#Smart Fire Hydrants

[spookysaladchaos]

Global Top 14 Companies Accounted for 31% of total Smart Fire Hydrants market (QYResearch, 2021)

According to the new market research report “China Smart Fire Hydrants Market Report 2023-2029”, published by QYResearch, the China Smart Fire Hydrants market size is projected to reach USD 15.27 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 9.5% during the forecast period.

Figure.   China  Smart Fire Hydrants Market Size (US$ Million), 2018-2029

Figure.   China  Smart Fire Hydrants Top 11 Players Ranking and Market Share (Ranking is based on the revenue of 2022, continually updated)

The China key manufacturers of Smart Fire Hydrants include Hangzhou Zhibin, Zhejaing Kelong, Hanwei Technology, Henan Fuerdun, Zhejiang Haidun Electrical, Shanxi Tuopusuoer, Zhengzhou Jintelai Electronic, Tangshan Pingsheng Electronic, Zhuocan Fgroup, Wuhan Tuobao, etc. In 2022, the China top five players had a share approximately 31.0% in terms of revenue.

About QYResearch

QYResearch founded in California, USA in 2007.It is a leading global market research and consulting company. With over 16 years’ experience and professional research team in various cities over the world QY Research focuses on management consulting, database and seminar services, IPO consulting, industry chain research and customized research to help our clients in providing non-linear revenue model and make them successful. We are globally recognized for our expansive portfolio of services, good corporate citizenship, and our strong commitment to sustainability. Up to now, we have cooperated with more than 60,000 clients across five continents. Let’s work closely with you and build a bold and better future.

QYResearch is a world-renowned large-scale consulting company. The industry covers various high-tech industry chain market segments, spanning the semiconductor industry chain (semiconductor equipment and parts, semiconductor materials, ICs, Foundry, packaging and testing, discrete devices, sensors, optoelectronic devices), photovoltaic industry chain (equipment, cells, modules, auxiliary material brackets, inverters, power station terminals), new energy automobile industry chain (batteries and materials, auto parts, batteries, motors, electronic control, automotive semiconductors, etc.), communication industry chain (communication system equipment, terminal equipment, electronic components, RF front-end, optical modules, 4G/5G/6G, broadband, IoT, digital economy, AI), advanced materials industry Chain (metal materials, polymer materials, ceramic materials, nano materials, etc.), machinery manufacturing industry chain (CNC machine tools, construction machinery, electrical machinery, 3C automation, industrial robots, lasers, industrial control, drones), food, beverages and pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, agriculture, etc.

[princesseilish]

LITTLE MISHAPS

Billie Eilish x Fem!Reader

Warnings: i don’t know .

Synopsis: after years of speech classes, y/n just can’t seem to get some (a lot) of things, especially words

Billie twirled pasta onto her fork, watching Y/N frown at her plate.

“Why does one spaghetti noodle look so lonely? Like… a spaghetto?” Y/N asked, poking at it.

Billie paused mid-bite. “What did you just say?”

“Spaghetto. Like a single spaghetti noodle.”

Billie blinked. “You know that’s actually correct, right? But the way you said it—”

“Smart and adorable,” Y/N interrupted, smirking.

Billie shook her head, laughing. “Sure, Einstein. Eat your spaghetto.”

“I think I’m an ambivertion,” Y/N said one night, curled up on the couch.

Billie glanced up from her book. “A… what?”

“Ambivertion. You know, like, I’m both introverted and extroverted?”

“You mean ambivert,” Billie corrected, biting back a smile.

Y/N frowned. “That’s what I said.”

“No, you said ambivertion,” Billie teased. “It’s okay, though. I still love you.”

Y/N threw a pillow at her, cheeks burning. “You’re so mean!”

Billie grabbed a bag of chips off the shelf while Y/N studied the label.

“Are these high in carbohydrants?” Y/N asked seriously.

Billie froze. “Do you mean carbohydrates?”

Y/N’s face scrunched up. “Oh. Right. That’s what I said.”

“Babe, you said carbohydrants,” Billie said, bursting into laughter. “Like they’re fire hydrants made of carbs.”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “You’re not funny.”

“No, but you are,” Billie teased, kissing her on the cheek.

They were stargazing in the backyard when Y/N pointed up.

“Do you think the moon is gravitationally pulling us right now?” she asked softly.

Billie blinked. “That’s… not how you say it, but yes, that’s what gravity does.”

Y/N shrugged. “Well, it feels more poetic this way.”

Billie grinned, wrapping an arm around her. “You’re gravitationally pulling me toward you right now.”

“ew..” Y/N muttered.

At a small Mexican restaurant, Y/N studied the menu.

“Do you think they make the tortillas in a tortillaria here?” she asked.

Billie raised an eyebrow. “A… what?”

“You know, like a bakery but for tortillas?”

Billie couldn’t hold it in. “Do you mean a tortillería?”

Y/N blinked. “That’s what I said.”

“No, babe. You added, like, three extra letters,” Billie laughed, reaching for her hand.

“Do you think we’re doing enough for the environmentical issues?” Y/N asked during dinner.

Billie choked on her water. “The what issues?”

“Environmentical!” Y/N said confidently. “Like environmental and technical?”

Billie wiped her mouth, laughing. “You’re just making stuff up at this point.”

Y/N frowned. “I think it makes sense.”

“Sure it does,” Billie said, smiling. “And I love you for it.”

Billie was brushing her teeth when Y/N walked into the bathroom, looking deep in thought.

“Do you ever notice how peculious life is?” Y/N mused.

Billie spat out her toothpaste. “Peculious?”

“Yeah, like, peculiar and curious,” Y/N explained.

Billie leaned against the sink, laughing. “You’ve got a gift, you know that?”

Y/N rolled her eyes. “Keep laughing. One day, my words will end up in the dictionary.”

“And I’ll be the first to buy it,” Billie said, pulling her in for a kiss.

While trying to follow GPS, Y/N sighed dramatically.

“Why isn’t this route more navigatable?” she grumbled.

Billie snorted. “Navigatable? You mean navigable?”

“Whatever,” Y/N huffed. “You know what I meant.”

Billie couldn’t stop laughing. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

“Lucky?” Y/N said, grinning. “You’re the one who gets to be with me.”

Billie rolled her eyes, still smiling. “Fair point.”

[tainsan]

misfits (college!ateez x reader)

When your world comes crashing down, the only people who are able to comfort you are the notorious group, Ateez. You’ve heard rumour after rumour about the eight males who are ice cold, yet for some reason, they are the warmest people you know.

Please read me: {hello! so finally i have wrote enough for me to release the first chapter and i really hope it is good enough for the lovely people who have been patiently waiting. there will be more chapters to come in the future so please do look forward to them! just so you all know there is a few trigger warnings i have to go through so just in case you are uncomfortable with certain subjects to read with caution and with your own comfort in mind. at the start of every chapter i will put the warnings that correlate with the said chapter. in this story there are topics of swearing, depression, anxiety, ptsd, suicide, negelection and mental abuse. so if you are not comfortable reading these please either avoid this story or read with extreme caution. your wellbeing is more important than anything. 

Now like i said in my previous post, this is going to be a poly!ateez story so hence there will be future smut and suggestive themes (which i will also put in the warnings before the chapter starts) but the message in the story is very much about past trauma and finding people who can help, heal and love you despite your imperfections.

With that all said! I hope you enjoy the first chapter of ‘Misfits’ and thank you kindly for waiting. 

do not steal my work or repost on places other than tumblr. 

with thanks to @musicdork and @moraxology for the help and ideas shared with me. thank you <3

-----THIS IS AN 18+ FANFICTION MINORS DO NOT INTERACT-----

Misfits, Chapter 1

⇢ masterlist ⇠ 

⇢ next chapter

warnings: anxiety attack, swearing, mentions of a house fire.

word count: 8.8k

Heart dropping to your stomach, you attempt to make sense of the words that are displayed on the small illuminating screen sat in front of you. Devastation hits you like a ton of bricks as you realise once again, it feels like the world is trying to punish you. Reading over the email once again, you let out an exasperated groan and let your head fall down onto your arms relaxing on the table.

“You’re homeless?” Your best friend almost screeches, scanning over the email present on your small laptop screen. 

“Okay a little louder Jisung and the aliens on the Saturn will fucking hear you,” You react, your voice muffled by your clothes.

“What happened? I thought your place was in one of the nicer areas?” 

Looking up from the desk, you see Jisung peering at you with a concerned expression.

“Do you remember those new tenants that moved in below me?” you ask, causing Jisung to nod his head, "Well they accidentally started a fire, and it burnt down half of the place because the owners weren’t smart enough to install fire hydrants around the residence.

“Isn’t it illegal to not have designated fire hydrants in a building?” 

“Probably, I mean that’s what I get for going for the cheapest available housing I could find, they say it's going to take at least a year to repair the damage.”

"Are all of your belongings okay?" 

"Not really, I managed to save most things like my books and some clothes but everything else is burnt. They say they are going to give me some money back for the damage, but I doubt it’ll be much."

"Then where are you staying now?"

"Yeji said I could stay with her for a few days, but she has a roommate moving in soon, so I have to get out before the end of this week."

"You have to start looking for a place to live __, I wish I could help you," 

Jisung lives with his boyfriend and friends in great student accommodation, there are only four rooms, yet they manage to fit eight grown men in there. Sadly, there's simply not enough space for another person.

“I’m aware of that, but all the school properties are full, and I’ve seen no flyers from people searching for roommates. There’s no way I'm looking for housing outside of the area, I would have to sell both my kidneys to afford a month's worth of rent. This apartment was the only place that was in my budget if I didn't want a roommate. At this point, I should probably start looking for a nice cosy bridge to live under.” 

Jisung lets out a stifled laugh before quickly covering his mouth realising the two of you are residing in a library. Being in a secluded area, noise isn’t really a problem, yet three other people are sitting near you, resting on the opposite side of the large wooden table. Two huddled next to each other, sharing a laptop, likely watching YouTube and one with striking blonde hair resting his head on his arms, undoubtedly sleeping.

“How many days until you have to move out?” Jisung inquires, laying his head on his hand and gazing at you. 

“Uh, I think like a week,” 

“Oh, so it’s not like you have to move out right now,” your best friend replies, a calm smile covering his features.

“Yeah, but I doubt that somebody is abruptly going to need a roommate out of nowhere,” 

Then, you hear rustling, then suddenly the guy who was sleeping on your table abruptly stands up, grabs his things, and rushes out of the library. 

“Probably had a nightmare or something,” Jisung chuckles, lighting up your mood.

“When’s your next lesson?” You ask, hoping he doesn't have to leave too soon. 

Observing as Jisung whips out his phone and looks at the time, he lets out a sigh.

“Starts in seven minutes, it takes like five minutes to walk there. I better get going,” Jisung replies, grabbing his books and laptop.

“Must you leave so soon? You can’t leave me here to tutor for three hours straight.” You let out a fake cry and hang onto his arm, pleading for him to stay. 

“You're the one who wanted the extra credit, don't blame me!” 

Bickering for a minute more, you eventually let Jisung get to his class, the two others across the table departing as well, leaving you alone.

Grumbling to yourself, you wonder why you even offered to tutor people, the extra credit is little to nothing. Alas, it’s too late to back out now as you have two people arriving soon. Typically, you only take people who you know personally, but Jisung’s boyfriend, Minho, said two of his classmates requested him to ask you to tutor, telling him they really needed assistance in maths. You hope they are pleasant because you are not about to be spending the next three hours with two arseholes.

You also typically only take one person at a time but due to your current tight schedule, you decided to just do two at once. You need the time later to look for new places to live anyway. The unknown two needed teaching in the same subject at least, works out fine.

Returning to your laptop you start typing, trying to finish as much of your lab report as you can before they show up.

“No Yeosang said she was around this corner.” 

A hushed voice breaks you out of your concentration, yet you pay no interest and hurriedly get back to typing.

“You’re __ right?” A monotone voice speaks out from your left.

You turn upon hearing your name and see a guy standing next to where you are sitting. Quickly you scan over his face, noticing the way his cheeks display small dimples as his face shifts and the slit in one of his eyebrows.

“I’m San, Minho told you about us, right?” 

