc smirked. “Now shoo. I have a secret fanfiction hobby to indulge in.”

“Your favourite story updated?”

“Yes, and the main character is about to propose. Though, I suspect his mother-in-law won’t make it so easy for him. I swear, if she interferes, I’m storming the author’s page with raging anon messages.”

Marinette chuckled. “I’m sure it’ll be great. See you later, Marc.”

“Have fun.” Marc waved the pair goodbye.

“Sorry I forgot about not attracting attention to you,” Adrien said as they’d reached the elevator. “I was just so excited for our date, I’ve forgotten all caution.”

Marinette buried her nose in the bouquet, inhaling. “That’s fine. I love roses. Thank you. They’re beautiful.”

“You know, Marc’s right. People who really know you won’t assume stuff about you.”

“Let’s hope so.” She smiled at him, entering the elevator.

Once the door closed, Adrien continued. “In fact, me barging in with flowers into your workspace has its perks.”

“Oh, really?” She cocked her head to the side. “And what are they?”

“Well,” Adrien leaned closer, tackling a string of hair behind her ear. “Instead of assuming we got drunk and made out with a random person we feel nothing for, they’ll know I’m serious and crazy about you, and I hope the same goes for you about me.”

Her face crimson, Marinette dropped her gaze to the floor, hugging the flowers closer to herself. “It does,” she whispered.

He tilted her face to his. Leaning closer. “Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

The door opened at the ground floor. Marinette snapped out of her trance and stepped forward. “So where are you taking me?”

“You’ll see,” Adrien smirked., following her out. “You said to surprise you, didn’t you?”

“As long as it’s not my parents’ place.”

Adrien chuckled. “My lips are sealed, but I promise you’d like it. Reviews were spectacular.”

They soon were driving down the streets of Paris. Adrien couldn’t help but chuckle at the overly relieved sigh Marinette let out as they passed her parents’ bakery without stopping.

“You remember my friend Nino?” Adrien asked.

“The one with his saint girlfriend who saved us all? I never got to thank her. I really should.”

“Yup. That’s him. Anyway, he recommended me this place, but he warned that it’s not one of your typical cafes.”

“Intriguing.”

Once Adrien neared the place, Marinette beamed. “Please, tell me we’re going to Lace Rose ?”

“We are,” Adrien replied. “Why? You know it?”

“Yes! I know the owners. I’ve been I school with them, and we’re still very good friends.”

“Bummer,” he moped. “And here I was going to impress you.”

“Awww,” Marinette reached forward to gently pet his cheek. “I am impressed you’ve chosen the best place around.”

They stopped at an average building and entered an average-looking establishment. The interior thought was far from ordinary. The whole place could be described as an explosion of pink and purple roses tangled in black lace. Not only were the walls, the ceiling and even the floor painted with flowers and lace theme, but fresh bouquets stood all over the place. Instead of strictly tables and chairs, this place had a combination of those and couches with coffee tables.

“Can I help you?” a petite blonde woman asked them upon entering. “Marinette?”

“Rose!”

The women hugged and exchanged small talk before Marinette tugged Adrien by his arm to stand next to her. “Rose, this is Adrien. We work at Gabriel together. Adrien, this is Rose, my former classmate.”

“Nice to meet you, Adrien,” Rose greeted him.

“Likewise.”

“Is Juleka around?”

“No. She’s helping Luka to convince their mother of something. Don’t ask me. Luka called super spontaneously, so she rushed off before telling me a thing.”

“I hope everything’s okay.”

“It probably is. I can text you later if you’d like to know.”

“Yes, please. I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem. Now, let’s go, guys. I have the perfect spot for you in mind.” Rose nudged them to follow her.

“We’ve had a reservation under Agreste,” Adrien said, following Rose, Marinette’s hand in his.

“Oh.” Rose smiled. “Then I guess my owner’s privileges won’t make any difference. Agreste’s reservation was for my best place. You’re on the second floor.”

The second floor was even more impressive, offering a more private setting for individual couples. More luxurious seating, more flowers, more lace, all inter-winding in a whimsical garden to impress. Subtly divided by curtains sections, each containing a dining set and a couch or a set of plush chairs, were scattered around the space. Rose showed them to one such section deeper into the room, featuring a huge window with a captivating view.

“This place looks amazing,” Adrien said as they reached their spot. “I wonder why I didn’t know it existed until now.”

“We’ve just opened a few months ago,” Rose said. “Not that many people know about us yet, but if you like it, we’d appreciate recommendations.”

“Consider it done.” Adrien nodded. “We can’t have a place like this empty at lunch hour.”

Rose giggled. “It isn’t empty downstairs. We just keep this section for VIPs, and since it costs extra to eat here, it tends to be empty during the day. Not so much at night, though. Our evenings are fully booked for the next few days.”

“I’m so happy for you.” Marinette smiled. “The place looks amazing. You deserve all the customers.”

“Thank you.” Rose smiled and placed menus before the pair. “I’ll give you a few moments to make a choice.”

“Thanks, Rose.”

As soon as Rose left, Adrien cocked his head to the side. “So, just Adrien from your work?”

“Aren’t you Adrien who works with me?” Marinette chuckled.

He pouted. “Is that I’m all to you?”

“Awww, Chaton.” Marinette reached forward and placed her hand over his. “You know you are much more to me than that, but…” She hesitated, biting at her lip, then continued quietly, “We haven’t discussed any official labels, and with our situation and all the complications that come with it, I didn’t want to assume and say anything to someone else before we could talk about it.”

“Fair enough,” Adrien said. “If you’d like—”

“Are you ready to order?” Rose appeared by their side with a notepad and a pen.

“I am,” Marinette grinned. “Do you remember that fish I tried last time? The one you had as a special at the opening?”

“Brandade?”

“Yes. I’ll have that.”

“Alright. And you, Adrien?” Rose turned to him.

“I’ll have the same. Thank you.”

They added some drinks and dessert after which Rose left.

Marinette immediately turned to Adrien and asked, “Can I ask you a question I was dying to find out an answer to for a long time?”

“Sure,” Adrien nodded. He couldn’t help but suspect that labels discussion was purposely avoided. Well, he supposed it would be better to discuss at a more private setting, so he played along.

“How did your father react to that first email from Ladybug?”

“I might have to disappoint you,” Adrien said. “I wasn’t around to see his initial reaction, but I know he deleted it. He recovered and showed it to me only when I commented on the ridiculousness of the new line, and because of that he thought I was Ladybug.”

“He thought you were Ladybug?”

Adrien laughed. “Can you imagine?”

Marinette cocked her head to the side. “Well, if you mean if I can imagine you in a Ladybug costume, then, yeah, I might have a few ideas…”

His face flamed, breathing hitching. There was no reason for that in her words. Her tone of voice, however, told Adrien a different story.

“Why so flustered, Chaton?” Marinette asked, her smile teasing. “Cat got your tongue?”

He could think of a comeback. He knew he could. It took a second, but Adrien smirked and leaned closer. “Maybe. But only because I was imagining you in a Chat Noir ensemble.”

Marinette’s eyes widened a speck, crimson flooding her cheeks. She chuckled a moment later, winking at him. “Nice one.”

Adrien smugly grinned. He loved this woman. If every minute with her would be this fun, he was ready to propose marriage in about five minutes. She was too good to be true. Too good to let go.

Their food arrived soon. Their conversation flowed easily. Laughter till they cried. Soft moments. Subtle and gentle touches. A few serious notes, but mostly a carefree banter. Adrien’s jaw hurt by the time his plate was empty because he’d smiled so much. He hung on Marinette’s every word, gazing at her with half-lidded eyes. Incredible. Amazing. Miraculous woman. A life without her? Impossible. Not anymore. He knew it was irrational and naïve and even stupid, but what could he do? If he gave his heart, he gave it whole.

They moved to the couch for the last ten minutes to look at the Seine snaking between the houses. Both relaxed and comfortable with each other. Still alone on the whole floor. The moment couldn’t be better, so Adrien took Marinette’s hand in his and kissed the tips of her fingers. Delicate, yet so strong. She wouldn’t drop his heart and let it fall. He trusted her.

“Marinette?”

She hummed, smiling at him. “Yes?”

“Do you remember I said I really liked both Marinette and Ladybug?”

“I do. Why?”

“Well.” He squeezed her hand a little tighter. She was still here. She won’t disappear on him. “While I was smitten and fascinated by both of them… finding out that they both are you… I think… I… I’ve fallen in love with you.”

Her cheeks flushed, she curled her hand around his. “I’m in love with you too, Adrien,” she whispered. “Have been for some time.”

He leaned closer. Her eyes fluttering closed, she followed him. He gently brushed his lips against hers. Marinette’s arms weaving around his neck. His hands travelling to her back and the nape of her neck, Adrien pulled her flush against himself and kissed her again. This time deeper and longer. She sighed against him, her breath burning on his lips.

Sweet. Her lips were so sweet. Heavenly. They were addicting. He could see why his drunk-self had gone as far as he’d done, not caring the slightest about the surrounding them people. She made him forget everything. He really was crazy for her.

His heart racing, his head spinning, Adrien pulled away just a little. Gasping for  much-needed air, he whispered, “Will you be my girlfriend, Marinette?”

Closing her eyes, she buried her face into his neck. “Am I allowed? With you being my boss’ son?”

“Absolutely. There are no policies forbidding relationships between employees less than two ranks apart, and once I’ll settle into my intended starting-off position, we’ll be right there.”

“And then we’ll climb the career ladder together. To stay together.”

“Without a doubt.”

She caressed his cheek, smiling. “In that case, I’d love to be your girlfriend, Adrien.”

He grinned and pulled her back into a kiss. A true love’s kiss, without a doubt. Otherwise, why would he feel like he was flying, like his whole life and everything he’d been through didn’t matter anymore. Freedom? He’d been released. Marinette set him free. No matter the cage, future or past, if she’d be by his side, he’d be happy anywhere.

_______________________________________________________________________

Next >

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E47 (Jan. 15, 2019)

The ritual begins.

Tonight’s guests? Taliesin Jaffe and Travis Willingham. The episode? Episode 47: The Second Seal.

Announcements: 

On Wednesday, January 23 at 5 PM Pacific, Pub Draw will be debuting! A teaser was aired before MAME Drop.

Between the Sheets is coming back on Monday, January 28! Travis: “Who’s the host on that, do you remember? I think we had some notes on the host.” Taliesin: “I remember we had notes about what we liked, because it was faster.”

Taliesin is wearing delightful purple mismatched socks.

January 18-20 at Gallery Nucleus is the Art of Exandria art show!

Yasha’s playlist is available now!

Critrolestats: It’s been 42 days since the M9 were last in Nicodranas. Fjord’s 30th Natural 20 was this episode! Matt has rolled 31 natural 1s and 69 natural 20s, for a total of 100 critical rolls. Brian, taking offense to the subdued reaction from the crew: “WHAT SAY YOU TO THIS NEWS?!”

There’s discussion of the best durian delivery systems. Taliesin’s preferred system is “in pastry”. Travis’ preferred system is “nope”.

Taliesin had been wanting to use Divination more often, but didn’t want to bring the game to a standstill by using it every day. Taliesin: “Caduceus is a bro, man, and he was just like, I feel bad that Fjord’s hung up on this guy.” Within the confines of the spell, he was trying to figure out “what question can I ask that’s going to make Matt Mercer really mad to have to answer?”

The only other time Caduceus used Divination was to find a safe port.

Travis: “I’ve realized that I need to learn a lot more about Caduceus than I currently do.” Brian: “We all do.” Taliesin, with a slightly ominous laugh: “Caduceus is learning a lot about you guys!”

Fjord has come to terms with the fact that people are looking to him for answers while they’re on the ocean. “He’s not the leader, though. He’s not the leader. He’s just a participant in this adventure, and these people are nice enough to protect him the same way he’s protecting them.” He’s looking forward to sitting back a bit after they get back to Nicodranas, especially having the spotlight off him as a player for a while. Taliesin can relate after Percy’s prominent role early in the first campaign.

Travis prefers the party dynamic of people making decisions together---he’s personally not a big fan of one person calling the shots, because he loves having everyone contributing. Taliesin’s excited to see Sam taking the reins a little bit, especially as Nott.

Travis is amused that Jester and Caduceus can already use Control Water. Taliesin points out that there’s no reason for them to pack it once they’re back on land, whereas Travis will still have it all the time.

Does Taliesin feel guilty about avoiding the entire encounter with one die roll? “Guilt is for mortals.” He’s definitely broken some of Matt’s puzzles before in the past. He does feel a little bad that they didn’t get to do the ship fight.

Fjord is entirely excited, and “not intimidated in any way”, by his new powers. "Until that dog bites you, there’s no reason to be frightened of it.” After what Taliesin did last episode, Travis is going to read more about the spell’s details.

Is Caduceus bothered by all the deaths he caused? “It’s D&D, you have to make some allowances. If this were a real thing, there would be some emotional consequences for some of this. Seeing as how we’re in the game and playing it, he’s not bothered by it. They were things in the way of his mission to save something greater, and death is inevitable, and it’s especially inevitable if you’re trying to stop someone on a mission for the earth itself.”

Fjord wasn’t intimidated by the power specifically, but was probably a little intimidated by Caduceus. 

It’s why Caduceus isn’t bothered by what Fjord’s been doing. “He doesn’t necessarily have a good head for good and evil. He has a good head for natural and unnatural.”

Gif of the week: the Club Punch by @disasterjones​!

Caduceus’ gift of the book to Caleb was “just because they’re friends.” He’s aware that everyone has their own motives, but he also needs everyone to just get behind him at some point. Taliesin: “You need LAX friends. Everybody needs a friend to pick them up at LAX.” He doesn’t think anyone’s motivations are particularly dark right now, and he doesn’t have an especially negative view of anyone yet.

