#also i logged 26 hours in one weekend | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mnranger5 · 2 years ago

Text

Memorial Day Weekend at Voyageur's National Park, Namakan Lake & Ash River, 5/26/22 - 5/29/22

The annual trip up to Voyageur's has become one of my favorite getaways of the year. Nothing like being out in the middle of wilderness with only family and fishing to keep us entertained. Unfortunately Ashlynn and Brianna could not make it on this trip which made for a smaller group of us in 2022.

After a quick 4 hour drive north, we were at the Ash River by mid afternoon. Mike, Aidan and I took Mike's brand new boat out on the water in search of some smallies on the jerkbait bite. We found them.

The following morning, we headed out on the water, in both boats. My fishing partner was Scarlett. We spent the entire morning casting jerkbaits up on rocky shorelines looking for the smallie bite, but it just wasn’t happening for us. All we could catch were some toothy northern pike (which we still kept for a fish fry later in the weekend). So I suggested a change. I told Scarlett we needed to find warmer water, and some current wouldn’t be bad either. I also suggested a lure change for her.

In previous trips with Dean, he swore by the Mepps inline spinner bait. Specifically, the color green. I headed over to Fleet Farm ahead of the trip to make sure I had the Dean Daniels Special for this weekend. I already had a couple greens in the tackle box, so I bought one in every other color they sold (because you can never be too prepared).

Scarlett swapped out her jerkbait for the green Mepps. In addition, we moved from the main lake down to where the Ash River dumps warmer water into Sullivan Bay.

Along the shoreline marked in yellow is a bluff wall that leads into relatively deeper water. I had Scarlett cast up against the bluff wall and slowly retrieve. In her first few casts, she had a fish throttle her Mepps. Unfortunately, I had not prepared her reel for this caliber of fish which resulted in the big mama pulling drag like there was no resistance. I jumped to the back of the boat and tightened up the drag, A LOT, so she could hopefully start to gain some ground on whatever fish she was tangling with. By the way it was pulling, my gut instinct was a big northern pike. As she continued to gain ground on the fish, it all of a sudden darted toward the surface and leaped spectacularly out of the water. I was shocked. It was a tank and maybe the biggest smallmouth I had ever seen on this body of water. She continued fighting the fish, but it only seemed to be getting stronger with every passing second. At one point I looked at Scarlett, with her rod doubled over, and trying her hardest to reel, but the strain of the fish was too strong against the reel. We were both laughing hysterically at the situation as I yelled to her to be stronger than the fish! After what seemed like an eternity, Scarlett finally got the fish close enough to the boat for me to net her. Whoa! This was indeed a jumbo smallie tipping the scale at 4.7lbs. Which makes it the biggest smallmouth our family has caught on Namakan.

Dean previously held the record at 4.5lbs for the last 4 years but has finally been dethroned. The same lake, the same stance, the same fish hold and the same smile. So the question is, who did it better?!?

Pretty cool both of these fish were caught on the Dean Daniels Special, a #5 Green Mepps.

Later that afternoon, we celebrated Dean’s life by telling stories and spreading his ashes at the site of his former family cabin on Kuebel Island. Daryl, Dean's Dad, also has his ashes spread here. Amanda, CJ and their boys made the trip for the day to join in the spreading. Rest in peace at your happy place Dean.

Later that afternoon, we stopped back into Ash Ka Nam for a couple rounds of beverages and a little cardboard entertainment. Jackpot! This was more than enough to cover the tab!

That evening, we had a campfire using a "Dragon Log" Mike brought from his property in Wisconsin. The log is hollow in the middle, so when you place it on a campfire, it looks like a dragon spitting fire. Not gonna lie, it was pretty spectacular and it literally burned all night. It was still burning the next morning.

Day 3 kicked off with Aidan and Morgan fishing in Mike's boat, and Felicity fishing in my boat.

The smallmouth bite was a bit better in terms of numbers as we caught a handful of short ones, but the bigger fish were still hard to come by. Aidan started the day off with this nice 2.5 pounder.

He and Mike then followed it up with the first double of the weekend. Mike isn't used to having the smaller fish in the double up!

Over on my boat, we finally kicked it into gear mid morning when Felicity set the hook on a biggun. We had caught so many northern, I was figuring it was just another pike. But similar to Scarlett's big fish, this one took a mightly leap out of the water showing us it was exactly the species we were looking for. This smallmouth rung up at a hefty 3.48lbs, the 2nd biggest smallie of the weekend.

We fished all day long. After dropping Felicity off at lunch, Scarlett came back out in the boat with me as we traversed the entire south end of Namakan. We stopped at Johnson Falls, where there was water pouring over the falls and into the cove. Scarlett and I fished the waterfalls for 30 minutes with jerkbaits and Mepps spinners, not picking up a single bite.

It was getting to be fairly late in the afternoon and we had about a 25 minute boat ride just to get back to the cabin, so we called it quits without any fish in the afternoon lunker hunt.

Day 4 Started off with Scarlett and I catching pike, after pike, after pike, and one smallmouth.

Mike and Madison were also catching Pike, big ones!

We headed back to the cabin for breakfast following our super successful morning fish. We bundled everybody up in rain gear, loaded the boats with snacks and went on an an awesome lake exploration.

We stopped at a couple spots and did a little fishing without catching anything. Everybody seemed to be enjoying the fast boat rides however.

We eventually made our way back over to Johnson Falls. Mike started casting directly into the falls with none other than a jerkbait - same lure as Scarlett and I used the previous day in this exact same spot. Sure enough, Mike hooked a nice walleye on his first cast. Scarlett (who was in Mike's boat) then followed it up with a walleye of her own. So I straight up poached Mike's spot and had Dyan take a couple casts into the falls. Sure as heck, she also caught one on the first cast!

This was the action shot!

After Johnson Falls, the rain started coming down. At times, quite a bit more than a sprinkle. Eveybody was getting wet, but having a ball. The girls climbed hilly terrain...

...while Mike and I manned the boats down below.

Eventually, we ended up the Kettle Falls Hotel and had a drink in the iconic crooked floor bar.

The boat ride from Kettle Falls back to the cabin was a good 30 minutes on plane. About 10 minutes into the ride, my boat ran out of gas. Now, we knew it was a possibility that I'd run out of fuel, but we were hoping it would be closer to home base. Mike ended up towing me at idol speed for what was probably close to 90 minutes. But everybody had fun with it. We were tossing snacks back and forth between the two boats.

At some point, Mike thought it would be funny to goose the motor while I was standing on the back of the boat. It resulted in me nearly flying off the back of the boat, and into the lake. Thanks Mike.

When we finally reached the cabin, we started a fire and finished the weekend in the best way possible - a fish fry over the open flame.

0 notes

ch-3r-ry · 3 years ago

Text

26.11.2021

Food Log #48

Breakfast: Skipped

Lunch: Skipped

Dinner (708 kcal): Fruit platter consisting of: ~ 92g raspberries (48 kcal) ~ 120g pomegranate seeds (90 kcal) ~ 68g kiwi (41 kcal) ~ 103g clementines (47 kcal) ~ 82g banana (79 kcal) *****************************************************~ 361g fettuccine salmon (397 kcal) ~ 500ml sugar free peach iced tea (5 kcal)

Snack (427 kcal): ~ 112g apple crumble pie (290 kcal) ~ 25g vanilla walnut ice cream (39 kcal) ~ 20g chocolate covered crispy bites (98 kcal)

Exercise (-138 kcal): ~ walking 5040 steps (-138 kcal)

Fast: 26 hours and 14 minutes

Total: 996 calories

Comment: This has been my longest fast so far! (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡ It actually wasn’t that hard, probably because I started fasting so early yesterday ٩( ^ᴗ^ )۶ Also, my presentation went quite well so I treated myself to some apple pie; the pie was just meh but the ice cream was bomb!! It’s only 439 calories per pint and still tastes so good ´͈ ᵕ `͈ ♡°◌̊ I also got the cookie dough version and it’s super tasty as well so that was definitely a success (´･ᴗ･`)♡ I think I’ll try to fast as long as possible again tomorrow, it should be easy because it’s the weekend and I can just go to sleep once I get to hungry lol I really want to be at least 52kg on Christmas which means losing another 2kg in one month, this should be more than possible; I think I’ll go to the gym tomorrow so that I can loose faster ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)

5 notes · View notes

prettyinlimegreenboots · 4 years ago

Note

“I think you might be pregnant.”

Minor cussing and some drinking in here along with hospital, IV, and blood. This is a continuation of this fic but you don’t have to read it to understand what’s going on in this.

January 21, 2020 8:00am

All was quiet in the ER that morning. Or as quiet as it could be with two gunshot victims and several heart attack patients. It had been crazy since he punched in at 5:00am for his 12 hour shift.

He threw himself into a chair and surveyed the waiting room. He was waiting for something to happen but for the moment it was temporarily calm.

He was lost in his thoughts, thinking of the dinner that Racer had promised him, when a chart was thrown on the desk with a bang. Looking up, he saw Plums standing there with an unsettling look on her face. “You alright, Plums?”

“Just felt off for a moment.” She pushed a smile to her face, sitting in a chair. “Hey, good job with that gunshot victim earlier. Not sure how but you got him calmed down.”

Spot grinned, thinking back to the first 30 minutes of his shift. “Got him talking about his daughter. Works like a charm.”

“Well I appreciate it.” Kat grinned, looking at the clock before turning to her chart.

Spot watched her. “Something’s off with you Plums. Are you doing alright?”

“I’m fine; don’t worry about me. Jack’s got all these ideas for projects this weekend and I’m a little nervous to be honest. But I’m fine.” She waved him off, as he raised an eyebrow.

“And is there a reason you’ve been in the bathroom like 6 times already this morning?” Spot picked up a pen and his own chart. “Is there something you wanna tell me?”

Her eyes went wide as her hands went to her ponytail to tighten it before giving him a look. “I didn’t know you’ve added stalker to your resume.”

“For being a doctor you’re kinda thick headed, Plums.” Spot smirked.

She turned, giving him a confused look. “Pray tell, head nurse Spottie, tell me what I’m missing.”

Leaning in close to her, he grinned before whispering. “I think you might be pregnant.”

She pushed back in her chair, eyes wide. “There’s no way.”

“Come on. There’s a way. You and Jack - trust me I know more than any brother-in-law ever wants to know.” Spot gave her a look. “You’ve got all the signs - frequent trips to the bathroom, sleepiness, fatigue, need I go on?”

Kat shook her head. “I’m not pregnant, Spot. Just drop it.”

“Just take a test. If I’m wrong, we drop it. If I’m right, we’ll celebrate.” Spot kissed her cheek. “Why are you so worked up denying this?”

She sighed, flipping the chart closed. “Just drop it. I’m off the clock. I’ll see you this weekend, love you.”

“Love you too Kat.” He gave her a look, watching her head to the locker rooms to grab her stuff. “I’ll see you this weekend.”

The day passed, with more runny noses and coughs that he wanted to see but it was quiet, thankfully. No major crises or issues walked through the doors. Looking at the clock he saw that it was just past noon. He was planning on escaping to the cafeteria to grab something to eat when the bay doors were thrown open and a gurney was wheeled in.

“What do we have boys?” He caught up with them, accepting the chart they had started before looking at the patient, eyes going wide. “Kat?”

“26 year old female; husband found her fainted and lethargic. Her husband called saying she had fainted several times, hitting her head the final time.” Spot looked at the gauze on her forehead before looking over at a worried Jack. He gave him a tight smile before looking at the paramedics.

“Let’s get her over to bed 2.” He said, pointing in the general direction.

Stopping at the desk, he gave Isabel, another nurse, a look. “Page Dr Rush and Albert. Plums is in bed 2.”

Walking over to the bed, he was met by a few nurses and an orderly. They transferred her to the bed, letting the paramedics leave. Spot looked at Jack. “Jack, talk to me. What happened?”

Jack kept an eye on the nurse as she started an IV, getting Kat hooked up to all of the monitors. Putting a hand on his brother-in-law’s shoulder, Spot looked at him. “She’s going to be okay. Now I need you to tell me what happened.”

“One minute she’s telling me what a pain in the ass you are at work today. And the next she’s falling to the ground. She was so still, Spot. She didn’t move for a minute or two while I called 9-1-1.” Jack cried as Dr Rush and Albert showed up.

Albert looked between Jack and Spot before nodding at them. Dr Peter Rush sighed. “Didn’t we just kick you to the curb, Plums?”

“Missed it too much. Had to come check up on all of you.” She grinned. “I’m fine you guys. It’s just a little head wound.”

Dr Rush stepped up to the bed and looked her over. “Albert, would you take Jack to the waiting room? We’re going to do some tests and you can come back in.”

Jack shook his head, giving Spot a pleading look. “I’ll come get you when we’re done, I promise.”

Letting Albert guide him, Jack sighed loudly. “Love you, Kat.”

“Love you too Jack. Go I’ll be fine. Call your brother.” She gave him a look, watching him walk away before looking at the two men in front of her. “Spot don’t start. Order a full blood work panel and see what’s up. Also, just stitch me up.”

Dr Rush chuckled. “She self diagnosed herself . . . why was I paged?”

“Possible concussion and because she’s a stubborn little thing and I needed someone to look at her.” Spot chuckled. “Anything else?”

Looking at Kat, Dr Rush gave her a look. “What year is it?”

“2020.” She grinned.

“And what day of the week is it?” He asked.

“Tuesday.”

“And what’s your puppy’s name?”

Kat grinned. “Basil.”

“I want a CT scan, I want to know why she’s fainting. I don’t think she has a concussion.” He handed her chart to Spot. “Let me know what you find out. Kat, take it easy; try to sleep some while you’re here. Let us run tests and we’ll see what’s going on.”

Waiting until he left, Spot gave her a look before drawing blood. “Did you take a test?”

Swatting him, she shook her head. “No but knowing you, you’re gonna run one. Put a rush on those, please?”

“Will do. You scared Jack.” He said, flicking the test tube a bit to ensure all the bubbles were out of it before putting a barcode on it. He would deliver the blood to the lab himself. “Do you need anything?”

She sighed, pushing herself up in the bed. “I know I scared Jack - one minute I’m complaining about you and the next I'm on the floor with his mug hovering over me. Can I have some water? Can you grab Jack?”

“I’ll have Al bring you some water. Anything to eat? And yes, I’ll grab Jack as I head to the lab.” He promised, patting her leg. “You’re going to be fine. We’ll figure this out.”

Kat smiled, biting her lip. “I had lunch. Thank you for everything, Spot.”

Spot patted her shoulder before giving her cheek a kiss. “Rest. I’ll send Jack and Al back here. Love you.”

“Love you to, Spot.” She smiled. “Thank you.”

He nodded, stepping out closing the curtain behind him before heading to the waiting room. Spot quickly found Jack sitting there with Racer beside him. They both stood as he approached. “How is she?”

“She’s good. She’s hooked up to an IV getting some fluids. We took blood work and I’ll bring it up to the lab. She’s going to be getting stitches and a CT scan and will know more in a bit.” Spot smiled at the two. “You guys can come back and sit with her if you want, until we take her up for the scan.”

They both nodded and followed him through the maze of the ER. He stopped at the desk and grinned at Al. “Hey can you come stitch up Plums? And grab her some water.”

“Sure. Thought you’d want to do that?” Al grinned, looking between Spot and the two behind him.

Fishing in his scrubs pocket, he pulled out the vial of blood. “Gotta take this to the labs. I’ll meet you guys by Kat in a bit.”

Tugging on Race’s hand, he pulled him closer. “Hi love. I’m sorry it’s so chaotic but I’m glad you’re here for Jack.”

“Hi yourself.” Race grinned, leaning over and kissing him. “Go be the hero and save the day. I’ll see you in a bit.”

With a pep in his step, Spot gave him a look before heading towards the elevator. Tapping his foot, he took a moment to inhale a deep breath before exhaling. He hoped the vial of blood would clue them in on what’s going on, though he had a pretty good feeling.

Walking into the lab, he grinned seeing Elmer standing there. “Hey man is there any way you can rush this and run this while I wait?”

Elmer gave Spot a look. “It’ll cost you.”

“Whatever it takes. I just need this done. Order should be in your inbox.” Spot handed over the vial, leaning against the wall, taking out his cell phone.

A quietness descended on the two. Spot took that time to flip through the texts he had received, most of them from Race trying to figure out what was going on with Kat. He sent Race a text to see how Kat was doing and glanced up at Elmer. “How’s your day been?”

“Busy. Y’all couldn’t have a quiet day in the ER could you?” Elmer gave him a look grinning.

