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bangtanlalaland · 4 years

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together | ksj (m.)

synopsis ⇣ you encounter the world’s most handsome man, who’s also the richest, only to discover that he’s your long-lost childhood friend.

→part of the bring it back collection!

— 1920′s!au; friends to lovers!au

⇢pairing: millionaire!kim seokjin x textile worker!female reader

⇢genre: angst, fluff, smut

⇢word count: 3.9k+

⇢contents ⨯ warnings: somewhat inspired by the great gatsby, some plots twists in here (have your popcorn ready plz), mentions of pining, soft love making in this, some sad stuff (sorryyyy, just adds to the drama), a splash of 1920′s slang (i tried ok)

a/n: just a reminder you guys, in case you’re wondering or expecting this, I am not basing this story entirely off of what happened in the great gatsby so plz don’t come after me. as stated above, this fic is somewhat inspired by the novel. I’d also like to add that most of the events taking place in this story is like a re-enactment of my own personal experiences, therefore this one is a little personal for me, but I am glad to have this chance to share it with you all. anyways, hope you all enjoy!

song rec: “together” by the xx

glossary

big shot—someone of high status/great popularity

bimbo—tough guy

bootlegging—illegal distribution of alcohol

cash or check—to kiss someone now or later

gay—happy (no connection to homosexuality)

jane—a female

jitney—a small bus that costs 5¢

nookie—sex

quiff—a slut

speakeasy—an underground bar (usually involves illegal distribution and/or selling of alcohol)

wingding—a lively celebration or party

Everything was planned. And you should have known this—that it was all an act/a gimmick. The fame, the money, the chivalry. And it didn’t get you anywhere but strung out on coffee and cigarettes—paired with a broken heart. Part of you wanted to blame your friend Betty for even dragging you to that pointless wingding, and then another part of you wanted to blame yourself for letting your guard down. The moment you saw his stupid, handsome face, you should have just walked away. You should have ended whatever was to come, right then and there.

But, you didn’t.

Instead, you chose to wind up in his bed and smothered by his arms. You chose to let yourself go, because at one point in your life, he was someone you trusted. The never-ending ache in your chest weighs upon you as if you’re carrying a rock that’s the size of New York state. You continuously tell yourself: You should have left. You should have said no. You should have just walked away.

Maybe if you said no, would he have ended up in your life some other way? Would you have been happier than you were during those moments with him? Could you even truly say you regret those experiences, even though at that moment it was exactly what you wanted? The past few weeks, you’d driven yourself mad, contemplating and replaying scenarios within your mind to re-arrange the pieces to the puzzle.

But, you end up with nothing.

You can’t think. You can’t eat. You can’t sleep. You can’t do anything without seeing him. Feeling him. Hearing him. And even smelling him. It’s as if he lingers in the spirit—like a ghost, haunting you every waking second of the day. Except, you know nothing about ghosts and how to rid of them.

And the memories…

You can’t forget the times when life was oh so simple—when you knew who he used to be, the he you grew fond of and loved with every fiber in your being. You can’t get over those shiny, gold, silky sheets you had become accustomed to lace yourself in, wrapped within his embrace. Both of your bare bodies glued together by perspiration, and those deep-chocolate irises that make you crumble under his gaze. Especially when he’d whisper to you with that voice of his dipped in comfort and say,

“I don’t think I’ve ever been more happier in my life.”

However, it’s too late. You tell yourself that it’s over, and there is no going back. Ever.

five months earlier

You wiped away the perspiration, on your forehead, with the back of your hand. As people say, “Another day, another dollar.” Literally. You’re only paid 16 cents/hr for your work at the town’s local textile factory. Your hands often find themselves cracked and dried by the end of your shift. It’s the roaring 20′s and everything was booming. Well, at least for everyone else except you.

“Oh, Betty! I told you already I don’t ‘party’.” You whined, while clutching your purse to head beeline out of the factory.

“You’re telling me that a doll like yourself doesn’t ‘party’ during this Jazz Age?” Your blonde-haired co-worker scoffed with a laugh. “Surely, you ought to be ashamed!”

Your mouth flew agape at her audacity, “Well-” You attempted to muster up a comeback, “Well- speakeasy’s are not even legal!”

Betty added, “Oh, you’re no fun! You know that?” You giggled at her frustrated expression since she seemed so conflicted.

“I know. Which is probably why a man would never want me.” Betty stopped you in your tracks, placing her hand over your arm.

“Oh, nonsense! You’re a doll and you know it.” She contemplated for a moment, “You just need some… opening up is all!”

You nodded in reply, “I suppose so.” Betty’s face lit up as if an idea popped up in that wild brain of hers, “How about this?” She gripped onto you tighter. “Why don’t you join me this weekend at Mr. Worldwide Handsome’s wingding!”

Your eyebrows furrowed, “I don’t think you understand what “partying” means, when I say I do-”

“Now, now wait! Before you say no, it’s not what you think.” She reassured with a beaming smile.

“Who is this Mr. Worldwide Handsome?” You questioned, finally reaching the bus stop to catch a jitney.

Betty hesitated for a moment, “Why I don’t know. Well, I don’t think anyone knows.” You scoffed at her coy way of attempting to convince you.

“Oh, that’s just nonsense, Betty! If this is your way of trying to get me to go with you to that party- then, you’re doing quite an awful job at it.”

Betty rolled her eyes at you, “____, you’ve got it all wrong! I promise. It’s not what you think. It’s just a place where you can be yourself. He holds these gatherings every weekend and it’s so… lively! You can be free and… gay!”

—

You nervously stepped out of the automobile, as you and Betty were dropped off outside of the grand mansion where dozens if not hundreds of people gathered within the entrance of the establishment. Flappers and big shots roamed the premises.

“Why did I let you persuade me into coming here?” You whispered to Betty who had her arm interlinked with yours. You plastered a fake smile amongst the guests. Betty was dressed in a mini, black dress with sparkling fringes, a deep red lipstick adding an extra pop to her porcelain skin.

She cooed back at you, “Because you are my friend, and I was not going to take no for an answer.” As you relayed to your friend earlier in the week, you weren’t one of those “party girls” or “flappers” as they call it.

Seokjin roamed about his mansion, at the top of the stairwell, tapping his feet on the marble flooring below him, sipping on a glass of champagne in his hand. His handsomeness granted numerous glances and coos toward his towering figure. He sported his signature, jet-black mullet that’s slicked back. His white tuxedo glowed effervescently, blinding anyone within his perimeter. Plush, pink lips decorated his dashing face.

He busied himself in obtaining another glass of champagne as another server passed by. But when he turned away to face the entrance of the palace, his heart dropped, his lips parted distinctively, tongue sliding along the bottom of his lip. It’s as if everything and everyone around him had stopped, whilst his almond-shaped eyes landed on a Jane that he grew to be familiar with many years ago—two decades to be exact.

Ever since you both departed, he wanted desperately to find you again just as you did. He missed you, and you missed him, and there hadn’t been a day that passed when you didn’t cross his mind. You both grew up in the same quaint town, but then Jin’s family moved to the big city and that was when everything changed.

You both drifted apart, and it was now a good twenty years later that you both finally crossed paths. But see, that was only part of the plan. Seokjin hosted these grand parties, and spread the word throughout the entire city to fuck his way out of a heartbreak he thought was silly to have. He treasured the attention and the numerous dolls flaunting themselves at him—that eventually he’d forgotten all about you.