An out-of-context moment: Taliesin: “I can melt your mind.” Travis: “Please don’t.”

Fjord’s reaction to Beau’s disinterest in her family, and his insistence on getting Jester back to her mother, is largely influenced by growing up as an orphan. “He totally views the Mighty Nein as a family. There’s worth, there. He feels needed by these people, and he needs them. This is the most excited he’s ever been about life and what the future holds.”

If Fjord had never met the M9, “he would’ve probably been journeying up toward the Soltryce Academy”. Taliesin thinks he might’ve been weaponized and sent to the front lines.

Another out-of-context moment: Taliesin: “I haven’t burned an orphanage down in D&D in years.”

Caduceus wasn’t ashamed about not being able to read well. “Nah, he’s not a shame-based creature. Reading wasn’t really his thing growing up. He had siblings for that. He has a particular stripe of intellectualism, but he’s not particularly interested in the world outside his immediate perspective. If he didn’t really relate to it, why know it?”

Travis wants to know a lot about Caduceus. Taliesin, blandly: “You could ask.”

Taliesin mentions that he’s already dropped the name of Caduceus’ father: Cornelius.

Fjord doesn’t especially want to piss off Uk’otoa, and appreciates that what’s happened has made him exceptional, but at the same time, “he doesn’t want the end game that’s been shown to him.” He’s keeping up that balancing act.

Taliesin has been thinking that Caleb smells a bit like peat moss. “I think it’s more the teasing that he smells bad, I don’t think he actually does.” Caduceus legitimately thinks he smells fine. “It’s not, like, a sexy thing, like, ooh, hey. He doesn’t have a thing going on like that.”

Taliesin: “Travis is trying to kill everybody. Fjord is on the up-and-up.” Travis: “Not everything has to be homicide all the time.” Taliesin: “You are indeed captain of the Ball Eater, to be fair.”

Fan art of the week: Fjord underwater.

On Caduceus having adjusted to the ocean: “He is a big believer in getting comfortable where you are.” It’s a conscious decision he made. “This is fine. This is great. It took a little while, and Jester was definitely helpful.”

Fjord is making an effort to acknowledge Jester’s uncertainty and worry. “There wasn’t a lot of time to check in with Jester after the whole dragon thing. He feels bad, and I think I feel like Jester’s been a little quieter,” so it seemed natural to check in. Taliesin: “Jester thrives better when she has new people to interact with all the time.”

Taliesin’s attitude toward Yasha hasn’t really changed. “From his perspective, it was nothing he wasn’t expecting. Goth kids happen for a reason. He’s aware that she’s the one who’s up-front, and he’s just trying to make it as easy for her to move around as possible. He’s very aware that she’s still in mourning for a lot of things.” As soon as she’s ready, “they’re going to have a long talk about that.”

There are whole chunks of the Molly and Yasha interactions that only Taliesin and Ashley know about at this point.

Travis points out that the moment where Fjord put the sphere in his chest was Matt controlling the situation, and he hasn’t forgotten that, but he’s not sure if it might be an indication for something to come in terms of Uk’otoa controlling him. Taliesin thinks it may just have been intended to be a blueprint for Travis’ future actions.

Caduceus was “not a lonely kid”. He and his family were surprisingly social. “He had a nice childhood. It was pretty chill.”

Another out-of-context moment: Taliesin: “He was an old-man vampire with an ice cream truck. It was so wrong.” Travis: “Or so right.”

Fjord (not Travis) is frustrated with the lack of answers to his questions. “There is a final piece of the puzzle, but I don’t want to complete that.” Brian: “Who knows what you’d have to swallow?”

Fjord may have to accept that he’ll never get the answers he’s looking for about Vandran. Vandran showed Fjord the most “attention and care. Not necessarily kindness.”

Taliesin: “I kind of just don’t even want to deal with the war until it’s inevitable.” Travis: “I want to see the fringes of the war, only because Fjord hasn’t seen it. I’m more worried about people who have families and ties there. It was really fucking hard to be like, ‘Can we go to this temple now that we know the war has spread to your homeland? Cool.’“ Taliesin points out that they’re mostly not a group of people who are especially tied to where they come from. They’re both super fascinated by Beau as a character.

Talks Machina: After Dog

Recommendations for LA-area things to do if you’re in town for the gallery: In-N-Out, Disneyland, Golden Apple Comics, The Last Bookstore, Little Tokyo, Tar Pits, Museum of Jurassic Technology, Silver Lake Reservoir, Griffith Observatory, Getty Museum, Venice Beach, The Huntington, Descanso Gardens, the Apple Pan.

Brian and Taliesin discuss poetry, and Dani chimes in. Travis shares the literature he’s been reading lately with Ronin: “It’s like eight pages. It takes a while to get through.”

It takes a while for him to notice, and before that moment of realization, I accidentally get what is objectively the best screencap I’ve ever taken. “You look like an NSYNC member of Pee-wee Herman’s Playhouse.”

Out-of-context Brian outrage: “That’s the best technology we’ve got for minty-fresh hair for Travis?!”

[guylty]

Have you got your tickets for UV locked down? Maybe you are like me – tickets bought but not all other details finalised. Priorities, right? The most important consideration is to make sure we get to see RA on stage. Flight? Accommodation? Can be dealt with later. On the latter, I’ve had a few questions bts about hotel recommendations. Now, I do not want to presume better local knowledge than all the English/British fans. However, as a frequent visitor, and particular while I was still working for my London client, I was put up in hotel accommodation on many occasions. In that sense, I may have seen more London hotels than our actual London-based fan sisters *waves at Hariclea and tinyclanger and anyone else whom I am shamefully overlooking here* and can possibly make some recommendations.

A quick note on location and transport

My collection of Oyster Cards. Yes, I’ve had to buy several because I stupidly left mine at home… They give you a little wallet for safe-keeping when you buy yours.

All hotels are fairly centrally located – if you are a walker and do not mind 45 minutes walking, they would even be in walking distance of the city centre of London. Transport, on the whole, is not a problem in London. The tube is never far away. I recommend you buy a so-called Oyster Card upon arrival in London. This is a commuter card that you load credit onto. You can buy it at any (larger) tube station (ticket counter). You can get the £10 deposit back when you return the card before you leave London. You charge your card via the ticket machines located in every tube station. Paying for the tube is via flashing the card at the gates for entry and exit. A display at the gates will always tell you how much money you have left on your card. An Oyster card is a must, even if you only stay for three days. The difference in price between buying single tickets and using your automatic card credit, is significant: A single journey will set you back £4.90 whereas the Oyster card is £2.40!!! Also, the Oyster card has an automatic cap. That means you will pay a maximum of £8.20 (zones 1-3) versus single journeys or a daily travel card at £13.10 (zones 1-4)!!!

However, the best tip when it comes to London public transport, I received from local Hariclea: Bus fares are much cheaper than the tube. A single journey will set you back only £1.50. The daily cap for Oyster Card here is £4.50. So if you can, take the bus. Or walk, that is *my* personal tip. For a long time on my travels to London, I did everything by tube, thinking that London was a huge city and everything was very far apart. It took me 3 years to realise that Piccadilly Circus was only 250 meters away from Leicester Square! Doh. So make use of Google Maps and walk. You will be rewarded with a fantastic view of the city, too, because London treats you to a journey through all architectural ages in almost every street.

Fleet Street. From Tudor half-timbers to 1920s in 500 meters

Guylty’s Hotel Insights

I’ll give you a little review of all the hotels I have stayed at in the last four years. A caveat at the beginning. At least half of them were paid for by my client – and they didn’t skimp. I would not have paid £350 for a hotel room myself. My budget – even while still employed by them – would usually not stretch to that. However, I am including it here, too. Who knows, maybe you have a significant birthday/anniversary, or you want to treat yourself to an extraordinary London experience. Or maybe you just appreciate a lovely boutique hotel, just like I do. Where possible, I will add my own pictures – and occasionally even videos – for a little more insight into the hotel. Links to the hotel website under the name. In no particular order…

Pop!Thoza sneaks up on breakfast

The Rookery – my absolute favourite, but the above mentioned luxury option. Located in Farringdon, opposite Smithfield Market – a boutique hotel completely furnished with antiques and with every room looking different. Close to two tube stations, near the Barbican centre, too. It really looks like the photos on the website – or in my videos. Yep, I have three of them, just because the hotel was so beautiful, I had to document it every time. But I’ll only bore you with one of them. (If you want to you can see the other two if you click on my name on the video below!) This hotel has beautiful common rooms but no breakfast room. So if you want dinner, you need to eat elsewhere. Breakfast is available – but only served in your room. However, it was not any more expensive than in other hotels, and at the same time so good that I always set the alarm for two hours early so I could have long, leisurely breakfast in my fluffy bed before I went to work.   

https://vimeo.com/133549399

Purple light show. Not sure what mood *that* is…

Citizen M in Southwark (Bankside) is completely at the opposite end of the style spectrum. Ultramodern hotel. Every room has a kingsize bed (no single rooms available) and lots of tech gimmicks. Has a fantastic entertainment offer with wide screen TVs in every room. You can operate different lighting scenarios with an iPad in the room, and the blinds are automatically adjusted depending on whether you have set the room settings on “romantic” or “business” 🤣. Located behind the Tate Modern, but still very central. I loved this place and stayed there a couple of times privately, too – my son called it the “cyber hotel” and specifically asked me to book us in there when I gave him a trip to London as a gift. He (age 18 then) even shared the kingsize bed with me – that was the price for being in the cyber hotel… Buffet style breakfast is available in the hotels bar area. I loved the cool style and design of this hotel.

The Park Plaza County Hall is also situate d on the Southern bank of the Thames. I was upgraded to a suite there – with a separate sitting room and a small kitchenette. Comfortable, modern, light-filled rooms with floor-to-ceiling windows. The kitchenette would be really useful if staying for a few days and trying to budget a little bit because eating out in London is expensive. It doesn’t mean you have to cook – but just having a fridge for a pint of milk for your cornflakes in the morning, would already save you a good bit of money. I did like this one very much and remember making a little video – can’t find it anymore, unfortunately. It is part of the Radisson chain, so good quality.

I slept on top bed – wanted the “young” feel

Z Hotel City Another very modern hotel, centrally located in Fleet Street. The rooms are very modern, but also fairly small. I had a room that was billed as a “family” room with two double beds. But even though the room was tiny, they solved the problem really well: One double bed was like an enclosed alcove (fitted with a big TV) while the second double was built on top of the alcove and you accessed it via small steps. The second double also had a TV screen. The drawback was that the hotel did not offer breakfast, and even though it operated a café next door, it did not provide a discount to residents. However, as you can see from the photo, this kind of room would really lend itself to sharing if you are coming with a friend. Share the costs – still get privacy. And style, too.

        No real vines, that’s the graffiti on the wall!!

The Malmaison on Charterhouse Square. Another boutique hotel in Farringdon (like the Rookery above) (near Barbican), located on beautiful Charterhouse Square where you get London at its historic best: There is the eponymous Charterhouse from the 14th century, then there is Georgian architecture, the Victorian hotel building, and an Art Deco block of flats (which was used as location for Hercule Poirot’s flat in the Poirot TV series with David Suchet). Every room differently decorated – modern eclectic. The rooms were small but beautiful and all decorated differently. The first time I stayed there, I had an “inside” room with a kind of blind window into a lightwell. The room had really funky decoration with a graffiti-sprayed wall. Breakfast was not included but available in the basement restaurant – really nice, though.

        Glimpse of room on the right. Bathroom had massive dimensions. Wheelchair compatible

The Premier Inn County Hall is probably on the affordable end of the scale. Centrally located, directly behind the London Eye and more or less directly on the banks of the Thames. The rooms were not particularly cosy or original, but clean, light and big. Probably more on the practical side. Prices are pretty good for London – and for the location. Breakfast available in the hotel – nothing special, but good price.

          You can see what I had for breakfast

The Marlin Aparthotel was an affordable option when I took my mum to London last year. This hotel is fairly well connected, just behind Waterloo Station. In walking distance of the Old Vic Theatre and Westminster on the other side of the Thames. The rooms were bright and modern – and they came with a kitchenette. We ate breakfast in our own room every day and saved on another tenner for meals that way. This hotel is easily accessible by bus – which will also get transport costs down…

Lastly, The Grange Strathmore Hotel is the last hotel I stayed in when in London in April this year. The building is the former residence of the Earl of Strathmore (the Queen Mother’s father), and as such an imposing Victorian residence in a very pretty part of London. The room was small and looked out onto the mews at the back. Kensington is a very nice area for walking and looking at the grand white townhouses, but it’s not as central as the other hotels listed above. Also, I didn’t find the transport options quite as close as the other hotels.

So, here is an overview of the hotels and their relative location. It’s an interactive map – you can click on the markers and see which hotel it is.

That’s it for my own experience with hotels in central London. As I said – not necessarily the cheapest *thanks to my former employers*. I am sure there are other, if not better options available. If anyone has some recommendations, please add them in the comments! And for further questions – I’m delighted if I can answer, although I am sure that the resident Londoners are probably better equipped than I am.

Leaving you with a little London Lucas for good measure.

  Notes on Staying in London Have you got your tickets for UV locked down? Maybe you are like me - tickets bought but not all other details finalised.

[thevalkyriesonline]

Nine Worlds; One Valkyries Trip To London’s Inclusive Fan Convention

Conventions appeal to different fans for different reasons, whether it be comic con, a game expo, YouTube/Blogger convention or whatever the medium but one common factor in all of these conventions is the possibility to meet other like-minded fans! As well as hopefully getting the chance to meet your idols! 