Spot chuckled. “Never. But it’s been quieter than the last few days, knock on wood.”

Elmer laughed, shaking his head. “Glad you’re in the mayhem and I’m not. Alright, the tests will be in the patient's file by the time you get back downstairs.”

“Thank you! I owe you.” Spot clapped his hands, heading towards the elevator, pressing the down button.

Stepping off the elevator, he headed to the desk, pulling up Plums’ chart before reading the labs. His eyes widened at the one result, a grin pushing through his lips. Logging off the computer, he headed back to her bed. “Oh thank god you’re back.”

“What’s wrong?” He asked, looking between Jack and Race who both had grins, Albert who was frozen halfway between the bed and the curtain and Kat who just looked half asleep.

“These two are trying to convince Al to put purple or green stitches in. They think they’re funny but they’re not.” She rolled her eyes, hand flying to her head with a groan. “Can you stop them?”

Spot gave his husband and brother-in-law a look, pointing at them. “Al go check up on status for a CT, you two sit there and touch nothing.”

Walking to a drawer, he grabbed a few things, looking at Kat. “Did he numb you up yet?”

“No. He was too busy being egged on by these two.” Kat gave him a look. “Can you assign him flu cases for the next week?”

Spot grinned. “Shhh that’s our secret. How are you feeling?”

“Slight headache and just tired.” She gave him a faint smile as he prepped to stitch her up.

“Race, don't look at Kat. Keep your eyes away from her.” Spot said, glancing over his shoulder. “Just a few more Kat.”

Snipping the thread, he threw everything just as Al came back in. “They can take her now if you’re ready.”

“You two will have to wait in the waiting room.” Spot gave Jack and Race a look as Jack started to protest. “She’s going to be upstairs, running tests. You’ll be bored so we’ll come get you once she’s back.”

“Is she going to have to stay overnight?” Jack asked, standing.

Spot shrugged. “Probably not but we’ll know more after the CT scan. Don’t panic - this is routine and normal. She’s okay, Jack.”

Kat grinned at her husband and brother as they both gave her kisses. Al and Spot transferred her upstairs, Al leaving them at radiology. “So what did my labs say?”

“You owe me.” Spot looked at her. “You’re pregnant.”

Tears clouded her eyes, as she shook her head. “Really?”

“Yup.” Spot nodded. “We can do an ultrasound if you want when you go back down.”

She chuckled. “Not exactly how I wanted Jack to find out or you and Racer.”

“But it’s kinda perfect.” Spot grinned.

She nodded, folding her hands over her stomach. “Can we not tell Jack? I will, I just want him not to find out with the hubble babloo of the ER.”

“Let me talk to Rush and we’ll see what we can do.” Spot grinned. “Now let’s get this CT scan done and we can get you out of here.”

He sent a text to Rush with Kat’s request and waited in the hall until she was done. Blink quickly read the report and didn’t see anything abnormal which they expected. Pushing her back downstairs, Spot put her back in her bed before going to find Race and Jack. “She’s back in bed. I’ll have Dr Rush come in and she should be released soon.”

“Spot, give it to me straight. Is she okay?” Jack stopped him before he started to head to the back.

He bit his lip, looking between Race and Jack. “She’s going to be okay, Jack. Dr Rush wants to look at everything before coming to talk to you guys, okay?”

Jack nodded, following Spot to the back. Race followed them, but held back as Jack went to see Kat. “You’re lying.”

“Am not.” Spot gave his husband a look. “And since when do you know all medical things?”

Race grinned. “You biting your lip is a tell. You know something.”

“Even if I knew something, I couldn’t tell you because of confidentiality.” Spot gave him a look. “Besides if they want you to know, you’ll know.”

Race’s eyes lit up. “So you do know something. Spottie . . .”

“No, Racetrack. Go in and check on Kat.” Spot pushed him towards the curtain, giving him a pointed look. “I’ve got to get the doctor then I’ll be in. Don’t be a nuisance.”

Spot watched him disappear behind the curtain before heading to the nurse’s station. He saw Dr Rush standing there and slided up beside him. “Did you see Kat’s labs?”

“I was just looking at them. Now what does she want to do?” Rush looked at him, flipping through the labs.

Spot grinned. “She doesn’t want us to tell them about the lab results. So I was thinking we tell them she was dehydrated and she needs to push fluids for the next couple of hours.”

Dr Rush nodded, motioning him towards Kat’s curtain. Spot walked behind him, pulling the curtain closed behind him.

They stepped in and all eyes turned to them. “We have your results. Looks like you’re dehydrated but everything looks good. I would suggest taking it easy for the next couple of days and push fluids - water and juice. Skip the alcohol.”

Jack leaned over and kissed Kat’s forehead with a strangled chuckled. He closed his eyes, continuing to kiss her forehead. “Any questions?”

Kat laughed, shaking her head. “I think we’re all set. When can I leave?”

“As soon as Spot writes up the discharge papers.” Rush gave them all a look before stepping out of the curtain. Spot looked at the pure excitement in the room and the relief on Jack’s face. “Kat, do you need anything?”

She looked at Race and Jack who were both grinning brightly at her, a weight lifted from their shoulders at their wife and sister being alright. “Nah I think I’m alright. Just get the papers ready?”

“I’ll get them ready.” Spot chuckled. “How are you getting home?”

Race raised his hand. “I told them I would take them home since Jack rode in the ambulance with them.”

Nodding, Spot left the area, heading over to the nurse’s desk to start the paperwork. Spot logged into the computer, reviewing his notes before typing them up. Finishing them up, he quickly printed them off. Grabbing that and a prescription that printed off, he headed back to Kat’s area.

“Basically, keep hydrated, rest, don’t do anything dumb.” Spot gave Jack the paperwork, giving him a look. “Keep her calm, even though she doesn’t have a concussion, she might have a hell of a headache. Let me know if you have any questions.”

Jack nodded, giving him a look. “Thank you Spot. I’ll text you if I have any questions.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He gave Kat a look. “Let Jack wait on you hand and foot. No Dr Plums today . . . it’s just Katherine for the day. Go watch all those Hallmark movies you love and cuddle Basil.”

He started taking the wires and IV out before giving her a look. “Do you need anything before you go?”

She shook her head as Albert came up with a wheelchair, before helping her into the wheelchair. Patting Jack’s back, Spot watched them walk out of the area with a smile on his face. He just hoped that Kat would tell him sooner rather than later.

Race caught him as he walked out of the area. “Hey, what time will you be home tonight?”

“Around 5. You still making dinner?” Spot asked, giving his hand a squeeze.

Race nodded. “Pasta, right or do you want something else?”

“Kind of craving homemade pizza.” Spot grinned. “I’ll see you at home, I love you.”

“Love you too. Have a good rest of your shift.” Race kissed him, waving goodbye before heading out of the emergency room.

Going back to the desk, he collapsed in the chair, rubbing his hand over his face with a loud sigh. Closing his eyes for a moment, he listened to the noises around him. He heard the chair next to him slide across the floor, as he peaked an eye open. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m doing as well as I can be right now.” Spot sighed. “Got another two hours before I’m done and all I want is a bed for a nap. How are you doing? Ready for all the incoming flu cases coming your way?”

Albert threw his head back, groaning. “Ha you’re funny. I’m fine. I wasn’t in the room all that much but it seems as if Kat’s alright - just dehydrated from what I saw.”

Spot nodded, grinning. “I’m sure Jack will be the perfect nurse for him.”

The next two hours passed by without an issue, a few simple cuts and bruises and an arm that needed to be set. He quickly grabbed his stuff before clocking out and heading home. He sighed, getting into the car, starting to head home.

He was looking forward to laying on the couch with Sassie, their dog, and looking forward to whatever kind of pizza Race was making that night. Pulling into their driveway, he quickly got out before slamming the car door behind him. Walking up the sidewalk, he pushed open the door, inhaling deeply, sighing in content at the spiciness in the house.

“Honey I’m home.” He tiredly called, dropping his bag and kicking off his shoes. “And it’s been a hell of a day.”

Race poked his head out of the kitchen while Sassie made her way over to him. He patted her a few times, before leaning over and kissing Race. “I love you. It was good to have you in the emergency room and not be the patient.”

“I love you too and you’re not funny.” Race rolled his eyes, walking into the kitchen. “I have a beer open and ready for you.”

Quickly changing into sweatpants and a hoodie, he sat at the kitchen table and watched Race finish up dinner. He relaxed in the chair and listened to Race prattle on about anything and everything. As they were finishing up dinner, both of their cell phones chirped with a text message. “OH HELL YES!”

Race did a weird jig in the middle of the kitchen, with the biggest grin on his face. Spot gave him a look. “What?”

“WE’RE GONNA BE UNCLES, SPOTTIE!!!!” Race yelled, continuing his jig. “Jack just texted the news.”

Spot grinned, shaking his head, standing up and joining him in his awkward jig. The secret would stay with him now. In this moment, he would jig with his husband and celebrate the happy news.

There’s almost 3500 words of another emergency room fic featuring doc Kat and nurse Spottie. Hope you all enjoyed it. Let me know what you think!

#Newsies #Newsies Fan Fiction #writing #ask #drabble prompt #newsies drabble #jack kelly x katherine plumber #Katherine Plumber #Jack Kelly #Racetrack Higgins #spot conlon #Katherine is a Doctor and Spot is a Nurse #Life In The ER Newsies Series

33 notes · View notes

madisonhentosh · 4 years ago

Text

A Day In The Life Of An Endicott Student-Athlete

Ever wonder what it’s like to be a student athlete at Endicott College? I caught up with Catherine Miles, a member of the women’s ice hockey team, this past week to get a glimpse into her busy schedule.

Miles is a 20 year old Sophomore on the Beverly campus hailing from Northfield, Vermont, home also to Norwich University. Although the town of Northfield and its people are considered her family, Miles has found, and been welcomed into, a new family on the Endicott campus.

The Northfield Pharmacy is the only pharmacy in town. It is in the center of the downtown area which only consists of a handful of stores adding to the homey feel of Northfield.

With hopes of being a physicians assistant when she graduates, Miles is currently studying Exercise Science. A popular major among athletes, she finds herself in classes surrounded by other athletes from various sports teams.

Miles checks her class Canvas page prior to the start of class.

After waking up and preparing herself for the day, a typical Wednesday morning involves Miles walking from Stoneridge Hall all the way to the Arts Center, or better known as the VPAC. From 9:00-9:50a.m. she sits attentively in a class labeled philosophy and sport. As the clock strikes ten to the hour, the rose gold Mac laptop gets placed back in her backpack and she prepares to walk back to her dorm as her next class begins.

Being a college student during a pandemic means hybrid learning, and today, Miles’ 10 o'clock class, exercise physiology, happened to be occurring on Zoom. She did admit that, “keeping up with when, where, and what days you are actually in the classroom seems to be the hardest part of hybrid learning.”

Welcome to Zoom University! Miles completes her last two classes of the day in the comfort of her own room.

The academic day comes to an end with sport and exercise nutrition from 11:00-11:50a.m., also on Zoom. But, with the academic day coming to an end, the athletics part of the day is just beginning.

All teams on campus participate in strength and conditioning with Coach Dustin. The women’s hockey team mostly all lift on Monday and Wednesday mid morning to afternoon. Miles was placed in the 12:30pm lift group with a few other members of the team along with a couple members of the women’s lacrosse team.

The Endicott facilities are second to none. It is a rare occasion to see this gym empty of athletes and their hardworking, get-better, attitudes.

Due to the pandemic, regulations and precautions allow for 10 people in a lift group at a time, so team lifts are off the table. Team lifts were always a good way to build team chemistry and build a positive atmosphere as your teammates attempted max weights on exercises such as back squats, hang cleans, and bench presses. Miles stated that, “[a]s long as everyone does what they need to do in the weight room, time usually spent together at lift can be made up in other ways.”

As lift concludes, Miles now finally has the time to eat lunch. When asked about Callahan or the new market in the Wax, she responded with a smile, “I think the new options in the Wax could be one of the better things to happen on campus.”

The Callahan Dining Hall is usually the most popular choice for meals on campus. Other options include Einstein’s, the Lodge, and the new market located within the Wax Academic Center.

With the academics and lift now complete, Miles now has some two hours of down time as practice starts at 3:40p.m.

We happened to catch Miles on a good day, well good day to be a reporter, as the women’s ice hockey team happened to be having their team media day. As the team picked time slots to go and take pictures, Miles picked the 2:00 slot, and we can understand why with her busy day leading up to this point.

Photographer David Le, who runs all of the media days for the athletic teams, was at the Raymond J. Bourque Ice Arena on campus from 11:00-3:00p.m. snapping shots of the 35 members of the team. Miles got herself dolled up and headed over to the rink for both her headshot and on ice posed photos. She completes her temperature check and CoVerified check at the door and gets cleared to enter.

Miles awaits practice as media day concludes. The pre-game practice fuel of choice is a handful of Baked Lays chips with an Honest iced tea.

Now that the fun and games of media day had wrapped up, it was time for business as the team is preparing for their two upcoming games against Nichols College. “Practice is valued just as much as games this year because in reality, there is no guarantee our games will go as planned this weekend”, Miles added. COVID has made athletes everywhere value their sport even more than usual because one positive test can impact the whole, shortened season.

Quarantine took away the opportunity to step on the ice everyday. It took away the opportunity for fans to hear the ringing of the post, blades cutting into the ice, and the cheers of temmarts when a goal was scored. Miles added, “... having hockey taken away made me realize how big of a blessing hockey has been for me in my life. Each time I step on the ice now it’s a breath of fresh air, an escape from the outside chaos of the world.”

Ever since a young age playing for the Northfield Stars, Miles fell in love with the game of hockey unaware of how big of a role it would play in her later years.

Miles, a center, is a tenacious, hard-working player that might go unnoticed. Today’s practice at the Raymond J. Bourque Arena was defensive and neutral zone focused featuring a lot of regrouping and down low coverage. Being put in the center position of recent, Miles can be seen on the ice asking questions not only to the coach, but to upperclassmen who excel in the same position. Having played defense before and having experience, Miles understands the importance of staying low and supporting the puck on the breakout, which she is applauded for on many occasions by Coach McPhee.

As a freshman, Miles only logged minutes in 2 out of the 26 games played. But now, as a sophomore, she has 3 points in the past 3 games with a +4 rating, scoring her first goal in the Nichols series.

Miles (#28) looks to angle a Suffolk defender through transition.

“Every year is a tryout and an opportunity to prove yourself, and to others, that you deserve a spot on the lineup”, she explained. With 35 members on the team, practice is high-tempo and competitive as Coach McPhee looks to reward the hardest workers. Miles’ offseason efforts in the gym and on the ice, training with ELEV 802 in Vermont has seemed to pay off this year. There is always something to work on and when asked what that was, she quickly responded, “faceoffs, no doubt”, with a laugh.

5:10p.m.: Practice is wrapped up and Miles heads for the shower.

Following a shower, Miles, along with her teammates, head to the Callahan Dining Hall. On the menu tonight was a grilled chicken taco bowl, roasted vegetables, and of course, the Miles classic, a blue Powerade. “There’s just something about a blue Powerade from the Callahan. It’s almost like a Sprite from McDonald’s”, she discussed.

Surrounded by teammates, Miles finishes her meal at the Callahan before getting ready to head to work.

Although you may be expecting a typical end of the night with homework and Netflix in bed, our star of the show had other plans.

From 6:30-10:00p.m. Miles can be found working at the Post Center checking people into the gym, cleaning gym equipment, and monitoring open rec. Here she can work on homework, which she usually gets most of it done, watch Netflix, and today she even got the chance to watch her boyfriend play in his season opener soccer game for Elmira College.

7:05p.m.: Miles watches the Elmira men’s soccer game as she awaits the next gym cleaning.

At this point in the day, rest is much needed. Miles can go to bed knowing that she successfully made it through another day as a student-athlete on the Endicott campus.

As the clock strikes 11:00p.m., Miles finally hits the sheets and prepares to do the same thing the following day.

“I wouldn't want it any other way”, Miles concluded.

1 note · View note

theastrophilearchitect · 4 years ago

Text

Reworking the plot & getting my hands dirty.

Writing journey #2.

Sat 06/03/2021 - Word Count: 28,150 19.38 So, a month ago, today, actually, I started writing a book. For context, I've sorted out scenes and planned my plot; I'm now simultaneously writing my first draft and outlining scenes in more detail - I'm just into act two of my draft and just into act three of the outline.

