#aka the upper rows of the lower bowl

[c-e-d-dreamer]

Hello!!! Cannot wait to see what you have written for Nessian week 🥰 but I do have to ask now that NHL preseason is a weekish out will we be getting an update to Top Shelf Love?

So, unfortunately, an update will not be part of my Nessian Week offerings 😔 I was in the worst writing slump ever recently. Like I literally only currently have 2 fics for the week (and am quite desperately trying to finish a 3rd), so it's been a rough go for me....

But! That fic is the next on my horizons! Now that my writing juju is back. And especially because I've gotten an influx of Hockey Romance TikToks that are just eye-twitchingly wrong, so it's really inspiring the meta I will be including in the next chapter 😂

Like I've literally seen multiple MULTIPLE TikToks for hockey romances where the scene being promoted involves the WAGs being along the glass/the FMC being along the glass during the games and I'm like please be so serious.... You think a hockey team? Which at its core is a business? Is giving the literal best and most expensive seats away for free to the WAGs????

[raging-violets]

#11 Kiley, #22 Lolla or Dalla

Prompt list (X)

Fandom: Big Time Rush/BTR

#11 - “We’re going to be in so muchtrouble if somebody catches us.” (aka I don’t do drabbles, I do short stories. Lol) -Riley

-

Riley’s stomach muscles trembledas Kendall leaned over her, anxiety reading across his face like a spotlight.Steadily, his face loomed closer to hers. The air around them crackled with giddinessand the excitement that they were about to do something wrong.

He dug his fingers into her hair,the silky strands slipping through his fingers. “We’re going to be in so muchtrouble if somebody catches us, Riles,” he murmured.

Riley rolled her eyes. “It’s abathroom, Hockey-Head; I don’t think a bloody SWAT team is going to come afterus.”

Kendall gave a half smile thennervously checked over his shoulder. “No, it’s just…it’s my mom’s bathroom. It’sthe only place in the entire crib that’s hers. The rest of us share the otherone. Why don’t we just use that?”

“Because it’s not big enough todye my hair in and you did say you’dhelp me.” Riley reached up and scratched her shoulder, pushing aside the strapof her bra. The plastic bag on her left hand crinkled when she moved it throughher hair, inspecting it closely. Red dye stained the front of the glove,resembling blood. “So just take the dye and spread it over the parts that arealready red, yeah?”

“What’s that other bottle for?”Kendall flicked his head towards the counter, eyes focused on her hair as hecarefully applied the dye.

“That’s bleach. My hair is toodark for it to show up normally so I have to bleach it before dyeing it.” Rileyclosed an eye as  splatter of dye hit herface. “Piece of advice, don’t get it in your eyebrows.”

“Why?”

“It burns if you don’t get it offquick enough.”

Kendall chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

“Imagining you with blonde hair.”

“I did it for an audition, itwasn’t too bad.”

Kendall leaned back, tilting hishead to the side as he held his hands up, surgeon’s hands. “I think that’s it,”he said.

Riley carefully reached up and pattedthe section off portions of her hair that were to get the dye. Her lower backached, stomach started to burn. She was starting to feel thebridge position she was in, leaning on the side of the bathtub, using only her shouldersand leg muscles to keep herself up. “It’s fine,” she managed to grind out. “Okay,so it needs to sit for a few minutes and then you turn on the water to rinse outthe excess—“

Kendall reached up and turned onthe shower. Water cascaded out of the shower head, directly into Riley’s face,and she let to a scream of surprise. “Not yet!” She sputtered. “Not yet! Turnit off!”

Leaping forward, Kendallfrantically turned off the water, banging his shin into the side of the tubwith a loud bang. He cried out inpain, grasping his reddening shin as he bounced up and down. Riley continued tosputter, her eyes closed as she leaned back. “What’d you do that for?”

“You said to turn on the water!”

“I said to do it after the dye fucking sits!”

“Well!” Kendall threw his hands into the air. “I don’t know how to do girl hair. Did you see Katie when I tried to do a ponytail?”

“Just help me up, boofhead. I can’tsee.”

Kendall reached out and graspedonto her slippery hands, pulling hard. A little too hard. Riley sat up fast,her water-logged hair arching upwards and smacked Kendall in the face andchest, splattering the hair dye on him as she did so. For a moment, the twostood there, stunned then got a good look at each other. Riley, resembling adrowned rat with her disheveled, wet hair shellacked to her face, cheeksstreaked with red. Kendall’s face was splattered with dye and he blinkedrapidly, trying to keep it from running into his eyes.