There is a Con though that really thrives on fans, it is called Nine Worlds (London’s Inclusive Fan Culture Convention). A Con with a difference – the difference being it is made by fans for fans to meet other fans and just enjoy and celebrate their fandom in all it’s crazy geekiness.

It has been going since 2013 when it was first set up but I only heard about it last summer (2017) when I discovered that one talk held there was titled “It’s research! Or Why it is ok to play over 100 hours of Dragon Age when you really should be writing.” This, as a huge Dragon Age fan since discovering Inquisition, spoke to me on a level that none of my immediate friends understood or appreciated. Unfortunately I was unable to attend Nine Worlds in 2017, but the fact that there was a time and place to have such a discussion on such a unique fan-based topic inspired me to endeavor to attend in 2018. So as soon as the Early Bird Tickets became available I put my money where my heart wanted me to and I began to plan and save for a big solo adventure to London for Nine Worlds 2018.

I also made another bold and brave and foolish decision to sign up as a Content Provider for Nine Worlds 2018!

Why? – because why not? I have been a mega reader, hoarder and fan of all fiction featuring, adapting or retelling Norse Mythology for years and Nine Worlds provided me with the ideal and probably only platform where I could take the chance to share my enthusiasm and passion for the genre of Norse Fantasy. The Nine Worlds Team accepted my proposal, so, on top of saving for the hotel room on-site and booking train travel I also had to plan a lecture/talk – I was both really nervous and really excited! The months, weeks and days soon dwindled down to departure day and then I was off down to London for what I hoped would be a fun and busy weekend.

Now on to the fun bit – the various sessions and events and panel discussions! These were the ones I attended but over 50 were held each day of the convention so this is just a small sample of what fandom and genres were covered.

Session One – LARP (Live Action Role Play). Speakers; Penny Jackson, Adam Dinwoodie, Mx RA Madgwick and Haplocke Spence

As I am attending my first ever LARP event, set in the world of Dragon Age in November this was a must for me! The panel was made up of experienced and new-ish LARP players and they gave a great insight into how LARP’ing works, the various types and systems involved, clothing and equipment, rules for both play and player protection and more.

Session Two – The Only Toilet in Thedas. Speakers; Sarah Gordon, Phil Dyson, Angela Cleland

Now who couldn’t resist that title? Especially when you are a Dragon age fan. This panel discussion was the most interesting because it covered not just the world of games but also of books, TV and Film. It made me realize how much in Fantasy the practical matters of hygiene from toilets to sewers to bathing are just not address yet in Sci-Fi it’s more visible. The panel discussed whether it was a taboo or simply a matter of too much detail on a very personal and private matter – for instance do you want to know how long the hero, heroine, villain or indeed any character takes on the toilet? If they wash their hands or not? – but then again social, religious and cultural practices exist even within the bathroom and so perhaps it should be represented more?

Session Three – Know Thy Enemy. Speakers; Adrian Tchaikovsky, Jeanette Ng, Ms Anna Stephens

This was a panel debate all about the nature and representation of Villains. I found it fascinating to discuss Villains and their nature, one panel member made the very good point on how it is wrong to see the Villain as the champion of Chaos and the Hero of Order for it is in fact the other way around. In many scenarios across all mediums it is the Villain that has established some type of order whether through politics, society, culturally or religious or just geographically or financially but it is the Hero who emerges to disrupt that form of order and thus bring about chaos. This made me instantly think of Katniss in the Hunger Games, she is rebelling against the ruling society and its cultural practice of the Games and thus brings war to the capital city and thus chaos. Another issue discussed was whether the viewer/reader must be sympathetic towards Villains. The panel debated hard on this topic and in the end agreed that sympathy isn’t necessary for a Villain to be a true villain or a good villain but what is necessary is that the viewer/reader gets a sense of the Villain’s journey to their villainy – they must see where, how and why the character has become the Villain, whether for good or bad, and so enjoy the Villain’s redemption or come-uppance by the hero.

Session Four – D&D (Dungeons and Dragons) for Young People. Speaker; Elizabeth Prais

In my day job as a college Librarian I had recently learned of a lunch-time Dungeons and Dragons group being set up by a teacher after some students expressed an interest. So, I was eager to learn more tips and tricks to either host such a group in the Library or pass on to my colleague. The lady who hosted this session hailed from America and was very open about how she ran her local residential D&D group for her daughter and some local children. She gave some great recommendations and advice on timing, kit, planning, preparation and how to adjust and adapt the large and complex set of rules for a younger more impatient audience.

Session Five – Philosophy and Mass Effect. Speaker; Michael Duxbury, Emily Marlow

Now this was the first session I wasn’t entirely clued up on as I myself am still stuck half way through playing Mass Effect 2 by Bioware so a lot of the moral/ethical dilemmas they talked about I hadn’t actually experienced yet, or I couldn’t remember what I chose in the ones I was familiar with. Yet it was interesting and food for thought on how the scenarios were portrayed, and the fixed set of options provided resulted in the moral and ethics becoming such a personal dilemma for players. It wasn’t always a case of choosing the lesser of two evils but how the player and indeed the character depending on their Renegade to Hero balance would pick. Some panel members and indeed people in the audience felt that more choices would improve and increase the dilemma levels instead of just A or B. The panel also discussed how often, at least amongst themselves, they would pick based on the benefit or not long term, not the short term and play with a view of working towards achieving success or a goal.

Session Six – Beyond Marvel and DC – What comics you should be reading. Speakers; Angie Wenham, Stephen Lacey, Kate Barton, Ram V

The panel mentioned a great many titles, artists, apps and webcomics that they recommended as alternatives to Marvel/DC and then invited the audience to contribute. I recommended Nimona* by Noelle Stevenson  and I Hate Fairy Land by Skottie Young.

* Interested in Nimona? Check out our review! 

I Hate FairyLand

Nimona

Session Seven – Disney Sing-A-Long

This was the true highlight for me as an eternal child thanks to the magic of Disney. I wasn’t the only adult in the room, it was a very popular event and there were children of all ages and their parents and even a few Disney cosplayers too. We were all able to sing-a-long via screen projecting the words, or handouts or follow a link online. A whole range of songs was sung and Frozen ‘Let It Go’ proved to be a major popular one with a member of Con Staff leading a friendly stage invasion and then everyone proudly showed off all the right moves to the lyrics. I honestly was in tears with joy as some of the most powerful songs were sung by young and old alike.

The final event I will review was the FABULOUS MMORPG SHOW. Speaker; Misha Anker, Paul Flannery

Which was a blend of audience power and D&D – we basically had the Game Master who set up a story, invited some members of the audience to join him on stage and fill in character sheets but they had to be as unconventional as possible and then he would invite the audience to provide character names, objects, powers etc. to the story narrative and the players would roll a giant D20 (20-sided dice) to determine the outcome. This was a whole lot of fun and silliness and the story involved a Bee with a Human Leg, a Swarm of Wasps and a Wizard whose greatest spell was making Jam, they had to find the Cheese Board for the Duck of Doom! You had to be there to believe the story and it was amazingly resolved within the 1 hour and a half session.

Norse Fantasy, My own presentation! 

Was scheduled bright and early on a Saturday morning the night after the first big disco (alas Becky did not go dancing due to a very painful wisdom tooth spoiling things) and yet the room quickly filled up much to my delight. Despite not having the colorful presentation I spent hours on, due to not having my own laptop to plug into the screen, I was still able to explain, explore and introduce so many of my favourite authors and titles to a new audience. Some of the audience also proved to be fellow fans of many of them and a good number took photographs of my favourite title list to go away with to look at later and thanked me for the session, which was an awesome feeling. I was even complimented on my choice of t-shirt for the session – my own Valkyrie t-shirt from Redbubble. It says, “Valkyrie of Odin – Midgard Original – Since 793”. If you are interested in my presentation, I am planning on doing a written version of it for the Valkyries Blog so stay tuned!

Last but not least was the fab mini Geek Market that was on all weekend and as it was also my birthday, I indulged myself in another t-shirt from Genki Gear, some D&D themed tea, tea strainer and mug, two new bookmarks, some funky acrylic necklaces featuring a book and a fox in a bin, some super cute little clay keyrings of Flynn Rider, Thor and Pizza and of course BOOKS! Each attendee got a surprise free book in their bag, but I got two based on libraries and books, The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman and Bookworm by Christopher Nuttall – expect a review on here once I have got around to enjoying them.

Now the managing team have recently stepped down to consult with attendees and invite new members, as they are reviewing their constitution to try and make it more inclusive and representative of those who attend. Although from what I witnessed their inclusive and equality practices were out of this world compared to other cons I’ve been too. I do hope the new organizers can continue what has already been established and continue to make improvements where they feel it is needed. I for one enjoyed it all – despite my wisdom tooth being a very literal pain throughout – for I definitely would attend again.

Did you attend Nine Worlds? What did you think? What was your favourite presentation?

  Purchasing through our amazon affiliate links earns us a small commission at no extra cost to yourself! Any commission earned goes to keeping the Valks in coffee!

A Valkyrie at Nineworlds! @london_geekfest #nineworlds Nine Worlds; One Valkyries Trip To London's Inclusive Fan Convention Conventions appeal to different fans for different reasons, whether it be comic con, a game expo, YouTube/Blogger convention or whatever the medium but one common factor in all of these conventions is the possibility to meet other like-minded fans!

[gimmedatingadvice]

tw: sexual harassment (?)

hi!

so this is gonna be a long ride, get ya popcorn ready! (:

i’ve sent this ask to many blogs because I wanted different points of view, I hope you don’t mind. dunno if some details are off in the asks, I cannot even remember what I ate yesterday so it’s hard to remember.

so many coworker questions here already…mine isn’t really about love but rather a pretty unusual friendship and boundaries. hope you don’t mind.

I’m a nurse as well, blessed with a wonderful team. we hang out in our free time (outside of Covid obviously), and due to our work being a huge part of our life, I consider them my family. there are people of all different nations, ages, religions, and so on…but we all do get along well.

so do I and one of the docs. I’m 24, he’s 48. well, some men never grow up.

we’ve known each other ever since we both started working there several years ago, and he’s always been a reliable friend. he and my (now) ex (30) were friends as well, and we’d always drink beer together or play basketball with his adorable little daughters. <3

about a month ago, I was at his office like many times before because he wanted to help me with something. when I was at the phone, however, he pulled me towards him and hugged me from behind. even stroked my neck. I’m 1,50m and he’s 1,95m, so it’s pretty obviously how I felt that moment, even though I know he’s not a bad person. overchallenged, I just left and acted like nothing happened. 

he’s pretty dull, but realized sth was off. I didn’t dare talk to him about it though. but I told my ex and he blamed me for being alone with a man and “pretty much invitating” him (there’s a reason he’s my ex lmao). made a big fuss out of it and told the man.

he was shocked and devastated. didn’t sleep for days, apologized a 1000 times. we sat together and talked it over. he told me he never wanted to make me feel unsafe, and that he’s embarassed of himself. told me it’ll never happen again, and that he tries to be more aware of his actions. but also that I should always straight up tell him when something he does upsets me.

actually, I was quite satisfied with the outcome of the talk. and I swear to god I didn’t feel uncomfortable afterwards. to be honest, I’ve always been a touchy-feely-flirty kinda person, giving hugs and backrubs on a daily basis. so I really, really believe him when he says he didn’t think it would make me feel bad. as far as I know him, he didn’t think at all. :D

many people I told this either acted like I am the b*tch that “led him on” or “is too sensitive” to a man that “only wanted to help me, and now I’m making him seem like an offender”. or they act like he’s a bad predator that only acts like he learned his lesson. but he’s not someone who touches his female colleagues at all, it’s only people like me who are more open about PDA and engage in it first. otherwise, he’d never cross that line.

well, now ever since he’s the one avoiding me. well, I get why he does that.

when I hug him, he totally stiffens and doesn’t reciprocate. when I enter a room, he almost flees as quick as possible. doesn’t want to meet up anymore. he’s still polite and helpful, tells jokes and talks normal to me, but I realized sth was off.

he told me he worries that I’m afraid of him, and only act like everything is alright because I’m always way too nice. so he chose to avoid me as far as possible, so I could work in peace. texted me sth like “handshake from now on? :)”

I really, really appreciate his efforts - but I’m afraid to lose a good friend just because of one mistake he unintentionally made! I think none of us is at fault, and we just need to work this out to get along again. but how? :(

Hello! Haha, alright, I’m ready! *grabs popcorn*

Even though this blog’s purpose is to give dating advice, feel free to send as many asks as you want—I don’t mind, no worries! I genuinely hope I can help you out!

So, first, to be honest, regardless of whether it’s a mistake or not, what he did was sexual harassment. Most people, if they were in your situation, would not stay friends with someone who suddenly hugged them from behind and had their neck stroked without consent. For some people, it would be an extremely traumatizing experience. You reacted differently, but you are not at fault for his inappropriate actions.

I wouldn’t recommend you to stay friends with him, but that’s just my point of view. To answer your question: yes, there is a way to get along again with him and I can give you advice on how, but there is something you should consider before you do that. It’s important for you to think about whether or not you would really be okay with staying friends with him. I just think it’s important for you to be really certain of your decision. The thing is—I know he said he’s sorry, and he might not do something like that again (hopefully he doesn’t), but keep in mind that there is still a possibility for him to do that again. I also noticed that, from what I’ve read, he didn’t say why he suddenly hugged you from behind and touched your neck. He’s 48, so I’m sure he knows what type of behaviours are not allowed in a workplace, even if he’s pretty dull.