I included today in my first writing post, which you can find here, but, while outlining, I realised something that will result in a major plot change (even though I probably should wait until revisions, it sorts out the climax I'm currently incredibly vague on, and will help me actually be able to complete the draft), and felt it was time to start a different post, because the other one was long, and already had its own focus.

Previously, I've been setting mildly insane word count goals, and even though I'm sticking to vague targets, I'm going to drop that, because I need to do a major plot change, and that'll mean the word count isn't going up that much for a while.

So, I have my first and second acts good, but while outlining act three, I've realised the event at the start of act three would work better as a climax than the vague battle idea I have. It just seems more original, more effective, but it means I need to shift events around and re-figure the first block of act three. I'll begin tonight, but it's already 8pm, so I'll probably do most of it tomorrow.

Sun 07/03/2021 - Word Count: 28,365 08.24 I'm reworking act three, and I think I may just drop drafting for the moment and focus on incorporating the edits I have in mind, then start drafting over. I know all the advice says not to go back and edit, but this is a big change I can't wait to do, so it seems opportune to just make the others, too.

08.31 I've now finished reworking act three, and I'm much more satisfied with it than I was before. I do now need to go through the scenes again, however.

13.57 Still re-scening. This is frustrating, but I've decided when I'm back to drafting, I'm going to drop my daily minimum to just 500 words - even though I'll make very little progress at that pace, it's more realistic considering I'm about to be plunged back into the world of homework and commuting, and it's something I'll always be able to meet to help me keep in the habit of daily writing. Word count isn't applicable when I'm doing re-scening like today, though.

Something else I've noticed, when I'm writing literally anything, I'm just scribing the words I'm literally hearing in my head, which is a little bit of a problem because where I wrote 'meet' just now, I meant 'meet' but heard 'eat' in my head and wrote 'eat'.

17.07 I feel like I'm finally making some progress - I've been writing on-and-off all day. My word count has actually decreased a couple hundred words since yesterday, but Scrivener is convinced I've written 42,000 words today, which I obviously haven't. I've typed a lot of words, but not that many, not all of which added to that since deleting words takes words off that number. It thinks I've written so many, however, because I duplicated my act one folder twice (then deleted it, obviously, because I don't need three copies of the same act) but Scrivener doesn't take off the words when you delete the file, only when you literally hit backspace.

17.50 Sorting out my climax, I'm realising how bad it was before. Which I guess is good, because it shows internal criticism and growth...? Or something...?

21.04 I've totally planned out the majority of act three, but I haven't finished it because where I'm up to ends with my characters essentially making a game plan, and since I'm not yet sure what that game plan is, I can't outline the bit where they carry out the plan, but I'll do that later. I've incorporated some of the edits I wanted to make, though I've left a couple out because they're less drastic and I'm not sure whether or not to include them, so I'm going to sort that either during or after my first draft.

Since I've made quite a few changes that will affect the parts I've already drafted, I'm going to start my draft over, and reset my word count, but I'll do that tomorrow. For now, Scrivener thinks I've written 42,385 words today, which I absolutely have not, and my word count is currently 28,365, but I'm going to remove every outline and drafted piece I've done so I can start from zero for what I'm going to call draft #1.4, because I already wrote a version of about 40% of it.

God, my word count has gone back to 0 of my minimum 50,000. That hurts. It really hurts. My actual goal is more 70-90K, but 50K is my minimum, so that's what I'm going with for now.

Anyway, goodnight, and good luck me.

Mon 08/03/2021 - Word Count: 820 So, I wrote 820 words before school, then got home, attempted to do some homework and lost all motivation and will to do... anything. Which means I'm very glad I did over my 500 words this morning.

Tue 09/03/2021 - Word Count: 1,367 15.07 I called this a #1.4 draft, but it's more like a #1.3. Anyway, writing is so much less stressful when I'm working from something I've already written - with the first section, so far, at least, I'm basically just editing the writing itself rather than the events because I'm pretty happy, at least at the moment, with my first couple chapters. Very little thinking required.

Also, it's been over 30 hours since I've written because I did my writing before school yesterday, but haven't written yet today because I've got so much work to get done for school. It feels like it's been forever.

16.17 I've finished rewriting chapter one, and still have a lot of fuel in my tank (that's a hideous metaphor) but I think I'm going to cut off today at 547 words, just because I have quite a lot on my plate this week, and I'd like to invest some time in actually reading the book I started eight days ago, and am only 200 pages of the way through.

Wed 10/03/2021 - Word Count: 2,082 I could write significantly more than 500 words most days, but it really is easier to set a minimum that doesn't feel like a strain, so that's what I'm sticking with for now.

Thu 11/03/2021 - Word Count: 2,801

Fri 12/03/2021 - Word Count: 3,405

Sat 13/03/2021 - Word Count: 32,211 07.40 I've just had nothing extra to say the last couple days, which is ironic considering how much I wrote each day of the last post, which went up yesterday! Anyway, it's finally Saturday, and even though I have exactly zero motivation to do anything this morning, I've been awake for two hours already (I recently discovered I like mornings??) and I think it's time to get going. Still sticking to my 500 word minimum, but since it's Saturday, I'm going to invest most of the day in writing, so I should surpass that.

08.20 I don't think I've mentioned yet that I dubbed this WIP Bay Tree in this post. Sorry if I have, but I skimmed this post and can't find it. So, this is about to get messy. I'm basically just cleaning up my prose, but there's so little point doing that when I'm not certain each scene will stay. There's no point editing a chapter unless I know it's sticking around.

So we're reverting, and this is about to get messy. I didn't quite finish my initial draft of chapter seven, because I wasn't sure how exactly the event at the end of it would happen, but I think I'm just going to delve into it. I'm going to add everything, including outlines, back to my word count, finish writing chapter seven, then pick up where I left off in chapter nine. Okay. That's why my word count is jumping around.

And, just like that, I've gone from 4,074 to 28,864. Well, 500 words accomplished. Surpassed, in fact, by just 24,290.

I'm going to aim to just hit 30K by the end of this weekend. I can easily do 1,136 words in two days.

As I've mentioned before, I haven't outlined all the way to the end and through the climax--I have a fairly clear idea of how I want it to do go down, but I'm not sure what I want the characters' plan to actually be, so I currently have 21 chapters, but I'm projecting 23-26, which, at about 3,000 words each, is pretty damn good, especially when it'll just get longer as I redraft (she says optimistically).

Already feeling more motivated now my word count's higher.

09.54 Oh! Also, I logged onto Tumblr today to find someone reblogged my last writing post with a really positive, encouraging comment. It's nice to think I'm bringing someone else a little joy with this.

11.13 And we hit 30K! I'm not quite done for the day, but I do need to go pack. Also, I've been operating under the impression the minimum word count for a novel is 50K, but it's actually 40K, which, though I'm only about 40% of the way to my projected total word count, I'm officially 75% of the way to being able to say I've written a novel.

I'm so glad I've gotten as far as I have, and I just hope I can keep myself going to the end.

12.27 This post is going to look really strange to read - if you're only looking at the word counts, it looks like I've written nearly 27K words today. That makes sense.

Oh, and I finished chapter seven. Like an hour ago.

13.52 At this point, I have literally no idea what continuity things I've already established, so I'm just going by a let-my-future-self-suffer philosophy.

14.36 That's chapter nine done. That leaves chapters 10 to nobody-knows. I'm going to stop writing now, but I wrote nearly 4,000 words today (plus recounting about 20K) so I don't exactly think this cut-off will be detrimental.

Sun 14/03/2021 - Word Count: 35,548 07.58 I’ve written over a thousand words already, and it isn’t even 8am yet. Being a morning person is genuinely the best thing ever as an introvert--I’m asleep when people want to socialise, and awake when no-one else is. That makes me sound like a hermit. I love it anyway, and feel like I’m stacking up for a good writing day. 35K is probably a little overambitious, but what’s life without aspiration?

09.04 As I’m going, I’m realising my plot is actually coherent, and being surprised that I can actually make a story without plot holes (as of yet.)

09.21 And that makes the first eleven chapters drafted!

...And, Houston, we have a problem. Dammit. Eleven chapters, and I haven’t established one of the most important world-building points. Which is especially irritating because it needs to be established by chapter twelve. Unless I can establish it at the start of chapter twelve? We’ll go with that, so I don’t have to go back, then I’ll sort it out in edits or draft two or something.

I’ve just started writing chapter twelve, but I think, having written 2,600 words today already, I need a break. I have less than 500 words until I hit 35K, but I’m going to leave it for now, and come back this evening. I should be able to hit 40K this week.

18.19 And that makes 35K. Chapter twelve is only two scenes, and I’ve written one, but having written 3,000 words so far today, I’m going to leave it until tomorrow.

Mon 15/03/2021 - Word Count: 36,337 17.19 So there’s a crucial plot point just after my midpoint, and I’m not completely sure what to do. I mean, I know what I’m doing--I just wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted it to go, but now I know. The issue is other stuff needs to be pre-established, and I’ve worked out where it needs to go, but I don’t know whether or not I want to go back and write those bits now, or just make note of it and add it in draft two.

I think I’m just going to make note, plough ahead, and deal with it in draft two. I’m trying to figure out exactly how I’m going to operate after this draft: things generally say put it down for a few weeks, come back for edits, then go into your next draft, but I feel like I’m already going to have so many edits gathered by the time I reach the end of this draft, I should just go back into it, but time will probably be beneficial. Not that it actually matters now. I’m only just halfway through an under-draft (by that I mean it’s going to get a lot longer). I’m going to add new scenes in my next draft and generally fiddle with plot aspects, but as quite a linear writer, I think I’m more naturally inclined to just incorporate aspects in a draft rather than as edits. I’m not sure. Does that even make any sense?

Depending on when I finish this draft, I think I’ll plan to pick it back up May 1st, and just see how I’m feeling. But, again, this all depends on when I finish the draft, and how I’m feeling when that time comes.

Tue 16/03/2021 - Word Count: 37,025 I bought my Scrivener license today! Yay!

Wed 17/03/2021 - Word Count: 38,408 08.04 This is mostly irrelevant to my project, but I just wanted to mention the odd fact that I’m definitely a plotter when it comes to longer pieces, but when I do shorter pieces, creative or essays, for school, I hate planning, and just start immediately, then go back and edit. Huh.

Thu 18/03/2021 - Word Count: 38,950 I’m going to edit this, but writing the date just now I noticed I’ve put 2019 for the last three days. It’s absolutely not, and I know why I did that, but still.

14.31 Also, Oxford commas? Found out what they were. Granted, that was actually a few days ago.

Fri 19/03/2021 - Word Count: 40,139 06.55 Even though I wrote 500 words yesterday, I didn’t quite reach my goal of 39K, just because I had to stop writing 50 words off, and by the time I had the opportunity to go back, I just wanted to go to bed. So, today, my goal is to hit 40K words, and officially be able to say I’ve hit the minimum word count for a novel.

Honestly, I’m starting to lose my love for this project. I’m still enjoying working on it, don’t get me wrong, but I’m anticipating finishing it because I know exactly what I want to write next. I feel like I’m mostly still working on it as a lesson, and I know it’s not what I ultimately want to write--mostly because it’s not super high-concept, and high-concept stuff is what I want to be writing. I am still enjoying working on it, I’m just not sure I’ll get to the ‘final line-edits’ stage. But who knows?

10.19 And that marks 40K. We’re in novel terriority, people. And, yes, I could correct that spelling, but I’d like to draw attention to how bad I am at spelling when typing. I’m excellent at spelling in writing, and wrong spellings bother me, but when I’m typing, my fingers are just trying to keep up with my mind, which means I try to type a letter and the one after it at the same time, and often end up with letters in the wrong order and punctuation in the wrong place. Or I just hit halfway between two keys instead of the key I’m going for, and type a wrong letter. Anyway, that was meant to say territory. See? I can spel..

Or I just double the punctuation instead of the last letter.

So I’m definitely not meeting my old goal of 80K words or a finished draft by the end of the month--that’d be another 40K words in just 12 days--but I’m definitely on track to finish by the end of April.

Sat 20/03/2021 - Word Count: 40,692 15.30 God, second acts are hard. I hate being in the middle. At the start, you have novelty, and at the end (not that I would know from experience) you have the knowledge you’re near the end, that you’ve already written most of it.

I’m currently operating the reminder, ‘You’ve written an act before, why not again?’, in hopes that’ll eventually extend to, ‘You’ve finished a draft before, why not again?’ and ‘You’ve written an entire book before, why not again?’

I’ve literally written 243 words so far today, and I just don’t want to. Normally, I sit down, I slog through the first hundred or so words, then pick up momentum. Maybe it’s just because chapter 13 is a boring part to write. Ha. 13. Just my luck.

I’m being nice to myself because a lot has happened in my life over the last few days, but I still want to write a minimum of 500 words, even though most Saturdays I can write more like 3,000.

21.41 I’d like to be asleep. That sounds like fun. Today slipped through my grasp, and I haven’t even written 300 words, but I am going to try to at least hit 500. And then maybe write thousands and thousands tomorrow, but I’m also going to bake a cake, and I’m notorious for being able to make cooking and baking take at least three times as long as is necessary.

21.57 So I got just past 500. Relatively speaking, that’s not that impressive for me, but it’s more words than most people in the world added to their manuscripts today, so I have to give myself some credit. (I’m working on crediting myself for productivity rather than degrading myself for not being productive--I could go on for hours about how much it pisses me off that capitalism teaches us productivity=worth in everything, not just business, but I’m going off on a tangent.)

Sun 21/03/2021 - Word Count: 41,466 08.08 Cakes baked! And I’ve come to a conclusion about how irritating I am to myself--I didn’t fully outline the latter half of act two (by which I mean I have each scene and a purpose of each scene, but virtually no detail) which I can absolutely cope with, but it does slow me down. Anyway, I’m waiting for my cakes to cool, then I can ice them.

14.28 I wanted to write up to 42K this weekend, which I don’t think is going to happen. I’ve written 774 words, so passed my 500-word minimum, but haven’t yet reached 42K, and don’t think I’m going to this weekend. I just don’t have much motivation, which may just be because of the part I’m on, but I’d rather work through this part really slowly then pick up the pace when I get to the part I want to be writing, than force myself to write this section quickly and poorly, then not want to continue into act three. So, sticking to 500 words a day; I may do more later, but I’m leaving it for now.

Mon 22/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,006 17.56 God, I don’t want to write today. I’m going to anyway, because I haven’t yet failed 500 words. They can be a shitty 500 words, but they have to be 500 words. Also, the scene I wrote yesterday? Absolutely getting deleted. But I’m leaving it for now because I refuse to lose those 800 words.

I really enjoy putting edits at the bottom of scenes in brackets and making them unnecessarily wordy so Scrivener thinks I’ve written significantly more words than I actually have.

18.31 Yay, did it. I’m really hoping I can just work through this low spot and don’t have to take a break. I’m on the penultimate chapter of act two, and the first few chapters of act three are really exciting, so I’ll know if I need to take a break based on whether I get motivated when I get to that part.

Tue 23/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,124 16.37 GOD, I need a break. I don’t have motivation, even for 500 words. You know what? I’m just going to make a note of the scene idea I had earlier, and I’m going to take a week’s break. Unless I get antsy, in which case I may end it earlier, but, I’m not going to write again until Tuesday the 30th. Unless I get antsy. FUCK.

I’m just reminding myself breaks are good and important, but I still hate that I’m taking one without finishing my first draft. Tue 30/03/2021, I will be back! Though my word count may increase between now and then as I note down any ideas I have, which I will update with. Okay. Just leave it.

Sun 28/03/2021 - Word Count: 42,150 10.47 Since Tuesday, I’ve made some notes on my phone of little things I want to change, but haven’t added them to my project file, so the word count hasn’t gone up.

Last night, I was just thinking about how badly I wanted to get back to this project, but this morning, I just... don’t. I’ve been thinking it through, and I’m not ready to drop this project yet, but I’m just not happy with what I have at the moment. So, I’m going to add my notes to the file, and then leave it for a few weeks, so I can return with edits in mind, apply them, and then start what I guess will be like a 1.7 draft, because I didn’t finish this draft.

In the meantime, however, I do want to keep writing, so I’m going to start another project in the meantime, which I can work on a lot in the next few weeks because, in a few days, I get a couple weeks off, which won’t be completely free of work, but will give me a lot more time to dedicate to this.

I think I’m going to say I’ll return to Bay Tree (or at least review, if, say, I just want to dedicate a little more time to whatever phase of the new project before I move on) on May 10th, because that’s basically when I get to relax after my exams finish.