Noting the way he said ‘us’, you turn fully backwards and see a noticeably built man standing by San, his face holding little to no emotion as he stares blankly towards you. In your mind, you hope these aren’t the two you are tutoring, noticing how intimidating their presence is.

“We are here for tutoring lessons,” the unnamed person speaks, and you curse upon your luck.

“Oh right, you can take a seat where you’d like.”

You mentally cuss out Minho for not informing you about how intense and handsome his classmates were, you let out a scoff under your breath as you start to pull out your maths textbooks.

“So, what were your guy's names, I’m not too good with names so if I forget, please don't take it personally,” you shyly confess, hoping they are not going to take it the wrong way. You detect the way some sort of stunned expression goes across their faces, but it disappears as soon as it had appeared.

“I’m Choi San, good to meet you.” San nods in your direction, his emotions still unreadable, a subtle glare still present along his features.

“San, I see. You too,” You mumble, slightly scared by his strong character. You attempt a small smile and shake his hand, trying to ignore the way you feel his eyes boring into your skull. Moving your attention to the man sitting next to him, you smile gently, noticing the way his cheeks are dusted with a light pink colour.

“Choi Jongho,” He reaches out his hand and you gladly take it, feeling slightly less intimidated by the seemingly kinder man.

Replying with your own name, you realise they already knew it, making you curse yourself for the sheer awkwardness emitting from your body as you notice Jongho and San are neither looking at you.

Slightly glancing up at you, San notices your flustered state and a faint smile ghosts his face.

Shaking off your clumsiness rapidly, you start to focus on the task at hand.

“So, what are you two looking to go over today?” you ask, opening your notebook that was conveniently placed in front of you. What you don’t expect is Jongho and San immediately look at each other with wide eyes, almost as if they are taken aback by the question.

“You guys don’t know what you want to go over?” 

“No, sorry, we have been having problems with our two recent algebra assignments.” Jongho replies, his tough exterior cracking ever so slightly as he ruffles his black hair. 

“Okay then,” you answer, a little puzzled at the two's sudden and strange gestures, yet you pay no mind to it as you reach into your backpack to grab your mathematics textbook. You’ve seen much stranger things in this college anyway.

When you proceed with the session you are surprised by the two men sitting in front of you. Although being very intimidating, the two are very good listeners and attentive to everything you say or do. Writing notes and nodding at almost every word you say. After an extensive explanation, you let Jongho and San try to solve a practice question. During this time, you take the time to admire the two in front of you. You can see they are extremely close by the way their bodies face each other naturally, and the way they look at each other. Meanwhile, you can’t help but wonder why you haven't seen them on campus before. Certainly, you would've heard or seen something about these two very good-looking men, knowing how much the people here like to gossip. Well after all, you have never been one for gossip and fangirling over the popular campus heartthrobs. Brushing your thoughts to the side, you start to read over the same page for the fifth time.

After the second hour, it intrigues you how smart they are, only needing you to once go over something and they already have the answer or even occasionally you swear you see one of them write an answer without you describing how to find it. Perhaps they are fast learners? Due to the fact, they are so quick, it only takes two of the three hours for you to cover everything they wished to go over, and their assignments are almost finished, just needing the final touches.

"There we go,” you exclaim, stretching your arms over your head, letting out a content groan as you let your back straighten up, "if you need future help, you can always call me." Even though it’s perhaps pretentious to offer this to such tough guys, you’re happy to be able to have such good students who actually listen. Unlike your last session which you spent way too many hours on.

Jongho looks up from his laptop with a wide eye look, "that’d be helpful," 

"Can you take my number?" San holds his hand open, expecting your phone and you are shocked at his utter forwardness. Even though you know it’s not intended in a flirtatious way, your heart quickens at the gesture, never having been asked for your number before. 

Passing your phone to the male in front of you, you notice San observing the Sanrio stickers stuck to the back of it. The male lets out a short burst of air through his nose, and you don’t know whether he’s mocking you or scoffing. As you look at him to analyse his reaction, you see a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips, but it doesn’t seem in a taunting way. You continue staring at him as he puts his number into your phone.

Unexpectedly he looks up and straight into your investigating eyes, catching you by surprise, immediately looking away from him and at the open book in front of you pretending to read it, even though you know he knows you have already read over the page multiple times in the past ten minutes.

“Wait, what time is it?" Jongho asks San. Watching San pull out his phone, you see a glimpse of his phone case, it looks something like a character, but you can’t see it as he places his phone face up on the table.

"Quarter to twelve," San responds, his phone screen lighting up for a split second, you manage to catch a quick sight of his lock screen. It appears to be a group photo, with numerous faces smiling brightly at the camera. So, they have more friends.

"We have about thirty minutes till ecology, do you want to go to the canteen?" Jongho questions as he begins to put his belongings into his bag. 

"I could use a snack,” San answers, stretching back into the chair, his arms above his head just as you did earlier.

"Coming with us?" Jongho asks as he stands up from his chair and pushes it back beneath the table.

Bewildered by the question, you wonder as to why they want you to come when they have been nothing but distant this entire time. Glancing back at your unfinished lab report displayed on your laptop, you feel conflicted. Yet a break from the tedious work would be rather nice. There's no harm in pulling another all-nighter.

"I could also do with something to eat," Your smile is bright as you stuff your laptop into your bag, happy to have a reason to escape the tedious work on the small screen of your laptop. 

It is a rather fast walk to the canteen; it is conveniently on the same wing as the library. Expecting the canteen to be full to the brim of students getting lunch, you’re surprised to see the canteen completely empty. You are rather pleased with the serenity of the canteen, feeling at ease that there are no judging eyes watching your every move. Pacing over to the cooled section of food, your footsteps echo in the large room, then you notice San and Jongho trailing after you, looking quite lost. 

"Have you guys never been to the canteen before or something?" You inquire, chuckling at their antics before grabbing a carton of banana milk and an apple.

"It's not particularly our scene, we eat our meals at our place." San answers, staring down at the banana milk in your hand. So, they live together, it makes sense seeing how close they are.

“You guys don't live in student buildings?” You question, that does explain why you've never seen them around, knowing most people who reside in the student dorms. You resume walking towards a table to sit, you grab two more banana milk before sitting down and popping a straw into your drink.

"No, we live near the new park, Eastwood Drive," Jongho replies.

This information almost makes you spit out your drink. Eastwood is not only part of a huge real estate area but one of the richest areas near our school. Absolutely no students would be able to afford that. It's an area full of houses like mansions or condos bigger than a regular house.

"Are you okay?" Jongho asks, hurriedly rushing to your side and patting your back, San chuckles at the scene and passes you a bottle of water from his seat. 

"Yes, I'm fine," You say between coughs, "thank you," you take a gulp of water from the bottle before handing it back to him.

"Sorry it's just, how on earth do you afford that house there's no way you guys just have it. Did you have to sell your soul to the devil or something?" 

Both males let out soft laughs and for the first time you see something other than scowls on their faces, instead replaced by gentle amusement.

"No, we didn't, one of our roommates' mothers is the owner of the real estate and she lets us live there," San answers your question.

"We do still have to pay rent, which is above average, but it's not anything like the rent we would have to pay if we were actually living there," Jongho adds, "plus we have quite a few roommates, so it's spread out pretty evenly." So, they have multiple roommates.

"I see," you hum as you let the information in. Of course, they have several roommates, the house is big enough for ten people, most likely. 

"And you?" Jongho questions looking at you. His expression is back to his resting face, until he realises his question, eyes going wide he continues, “not in a creepy, I'm sorry please don't take it the wrong way!" he rambles on. 

Laughing out, you wave your hands in a friendly way to dismiss his thoughts.

"No no, it's okay," you chuckle, not really sure how to explain to them that your house was recently made into a fresh stock of charcoal.

“It's kind of complicated I'll be honest," you start, San and Jongho’s expressions twitch in curiosity, "Well I was living at Coast Lane," 

"Oh, the one near the shopping centre?" Jongho inquires. You nod your head back in confirmation.

"Wait but wasn't that place burnt down a few days ago?" San asks, looking at Jongho and then back at you with a worried look. Their hearts fill with worry for you.

"Yep," you say, popping the p at the end, "that's why I said I was living," you say looking down, chucking dryly.

"Where are you living now then?" San asks, his voice laced with something similar to worry. 

"I'm staying at a friend's house, but they are getting a new roommate at the end of this week, so I need to move out by then." 

"Have you found anywhere to live yet?" Jongho questions, looking sorrowful. You are surprised by the amount of worry you suddenly feel from San and Jongho. However, you shake your head as 'no' and proceed to take another sip of your drink. 

"I have an idea." San abruptly says standing up from his chair, catching your and Jongho's attention, "Excuse me I have to talk to someone, Jongho. Joong." 

Jongho's eyes light up with some sort of awareness and he also rapidly stands from his chair, leaving you even more confused, unsure where the sudden energy comes from, you also wonder who the fuck 'Joong' is and why do they need to see him so suddenly. 

"See you soon, __.” Jongho’s smile is warm and contagious, he then turns to leave with the taller man.

"Wait, guys!” You exclaim, "here," you hand them both a cartoon of banana milk that you grabbed earlier. "Drink these, you can't focus if you're dehydrated, " you say, heat rising up from your chest. 

Both of the men look at you shocked at the kind gesture, surprised someone actually cares about their well-being. Giving you a thank you, the two men leave with red subtly covering their cheeks, both trying to immediately force it away before someone sees them with a giddy expression.

 ----

"Then they just stood up and left," You replay the events from earlier today to Jisung, who is sipping on a mojito. After the busy day you both shared, Jisung and you decided to go to a bar that recently opened not too far from campus. It is small and cosy, not too full of people, mostly students from your school rewinding from the day, just like you.

"Psycho behaviour," Jisung jokes whilst you take a sip of your drink. Laughing, you push Jisung's arm gently.

"I don't know, they were certainly intimidating but I could tell they were okay people," you exclaim truthfully. If you said that the three hours you spent with the two weren't pleasant you’d be lying.

"Do you have a crush on them or something?" Jisung inquires, rather loudly, getting far too excited. Hoping that no one heard him through the low jazz music resounding in the small bar, you quieten down your best friend quickly by covering his mouth with your free hand.

"Ji the entire bar does not need to know about my personal endeavours, and no I do not have a crush on them, they are just simply cute," you say exasperated.

“So, you do find them cute! The last time you had a crush as back in high school, this is big news,”

“There is no news dumbass, they are just cute. I find kittens cute, and I don’t want to date them.”

Jisung’s face contorts into a mixture of disgust and humour.

"Wait, what are their names?" Jisung questions his voice back to a reasonable volume.

"Choi San and Choi Jongho, I've never even heard of them, to be honest. You'd think I would've seen these handsome men bef, what is with that look on your face?" you stop your ramble as you see the very obviously shocked look on Jisung's face. 

"Are you fucking serious?" Jisung says slowly.

Confused, you simply answer, "yeah they needed help with maths. it was your boyfriend who set the tutor session up."

"Yeah, because they probably threatened him?" Jisung says tensing up.

"What do you mean threatened, they were huge sweethearts," you say amused at Jisung. Your laughing momentarily halts when you see the serious look on Jisung's small face.

"What is it?" 

"___, Choi San and Choi Jongho are part of that group." 

Your baffled expression remains on your features, clearly unfazed by this information.

"What is that like a cult or something?" you joke.

"Girl, are you living under a fucking rock? Ateez, the group called Ateez. The super scary ones practically haunt this school. I'm surprised they talked to Minho. I'm pretty sure he's going to be scarred now."

Slowly but surely, your brain starts to put things into place.

"Wait, that group Sola told us about?”

As Jisung confirms your question, you feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise. A few months ago, you had been told by some classmates about them briefly, they were talking rather loudly about them. Apparently, they had done some terrible things when they were in high school then just disappeared for a few years. Most people thought they dropped out or moved abroad. The year they returned, they started this university out of nowhere together and have been a notorious group ever since, being known for staying foul and bitter towards everyone except themselves. Yet, nobody seems to know the reason for their ice-cold hearts. You never really bothered to keep up with the rumours or gossip, it wasn’t necessary for you to know, however you start to think maybe you should pay more attention due to your recent interaction with two of the people in the group.