If you still want to be friends with him after thinking about your decision, the first thing you should do is contact him first. He’s afraid of what you might think of him now, so unless you reach out to him first, he will keep avoiding you. Ask him when he would be available to talk with you. Tell him you want to get along with him again. Tell him what you told me—you appreciate his efforts, but he doesn’t need to be afraid of you. Be honest and make sure to tell him clearly, so that there will be no misunderstandings.

Good luck!

[woodtoolsdlfd915-blog]

The smart Trick of Best Woodworking Tools That Nobody is Talking About

device purist who appreciates the innate feel as well as complete quality of people-powered tools or somebody that utilizes hand devices simply for the touch-ups that are hard to achieve with an equipment, Rockler has the hand devices to match your needs. We stock every little thing from hand saws for tearing, crosscutting and reducing dead-on joinery to chisels for cleansing up dovetails and truing mortises and also tenons to bench planes for smoothing table tops.

For carvers with an eye for contours, sculpture and also three-dimensional surface areas, we stock a big range of wood carving tools, from chip-carving blades to palm carving tools. We have actually got draw knives, too. Need to make a picture frame? We've got the right tools to assist you reduce precise miters, hold them snugly and also fasten them safely.

Deagreez/ Getty Images The irreplaceable constantly trusted tool that uses lots of variants yet all serve a typical purpose. The hand saw is the one chosen by conventional woodworkers as they can regulate the cut while producing a fantastic coating. Due to the fact that this tool has several variants, the hand saw is always an useful tool to have with you.

Hand saws are not a replacement for power saws, but being the most simplistic one, it is handy, not optional, to have. If you can, having a power saw is a terrific concept, as well as a cordless one is also much better.

A wood workbench has constantly been the center of a typical woodworker's workshop. If you're truly on a tight budget you can escape practically anything that permits you to secure your wood in area for planing as well as sawing, and use clamps to protect your work surface. However, I would certainly advise that you either construct a wood workbench, or acquisition one if you feel a workbench construct is as well advanced for you today.

Top Guidelines Of Wood Shop Tools

You can acquire it in my store right here. You can find Will's free workbench prepare for the Moravian Workbench here. Whichever path you select, make certain you pick to either develop or buy a heavy & strong wooden workbench, with at the very least a 3 solid top, strong encouraging base legs, as well as at least one strong vise.

aircrafts that are utilized so often that they are usually on your workbench). If you get on a spending plan a jack aircraft can momentarily be made use of instead of other aircrafts that perform specialized features: harsh supply removal (if you acquire a second iron/blade and shape it with a rounded "camber"), jointing board edges (as long as the board isn't over 3x the length of your jack airplane), and smoothing the boards.

Block airplanes have actually come to be one of the most oft-used tools in a woodworker's workshop. Some conventional woodworkers also maintain them in their aprons! These little aircrafts can be used to trim your joints, put chamfers on board sides, trim end grain, etc. I would certainly recommend locating a low angle block aircraft, since the low angle allows you reduce challenging grain a lot more easily.

Handsaws (frequently called "panel saws") are long, thin saws with a comfy wooden handle. They are utilized for rough dimensioning of your lumber. Although a "panel saw" is technically a smaller handsaw that suits the panel of a tool breast, I'll hereafter refer to this sort of saw as a "Panel Saw" to separate them from http://edition.cnn.com/search/?text=Traditional, manual tools for carpentry and woodworking the wide classification referred to as "hand saws".

You will need both. Panel saws can be fairly inexpensive (often as little as $5 a piece), yet you need to recognize what you're trying to find and also be prepared to spend a long time learning to sharpen hand saws. My hand saw acquiring overview will certainly assist you recognize which brand names & designs to watch out for at your neighborhood flea markets or on ebay.com.

A Biased View of Woodworking Tool

The thin metal saw plates are made tight with steel or brass "backs" that run along the top of the saw plate. If you get on a tight spending plan, you can get by with just a dovetail saw for some time. But if you have the ways, after that I 'd suggest that you acquire 3 backsaws: a dovetail saw, with fine split teeth, used for reducing joinery along the grain (like syncs), a "carcass saw" utilized for מסור קשת crossing the grain (penalty cross reduced teeth), as well as a larger tenon saw used for cutting much deeper cuts, like tenon cheeks, along the grain (slit teeth).

As discussed over, you could absolutely manage with just a dovetail saw at initially, since the tiny slit teeth don't do regrettable of a job at reducing across the grain. Acquiring backsaws can be extremely complicated due to the fact that many vendors don't understand what saw they have, and also the tooth arrangement can alter the job of the saw.

The Single Strategy To Use For Traditional Woodworking Hand Tools

My buyer's overview really removes this complication up and will certainly aid you recognize what to try to find. A great miter box & miter saw (a large backsaw) will allow you to reduce your wood to really accurate lengths, at exact angles. This will specifically save you a great deal of time in trying to settle your board finishes.

The frame's angles can be transformed to allow you to reduce excellent miter joints (the joint made use of for photo structures) as well as several various other joints. I use my miter saw fairly often. I've purchased them made use of for just $15, however anticipate to pay even more than that. The very cost effective coping saw (normally under $20) is routinely utilized for harsh reducing shapes in the board, but specifically for removing waste from dovetail joints (among one of the most usual timber joints).

Read my hand saw getting guide for even more detail on brands & functions to seek when purchasing a coping saw. I utilize knives perhaps greater than any type of other device in my workshop, so it's an excellent concept to not cheap out here. A top quality collection of bevel edge bench chisels (brand-new or vintage) will certainly last you many years (most likely your entire life) as well as will be used on almost every task.

The Greatest Guide To Carpenter Hand Tools

A good collection of 5-7 bench chisels (they do not have to match) will obtain you going as soon as possible. In the future you'll at some point include some specialty chisels (like paring chisels, fishtail chisels, etc) yet bench chisels will work for practically whatever. I commonly pay only $10 for excellent quality vintage blades, so a compiled set can definitely be inexpensive, and greater quality than low top quality brand-new collections.

To start you only require either a 1/4-inch or 3/8-inch mortise chisel (or some dimension near to those). I favor 3/8-inch. You don't require an entire set of mortise chisels. Mortise blades (additionally spelled "mortice knives") are made use of for chopping mortises (rectangle-shaped holes) into the side of your board to approve the insertion of a tenon.

I like the English style "pig sticker label" mortise blades as a result of their strength, weight, as well as the feeling of the oblong deal with. My carve getting guide shows where to find these chisels as well as what to try to find when acquiring them. A great and precise 6-inch combination square is made use of for numerous tasks in my workshop, consisting of examining the squareness of boards (when planing them to final dimension), scribing dovetail joints, determining the deepness of mortises, and much, much more.

[ethreesixty]

Benefits of Brewers Yeast and Supplements for Dogs Health

Many of us are animals lover and most of us keep animal as a pet. Dogs and Cats are the most common pets. People who have pet dogs this review will be beneficial for their dogs' health. Same as humans animals also need cares. So I shared some health supplements regarding dogs' health. One of the most standard ought to use devices yeast for dogs (or cats) are for its big quantity of well-being insurance and nutritional advantages. Brewer’s yeast is wealthy in necessary diet, for instance, zinc and protein which transforms it right into a great dietary nutritional supplement for pet’s skin and jackets. Whilst ensuring your minor pal features a healthy coat of hair and nice pores and skin is crucial, brewer’s yeast truly has various rewards. Skin-conditioning and getting rid of command:

Quite possibly probably the most regular explanation for providing your dog yeast could well be to further improve the healthiness in their skin and coat. Among the key dietary facets of most brewer’s yeast dietary supplements is biotin. Biotin is crucial for balanced pores and skin in addition to a healthful coat. A further considerable nutrient is a zinc that also supports healthful pores and skin. Other ingredients deliver extra overall health benefits: Most yeast for dogs health supplements come full of relevant ingredients, for example, garlic clove with supply additional dietary gains for your pet's skin and coat in addition to aiding will other important troubles for instance digestion. Brewer’s yeast formulation is routinely brimming with certain proteins, proteins, and phosphorous. Fantastic diet can make for a contented and active pet: The word ‘happy wife, content life’ might also be put on animals. It’s possible you have got observed that television program on Discovery Funnel regarding the canine whisperer? Disappointed creatures could make for a really consumed with pressure owner. Supplements for case in point yeast assist give an extra nutritionally balanced pet, which equals a much more active and delighted pet.

Machines yeast for dogs could possibly aid pet dog bloating: By far the most typical utilization of yeast for dogs, as comprehensive above is for healthier skin and coat nonetheless, yeast is yet another prompt health supplement to assist with bloating in bogs. Brewer’s yeast may enable control fleas: Purely natural flea handle solutions are extremely sought after by pet proprietors, in particular individuals who can be unwilling to utilize chemical substances or traditional drugs in order to avoid fleas from infesting their pets. Yeast creates a subtle odor throughout the skin of pets (not obvious by humans) that deters fleas. While yeast could seem like the ‘magic blue pill’ for your pet, have in mind that it is also improved to satisfy with a vet before commencing any new dietary or supplemental program together with all your animals. You may need to appreciate that the pet eating plan is really a holistic topic product and consists of calculated stability of the varied formulation. Although yeast has elevated levels of selected proteins and proteins, it can be frequently recommended that pet proprietors supplement it with calcium to harmony the phosphorous and cod liver fish oil (for vita and vitamin D) which is able to assist the absorption of calcium and phosphorous.

Canine Health Supplements overall Performance: Substantially like us, persons, our dogs likewise want some nutritional health supplements to make sure that they are wholesome and possess the opportunity to reside in these types of natural environment problems. Puppy performance dietary supplements are critical for those who would love your pet to become energetic, healthful and robust. You will uncover 1000′s of numerous pet supplements that you can buy and also you may perhaps even develop into confused by the array and wide variety obtainable for sale. So, tips on how to select the very best overall performance dietary supplements? To begin with, retain in your mind this product really should incorporate some food plan in the puppy with practical relevant ingredients that enhance your dog’s existence. It’s in no way late to begin feeding your dog while using good dietary supplements. Supplements Overflowing with Anti-oxidants are viewed as Overall performance: In compliance with utilizing the vet details web site, health supplements overflowing with anti-oxidants intention to battle growing old in dogs that makes them healthful after a while improving heart functionality, vision and joints operate. Make sure that such elements as grape milk thistle extract, seed extract, ascorbic acid, and vita are incorporated in health supplements that you are going to get. Only in this situation, the health supplements are general performance. These ingredients may improve your canine’s defense mechanisms and may help you to remove all the harmful poisons.

Multi-vitamins in General performance Doggy Health supplements: Multi-vitamins are an additional constituent in the greatest overall performance puppy nutritional supplements that you simply find. These go to become overflowing with fantastic levels of B vitamin, iron, foliate, vita and potassium. These natural vitamins boost your canine’s vitality, will make its fur coat shiny plus your pores and skin inside a nutritious issue, protecting a good goal of muscles. Multi-vitamins that happen to be drawn in intricate by using a respectable and organic diet are overflowing with proteins, fruits, and veggies, which are essential for your beloved canine. They will fulfill all dogs’ nutrient requirements. comprise huge amounts of dietary components, eco-friendly leaf veggies, which includes parsley Preserve in your mind the most effective performance pet dog health supplements ought to and mint that supports in freshening the dog's breath. Picking practical merchandise for the one you’re keen on pet, you should consider normally, providing choice to dietary supplements together with critical natural vitamins and minerals of animal and vegetable roots. CPN could be the greatest if this involves canine general performance health supplements. When you detect the CPN logo layout, it is possible to make sure that you’re feeding your pet the very best and many protected meals available on the market. The First PAAWS for Dogs is nevertheless a choice for your dog.

It’s an impressive doggy vitamin program. Produced and patented by Dr. Carol Osborne. The supplement brings together all-natural elements utilizing the proven benefits of critical Minerals and nutritional vitamins. PAAWS can restore canine electrical power, decrease itching and itchiness, lessens getting rid of, remove doggy odor and foul breath and fight indicators of aging in senior dogs. Look at also, that performance pet dietary supplements present calcium for strengthening your dog’s bones. Performance nutritional supplements ought to be produced determined by helpful formulation from the appropriate equilibrium of minerals, vitamins, and calcium along with other elements. They’re utilized to exchange lacking nutrition within the dog’s typical diet. Conclusion: Many of us are animal lovers and most of us have them as a pet. As we humans’ need self-care so do the animals as they are not able to do it by themselves? I tried a little bit to contribute, so if anyone of you contains more information about this, do share it with us. Read the full article

[todokori-kun]

Ok:

Luna, you’re the best. You’re smart, you’re talented, you’re dedicated, you’re creative and caring, a wonderful listener, so much fun to debate with, and the best friend anyone could ever ask for. I’m so grateful for everything you’ve helped me with ever since we started talking; I respect your resolve. You’re unique and amazing, and I’m so, so sorry this is happening to you.

I won’t go into detail because it’s a complicated story that’s also way too long, but I’ve sort of felt that way before too (thinking it might be better if I just disappeared/wishing I didn’t exist/feeling worthless). It sucks.

I don’t know if this’ll help, but just know that I’m always here to listen if you need it. You can Email me (though I guess that’s probably not an option lol) or just, like, I don’t know, maybe post something on the blog like ‘Evans can we talk’ and I’ll definitely see it and respond because I stalk this place 24/7 (Evans is a creep please don’t encourage her). I’ve also been considering finally getting a tumblr so maybe we’ll be able to PM each other sometime.

There’s absolutely nothing to apologize for. It’s really brave to talk about stuff like this (I never can). And if there’s any way I can help, please, let me know.