It was something about big gatherings, quite like these that made your insides churn. A sense of anxiety resided within you when being in the presence of countless individuals. You felt like all of their gazes were solely focused on you; you’d never been a fan of attention. Although, you were unaware this party would change your life.

Drastically.

You desperately attempted to shake off your anxiousness, scanning the environment for anything or something you could do or use as an escape. And then…

Champagne.

Perfect. You thought to yourself, hurriedly scurrying toward the server, grabbing a glass filled with fizzing liquor.

“Thank you,” You noted with a smile and took a sip, an attempt to calm your nerves. But you still couldn’t shake that feeling, that someone was watching you. And it was as if your worst nightmare had come true, because followed by that feeling, there was a voice. One that was calling your name.

“____?” Your body trembled of chills, and you turned around to discover the voice that was noticeably behind you. When your eyes met the tall, slender form, you nearly dropped your wine glass into shattering pieces.

With a gasp, “Seokjin?” you questioned, placing a hand over your chest where a thumping heart hides from behind. His pupils sparkled with something you thought was admiration, and then he shined those perfect, pearly whites that stole your heart in that moment. You thought to yourself, This is it. He’s the one.

“It’s been so long. Wow, I am speechless.” He stated, with an extended hand, “May I?” He probed, rising his eyebrows. You foolishly lended him your hand, his plump lips pressed a gentle kiss on top.

“What are you doing here?” You asked, curious to understand how the universe joined you both together in this moment.

“Follow me,” was all he said. He lead you through the bustling crowd, and into his office. He removed the jacket of his tuxedo while you admired the maroon-tinted walls paired with large bookshelves and persian rugs decorated the space—modern art pieces adding an extra touch. One in particular stood out to you, in which Jin noticed your stare didn’t break away.

“Edward Hopper’s Automat,” He added, whilst standing beside you and relishing the sight of gorgeous pearls that decorated your neckline—thanks to Betty. He was stunned at the beautiful woman you blossomed into. Considering that the last memory he had of you, was when he’d been taken away in a locomobile, and there you stood at the end of the dirt road—with puffy, wet eyes as you cried out his name, begging him to not leave. And so did he, as he waved you goodbye and tears streamed down his cheeks. It was when his entire world fell apart.

Jin lost himself for a moment, reminiscing on the past. “Seokjin?” You said for now the third time, an attempt to get his attention.

“Yes? I- My apologies,” he replied. You shook it off with a giggle, a warmth having filled up your heart. “No need to worry.” You dropped your head low, as a flash of heat washed upon your face, and suddenly you felt shy.

You felt the cool embrace from Jin’s palm on your back, and when you looked up to meet his gaze, he was already staring at you.

With a sigh of relief, he slipped, “I’ve missed you, ____.” You wrapped your arms around his neck to pull him in for a hug, and he smelt of the liquor he’d been dousing himself in, paired with a tantalizing scent of cologne, notes of bergamot, tangerine and a hint of fruity persimmon. As you pull away, you peer into each other’s eyes, his slender fingers graze underneath your chin and you both lock lips with one another—his own tasted of the wine they’d been soaked in from earlier. The amount of desire drowned by your kisses sent a wave of heat through the both of you, and before you could think of pulling away to catch your own breath, Jin pulled away, his fingers lacing into yours to lead you toward the master bedroom.

“I missed you too,” you replied, maybe a little too late, but you still made him smile. His hands found purchase on your small back, “I can’t believe that you’re finally here. I don’t think I’ve ever been more happier in my life.” You caressed his broad shoulders, admiring how he towered over you. Oh how handsome he’d become, you thought.

It was as if both of you read each other’s minds, an unspoken tension between the two of you—like gravity pulled you two together, your actions in tune with each other. He laid on top of you, caressing your body and placing gentle kisses along your jawline and onto your collarbone. His silky sheets felt like bliss under your now scorching skin.

“Seokjin,” You moaned. His fingers found the zipper on the side of your dress, and he removed his bow tie and waistcoat, while undressing himself completely. He gently pulled the delicate material of your dress down and off your body.

“So beautiful,” He slipped, while trailing kisses along your leg and worshiping your body as if he was truly in love with you—especially when he entered you and buried himself to the hilt.

He was your first and he knew this. When you slipped, “I’ve never- Oh!” He simply caressed your cheek and planted kisses onto your now swollen lips, drips of sweat clinging on his forehead, your hands grazing along his back—the heels of your feet digging into his bottom. You couldn’t get the rest of your sentence out, the feeling of his member too much for your being, but there was this nostalgic sentiment that followed afterwards—a drawn out moan muffled by kisses.

“You’re saying that a Jane like you hasn’t had any nookie? Ever?” He chimed in with a chuckle. You slapped his arm in reply, “Well, don’t make fun of me now!”

But instead, you both broke out into a laughter, having completely forgotten about the party that continued on just one floor below.

“You feel so amazing,” Jin moaned, thrusting his hips into your core, your walls clenched relentlessly around him and it made his cock throb. Leaks of pre-cum oozed into you paired with your own wetness, soaking his shaft completely.

“Oh, Please don’t stop!” He picked up the pace and rammed into you, losing control of himself, so much that the headboard knocked against the wall in a beat-making manner. “Don’t stop! Yes, yes!” You egged him on, fueling his hunger.

“You’re such a doll, you know that?” He slipped between breaths. Your being now glued to the sheets from the sweat that accumulated.

He eventually slowed his momentum as an orgasm shortly approached. Your walls contracted around him repeatedly, and you were instantly drowned in euphoria. You hadn’t processed that Jin’s fingers were rubbing your clit furiously, making your orgasm crash upon you. And right after, you felt the warmth of his semen painting your walls—his bedroom now filled with the harmony of your moans.

Seokjin fell beside you on the bed, his chest rising and falling.

“That was amazing,” He slipped in between breaths. But to his surprise, you’d risen from the bed to re-dress yourself.

“Hey…” He hopped up on his feet, his flaccid cock jumping in the process. “Where you going?” He asked, grabbing your wrist.

“I-I shouldn’t keep Betty waiting…” You trailed off, his eyebrows quirked upwards. “She’s my friend. I came with her tonight.” His strong grip pulled you closer toward him; his fingers caressed your face.

“When will I see you again?” He asked, his grip on you becoming tighter. You shrugged your shoulders, because you weren’t sure when you’d see him again or if you’d have the chance to. Some part of you had hope because you know where he lives now, and you know he’s not far away and out of reach.

When you attempted to pull away, he pulled you back again, “Cash or check?” You contemplated a few moments, and with a tilt of your head, you tiptoed to give him a quick peck.

But it all just felt like a dream. One that you didn’t know would come crashing down. Because that’s all you can remember now. His sheets, his face, his voice, his length, and his scent—everything was Seokjin.

—

You came back and more than once. But the next few times, you came alone. It became a routine, almost. You’d join him during the night, and the two of you would escape into the part of his mansion where no one was around—everyone else having occupied the lower level and the courtyard. He’d always bring you to his bedroom, never letting you out in public together. You should have known that was a sign.