"But they were nice?" your question, more to yourself than to Jisung.

"I don't know about you, but you probably got the wrong people." 

You don't believe Jisung is lying but at the same time… The two men you had tutored earlier today were definitely not members of the notorious group. 

Surely not. 

Yes, they were intimidating, but nowhere near as bad as anything people say about them. From what you've heard about the group, they are cold, heartless, selfish, and miserable. Staying only in the group of eight, others not even daring to look them in the eyes as they pass them.

"If they were the people that you were tutoring yesterday, you may have gotten yourself into something you can't get out of. They have hundreds of fangirls, who are very possessive over them and people who want them dead. I don’t know of a single person who is fond of them. It’s best if you stay far away from them." Jisung says with a nervous expression. 

Unexpectedly, his phone lights up and you see Minho's caller ID appear. Jisung glances back up at you with a questioning look, requesting if he can take it.

"Go ahead," you push your smile and watch as he leaves to find a quiet place.

Your heart beats heavily against your chest and you feel your throat tighten. ‘Come on’ you think, this isn't the best place for you to have an anxiety attack. Possibly, it's that the new information is far too overwhelming. You are barely keeping up with your classes, your apartment just burnt down, and now you’re somewhat engaged with an apparently dangerous group that has no good stories. Feeling your breathing getting jagged and your heart getting heavier by the second, you attempt to focus on your breathing. Trying to remember the breathing exercises your mother taught you when you were younger, you attempt breathing in deeply, but it doesn't work, leaving you to breathe in and out in a fast manner. It's okay, it's okay. You repeat yourself, in an attempt to comfort yourself, but your brain is yelling 'it's not okay, look how stupid you've been and got yourself into a senseless situation again. Fucking idiot'. You put your head in your hands and start gently rocking on the barstool, tears threatening to fall out of your eyes. Unexpectedly, a presence appears next to you and before you know it, their warm hand is rubbing up and down your back in a soothing manner. 

"Shh it's okay, it's all going to be okay." a deep voice speaks from your right. You don't care to look up, only basking in the way the figure's hand caresses your back in a comforting way. To your surprise, it works miracles. Your breathing is back to a reasonable state within the next minute. Only then do you look up from your hands, your eyes lock with a beautiful man. He wears a comforting smile, his eyes full of sympathy and something else you can't quite put your finger on, his hand not slowing on your back. Trying to smile back at him, you wipe the tears you didn't even know had fallen, with the sleeves of your sweatshirt before regaining the words to speak.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," you say, abruptly embarrassed that a very handsome man just had to see a small breakdown of yours. 

"It's perfectly okay. I've had enough anxiety attacks to know you can't control where you have them." the man admits, scratching the back of his neck with an awkward smile on his face. The voice of the man is deep, yet soft, making you feel awfully relaxed.

"You have anxiety?" you ask, sniffling your nose.

The man chuckles and looks down at his hands, "longer than I can remember, yeah," he looks back up at you, "rubbing my back is how my friends comfort me, so I hope it somewhat worked for you too." 

"It worked amazingly, it's actually how my mother used to comfort me," you express, still slightly ashamed to be sharing this information with a stranger, let alone such a good-looking one. Yet knowing he goes through the same things as you, comforts you more than you realise. The male looks around him, almost as if he’s worried someone will see him, he then looks back down to your smaller figure which is closer to him than he remembered. Clearing his throat, he steps away a little bit, concerned you would feel uncomfortable with the closeness of your bodies. 

“I do need to go now, but it was nice to meet you," The man says whilst leaving the barstool to your right. Not sure why, but you feel sad that he has to leave so soon. Feeling so relaxed around a stranger has you shocked, wishing you could stay with this unknown feeling.

"Thank you," you say, grateful to have him there for you.

"Anytime.”

"I’ll see you around." You return his smile.

Nodding his head, he gives one last smile before departing the bar's exit, a growing smile adorning his features as he exits the bar.

“Hey I’m back.”

Whipping your head to the left, you see Jisung sitting back in his stool. Opening your mouth to tell him about what just happened, you attempt to get the words out but for some reason, you are unable to find the words. Not wanting to worry your best friend with your sudden onset anxiety attack, you decide to stay quiet.

What are these unexplainable encounters you've been having with handsome men recently?

----

Climbing over bags and coats, you find a seat in a calmer area of the stadium you just arrived at. Spotting Minho in the field doing some warm-ups with his team, you feel relaxed to see someone you know. When he sees you, he waves happily. Smiling, you reach for your phone to quickly text Jisung asking where he is. All of a sudden, a rush of cold air gets swept in by the wind, causing you to freeze up. Never liking the cold, you debate heavily at this moment whether you should just leave. However, you travelled all the way from Yeji’s to here in the cold. It seems like a waste to just go back, even if it freezes you to death to stay. After all, you need to support Minho, him being one of your only friends, for the football game. Jisung is supposed to be joining you but you’re sure he's busy picking out a cute outfit to swoon Minho. 

Over the past few days Jisung has been trying to teach you the names of Ateez so you know to run if they approach you. Seemingly stupid, but you do need fewer distractions in the hope to graduate with honours. From what Jisung has told you, there are eight members, and they are all of similar age, the youngest being in the same classes as he managed to skip a year due to him exceeding the level of people his age. However, Jisung teaching you their names doesn’t really stick to you, never being good at names it doesn’t help that you don’t know what they look like. It would be much easier learning their names if you actually had photos so you can put a name to a face, but of course they don’t have Instagram accounts, and if they saw people taking photos of them, they’d likely murder you on the spot. Or that’s what Jisung says.

You are suddenly brought out of your thoughts when a voice sounds in your ears.

“Could I sit here?” a soft, yet deep captivating voice speaks out. 

Curiously, you look to your left to see who the owner of the voice is. Surprisingly, you see a blonde male with a mask covering his face. He is standing next to the seat where you have placed your bag, and you realise he is asking for the seat.

“Oh yes, of course, sorry,” you hurriedly grab your bag and place it between your legs, allowing the male to take a place next to you.

“Thank you,” he says, a very small smile on his lips. When he sits down, he takes off his mask, and you glance at him one more time, taking in his visuals. With his fluffy hair and red tinted cheeks and a small mark of pink next to one of his eyes, he is truly a work of art. Yet, for some reason, you can't help but feel like you've seen him before.

“I'm sorry have I met you before, you seem really familiar?” you ask inquisitively, not being able to match a name to a face.

“We may have run into each other once or twice,” the blonde male puts his hand out for a handshake.

Gladly taking his hand in yours, you shake with a small smile on your face.

“It is a small world, I'm __.” 

The male takes his hand away and back into his coat pocket, shivering in the icy air.

“Are you Jisung's girlfriend?” he questions.

Rolling your eyes, slightly annoyed at the question, you go to answer. It has been thousands of times that people have asked about your and Jisung's relationship, mistaking you for a couple and not just a couple of friends. After a while it gets rather irritating, the question being asked countless amounts of times.

"No, we aren't, we are just best friends, I'm pretty sure Jisung came out as gay like two years ago. Plus, he's literally dating the quarterback, Lee Minho." you chuckle slightly.

"Oh sorry! I didn't mean to offend you in any way." 

"No! It's really okay, it's just I get asked a lot, so it becomes annoying after a while. I mean look at Jisung, he has baby girl written all over him." 

“Cold?” he questions.

The blondie next to you lets out a small chuckle acknowledging the man you are always with isn’t your boyfriend.

Sensing a gaze on you, you turn back to the blonde male whose eyes are looking at the goosebumps on your exposed arms.

“I probably should’ve brought at least a jumper. I've been so wrapped up with exams and tutoring I’ve been forgetting everything,” you say, laughing slightly, embarrassed that you went outside wearing just a t-shirt in the middle of November.

The male lets out a laugh before speaking, “it’s okay, I understand. If I’m being honest, I've also been having so much struggle with studying, my stress is all over the place.” He wonders for a second why he even shared this with you, concerned for a second you will see him in a bad light.

“I'm sorry to hear that.” you contemplate for a moment, “Look I have these if you want,” reaching into your pocket, you grab some rescue drops. “These help me a lot,”

You place the small bottle in his hand, and a giant smile covers his face. “What? I’ve actually been looking for these everywhere and I can never find them! They’ve been sold out in every shop.” Blondie looks back up at you, “but you have anxiety you need these more than me,” 

Pausing for a second, you wonder how he knows you have anxiety, nonetheless, you continue “It’s perfectly fine, Jisung’s parents work at a pharmacy back in my hometown and they send me a few of these whenever they are in stock, you can keep them.” you inform him, his smile brightening your cold mood shockingly fast. You’re not even sure why you gave him them, it was your last bottle. You guess that’s what happens when you are a people pleaser. The smile on the male’s face only grows wider, his heart jumping at your kind action.

“Thank you so much __,”

“It’s no worries, if you ever need some more, look for the loud group of small guys acting like four-year-olds.” you laugh, and he chuckles along with you, making a mental note, even though he knows he will likely never approach the group.

Before you can focus back on the starting game, you feel a soft material cover your shivering body. It is a large zip-up that smells of rich, sweet perfume. Turning quickly to the blonde guy with confusion covering your features, you hurriedly dismiss the action, seeing his arms exposed to the winter air.

“I can’t take this; you’ll get too cold.” you stop your words as he pulls out another sweater from his bag. 

“I've got my friend’s sweater, you keep mine until you’re warm.” he turns to face the game, "or until Jisung sees and freaks out and tells everyone you have a secret boyfriend." he jokes.

“You seem to know Jisung?” you ask, wondering how he knows Jisung’s personality quite well.

“Well, we know each other, but we aren’t particularly friends,” blondie turns fully towards you, “are you sure you don’t know me at all?”

“I'm sorry but I really only have like two friends, I don't really go out.” 

“But Jisung is super popular, aren't you in his huge partying friend group?”

“Not really, his friends are lovely but I’m only close with him and his boyfriend, I'm not too good at making friends.” you quietly mumble the last part. You look over at the blondie and see he has slight confusion on his face.

“You are so kind, I’m sure anyone would want to be your friend." 

"You’d be the first to think that" you dryly admit, which causes the male to feel a twinge of pain and guilt in his heart, "I would rather stay inside all-day binge-watching television whilst eating away my stress,"

"Well, that’s one thing we have in common." 

Sharing a warm smile with him, you start to get lost in your thoughts again, but then you realise a question you never returned.

“I’m so sorry I never got your name.”

“No worries, I’m Yeosang.” he has the same smile on his face, making you feel warm despite the bitter winter air. Then his familiarity dawns on you.

“Kang?” you inquire, your voice rising ever so slightly.

“That’s me,” he smiles at me, and you don't know if your heart rises because of how beautiful his smile is or because you recognise the name from Jisung’s teaching session with the members of Ateez.

“Like from Ateez,” you question, watching your words, if Ateez is as bad as Jisung is saying then you definitely need to watch your words.

Yeosang turns to you, almost looking baffled.

“I thought you didn't know about Ateez?” he questions, shocked.

“What made you think that?”

“Just a guess I suppose, being that you don't really go out I assumed you weren’t really interested in the groups and stuff.” 

“Ah well not particularly, but recently I suppose I’ve gotten to know about it better.”

“You're not scared, are you?” you see Yeosang tense up a little, his eyebrows furrowed. He hopes for the best, not knowing how you will react. Surprisingly, your heart softens at this question, he seems upset for some reason, as if he doesn't want to be seen this way. You feel bad for ever acting stressed towards him.

“Don't worry, the only person that scares me is Jisung when he's hungry.” you joke out, relaxing the tension and calming him. From what you can see, Yeosang is just kind and calm. The only thing that's menacing about him is the fact he’s drop-dead gorgeous.

Yeosang lets out a small chuckle, “well I guess now I know I need to avoid Jisung if he’s hungry,”

You agree with the blonde man, whilst lightly laughing.

“Wait, but why are you watching? Aren’t you supposed to be on the pitch?” You ask him, confused, remembering Jisung informing you that Yeosang is a part of one of the school's football teams, along with someone else whose name you can’t remember at the moment. For a moment Yeosang’s chest fills with pride, knowing you know something about him.