Then they started to laughhysterically, their tears mixing with the dye on their cheeks. Until there wasa sound that immediately caught their attention. An almost primal, anguishedcry that made them turn to the bathroom door to find Mrs. Knight’s eyes widewith horror.

The formerly pristine whitebathroom with navy blue accents now had droplets of water and red hair dye runningdown the walls and counters, puddling on the floor.

Mrs. Knight’s hand, resembling aclaw, rested on her chest, the other firmly grasping the handle to the door.She sucked in a deep breath, clearly trying to compose herself. “I’m not goingto ask,” she said, deadly calm. “Just clean it up and come talk to me.”

“Mom—“

She held up her hand and left thebathroom.

Kendall turned to her and Rileysmiled sheepishly, pressing her index fingers together. “Oops,” she saidsheepishly.

–

Fandom: Big Time Rush/BTR

Pairing: Dalla

#22. “You know, you really suck at this”

-

Beep! Beep! Beep!Beep!

The rhythmic, high pitched peals bounced off every corner ofthe spacious kitchen.

The pots that usually hung from the ceiling rack were nowscattered across the counter top of the island. Mixing bowls had left overbatter stuck to their sides, cracked egg shells oozed remnants of egg whites,and patches of flour, sugar, and blots of vanilla added to the mess of theotherwise pristine room. Even the floor, which was usually a polished, darkmahogany was covered in white flour footprints leading from the sink, to therefrigerator, to the oven, and back to the island over and over again, thepaths criss-crossing.

“You know, you really suck at this,” Rhuben Jackson-McGuirecommented as she flapped a dish towel underneath the blaring smoke alarm abovethe archway. Her nose wrinkled as the acrid smell of smoke reached her. Sheslowly angled her head downwards towards the hardwood flooring of the kitchen,noticing just how high she was with the aid of the stool she was standing on.

Standing at 5”2, she needed all of the help with height shecould get. Even so, it was looking down from those heights that she didn’texactly like. Or looking up. She didn’t exactly get vertigo, but the feeling offalling backwards while looking up at tall buildings, was evident in the pit ofher stomach.

“The only thing I’ve ever made in my life is cereal andmicrowave popcorn,” Dak Zevon protested, waving his own dish towel in front ofthe open double stacked over doors. When the beeping stopped, he ran his handover his dark brown hair, following the styled loop it was already sitting in. “OrI just had to reheat something.” Balling it up, he tossed it onto the islandand picked up a fork, prodding the black mass that was a cupcake pan that satatop it. He winced at the crunching sound it made. “Something tells me thatdoesn’t count.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Thought so.”

Rhuben took the dish towel in her hand and threw it acrossthe kitchen, laughing when it landed on his head. “Don’t beat yourself up toobad, mate,” she commented as he reached up and removed the towel from his head.“Everyone makes this mistake once, yeah?”

He solemnly lifted his green eyes to her, almost pleading withher. “Did you?”

“No.” Dak frowned. “But, I did think I could make oatmeal in the microwave and put it on 10minutes too long. And there was thetime I wanted to make cheesy mac for my brothers and forgot to add water.” Hislips lifted into a small smile. “It’s macaroni and cheese; no one ever saidanything about water!”

Placing his hands on his hips, he surveyed the mess beforehe scratched at his cheek, leaving finger streaks in the chocolate that wasstuck to his cheek. His hair and clothes had patches of white from the flour. Rhubendidn’t look any better than he did.

“Come on, Grandma,” he said, referring to how light theflour made her black hair look, “let me help you down.”

“Well, if you insist,” Rhuben replied, lifting her arms intothe air. Dak chuckled, his lips parting to reveal a row of straight white teethas he walked over to her. She placed her hands on his shoulders as he wrappedher arms around her legs, easily lifting her off of the stool. “Stop!” She saidbetween laughs as he started spinning in a circle, all the while smiling peacefullyup at her. The light growth of facial hair around his lips and lining his chintickled the patch of her stomach that was revealed when her shirt rode up. “Don’tdo that!”

“As you wish,” he said, lowering her to the floor. “Shouldwe get started cleaning up? I can call Celeste in here.”