Anytime you both were together, you were alone. Because truth is, Seokjin was embarrassed. He held a high status and couldn’t be seen with someone like you. That’s what he told himself. He thought you wouldn’t have come back after the first night, but then you proved him wrong. And he wasn’t going to turn down free sex, especially since you were inexperienced—which gave him more power in the bedroom. He simply went with the flow, taking you as you gave to him.

Yet, you didn’t understand any of it. Especially when one night you took the lead, riding him with your breasts on full display. He moaned your name repeatedly and admitted, “I love you, ____.” And you fell for it, you actually believed him, with his cock fully sheathed inside of you. You were both wrapped up in the moment, your feels at their maximum. Except, you meant it when you replied, “I love you too, Seokjin.” That was the difference.

But one night, he slipped.

You paraded through his estate during one of his parties, brushing past numerous guests and bumping into some, but you couldn’t find him anywhere. He’d normally await for your arrival at the top of the stairwell, but he wasn’t there. He wasn’t in the courtyard or the balcony or the pool. Your heart thumped with a never-ending beat, and you couldn’t ignore the feeling.

Eventually, you found yourself entering the room that you remember oh so well, and you wished you hadn’t. The sight you witnessed sent a burning ache within your chest. Moans and groans filled the atmosphere as you neared the bed that contained those golden sheets you’d become familiar with. To say you were horrified was an understatement. Jin was plunging into another woman while another woman sat on the other woman’s face, a sudden churn of your stomach ascended—you felt as though everything you consumed that day would come right back up.

“S-Seokjin?” You let out, and he abruptly stopped his motions, snapping his gaze toward you. His eyes blown wide and lips parted.

“Fuck!” He spilled, stumbling out of the woman he was in. You turned away, heading beeline for the door. He quickly found his grip on you, and you fought him off, pushing him away and continuously slapping him away.

“How could you? How?!” You screamed. The sound of your heels clicking against the marble floor echoed throughout the palace, as you strutted out and never looked back.

He knew that he fucked up, because truth is, he didn’t even know what he really wanted—but he knew he was selfish. He continued hosting more wingdings, and he never stopped screwing more women. He convinced himself that you were just another Jane he checked off his “To do” list. Because that’s who Seokjin had become. He was no longer that sweet, innocent little boy you once knew. He was no longer your only best friend that you could trust. He was no longer who you thought he was.

—

After receiving the test results from your doctor, that’s when everything sunk in, and you made a promise to yourself that you’d eliminate the abuse of caffeine and tobacco you’d taken within your diet. Although somehow, someway, Seokjin found out that you were pregnant (more than likely it was Betty who told him at his still ongoing wingdings, since you spilled who Mr. Worldwide Handsome is), and he had the guts to show himself at your workplace. He paraded through the establishment, calling out your name. To your embarrassment, you remained at your station, internally cursing yourself for having gotten involved with him.

“____!” He raged, searching for your tired figure. You let out a sigh of exhaustion. And there he stood, with creased slacks in his million-dollar man attire, but his gaze was only focused on you.

“____, we need to talk.” He reassured to you, but too loud for prying eyes nearby. You swiped away the sweat that clung to your forehead.

“Well, I am working. How dare you barge in like this as if you have the right?” You retort with a hint of rage in your tone.

He took a deep breath, not wanting to hear it from you. “Listen, I didn’t come to cause any trouble, alright? We need to talk about my baby.”

You scoffed in reply, “Your baby?” His eyes widen slightly, “I am the one carrying our child! This is our baby, not just yours!” He ran his fingers through his hair in a frustrated manner.

“Last I remember, you were too busy having nookie with those quiff’s who were in the same bed you had knocked me up!” Your chest heaves of anger, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

“You can’t just show up here like you’re this-this- bimbo! Because you’re not!” You hadn’t even realized you’d been yelling the entire time, gaining the attention from your nearby co-workers—who attentively watch your riled up figure, courtesy of your hormones.

Jin attempted to speak, “____, I’m-” but then you cut him off, tiredly yelling, “Beat it, Jin!”

His face instantly contorted into an expression you didn’t like to witness. It was a face of pure defeat. His jaw clenched under your stare, but he turned the other cheek and strutted away. You can’t say you felt sorry for him or embarrassed that you called him out because deep down, you knew that he brought everything upon himself.

—

You had a baby girl, and the moment you met eyes with her, was when you promised yourself you would climb mountains, swim oceans, and fight any battle to protect and love her the correct way—because she is you and you are her. The first two months were tough, yet Seokjin was nowhere to be found. Betty had been there for you through every step of the way, and you were beyond grateful for that. Although, you felt guilty for not letting Seokjin see his daughter, because after all she is still yours and his child. You asked Betty to accompany you to his mansion, where you had hoped to encounter him—but to no avail, you turned up with nothing. The entire palace was abandoned, like a wasteland. No automobiles, no servants, no Jane’s, no Seokjin.

A few days later on your way home from work, you overheard a few pedestrians gossiping about him. “Mr. Worldwide Handsome? I can’t believe it! Is it true? That he’s really on the run?” One of them says, the other woman replies, “Look, it’s in the paper!” Your eyebrows furrow on the spot.

“Pardon me. Can I see that?” You probe, pointing to the newspaper the two ladies were observing, and surely they were right. His photo was in the daily paper, with the headline of the name of Mr. Worldwide Handsome. He was wanted for bootlegging. He never told you who he really was, all he mentioned to you was that he was indeed Mr. Worldwide Handsome, but never confided in you about his supposed work.

Now he was gone, and you had a feeling that he was never coming back, because the first night when you two were reunited, it was in that moment, just as he’d practiced with numerous other women for years—Seokjin had one goal in mind:

To get her.

#bts smut #jin smut #hyunglinenetwork #btsguild #btsgoldnet #bangtanarmynet #bangtanhq #btswritingcafe #mikrogalaxynet #ficswithluv #kim seokjin #bts fluff #jin fluff

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doomonfilm · 4 years

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Ranking : Spike Lee (1957 - present)

There have been countless directors whose careers have spanned my lifetime, but out of these countless masses, the one whom I can find the most in common ground with (as well as endless inspiration from) is Spike Lee. A New Yorker through and through, Lee went from a series of films that seamlessly blended hip-hop and old school Hollywood aesthetics, to personal films, to his take on the blockbuster, and currently, to the point where his canon has earned him artistic freedom and expression that many of his peers have not been able to achieve. He is the perfect bridge between the director-driven mindset of the 1970s and the cultural boundary-pushing films of the 1990s-forward. Not everything that he directed was a hit or a masterpiece, but this man has more iconic films under his belt that some directors have films to their name. That being said, it’s time to stir the pot and make an attempt at the monumental task that is ranking the films of Spike Lee.

I will only be including theatrically released feature films of Spike Lee that I have seen. His documentary work will be excluded, as well as his films I have missed or have yet to see. Here is a list of these films : Da 5 Bloods, Chi-Raq, Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, 4 Little Girls, The Original Kings of Comedy, When the Levees Broke, A Huey P. Newton Story.

20. Oldboy (2013) Every film that you make can’t be a winner. In the case of Lee’s attempt at remaking Oldboy, there were already two major strikes against it : a superior version of the film already existed, and that version was the middle film of a trilogy. I doubt that even a team of the most talented directors could have made a superior version of Oldboy that surpassed the original, but after 30 years of making films, it’s admirable that Lee would even attempt something so bold and seemingly insurmountable.