So I’ll add the notes I have so far, keep making notes on my phone, and return on May 10th.

Which wraps up this writing update--a new one will come with my new project!

1 note · View note

celestinaruns · 5 years ago

Photo

Training Log: January 20 to 26

So as you might be able to tell by one of the above pictures--not the best news this week. Turns out I was right to be worried that my sprain seemed to be hurting for a really long time. 3 physicians and 2 months later, thanks to my persistence, I found out I’ve been walking around on a stress fracture. Going to get a bone scan done this week to confirm and make sure nothing else is wrong, but in the mean time... I’m stuck on crutches, no weight bearing, and forced to keep it to very low impact activities.

Not going to lie, it was pretty devastating. I have big plans for this upcoming summer--the plan is to not only qualify for Boston again, but also to set a marathon PR. Hopefully a sub-3:20. I was really upset that this would ruin it all, initially, but after grieving my injury, I made a new plan. I can still keep in shape, so I just have to simulate the fitness of base training as best as I can!

That being said, here is my new training plan, planning to keep off running all the way until April, the start of my marathon training. The last week in the table below is the first week of my training program. Ideally, I’ll be able to go back to running at least 3-4 weeks before that, but I’m planning for the worst:

I’ll also be going to physiotherapy, both throughout my recovery and likely through the entirety of my marathon training to make sure I don’t re-injure myself.

So... that is that! It does suck quite a bit, both because running is such a huge part of my life and because I walk everywhere. But I am determined to beat this!

Anyways, because of that, this week has been pretty low activity, but here it is.

Upcoming Meal Prep

Heads up! If you see anything in my meal prep that interests you and you would like to see a recipe, shoot me a message! I would be more than happy to share.

Breakfast - overnight oats with protein powder, raspberries, and kiwis + coffee with a wafer cookie

Lunch - beef and red kidney bean chili

Dinner - chicken paprikaș (a traditional meal, sort of a chicken stew with european dumplings and lots of paprika, I was feeling comfort food after this crazy week)

Snacks - plain skyr with kiwi and honey + clif bars + chocolates + fresh fruit

Preworkout Food - some combo of banana, oreos, and probably honey stinger chews

Monday, January 20: Rest Day

Relaxed after a very hilly run at the ski hill the day before!

Tuesday, January 21: Strength Session

Really noticed my ankle bothering me during this strength session. I did do some weight bearing exercises, so that likely didn’t help, in hindsight.

Wednesday, January 22: Slow jog through the snow (7.91 km)

Not too bad, but again, the longer I went the more I felt like my injured foot and ankle were really stiff. Couldn’t quite land the same way as it felt unstable.

Thursday, January 23: Slow jog with my running clinic (3.92 km)

Went out for a slow shuffle with my running clinic! Again, persistent mild pain in the ankle area. I really knew something was wrong at this point.

Friday, January 24: Rest Day in the ER

When I woke up, I could barely put weight on my foot without feeling any pain, so I went to the ER asap, figuring it would be better (and quicker in terms of getting x-rays done). Really got the worst day ever, I spent 8 hours there. But I came out in the end, and now I have a bone scan scheduled for next Wednesday!

Saturday, January 25: At Home Workout

Did a little workout at home, keeping off the injured leg and focusing on what I could!

Sunday, January 26: Swimming (1750 m)

Went nice and slow, just wanted to get a light workout in for the weekend before getting back into a heavier workout regime. Was going to go up to 2000 m, but the pool got really crowded by mostly people that kept going the wrong way and/or using the lanes to not lane swim, so I bailed lol. Still a decent workout though!

47 notes · View notes

sandralagunzad · 5 years ago

Text

MIAMI BEACH- A Place I Never Expect To Call My Second Home

It all started when I decided to have my work and training in USA. I have always wanted to work abroad; not just to earn money, but also to grow in different aspects. There’s no doubt that the USA is one of the leading countries worldwide, and I believe that I’ll get great opportunities once I step in this country.

I started my application last January of 2018. After a few months of processing necessary documents needed, I flew to the USA in June of the same year. I was so stoked of what were in store for me in that journey.

I flew straight to Atlanta, Georgia to visit my sister first. After travelling for roughly 26 hours from Manila, it was comforting to see my sister. I almost got teary eyed as I hugged her. I couldn’t blame myself, I travelled alone in a completely strange place, and will be in a new environment. She lived there for 2 years, and I honestly missed being with her. I stayed for a little over 4 days before starting my journey in Miami. I was hesitant to stop by Atlanta before reporting in the property that I’ll be having my training with. Good thing I listened to my family, my sister got me goodies that I needed to settle in my apartment. Hehe thanks, Ate!

Miami is a crazy city- one of the busiest cities in the states and top tourist destination. As soon as I knew the city I was going to, I started researching about it. I saw a lot of GREAT pictures, and I can say that those pictures did justice to the place. Yes, Miami is that beautiful.

I started my J1 journey as a restaurant hostess for the first 4 months. I met a lot of nice guests along the way. I even met the nephew of Mother Lily Montenegro! At first glance I knew that he’s a Filipino, and I wasn��t wrong. He’s so nice, and I’m glad he had a great stay at Royal Palm. Going back, we had a training plan to follow as cultural exchange visitors. For every 3 months, we had to rotate positions within the department.

The property’s executive committees were checking on us and making sure we were having a great experience in the hotel. Three months into my training at the restaurant, our HR Director approached me and asked if I would be interested in other positions such as HR coordinator or Reservations coordinator. “Yes!”, I replied, “If given an opportunity it would be a great experience for me.”. Our HR director consulted this to the rest of the executive committee, and they have decided to open the position of Catering and Sales Specialist / Banquets Captain to me, as it was still related to Food and Beverage. And without hesitation, I accepted the job opportunity.

October 10, 2018- I officially became the new Catering and Sales Specialist. This time I told myself that this will be a new experience. I knew that this will not be easy, and will require high level of professionalism and critical thinking. I was very shy and soft-spoken when I started working in the office. You’ll just hear me say ‘Yes’ whenever something was asked of me. I won’t deny, I was scared of voicing out what was in my head. I was scared of giving suggestions or observations because I was afraid to make mistakes. Well, who would want to fail? I promised myself to learn as much as I can, and give every one with utmost respect.

Let me give you an overview of what were my duties and tasks as a Catering and Sales Specialist:

Always attend the 9am meeting with all the department heads, and report if the hotel has any group meetings / events of the day, and the status of in-house groups.

ALWAYS check e-mails and voice messages.

If there are any meetings or events during the day, make sure they have everything they need and fix whatever problem they have- it may be an issue with their sleeping room, meeting room, billings, food selections, etc.

ALWAYS BE ON THE FLOOR.

ALWAYS be on top of everything. Think ahead of time all the possible challenges that the event/meeting will encounter.

Prepare reports such as Group Resumes, Banquet Event Orders, Banquets Forecasts and Banquet Checks, Final Billing and Closing Log.

Be in touch with clients in detailing their incoming meetings/events in the property i.e., food selections, schedule of their programme/meeting, total number of people attending, if they have any dietary restrictions, table set up, audio/visual needs, and even decoration.

December to March is the high season in Miami. Most people in America are trying to stay warm on winter season, and have their Holidays in the Sunshine State. Indeed, in these times, Miami is packed with different tourist around the world. The historical Ocean Drive has different city-wide events especially this season. This only means that businesses are very much alive. Hotels are fully booked, restaurants have at least 15 minutes waiting time, bars and nightclubs are packed, and the streets are never empty. I bet you cannot imagine how busy it can get during these times.

ART BASEL 2018

April to May 2019 were a little lighter. I was able to move freely as my mind was not that stressed out. During this time, I was able to go out more often, and see Miami as it is. Not like the first months, I was just focused on work and had a home-work-home routine. It took quite a long time for me to get out of my comfort zone, to be confident with what I do. Don’t get me wrong, ever since I started working in the office, I gave my all. I walked extra mile with anything that I did. I just wished I did it sooner, to believe in myself. Anyway, I really had a great experience in Royal Palm. I learned A LOT.

I admit, I got really excited to be transferred to another department and position. Little did I know, things will get pretty heavy. I got overwhelmed with how much work I had to do. Everything was new to me. I had a little experience with handling big groups and clients. To be honest, I felt like being thrown into the ocean without knowing how to swim. I’m so lucky that I was surrounded with a great team that helped me and taught me everything that I needed to know.

I had countless breakdowns, not to exaggerate but I had it almost every night. I also had panic attacks much often than it used to. One time I had a rough day at work, I started crying on my way home. I didn’t care if I was on a jam-packed bus, tears started streaming down my face. I couldn’t help it. As time goes by, I was able to cope up. One day I found myself handling all things by myself. However, things got pretty much hectic with work on the first quarter of the year 2019. I was usually off during weekends, but since January came, sometimes I only got Sunday off. That was fine. I mean, it’s included as overtime. Lol!

I remember being nominated as the Associate Star of the Month twice- for the months of February and May. I didn’t expect being nominated, as I was struggling with work during those times. But it was really comforting to know that some people appreciated my hard work when I thought no one saw it.

I got attached. Yes, deeply attached with Miami. I got to experience living away from home, being independent, paying my own bills, being responsible with the basic stuff. I had a freedom. My freedom. It felt good to decide whatever I wanted for myself, at least for a few months.

The beach was just a few steps away from my apartment. I love spending Sunday afternoons at the beach with a bottle of beer. Who would’ve thought that this lady would love the beach so much? Lol. The ocean witnessed every emotion I felt in the duration of my stay. When I was happy, I was at the beach. When I was sad, the moon and stars listened to my story. When I missed home, the wind caressed me. When I got broken, the cold breeze sympathised with me. And when I thought that I found love again, the ocean was the first to witness.

I wanted to stay, but I guess it’s not God’s plan for me. Who knows, maybe sooner or later I will be back again. I really hope so.

I had a lot of down times, not to add the homesickness I felt. But I thank my friends I made along the way. They helped me cope up, they cheered me up. I honestly wouldn’t know what to do if they were not beside me.

I am grateful to experience the Miami vibe!

’Til next time, Vice City!

22 notes · View notes

lozza-85 · 4 years ago

Text

The Most Unique Strike In History

THE MOST UNIQUE STRIKE IN HISTORY? In December 2020, the GMB union balloted British Gas field engineers for the right to strike against the Fire and Re Hire the Senior Management have been threatening us with since June2020. 89% of ballot returns voted in favour of industrial action. That is around 5,000 engineers. The company is leading people to believe that over 80% of its employees have already signed up to its new conditions so there is nothing wrong with them. The details they have not included is that the ones who have are Office staff and Contract employees on completely different contracts then the field staff. A good majority of these are receiving small improvements and only the long-term employees that are the minority are losing out. What makes this vote unique is that we are not asking for anything extra from the company. All we want is for them to remove S188 Fire and Re Hire and continue negotiations with the Union. The company have point blankly said they will not engage in any further talks and the clock is ticking until a legally approved final date is issued. So far it has been moved from January 2021 and we believe they will be issuing our new contract to sign on the 31st March2021 with two options. Sign the contract or leave the business. No redundancy as the role is and has been understaffed for years. A huge number of these engineers have only ever worked as an engineer for BG since leaving school and have always envisaged it to be a job for life. Two years ago, the company managed to get through a change to our Final salary pension seeing it cut in half moving forward. Yes, it was a good pension in today’s market, but this was one of the major factors in people staying with the company as it had already been removed to new entrants years ago. I believe they got the numbers required in the vote on this due to a £8k one of payment before tax and NI. Personally, it has reduced my pension by around £11k a year so not great. Unfortunately, many had already become disillusioned with the way the company was going and could not foresee staying until retirement. Senior Management must have seen this as a huge win and I believe this started the wheels in motion for what we are being faced with today, after working through the biggest pandemic in centuries, constantly entering and working in people’s houses and even ones who had tested positive. As a leaked clip recently shows a Senior manager is in tears early on in this pandemic because of what the company is asking us to do for its customers. This has been followed by another leaked clip of various senior managers gloating over the fact that the pandemic and recent events in America have managed to keep the strike almost completely out of the mainstream media. Just Before Christmas 2020 they constantly contacted us which some have seen as bullying and intimidation to pre sign a copy of intent to sign the contract in February. For this you got a sweetener or as they called it a transition payment of either £1k or £2k depending what part of field services you worked in. Also enhanced benefits of extra holiday that was being taken away under the new terms and enhanced bonus scheme that has not even been trailed yet to show if fit for purpose. Those receiving London Weighting or those set to lose it under the new agreement also got this for a few extra years, for some up to £5k. I will now try and summarise the changes I have managed to understand under the new contract for a service and repair engineer. I am still yet to find a single positive for the employee. 1. The average engineer will be losing 4 days annual leave and around 10 rest days. 2. Those who receive London weighting (up to £5.2k) will either loose it completely or see it dramatically reduced. 3. We have been told we earn above market average for our role so will receive no pay rise for a minimum of 3 years guaranteed and could be between 5-10 years without a rise. 4. Our 37-hour week will increase to 40 hours, you will not see an increase in your base pay for these hours so will be effectively taking a pay cut as your hourly rate will reduce. The companies new bonus scheme (CTAP) could if you exceed targets pay for these hours. 5. CTAP the new bonus scheme has not been trailed or tested to see if it is fit for purpose. 6. The sharesave scheme will no longer be available. 7. Being forced to pay for private health insurance otherwise you will only receive statutory sick pay. Also 6 months full and 6 months half pay will change to 3 months at 100% and 9 months at 66% 8. Core hours will change Currently Summer Monday to Friday from 8am to 7pm. Winter Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm. Saturday 8am to 6pm and Sunday 8am to 5pm. All days will be 7am to 9pm. 9. No caps on weekend working, Sundays are currently 1 in 6 max. 10. No weekend payment currently around £26 Saturday and £40 Sunday. Depending on roster frequency a loss of just over £1k 11. Start time, at present need to be at collection point or on patch en route to 1st job. New contract you will need to be on your 1stjob at start time and should be within 30mins from home. So technically 30 mins of unpaid hours. You will be told by the system when to collect your parts and allocated the travel time for this. 12. Overtime rates will all be at 1.33% of hourly rate. Currently from 1.25 upto 200% 13. EA (Emergency call out throughout the evening and night) is the biggest hit as going from 200% to 1.33%. 14. Will now be rostered to work on bank holidays and apart from Christmas, Boxing day and NYD will attract no extra payments. 15. Current 6 monthly roster will change to 6 weeks rolling roster making planning your outside time a lot harder. Also, any holiday booked outside the 6-week window will be at 40 hours regardless of what that future shift time will be. 16. Loss of 28/45 hour summer and winter shifts replaced with 32/44 min and max depending on workloads and not summer and winter. 17. Our managers will remain on a 37-hour week and these extra hours will I assume only be covered by a duty manager if they decide to answer the phone. Good luck at 7am and up to 9pm 18. Loss of 3-day weeks in summer when work loads are low. Minimum will be a 4-day week. 19. Work systems are old, and the company have stated that these needs updating to accommodate todays demands. New contract relies on these but no commitment or time scales as to when these will be updated. 20. If an engineer’s performance is below the required new untested target, then a new untested performance management will be used and could result in dismissal within 3 months. 21. Overtime will only be paid once your CTAP balance is positive so could be doing OT just to balance the books. 22. No confirmed details to say if consolidating London weighting will affect pension cap. 23. You will only receive time credits whilst working or if waiting for a job. So, if you have 20mins left on shift and do not want a job then you loose 20mins from CTAP. Also, if you request a job in this time anything could come down and you will be forced to take it and work OT or loose the wait time. 24. QDOS will be no longer so no more payments for selling products and upgrades. You will be allocated a set time into CTAP for this. 25. No commitment to stop contractors picking the best jobs and travel plans. All the company have committed to is looking at this later. Means they get better pay and we lose out n CTAP. 26. Job Recall time currently at 10 days will change to 28 days even if it unrelated. 27. No travel time will be credited if you need to pick up parts from another engineer. So, you will be penalised for doing the right thing for our customer. 28. No more quarterly bonus. 29. Rest day working will only be paid if you have a positive balance in CTAP 30. Business have agreed some long duration time takes a lot longer than the time allocated. Again, no change of this and hopefully something they will look at later. 31. All Training roles have gone and manager/CDMs will coach engineers even though many have been off the tools for ages. 32. If you log a lead and that goes ahead you will still get a recall if we need to go back within 28days. Even if the installer is at fault and not the engineer. 33. CTAP is not in your Terms and Conditions so no collective agreement for the future of this. 34. Some current work tasks will not be left to an engineer’s judgement rather than credit the relevant time to these and protect safety. 35. No longer be able to carry over or sell holiday entitlement. 36. April 2019 the company made a commitment in the pay agreement to 400 new apprentices by 2023, only 48 so far to date. Half the time gone and only 10% of this has been fulfilled.