“Someone is taking my spot today, I was told to analyse the opposing team to find out their habits and stuff, hence the notepad.”

Looking down, you notice the small notepad with doodles all over the cover, making your heart swell. Yeosang continues to talk,

“Don’t tell my tactics to Minho,” he jokes with a grin on his face, knowing Minho is on the other team.

“I would never betray you like that,” you place your hand over your chest acting offended. 

Both cracking up, you speak up again, “don't worry, your secrets are safe with me.”

“Sang!” You hear a voice call from the left, and your eyes lay on another attractive man, “Coach told us to sit with him,” this male also has a notepad in his grip. 

You know this guy. He works in a small café not too far from campus, it is down a narrow alleyway, covered by vines and moss. It was a very hidden spot and only locals really knew the place. Only knowing it because you walked past it every day for a year as the alleyway was a shortcut to your housing from the campus. Barely anyone goes there, the regulars being either old women or businesspeople quickly rushing in to get a coffee before work starts. Back at the beginning of the semester, you used to go to the café a lot because of the raspberry muffins, yet they stopped selling them thus forth you stopped going as much. It was also due to the fact you had barely any time to sleep, so you cut it out of your morning schedule to be able to sleep in a little. You think the guy’s name was Wooyoung if you can remember his name tag correctly. You notice he sees you sitting next to Yeosang, with his friend’s hoodie over your shoulders and a smile consumes his entire face. 

“Muffin?” he looks confused, yet somewhat glad to see you once again. The nickname extremely takes you aback. “Why did you stop coming to the café?”

As far as you can recall, back when you visited the café, this server was rather distant and limited to saying little to no words whilst waiting. Seeing him like this confuses you severely. Alas, you let out a giggle and both of the boys' grins widen visibly.

“You two better get going, I'm not sure your coach wants to wait any longer.” 

Yeosang stands up and straightens out his pants before turning to you,

“Hopefully I’ll see you around.” he smiles warmly. Smiling back at him, you nod. Yeosang starts to leave with Wooyoung before he turns around.

“I better see you at the café tomorrow! Plus, that sweater looks good on you, Muffin.” he winks and Yeosang slaps the back of his head.  You can’t help but giggle yet feel flustered. 

Yeosang and Wooyoung walk towards the coach’s section, Yeosang slightly more affected than the male next to him. Hopefully he will get his hoodie back, and hopefully it will smell like you. After this interaction, your mind was even more confused. If you remember correctly, Yeosang and Wooyoung have a very big reputation for being some of the rudest and coldest towards people. Yet they were so friendly when you were with them. Is everything all these people are saying about them true or maybe the group of eight is just deeply misunderstood?

Whatever it is, you need to talk to Jisung about this, but you will wait until the game is over.

----

The night of the interaction between Yeosang and Wooyoung, Jisung, Minho and you reside at their apartment, eating chicken and watching a shitty romcom for background noise. The rest of his roommates are out celebrating the start of the football season. You have no idea why it started mid-way through November but okay.

“I said I would come; they were too sweet to say no to!” You exclaim, throwing your head back against the couch, regretting saying yes. 

“It was definitely Yeosang and Wooyoung?” Minho questions, not believing any part of my story.

“Yes! Yeosang has the birthmark next to his eye like Ji described and Wooyoung was the guy who works at that one café I used to go to all the time,”

“Well, I never knew Wooyoung worked at a café, that doesn't really match the hardcore scary image they are going for, are you sure you’re not going delusional?” Jisung admits, chuckling.

“What are you going to do?” Minho questions, passing you a drumstick. 

You take a big bite, before speaking, “I should just go, if I don't show up, they might murder me as you two say. Which is very unbelievable seeing how fucking cheerful they’ve all been.”

“Well, you’ve only met four, the rest are probably a nightmare,” Jisung says, his mouth full of chicken, Minho humming in agreement next to him.

“You two are supposed to be comforting me.” you groan, throwing your head into your hands. 

“Okay, don't worry __, if they have been as nice as you’ve been saying then just show up and if they aren't nice then call Chan and Changbin and I’m sure they will gladly sort them out for you.” Minho laughs.

 ----

Keeping your promise, you showed up at the café the next day. 

Opening the painted door, the bell rings notifying your entrance. Immediately you spot Wooyoung relaxing against the counter, scrolling through his phone, visibly bored. There are only a few people in the café, mostly reading books or typing on laptops. You see a flash of pink hair in the corner, yet you lose focus as quickly as you had it as you continue to walk further in.

“Welcome to Veranda Café,” Wooyoung says unbothered, still staring at his phone as you walk closer to where all the cakes were on display. Much to your dismay, you fail to see a raspberry muffin on display.

“I see you still don’t have any raspberry muffins.” You speak out in front of where Wooyoung is standing, making his head immediately snap up.

“__! I was starting to worry you weren't going to show up.” He exclaims, a contagious smile wide on his face. Immediately putting his phone in his pocket, giving his attention to you. He leans on the counter. Extremely happy you showed up.

“I never break my promises,” you grin at the black-haired man.

“Oh, one moment.” He speaks out excitedly, like a puppy, and turns to where he was sitting. Opening up a small fridge, he brings out the biggest, most beautiful raspberry muffin you have ever seen.

“Yeosang and I made this morning for you.” he gestures over to the corner, and you see the blonde male from yesterday, he is sitting next to someone, yet you can’t see them from where you’re standing. Yeosang shyly waves and you smile and wave back. Heart beating faster and cheeks warming up, you take the muffin happily. Wooyoung smiles brightly at you, feeling prideful at the way your eyes light up from the muffin.

“We stopped making these muffins because the owner didn’t think anyone was buying them, it made me upset because I knew you liked them,” Wooyoung says, making direct eye contact with you, making you weak at the knees. Wondering how he even remembered you, you still feel thankful he thought of you, even if it was a long time ago.

“It’s a shame but I'm sure there are lots of other tasty things here too. Anyways, thank you so much, you guys are the best.” you say, sincerity dripping in your words. Wooyoung just shrugs like he doesn't care, but the big smile on his face and the redness dusting his ears tells a different story.

“How much do I owe you?” you ask, getting out your purse.

Swiftly, Wooyoung grabs your hand halting its actions, “it’s on us, for being so kind, Yeosang and one of our friends really needed those rescue drops.” He lowers his voice, “between us, their anxiety has been really bad recently, and the stuff works wonders. Plus, you were always my favourite customer anyways.” Wooyoung admits, smiling, his cheeks get a deeper colour of red. Your heart warms up once again, which is strange to you. You haven't felt this happiness in a very long time. Maybe things are starting to get better. Happily taking the muffin, you make your way to Yeosang who is reading a book.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” you inquire, repeating his words from yesterday, yet when your eyes meet the figure sitting next to him, they light up as you recognise him.

“I know you!” You exclaim, a little too loudly, causing people around you to glare in your direction. Feeling overwhelmed by the sudden attention, you quickly sit down in a shielded area, away from all the glares. 

“You two know each other?” Yeosang asks, intrigued by your sudden remark.

“It is you, right?” you ask just in case you’re mistaking him for another pink-haired male.

The tall male smiles widely, “Yeah, it’s me. I’m Mingi,” he turns to Yeosang, who is visibly confused, “we met briefly in a bar the other day,” 

Yeosang lets out an ‘ah’ in realisation, yet you fail to see the jealous look he points at the pink haired man as he turns back to his book. Reaching for a dessert fork placed in the middle of the table, Mingi quickly grabs it and hands it to you. Quietly thanking him, you start to cut your muffin into four pieces. You acknowledge a gaze on you, so you halt your movements and look up, noticing Yeosang and Mingi’s eyes on you. Suddenly feeling awfully small, you start to feel your heartbeat rise and your breath deepen, never really liking people watching you eat, the stares from the two make you anxious. Luckily, they seem to immediately notice your change in behaviour and start apologising.

“I’m sorry, we will look away. We were just wondering whether you were going to like the muffin,” Mingi explains, his voice stumbling over words.

“It’s okay! I’m sorry, I’ve always been kind of awkward when people watch me eat.” you confess, your cheeks heating up. The two males nod trying to remember this information for the future. Instantly, the two men completely look away and focus on their own things, not paying any attention to you. Their antics make you giggle slightly, and you look back down at your muffin. Slowly, you pick up a quarter and place it on Mingi’s empty plate in front of him. You then do the same for Yeosang. They both look up at you with wide eyes.

“This is your favourite, we can't take it,” Yeosang says hurriedly, trying to put the cake back on your plate. 

“Stop, stop! I want to. I want to share it with my friends!” You blurt out before you can control your mouth. The wide eyes on both Yeosang and Mingi, make you realise what you said. You have to remember that even though they seem normal they are very clearly part of a group who apparently can kill people with their stare. What the hell are you doing? Of course, they aren’t your friends, you met them both once for less than ten minutes.

“Wait, I'm so sorry I didn't mean to say that I didn't intend to push your boundaries, we have only met like twice I didn't just assume we are friends!” You start to ramble, scared they will take it the wrong way, trying to fix your words as quickly as possible so you don’t get on their bad sides.

Before you can say anything more, Yeosang cuts you off by taking a bite of the muffin, “it tastes amazing! Thank you,”

“Woo!” Mingi’s voice calls out, ignoring the angry glares of people around him, “come get some cake!” Watching Wooyoung jump over the counter towards the three of you, you smile to yourself, glad you haven't done something that would cause future problems. Yeosang feeds Wooyoung the cake and makes an over-exaggerated reaction, “the flavours are melting on my tongue!” he exclaims in a funny voice, making Yeosang and Mingi cringe but you just laugh at his amusing antics. You can’t help but imagine how the whole group is when they are together. 

For the remainder of the hour, you are just conversing with Wooyoung and Mingi, sometimes Yeosang if he wants to add to the conversation, but more focusing on his book, yet looking up intently whenever you speak. You are broken out of your conversation as you hear the bell of the entrance ring, notifying the entrance of new customers. Wooyoung groans and stands up from his chair next to you. It seems to be three girls from our school. You recognise one of them from your calculus class.

Then the next thing that happens confuses you more than any other thing that has happened. As Wooyoung reaches the counter to take their order, his demeanour changes almost immediately, you would've missed it if you had blinked. 

Mingi and Yeosang seem to notice your confusion but blatantly ignore it, their smiles quickly disappearing from their faces. The atmosphere turns from warm and friendly to cold and foreign.

“What do you want?” Wooyoung asks bluntly. You furrow your eyebrows, confused out of your mind as to where the sweet friendly Wooyoung disappeared to.

“You know you should be nicer to your customers, it would help with business,” one of the girls speaks out, looking smug as if she has immensely hurt the man’s feelings.

“You should probably focus on your studies rather than going to cafes, sitting with a random document open and pretending to study when we all know you are miserably failing all your classes.” Wooyoung says monotone, whilst scrolling through his phone, not even looking at the three girls who now have shocked and offended looks on their faces. Some curses are thrown before the girls end up storming out of the café without even beginning to look at the menu. As soon as the girls leave, Wooyoung returns to the table nonchalantly, acting as if nothing had happened. Opening your mouth to say something, it gets caught in your throat before you get the words out.

Are you going insane?

{feedback is always appreciated and i love hearing from all of you. remember you are loved.} 

part two is out now!!!

[suzukiblu]

Ko-fi thank-you sentences for @sil-sol-set behind the cut; the Gotham Kid.

“Yeah, alright,” Pete says, still wearing that mean and merciless grin. “So who's got a pottery wheel in here?” 

“I'd rather go straight for the kiln, boss,” one of his guys mutters. 

“There any sprinklers?” the other asks doubtfully as he looks around the room. “Clay ain't shit when it gets too wet, right?” 

If Kid had heat vision or ice breath . . . 

Yeah, well. If Kid had heat vision or ice breath, he wouldn't be here, would he. 

“Fire hydrant's on the corner,” Pete says with a mean grin, which is . . . really smart, actually. Smarter than Kid would've expected. 

Not smarter than Superman's memories do, though. 

“How the hell are we getting a fire hydrant open, boss?” the first guy asks incredulously. “Much less fuckin’ aimed.” 