19. Red Hook Summer (2012) When your film catalog covers three decades, there’s bound to be some overlap, be it stylistically or narratively. I’ve only seen Red Hook Summer once, but it was impossible for me to look at it subjectively, as it seemed to be a modern day mirror to another one of Lee’s explorations of New York adolescence. While this story is not a direct copy of a Spike Lee film that I will go into more detail on later, it does feel like the update equivalent that focuses on himself rather than the childhood of his sister. While an entertaining film from what I can remember, it sits behind a list of previous impressive achievements.

18. She Hate Me (2004) Humor has been an element present in a number of Spike Lee films, but for my money’s worth, this film is the closest thing to an outright comedy that he ever made. Like a number of films on the back half of his career, he is touching upon important topics (sexuality and toxic masculinity, in this case), but these are topics that he has hit with more nuance and creativity in earlier films. This film did help transition Anthony Mackie into a leading man role, and he certainly took that opportunity and ran with it, so She Hate Me could be heralded for that alone. That being said, it was a great idea that slightly missed the mark, therefore placing it on the backend of the memorable films list for Lee.

17. Miracle at St. Anna (2008) This film had the potential to be a breakout resurgence for Spike Lee. He was coming hot off the heels of Inside Man, a perfect blend of Lee’s style and modern Hollywood fare, so having a period-piece war film seemed like a slam dunk. His cast was strong, while also being filled of relatively unknown young actors on the verge of becoming stars in their own right, but for whatever reason, this film failed to make a connection with the masses. While I do remember mostly enjoying my watch, I also remember feeling a bit underwhelmed by the ending, which in turn left me lacking a reason to revisit it. Maybe it’s a hidden gem that I haven’t seen enough times yet, but at this moment in time, its home is near the bottom of Lee’s impressive list of films.

16. Get on the Bus (1996) Many people’s eyes were opened to racial injustices during the COVID-19 pandemic, as several African-American men and women found themselves on the wrong end of violent acts from the police and other citizens in the midst of a ‘shelter-in-place’ era. Not only have these injustices been going on for my entire lifetime, but they’ve been a generational trauma for many African-Americans in the United States. When the Million Man March was announced in 1996, it was not surprising that Spike Lee took it as an opportunity to both document the march and build a narrative around it in which he could showcase a collection of actors he’d either featured in past films or would work with in future films. To my knowledge, this is one of maybe two or three films about the event, and it was certainly the film released in the closest proximity to it. For an independent, quick shoot, it definitely stands up, but in comparison to Lee’s other works that benefited from full crews and production schedules, it finds itself paling in comparison.

15. BlacKkKlansman (2018) Despite the fact that this is the film that finally got Lee some sort of recognition at the Oscars, BlacKkKlansman was not quite the true return to form that many fans of Spike Lee expected. The film had moments of humor, compelling moments that directly focused on racial injustice and systematic oppression, and it pulled no punches while doing so. Like a handful of Lee’s other films, however, this one falls when compared to his other films that deal with similar subject matter. Adam Driver continued to show fans his expansive range, and Jasper Paakonen deserved INFINITELY more recognition than he got, but ultimately, this film checks all the ‘good’ boxes where it was expected to check the ‘great’ ones.

14. 25th Hour (2002) As the year 2000 approached, Lee seemed to attempt and make a shift from films that specifically spoke on aspects of the African-American experience in favor of occasional films that reached a wider audience. While Summer of Sam would be considered the first foray into that realm, the true mark of this elevated sense of creative duty came in the form of 25th Hour. With the actors in tow, in tandem with the cinematography and skilled directing ability displayed in the film, one would expect a powerhouse movie, but ultimately, the expectations exceeded the narrative of this film. This one is entertaining, don’t get me wrong, but I personally did not find a connection with the story, meaning that the film was, at best, fun to watch.

13. Summer of Sam (1999) I’ve been a true-crime junkie since my early teenage years, and even the most casual of true-crime fans is more than likely familiar with David Berkowitz, also known to many as the Son of Sam. While Red Hook Summer did come out after Summer of Sam, it’d be hard to deny the fact that Summer of Sam is the last of Lee’s love letters to New York City. This was the film where Spike Lee stepped out of his comfort zone of the African-American experience, choosing instead to focus on more colloquial aspects of the American experience, and for my money’s worth, it was the start of an important shift for him. Despite being light on the Son of Sam action, the actors this film does focus on (and the story it chooses to tell) is a fresh look at a familiar era, and a crowning achievement that signaled new things for Spike Lee.

12. He Got Game (1998) If you made a Venn diagram of people familiar with Spike Lee, the two biggest circles would be film fans and people who have seen at least one New York Knicks game since the 1990s. Therefore, the only thing that was really and truly surprising about He Got Game was the fact that it took Spike Lee 15 years and 11 films to make a film about basketball. On the outset, that’s exactly what it is : a film about basketball. Viewed with a wider lens, however, this story is a love letter to one of the most popular American inventions, and a story about how it can serve as a common-ground bridge for those from wholly different walks of life. The juxtaposition of Aaron Copland and Public Enemy made the soundtrack provocative, and Ray Allen stood out in his lead role, holding his own against the living legend that is Denzel Washington, who is always good for a stellar performance in a Spike Lee joint. Don’t mistake this film’s place on the list for my feelings about it... this is a stellar film, in my opinion, and one of my favorites to revisit.

11. Crooklyn (1994) After making what many would argue to be the most important film of his career (which we will eventually get to), it’s no surprise that Spike Lee circled his creative wagons and made the focus of his next film inward. Crooklyn covers what seem like many personal bases for Spike Lee : he portrays the New York of the past vividly and beautifully, while spinning a true-to-life tale based on his personal experience, but opting to focus on his sister Joie Lee and his father Bill Lee. Of Lee’s many, many films, this was the one that I felt the most compelled to see at the time of release, it is one of the two I have the most vivid memories and recollections of, and it has a number of stylistic choices that keep me wonderfully perplexed to this day. Despite not cracking the top ten Spike Lee films, this one ranks high on the list of Spike Lee films that hit the bullseye of my heart.

10. Jungle Fever (1991) Interracial romance is one of those things that seemingly will always be a sensitive subject. I’ve heard many people say that Jungle Fever has a dated look on the subject, but I’d argue that the film was very forward thinking, especially in showing that an interracial romance is not the answer to the cultural and societal problems that life presents us. The movie also touches deeply on drug addiction without crossing over into the realm of being preachy or talking down to the viewer. It didn’t hurt that Stevie Wonder also managed to create a soundtrack’s worth of new material that instantly brought the seemingly controversial film directly into the public eye. Maybe it is dated... maybe it is uncomfortable... but what it is, undoubtedly, is an early masterpiece that fell near the end of one of the most stellar introductory runs that any filmmaker has presented us.

9. Clockers (1995) Ever wonder what would happen if a Martin Scorsese film found its way into the hands of Spike Lee? Well, wonder no longer, because Clockers is out there waiting for you to discover it. The amount that this movie gets slept on is an outright tragedy and travesty. The soundtrack is KILLER, the color-timing puts the viewer in an immediate ‘cold-world’ environment, the order of operations presented in this film is brutal and unforgiving, and yet, it manages to be one of the most heartfelt films in the Spike Lee canon. EVERYONE presented in this movie brought their A-game to the table, from the Spike Lee regulars like Isaiah Washington, John Turturro and Harvey Keitel, to the glorified cameos and supporting roles, like Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Sticky Fingaz and Fredro of Onyx, and relative newcomer but promising leading man Makhi Phifer. This film is intense, but it is more than worth your time and attention.