Living as lavishly ashe did, it didn’t hurt to have house workers. With his parents out of the housemost times for work or networking industry parties, there was always someonehome with him and his little sister, Lizzie. At the same time, it was becauseof those workers that he didn’t even know the basics of how to take care ofhimself.

“We’re not stopping until you figure this out,” Rhubenprotested, placing one hand on his chest, the other tucking her hair backbehind her ears. “Besides, I want surprise cupcakes every once in a while.”

“Ok, ok,” Dak replied with an over the top sigh. He shared asmile with her. “Where do we start?”

“Try to chisel the burnt food out of the pan,” Rhubendeclared, pointing towards the mound of blackened desert sitting in front ofthem.

Dak glanced at it, his upper lip curling. “How about we justeat the frosting instead?”

[mikeyd1986]

MIKEY’S PERSONAL BLOG 63, August 2017

On Monday morning, I went to my Healthy Cooking on a Budget class at Balla Balla Community Centre in Cranbourne East. I spent the past week recovering from the flu and a nasty chest infection which meant I had to cancel and cut back on a lot of things, cooking being one of them. Whilst I’m still not quite 100% healthy yet, I felt well enough to attend today. Plus I really missed human interaction and engaging in pleasurable activities, learning new skills and making exciting meals.

When it comes to my mental illness, I firmly believe that exposure therapy is really an effective form of treatment. I’m slowly putting myself back out there in social environments. I worked with Kevin again today and felt a bit more comfortable in his presence. Today we made some rice paper rolls and sushi rolls. Preparing Asian vegetables 101...this was clearly foreign territory for me but I was willing to give it a go.

After washing the dirt off the stems and the leaves of the bok choy, I cut the ends off and started finely chopping it up into small pieces. The carrots, cucumber, capsicum and cabbage are also chopped into thin slices. Next we soaked a sheet of rice paper in a bowl of cold water just enough to wet it and then began layering the vegetables in a neat row across the middle of the rice paper sheet. Then you simply fold the edges inwards and roll it up.

The process with the sushi roll is quite similar except you start by boiling the rice and spreading it out across a nori sheet. Then you place the vegetables on top of the rice in the middle and using the sushi mat as a guide, roll the nori up tightly. You can then slice the sushi roll up into sections and serve with soy sauce. http://www.ballaballa.com.au/progra...

On Monday night, I attended my Foundation Meditation class at Brahma Kumaris Centre for Spiritual Learning, The Peninsula in Frankston South. It was really telling when I walked into the room and only saw five chairs with three people seated. Either a lot of people came down with the flu like myself or Angie has scared them off with her deep philosophical theories. I can understand that though because whilst I am curious, I’m also a skeptic.

Tonight we discussed the concept of The Tree of Humanity. This is basically a visual representation of our world history. Starting with the Golden Age at the base of the tree, this is when the first souls came from the Soul World in their most powerful and pure states. There was no negative karma. The first “man” and “woman” were born (see Adam and Eve). And since the Earth was yet to tilt on an axis, the climate was Spring-like all the time.

Next we have the Silver Age. This was not quite as perfect as the Golden Age. There was still no negative karma but there was a significant increase in population size. Everyone was in a soul conscious state. During the Copper Age, soul consciousness turned into body consciousness. This was the beginning of negative karma and the start of recorded history. It was also the birth of religions including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity and Hindu.

The Iron Age is the time we are currently living in. This is where we have the greatest darkness on Earth. Science and medicine are used to prolong life expectancy in an artificial way. And religions take on a different form including sports games, being at the gym. The Confluence Age overlaps both the Iron Age and the Golden Age. It also joins the souls up to the Supreme Soul. Finally, it provides the roots of the tree, giving it a firm foundation and the power to change consciousness. http://brahmakumaris.org.au/ways-to...

On Tuesday night, I went to my Body Combat class with Cinamon Guerin at YMCA Casey ARC in Narre Warren. Considering I haven’t been to a combat class in three weeks and haven’t exercised all of last week due to being sick, I really hard to pull the reins in and lower my expectations. As expected, the fatigue hit quicker than normal and I found myself having to pull back and consciously remind myself to breathe during the workout.

The part I really struggled with involved doing a kick combo with a side step. I just got myself uncoordinated and lost a few times but that’s okay. I was trying and doing my best which is all that matters. I never aim for perfection but I do try really hard no matter how fatigued I’m feeling. Cinamon was positive and encouraging as always. The thing I really admire about her is that she’s able to laugh at herself if she makes a mistake, proving that fitness instructors are human too. https://www.lesmills.com/workouts/f...