“Hm,” Pete says, his mouth twisting just a little bit humorlessly. “Anybody got a crowbar?” 

“Why the fuck would we have crowbars?” one of his guys says incredulously. Pete laughs. It sounds mean too. 

Kid . . . hesitates. 

Then he claps his hands together once to get their attention. Pete glances down at him, raising an eyebrow. 

“What do you want, kid?” he asks. Kid thinks he understood him fingerspelling earlier, so . . .

c-r-o-w-b-a-r, he signs, then points at himself. He doesn’t have a crowbar, obviously, but it’s the quickest way to say he can handle the hydrant without involving a lot of questions. Or–he thinks it is, anyway. 

Pete narrows his eyes at him. Tilts his head a little. 

“You do realize you'd have to go outside for that,” he says. “Where it might or might not be Clayface.” 

Kid shrugs helplessly. What else is he supposed to do? 

He's–not a superhero. Not Superboy. And even less is he Superman. He'll never be any of those things. But this place is full of people who can't take a hit like he can; can’t take the kind of damage he can. People who don't have TTK to crack that fire hydrant with. 

People he can help. 

So . . . yeah. 

Like he said: what the hell else is he supposed to do? 

Pete looks at him for a moment longer. Then he smirks, and it’s mean again. 

“Fine,” he says. “Just try not to die before you get it done, we don’t have time for fucking around here.” 

yes, sir, Kid signs. Even if might-be-Clayface catches him, he won’t be expecting TTK. He won’t hit hard enough, at least to start, and that’ll mean Kid’ll have the chance to get the hydrant open. 

“Oh, you’re really not from around here, huh,” Pete observes with a snorted laugh, like he’d have any reason to know that a Crime Alley kid would never call anybody “sir” that easy. And Kid’s not a native, obviously, but . . . 

Technically, he’s lived here just about his whole life. The handful of weeks he spent in Metropolis and the things he “remembers” about . . . Smallville, those are . . . 

They’re not his. Not really. Metropolis is Superman’s, and Smallville is Clark Kent’s, and Kid . . . 

Kid’s not from Crime Alley, but he’s only ever been in Gotham, it feels like sometimes. 

It’s easier, when he pretends like that’s true.

[luckycharming]

let the light in

she could understand why she was a celestial wizard. there was aura around her, an ethereal vibe about her that gave the impression that she wasn't from here. she exuded grace and kindness, and her being a princess definitely made sense. there was an air about her that naturally pulled people in.

hair spun like molten gold and eyes a rich, earthy, chocolatey brown, she was captivating and beguiling. and her figure was something to die for, sublime curves in all the right places and a heart-shaped face and full lips that was almost always curved upwards in a bright smile.

at first, when she came back, lisanna was understandably both jealous and intimidated by her presence and proximity to her loved ones. she was jealous of how much her big sister doted on her, and she was jealous of how close she was to natsu and happy.

so, she isolated herself and kept to herself. everything was different from her "death", and a large part of her felt discarded and betrayed by how well lucy fit in and how much she no longer did. she itched to return back to edolas. she fit in well there, and she was warmly recieved.

but lucy made it hard to despise her. whenever she would pull back, lucy would go out of her way to find her and check on her. blondes may be stereotypically thought of as dumb, but there was nothing dumb about lucy. she was highly intelligent and perceptive, observant and sharp as the whip she carried around her waist.

she would talk to her, and while lisanna was content to stew in silence, she could admit to herself that she liked the sound of the celestial wizard's voice. it was smooth like rain and washed over her like a cool river on a humid summer's day.

lucy would invite her to her home, and they'd hang out and watch tv or read magazines and discuss the latest gossip. well, lisanna was still catching up on things, so lucy would kindly fill in the blanks for her, but still.

lucy had shyly shared with her that she liked writing and would like to someday become a published writer. lisanna may not know lucy as well as her other guildmate's, but even she knew that this was something lucy treasured deeply and held closely to her heart. this was something deeply personal and important to her, and the fact that she shared something so intimate with her made lisanna feel touched.

she smiled at her, giving her hand a warm, supportive squeeze.

"that's really cool, lucy! you're so smart and have such a beautiful way with words, and i'm sure that you'd be an amazing writer. i know the world would be honored to read whatever stories you conjure up."

lucy was bashful, and lisanna was surprised to see a flush creep across her cheeks. the pink was beautiful against her smooth skin, and lisanna found herself blushing herself for such an observation.

"you really think so? i don't write as often as i'd like because i'm so busy with other things, so i know i'm rusty, but it's something that i love doing in my free time. that, and reading," she confessed, voice shy but no less sweet.

"i know i don't know you as well as everyone else, but i know that you're made for great things. i think you're really brave and smart and pretty and talented and that you can do whatever it is that you put your mind to. if you want to give being a published writer a chance, i say go for it."

brown eyes glistened with tears, and lisanna was afraid she'd stuck her foot in her mouth, but when she was pulled in a fierce hug, she realized she said the right thing.

being held in lucy's arms was a surreal feeling. being pressed chest to chest with her was also throwing her mind in a tizzy, her heart thumping harder than a rabbit's foot, her face redder than a fire hydrant. stunned, she returned the hug hesitantly, and when lucy only hugged her tighter, lisanna couldn't help but smile, blushing and dazed.

their hang outs had transpired over months, and while lisanna thought no one had noticed, they did, in fact, notice. her big sister mira had accosted her as she was on her way to lucy's, and she felt a fierce empathy for her sister's enemies because she had genuinely scared her shitless.

she had demanded to know where she was going, looking all pretty and dressed up, and lisanna stammered some random excuse and hightailed it out of the guild, running to lucy's and carefully cradling the food she had made for them to eat. she had forgotten how crazy her big sister could be, and their guildmates were even crazier.

she and lucy were just friends, and she enjoyed their time together. lucy was kind, she was thoughtful, she listened to her without judgement, and she was great company. she pulled her out of the darkness that threatened to swallow her up and helped let the light in.

it took them both a while to realize that they, did, in fact, like each other as something more than friendly, and that they were, in fact, dating each other. just two bisexual disasters being oblivious to the obvious. mira and elfman were so over the moon and were already planning their wedding. their whole guild was, actually, must to their flustered bewilderment. natsu already called dibs on being lisanna's "maid of honor", and a fight broke out between him and mira over his declartation. and happy was going to be the ring bearer.

did she mention how crazy and ridiculous her guildmates were? because they really were batshit crazy. she wouldn't want it any other way though.

[heartfullofleeches]

Omg 😭 would be so pissed if I was trying to fight somebody and they literally caught my hands 😭😭😭

@ VENDETTA TURN OFF THE IMPENETRABLE SKIN AND FIGHT ME BRO. OR AT LEAST LET ME BREAK MY KNUCKLES I NEED ONE GOOD PUNCH

(Love him but also have the urge to kick him into the sun team rocket style)

Does Doomsday Reader just get more scared as he catches their punches, or would they get mad too?

I'd be a mix of pissed at and absolutely terrified of a man who could catch my flying fist like we're playing baseball and he's a big league player and I'm just a kid with a bat. Vendetta really doesn't wanna see you hurt- but if you insist...

-

You clutch your hand to your chest as a cry of anguish rings through the chilled night air, losing your footing and falling into the arms of the monstrosity that's been tailing you for God knows how long as the pain climb to your shoulder. Vendetta chuckles - not a mark of your punch on him besides the odd angle of his neck and gead. If he hadn't moved along with it you'd be in worse pain than you are now. It felt like you just punched a fire hydrant. Vendetta breathes in, holding you with one arm and pulls off his gloves with his teeth - shelding his armor.

"Ahhhh, see - what I tell you? Play dumb games, win dumb prizes and we both know you're too smart for that. I'll let you land as many licks as you want when you're all healed up, but consider this a lesson. Believe it or not, but im here to keep you safe. I can start by getting you some ice to put on that."

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #1

- Ready to listen to what (I can only assume) is a brand new theme song, and check out the animation style for the first time since a glimpse in the first trailer.

- I should also mention I haven't read any of the synopses for episodes or even for the show itself. My understanding is that this is set in the future, in a non-Dimmsdale city, and rumor has it there's time travel in here somewhere?

- I also saw an early story bible glimpse of some kid who does ASMR, and that's about the end of my knowledge. I'm very nervous about that one because the description I saw for him did not set me up with the belief the writers knew what they were implying.

- Looks like this is a double-part first episode, so I might stop after watching this one today.

- The new animation style SHOULD mean new background characters. However, if I see Steve time-traveling for the second time, with or without the rest of his clones, you WILL know, and I will NOT be happy.

OKAY! Let's start this theme song.

---

Dimmadelphia? Got it, okay. Literally the first thing you see when starting the theme and honestly, that's really smart.

I had to rewind, that tower in the background... oh no.

I like how "pop"-y the city is as it appears. This is fun.

This city is super pretty. It's got storefronts and stuff? This is gonna be a fun place to set fanfics.

Ya Boix drinks? Oh, thank goodness we're getting in-universe products again. If this turns out to be a plot point because it comes from a magical business and it's foreshadowed within the first 2 seconds of the theme, I'm gonna lose my mind.

!!!!! It starts with a car drive and her name? Like Timmy's theme starts with the bus and his name? Love that.

!!! The fire hydrant!! All the details are so cute. A lot of love went into this.

Her whole life changed with a... bet quite strange? Bed?

Oh, this is a BEAUTIFUL callback.

I'm glad he's a dork, look at him...

??? Fish guy? Hazel, what? What is this? Is this where your imagination just went, or is this a reoccurring character from a comic book? ... Hmm. That's a wild design to throw at you with bright colors and no context.

PENNY-FARTHING DIRT BIKE??? I like this kid.

Okay, I love that theme. We're set up nicely with a nice, friendly callback to the old show and an implication that it is remembered and it is loved.

lol, no more head gags. I cannot blame them even slightly.

Theme done and here we go~!

(Oh, Hazel doesn't have a blog tag yet. I call Timmy #perfect pink beaver boy and Chloe #rebellious golden child. I'd like to give her a funky one too. I'll leave her alone for now and come back and tag her when I have something suitable)

[lambsouvlaki]

Moments in Between - Dog

Characters: Jason Todd x fem!oc

Rating and warnings: G, attempted mugging.

Word Count: 1,331

Summary: Red Hood saves Andy from a mugging, from the perspective of her dog.

Masterlist

Marlow, the 150 pound Irish Wolfhound, walked dutifully at Andy’s side through Crime Alley. He was smelling their way home. 

Andy had taken them out for dinner. It was someplace new, filled with very exciting smells and nice people who gave him many pats and told him he was a good boy. He didn’t get to inspect Andy’s food, because they brought out something dried and meaty for him to chew on, and by the time he was done she had finished. He didn’t know how that kept happening. 

Afterwards they walked to the bus stop. 

Marlow didn’t like the bus. It made too many noises and rumbles, the smells were bad, and it stopped and started without warning.

No bus came. Andy started to become nervous. There were a few other people walking past as the night got darker. The street lights turned on, sickly yellow and hissing. Andy looked around, and tapped her fingers against her leg. She started to smell like stress. Marlow stood up, anxious on her behalf. 

He wished the bus would come already so Andy would feel better. He was tough, he could put up with the rumbles. 

The night grew darker, and the roads emptier. Less people walked past.

The bus did not come. 

Andy sighed. “Let’s go.” 

She tugged lightly at his leash as she turned and walked along the pavement. 

Marlow trotted to walk slightly in front of her, just in case. Andy was smart and the best person, but her eyes weren’t very good, and her nose was entirely broken. She would walk right into trouble if he didn’t say anything. 

The wind sighed through the dirty streets, giving him the full report on who had come through here today. That nice rottweiler had gone for a walk this way at lunch time but was gone now. A stressed german shepherd who didn’t belong had peed on the fire hydrant. Marlow left his own mark over it. 

It was a long walk home, past all sorts of people Marlow didn’t like. Men especially. Marlow didn’t trust the men. Too many of them looked at Andy and smiled. Then they looked at him, and stopped smiling. Good. Look at someone else. No smiling. 

Some of the streetlights didn’t work here, and many shops were boarded up. There were still some people out selling things but they didn’t want to buy them. 