8. Bamboozled (2000) Bamboozled was shocking when it was released, to say the least. The true revelation, however, has been the way that relevance has seemingly caught up to the film... fake wokeness, modern day minstrel shows, low budget/high yield television and behind the scenes scandals have all come to light many years after this film had its initial run. While this film did not transition Savion Glover into the world of superstardom and crossover success, it certainly crystalized his immense talent and charisma in a way that his recordings of stage shows had previously been unable to capture. The imagery of America’s strange fascination with the dehumanization of African-Americans for generation after generation is rich, and every performance is compelling. This was definitely Spike Lee’s first masterpiece of the new millennium, and at the risk of being bittersweet, probably one of his last truly stunning achievements.

7. Girl 6 (1996) Every ranking list has to have the controversial placement, so here’s mine... Girl 6 started as a lingering interest for me. The internet was just about to change the world, but we were still locked into landlines at the time, with cellular being a luxury, so the world of phone sex still had relevance. Upon seeing the film, however, I quickly realized that the phone sex exploration was playing counter to a Hollywood hopeful narrative that was brave enough to explore new ground (per the changing times) while being mindful enough to pay homage to the countless stories of Hollywood hopefuls that came before it. Many of the shifting cinematography looks that made Clockers so gritty were used to make Girl 6 feel dangerously euphoric. The list of cameos and brief supporting roles were not only a who’s who of cultural movers and shakers at the time, but it ran about as long as my arm. I recently revisited the film and expected it to be a bit more on the side of kitsch, but surprisingly, the times had not been as hard on the film as I anticipated. The film shifts quite well between light and dark, and even the ending that initially slightly annoyed me has found a strange sort of charm in my older, more life-experienced years. Add to this the hilarious running joke of Isaiah Washington being a kleptomaniac in nearly every scene he appears in, and there’s a realization that there are sublayers going on right in front of our eyes. This collaboration with Suzan-Lori Parks gives me hope that maybe one day, we’ll get a Spike Lee film adaptation of Topdog/Underdog, but we will see.

6. Inside Man (2006) If you had to pick the most ‘Hollywood’ of the Spike Lee films, my money would be on this film ending up as the chosen one. By this rationale, it makes the film that much more impressive, as it also stands out as one of the most compelling, well-directed and well-acted Spike Lee films. At the time of its release, it was not only a return to form, but it seemed to signal an evolution. Spike Lee was able to use his signature, iconic shots that he was known for, like his camera-turned-to-dolly float, or the push-pull zooms, but he was also able to incorporate familiar Hollywood tropes, including the twist ending, and give them a breath of fresh air via an newly infused sense of style. Lee also stayed true to himself by educating as well as entertaining, bringing to light how atrocities from the past have more than historical connections to modern day benefactors. While I do think there are a handful of better ‘pure’ Spike Lee films, if I had to pick one movie for a curious party that my be skeptical, this would easily be my pick.

5. She's Gotta Have It (1986) Oh, the joy of having your first film be a breakout success, but not to the point of pigeon-holing your career. She’s Gotta Have It was an important introductory step to the masses for Spike Lee : it showed his dedication to putting African-American performers into familiar narratives, it showed an appreciation for the voice of women on film that many first-time directors would likely not want to be the initial association to their style, it introduced the world to Mars Blackmon (who became a cultural icon), and it presented sense of style that switched on the viewer the moment before they could label it pretentious. Having characters address the camera made it feel like a play or a novel, but when the film shifted into movie mode, the camera moved with the energy and grace of a performance artist or dancer, which in turn fed into the character development and narrative it presented. As a bonus, the property found new life nearly 40 years later as a Netflix original series, introducing new generations to a modern day classic statement of feminism, and how it does not excuse bad behavior.

4. Mo' Better Blues (1990) Those familiar with Spike Lee’s family know that he was raised by jazz bassist Bill Lee, who scored some of Spike’s early films. By this rationale, it comes as no surprise that Lee could make such a rich, nuanced and heartfelt film about jazz music that serves as an allegory for the hurdles that beset those driven purely by passion. The conversations about race, musical integrity and commercialism also work on both direct and symbolic levels, giving Mo’ Better Blues some of the highest repeat viewing value of any film in the Spike Lee canon. The film also marked the first collaboration of Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, a combination that yielded artistic, career, creative, commercial and critical success, led to a multitude of classic performances, and ultimately led to a generational collaborative changing of the guard in the form of John David Washington. The only negative I can give this film is that it did not lead to future films that explored genres of music like hip-hop and soul. While She’s Gotta Have It did focus heavily on relationships and intimacy, it could be argued that Mo’ Better Blues was Spike Lee’s first adult contemporary film, and his first look at modern romance in the more ‘traditional’ sense.

3. School Daze (1988) The African-American college experience, specifically that of HBCUs (Historically Black College and Universitys), is one that has often been neglected in the annals of film history. As a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, it makes total sense that Spike Lee’s second commercial film would focus on that specifically overlooked culture, as it became a fitting vehicle for establishing Lee’s sense of duty and responsibility for education, sharing the African-American experience to the masses, and exposing systematic injustices and hypocrisies that kep the disadvantaged in a disadvantaged position. The real genius of this film, however, comes in the juxtaposition of presentations it jumps between... for the majority of the film, it is an unflinching look at the coming of age process that teenagers must traverse on their way to adulthood, including the hurdles of romance, forming your identity and expanding your view of the world around you. At key moments, however, the film switches into musical numbers, song performances and school dances that not only expand on the inner feelings, emotions and desires of characters, but heighten the reality of the story to a dizzying pace. In all the ways that She’s Gotta Have It put the world on notice that a unique voice was present in the industry, School Daze signaled the continuation of a run that would last another handful of films, and it firmly established Spike Lee as a generational talent.

2. Do the Right Thing (1989) I would guess that over the course of a career, a director secretly hopes that at least one of their works comes close to making an impact culturally. In the case of Spike Lee, however, we have a man who released two cultural-shifting films, and did so in a span of less than 5 years. They say the third time is a charm, and that’s exactly what Do the Right Thing was for Spike Lee. The vivid colors, stylistic earmarks, historical and cultural sense of urgency and focus on telling minority stories all expanded greatly with this film, which acted as both a parable of how past injustices can come back to haunt you, and a harbinger of how the reactions to these continued injustices would only amplify if not addressed. The fact that Spike Lee not only directed this film, but played the lead actor as well, is a monumental achievement, especially considering how few flaws the film has, if any. Several established actors played some of their most iconic roles in this film, and a breadth of newer, younger faces exploded onto the scene, almost all of whom either continued to work with Lee or found themselves evolving their careers in the wake of Do the Right Thing. The film is also directly responsible for perhaps the most iconic hip-hop song of all time, Public Enemy’s classic protest anthem Fight The Power. Any fan of film would be foolish to skip the Spike Lee catalog, but regardless of whether you’re interested in his work or not, this film is one of two he made that should flatly be considered required viewing across the board. The other one, being...