1 note · View note

mystrade-reading-club · 5 years ago

Text

Service top Greg - fic recs request

The club’s next theme is Service Top!Greg. I made a list of all the Mystrade top!Greg fics I could find on AO3 but I am sure there are more that I missed, so your recommendations are greatly appreciated. (Also, I am not too clear on the difference between top and service top :))

Top!Greg list (as of 7 Jan 2020)

Top Greg Lestrade

1. Quite a Good Morning by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 562

Greg wakes up Mycroft in the best way

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/19965565)

2. Oh God! What am I doing? by MundaneTony, E, 649

Greg is Horny!

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/17259254)

3. In the Backseat by janto321 (FaceofMer) , E, 655

Greg and Mycroft don't want to wait until they get home.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/15853770)

4. The General's Conquest by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 665

It's what's waiting in Rome that's Greg's greatest conquest.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/17963009) Part 1 of When in Rome

5. Missed You Too by janto321 (FaceofMer), E 681

Greg's been off on holiday for a few weeks. Mycroft's very happy to see him.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/9652334)

6. Evening Temptation by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 767

Greg Lestrade stood in the doorway, looking like temptation incarnate

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/15780339)

7. Unhurried by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 840

Mycroft is always glad to come home in the small hours to find Greg in his bed.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/5173556)

8. Tied Down by janto321 (FaceofMer)

Greg gives Mycroft what he needs

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381640)

9. In a Roman Garden by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 993

Consul Mycroft and General Greg in, well, a Roman garden

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/19859977) Part 2 of When in Rome

10. Rest Well by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1003

Greg is there for Mycroft when he gets home after a long day

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/22057558)

11. Over the Edge by englandwouldfalljohn, E, 1069

Greg turns up at Mycroft's office with only one act in mind: taking his boyfriend over someone else's desk.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/13163760)

12. Sorted by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1113

After the events of A Study in PInk, you didn't think Mycroft and Greg went to separate homes, did you?

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/6004363)

13. Through the Glass by janto321 (FaceofMer), E 1150

Mycroft through the eyes of his lover. Or, office sex in front of the mirror.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/1136692)

14. Not Necessarily 50/50 by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1173

To Mycroft's surprise, Greg has never been with a man.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/14206509)

15. Meeting in a Roman Bath by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1196

Consul Mycroft meets General Greg for the first time

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/21749713) Part 3 of When in Rome

16. Don't Try to Wake by MerHums, E, 1273

Greg is going to fulfill one of Mycroft's deepest desires. Such a shame he won't be awake to experience it. Although...that is the point

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/4278642)

17. What's Warranted? by Lavender_and_Vanilla, E, 1285

When Greg's weekend is interrupted by work, Mycroft is not above resorting to sneaky tactics to bring Greg home.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/18464506)

18. Sweetheart by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1312

Mycroft realizes this isn't just sex, this is making love.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903369)

19. Distraction by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1320

Greg distracts Mycroft after a long few days work.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/12127011)

20. Roll in the Hay by janto321 (FaceofMer), E 1367

Mycroft is intrigued by the new stableboy

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/15205487)

21. A Deep Shag by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1372

Of course Greg and Mycroft's first time was on the rug

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/11888520)

22. Student Housing by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1385

Mycroft got drunk and broke into the wrong house. Turned out to be the best thing he could have done.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/13553787)

23. In the Light of Day by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1431

Mycroft never wanted anyone to see him in the light. As always, Greg Lestrade is just what he needs.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/14289897)

24. Not Always a Copper by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1510

It started off as a quiet evening. Then Mycroft sees Greg's bad boy side and things get more interesting.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/14046093)

25. A Little of Your Time by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1671

A first kiss becomes something more

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/19719022)

26. Improving Greg's Day by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 1923

Well, this is one way to make Greg's day better...

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/17318294)

27. Inquisition by sherlockian4evr, M, 1934

For the prompt: I have this idea of Mycroft and Lestrade role playing that Mycroft is a suspect and Lestrade questions him. With amorous consequences. "And believe me, if you don't confess, I shall come down on you hard."

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/4541826)

28. Clear My Thursday by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 2271

Mycroft called Lestrade in for a meeting. He certainly never expected this.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/11377938)

29. A Minor Kidnapping by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 2332

A small kidnapping leads to Greg and Mycroft dating.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/16752829)

30. Sod the Scotch by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 2334

Now that Greg's divorce is final, he figures it's time to go to his new flat and drink a bottle of scotch. Alone. Mycroft, however, has other plans.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/5288483)

31. Of Trees and Logs and Terrible Innuendo by TheArtStudentYouHate, E 2412

One of Mycroft's trees was struck by lightning two days ago... which means that Greg Lestrade comes over to help him with all of that heavy wood.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/19420687)

32. New Employers by WillowLong, E, 2422

Basically Mycroft needs a new assistant and he thinks Lestrade can fill the position.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/954639)

33. Mad Enough to Stay by MerHums, E, 3370

When Mycroft ruined their anniversary plans, he didn't expect the night to end up this way.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/6276451)

34. Nothing sweeter than you by PinkGloom, E, 3578

Mycroft visits Greg at his bakery late at night on Valentine's Day for some sexy times. A smutty sequel to "Special kind of filling"

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/1445353)

35. Not Strictly Business by janto321 (FaceofMer), E, 4578

When Greg agreed to service Mycroft's heats, it was strictly a business transaction. As those heats come to an end, he realizes he wants something more.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/4458590/chapters/10130702)

36. Christmas Eve Drinkies by Popcornjones, E, 5000

"Lestrade had forgotten how different it was, kissing a man. The rough intensity, the raw strength of his partner, pushing harder, overpowering and being overpowered — all juxtaposed with astonishing gentleness, the feeling of being cared for, not just having to take care… Lestrade wondered why he’d given it up."

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/16838437)

37. I Wish You Could See Yourself by neversolace, E, 5001

Mycroft Holmes and Greg Lestrade meet up for one of their 'Sherlock' dinners, but this time there's a twist.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/18980653)

38. Intervention by MerKat, E, 5473

The possessive boyfriend was clearly attempting to force himself on his partner, and Mycroft found himself walking across the opera house’s lobby before he realised it.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/2073438)

39. R and R by beltainefaerie, E, 5943

An accident with rope leads Mycroft, and Greg, to unexpected happiness.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/22004515)

40. Once and Again by MerKat, E, 8950

What better thing than a guitar to bring two people together not once, but twice.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/2379203)

41. Stronger Together by MerKat, E, 8979

Greg's body, and his shields, are injured in the first of a series of bombings that has NSY and Mycroft, his bonded Sentinel, scrambling for answers. Unfortunately, the constant strain of their separation during the investigation might be more than their bond can handle.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/2247609/chapters/4932480)

42. Not As Strong by jadztone, E, 11601

After the Sherrinford ordeal, Sherlock asks Greg to look after Mycroft. Greg needs no further urging, he's wanted to befriend Mycroft for years...and he really does try to be content with just that. Then he discovers Lady Smallwood's card and it initiates a discussion about romantic relationships.

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/20378629/chapters/48330457)

43. A Willing Prize by MerHums, E, 14760

When Mycroft and Sherlock are torn away from their home by pirates, Mycroft is willing to do anything to protect his brother. But when they arrive at the hidden cove, things aren't a dire as they seem. Will Mycroft find a home here, despite the secrets from the past that have come to haunt them? And can Greg overcome his own ghosts, and see what Mycroft truly wants?

(https://archiveofourown.org/works/4033798/chapters/9070876)

#mystrade #mystrade reading club #mystrade recs #service top greg

30 notes · View notes

hag-lad · 5 years ago

Text

Digging Deeper

Thank you to my radiant wonderful friend @alienfuckeronmain for sending me EXACTLY the type of self indulgent wind-down activity I wanted on this otherwise depressing weekend! If anyone else wants to answer FORTY-NINE QUESTIONS about themselves, I’m super nosy and will read it all! @fight-the-seether @ptolemyofchaos @butchwizard @metalbutch @nyndelion @comrade-ziltoid @leatherdear @kristalknobb Enjoy, friends!

1. Do you prefer writing with a black pen or blue pen? I prefer black, but I always feel like I write neater in blue??

2. Would you prefer to live in the country or city? The city, but only if it has breathable air, green infrastructure, and decent public transit. So like... definitely no city in America lmao

3. If you could learn a new skill what would it be? The ability to quickly become fluent in another language! I’ve been struggling with Spanish for literal YEARS and it’s honestly pathetic. My brain is so stuck on English.

4. Do you drink your tea/coffee with sugar? Look pal. If I wanna drink sugar, I’m gonna have a soda, not herb water or bean juice.

5. What was your favorite book as a child? I was OBSESSED with The Wish List, by Eoin Colfer (of Artemis Fowl fame). I remember being so fascinated by how dark it was?? It’s an afterlife adventure, where the main character has to escape purgatory by atoning for her crimes of robbery and fraud and whatever. I had a crush on her, so basically this book made me want to pursue a life of crime, even though it explicitly condemns crime and depicts Hell as a very real and horrible place. I was in like fourth grade and was super morbidly curious about Hell and the possibility of going there! Lol

6. Do you prefer baths or showers? Baths... but only when I’m not actually dirty going in. A bath is leisure, not hygiene.

7. If you could be a mythical creature, which one would you be? 100% fae! I would build my dwelling within a sidhe mound, steal shiny things in the middle of the night, make bastardly little contracts for no reason, and cause harmless mayhem and mischief because mortals really are fools (go off, robin goodfellow!) Also I love mushroom circles and dancing in the moonlight.

8. Paper or electronic books? Paper all the way! I read much more content electronically, but it’s usually in the short story or article format. Books are much better in print, I think.

9. What is your favorite item of clothing? Probably my rust-brown overalls.

10. Do you like your name or would you like to change it? I’ve always hated my name but no alternative has ever stuck, unfortunately. My name is Amy, and I don’t think it fits at all. If I knew I’d never have to correct anyone on it, I’d probably just change it to Amelia?

11. Who is a mentor to you? My little brother! He’s this genius musician, and he has taught me so much about song structure, polyrhythms, guitar technique, production tricks, all kinds of trivia that really deepen my appreciation for music and the LABOR that goes into it.

12. Would you like to be famous and if so, what for? No, never, not for anything. I cherish my anonimity so much, I don’t even put searchable tags on this blog cuz I get an adrenaline spike from anxiety if too many people interact with me. I also just think fame is a fucking hideous construct. I don’t think it’s even slightly cool or desirable.

13. Are you a restless sleeper? No, I’m a fucking log. I can easily sleep for 12 hours straight. Thanks, depression!

14. Do you consider yourself a romantic person? No, actually. I’m very much in love, and it brings me lots of joy to do nice things with and for my partner! But romance feels very difficult for me to connect with. I’m super domestic, like, I love the idea of marriage but not necessarily a wedding, or a moonstruck romance or whatever. Those dramatic gestures feel very awkward for me.

15. Which element best represents you? EARTH. Specifically, like... dirt, or soil.

16. Who do you want to be closer to? I want to be geographically closer to my family. We’re thick as thieves, but we all live like 50 miles apart from each other. I miss my brothers and my parents so much, I feel so incomplete and depressed without them to hang out with, especially since quarantine.

17. Do you miss someone at the moment? See above! Lol

18. Tell us about an early childhood memory. When my little brother was a baby, he had this grey car seat with a folding mechanism which held his legs in place. It made a very satisfying clicking sound when the mechanism moved, AND when it was fully unfolded, it looked a lot like a Klingon battle cruiser. (Or so my five year old brain thought.) So! My older brother and I would take this seat out of the car CONSTANTLY so that we could unfold it and “sing” the Klingon theme music from Star Trek: The Motion Picture while we scooched our car seat battle cruiser across the living room floor, pretending to shoot phasers into the TV or the dining table or whatever else got in our way.

19. What is the strangest thing you have eaten? Gifilte fish, maybe?

20. What are you most thankful for? My family, including my wonderful partner and all the cats in our lives!

21. Do you like spicy food? Yes! But my tolerance for extreme spice decreases every year, unfortunately. So I can’t handle as much heat as I used to, but I do enjoy a good kick.

22. Have you ever met someone famous? Lmaooo I made the regretful decision to PAY FOR a meet&greet with Fall Out Boy in like 2006, which was so fucking awkward and painful, I vowed to never approach that level of lame again.

23. Do you keep a diary or a journal? TONS! I’m an obsessive record keeper. Some years I journal more than others, and I’ve found that it is super difficult to keep up with it while working full time. But it’s absolutely one of my favorite hobbies.

24. Do you prefer to use a pen or pencil? Pen for writing. Pencil for drawing, and math.

25. What is your star sign? Virgo sun, Aquarius moon, Scorpio rising 🙃

26. Do you like your cereal soggy or crunchy? Crunchy! A shallow bath in that milk is key.

27. What would you want your legacy to be? My artwork. I go through these aesthetic phases every year that I become super obsessed with/ focused on, and I’ve always meant to catalogue them in annual art journals, but I’ve NEVER FINISHED ONE! They always get pushed aside by the need to work, and I hate that so much. If I could just take a year off work and backfill all of my missed concepts into completed books, I would be so happy. But I literally have NO WAY to pay for that, absolutely none. I fucking hate capitalism.

28. Do you like reading, what was the last book you read? I love to read, but finishing a whole book has been A STRUGGLE lately! Right now I’m chipping away at Tending Brigid’s Flame, which is a quaint lil devotional for the Celtic fire goddess. Very new agey, like cheesy Wiccan vibes. I love that shit!

29. How do you show someone you love them? Quality time!

30. Do you like ice in your drinks? Only if I have a straw. Ice touching my teeth kinda makes me wince.

31. What are you afraid of? Incompetance, doing a bad job, letting someone down, taking up too much space, being a nussiance, etc

32. What is your favourite scent? Incense! Especially cinnamon, dragon’s blood, and amber.

33. Do you address older people by their name or surname? I always call people, regardless of age, by the name they ask me to use. Sometimes it’s a surname or title, usually it’s a first name. I’ll ask their preference if I’m unsure. But I definitely don’t default toward a surname, that’s weird.

34. If money was not a factor, how would you live your life? COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY!!!!!! The need for money rules literally every single hour of my entire life, and I hate it so much. I’m naturally nocturnal, but my job requires me to get up super early and sit in a car for 11 hours a day. I wake up at 5am, come home front work at 5pm, spend an hour or two trying to unwind, then go to bed and do it all over again. I hate my life! Really! I never see the stars, I never exercise, I am completely exhausted and burnt out all the time, and I barely get any quality time with my partner. If money were no object, I would sleep til noon or 1, make art and hike all day, ride my bike and stargaze all night, stay up til 4am reading and playing with my cats, and sleep like a baby. My partner and I would cook dinner for each other and watch Star Trek and collaborate on art projects and I would be so happy.

35. Do you prefer swimming in pools or the ocean? Here’s my hierarchy: Private pool > ocean > public pool

36. What would you do if you found £50 on the ground? I’d look around to see if anyone obviously dropped it and try to give it back. If I couldn’t find anyone, I’d exchange it for dollars and deposit that shit into my account!

37. Have you ever seen a shooting star? Of course!! Hundreds!

38. What is the one thing you would want to teach your children? America is evil and needs to be destroyed.

39. If you had to have a tattoo, what would it be and where would you get it? Lmao this is so cute. If you HAD TO HAVE a tattoo! I really wanna finish my damn sleeves, they’re literally 9 years in the making and barely half finished. But I’d also love more art on my legs! I DESPERATELY want Ziltoid in a lacy valentine heart on my thigh.

40. What can you hear now? Our fish tank water bubbling and my fan on full blast.

41. Where do you feel the safest? Home alone, doors locked, windows covered, lights low. I absolutely LOVE to not be seen or perceived in any way.

42. What is the one thing you want to overcome/conquer? My fear of discomfort

43. If you could time travel to another era, which one would you choose? I feel like I’d want to be a teen in the 80’s and an adult in the 90’s. Does time travel work that way?