One of the nice ladies on the corner said hello to Andy. That was okay. They smelled like horrible too-strong flowers and alcohol, and sometimes worse things, but they were mostly safe. The men who floated around them were not. 

One of the younger ladies crooned at him and tried to give him pets. 

He wasn’t going to get distracted. He pulled against the lead as he kept walking, the harness firm around his shoulders. They weren’t home yet. No stopping.

The roads got emptier. 

Andy’s heeled ankle boots tapped too loud against the pavement. She pulled her jacket tight around herself. 

They approached their street. Two more turns and they would be home. In the daytime they usually cut through an alleyway, but when it was dark they would stay on the main road.

The wind brought him the scent of three people standing on the side of the road a little beyond the alley, right where their turn was. They smelled sour. Old vomit, drying blood. Desperation. They were watching them approach. 

Andy kept her head down. Her fear spiked.

They walked past the alley. Marlow stopped, and Andy bumped into his backside. 

Red Hat friend! He was sitting in the dark on top of a dumpster. He wasn’t moving and the narrow alley was so dark even Marlow struggled to see him, but he smelled him loud and clear. 

Marlow tried to go that way, but Andy pulled on his leash. 

“Come on,” she hissed. 

He whined. 

Red Hat was safe. Even though he was very big and sometimes smelled like blood, Andy was never afraid around him. He brought dinner home last week when Andy was sad, and took Marlow out for very exciting runs. Never with the hat on, though. He gave excellent pats. Sometimes, Marlow even let him look after Andy while he was sleeping.

Andy walked faster past the entry of the alley. She didn’t even say hello. 

Marlow huffed and trotted with her. He didn’t like this. Red Hat watched them go by. 

The three on the street smelled worse the closer they got. 

Marlow didn’t like this. Two of the three were leaning against the wall, and all openly looking at them. Andy held Marlow’s leash very short so he was pressed up against her side, between them and her.

They got close enough to try and pass on the side of the road, Andy with her head down and shoulders hunched. The three of them stepped out to block the sidewalk. 

Marlow growled. 

The strangers said something, voice low and sharp.

Andy was terrified.

Marlow barked, furious. 

Andy yanked on his leash and snapped a command to heel, but she was so scared and they were bad, bad, bad. He didn’t want to back down. 

The people in front of him stank of fear and desperation. Good! They should be scared! Marlow was angry! 

There was a click in front of him, and one of them pointed something shiny at Marlow. 

There was another click behind them, and a crunchy metal voice interrupted.

Red Hat friend. 

He was angry too. He said something, numbers. Counting down. 

The three turned and bolted.

Marlow chase! 

They disappeared down the road, no! Catch them, bite them, tear them to bits! 

His leash pulled hard, and he reared up on his back legs then dropped back down. No, no chase, he had to look after Andy. 

He swung around and ran back. He gave everyone a sniff. Andy was breathing hard, one hand pressed flat to her chest. Marlow licked it. She gave a nervous laugh and absently scratched behind his ear. 

His leash was in Red Hat’s hand, which explained why Marlow hadn’t dragged Andy off her feet when he ran. He forgot sometimes how little she was. Not very good at running. The two humans were standing strangely far apart. 

Red Hat smelled scared too now. He was upset and his leg was hurting. Marlow trotted over to say hello and gave him some friendly licks. His gloves tasted bad, but his jacket was smooth and tasty. 

The crunchy metal voice didn’t stop talking to Andy. He stood like he wanted to go to her, to check she was okay. He didn’t. Andy reached out just enough to get the leash back and then retreated. She smelled embarrassed, and interested in that way she sometimes did around Red Hat. She didn’t get any closer. 

Red Hat didn’t give any pats. He tried to push Marlow’s head away. 

First no chasing and now no pats? Oh dear. Marlow gave him another lick to comfort him then bumped his head against his hand. 

His voice stopped, cutting off a laugh. He patted Marlow on the head. 

“Good boy.”

Yes, he knew. 

“Get your Ma home safe. Off you go.” 

Andy pulled him back and walked away hurriedly. 

Red Hat wasn’t coming home?

Marlow, with his head turned while trotting to keep up, saw him sneak back into the alley. Why wasn’t he coming home? Where Marlow could keep them all safe? 

Andy guided him on a short leash the rest of the way home. The bad people were gone, the smell trailing off down the wrong road. Andy looked back over her shoulder every now and again, still vigilant. The wind curled over the buildings. Red Hat was standing up on top of the roof in the opposite direction, smelling vaguely worried. Marlow barked at him. He disappeared back out of view before Andy could see him. 

Marlow huffed. 

Everyone was being very silly tonight.

Next>>

[academicelephant]

Spoiler Alert on Chicago Fire s13e12

Aw, Carver teaching Ritter

Poor Stella... that's not a nice thing to go through

Oh no, Ritter! His boyfriend just left him?!

Wait, what did I just see?? Novak ended up spending the night with Stella's cousin at their place?? The look on Severide's and Stella's faces was gold

Wow, that tracker thing was such a smart move, both in terms of finding the stolen hydrant and in terms of deterring future thefts!

Okay, I'm genuinely impressed. The way Herrmann handled the hyrdant talk with the politician was absolutely genious. Like, really. I'm so pround of him! Also, I loved the approving look the new chief gave

Damn... Stella's planning to build family! The only problem I have is that it's gonna be an adaption. Or like, that's not what I have a problem with per se, but so many people here are adopting, more than having kids on their own, and that's just weird

[icy-watch]

Oh, that was smart. You threw her towards there fire hydrant, where there's, you know, water?

[grapecaseschoices]

rotating rotating

I don't know his name yet. I just have been wanting to use him as a musician for some time. The initial game I had saw him for didn't click, but thankfully I had a eureka moment. His name will probably Argentinian

I know I said no more white boys other than Andy but he's also spicy white [is his pb? idk but I have decided]. So it's okay. And he may be part Welsh inspired by that one AITA post So he's like Black for the British [I can say that because I AM Black. You can't though.]

Anyway, I think he's 21. He went to Stanford for Music - and he probably had that focus in his travel aboard as well - and though he has been told REPEATEDLY that it is not a REAL/safe focus, he got some slack when he got into Stanford.

Though he got some shit still, because everyone knows he is smart. Like REALLY smart. He has a great memory and was really good in all his cources outside of math [cant deside if he has dyscalculia or it was anxiety] --> EITHER WAY this wasn't really addressed as it should've been and it eventually is what led to his dropping out.

[tl;dr he was great with music theory and history and had a great singing voice but stuggled to learn to play instruments & compose -- which led him to feeling like a fraud. Naysayers didn't help either. Funny [in a sad way] thing is, he's not bad at the guitar as he's been teaching himself but he let's his frustrations overwhelm him / he is too nervous to perform]

Uma is his "platonic" soulmate. He is a man in clown shoes. IN LOVE WITH UMA?? What do you mean? He just loved cuddling against them when they were younger and kissing their cheek and would feel the rare rage monster whenever someone else not him and Travis paid them attention and was physically sick when he first left home and it was a phone call from her that made him feel stable. But that's because they are SOULMATES DUH!

In his defense, it was hard to see anything past the friendly bickering turned to [semi-] belligerant UST between him and Travis. Which he was freaking out/in denial about

Also he is SO demi [and just clueless ... but very very demi squared].

Fun facts: Boy has never been able to keep a shirt on. Not when he was a kid, not now. He used to always walk around in his swim shorts because he was always READY for fire hydrant fun times -- especially in the summer. He also loves the rain. Strangely isn't a good swimmer, because he didn't have muuch time for classes, but he loves the beach.

He has no tattoos. Ignore the fc's tatts.

[soysaucevictim]

Gdi, brain. Back on the "want to draw feral Remus" shit again, when I need to write this nonsense.

Having Begotten!Remus sate his Hunger is just... so much easier to to do man. There's a lot of chaos you can pull busting a fire hydrant near a used car dealership.

Like, Begotten!Roman is probably the second most conventionally "smart" Roman in my AUs. This really shouldn't be that hard to wrap my head around writing this heist scene, man.

(The first being Promethean!Roman - but that's mostly thanks to being "alive" for almost an entire century.)

Third place in smart, second place in himbo status is iZ!Roman.

The most himbo version of Roman here is TOTALLY Gymrat!Ro.

[manishkhatana]

The Importance of Fire Hose Pipes in Emergency Firefighting

Fire hose pipes are very important in fighting fires. They connect the water source to where fire is happening and help put it out. Over many years of fighting fires, these specific tools have changed a lot, using better materials and engineering to handle challenging needs during an emergency response today.

Design and Construction

Fire hose pipes of today mix strength with flexibility, using many layers of man-made materials and strong rubber mixtures. The outside cover guards from scratches and very high temperatures, whereas the inside lining makes sure water flows smoothly and resists pressure. This advanced make-up lets firemen move through tough conditions while keeping the best delivery of water.

Pressure Management

The fire hose pipes' function largely relies on their capacity to manage diverse water pressures. Regular fire hoses can deal with pressures that range from 150 to 300 pounds per square inch (PSI), and there are special types which have the ability for dealing with even more intense pressures. This property of pressure regulation guarantees efficient dispersal of water at assorted heights and distances away from where the source of water is located.

Types and Applications

Various situations of firefighting need certain kinds of fire hose pipes. Attack lines, largely from 1.75 to 2.5 inches in diameter, are applied for direct fights against fire. Supply lines with the size between 3 and 5 inches move water from hydrants towards fire trucks. Booster lines, the smallest variety, handle small fires and overhaul operations.

Maintenance and Testing

Fire hose pipes need to be looked after often for them to work well in emergencies. This means checking carefully if there are any signs of damage or wear, doing tests on their pressure level, making sure they're dried correctly and stored right, and fixing or changing parts that might not be good anymore straightaway. By taking good care of fire hoses like this it helps them stay usable for a longer time and ensures trustworthiness when times get tough.

Technological Advancements

Newest changes have made smart sensors and monitoring systems that are combined in fire hose designs. These tools give immediate data about water pressure, rate of flow, and temperature situations. This assistance helps leaders make better-educated choices when carrying out fire fighting actions.

Training Requirements

Firemen receive broad instruction in the correct usage and positioning of fire hose pipes. This teaching involves comprehension of multiple hose configurations, methods for coupling and uncoupling, along with techniques to manage pressure. Frequent practice sessions guarantee that teams can quickly set up and use these important instruments efficiently when they face different emergency scenarios.

Safety Considerations

For using fire hose pipes correctly, it is necessary to follow safety rules strongly. This part needs knowledge of pressure limits, correct methods for making them stable and teamwork coordination. Firefighters should also think about things such as effects of water hammer and reaction forces while working with high-pressure hoses.

Last Words

Fire hose pipes are still a very important tool for firefighting operations today. They keep getting better with new technology and materials so that they can handle the changing challenges of emergencies. It is very important to know how these hoses work, take care of them properly and practice using them often in order to have good firefighting operations.

[lettherebemonsters]

The messed up part about these fires right now, congress(mostly the Republican side) is considering cutting funds to California unless the governor follows their demands, they are using California as a bargaining chip, WTF

Do it. Fucking do it. That creep that's still in office only authorized 770 bucks one payment only for each family that was affected by the fire.

Newsom is laughing and already talking about sending in developers to do his smart city bullshit in time for the Olympics.

Bass is a trout who just stares at everyone and smiles all the time.

I'd rather take my chances with Trump than with the fucking son on a bitch responsible for my home being in danger because of fires he swore he'd mitigate. For abandoning LA and doing nothing about the hydrants running dry.

If it means breaking some legs to keep people from dying because of some sick bastard's idea of a joke,then bring it on.

[baronessblixen]

I already sent an ask, but I've got to vent, sorry!

The California fires. What a disaster all around. The Left entirely blaming climate change, the Right entirely blaming wokeism, and all the firefighters, conservationists, experts, and everyone else caught in between is urging both sides to put down their sabers and see the facts at hand.

California overhead was stopping conservationists/firefighters from clearing dead brush and fallen trees from necessary spots which created massive amounts of tinder.

California reduced the budget for firefighter services months ago.

Climate change contributed to the rise in temperatures, making natural fires that much more possible.