1. Malcolm X (1992) For everything that Do the Right Thing did for Spike Lee and those involved in the production, the monumentally powerful biopic Malcolm X did all of that while also managing to humanize, canonize and create and icon out of a man that America tried its best to demonize. The masterful hand that Lee used to direct this film shows, as this film is the most ‘every frame a painting’ in his canon. Everything from the period costuming to the locations to the dance numbers to the cinematography absolutely leaps off of the screen. The editing is kinetic, the performances are full of life and depth, and the narrative does just enough going forwards and backwards to make proper connections without beating it over the head of the viewer. The respect shown to Malcolm X is massive, so much so that almost seemingly overnight, Malcolm X went from being a feared and often heavily criticized sign of aggressive blackness to a commercial commodity and household name, with the famous X suddenly adorning t-shirts, baseball caps and necklaces of all American youth, not just minorities. The impact of this film was so immediate that many schools held field trips for viewings, which further cemented the immediate and historical value of the film. Often, the connotation of saying someone ‘peaked’ for a film so early in their career would be negative, but the heights to which Malcolm X achieved on all fronts meant that even if the rest of Lee’s career was a steady decline (which it certainly wasn’t), he more than likely still would have ended up in a pantheon far above that of the average director.

With projects reportedly in the early stages of development, it doesn’t look like Spike Lee has any plans on stopping anytime soon. I certainly owe it to myself to see the handful of his films and documentaries that I’ve not seen yet... who knows, perhaps I may even go back one day and add the documentaries into the list, or find a surprise gem in one of his more recent movies I’ve yet to see.

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jj-lives · 5 years

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Patterns Inktober bmblb

I have decided to continue my fic for Inktober I never actually finished. Please see my other Inktober pieces for more of this story. Each prompt was a different chapter but they are all in the same verse and eventually I'll be able to post it cohesively in order. For now I enjoy writing it out of order with the prompts. 🙃

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Over the past few weeks of having Blake living with them Yang became intimately acquainted with her routines. In the morning she always pressed the snooze button twice, no more and no less. With half-lidded eyes she would drag herself to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. She would spend a few minutes running cold water over the pulse at her wrists. She said it helped wake her up but Yang still found the act ludicrous; especially as Blake shivered shuffling into the kitchen for her morning tea Yang would have ready for her. Yang would shake her head and laugh as Blake curled her hands around the hot ceramic of her mug. And Blake would roll her eyes at Yang knowing full well she thought Blake was ridiculous.

Depending on their class schedules they would either leave for campus together or Blake would leave before her, as Tuesday and Thursdays Yang didn't attend class until the afternoons. At first, Yang insisted on giving Blake a ride to campus but Blake soon put a stop to that. She said she didn't mind the bus, it gave her time to focus on her upcoming classes and she did not like the guilt of dragging Yang out before she needed to. Yang tried to tell Blake she didn't mind, that she enjoyed being able to do these little things for her but Blake was adamant she wanted these two mornings to assert her independence a little. Knowing that spending all their spare time together now was a big adjustment for Blake, who had been used to being solo for large portions of her day, Yang backed off. There was something intimate about seeing Blake out the door, anyway. She savoured their parting kiss and sometimes it would linger, one of them not wanting to say goodbye just yet. She loved when Blake was the one to deepen that kiss. The feeling of knowing she would miss her, even if for a few hours made her giddy.

Blake always showered at eight at night if she could possibly help it. It didn’t matter if they were planning on going out again or had just come home for the remainder of the night. If they were staying in, Blake would put on one of her baggy shirts and a pair of shorts she always slept in. She would make herself a cup of tea and by nine o'clock she would be curled up in the corner of the couch reading something. Most of the time it was a novel of some sort, sometimes it was a report for school. Wanting to make her feel as comfortable in their apartment as possible Yang made it a point to not bother her for the first hour of this time. She’d even started joining Blake sometimes. Ruby teased her whenever she caught the two reading, commenting on how unexciting the couple was in their old age. Blake ignored it and Yang let it roll off her shoulder. Anytime she was able to hang out with Blake was a bonus in her mind. There was something comforting about being able to relax with each other doing something as trivial as reading. Even separated by differing stories Yang felt it brought them closer. It was almost a domestic feeling.

An hour was usually all Yang could take of remaining still and silent. When she placed her book on the table Blake would always do one of three things. One: she would set her book down as well and they would talk about whatever came to mind. Two: she would hold her empty mug up, silently asking for a refill that Yang was more than happy to oblige her with. Or three: she would move her position, turning to lay across the couch, head resting in Yang’s lap as she continued to immerse herself in the world that captured her.

The first time Blake took up that position had surprised Yang. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to Blake being in close proximity. They shared a room and a bed. They were very well acquainted. But she’d heard stories from Ruby and Weiss that Blake never enjoyed being interrupted when she was reading. Any interruption garnered a very negative response, be it a disapproving look or noise. Or, Ruby had told her once Weiss had grabbed a book right out of Blake’s hands when she hadn’t heard her name being called and Blake was so upset over the intrusion into her personal space she’d left the coffee shop they’d all gone to and hadn’t spoken to Weiss for three days afterwards.

The story, although hilarious when it was happening to the Ice Princess, was not something Yang ever wanted to experience in their own relationship. Therefore she became very conscious of giving Blake the space she needed when she secluded herself off in one corner or another. And it was why the first time Blake dropped her head into Yang’s lap it caught her by surprise. She’d stared down at her for a full minute, perplexed, but when Blake made no indication she was going to move anytime soon Yang relaxed as well. In these moments she would run her fingers through Blake’s silky black hair, massaging her scalp gently, and Blake would hum in pleasure..

These nights were the nights Yang lived for. Other times Blake may read for hours or move on to studying after she was done with her novel. But these nights, where she invaded Yang’s personal space, Yang quickly learned Blake was after her attention. She was sure if she were to take the book from Blake on these nights Blake probably wouldn’t even mind all that much.

Tonight was such a night. Over dinner Blake told her and Ruby about the incompetant group she’d been assigned for a project and how it looked like she would need to do the majority of the work if she was going to maintain her grade in the class. She’d talked so much about the project and class earlier that Yang was not surprised when she exited the bathroom and immediately took up her spot on the couch. It didn’t take her long to realize she’d forgotten to make her tea, but before she could even set her book on the table Yang was leaning over the back of the couch and handing a warm mug to her. Immediately she took a sip and moaned as the warm liquid slid down her throat. Yang chuckled and placed a quick kiss to the side of her head before retreating to finish cleaning up the kitchen.

With the kitchen cleaned, Yang showered before joining Blake in the living room, Ruby having long retreated to her own room to call Weiss. She could feel Blake’s eyes on her as she turned the television on instead of grabbing a book. Yang slumped into the corner of the couch as she found a show to watch. She felt, rather than heard Blake move. Slipping into the space in front of her Yang adjusted her position to make enough room. She realized Blake must be worrying more than she let on about the project as she opted for the full spooning on the couch as opposed to the usual head in the lap approach. Yang wrapped her arm around Blake and pulled her back tightly against her own chest. A pleased noise escaped as Blake snuggled more comfortably into Yang’s embrace before returning to her book.