On Wednesday morning, I had my Strength Training session with Luke Davey at Breakaway Fitness in Berwick. In a lot of ways, I saw today’s session as hitting the reset button and creating a more positive space for myself. In order to do that, I had to lower my expectations and be kinder to myself. That meant being comfortable in the silence and not being hard on myself whenever I’m not understanding what Luke is asking of me and if we don’t have much to talk about. That’s the true nature of acceptance. Being okay with what is.

WARM UP...Today I warmed up the muscles in my upper arms and shoulders by using a couple of different resistance straps. The first position was a bit tricky to get into. Placing the loop of the strap underneath the sole of my foot, I then had to wrap my arm behind me and lift my elbow over my head whilst raising my back foot and then pressing it down. But once I got it, it felt really good.

DEVELOPMENT...Once again I did my bench press workout, doing 5 rounds of 1 rep at 50kg. I was feeling much better about my performance today mainly because my thoughts and emotions weren’t getting in the way. My head was a lot clearer and so I could focus on what I was doing. I was trying hard to get my technique right, activating the various muscle groups and keeping that bar straight. My mantra today was...Struggle = Progress = Success.

I’m learning to see struggle as a strength rather than a weakness. It means I’m trying really hard to achieve my goals and succeed. My lifting technique certainly wasn’t perfect but it didn’t matter. I fucking did it, that’s what matters. And Luke was spotting me the entire time so I was in safe hands and I was able to relax more. I used the resting time effectively by concentrating on my breath and practicing muscle activation to prepare for each lift.

We ended the session by doing 3 rounds of 10 single arm dumbbell rows at 20kg. This is where I was starting to sweat and fatigue a bit but again I didn’t let it bother me today. Just focus on the movement, keeping that elbow locked in close to my body. Counting reps isn’t exactly my strong point though I did decide to get a bit creative with it. I imagined a Sesame Street inspired image of muppets holding a number of a blackboard for each rep I did. Hey, it works for me.

Luke told me that this exercise really helps with the development of my “lats” aka latissimi dorsi, which are the muscles located to the side of the upper back next to the arm. After my last session with Luke, I feel like things are slowly getting back on track for me. I’m learning to relax more and let go of worrying about what Luke’s thinking about me. I’m learning to take one session at a time and try not to overthink about what’s happening around me. I’m learning to find balance in my life rather than cramming too many things into one basket and burning myself out as a result. https://www.facebook.com/breakawayf...

On Thursday morning, I went to a Gentle Hatha Flow yoga class at Just Be Yoga and Meditation in Beaconsfield. I can’t believe that it’s been four months since I’ve been to this yoga studio. Part of it has been financial difficulties but also spreading my wings and trying out different places to do yoga in. I have no regrets or guilt about this despite the fact that I’ve been loyal to Just Be for about 6 years or so. I feel like the door will always remain open for me, no matter how frequently I attend classes here.

I have to admit that I really did miss the studio and Dell Brown as my yoga teacher. Today was all about finding connection with myself. Michelle talked about a concept called Pratyahara aka Sensory Withdrawal, which is basically turning your awareness inward by closing your eyes and focusing on your breath during the practice. This helps to shift your focus away from distracting thoughts and towards being mindful in each yoga pose.  https://yogainternational.com/artic...

We did a series of flowing sequences, balances and stretches including: Seated spinal twists, Seated side stretches, Downward facing dog, Cobra pose, Arm and Leg Balance, Cat-Cow pose, Tree pose, Low lunge, Standing Forward Fold, Half lift and Mountain pose. We ended the close by doing some supported Shoulder Stands using a blanket and a bolster into the wall. I’ve never really felt comfortable doing inversions like this but doing variations with props certainly makes them a lot easier and better for me. https://www.doyouyoga.com/top-5-hea...

“We gotta be bold. We gotta be brave. We gotta be free. We gotta get loud. Making that change. You gotta believe (woah). We'll look deep inside. And we'll rise up and shine. We can be bold. We can be brave. Let everyone see. It starts with you and me.” You and Me from the TV Movie Descendants 2 (2017)

“Tell me something, tell me anything. This distance grows in silence but the pain is deafening. So what are you thinking, where has your head been. Follow your tangled string and come back home to me.” Far Away Stables - Phase Shift (2017)