44. What is your most used emoji? 😭 or 😎

45. Describe yourself using one word. Defeated

46. What do you regret the most? Convincing myself that math was too hard or boring (or something?) when I was in middle school. I feel like I’m actually a pretty intelligent person who could’ve totally overcome that difficulty and gone on to understand all kinds of patterns and concepts which have eluded me to this day! It’s so frustrating to try and fight that formative self-concept, which now comes naturally but ultimately sabotages me. 💀

47. Last movie you saw? I made my partner watch Troop Beverly Hills, one of my childhood faves. It’s so fun! I love chick flicks so much.

48. Last tv show you watched? Deep Space Nine. Getting through the first season has been harder than expected. It’s actually my favorite Star Trek show?? (Orrrr maybe that’s TNG, ahh! It’s so hard to choose!) But season one is so baffling and awful! Why is there so much space capitalism??! And racism? And war? And drinking alcoholic beverages? #notmystartrek

49. Invent a word and its meaning. I used to call a single strand of curly hair a “curly quink” when I was a child. Therefore, a “quink” is a section of hair, usually a particularly cute or iconic one.

3 notes · View notes

let-it-raines · 5 years ago

Note

BotB prompt: After the last chapter, I’m definitely going to need a flashback to when Emma told Killian that she was pregnant. Please and thank you!!

@onceuponaprincessworld: After that prompt in botb I would love to see how Killian has to travel for work to promote a movie and Emma finds out that she is pregnant or already know it and how they deal with the distance in that plan. Thank you!

It’s funny because before I got your prompt @onceuponaprincessworld I already had this prompt written this way, so great minds must think alike😘

AO3: Beginning | Current

-/-

When Emma wakes up, her neck aches, some of the muscles very obviously pulled, and tentatively, she stretches out a bit, lifting her head off of her pillow and reaching over to her left to feel the cold sheets next to her. It’s a habit, one that she isn’t really fond of, but she does it nearly every morning. It’s almost like she’s forgotten that Killian isn’t home, forgotten that he’s not going to be next to her when she wakes up in the mornings. For at least those first fifteen seconds of waking, the light coming back to her eyes, she thinks that she’s going to see the rise and fall of his chest, the soft smile that graces his lips when he sleeps, the long, dark lashes landing against his cheeks.

But he’s not there.

And she knows she’s being dramatic. She really does. Going into this relationship, she never quite knew what to expect, but once she was in, she was all in. And if being in meant having to be separated from her husband so that he could be happy with his career, she was fine with that. She is fine with that.

It doesn’t mean she doesn’t miss Killian.

He’s her best friend, the person she trusts most in life, and he’s currently in Prague filming. Prague is decidedly not Santa Monica, and she wishes it was.

Two more weeks.

She can wait two more weeks until he’s home for a long, long time, and then she is not letting him out of her sight for, like, a month. She has work. He has obligations. They have friends and family. That’s never going to happen, but she can at least have him all to herself for a weekend. They deserve that.

For all the talking and video chatting they can do, there’s nothing quite like being able to feel the strength and warmth of his arms around her before she goes to bed or in the evenings when they’re cooking dinner and Killian tries to distract her by running his lips across her jaw and coaxing her out of making whatever it is that she’s making…as if she’s the one who makes dinner most often when that’s usually Killian.

So two more weeks.

They can do two more weeks.

After running her hand over the sheets and the comforter one more time, she rolls over to her nightstand to unplug her phone, turning the brightness down, and pressing her thumb down to open up her notifications.

Ruby: What was the nail polish that I let you borrow? I can’t remember the name, and Dorothy wants to use it.

Mary Margaret: Do you have any time off this month? I was thinking about the boys and I coming to visit?

David: lol.

She fires off responses to all of them except for David’s text, not having anything else to add to him laughing at a joke about detectives that she sent him last night while she was wide awake and he was fast asleep. Half of the people she talks to are in different time zones, and it can get the tiniest bit confusing.

Seriously. Killian is nine hours ahead of her.

Killian: Good morning, darling. I hope you slept well. I have a pretty normal filming schedule today, so I’ll call you before I go to bed, yeah? I love you.

Emma: I love you too. I hope you’re having a good day!

Turning some music on her phone and connecting it to the speakers installed throughout the house, she slowly climbs out of bed, her head a bit groggy this morning, and tries to make quick work of taking a shower. But she stays under the warm spray for much longer than she should, letting the water work out the aches in her shoulders and the still tense pinch in her neck. Damn, did she sleep on it wrong. Obviously her bed is not her friend lately, and that’s her favorite place in the world.

Talk about betrayal.

Eventually she turns the water off and gets out of the shower, moving the soft towel over her legs and her body before grabbing another one and wrapping her hair on top of her head. She has absolutely no idea where her robe is, probably in the laundry room somewhere, so she grabs Killian’s off of his hook and wraps it around her, tying it at the waist to combat some of the chill from the air conditioning blowing on full blast. She doesn’t even want to think about their power bill for this month, but honestly, it’s worth it for how warm it’s been this summer.

Seriously. It’s been miserably hot. She misses winter, which is something she never would have said living in Boston.

(She misses Boston too, but this move was the right decision. She doesn’t regret it.)

After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she grabs her phone and walks downstairs, opening the curtains and blinds as she goes to let in some natural light, the sound of the ocean coming through the open back doors that lead out to the deck. She’s not really feeling like eating, but she knows that she needs to. She’ll forget otherwise, and then when she goes to Liam and Elsa’s for dinner tonight, she’ll go through their entire pantry, which is much less acceptable to do than gorging out on her own food. But nothing seems good, the cereal and bagels unappealing, the eggs and anything she has to cook even more so, and the only thing that she will even consider is a grapefruit…which may or may not be rotting.

It’s fine. She’ll go grocery shopping tomorrow…and also pick up all of the clothes and glasses that she has scattered throughout the house. It’s not that messy, something she’s worked on since messes drive Killian crazy, but if she knows her husband at all, he’ll come home, take her to bed, and then wake up to go and clean the house. So obviously she needs to clean up a little bit more, maybe break out a duster.

Dusting is the worst.

This view of the beach, though, is the best.

She and Killian have found that most of their time since they moved back (well, since Killian moved back and she moved for the first time) has been spent out on the covered deck or in their bedroom with the doors leading out to the balcony wide open. The sound of the ocean is a background noise she always wants, so she turns off the music on her phone, the guitars fading from the speakers, and sits on the cushioned swing, slightly swaying back and forth while she sips on her water and watches the shoreline. Their neighbor has her dog running through the water, the golden retriever leaping into the air to catch its toy, and Emma wonders if they should get a pet. She’s not sure how that would work during the times when they’re both gone, but it’d probably be nice to have a dog or a cat around when it’s just her, at least so there’s more noise than the air conditioning and the televisions that she leaves on at night.

But then again, Killian is coming home soon and she’ll have no need to replace him with a cat.

Wait. That sounds weird. She’s not replacing him with a cat, though they probably have the same amount of hair.

Whatever. She’ll think about it and bring it up with Killian sometime soon.

Her phone dings next to her, and she looks down expecting a text back from Killian or Mary Margaret only to see a notification that makes her stop breathing.

Seriously. Her breath hitches, her stomach rolls, and her mind starts running a marathon when she hasn’t gotten the chance to even lace up her sneakers.

You haven’t tracked your period lately! Make sure to update all information so we can monitor your cycles as accurately as possible.

Holy shit.

Holy freaking shit.

(Why did she just censor herself in the middle of a curse?)

While her heart decides to drop to her stomach and beat at what has to be an unhealthy amount of beats per minute, she clumsily attempts to unlock her phone, her thumb not being recognized so that she has to type in her wedding date for her screen to open up to her period tracker app. Her mind is so frazzled that nothing is really clear to her, not even the screen in front of her, and it’s because she’s trying to remember the last time she had her period. Her app says she hasn’t logged it since May, which means she didn’t do that in June or when her period was supposed to start two days ago.

And that’s fine. It really is. Two days is nothing. Two days is barely anything. And so what that she didn’t track anything last month. It’s an app. She forgot. Plus, she very well could have had her period last month without typing it into her phone. That’s possible. Not everything has to be logged into her phone to be real.

But did she have her period?

She honestly can’t remember. And it’s not like she can ask Killian. He hasn’t been here. He’s been thousands of miles away.

Shit.

Killian totally would have noticed, and he definitely can’t help her figure this out. Because she definitely can’t tell Killian that she’s trying to figure out if she missed her period…which means she’s trying to figure out if she’s –

Pregnant.

Well, there’s a word that she didn’t think she’d be thinking for a solid few months, maybe a year. Maybe even two.

Woah.

It’s not that they haven’t talked about it. They have. Killian is very big on talking things out even when she isn’t quite ready. They’ve talked about kids before, talked about the fact that they both want one, maybe two if the first one doesn’t kill them, but then back in March they’d been sitting in bed sharing a bag of chips while watching Stranger Things and Killian brought it up. It made sense. It really did. It’d been a gradually growing conversation, the lead up building, but when her face was stuffed with several salt and vinegar chips, she wasn’t really expecting to have to talk about the reality of what it would be like to have a baby and know that there’s the possibility of her having to raise the baby by herself if Killian is away. And then also how that can impact their future, impact their kid’s future. She knows that Killian wants to work less, or work closer to home more frequently, once they start their family, and that’s something they were talking about.

They were talking about trying when he got home.

It might be a little late for that.

Or early, really. She could be ahead of the game.

When in the world did she miss a pill?

Taking a deep breath, she tries to turn her mind off but can’t. She really is ahead of herself. She has no idea if she’s even pregnant yet, and she needs to take a test. But she most definitely does not want to take a test by herself, does not want to be sitting in the bathroom all alone when she finds out if her jeans aren’t about to fit in a few months (because that’s obviously the most important thing) and have no one know this secret but her, so she needs to shut this thought process down until Killian gets home.

Two weeks.

She can do two weeks.

By the time two o’clock rolls around, she’s spent the entire morning deep cleaning the house, deciding to take her worries and frustrations out on the things she needs to do, and she almost completely forgets that she could have an entire human being inside of her uterus.

(She’s a liar. She definitely doesn’t come anywhere near to forgetting.)

But then her phone rings, Killian’s face popping up on the screen from his contact, and she nearly vomits with nerves over the fact that she’s about to not tell him the reason she’s having a meltdown.

The vomiting thing is probably a sign, which is really a horrible symptom, and there should definitely be some kind of solution to that.

“Hello, beautiful,” Killian sighs, and she can practically feel his smile on the other end of the line, thousands of miles away in a hotel bed that’s not theirs. “How’s your Saturday?”

“It’s good.” That may be a lie. That may be the truth. She has no idea. “I slept in, cleaned a bit. I’m going to go to your brother’s for dinner later.”

“Emma Jones, you cleaned?” he gasps, and she rolls her eyes imagining him sitting shirtless in his room with his hand dramatically thrown over his heart. “Are you dying? Is there something you need to tell me?”

“No,” she blurts out, definitely too quickly before she scrambles to cover that up, “I just knew that if I didn’t clean now, I’d never have it up to your standards by the time you got home.”

“Love, all I care about when I get home is the fact that you’re going to be there.”

“Charmer.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“You’re definitely going to care about how clean the house is.”

“Eh.”

“Babe.”

“Love of my life.”

“Oh my God,” she groans, tossing the wipe she was cleaning the bookshelves with in the bin and walking toward the couch, falling back against the cushions and turning the phone on speaker before placing it on her chest, “you can’t just say things like that.”

“I can’t say the truth?”

“Not when you know you’re going to get me all flustered with it.”

“To be fair, love, you already seemed pretty flustered. You are cleaning, after all.”

“Hey, again. I clean.”

“Debatable.”

“KJ, I can change the locks on the house.”

“There’s always the windows. Hell, I’ll climb the damn balcony.”

She laughs despite herself and reaches down to tug at the robe she’s still wearing, pulling on the string before running her hand over her stomach, almost unconsciously. The words are on the tip of her tongue ready to be spilled, but she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know if she’s right, if the words are true, but the one thing that she does know is that if she tells Killian she thinks she’s pregnant now, he won’t stop worrying about her until his feet step inside of this house.

And there’s still the fact that she doesn’t want to take the test alone.

Pushing it all aside. That’s what she’s going to do.

“You’ll climb the balcony to get to me?” she asks instead, going along with the conversation.

“I’ll climb the balcony to get to my bed. If you happen to be in it, so be it.”

“There you go charming me again.”

“I try.”

She and Killian talk until his words are a little slurred, sleep calling him more than she is, so she tells him goodbye and that she loves him, chanting that two more weeks mantra to him before she, too, falls asleep, waking hours later with pillow marks on her face and her phone flashing five seventeen, a little under an hour until she’s supposed to be at Liam’s.

She hasn’t even put on underwear yet. That’s probably something she should do. They’re family, but there are some things that family does not need to see. Her vagina is one of those.

Her thoughts get weirder every day.

Thirty minutes later she’s dressed in a pair of athletic shorts and a t-shirt, her hair underneath a baseball hat, and letting herself into Elsa’s house after knocking on the door, which is really only a courtesy since Liam tends to barge into their house…still. After one too many times walking in on she and Killian, she really figured he’d learn to wait for them to answer the door.

“Hey,” Elsa calls over her shoulder when Emma walks into the kitchen, “how are you?”

“Um, good,” she mumbles, sitting down at a barstool and tapping her fingers against the countertop, wishing she had something to settle her stomach and all of the unease that she’s going through. Her mind will not calm down, and she really needs to calm down. “How are you?”

“Great. It’s so hot, isn’t it? Liam is outside on the playset with Aiden, and they’re both going to be drenched when they come in. But Aiden insisted, you know?”

“Yeah.”

She taps her fingers again, thinking about Aiden and Liam and the bond that they have. If she and Killian have a son, will they have a bond like Aiden and Liam? Would it even matter if it was a boy? Killian would have a bond with a daughter too. So would she. But there’s something so cute about watching Liam with Aiden even if Aiden is the spitting image of Elsa.

Genetics and all that.

How would that work for her kid?

Her hypothetical kid.

“Emma?”

“Uh huh?”

“You want to stop playing an entire piano concert on my counter and tell me what’s going on in that head of yours?”

“There’s nothing,” she lies, her voice a squeak as she looks up at Elsa and smiles, hoping that it’s a normal smile. “I have nothing on my mind except for how good that pasta smells. And the bread. I love your garlic bread.”

Elsa raises a perfectly groomed brow and flicks her braid over her shoulder, leaning forward and propping her elbows up on the island. “Emma, you can talk to me. You know that, right? You’re kind of going through a lot right now, and you can’t pretend that you’re not. You stay with us too often for me to not know how hard Killian being away is for you.”

“I’m fine.”

Elsa nods her head up and down once, twice, three times before tilting it back to her cabinets. “Do you want something to drink? I bought this new wine that I – ”

“No, I’m good,” she blurts out, completely and totally ready to bury her face in this granite. “I’ve got to drive home, and I really don’t think I want anything to drink.”

“Mmm, okay. Do you want to go to lunch this week? I think there’s this really great sushi place downtown that just opened.”

“Sure. I lo – oh, um, can we get something other than sushi? I think I’m going to give up fish.”

“Why?”

“A new diet or whatever. I’ve gained a few pounds.”

Lie.

They’re all lies.

When did she turn into such a bad liar?

“Ah,” Elsa sighs, resting her chin in the palm of her hand, “I get it. I, too, gained weight when I was pregnant. Though, I don’t think it was when I was as early on as you. Maybe you’re having twins.”

Every word that she knows flees from her brain. Every single one. She’s not sure if it’s the thought of her having twins or if Elsa has caught her in her lies, but honestly, it’s mostly the fact that she was caught that quickly.

Damn.

Elsa really is some kind of magical being who can read she and Killian far too well. It’s creepy and wonderful and terrifying all at once.

And she could most definitely cry right now simply because she is feeling all kinds of overwhelmed.

Emma leans forward to rest her face in her hands on the countertop, the cool marble refreshing. “How did you know?” she mumbles into her skin. “I don’t even know for sure.”

“It was a guess, but the no to wine and no to sushi, two things that you love, were a pretty big clue. Plus, you’re acting like a strung-out maniac.” She feels Elsa’s hand on her back, and when she opens her eyes, she can see that she’s moved to the other side of the counter to sit on the barstool next to her. “Have you taken a test?”

“I just realized I’d missed my period today. And I may have missed last month’s too. But, like, I haven’t been nauseous or anything, so I didn’t think about it. I honestly figured it was stress related.”