Yang tried to follow the story with Blake but she was a fast reader and turned the pages much too quickly. It didn’t bother her really. She was just glad she could feel the tense muscles of Blake’s back relax. Periodically she would run her fingers along the bare skin of Blake’s arm or would dip her head to place soft kisses on her bared shoulder or neck, Blake sighing and relaxing more with each touch.

Yang couldn’t say how long they stayed like that as she always lost track of time when they were alone together. Eventually Blake set her book down and turned to face Yang. Others may have called the look Blake gave her indifferent. But Yang learned to see what others overlooked. The tiny quirk at the corner of her mouth. The half lidded look wasn't one of disinterest, but one of trust and contentment. These little things told Yang what words would not; Blake cared for her. She enjoyed being close to her.

For all the words she'd added to her vocabulary by reading, Yang had learned to read Blake without words.

Blake was the one to close the distance this time, lips brushing hers gently. And Yang wasted no time in returning the gesture.

With just the way Blake kissed her told her so much. The way she pressed further into her. The way she clenched Yang's shirt in a tight fist. All told Yang that Blake needed her. She needed to feel close, she needed to feel that connection. But the breaths she took were too shallow and too frequent.

Blake was exhausted.

Pulling back Yang watched as Blake struggled to open her eyes. It was so adorable Yang couldn't help but press one last lingering kiss to Blake's lips before she sat up. Blake groaned in protest but to no avail. Yang helped her to her feet, leading her down the hall to their bedroom.

Their bedroom.

Yang didn't think she would ever get used to calling it that. Nor did she think she would ever be able to stop her heart from pounding just a little harder watching Blake climb under the covers only to turn, reaching for her.

It was another pattern, another routine Yang had observed. And like all the rest it was one she didn't mind adhering to. Not wanting to keep her waiting long, Yang would crawl into bed after her. Blake then wrapped her arms around Yang resting her head comfortably tucked beneath Yang's chin. They fit together perfectly, like two pieces of a puzzle.

And before drifting off the sleep Blake would always search out one of Yang's hands beneath the covers. She would squeeze her hand three times.

One. Two. Three.

Yang never knew what it meant. She always thought of asking but when she remembered Blake was usually half asleep. And in the morning Yang always forgot there was something she was meant to ask. A part of her thought she might be worried at the reaction it would garner her. Would Blake stop the ritual pattern? It wasn't something Yang was willing to give up. It might seem trivial to others but Yang knew it was something special between them.

One day she would get the courage to ask. But for now she would enjoy whatever it was for as many nights as Blake allowed herself to share it with her.

#bumbleby #blake belladona #yang xiao long #inktober #my writing #i know its not october anymore but i just really want to finish this.#❤❤

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always5hineee · 4 years

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Depreciation- Chapter 9: Reader Insert

Chapter warnings: Intense or adult themes

Word count: 1715

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The trial date was not a pleasant one. The entire night before and the morning of, her stomach was turning violently, causing her to avoid eating any breakfast. She knew it wasn't good for her, but it couldn't be helped. If she threw up in court, she could be ejected, which is the last thing she needed. She called the real lawyer as soon as possible to make sure their connection was adequate.

This would be the hardest part for her. She needed to do everything he told her down to the tiniest details. WayV's lives hung in the balance. She hadn't been able to arrange a meeting with them before the events, so she would just have to hope they were prepared for the things to come. The last she'd heard, Henry had been revived, but he was still refusing to eat, only accepting a slight drink of water after basically being forced to ingest it. They had put him on an IV for a few hours, but he was still weak.

She only realized a few hours before the trial that she didn't have anything to wear. Going into her room, she noticed that most of the clothes Lucas had provided to her were jeans, sweatpants, and t-shirts. None of those were really quite appropriate for such a serious occasion. The women's wardrobe downstairs were sealed up, which left her with only one dress out and available for her to use... the blue one.

With a vile taste in her mouth, she pulled it on, looking at herself in the mirror as she recollected the last time she'd worn it. Thankfully, it had been cleaned since, but it still carried awful connotations. There was no choice, she had to suffer. Putting on sensible makeup and gathering her things, she made her way to the courtroom. When she arrived, there were only a few minutes left before the trial. This was her intention. While it may have paid off to be earlier, she knew she wouldn't be able to stomach it.

She was seated near the band at the front of the room, although she was meant to be active during the trial, so she didn't really have a chance to talk to them. She glanced over once, feeling all of their eyes sliding over her form, giving her the chance to see Kun mouth a slight, 'you'll be fine'. At least, that's what she saw. Before she knew it, opening statements were underway.

"Your honor," the lawyer from the discovery period stated boldly. She was already annoying Y/N, to the point where she had to clench her fists out of sight to keep from seeming stressed. "I intend to prove that these five men, as well as their late and hospitalized associates, are guilty of the charges against them. These include harassment, assault, battery, kidnapping, rape, murder, and human trafficking, as was read to them along with their rights upon their arrest." The judge nodded, accepting this as an adequate opening statement.

"You may call your first witness."

"We'd like to start by questioning Qian Kun." The questioning went on for what felt like an hour to Y/N. The prosecution methodically called up every remaining member of WayV, one by one running through the facts again and again. She was sure the jury had to be sick of hearing the same story by now, but it was evident she was looking for a loophole. The man in her bluetooth agreed as much. What she didn't expect, though, was the first witness after that.

"Next, I call Y/N (L/N) to the stand." Eyes widening, she heard the man in her ear whisper, objection.

"Objection!"

"On what grounds?" The judge asked.

"The tribunal has proper objection when the trier of fact may be confused or misled by a lawyer serving as both advocate and witness. The opposing party has proper objection where the combination of roles may prejudice that party's rights in the litigation. A witness is required to testify on the basis of personal knowledge, while an advocate is expected to explain and comment on evidence given by others. It may not be clear whether a statement by an advocate-witness should be taken as proof or as an analysis of the proof."

Basically, what she was saying was that, by using her as a witness, the lawyer would be confusing the jury on which parts of her arguments were testimony, and which were legal advocacy. It was a valid argument, and she had already gained the permission to act as an advocate by the tribunal, (a fancy word for the court). Therefore, it was well within their rights to object.

"Objection sustained, for the time being." The judge agreed. "Let the record show that, should your testimony become integral to the case, the objection will be reevaluated." She nodded curtly in thanks.

Annoyed, but not giving up, the lawyer continued to go through witnesses. The next ones were women Y/N had never seen before in her life. There were a total of four, all of varying ages. She found it difficult to remember any of their names. As far as she picked up, the first two had been sold into slavery and escaped their masters, one had been supposedly attempted upon, but not caught, and the final claimed to have been raped by YangYang of all people.

"I would like to cross-examine the witnesses." Y/N stated as the trial continued. Speaking to the first girl, she kept her cool. She didn't have a choice in this moment but to follow every direction, take note of every answer and movement. She was starting to wish she had eaten. Still, now wasn't the time to think about this. There was a good- no, a near 100% chance at least one of these witnesses wouldn't hold up in court. She just had to figure out which one.

The first and second were the most difficult. With similar, yet vague stories about being picked up in seedy areas, thrown into a van, and suddenly being awoken under the direction of a new master, it was nearly impossible to confirm or deny their honesty. While they were under oath, words were easily brushed a side. Hell, WayV was doing it right now.