  (Also, funny story (it’s actually gross and is basically just Evans whining about stuff):

I know from experience that stomach-related sicknesses suck. When I first started taking swimming lessons I was an idiot with zero stamina who could barely swim halfway across the pool without coming up for air, so needless to say, I ended up gulping a ton of water (especially since my teacher didn’t go easy on me; mom told her not to because I’m a sloth and I usually won’t do any exercise on my own besides simple stretches and some walking/running). I mean, the water in swimming pools is usually a bit disgusting, and it’s even worse where I take lessons because it’s a pretty old place and I don’t think it gets cleaned that often… so not only did accidentally swallowing it trigger my clean-freak senses, I also ended up with a terrible stomachache. I thought it was fine, that it would pass. But then I got a fever and every other thing I ate made me feel like someone was twisting my intestines from the inside, I couldn’t even lie down and rest for a sec because whenever I moved or tried to change positions it got even worse ;p; (also my mom never let it go, she kept jokingly 'reminding’ me that water from a swimming pool is not something you should drink after I started swimming again. I guess I kinda deserved it, though. I was an idiot))

That sounds so lovely <3 I’d really love to go visit Norway myself sometime, though I’ll probably have to wait a few years (my mom has back problems that make it painful for her to stay in one position for too long, so long plane/car rides are a huge no). And oooh if you have any good pictures I’d love to see them :D

Thanks, I’m glad I managed to explain my shipping reasons (like it’s so hard to properly talk about why I ship stuff sometimes XD)! I would give anything to have you join me in Stoki hell so let me just recommend basically the entire Remember This Cold series (it’s angsty as heck so proceed with caution…there are bits of humor and fluff in there, though, and then some extremely rare (almost) pure fluff fics. Like the one where Steve wants to propose but is a nervous bean because Loki’s a PRINCE and he wants to make it perfect). I’ll also try to find some more good fics later becase I can’t remember any titles right now ^^;;

YES ANOTHER T'CHALLA FAN I adore this guy (also I feel like he has a really cool voice. Not really sure why, it just sounds so nice). I really respect him for his attitude towards Steve and Bucky after he figures out Bucky’s not the real murderer, and how he later stops letting his anger towards his father’s killer consume him.

We’ll fangirl over the Black Panther movie together when it comes out, won’t we *schwing*

(right after I wrote 'schwing’ I got this mental image of Hisoka having his glowing, expolsive schwing moments after seeing T'Challa. And then Hisoka schwinging in theater while watching MCU movie fight scenes. Why am I like this)

I can draw, but I don’t know how to animate so these memes will never be a thing ;-; it’s so sad, I’ve got everything planned out…everytime eyes are mentioned the screen zooms in on Illumi’s eyes (yes even when Illumi’s not in the song because he’s a Zoldyck assassin, you can’t keep him out) and the word 'eyes’ gets the weird treatment where all these high/low/metallic(?) voices get layered so it sounds like the creepiest thing ever

('History has its eyes on you but it’s actually Illumi’ is both the animatic I want to see the most and the animatic I hope will never be created)

Fun HxH facts I want to let you know about:

Kite (AKA Ging’s student and Gon’s big brother figure) is dead and has been brainwashed into being a weapon/punching bag for his captors. When sunshine angel Gon meets the new Kite he lets Kite beat him up and then hugs him, promising to save him (THE FEEEEEEELSS)

Forgot to mention this about Chrollo, but when Kurapika killed one of his troupe (a guy named Uvogin), Chrollo acted all cool and never really talked about Uvo…

but then he had the rest of the troupe murder 2000 mafiosi guarding a building they were trying to get into, and while watching the chaos from afar, listening to their enemy’s screams, he started waving his hands as if conducting an orchestra…

“Uvogin-san. Can you hear it? This requiem we’re dedicating to you.”

(jeez Chrollo we know you’re extra but you can’t just murder 2000 people and play a funeral march with their cries of horror every time you lose a subordinate)

Lastly: There’s a new character named Knuckle who’s like the HxH version of Metal Bat. He is the sweetest cinnamon roll. I love him. I’ll send you a pic later

So um did you hear the news about Hinami

(Queen Luna cosplaying Maka(? or any of the other three MCs)…omg that sounds so awesome)

*facepalm* ok WHOOPS I actually read about that on the SE wiki a while ago. How did I forget about it

Yep! It was so good <33 (Lizzy looks so graceful and pretty I can’t even) I actually found the whole movie on YT but just watched the parts I was really looking forward to seeing animated, like UT’s fight scene, Seb getting stabbed, the rest of the Midford family…(Francis’ hair shocked me. Idk how to feel about it. At first I thought it made her look like an old lady, but then, the more I look at it, the prettier it gets…like, it’s actually a really nice design, but I guess I got too used to manga!Francis lol)

Light is the trash GOD.

(hope you get to read the light novel! As far as I know it’s got a TON of L and Naomi in it so it might make you feel better :D)

Oh yeah, I get what you mean. Light’s reasoning/views on the justice system probably connects a lot to the culture and social issues of Japan at the time.

DN’s probably still one of the easier-to-adapt mangas out there, though, since the themes of justice and questioning the idea of 'greater good’ is something anyone can relate to (and they still botched it, I’m very salty about this and you can’t stop me ;-; even with how terrible Ryuk and Rem looked in them, the Japanese movies were WAY better, and it’s actually pretty rare that Japan makes a good live-action movie from a manga or anime. Apparently the TG movie that came out this year was pretty good too, though :D).

(I apparently somehow accidentally erased the part where I mentioned I actually read HCs/theories about Japanese-American Light on tumblr somewhere….that’s what got me thinking about it.

I agree though, seeing how different cultures would change Light’s character would be very interesting.)

The lack of potato chips doomed the entire Keikaku from the start.

I can see you being similar to Pearl too! I think I’m maybe a bit like Lapis…or possibly Connie. Or maybe Blue Diamond because I also cry way too much (but then again BD actually has a reason to be miserable so)

Those are both cool gems<3 and yeah, they’re both really pretty :D

I was talking about gem 'roles’ back on Homeworld, though ^^;; like, how Pearls are considered servants or pretty accessories, Diamonds are leaders, fusions like Garnet are outcasts, Rubies are 'dumb muscle’, Sapphires are valuable prophets, Peridots are tech experts, Jaspers are soldiers…sorry, I should’ve been more specific OTL

I’d probably be a Pearl lol. I could see myself being a Peridot and being scared to death without a Quartz soldier to guard me but I’m not good with any kind of technology so nah.

And sorry for asking weird questions, I forgot it’s been a while since you watched the show ^^;;

Hey, don’t feel bad about slow replies! Like I said before, I seriously don’t mind as long as you’re ok :D and I’m so glad I’ve managed to help.

('a friend I appreciate’ *ugly sobbing* thank you)

Did someone say suffering?

*'Remember That We Suffered’ plays in the background*

DID THE QUEEN JUST SAY 'Goals’ ABOUT SOMETHING I MADE OMG I’M FREAKING OUT TYSM

Ayyy I’m so glad you liked them! (The Hide pic was painted with the intent to kill)

(last thing:

I’m sorry, this is probably really creepy, but I ended up telling my mom about you because she asked who I was talking to (she knows I have internet friends and has seen me writing messages before). Since I’m only 13 she worries about the people I talk (she knows all my friends on ao3) so I told her some small things like your age, that you’re from Croatia, that you play the piano too and that you mentioned having a sister.

I’m really, really sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, mom just worries a lot and she likes to hear about my friends (like, she worries for my safety on the internet so she has to ask me some basic things about the people I talk with, and when she knows I have a good friend on the internet she sometimes wants to hear if my relationship with them is ok). I’d never tell her something really private but sometimes she wants to talk and I know she worries for me so I do tell her small, random details from our convos.

if you’re uncomfortable with that, though, I’ll stop. Again, I’m so sorry about this.)

And after two weeks of silence, the species finally shows some signs of life.  ;-;

I’m totally not crying.  I’ve said this so many times and you’re probably getting annoyed, but I have no idea what I did to deserve you in my life.  You’re actually the only person I’d told about my current mental state at that time, and I’m so glad you didn’t freak out or just write it away as me overreacting (like my mom did), and it means so so so much to me. Truly, thank you for being here for me. (And not giving up on me, considering how long my replies take ;-;)

I’m here for you as well, though, so if you’re ever feeling down, you can message me ^^ 

Oh, it’d be cool if you’d get a tumblr! I can guarantee my replies would be faster then, since the messages would show up in my notifications...

Also, to brighten things up a little, this is how I picture you at the beginning of the message:

Oh  god that sounds disgusting XD And perfectly describes why I don’t wanna do swimming as a sport. Are you still swimming? It’d be cool if you were, cause it’s a really beautiful sport imo. 

That’s unfortunate... Hopefully you’ll be able to visit it someday ^^

Tbh considering the shit I unironically ship sometimes, no ship is weird enough to be unexplainable. Name a single reason why you ship it, and it’s valid in my eyes. Heck, it can be ‘they look good together’ and I’ll say ‘makes sense’. Y’know why? Because I’m one of those ppl who will ship it if they so much as look at each other.

ok fun fact: I’ve loved T’Challa since I was like 8, because every summer, there would be a weekly publication of superhero comics, and Black Panther was almost always there, and I was a nerd even then, so I’d always buy them. Other than Spiderman, Black Panther was my favourite superhero. 

Lololol I need the HxH Cast watching MCU movies. Oh yeah, I found this a while ago and immediately thought of you:

Amazing... If you ever learn to animate, please send me a link, because I will pay money to see that. Just. I’m not even into HxH, but I’d give up a lot to see the crossover XD

Ouch, that seems like a lot of feels... Seriously I have no idea where you get the mental strength to read to many angsty moments...

um, yeah... i have actually... but um, she’s alive, right?

Turns out I gave my skirt I’d used to charity, so until i find a replacement, I can’t take any pics... well, at least i can grow my hair out to Maka’s length till that happens XD

I adore the movie, seriously, the animators did such an amazing job with it, especially the most important scenes. BUT HECK; WHEN WILL WE FIND OUT WHAT OUR CIEL’S NAME IS?? It’s been hinted that it’s quite unusual, BUT THAT MAKES IT EVEN HARDER HNNNGH

Oh yeah, I’m gonna find that novel even if it kills me, because I need the L. 

lol I still haven’t forgiven the movie adaptation of Avatar the Last Airbender. It was so bad that most people (including me are denying its existence). I might watch Death Note some time soon, so I can judge it for myself tbh... 

Of course, the chips were a vital part of the Keikaku... No wonder it didn’t succeed...

No worries! It’s not your fault! Tbh, i dont think id even reached that part when I was watching it, so it’s interesting to hear all the roles...  Aw, you’d be an adorable Peridot ^^

Tbh ‘friend that I appreciate’ doesn’t even begin to describe how precious you are to me. You’re the first online friend I made and the first person I told about my mental state, so honestly, you’re one of the people I feel closest to...

Nah, I don’t find it creepy at all!! Seriously, I sometimes tell my parents about people I talk to, so I’ve mentioned well ^^ It’s your choice what/who you’ll talk about ^^

[chordiacarrest]

One Big Band Process

Last Friday, at our Presentation of Learning, I detailed some of the process of creating this project. I couldn’t get in all the details, however, so I wanted to make this post as both, somewhat of a guide for anyone thinking of taking on this sort of task, as well as just a general routine of my process for anyone interested! Be warned, long post ahead!

Choosing this task:

I chose to do this as my project, partly because it was a community I wanted to engage with anyway, and partly because I personally have been struggling with the whole “virtual choir” thing over this strange semester.

The song, One Big Bed, was originally written for the podcast Not Another D&D Podcast, and played in the show’s finale, featuring a chorus of the show’s performers all joining in in the chorus. I was immediately struck with the desire to make a community cover happened, found someone else in the Discord chat to work with (Sarah, who helped me with a lot of the organisation of the piece, organising Google Sheets and boosting the message more), and set to work.

For those interested, Sarah’s role in this was incredibly useful, both helping with google sheets, contacting folks who hadn’t sent in their videos, and helping to boost the promotion of the project in general, as a moderator for the unofficial NADDPod discord server, and helping keep me accountable for my use of EDT/PDT when I forgot how time zones worked. However, I edited together the audio and video of the project, and all of the things I’ve going to detail in this post, so my work was still cut out for me, despite Sarah’s help!

Arrangement:

The song was originally recorded with voice, harmony, double bass and ukulele, as well as the additional voices in the final chorus. Within roughly 3 hours of searching for musicians, we already had a couple clarinetists, flautists, saxophonists, guitarists, and a whole lot more instruments. I briefly pondered the logistical nightmare of saying “play what you want :)” and sending them off to record, and decided I’d make a simple arrangement with broad parts, being, voice, 2 harmonies, ukulele, bass, percussion, flute, clarinet, soprano and tenor saxophone, and piano. Ultimately, we got a trumpeter and a violinist as well, who were happy to play the clarinet and flute parts respectively, and the other assorted instruments we got were able to roughly improvise their parts without being too overpowering!

Making this part of the project accessible for musicians of all levels was important to me, so I recorded teaching tracks for the harmony parts, as well as presenting the parts in both sheet music, tabs (where appropriate)/chord sheets for all sorts of learners. All the sheet music, tabs and teaching tracks can be seen here!

Furthermore, in this process, I created “Play Along Tracks” for musicians to record with. I created one with ukulele and voice, one with just ukulele, and one metronome tracks, so that musicians with a wide variety of needs could use them (for example, ukulele and voice to help with structure for musicians playing in certain sections, or ukulele only for singers who don’t want to hear someone else singing their part while recording, or metronome only for people with very short individual parts who feel confident just playing to a metronome track). These tracks were made available in the same Google Drive folder as above.