Elsa nods her head up and down, a soft smile on her face as she continues to rub Emma’s back. “I have some tests upstairs – no, I am not pregnant, but I had a scare a few weeks ago and bought, like, every test in the CVS I went to. Why don’t you go take one, just so you have a bit more peace of mind about it? And then when Killian comes home, you’ll either have some really great news to share or you can tell him about the time that you peed on a stick in his brother’s house with absolutely no context.”

She huffs, unable to stop herself or the twisting feeling inside of her, before leaning over on the stool and hugging Elsa, wanting all of the comfort and support that she can get since the rest of her support system are scattered across the country.

And the world.

Elsa asks if Emma wants her to come with to take the test, but she says that it’s alright, that she’d kind of like to do this part alone if she can’t have Killian with her. Even opening the box is nerve-wracking, but the worst part is definitely the waiting two minutes to find out if she’s going to be a mom a little bit sooner than she was expecting.

The phrase what to expect when you’re expecting comes to mind, and she feels like that can’t even really encompass everything.

How in the world do people do this every day?

It’s like a mixture of excitement and terror, and the only other place she’s ever felt like this is a rollercoaster.

That’s actually a pretty good metaphor for having a baby.

And according to the positive sign on the test, she is having one.

Wow.

It’s a lot to take in, but over the next two weeks, she becomes more accustomed to the fact. It helps that she makes a doctor’s appointment, gets it confirmed, finds out that her due date is February fifteenth, and that she is definitely not having twins.

She’s been secretly worried about that ever since Elsa made the joke.

That would be…overwhelming.

Mostly, though, as much as she’s gotten used to the idea, gotten excited about the idea, all she’s wanted to do was share it with Killian. And she’s not about to tell him he’s going to be a dad without him being in the same place as her. This is too big of a thing for her not to be able to hug him afterwards.

But he’s in the taxi on the way to the house right now, and she could throw up out of excitement. And the morning sickness that finally hit her, but that’s not what she wants to think about right now.

She’s definitely wearing down a hole into their hardwood from all of her pacing.

Her phone dings with an alert that there’s movement at the gate to the house, and her stomach does this actual swooping thing that should not at all be possible. It very apparently is, though. And while she’s never been a woman to want to run into someone’s arms out of excitement, that’s changed ever since she met Killian. When they were dating and had been apart for awhile, getting to see his face, even if it was for a day, was the greatest day. Now that she’s living apart from her friends, when she gets to go to Boston to see them, she most definitely runs into Ruby’s arms to hug the living daylights out of her. The same with David and Mary Margaret and their kids. And now that Killian’s been gone for months, she pretty much feels like her legs are going to launch her over the fence instead of into his arms.

Who knew it was possible to miss someone this much?

She guesses she did.

Instead of waiting inside like a sane person, she tosses her phone down onto the couch, and quickly walks outside, not even bothering to put shoes on. Her throat closes for a moment when she sees him, her eyes trying to take him in and catalog all of the differences and similarities all at once as he unloads his bags from the back of the car.

“Hey, Jones,” she calls out, running down the steps as he turns around, his hair flipping with the movement.

“Emma,” he laughs, his smile practically taking up his entire face.

God, she missed that smile.

It’s all a blur as she runs forward, her body colliding with his as her arms wrap around his neck and his arms wrap around her shoulders, tugging her closer so that she’s fully pressed against him. He’s solid, just like always, and his heat overwhelms her as she smells the slightest bit of his cologne mixing in with that awful airplane smell that seems to happen whenever anyone so much as steps into an airport.

He’s home.

“I missed you, Swan,” he murmurs into her ear, rubbing his hand up and down her back as he starts trailing his lips along her jawline, electric sparks spreading across every nerve ending that she has, some of them probably twice.

“I missed you, KJ.” She pulls back to look at him, her hands moving up his neck to cup his cheeks, thumbs tracing over his scruff and his freckles and everything as she looks at the blue eyes that she loves so much but has only been able to see through a video screen. And then she presses up on her toes and kisses him, kisses him like a woman who hasn’t been able to kiss her husband in months, a woman starved of the love and compassion that she’s been without for far too long. It’s all like coming to that safe comfort of home, which is perfect since he’s back and everything is in its right place.

“Hey, man, I need you to get your bags so I can go,” the taxi driver calls out at them, the displeasure in his voice obvious, and she and Killian break apart with blush on both of their cheeks.

“Sorry about that,” Killian grumbles, very obviously not too sorry about it, before he turns around to grab his backpack out of the backseat, handing the driver some cash, and closing the trunk before he drives off. “I don’t think that man liked watching you make out with me, Swan.”

“What’s not to like about it?”

“Exactly,” he winks, grabbing her hips and pulling her closer so that he can softly glide his lips over hers, his tongue quickly licking into her mouth in a burst of heat and pleasure before he’s retreating. “Darling, will you grab the black bag? I have no idea how I managed to pack so much stuff.”

“Sounds like a plan, Stan.”

Killian reaches forward and slaps her ass, making her jump. “I missed that idiotic phrase.”

“As you should have.”

She picks up the black bag off the ground as Killian takes his others, the two of them carry them to the front door and placing them inside before Killian closes the front door and pushes her against it, her back hitting the wood as his hand snakes up underneath her shirt, warm flesh against her skin, and his lips start working at her neck, vibrations trembling down her spine.

“I have thought of you every day.” He punctuates each word with a kiss or a teasing of her skin with teeth, and she nearly melts right then and there at the deep rumble of his accent. “I’m not sure if I’m ever going to be able to do something like that again.”

“I love you,” she gasps out as his hand starts to fumble with the waistband of her leggings, yanking them down as heat curls between her thighs. But it’s then that she remembers that she has something kind of big to tell him. How could she possibly forget? “Wait, wait. Killian, wait.”

He pulls back, his head retreating into his neck as his brows raise and his eyes scan her face, typical Killian 101 trying to figure out what exactly is going on with her even as his hands still run across her stomach, itching to go beneath her leggings once more.

“What’s wrong, love?”

“Nothing, nothing,” she promises, swiping her thumb across the apple of his cheek as her stomach does that twisting thing again. She needs it to stop. “It’s just that, well, I’m pregnant.”

It’s not the smoothest way to tell her husband that they’re going to be parents, but when has she even been smooth and graceful and perfect with her words? Never. He blinks a few times, his lashes landing against his cheeks, and when his lips part, she expects some kind of word, but it’s really more of a…squawk? Is that the right word? She has no idea.

“KJ?”

He blinks once more before leaning forward to press his forehead against hers, his nose pressing into her cheek and his lips lightly brushing over hers as he speaks. “You’re pregnant? We’re having a baby?”

“I mean, technically I am the one having a baby, but you helped us get there.”

“Thank goodness I’m the father. I was unsure for a minute.”

“Shut up, you idiot,” she laughs, shoving at his chest to move him away only for him to pull her closer.

“I may be an idiot, but I’m the father of your baby. You can’t change that.”

“This is not how you were supposed to react.”

“How was I supposed to react?”

“I don’t know. With affection or something?”

“Me teasing you about the paternity of our baby isn’t affection?”

“Eh, maybe.”

“If it’s a boy, we should name it Stan.”

She barks out a laugh, her head falling backwards, and everything in her life rights itself. Killian is home, he’s teasing her, and he’s so unbelievably happy that her stomach finally settles.

This is perfect.

“I am not doing that.”

“I was kidding,” he teases, pressing his lips against hers once, twice, three times.

“Were you though?”

“Possibly.” He fumbles around under her shirt until he’s pulling his hand out and grabbing onto her left wrist, brushing his lips on her wrist dot in the way that she’s missed, the romantic fool. “I love you, and this is by far the best welcome home I’ve ever received.”

“I know. I’ll probably never be able to live up to it.”

“You can always try.”

“Eh, too much effort.”

Killian chuckles before kissing her wrist again, holding it to his lips as his eyes close and a soft smile forms on his face. “My love, I will always be happy to see you, both of you.”

-/-

@ultraluckycatnd @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @wellhellotragic @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @branlovesouat @dreadpirateemma @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @andiirivera @superchocovian @cs-forlife @qualitycoffeethings @notoriouscs @mariakov81 @jonirobinson64 @ultimiflos @idristardis @galaxyzxstark @thejollyroger-writer @lifeinahole27 @bmbbcs4evr

#cs fic #cs ff #captain swan fic #captain swan #betting on the bullseye

99 notes · View notes

eldritchsurveys · 5 years ago

Text

667.

1. If you found a baby turtle on the side of the road, would you pick it up and keep it? >> If I found a baby of any species on the side of the road, I’m not going to pick it up and keep it, I’m going to call the appropriate authorities and let them handle it. The fuck am I doing with a baby anything? 2. Did you and your mum ever have a big fight that caused you to move out? >> --- 3. Has the last person you kissed ever been to your house? >> --- 4. Have you had a good day today or was yesterday better? >> It was all right. At least the Sun was out a bit, and I managed to go out for once. Mostly I’m glad to be back in my bed now, lol. 5. Do you have any plans for the upcoming weekend? >> No.

6. How about you, do you have a bf/gf? >> Hm. 7. Could you date someone very attractive, but who thought they were better than everyone else? >> I don’t date, period, but I also wouldn’t hang out with someone who had a superiority complex. 8. So do you have a best friend? >> No. 9. What would you do if your best friend kissed the last person you kissed? >> --- 10. Do you dislike anyone? >> Not really. There are people I don’t really want to be around, of course, but I can’t think of anyone specific that I’m like “fuck that guy in particular” about except for people that have unapologetically hurt me (in which case it’s less “I dislike you” and more “I don’t even want to acknowledge your existence”). 11. Did you message your best friend today? >> --- 12. Do you think you will be in a relationship two months from now? >> I don’t see why not. 13. Do you always feel like you’re making mistakes? >> Yeah, because I have Trauma Brain. But I also know that I don’t make any more mistakes than the average person and most of my mistakes are easily fixed. 14. How do you feel about your hair right now? >> I’m going to need to buzz it again soon. 15. Does anybody have a tattoo with your name on it? >> Maybe someone has a tattoo of my name, because my name doesn’t just belong to me. But no one has a tattoo of my name that is actually about me. 16. Who did you last see shirtless? >> A couple of characters on Carnivale (before one of them got hanged with the word “HARLOT” carved into her forehead, of course. this is Carnivale after all). 17. How would you feel if you got the person you liked? >> --- 18. Do you think you can last in a relationship for six months without cheating? >> *sigh* 19. Do you like to make the first move? >> The first move to what? 20. Do you think you will ever be married? >> I am married. 21. Have you ever tried your hardest and then gotten disappointed in the end? >> Sure. 22. Is it possible to be single and happy? >> Duh? 23. Was the first person you talked to today male or female? >> The first person I spoke to was the bartender at Gardella’s, who is female. 24. Do you remember who you liked on New Year’s? >> --- 25. Are you a morning person or a night person? I’m barely a person. <-- mood 26. Could you go the rest of your life without drinking alcohol? >> Whether I “can” or not is irrelevant because I don’t fucking want to. 27. Have you ever felt like you weren’t good enough? >> Sure. 28. Is there anyone who likes you? >> --- 29. If the last person you kissed saw you kissing someone else, would they be mad? >> --- 30. Do you understand football? >> I understand American football. I don’t know anything about soccer football except the obvious bits. 31. What’s the first thing you heard this morning? >> I don’t know. 32. Who last called you beautiful? >> I don’t know. 33. Did you talk to someone until you fell asleep last night? >> No. 34. How many kids do you want when you get older? >> --- 35. Are you the type of person who has a new boyfriend/girlfriend every week? >> Of course not. 36. Ever been called a jerk/bitch? >> Yep. 37. Do you have feelings for anyone? >> Bold of you to assume I have feelings-- 38. If you fell pregnant to the last person you kissed, what would you think? >> Falling while pregnant is dangerous, oof-- 39. What’s your full name? >> *eldritch screeching* 40. Are you young or old? >> Depends on your perspective -- to a child I’m old, to a middle-aged person I’m young, etc. 41. What’s the gender? >> Oh, the gender outside is frightful... 42. How’s your heart been lately? >> You know. Beating and such. 43. Why aren’t you in bed? >> I am, though. 44. Did you do laundry today? >> No. 45. What kind of computer do you have? >> I have an MSI Leopard Pro and a Lenovo Ideapad. 46. Are there always other fish in the sea? >> Not if you overfish. 47. What can your tongue do? >> You know. Lick stuff. Form phonemes. Get chemical burns when I eat too many sour candies in a row. 48. What do you think your mum does when she goes out? >> --- 49. Do chickens have feelings? >> I don’t know anything about chicken neurology/psychology. 50. Do you think the body is the most beautiful thing that was ever made? >> No. 51. So how are you feeling today? >> Neutral. 52. Where is your sister right now? >> --- 53. Name five things you did today? >> Took a bus, drank at a bar, briefly logged into ESO, watched an episode of Carnivale, ate mac n’ cheese with bacon. 54. What kind of phone do you have? >> Moto g6. 55. What are you listening to? >> Nothing. 56. What do you smell like? >> A bit like my roll-on oil and a bit like my whipped shea butter. Mostly just like... clean skin or whatever. 57. What colour are your eyes? >> Dark brown. 58. Have you ever done a Chinese fire drill? >> No. 59. Do you know someone named Betsy? >> No. 60. What colour is your mum’s hair? >> --- 61. Do you have a dog? Breed? Name? >> No. 62. Do you remember singing any songs as a kid? >> I mean, yeah? 63. Are you married? >> Yes. 64. When was the last time you talked to one of your siblings? >> --- 65. Do you play an instrument? >> No. 66. Do you like fire? >> Sure, fire is nice. In moderation. 67. Are you allergic to anything? >> No. 68. Have you ever been to a spa? >> I’ve been to a nail spa because Sparrow works at one. I’ve also been to the Aveda spa that she did her training in years ago. 69. Do you miss someone? >> No. 70. Views on premarital sex? >> I have no views on it. I really can’t fathom having an opinion on whomst other people fuck and when. 71. What is a noise that you cannot stand? >> Face sounds. Any of them. Eating, breathing, sniffling, lip-licking, eugh. Stay away. (Sometimes I can hear myself blinking and I want to rip my eyelids off. It’s bad.) 72. Do you know how to do a cartwheel? >> Yeah. 73. What is the most you are willing to spend on a pair of sunglasses? >> Not much. 74. Does your mum vacuum early in the morning while you’re asleep? >> --- 75. Do you shower naked? >> Do I look like Tobias Funke to you? 76. Does wearing glasses really make people look smart? >> That’s not my interpretation. People with glasses just look like people with glasses. 77. Are you ADD or ADHD? >> No. 78. Do your band-aids have cartoons on them? >> I FUCKING WISH. I was so mad when I needed band-aids for my feet and none of the ones in the size I needed came in cartoon print. The only ones with fun designs were little baby band-aids. I think as an adult I should be able to buy whatever the fuck kind of band-aids I want, including ones with Stitch on them. Fuck you. 79. Have you ever kissed someone you shouldn’t have? >> Probably. 80. In one word, how would you define yourself? >> I wouldn’t. 81. Tell me about a dream you had recently? >> I can’t, I can never remember them anymore. I get vague wispy impressions upon waking, and then even those disappear after a few minutes. I feel disconnected from dream!Mordred and I’m so curious at what it’s been up to. 82. Who’s the funniest drunk person you know? >> --- 83. How did you feel when you woke up? >> Fine, I guess. 84. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning? >> I don’t know, probably something related to Sparrow knocking around as she got ready for work, because that’s my first sensory memory upon awakening. 85. Name something great that happened on Friday? >> It’s Thursday, ask me on Saturday. 86. When was the last time you saw your father? >> --- 87. Do you wish someone would call or text you right now? >> No. 88. Have you ever been kissed by a person whose name starts with J? >> Yeah. 89. Do you crack your knuckles? >> Yeah. 90. What were you doing twenty minutes ago? >> Probably still this survey, since it’s so long. 91. You’re thinking about someone, aren’t you? >> No. 92. Have you held hands with anyone in the past twenty-four hours? >> No. 93. What would you do if your partner still kept pictures of their ex? >> Nothing? That doesn’t affect me. 94. What if your partner went through your cellphone? >> I wouldn’t be with someone that went through my belongings without my express permission. 95. What if your partner was flirting with another girl/boy? >> I’d be glad for her. I hope she gets whatever she’s looking for from that interaction. 96. Ever liked someone you thought you didn’t stand a chance with? >> --- 97. You want someone/something? >> Not really. 98. Is there really a difference between Coke and Pepsi? >> Yeah, which is why many people have a preference. 99. Is there any emotion you’re trying to avoid right now? >> No. 100. Are there any mistakes with your recent ex you wish you could have changed? >> I’m pretty sure the entire situation in itself was a mistake, and it was changed, by us ending up having no contact with each other. 101. Has anyone ever been with you while you were throwing up? >> I mean, sure. 102. Background on your computer? >> Right now it’s a wallpaper with a scene from the movie Interstellar. (My desktop wallpaper is on a shuffle timer.) 103. Have you cried recently? >> Like, within the last week, probably. 104. Who has hurt you the most? >> I don’t know. 105. Are you happy with where you are relationship-wise now? >> Sure. 106. What language do you want to learn? >> --- 107. Your ex’s car breaks down and they ask you for a lift. Your response? >> I mean, I don’t drive, dude. Also, we live in wildly different parts of the country. This is just so many layers of implausible. 108. Would you hit a member of the opposite sex? >> ---

#surveys #survey #random survey

4 notes · View notes

ceescedasticity · 5 years ago

Note

i looked thru your writing babble tag and couldnt find it, do u have a link to the start again timeline? i get confused trying to figure out when everyones remembering relates to each other

Assuming that P5 takes place in 2016…

(Spoilers for everything posted so far…)

Late December 2013 –

Very beginning of Escher. Futaba starts getting a weird feeling of deja vu.