Statefarm pulled their insurance from California because Cali has a premium ceiling, meaning that the company was losing money just to ensure Californians. For all that can be said about insurance companies (and there are a lot), driving away one of the best types on the market was... not a smart move.

Arsonists were lighting more fires while citizens fled their homes and acres were engulfed in flames.

At least five have died because they wouldn't leave their homes or were unable to.

California didn't have enough water for their fire hydrants.

...Why wasn't there enough water in California? (They've been rationing water to farmers/locals for a while now-- same with times when citizenry can charge their electric, better-for-the-environment ((theoretically)) cars while the overlords themselves go out to eat with their friends during the height of the COVID pandemic ((Gavin Newsom, *cough *cough*.)) )

Two reasons: natural tributaries were redirected to the Pacific Ocean to save a species of fish (smelt) without top-down administration factoring a water shortage possibility to the land... in an area that catches fire every two to three years.

Worse? EVEN WORSE?? Let's say the tributaries weren't an issue, right, and that issue was overblown. Most of the water in Cali is owned by two billionaires who did back-door dealings to snatch it all up and get around legal procedures in times of crisis. I'm not joking, vid here.

This vid is long, but it pretty much covered everyone's opinions in short, condensed react clips: the left's, the right's, the experts going to both stations to mitigate political speak, the victims, the contrarions, the controversial speakers, people in the chat who deny climate change or who decry climate change deniers, and the man providing commentary from both the individual tragic perspective of the people and the utilitarian, profit-driven perspective of the companies/politicians. It's long, so no pressure to watch; but that.... Everyone needs to get their act together (including FEMA, who still hasn't entirely helped the hurricane/flooding victims.) I really like the commentator's ultimate point: that this shouldn't be an insurance problem to begin with-- the government should be taking care of its citizens in times of crisis.

This vid is much shorter (only 15 minutes) and really brings up how horrifying and mystifying this entire situation is (including the stupid justifications insurance companies can dig up.)

Again! No pressure to watch both. I just... I am possessed by the scale of this tragedy and wanted to include if you were interested.

On a brighter note, I got pizza today. I'm going to focus on that and hope everything stops soon, and that everyone will pull through.

I'm not informed enough about the larger reasons surrounding the whole topic, so I can't give an informed answer to all of this. I'm just in general tired of everything being blamed on the Left and "woke". I'm sure mistakes were made; that doesn't mean climate change isn't real. Didn't they say it hasn't properly rained in the area in 8 months? That is insane to me. It is a disaster all around! I saw that about the arsonists. Makes you wonder what happens in people's head, seriously. You see an area burn down to the ground and think, let's burn the rest too. It's sick.

The whole billionaires owning water thing might be the most insane to me. I read this and seriously wondered how that is allowed. Is this the world we live in? The world we WANT to live in? These billionaires would rather want to see the area burn than give this up. What kind of person would do that?!

I hate how this tragedy is politicized. I see it happen here all the time, too. Not with wildfires, but with other things happening. People have lost their homes - some have lost their lives, or their pets - and instead of wanting to help, some people are pointing fingers, blaming "the other side" and turning this into an instrument for themselves.

At least you've got pizza. That is indeed a good thing :D

[orleans-jester]

“Sounds American enough for me,” Go-Go said. They might as well just loot the store, so she picked up some snacks that she hadn’t seen before yo go along with the alcohol. Poptarts. Hot Chili Takis. Peanut Butter cups. Jelly Bellies. It was Halloween, so bring on the candy rush.

And then onwards to the lengthy tour.

Even with the expensive alcohol burning through her stomach, she was a damn good driver, and took every turn that Dale advised her too, all without crashing onto the sidewalk or into lightposts and fire hydrants. They didn’t have to worry about the average person walking back, Valerie and Thomas had already made their way to the inn, and there were no other walkers.

The classics were cool enough, even if history wasn’t really her thing. “I could see you running one of those tourbuses,” She chuckled up at Dale. “With the microphone, making cheesy jokes to all of the tourists. You would be fantastic.”

She knew who most of the people that he talked about were. Clopin, obviously, they had met a couple of times, not the least of all she had seen him and his husband tonight, having a good time at the Ball. She tried to picture him as a younger man, which was pretty amusing. She could only do so with clown makeup. “They must be pretty close friends then,” She said, about Flotsam bringing up that tree everytime they would have passed it by.

She was snacking now, mixing the spicy with the sweet. Half-melted peanut butter cups with the takis stuffed in them. It was a feast for the eyes, for the ears, and now for the tongue.

“A magic school … full of teenagers … next to a super dangerous forest,” GoGo said dryly. She didn’t have to be a genius to figure out that it was going to go all wrong from the beginning. She didn’t mean to trash on his birth mom but she couldn’t help saying - “Really don’t think she was smart enough to open a school in the first place. Money can’t buy common sense, evidently.”

The construction was forever going to be unfinished. The person who had been working on it, meticulously building it back up, was long dead. Somewhere out there wandering, most likely. Forever searching for his toddler daughter. Tragic. Moving on.

She wasn’t used to these kind of compliments yet. She was growing adjusted to them, since the Laveaus could be complimentary people if they liked you. Especially Scout. But that coming from Dale, plus the snacks, plus the liquor.

She let out a belch as the bubbles from the alcohol seemed to come back up, and then giggled at herself. “Yeah, I’m glad you guys became kiwis too.”

They went into the fancy neighborhood. There was a playground now, at the place where Dale was pointing. The place that had once been the Renault house until Boogie destroyed it. “I always forget that those two were a thing,” She laughed, looking out the window, tilting her head slightly. “I really can’t imagine it.”

When they met, Chip had multiple wives. And Maddy was at the very least engaged to Bastien, and they were married shortly after the Laveaus moved to New Zealand. Anything else just seemed - odd.

“Why do I feel like it was you being the panty-stealer and not your brother?”

They kept on driving and stopping but Go-Go really didn’t mind. They had all night. And all day. “You kicked his ass, didn’t you?” She said about the guy that was running his mouth. That seemed a very Dale-like thing to do.

Funkytown was lit and looked like it was jumping, even if Figaro and Willem weren’t there quite yet. Door clown was dancing in the doorway, his hat just being seen through the window in the front door. Small figures were silhouettes through thin curtains. There was even a thump that could be heard from the outside (Diana’s leg had fallen off again and she took a tumble down the stairs, though she was alright as always). “Well shit, I hope we get to come back for a Funkytown party.”

She’d take occasional swigs of the liquor despite driving. Without any other cars on the roads, or pedestrians, there wasn’t as much worry. The alcohol seemed to help expand her mind during all of these stories, taking in what was behind and between the words. Getting to know Dale in a new light. Hell, they had even lived together and she didn’t know him that well. This was the most that they had talked, at least since her father kicked her out.

They really were going everywhere, from downtown to rich-ville to the trailerpark. This place had a lot of history, though Go-Go was only getting bits and pieces of it right now. She parked the car in front of the trailer that Dale was indicating, the headlights bringing light onto it. It looked abandoned. It looked … rough.

“Yeah,” She nodded, knowing that feeling all too well of losing a best friend. Fuck, she knew it well, as Dale had found out earlier. “I’m sure we would have got on.”

She held out another peanut-butter taki creation and the expensive bottle of alcohol, not saying anything.

“So you just make it your mission to be everyone’s big brother, huh?” She asked after a moment, remembering Babyface and Ellie, the two youngest at the Ball apart from when Frankie was brought up.

She stopped when he suddenly called out the wait, and climbed out through the open window, sitting on the door and leaning over the hood of the car, watching as he ran in and took a bunch of electronics. Even she was eyeing some of the stuff when he brought it back. “Damn, that’s a jacked-up laptop.”

In a good way, of course.

But then back to the roads, passing through places that … looked like a dream. Especially Sherwood forest. With it not being lit up, it looked like something out a horror movie that Figaro would love. Deserted. The joust was over.

“You’re lucky,” She spoke, after Dale was reminiscing about what one could do in the city in the span of a single day. “To have grown up somewhere so cool.”

Down the even shadier road, the trees not being tended to and growing out of control, limbs going out onto the road, making their branches hit the windshield. Nothing cracked it yet, but who could tell what would happen later down the line. There was a feeling of excitement growing inside of her to see the ruins of the old Laveau house, which she had heard so much about. It was like a little kid catching the first glimpse of a ferris wheel or a roller coaster on the way to an amusement park. So closer, just a little further.

“Of course there’s a Skull Rock, why am I not surprised.”

“I don’t know whether to believe you or not,” She teased. A door to another world just seemed … so crazy. So unlikely. And something that someone would definitely snatch up and use to make money or something like that. Build a resort in Christmasland. Capitalism as its finest. “Let me guess, Santa lives in there?”

The smell grew heavier the more they went. A heady, green smell that made her feel a little bit dizzy, though that could have been the alcohol too. She was driving slower, with the swamps all around. It looked and felt as if the car could get stuck and go down into the murky depths at any second. “You said there’s zombies around here, in these woods, right?” She asked, rolling up her window for the time being.

“Oh shit, yeah, probably,” She said, taking in Dale’s outfit again. It had been funny in the first place but now there was grass stains on the pink shirt from when he had crashed into the ground. Dirt stains too, on his knees and other parts of his body. Not to mention that half of him looked like a giant bruise, partly her doing. “I’d offer ya something but - it’s not my car so there’s no sweater in the back.”

She turned her head to look at him with an eyebrow raised, and then laughed, shaking her head, looking back to the trail. It was dark out here, despite the slowly raising sun. They couldn’t see beyond the headlights. More compliments. “Right, and you’ve had how much to drink tonight?”

“My parents hate everything, to be fair,” She cracked up, thinking of what their faces would look like if they could see her right now. “Almost wish I was talking to them again, just so I could tell them about this. Alone, with you, in our costumes, in a stolen car, in an abandoned city halfway across the world, going down what seems like the darkest fuckin’ path known to man.”

They’d probably try to exorcise her or something. Slap her with reeds because she didn’t know discipline. Lock her in her room for forty days and forty nights until she came to her senses or some such shit.

“You’re not too bad yourself, crop tops suit you, actually.”

"Unholy." He'd grin and hiss as he took a swig with all the muscles in his neck stretched involuntarily from the heat after it went down.

"Gummy Bears. Classic. Like Claudette. We know a lady who's so down with champagne gummy bears she baths in that shit, or so I've heard. She's a legend."

He'd grab a couple colorful bags and toss them in the basket with some chips.

"Most American? Oh, damn uh. Putting me on the spot. American American. Something in me wants to say Ballpark hotdogs but we're not at a ballpark so you I'm loading up with Doritos because that's what I like. Cool Ranch and Flaming Hot. I don't know what's most American, but I know what's most southern down here in LousiAnn. I'll get you some creole pork skins and hot peanuts since we aren't stopping for street food tonight." He laughed knowing there were no vendors in Feral anymore. He looked for a bag of that and some classic gator jerky, always a fun tourist pick-up at gas stations in the south.

They were leaving with a basket of snacks and Grey Goose, not to be fancy, but it was his actual go to outside a jack and coke. Blame Flotsam. High proof in GoGo's hand too. They were on their way. She only wanted to see one place and it didn't exist anymore.

"Mayyyyyyyyyybe. I wouldn't mind seeing that place either. Maybe we'll just drive by so you can see what it was like to go there. See what's become of it by now. We'll save it for the end since it's far out in the swamps maybe. I'll figure it out."

"We need no GPS tonight. I know this place like a-a I'm a human compass. Chip might dress like apocalypse is a fashion statement, but trust in me. Don't wig out when after we get past the city part. I'm never lost. I promise."

Sitting down into the car would make him look cripple again. He moved slower, cringed, and groaned as he sat. His injuries were inflamed and showed face the most when he was forced to bend. He let out another great, "Ahhhhhhh." When his back hit the rest he knew he was safely in GoGo's care. He was good to go.

He downed another swig and pulled open a bag of peanuts and a spicy scent of red-hot tickled his nose, but already he could feel numbness in his face. He started to smile. He wasn't particularly hungry after the ball yet, but it was Nola smell. It was home smell, a familiar smell, like a memory. He could close his eyes and almost see mudbug bakes across the quarter. He could almost hear the laughter, commotion, and fun of a Bourbon Street night, or maybe the lid being pulled off a giant pot of gumbo big enough to feed the whole camp. He turned his head and looked in her direction. "I'm feeling better already. Smells like gumbo or mudbugs. Way better than a Pinetree air freshener."