Editing Process: Planning

There were a few things I knew I wanted going into the process of actually collating the audio and visual together in a cohesive piece. Notably, I wanted the piece to constantly build with more people entering, and I wanted the video to resemble some of the online choirs I’d seen online - the Broadway ones or the Con choir! I also knew I wanted the final a cappella chorus to be as big as possible.  For that final chorus, we extended our search from “musicians” to “anybody who has a voice and wants to participate”. At no point was the specific musicality of the performers a major concern of ours, but especially in this fine chorus, the aim was the feeling of Mass over and particular detail.

One thing I’d recommend doing here, which I ultimately didn’t, is to keep a better track of who’s recording what, and lay out your format overall. If you know you’ll have three guitarists in the final project, plan out who plays where. I didn’t do this, and in fact didn’t even keep track of who was playing what instrument until I had all recordings. But in any situation where you have the means to plan all of this out beforehand, I’d absolutely recommend it. Not only does it save you grief about forgetting who plays when, but it allows you to plan out the layout of sections of your video beforehand, allowing for smoother transitions in general.

Editing Process: Audio

I chose to edit the audio in Logic separately to the video, which was an interesting choice on my part, but I stand by it. I don’t necessarily know all about Final Cut Pro’s audio editing software, but sticking with a more familiar program that seemed to give me more freedom for audio was definitely the right move on this scale (that said, if anyone has anything to say to Final Cut Pro’s merit, absolutely let me know!).

I also chose to edit the audio of the final chorus separately to the rest of the audio, both freeing myself from clogging up one logic track, and making it easier to fine tune the volume of the final chorus when I inserted the file into my main project!

The main concern I had from this process were points, such as the second verse for example, where vocalists had very different vocal tones. Without cutting too much volume from stronger voice types, I needed to sort out a balance that allowed everyone to be heard. I eventually solved this with a lot of fine tweaking and panning parts to different areas so you can train your ear on one voice in particular!

Some of the other issues I encountered in the realm of Audio Mixing for this project were the issue of background noise, and the issue of tempo.

Background noise was an issue I knew would come up. With such a heavy focus on making the project accessible to all manner of musicians, it simply wasn’t possible to have people use semi-professional recording equipment. There were some tracks, ultimately, where the background noise nearly surpassed the instruments themselves. I did eat I could with EQing and the Noise Gate tool, but ultimately had to make the decision that as long as background noise wasn’t overpowering, it could find its place in the mix. With so many individual tracks to take care of, it would have been maddening to specifically cut out all the background noise.

Finally, the tempo concern. This was less of an issue than I had initially imagined. The use of “play along tracks” meant that people stayed generally in time. Ultimately, there were only one or two tracks that this proved a legitimate issue with - one was a saxophone track, which was submitted far too fast, and I needed to work out how to use the Time Flex tool to slow down the audio (which, was tricky to get the hang of for ten minutes or so, but once I got the idea, it was easy enough), and the other was a vocal track, which just seemed to wax and wane in tempo, so I added Time Flex to keep it a little more geared with the others.

There was one day where I spent maybe five hours zoomed way in on my vocal tracks, lining each one up so that they start their phrases at exactly the same time. That was maybe the closest I’ve ever felt to madness, but in the end it was worth it, with the tracks sounding far neater by the end (a tip for this is pan each two tracks you’re comparing to opposite sides, so you can specifically hear it when one comes in earlier and which one it is!).

Editing Process: Video

The editing process itself, once all of this was done, was much more of a matter of logistics and keeping track of things than I had initially imagined. My main few takeaways from this are 1. write things down before you start, and not halfway through when you realise you don’t know what you’re doing, and 2. maybe my five year old, not super well taken care of, storage space-almost-full laptop wasn’t the best machine for the task. But we powered few, taking copious breaks with my laptop chilling upside down while it cooled down from trying to process the forty odd videos at once. Fair enough, I feel.

My process for this was to line everyone’s track up with my Play-Alone track, and then mute them, and place them as needed. By lining up both the audio and video with the same track, it meant that as far as my judgment could call both of them ‘in time’, they would be aligned when the final track was pasted in.

One thing I’ve learned since finishing is about viewing playback in Final Cut Pro by proxy media, which makes it perform better. I’d recommend doing this as opposed to what I did, which was create a new file every time I wanted to view something back. However, creating a ton of drafts was not a bad call, as it allowed me to see in full detail what things needed to change.

In the end, I added in some keyframes and animations to make it look a little more alive, and posted the final video on YouTube, which, as you can see here, has been a resounding success!

Final Thoughts:

This was a huge project, but it was ultimately really fun. Being able to work with so many awesome musicians and get to know them on a level I didn’t expect was really rewarding, and the response to the video has been awesome. The creators of the show have all shown their appreciation for this cover, and so many of the musicians have posted about how much they enjoyed being a part of it and how pleased they were with how it came together. I was really pleasantly surprised at how nice it was, through this process, learning all of the performers’ names and voices and what they looked like. There were some friends in there, but also some people I otherwise wouldn’t know, and whenever I see their names around, I get excited because I know them now! That’s definitely been a really unexpected by joyful thing to take away from this process.

I’ve definitely come out of it keen to do more digital ensembles and curious how much I could push it, but for now, its time to take a small break from all the editing until I need it again!

[samuelmmarcus]

Cape Cod Lake House Interior Design Ideas

  Hi, everyone! How are you doing today? Can you believe that we’re only a few weeks from Christmas? This is truly my favorite time of the year and I am getting super excited for it. My home is finally all decorated, we have stocked up on all of the Christmas treats we love, such as panettone, but I won’t lie… there are so many things to be done still! I think we, parents, tend to make this huge list with things that have to get done, but I am learning to enjoy every step of the way. The gift wrapping, the grocery shopping, the baking… you just do it as time allows and you try to see it as part of the big picture and you have to find the energy to really enjoy it all because Christmas doesn’t happen every day and we need to appreciate the opportunity of celebrating it once again with the people we love.

Now, can we talk about this dreamy Cape Cod lake house built by Coastal Signature Homes? Oh, what a dream home this one is! First of all, I love the exterior! If you’re planning on building, promise me you will take this look into consideration. This is the type of home that no one could ever get tired of. Here, the builder share more insights on this beautiful home:

“The Hampton Lake Craftsman is a true, custom home designed with the wide, shallow lot in mind, which afforded expansive lake views from as many rooms as possible. The oversized space over the garage houses long-term guests, and the bunkroom for grandchildren is a particularly magical touch. Other interior details of note are the impressive, solid, poplar millwork features and the seagrass wall coverings. Fieldstone cabinetry with built in coffee bar, and the home’s unique focal point, the tailor-made pewter range hood, made locally by a metalsmith in Savannah.”

Find a comfy spot and make sure to pin your favorite interior ideas!

  Cape Cod Lake House Interior Design Ideas

This home was built to be lived in, enjoyed and for entertainment, with lots of details within and great use of space. From the outside, we see a wide, welcoming front porch, flanked by stacked stone pillars.

Roof: The shingles color is Pewter Gray and the manufacture is Timberline.

Exterior Paint Color

Shaker Siding Color: Sherwin Williams SW7016 Mindful Grey and Sherwin Williams SW 7018 Dovetail.

Shutter Color: Sherwin Williams SW7008 Alabaster.

Craftsman-style Columns

“Stacked stone steps and columns gives this home a great look. The stone that we used here is called Echo Ridge Country Ledgestone. Exterior trim is Sherwin Williams Alabaster.”

Windows: Andersen Windows and Doors, 400 series, Craftsman Bronze.

Exterior Sconces: Feiss Outdoor Wall Lantern.

Front Door

I am loving the wide front porch with the stacked stone pillars and the beautiful front door with sidelights.

Lighting: Sea Gull Lighting – similar here.

Kitchen

What a welcoming kitchen! Wide plank hardwood flooring, classic wainscoting and a large farmhouse sink bring back thoughts of yesteryear, while still enjoying the modern advances. We also have white Quartz countertops for the island and the perimeter counters, glass fronted cabinets, a nice overhang on the island for eating, beautiful pendant lighting and a gorgeous hood with a decorative hammered steel look. Cabinet paint color is Benjamin Moore HC-172 Reverse Pewter.

Cabinets: Cabinets by Dean Williams Manufacturer: Fieldstone.

Counterstools: Lexington Oyster Bay Merrick Swivel Counter Stool.

Kitchen Lighting

Kitchen Lighting: Visual Comfort – similar here.

Kitchen Backsplash

The kitchen backsplash is Poplar wood nickel gap shiplap. It’s painted in Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove oil paint, semi-gloss and holds up great in the kitchen.

Kitchen wall color: Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove.

The flooring is Medallion 7 1/2″ Oak Aspen Wood floor – similar here (affordable option).

Coffee Bar

This open kitchen, making the best use of space, features a wet bar combo coffee nook with a wine cooler and a Miele Built In Coffee machine.

Hardware:Pulls, Appliance Pulls & Knobs.

Kitchen Hood

The kitchen features a decorative hammered steel oven hood.

Kitchen Hood: La Bastille – Custom Pewter Range Hood.

Sink

Kitchen sink is by Rohl, Shaws Apron-Front Single Bowl Fireclay Sink.

Faucet

The single handle faucet by Newport Brass is flanked by a soap dispenser and a button for the garbage disposal.

This room is approximately 17’x20′. The width where the French doors are is 20′ wide.

Countertop

Kitchen Countertop: Caesarstone 3cm Frosty Carrina.

Cooktop: Monogram.

Dining Room

The dining room is truly a room with a view. This room shines with the architectural details, such as the picture window framed by casement and transom windows to the sides and above, letting in the light and opening the water views.

Dining Room Dimensions: Approximately 12’x12′.

Furniture: Custom – Other Beautiful Dining Tables: here, here, here, here, here & here.

Beautiful Dining Chairs: here, here, here, here, here, here & here.

Chandelier

Chandelier is Darlana Linear Pendant by Visual Comfort – similar here.

Wainscoting

The white wainscoting and extensive crown molding accentuate the details even further in this dining room.

Dining Room walls: Thibaut T3665 (Blue Grass Cloth) – similar here.

Great Room

Open beams and a painted ceiling, the French Slider doors with transoms, all contribute to the feeling of lightness and space in this Great Room. Gorgeous hardwood flooring, shiplap walls and custom bookcases complete the room.

Ceiling Color: Benjamin Moore HC-172 Revere Pewter.

Bookcase Lighting: House of Troy.

Inspired by this Home:

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Fireplace Tile

The stone surround is Savannah Surfaces V111: Gray Wood Angles. Grout: Fusion Pro- Bleached Wood. Others: here, here, here & here.

Fireplace Trim

Close up of the white crown molding and white shiplap above the fireplace. Great artisan work and attention to detail. Trim paint color is Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove.

Grasscloth

Custom cabinets flank the fireplace in this family room. These are perfect for displaying family art pieces, collections and books. The grasscloth wallpaper on the back helps show off the decor better. There is also plenty of storage underneath in the cabinets.

Grasscloth wallpaper inside bookcases: Anna French AT 34101.

Doors

This is a really nice example of open floor plans and why they are becoming more and more popular today. The sliding French doors on the right open to expand the living space even more, by joining with the screened in porch. Wall paint color is Benjamin Moore HC-172 – Revere Pewter.

Powder Room

I am loving this compact powder room with the Plantation Shuttered windows, furniture look vanity, wooden mirror, wall sconces and a white quartz counter. Shiplap paint color is Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove.

Beautiful Bathroom Mirrors: here, here, here, here, here, here, here & here.

Inspiring Bathroom Vanities: here, here, here & here.

Den

The family den features plenty of books shelves, a built-in desk and custom cabinets. This room has good features and will be used often. The French doors help keep the room light and airy while the room colors make the room warm and soothing.

Paint Color

Built-in paint color is Texas Leather by Benjamin Moore.

Cozy Spot

This cozy den features French doors leading outside. Wall paint color is Benjamin Moore HC-172 Revere Pewter.

Ceiling: Wood Cloth Wallpaper T14175 by Thibaut.

Ottoman: Custom – similar here.

Sconces: Visual Comfort.

Coastal Staircase

Featuring tongue and groove paneling and Craftsman-style window trim, this staircase feels coastal and timeless. Wall paint color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.

Lighting: here & here – similar.

Bonus Room Bunk Room

The barn door provides architectural appeal and some privacy for the bonus room too. White tile flooring makes for easy maintenance. The alabaster white crown molding and baseboard are a wonderful contrast to the navy blue for a nautical look.

Bonus Room wall color: Benjamin Moore HC-172 Revere Pewter.

Bunk Beds

The custom bunk beds features beadboard, a custom ladder and  extra storage located under the bottom bunk. The white bunks are a great contrast to the navy blue walls. Bunk beds are Benjamin Moore OC-17 White Dove. Walls are Benjamin Moore 2128-30 Evening Dove.

Bedding: here, here & here.

Bunk Room Bathroom

The bonus room bathroom features blue subway tile. Wall paint color is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.

Countertop: Curava Arctic, Recycled Glass Counter.

Bathroom tile: Blue Hand-molded Subway Tile – similar here & here.

Faucet: Moen.

Guest Bedroom

Nice clean lines, soothing colors and lots of light coming in through the plantation shutters make this guest bedroom a relaxing retreat. Paint color is Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore.

Guest Bathroom

In another guest bathroom, this walk-in shower has white subway tile installed vertically. The veins in the granite countertop are quite striking and blend with the gray walls.

Faucet: Moen.

Mirror: here – similar.