Yusuke wakes up remembering everything but isn’t sure it’s real.

Morgana also remembers at this point, though details have not been revealed.

January 2014 –

Futaba continues to feel deja vu.

Morgana leaves a warning note in the Isshiki mailbox.

Yusuke looks for Leblanc, but it isn’t there.

Goro starts having interrogation room dreams, usually about once a week.

Yusuke is dreaming of Madarame’s Palace almost every night. This doesn’t really stop.

Reserved-parking-place-related breakdown/rage fugue

February 2014 –

Goro cases the exterior of the Jikken Palace.

People are noticing Yusuke’s not sleeping well.

March 2014 –

Goro tips the police off about a drug dealer – why hasn’t been explained, but it may have been as a favor to Sasaki

Hitoshi has a manic episode.

April 2014 –

New school year! Probably April 7.

--Haru and Makoto start first year of high school at Shuujin

--Goro starts first year of high school at Jikken

--Yusuke starts third year of middle school

--Futaba starts second year of middle school

--Kiyomi starts third and final year of high school; Hitoshi starts second year of high school

--Hifumi starts third year of middle school

--Ryuji and Ann start third year of middle school at the same school, somewhere in Tokyo

--Akira starts third year of middle school somewhere outside Tokyo

Haru remembers; Count of Monte Cristo begins. Haru meets and befriends Makoto but verifies she does not remember anything.

I didn’t consult a calendar while writing COMC so I’m not 100% sure everything will line up.

Yusuke refuses the ‘life drawing’ proposal, starts painting Self-Portrait as a Cognition.

Haru tracks down Goro and blackmails him for Metaverse access.

The next day, shows Makoto Kamoshida’s Palace but doesn’t take her inside.

That Saturday, probably 4/19, Haru gets careless and runs into trouble in the castle, has to be rescued by Makoto and Goro.

Tuesday (4/22?): breakdown/rage fugue with the attacking people with shoes.

Thursday (4/24?), first joint trip into Jikken.

Goro’s interrogation room dreams turn into engine room dreams.

After the first joint trip to the space station (4/26?), Haru and Makoto get a look at Goro’s notebook, Goro hears about navigator abilities and recruiting personas.

Yeah I think I was thinking school started earlier in April than it probably did, the end of the month is getting a little rushed. Not completely implausible at least.

May 2014 –

Early in the month, Goro gets Defarge persona; his Akira dreams turn lucid.

Sometime this month, Yusuke makes sure exhibition tickets are sent to Kunikazu Okumura. One way or another Haru never sees them.

About 5/5?, Kunikazu announces Haru is engaged.

Almost a week later (5/10?), introduces Tomioka-san.

Little Palace activity in the next week. Makoto snoops around the volleyball team, Goro takes down Sasaki.

The weekend (5/17-5/18?) is rough.

Another week of little activity. Makoto breaks the starship log code and Goro scouts out Tomioka in Mementos.

Saturday (5/24?): rage fugue/breakdown for Tomioka

Sunday (5/25): Goro offers to prioritize the space station

June 2014 –

Futaba is subconsciously aware that Wakaba “will” have a mental shutdown, and very anxious.

Hitoshi/Kiyomi/Madarame start noticing there’s something kind of funny about Self-Portrait as a Cognition.

Haru, Makoto, and Goro secure a route to the Treasure, then wait a little longer to gather strength before sending the calling card

Kunikazu’s heart changed

July 2014 –

COMC crew focuses on studying and exams until the end of the term (probably about 7/20).

August 2014 –

Futaba is subconsciously aware that Wakaba “should” have had a mental shutdown. Deja vu turns into disorientation.

Madarame decides Self-Portrait as a Cognition is too creepy to plagiarize.

COMC crew reaches the top of the laboratory and the Treasure and Shadow aren’t there – now they have to go down.

Goro admits he’s not actually working for Shido.

September 2014 –

Self-Portrait as a Cognition is mostly complete.

9/1, school term starts.

9/8, Haru informs Goro he will be transferring.

9/15, Goro moves to Shuujin.

Unlike the original timeline, Kiyomi does not leave.

A politician who had a mental shutdown last timeline dies in a “car accident”.

October 2014 –

Hitoshi has a depressive episode.

Nakanohara leaves the atelier, roughly at the same time as he did last timeline.

November 2014 –

COMC crew reaches the Jikken Treasure, decides they need to scout.

11/8-11/9 – Cultural festival weekend:

--At Shuujin, there is a ‘syrup incident’, but otherwise uneventful.

--Makoto sees Kamoshida smarming at potential students.

--At Kosei, Yusuke runs into Ann, who doesn’t recognize him, and Hifumi, who he blurts out some information to.

--That evening, Yusuke and Hifumi fall through Self-Portrait as a Cognition (in front of Kiyomi) and return an hour later (in front of Hitoshi).

11/10 - Ryuji remembers, verifies that Ann does not

Yusuke starts visiting the museum Palace frequently. His sleep gets a lot better.

Wakaba’s lab succeeds in opening a portal into the Metaverse.

Futaba bugs Wakaba’s phone.

11/15 – COMC crew checks out the SIU Director’s Palace, Goro gets Medea.

11/16, Yusuke and Hifumi visit Mementos.

COMC crew defeats the Jikken Palace, changes Ishikawa’s heart.

11/29, Hifumi grounded after a fight with her mother over forfeiting a game.

11/30, Ryuji dyes his hair

December 2014 –

12/1, Ryuji mistakes a stray cat for Morgana. Ooops.

12/7, Yusuke and Hifumi visit a Palace at her middle school.

~12/15, Goro has the flu, tells Makoto his time travel theory.

Atelier water heater breaks, Madarame leaves for “retreat” (read: resort).

12/25, conspiracy tries to have Wakaba killed and fake an accidental overdose.

12/26, power in the atelier is cut off due to lack of payment. Futaba remembers everything after her uncle yells at her in the hospital. In the evening, runs into Yusuke. Yusuke & senpai go to stay at Isshiki apartment.

12/28, Futaba, Yusuke, and Hifumi go after Uncle Yoji in Mementos. On the way out pass Goro interrogating a Shadow (Ito) about judges, prosecutors, school sponsorship.

12/30, Futaba discovers Wakaba’s Palace.

12/31, Futaba, Yusuke, and Hifumi scout Wakaba’s Palace. Someone at the “spiritual retreat” sets fire to the buffet.

January 2015 –

Yusuke, Kiyomi, and Hitoshi return to the atelier. Sojiro moves into the Isshiki apartment but is mostly at the hospital.

First two weeks, Escher crew practices in the museum Palace, make tools, gather supplies.

Make it up the outside of the pyramid in one go.

Hifumi stops competing formally for the year, has another fight with her mother.

Another Palace trip: top of the pyramid to Hedonistic Braggart

Another trip: Solve the puzzle to clear the way up

1/17-1/19, university entrance exams

Another trip: up through the adyton, have to run from the Hundred-Armed Slave.

Yusuke contacts Dr. Takemi, Hifumi starts sneaking out with a rope ladder.

~1/22, beat the Hundred-Armed Slave, clear the crawlspace.

At least one Palace trip just getting money. Sojiro is alienating the nurses.

First trip into the pagoda section: have to run from Cognitive Sojiro.

Second pagoda trip: run from Shadows.

A few days of downtime before pagoda Attempt 3.

Attempt 4 on the pagoda – end up at the top of the temple, confront Asherah.

Next day (Sunday, probably 2/1), Wakaba wakes up.

February 2015 –

~2/6, Futaba remembers to look into Okumura Foods

Escher & COMC crews meet up

[some other stuff is going on with Escher&COMC crews after this but it hasn’t been revealed]

April 2015—

April 6 — new school year

April 11 — “interview” dumps Ryuji & co in Metaverse

April 13 — Ryuji & co return from Metaverse a little after midnight. Weapon shopping in the evening.

#fleecy #start again fic #writing babble

10 notes · View notes

virgilfingsanders · 5 years ago

Text

3:38

TW: Death, Gore, mentions of getting stabbed.

Couple: Analogical

Prompt: Person B (Virgil) knowing they're going to die from blood lose thanks to the gaping wound they're bleeding from. They call Person A (Logan) and have a casual conversation, telling them they love them one last time, instead of calling for help.

~~~

To Virgil, there was something unGodly about the timeframe 2 to 4 am. There always had been, starting when he was a teenage who stayed up to late on Tumblr and Instagram, and, he assumed, their always would be. Now 26, Virgil had an valid reason to be up from 2 to 4 am: Plan B, the high end night club in the middle of the city, wasn't going to run itself, and Virgil would hardly let all his hard work be for nothing, regardless of how anxious he is. Sure, owning a Club wasn't a 'Picture Perfect' job, but if Virgil didn't do it, then who would?

Certainly not people like his husband, Logan, who was a College Professor. Not that Virgil minded his husbands Job, but it often made it a struggle to spend any time together. Virgil needed to be at Plan B on the weekends, when Logan was off, and Logan left for the day around the time Virgil got home. But they had a way of making it work. Logan didn't have classes on Monday, and Virgil never worked Wednesday's, somehow making their less than ideal schedules work perfectly.

Maybe that's why Virgil had been so eager to get home. It was 3:38am on a Monday morning. The sooner he got home and crawled into bed, the longer he'd get to cuddle with Logan. Virgil had been so eager, in fact, that he didn't hear the man walk up behind him.

He didn't hear him pull out the knife. He didn't see a face in the darkness. All he saw was the stars above him, and the empty parking lot in the back of the club. Plan B closed at 2, and Virgil had been the one to lock up today. The only car in the parking lot was his own.

He could feel the blood running out of his stomach onto the parking lot, and realized he probably wouldn't live. Instead he'd bleed out on the cold cement of his own property, behind his own club. No one would even find him until Joan or Roman came in tomorrow, which probably wouldn't be until 6 or 7.

Virgil fished for his phone, pulling it out of his pocket. 3:39 blinked up at him, the box letters somehow calming. It didn't take long to unlock the phone - the password being his and Logan's wedding date - and to get to contacts. What did seem to take forever, though, was waiting for Logan to pick up.

"G'mornin' love. When'll you b'home?" Logan asked, slurring his words together in his half asleep state. In the flat Virgil and him rented, he was laying the king sized bed, eyes closed, and barely awake enough to answer the phone. He wasn't necessarily concerned at the moment, Virgil called at 4 am all the time when he had to stay at club overnight to deal with paperwork and didn't want Logan to worry.

"I can't be home until tomorrow, Starlight. Probably not until tomorrow evening, or even Tuesday," Virgil said, trying to apply pressure to the stab wound in his stomach, knowing very well that it wasn't doing anything. Instead, he mainly focused on the stars he could see, unable to make out constellations due to the light pollution of the city.

"Should I be worried that you're cheating on me with Roman?" Logan asked, his voice sounding a little more awake, but not much. He was still tired, and slightly upset. Logan knew, rationally, the Club that Virgil owned and operated would take a lot of time, but staying their for 2 nights? That seemed a bit excessive.

"No, no, you're the only one for me Starlight. I just - uh, I just got super backed up on paperwork. I'm trying to set up a new Club in the next city over, and, uh," Virgil spoke rapidly, hating lying but thinking it was better than the truth. "I just got a stupid 'mounta paperwork to do."

"Are you lying to me?" Logan asked, jokingly, as he rolled out bed and made his way to the kitchen. Virgil had a of stuttering and rushing his words when lying, but he also did that when nervous or excited or tired, and was, generally, very straightforward.

"Never, Starlight. D'you remember our first date?" Virgil asked, catching his breathe at the end and hitting the mute button just in time for a coughing fit. He was now coughing up blood, how perfect.

"O'course I do, darling. You took me stargazing. We drove an hour and a half away from the city just so there wouldn't be any light pollution and we could name the constellations. We talked about the multidimensional theory and you sang Fall For You by Secondhand Serenade while we danced," Logan whispered breathlessly, remembering that day when he was barely 17 years old. He made his way to the kitchen, making a single cup of coffee using the Keurig.

Virgil clicked the unmute button, laughing breathlessly into the phone as he remembered the amount of panicking he'd done over that night. He'd swapped his usual Panic! At The Disco shirt for a blood red button-up, but kept the black ripped skinny jeans he still wore to this day, and converse.

"My favorite death theory is still the stars," Virgil said, grinning slightly in his weakened state as he counted the stars he could see. Logans laugh carried through the phone, making Virgil's body automatically relax.

"You always were found of that one, even though it's highly illogical."

"Do you remember, 3 years later, when I asked you to marry me?" Virgil asked, keeping his eyes open, on the twinkling stars. If he closed them he may never open them again, and dying without seeing Logan one last time was not something he wanted.

"Yes, I do," Logan said, taking a long sip of his coffee before closing his eyes as he leaned against the Island in their kitchen, reimagining that night. "We drove out to the same spot, but instead of staying on the little hill to stargaze we walked around the surrounding forest until it got dark. You managed to recreate the night of our first date perfectly. Same meal, same constellations, you were even in the same outfit. At the end of the dance, you asked me to marry you, and I couldn't help but say yes."

A small smile slipped onto both of their faces as they thought about that night, noth going silent for a few minutes. It had been magical in every sense of the word. They'd ended up falling asleep on the hill and driving back in to the small apartment they'd shared in the morning, planning on giving their family the news within the week.

"D'you remember the little cabin?" Virgil asked, his voice slowly getting weaker. He could taste the blood on his teeth, which was making him sick, and it was getting harder to hold the phone to his ear ad he spoke.

"Of course," Logan said, the memory of the Log Cabin in the woods and the idea of spending a summer there coming back to him. "There was a little walking path to a long cabin with a wrap around porch. The cabin seemed in perfect condition other than the fact that there wasn't anyone there. I'd love to go and stay there. Investigate the forest of the surrounding area and watch the stars every night."

"You're birthday's next week, Starlight. We're going to spend a week in that cabin. I already cleared it with you're boss. The key to the cabin is hiding in the glovebox of my car right now," Virgil slurred his words together, the stars losing their dimness as the pain began to take over. Logan rolled his eyes at Virgs confession, the boy never could keep secrets, even for the sake of someone's birthday. "I've gotta go now, love. I'll be home tomorrow, Logan, I'll be home tomorrow."

"I love you, Virgil, don't overwork yourself," Logan said softly, finishing his cup of coffee and putting the mug into the sink.

"And I love you, Logan. More than the moon and sun and all the stars. You're my Starlight."

Logan smiled at the slurred words, assuming his husband was exhausted from a long day. In Logans mind, Virgil would fall asleep on the couch in his office, forgetting to charge his phone. He'd probably wake up, make a cup of coffee, forget to eat, and get started right away on paperwork, not even thinking to charge his phone until his lunch break, which would last 20 minutes at most. He'd come home around 6ish, complaining about office work, and would try, and fail, to sneakily wrap his arms around Logan while he was cooking dinner. With those thoughts in mind, Logan hung up and made his way back to bed, curling up in the warm covers and falling peacefully asleep.

Virgil pulled the phone away from his ear, barely making out a blurry '4:16 am' before his world went black. He smiled slightly, Logans voice in his head repeatedly saying 'I love you, Virgil'.

~~~

One titled 4:16 about Logan finding out about it and grieving? Maybe.

12 notes · View notes