A drink or two later and he was about ready to focus. He allowed himself to enjoy letting the buzz hit him and then sat up so he could think better and tell her where to go. He decided to pretend like he took off a hand speaker from the ceiling like on tour bus rides and started talking into his palm and while giving directions.

What he did was have her drive around the quarter first because of reguar old tourism. It would be intereting to see what was left. He pointed to some classics. "Marie Laveau's cemetery. Her tomb is in there." There were some parts of Nola that just weren't going anywhere even though it was Feral now. He'd ramble on about St. Mark's and let her see some historical places that were easily seen on the internet. The point wasn't historical value. The point for Dale was to show GoGo the little spaces in-between so she could picture their past life. He'd say things he knew even if he didn't live it himself because it was always told to him. It was the history of his family. He'd say things like "-and here's where my dad would always point the tree he used to climb in to watch Clopin do his magic tricks when he was a street performer and living on the streets. We couldn't pass that tree without Dad opening his mouth and telling us as if he'd never told us before even though he told us every single time we'd come to the city. Not even a trip to McD's went without."

Dale would start getting tipsy as the memories started rolling. He would start to sound boring completely on purpose pointing to random historical buildings before rolling up to the large empty space that looked like a construction site. He was grinning so wide.

"And this my lovely, lovely, driving, sight-seeing, friend was once the site of The Magisterium where my deceased mother built a supernatural school for magic kids my father never wanted us to go to, but caved because he always did for her, while at the same time she went into politics and made it illegal for witches to use their magic in the way nature works, refusing to admit there's always a supreme witch that powers pass to from witch to witch even though it just sort of does. She thought she could outlaw nature. It was like trying to outlaw puberty. It was like living with someone who identified as a bleeding-heart liberal who only wanted to do good for the people, who didn't realize they were actually a Trumper with no common sense to what they were actually doing." He was getting a little buzz on so he was laughing. "AND.... she was so slick she decided to put her school next to a forbidden forest for real. RIGHT THERE." He pointed to a tree line way beyond the rubble. "Tons of dangerous magical creatures in there. I know. Let's build a school and put young kids that won't listen to rules right next to it, and I mean young. There was a daycare. I mean I get it if it was Hogwarts. But that's fiction. It was needed for the story to be funny. She did it for real. For real GoGo. She placed a school next to the most dangerous piece of land next to the Cursed 100 Akre Wood in Nola. Let's just say eventually all that shit didn't go over well with the town. And you my dear GoGo are looking at the remnants of my so-called life and why we eventually moved to New Zealand. Aint it beautiful?"

He rolled his head her way.

"At least one good thing came out of it. We met you."

Boy were his lips loose with the high proof. She'd seen Dale drink before, but something had gotten into him tonight.

"Ohhh, drive over there. Hi fancy schmancy lane. This is the road Chip obsessed Maddy over on. The first time we went there it was because we felt like we had to take care of Piper so she wouldn't get taken advangtage of by Pierre. She'd never been around other boys from the real world before. Clopin gave us like... older brother sorta orders and we took them very seriously. We may have stolen panties from that house... twice."

He didn't usually talk so openly about everything. Hell, GoGo lived with Dale as roommates for quite a while and he didn't open up this much. He was ready. Timing. But, at every stop between every drive to each new place he just kept jabbering. Something had gotten into him being back home like this. Maybe it was just the alcohol.

"That is the human school where I may have caused a riot." He started laughing real hard again. "An actual riot. I walked up to a mother fucker who was talking shit and didn't let it slide. Cop evasion was a sport while living here."

He started patting at GoGo's arm and made her turn towards Figaro's place. "That's Funkytown. You don't know anything until you've experienced a Funkytown party. That's where it all started. Damn fucker. Chip fucked the same dude up at a party there. Bunch a bullshit." He'd go into full blown explanations yammering on about silly events of their past and things that had happened all over the town.

If GoGo ever thought she knew these guys at all, she'd know them now because Dale was going down memory lane. He couldn't help himself. He'd stop at every other home or business and have a comment. It wasn't just things like that's where his family's tourist shop was, or that's where the House of Mouse used to be, where his Electric Voodoo used to play all the time. It was more like that's where I had to sit in dressing rooms when I was little until the show was over. It was always Dale's point of view. So, he'd start laughing and tell stories of how much mayhem he caused with his powers like equipment malfunctions, ticket booth sales gone wrong, old Pete's watches and clocks changing so shows could last longer so Chip and Dale could sneak around to cause havoc longer with patrons.

It would be revealed that's where the kids learned a lot of their cooking skills, hanging out with the chefs at the House of Mouse like babysitters while their daddies were jamming on stage. Sure, Cinderella was a kind of homemaker and passed that on to be sure, but she didn't get all the siblings do from being a house maid to the Tremaine's or reading Readers Digest recipes. The real fancy stuff the boys do, that came from the House of Mouse and being unwitting connoisseurs of fine dining. The boys always seemed to pull off what passed as fine dining and didn't seem to pay it much mind as anything special, but to them it's just how they do things. Homeschool kids had brains that soaked up the world. It's how they learned everything. Not that GoGo was looking for explanations to the how this family worked, but through the tour she was getting a look at the gears inside of the Dale cuckoo clock.

It was conversations like that's where he found a baby croc stuck in barbed wire, or the downed heron with the broken wing. It was more personal experiences to Dale that might start to paint a picture of who he was here. That no shame loud voice would bumble out stories of all his research on the animals he and his brother would do while doctoring wild animals and releasing them into the wilds behind their home that birthed the Rescue Rangers. For Dale his mind had a way of going off on the details of the computer programs he'd use to file the information for each animal and everything they'd do for them that he'd built from the bottom up. A bit of a tech side showing face here and there.

He waved his hands around. "Okay. Okay. Okay. Enough of this. You wanna see where Dale spent his time?" He pointed another direction, and he'd lead her close by the trailer park.

"This is where the Beagles lived. Most of 'em." He'd have her drive up to an unassuming single wide. "This is Megabyte's trailer where I spent most my days off the swamp." His smile started to fade for the first time. "He was my best friend, and nobody ever got to know him. I don't think I ever brought him to my house once. We didn't do that. We weren't really allowed. Sort of. I mean we were, but not. It wasn't the best idea. So, I never wanted to bother my parents with friends. They had so much heavy going on. Too risky. That's the hard part of grieving someone nobody knows. Nobody gets it but yourself."

He leaned over the console and said, "He was smart. I mean real smart. You'd have liked him. He'd have been able to keep up with your brain better than me. He was like a genius. He was a tech guy, hacker type but more. The guy that fixed up Maddy's papers from her old name. It's not just forgeries. No trace anywhere of her old self. Do you know how hard that is to do? We'd play games all day in there and talk smack. He was amazing and he was my friend. I wish you could have met him."

Then the pain of what had been going on in Dale, the silent pain that he never spoke of because it was his own. Everyone had their own problems. He carried his own burdens, his own grief. But for just a moment they reddened his face, and his lips held tight, and his cheeks ballooned out as he tried to hold it all in and stuff it back down where it belonged.

He sat back down in his seat and blew out and then pointed at where Babyface's trailer was. "That's where lil' Babyface lived. You met him. That's his lil' brother man. That's why I gotta take care of him if he'll let me. I owe it to Megabyte now that all this has happened. Then once Ellie got involved it was a done deal, but I'd have offered to help the kid anyway."

It was hard for him to be in the trailer park. Tour de Dale had to move on.

"Okay we gotta move this party." He was swigging big here. Shove the world down. Shove. Shove. Shove or he'd ending up really saying shit he didn't need to say. He was starting to remember why breaking things was easier. "Let's get out of this city already. This tour..." He was speaking into his invisible hand mic again, "is swamp ready. It's time to see real Nola. If you want to understand Nola through my eyes we have to get to the depths, baby." He started grinning again.

"WAIT!"

Before they pulled out of the trailer park, he pushed the door open and tumbled out of his car door. He pulled himself back up in a way that looked a little discombobulated. Between his injuries and the alcohol, he wasn't ready for how his head was going to feel. "Woah. Okay then." Then he marched up to the Megabyte's door and held onto the rickety wooden siderails and kicked in the door. It was a trailer. It wasn't hard. Then he came back carrying a cardboard box of laptops with wires hanging all out of the sides. He shoved it into the back of the car.

"I think he'd want me to have them."

He'd have fun going through them later when he got back home to New Zealand.

"Okay ready."

He would be moving better all things considering. The alcohol by this time was masking the pain. He didn't point out a lot after that. His heart was shoving things down still until they made it closer to the borders when he finally said, "OH! Look. There's Sherwood Forest. That's where we picked up weed. It's also where you could Robin Hood style ren faire all year round. Damn, I miss Wulf's strains of weed. He was such a cook too. He made superb edibles."

The memories got him laughing again. "You know a person could spend a day in every spot we've briefed rummaging around like an unlimited vacation stocking up on Mardi Gras masks, Victorian costumes, professional grade instruments, do our own tarot readings, play in crystal balls in all the magic shops, or have a joust in a full suit of armor, and camp out at the faire, and crank up the big Ferris wheel if a person wanted to, and go home with real knight swords and shields, full geek mode unbound. I'm starting to understand this Bastien hoarding thing I keep hearing about."

After that point it got to the long trail through the forest that led to swamplands. As all the city began to disappear, no lights behind them left twinkling in the distance, all nature before them and after gone, he'd say, "This is the drive. The drive we'd have every time we went to town. It's why if we came to the city we'd stay and make ourselves comfortable. There were no quick trips. It's worse than the bush back in NZ because there was our house, but then there was camp. If we wanted to get to camp, there came a spot the vehicles couldn't make it through. No road. You took canoes or kayaks on through the swamp. Also, why once we decided to go to camp, we stayed and made ourselves comfortable. If you forgot something you were so up a shit creek. Whenever we did forget something, Chip blamed it on me. Oh, and me, Scouts, and Chip had the animals to play with. We had taken loads of side quests on the way. Hung out with lost boys or got involved with pirate chases as kids. The Never Swamps are that way. Pirate Cove. Skull Rock. That's a whole other adventure."

Then he pointed to the left and kept talking in his palm. "And that way is the secret path to the holiday trees." He waggled his brows. "Oh yes. Magic trees. It'd take all night if we actually toured all these places. But I shit you not there's magic trees with doors on them that lead to magic lands. I swear to fuck there's a real Christmas Land, like the North Pole. I'm not drunk. I mean, I am. But I'm serious. I wouldn't lie to you." He laughed. "Okay, maybe I would, but not about this. Chip would throw me in just to carry buckets of snow back to the swamp and throw snowballs in the mud."

Beyond this point the drive would become eerie swamp. It was dark and covered by layers of moss in the thick canopy of branches that enveloped the sky. The tour had already been long, but this drive was longer. They'd be lucky to reach old estate land before morning. He started to sink lower into his seat. "Just stay in the trail. It's still a little further out." He watched her as she drove noticing her outfit again. It made him more self-aware of his own. "I should have thought to grab some normal clothes while in town." He shook his head at how silly it was to not think of that as he sat there still in a pink crop top. It was meant to bring laughs that night though. It certainly had done its job. He couldn't help in the lengthy section of landscape as beautiful as the memory of it at all was to admire GoGo in her dress instead.

"You know I meant it earlier. You really were looking hot tonight. I mean... are. I mean... you look extra pretty tonight. You got that head turning look going on." He started to grin sort of goofy and flirty at the same time. "I bet your parents would have hated it. Damn they hated me." He started chuckling low looking up at her, bottle in his lap. "And I've experienced being the first generation after the aftermath of a city with a voodoo genocide and lived in the thralls of supernatural white boy hate. My priv is checked on every corner for being born. But it hardly compared to the look in your parents' eyes the day we marched out of your house." He couldn't help but keep grinning. He got too much amusement out of poking the bear so to speak in GoGo's parent. Plus, she really did look damn hot. "Anyway, what I mean is, you look good."