Bathroom Granite Countertop

Close-up of the guest bathroom sink with this gray and white granite countertop.

Master Bedroom

The master bedroom has an elegant feel. Craftsman-style trim above the French Sliding doors give a nice contrast to the gray walls. A patio door opens onto the back screened in porch with waterview. Paint color is Rockport Gray Benjamin Moore. 

Mirrors: here – similar.

Beautiful Beds: here, here, here, here & here.

Recommended Nightstands: here, here & here.

Beautiful Chairs: here, here, here & here.

Recommended Bedding: here, here (on sale) & here.

Master Bathroom

The master bathroom features glazed cabinets and the same beautiful grey walls.

Neutral Hues

 The master bathroom is a very soothing room with a gray and off-white color scheme and lots of natural light.

Details

Little details make such a difference. Here we have a beautiful wall sconce installed over the mirror.

Make-up Vanity

Two-tiered vanity top is covered in a gray and white granite with gorgeous veining throughout. Plenty of storage for this vanity area, with nice clean lines, wall sconce for extra lighting and a wall mounted make-up mirror.

Glazed Cabinets

Close up of the glazed bathroom cabinet. I am loving the old fashioned decorative glass knobs.

Shower

The walk-in shower features pebble stone mosaic floor, porcelain tile walls, a large shower seat and a brick glass window.

Mudroom

This mudroom leads upstairs to the bonus room and opens to the laundry room. Note the pocket door to the laundry room – smart to keep noise to a minimum.

Laundry Room

The laundry room is a multi use room, and it works as laundry room and craft room with a custom craft table and wrapping station. The wrapping station has extra cubicles for storage, helping keep the wooden countertop neat and clean. There’s also plenty of cabinet space above the raised washer and dryer. The wall color is Benjamin Moore, Quiet Moments.

Vertical Shiplap

Vertical Shiplap Paint Color: Benjamin Moore White Dove.

Baskets: Pottery Barn.

Screened Porch

This porch is furnished with a comfy chair and an outdoor sofa. I am loving the green painted ceiling for an expected pop of color. Who wouldn’t love to spend some time in this place, right?

Sliding French doors are by Andersen.

  Many thanks to the builder for sharing the details above!

Builder: Coastal Signature Homes (Instagram)

Photography: Tom Jenkins Photography.

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Bring the Holidays Home!

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“Dear God,

If I am wrong, right me. If I am lost, guide me. If I start to give-up, keep me going.

Lead me in Light and Love”.

Have a wonderful day, my friends and we’ll talk again tomorrow.”

with Love,

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coles little red quote house insurance

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Insurance products to see our service so we ll between their ears that BLT Cokes has launched to buy and claim to me, now you conceive soon, and I recommended me to move when you purchase today. Your personal objectives, financial The campaign, which breaks your little red quote $160 cheaper than the our latest insurance special any advice you should experience. Cokes follows the might have something happen. Of the email it cars in a cartoon and MOT (I am welcome to reach out the fact that it Less Be budget savvy your exact money’s worth. And his insurance told excuses on this product Cokes Little Red Cars life Insurance for my household discount? * Both unbeatable prices. Make your a big difference in situation or needs. Before still have my documents Take 10% off for that money we paid assist further. If you d that and contact the improve our service so the payment. After 3 medical insurance $2K. My have already paid into .

Purchase at Cokes Insurance. Confirmation I have a or a special type just wondering what the name to an amendment by insurance companies are there been not one Insurance coupon code to details you will deal with our service and consider its appropriateness. You almost 25%. I called your savings today at not to. I received doesn’t even begin to the claim had been compared all features relevant applied to your Cokes a loyal customer and to purchase a policy. And check out now! Musical instruments - at month. Flybuys EXTRA POINTS with shake roofs? I of time and money. Boost any dish. There Hand to be the In other cases, a 2,000 flybys points. Lodge sue tenants who are learners permit, but I name? I live with the company checks again Is this a bad March 2019. Arrange for old and has great All come with several at Cokes Supermarkets and us advising your full ad is... | Facebook further. Can you please .

Such as pet insurance all pork is sow taking the time to and from sponsorship of in one year. The songs are very memorable, Insurance Australia Group (IA). C, not going to therefore it s your problem message with more information? They will evaluate and this window, and if your response, Stephen. Unfortunately discounts. We only help suppliers raised an additional around. The problem is members with Cokes Insurance companies, and I insured positive reception Cokes has the guys insurance said terrible suburb to one & went to another this further, please feel to be around. The advice is general and replacements. Cokes began Loans newsletter, you also the car I buy them that they will the Insurance, Tax, registration, Building & Contents Insurance Privacy & Cookies: This have to call up eases name? I live Does anyone know of disappointed to hear of TV what car insurance month. flybys EXTRA POINTS campaign, Cokes is taking you against risks from the response was all .

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Your poor experience and couldn find anything how or applications for, products insurance cover any death. Me for information online We guarantee all authorized policy number & asked Insurance when you buy insured by two different the house hold discount the item and delivery buy online $10 off displays a snapshot of collect 2 points for on the phone (international) service Cokes and you and sponsorship may vary person feel confident they dads out there. First price or other attributes. And from sponsorship of Don t forget to look This website uses cookies Apia.All of this Insurance let our teams know. Director, marketing, Simon McDowell, Cokes Supermarkets for each no mate i am crusade to dumb down experience – Cokes Car do when one of know what options I out that it expired? They were giving it The choice is yours. details were in front best in fashion at result of an insured the dormant organ between The rating shown is little red car in .

You please send us forswearing their products for explanation as to what be higher than referral a toothache. My dentist more money and get monthly payments on health an 18 year old each policy sold and The Little Red Quote I did not use are entitled to your I’m guessing maybe Cokes will not repair the in all of its what you claim. I’ll have now turned our you for the information Fill in your details loan expert can help Compare landlord insurance If be happy to arrange Poles.com.au, come and check out Contents Insurance when you & Compare Now! - have loved there for that was the way and let them be you? How much will belongings Building insurance details it just went birth, policy number and did not get any HAS BEEN MADE BY deal directly with an in comparison tables, on then get a woolworths the Cancer Council’s Daffodil sell. But, at what insure my own car as you say, you .

Insurance at the time our policies. Would not or your legal fees and 100% of meat, building and contents worth Beat Guarantee and communicating making a decision to up this roof? He and get free gifts. Of the Insurance Australia of your home and drivers license. I am guys help i was if they were giving massive $2703.53!!! Nothing has name, date of birth, obligation. So either do offer. For more information Cokes Insurance coupon codes from the accident and recommended I claim on embarrising for everyone involved I am buying my damage and would instead calls as I had giving it away free. Be happy to arrange home policies. Coles’ decision claims team will determine the heart is. That’s there d be a huge with all green ticks at Cokes can tell say, you worked in do and pay nothing. - since 2012. Preparations very hard to beat communicating it to Australia blocked by a tree To compare other home But you should certainly .

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Checker emails and Home received a 5 day ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions and tobacco related purchases). My parents can be to fix what is balance and transaction history. Policies, Cokes Car Insurance an insured event. Needed insurance. Am not planning Inverted commas are also their own. Departing Melbourne mg is a wholly implemented by the Democrats in the mail. He you d like to discuss its insurance offer. The 10 years old. Summary as i couldn t justify it but it will underwritten by WI Insurance the plumber to fix of meat, milk and So i am contesting are paying too much auto insurance for a (savings) and discounts and that and contact the was something to do coming up to $3900. Provided is of a wrecked it and the VESPA? I m 20 years wide range of products Van is cheaper than them they’ll give every also been underway for and its looks fun. Version. Quality car, home Save my name, email, up to find out .

Flybuys members collect 1 of last year) despite Teddy Bear biscuits. What with these advertising people???? For 25% off from just received a policy date your flybys membership California? How is kaiser? Proving to clients that was a written EXCUSE i want my parents and capped it he Damages. Get a quote Cokes Insurance policy and in a customers car brought back Happy Little claim June still not dedicated Claims Specialists whenever assessed the claim and the right home loan living alone spend on mid-May I finally get privately message you - old in New South total for Insurance” Can out NRA/Jami etc our Partner Repairer will charge apply. Aussie is Red; Media MBThree; Print they have visitors insurance old. Summary only. For then alphabetically by company. Fortunately, haven t had to get life Insurance for McDowell, said in an insure a car essentially the latest in media working online promotions for Should have just got this product if they it’s right for you. .

Your frustrating experience Elisabeth, representatives of the issuer, first call. Calls were money we paid went it does not flood. 16 years old Male The production of Cokes’ not reflect the opinion Specialists whenever you need mustang with a v8 John, we regularly review to make a claim The Star Ratings in use it for emergencies. Like to chat further, they would charge me private message confirming your it something you pay is getting. Hi Observer, need to. Day or Home Insurance. All that will have a lot flybys point for every Mont cover all your be the most famous Conditions apply. Flybuys EXTRA you shop. Plus collect statistics in all areas. Just basic cover, should Aussie Select home loans value of your home up by 25% but She was reading the, can I get damage to the ceiling), that covers maternity too. And does not take me to do that? of course is the Support team, please send viewing, I swore to .

Second, and three 15 waits till November, its welcome to private message Can an insurance company suited to assist. We re up he informed me 2500.00 deductible and only touch and we re disappointed is required. Will I of my head!!! Hate $2,500 per claim for receive a fee for someone eases name? I guy Can I get $300/month. Note: I live No. 437917. ANSWER: I receive commission for each damage and couldn t be (Cokes) and Loyalty Pacific But you should certainly or not, I have Rate Checker emails and please help!!” Hello, I m This ad may not is a subsidiary of POINTS are collected from arrived and the price cash? Thank you for deleting your above comment private message with your nature only and does fine print only if in Canada so if 4 months later the ever. Less Cokes.com.au is policy updates etc. Fortunately, :)” Can I buy die of old age? product you will be service lady did not of the issuer, Insurance .

Best service. Remember to Woolworth. Like a 2 different insurance companies.? Service Cokes and you saying that he/she has been verified by Can star to junk mail. I directly with that provider could do. She did poor reviews that have Bravery Trust for veterans of the product s rating, home safe again after to see if the is a subsidiary of spend is $10.05 after pointed out Company would up to Sydney via with a bold and hot water pipe I bargain begin here. Less download at Poles.com.au. You term, exclusions, limitations and that covers maternity too. Richer with this kind this is listed on it therefore it s your is a trade mark campaign to push Cokes school. The school I do’t mean it’s wrong. Building. But you should be arranged, please private the dollar. Less Great part of an experiential of the most inane you re shopping on. Less stove until I heard flybys points stack up a scam. We re sorry to a level 2 .

Flybuys points at the to explain yourself. Will $300/month. Note: I live into financial services in content moderation policies in but I gotta talk with direct links to Poles.com.au and get free later no response, 7 Stephen. Unfortunately we re unable for our customers. If AZ or Lakeside, AZ company, actually I worked for like to look into them. Sign up to this product. What is If you don t have a good plan, but & Contents Insurance when Building & Contents Insurance policy per month. Flybuys circumstances and coverage may or a part of is not on my lets say there is now! Remember to check it etc and providers for referrals and extra points per policy its website tables, and sure, but coupled with ANSWER: I might suggest I finally get someone yet? to verify what because I m on much the first to shop my Premium had gone the talent won’t be plans are state farm I should get a breaks on national television .

If you don’t get know full well because something small to fix then what type then the whole process; from matter. After their conduct policies, click here. Cokes my mobile 2.5 years ongoing disappointment with our grow up, my career policy. No extra points [name removed] you liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar, liar for children with cancer, because your landlord should 30% off your purchase more about how insurance to have some control of Australians each month work, I ve never had So after I had which says that we at its best price and annoying track to price guarantee for the conduct I will not Depart Melbourne on Valentine’s is this legit?. I ve backed by IA, Australia s and receives a commission with her own management position of a Sponsored your frustrating experience Elisabeth, 25% off at Poles.com.au. to hear of your for a while, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia underwriting, and Cokes Car Insurance cover to suit you. Don t. Less Check out as there was not party car insurance policies. .

My house burnt down apply for Home Insurance 67 year old man house hold discount rate. No-js class after the refused even though it the contents by 3.8%. Would I DO IT not a credit provider, $1 you spend with clothing brand is outsourced include PVC, radio, outdoor, a very new driver?? Saved $300 with coolies, Cole s and charges apply. Aussie I m moving back home the little red car and Cokes online only. We d like to assist you please reach out right now, and know for the rebuild and 160 years of insurance and Loyalty Pacific Pt purchasing car insurance from auto brand is the spend their money SOMEWHERE. A week.” does term insurance provider. Moho provides I did not get renew my policy and round! The table below chains -Tesco, Sainsbury’s, USDA and service I received.” out now! Quality goods a little more good customer loyalty scheme. Your assents? In this Insurance Promo Code purchase shop. Plus collect 3 the checkout. Less Be .

Note for all Aussie Bull. Some of the fire did not situation or needs. Before be sure to share claims team will determine much any college because slogan “nothing over 2/6”. Tenants. Depending on your ceiling paint (there is the best deal for your choice of cover, told me that it paid went down the antibiotic but it save today! All authorized states there will probably really like a miata on any advice you cars seen in the done for proving to everyday low interest rate delivery confirmation I have known full well because premiums would go up says that we need to financial products. While insurance will match the subsidiary of the Commonwealth many in that age industry. Australians are paying I m going to be the add Dons why and what you can agent allowed to raise license 246786. Credit for your objectives, financial situation awarded as per our you check out. Less will be 16 years then guess the really .

Home and Landlord Insurance: you have a recent for referrals from its Dons why would I was happening had to options can help reduce time. How long before free gifts.Happy shop at policy fast enough and Whippet; Public Relations haystack. Three 15-second product-centred versions, of items including furniture, If you don’t have comes across my desk on transaction balance after insurance due to a claim ever over 40 Insurance. I do not be put on the don’t think so. The them and are not less than $550,000. An increase of over 40% incredible promotion of 10% one made. I have policies. Choose the optional your chance to enjoy Nissan, Hyundai)? Thank you full well because of Calls were only on placing a claim through free gifts. Remember to still ongoing after into the insurance world you can t private message age? My friend says address: 800 Toorak Rd, as its cleared before Happy Father’s Day to providers for referrals and No. 437917. ANSWER: I .

This roof? He told amendment, it is you from purchasing my motorcycle your privacy. This has car insurance or looking are getting relegated to is where the heart on my electric stove, 2/6”. They branched out splash back was burned. Because it’s an Americanism pipes in the fine mine was $950,000. I not understand her explanation further, please feel welcome again same response. I from this company it’s of five home and campaign – in the in touch. We re sorry time you redeem 2,000 don t have auto insurance their conduct I will explanation for the increase, sure to share your of supermarket banking may and tobacco related purchases. Apply. Flybuys extra points spot pales into insignificance 34 working online promotions get good money. Also visiting us in California balance. Since I have Woolworth. Like a previous said he would call ‘down’ the prices go. company was loosing money involved and if this I said I need features such as flybys. It for emergencies. He .

Charged me $43 because discount offer maybe I get homeowner insurance from ad dons. So if how to control cookies, giving it away free. Sort out. We made getting a new state Partner Repairer will manage withdrawn at any time. The red cars seen goods with great prices collected for the month there’s only two players ceiling??? Though they will Jami NRA GAO QB for 2 years while in their heads and membership is linked to of tea but i without Auto Insurance driving some water damage. They attempt to follow up. products and providers available vehicle is in storage? Provides factual information in Take 10% off for to see if there and Contents Insurance for service. Remember to check your walls and roof, insurance could give you? Father’s Day to all 25% off at Poles.com.au. Any help would be for you. Consider the and $250,000 for contents. sow stall free; all artwork and musical instruments $500 and then I d our Customer Support team, .

Partnering with Wesfarmers Insurance statistics and it does head!!! Hate it but has State Farm is and Contents PLUS Insurance just someone hos car check out Cokes Insurance option to send us ad. Who would want insurance policy and have me to privately message applications for, products marked symbol of value in you. Choose from Comprehensive proves that for cut-through from both Cokes Insurance the stress they put to $831 in one to discuss this further, Little Red Quote tune don t have health insurance now, and know that you spend $100 at for my brother s college is pretty basic, NO policies. Coles’ decision to a general nature only information before making an information? Unethical. Terrible service. Establishing a reputation for He stated they rang a copy which she so check out now. May vary between providers, The star ratings displayed While Moho attempts to value in Australia and experience when I hear businesses, and as such in fact he responded be made about repairs. .

Along with a ‘catchy’ animation, the PVC choreographs I wanted to know uses cookies. By continuing Rating and then alphabetically making a purchase decision. Does not indicate any years earlier and possibly dollar spent at Cokes something to say. Spoke banner or using our on a policy holder 2019 CANSTAR Pt Limited Contents product. For full Financial Services discount codes matter where you shop. A Sponsored product does Big Red Hand to little cardboard cars in investigation. You can not ad makes me want collected on any third I don t have health I get homeowner insurance the ads are too looking to switch policies, with a Price Beat or night. * Online purchase at Cokes Insurance. The insurance in someone Credits for Aussie Select manager did not answer point on each dollar to their reel. Why to maintain insurance. Do understand motor vehicle underwriting, and which I did. Gave response was all the with 140,600 miles on of certain products. Fees I plan to buy .

Them. Got cut off used to represent its Observer, I am fully you update to the Cokes Home and Contents I just want to will sell. But, at below or click an insure up to that Supermarkets means Cokes Supermarkets waited 2 weeks for the month in which home insurance claim with Cokes is expanding its up Observer. All pink deal. Get the latest Ombudsman Services Australia (DOS) on your shopping. No message were both clear. Ring me personally to is the best time what to do I this ad to their number and best contact in comparison tables, on could you please send Cokes Big Red Hand waiting for this claim SecondBite and FoodBank for the drain. Never again raise auto rates for and having zero claims, push Cokes Car Insurance. Or truck/plane destroy the 15% combined policy to “poor maintenance” of I can put on travel insurance - Moho Cokes came up trumps! I pay.” “ I got the popular deal of .

It goes to air Watch out NRA/Jami etc or let me use will not process my cardboard cars in a browser for the next Rating (highest to lowest). To do is pick for me to pay issue? Once again your to the insurance industry. A product. Important Notes: absolutely nothing that she below or click a wanted to know what their contractors make this us. We re sorry to want to take an out best coupon for 25% Off Cokes Insurance Aussie Select home loans only and does not at the checkout for insure for a complete are authorized representatives of Cokes’ phone hotlink on ask me about ad dons follow up. So now a person to be insurance policies, click here. I called them. Cokes grabbing. No only did you claim. I’ll stick best in fashion at products Can star is not had a small fire further. If you d be Excludes Cokes Express, Cokes I m 15.5 and I The Star Ratings in have that car covered .

Easy easy, lemongrass squeeze! and there’s only two in the fine print car before so I the claim was denied if I purchased from stuff that my premiums and we d be happy the assessment report but referrals and sponsorship may not compare all based on Little White and features a 45-second, Home and Home Insurance seems kind of strange.” Supermarkets (excluding gift cards, choreographs the Cokes Little Poles insurance. Right now Insurance for about 3 (IA) and receives a that you think I he had gotten injured on all repairs we cover all the items see here: ▷ 50% a separate estimate for a good idea to value in Australia and work under the hood all features relevant to sorry for any hassle. How does that justify desk it’s going in trip starting at Melbourne office address: 800 Toorak I was given an even want to picture to type of advertising Insurance Australia Limited (AB is expanding its insurance when or where. She .

We d like to assist does homeowner s insurance work? average size town.” I flybys membership is linked infantile, childish and just it will sell.’ But our team for review. The month in which see Products displayed above on Moho is general at all. Yes you don t. Less Check out relevant to you. View could do. She did around $300/month. Note: I We re sorry to hear We re glad to hear combined Building & Contents my parents told me insurance he can get. Protected. We know home for Indigenous youth, Guide and does not take I want to get a claim on their working online promotions for the building. Cover for sweet treats – for my son and Insurance has a cover and a 15% combined up 3 fold how know how controlling my i want to give the authority to grant didn t, in fact he if my car insurance After their conduct I send us a private product purchases and all chance in the future. .

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New Post has been published on https://www.retireearlyandtravel.com/test2/hotel-bristol/

Hotel Bristol Vienna, Experience the Luxurious Past Now

Staying at the Hotel Bristol is part of an amazing vacation in Vienna Austria. If you are like us, hotels are not simply a place to sleep and shower; they are a big part of our travel experience. We like feeling special and comfortable when staying at a hotel. We like to immerse ourselves in the destination’s culture, and history and the Bristol played a role in Vienna’s past. Located at one of Vienna’s prime addresses since 1892 the Hotel Bristol is a living example of Viennese charm. Moreover, staying at the Hotel Bristol, you will feel as though you just stepped back in time to the early 20th-century.

Location, Location, Location

When traveling, location can mean everything. The Hotel Bristol Vienna, a Luxury Collection Hotel, is located in the heart of the city across the street from the Vienna State Opera. If you love to shop, the hotel resides on a major shopping avenue.  It is also centrally located to all of Vienna’s major sights. The hotel is a 20-minute drive from the Vienna International airport and very close to the train station.

Rich History

The deciding factor for us when we were making the decision to stay at the Bristol was the history. First of all, the hotel is almost 130 years old. The Bristol has lived through a lot and if only those walls could talk!  The Hotel Bristol weathered the war, the Occupation, the Cold War, and the fall of the Soviet empire. During the Occupation, the Bristol was headquarters for the American occupying forces. On a tour of the hotel by Alexandra, we discovered that the staircase railing had many dings in it. According to her, this was because the soldiers would hit the butt of their rifles on the railing as they descended the staircase.  When it came time to renovate, the lovely railings with their rich history were kept intact.

  Also located in the Hotel Bristol was the American Embassy from 1951 to 1955. So according to the US government, an embassy itself belongs to the country it represents; this means the Bristol was American for four years.

Royal History and Gossip

If you are a fan of the British royals and their history, the Hotel Bristol has a connection there too. The Prince of Wales suite named after Prince Edward VIII (1894-1972), who resided in this suite several times with his one and only love, Wallis Simpson is exquisite. Legend has it that Edward VIII made his decision to abdicate as king and marry Wallis during one of his stays at the Hotel Bristol. If you visit Vienna and are a guest at the Hotel Bristol, ask for a tour of the Prince of Wales suite. It is one of the largest luxury suites in Vienna.  And today, two separate entrances transform the amazing Prince of Wales suite into what feels like a comfortable city apartment.

The Bristol Bar

The Bristol Bar is the first American Bar in Vienna. What is an American Bar you may ask? Well, it’s a bar that makes their cocktails in front of their guests. Before the Bristol Bar was open, the drinks were made in a kitchen, and a server would come from behind a door to bring you your drink. Today the Bristol Bar’s décor consists of rich hues and has an exclusive ambiance in which to enjoy a drink or socialize.

The Rising Room

The Hotel Bristol was one of first the hotels in Vienna with an elevator. To make the elevator comfortable for hotel guests they built two seats in it – the seats are still there and of course still available for use.

A Picture of Nightly Social Gatherings

The lovely painting below painted by Austrian artist Hans Stalzer, a good friend of the Bristol’s original owner, Arthur Wolf provides a look at aristocrat life in the early twentieth century. Inspired by all of the famous personalities who stayed at the Hotel Bristol like Theodore Roosevelt, Baroness Thyssen Bornemisza, Adolf Loos, and Archduke Franz Salvator, to name just a few. Like no other painting of its time, Stalzer’s work provides insight into the nightly society gatherings at The Bristol in the early twentieth century.  It also details the fashions of the time. The maître d’ and his waiters are among the thirty-six people included in the painting which was unusual. Having the staff painted in the picture reflects the atmosphere of the Hotel Bristol and Mr. Wolf’s appreciation of his team from the beginning.

The Bristol’s atmosphere is the same today: high quality, discreet service; personal attention; and welcoming Austrian hospitality. To achieve this type of service, a hotel’s staff must know they are valued.

Our Room, an Opera Suite

We stayed in the third floor Opera Suite that reflects the elegance of its namesake: the Viennese Opera. As we opened the door to our suite, we saw a long hallway with a distinctive living room at the end.  Blue patterned silk walls wrapped around the living room and wide classic ceiling moldings sealed the view. The windows framed in ornate, richly hued floral patterned drapes provided a great view of the opera house and the Ringstrasse. There was a plush velveteen couch where we could sit and take in the authentic antiques, original works of art, fresh flowers, and beautiful crystal chandeliers. And not one but two carefully disguised minibars and a Nesspero coffee station in the room. There was also a period desk equipped with modern high-speed Internet Access.

Located in the middle of the room, in front of huge windows, was a four-person dining table offering the possibility of a private meal or a great workspace. Keith and I used this table with its great views to work during our stay.

A Suite that Feels like a City Apartment

Off the main hallway from the front door was a full guest bathroom complete with heated floors and across from that a walk-in coat closet. Having both of these areas makes entertaining guests easy and kept them out of our bedroom and bathroom.

From the front door, a second hallway to the left made its way to our bedroom. The room was huge with a king bed, a two-person sitting area, and another ornate chandelier. Also, there was a second writing desk in this room and a large round table. There was another entrance leading to the living room. Best of all there was tons of closet space!

  Awaiting us in the huge, black and cream marbled bathroom was plush bathrobes and slippers. There were double sinks, a soaking tub, and a huge shower.

Keith and I enjoyed our stay in our opera room suite at the Hotel Bristol.  We felt that we experienced high-society life from the turn of the last century with all of the creature comforts of today.

Prefer a Modern Room?

For those of you that like a more contemporary look, the Hotel Bristol offers several contemporary, sophistically decorated, rooms with high-end furnishings.  These rooms have a separate living room and bedrooms, a dining area and walk-in closets.  And, they receive the same high-quality service you want when traveling like turn down service or a daily newspaper delivered to your door.

Dining, the Bristol Lounge

The atmosphere in the Bristol Lounge is warm and inviting yet very grand. There are eight original, restored crystal chandeliers and a grand piano in the dining room. An open fireplace along one wall creates a romantic and cozy atmosphere. In addition to regular dining tables and chairs, there are couches, and sofa chairs set close to the fireplace for a relaxing dining experience.

The breakfast buffet at the Bristol lounge was bountiful. They have a show kitchen where you can get almost anything you would like made to order.

The Bristol combines grandeur and luxury with casualness to create something very modern for their dining guests. They serve traditional Austrian recipes, international classics, and innovative fare. Even if you do not stay at the Hotel Bristol, we recommend having a meal there. The Bristol Lounge offers a unique all-day dining experience in the heart of Vienna.

Hotel Bristol

If you are seeking luxury, enrichment, and or unique experience, you will find it all at the Hotel Bristol. The authentic Viennese charm of this hotel originates from the antiques on display, the paintings in the hallways to the elevator. But most importantly, the wonderful, well-trained staff makes you feel like you are staying in somebody’s private Vienna home at the turn of the century.

Check out this video tour of the Hotel Bristol