The fourth witness was where she started to get lucky. The man in her earbud told her to demand a medical examination in regards to the rape, and she almost immediately recanted her charges. This didn't look good for them, and the jury was swaying. The final, most pivotal testimony, though, was the third. This girl, around the age of 20 or so if she had to guess, had claimed to have almost been kidnapped at a WayV concert, but got away. Thankfully, she had someone on the outside able to pull her any details she wanted. This could be her ticket.

"Miss, can you tell me exactly what happened on the night in question?" Sniffling with a fair amount of dramatics, she pushed her faded green hair away from her face. She needed to get her roots redone, her makeup was a walking disaster, and her outfit screamed koreaboo. Not only that, but her little show was basically terrible.

"Yes... I went to go see WayV in Seoul because I am-" She paused, letting her eyelids flutter. "I was one of their biggest fans. At the end of the show, I went to go look around, because I wanted to experience it for as long as possible. I found the entrance to the back parking lot, and who did I find there but Xuxi himself!" The use of his name- especially one that wasn't his stage name- by this trash? It made her sick to her stomach. Still, she continued.

"Go on?"

"He pushed me up against the stadium wall and asked me if I wanted to get on the tour bus with him. Of course I said yes, but when we got on, I noticed like, five other girls! Of course, he didn't like any of them as much as me, but it was super fishy, so I tried to leave. He grabbed me and told me that I couldn't go, so I jerked my arm away and ran for dear life!"

So much for being a great lawyer- the prosecution had really put this clown up here? As a serious witness? She became more confident as she saw the jury's faces fall and scrunch, evidently feeling the same way about this girls as she did. Now for the closer...

"Miss, I'll remind you that you're under oath. And in light of that, I'd like to put forth these facts: on the night in question, exactly twenty four minutes after the closing song, the entirety of WayV was escorted to the front foyer for a two-hour fansign, giving them a direct alibi for your timeframe backed by hundreds, if not thousands of witnesses." The judge's eyebrows raised as she waited for the witness' statement. When none came, the judge called the room's attention.

"Lying under oath is a federal crime that could be met with a probation, fine, or a prison sentence up to five years. You will be taken for further investigation, and your rights will be read to you." Y/N suppressed a smile as the girl was escorted through the main floor of the courtroom. She knew she should be professional, leave it at that, but she couldn't help it. Just before the girl exited through the side door, Y/N yelled,

"And keep Lucas's name out of your mouth!" With a slight murmur starting anew in the room, the judge slammed the gavel onto the desk.

"Order in my court! Miss Y/N, may I remind you that you are at risk of being held in contempt?"

"Yes, I apologize." She quickly muttered, already embarrassed by the action. As she said this, though, the other lawyer smirked, stepping up.

"Your honor, we'd like to speak to one more person, if that's alright."

"Of course, the trial may continue." Nodding the lady thanked her, spinning around to face the faces in the seats.

"The prosecution calls Wong Yuk-Hei to the stand."

Go to Chapter 10

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homespork-review · 4 years

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Homespork Act 4, Part 1: Blight of the Paradox Clones

BRIGHT: Act 4 opens on a loading sequence titled ‘GATE 1’, and then there’s a short pan down through firefly-dotted clouds to a dim blue landscape called the Land of Wind and Shade. John manifests at ground-level and it’s time for another walk-around game!

The icon in the upper right corner opens a conversation with Nannasprite, who’s still back in the house. Apparently she can’t accompany John around the Land, but she can certainly give him puzzling half-answers to any questions he might have. John asks her point-blank if she was always cryptic and evasive or if that’s a sprite thing, but she predictably avoids answering.

John wanders around the Land, getting into fights with (oddly non-aggressive) imps for grist. The Land is very atmospheric, with glowing blue mushrooms and odd pipes everywhere. It’s also inhabited by large, excitable, bipedal orange salamanders who blow bubbles and dispense information about the Land. One of them has acquired John’s bedsheets and is now calling itself a wizard.

A salamander standing by one of the pipes explains that it’s called a Parcel Pyxis. If you need something, you can chisel a picture of whatever it is into a stone tablet and drop it into a Parcel Pyxis. If you find a tablet, and you have what’s carved into it, it’s polite to drop it into the Pyxis and the Breeze will take it where it needs to go. (Just what the Breeze is isn’t explained yet, but given the name of the Land, it’s fair to assume an explanation will be forthcoming in due time, and it’s thematically consistent.)

While wandering, John finds a telescope. Looking through it, he sees his house, perched waaaaaay at the top of a very tall, very narrow rocky crag. He also finds a very large pipe sunk into the ground. He can hear something very, very big breathing at the bottom.

There are definite pros and cons to these games, but on the whole I like them. They’re more immersive than the usual comic panels, and it’s nice to do some self-directed wandering. On the other hand, it’s easy to miss something in a walk-around game, which hardly ever happens with comic panels…

FAILURE ARTIST: The Salamanders crack me up. Good parody of NPC chatter.

CHEL: Comic panels of the walkaround are included later on, so if you really hate the games you can read it straightforwardly.

John is confused by now being below his house when he went through a portal above it; Nanna cryptically claims that “To ascend, you must first descend!”

BRIGHT: With the game out of the way (it doesn’t really have a defined end point), we return to normal comic panels — and also to the future. AR is embroiled in a shootout with the snakes from PM’s ship, which are now firing laser beams. A stray blast decapitates the frog temple. AR returns fire with a rocket launcher. His first shot takes out the snake. The second knocks WV flying. WV lands behind a rock, and the carved pumpkin lands on his head. AR lines up his next shot...and pauses.

The carved image of Bec’s head seems to mean something to AR, because he immediately ceases fire and comes down to start yelling at WV. This turns out to be a poor move on his part: PM still has her sword, and she is not pleased.

I really, really like PM as a character. She has no dialogue whatsoever and still projects massive amounts of integrity.

The comic returns to Jade. She’s retrieved Dave’s Sburb discs from the time capsule, which is clearly going to move the plot along...

Looks like the TIME CAPSULE has reset itself. It is sprouting a new bud. Presumably something else will come out when it blooms again in about 400 years. Too bad you won't be around to find out what it is!

...aaaaaaand we go into sylladex shenanigans again.

I will say this for sylladex tomfoolery: It absolutely can break up tension and provide some lighter stretches in the plot. The problem is that these don’t always feel natural. I find them less annoying now and can appreciate the humour, but they really bugged me the first time around.

Still, Jade’s use of her sylladex does at least speak to her character.

Jade eventually settles on Pictionary modus, which means she has to draw a picture of whatever she wants to captchalogue. If she doesn’t have the drawn item to hand, her modus instead captures a “ghost image” of the item on a card, complete with alchemiter code. Handy! Unfortunately the modus has some trouble understanding Jade’s drawings, interpreting her picture of her eclectic bass as a regular electric bass.

Bec then catches up and teleports Jade back to her room. In a demonstration of unusual good sense, Jade promptly gets on with installing the Sburb Beta.

Back in the Land of Wind and Shade, John pesters Rose to ask if she’s here on the other side of the gate, in the “spooky glowy place with oily rivers and stuff”. She doesn’t respond. He does however get pestered by Jade, who is now awake and therefore fully aware of what Sburb is (much to John’s confusion). She tells him to go get his copy of the game so he can be her server player. John is convinced Jade is psychic, but she tells him that he has access to all the information she does, he just doesn’t know it yet.

Meanwhile, Dave is also trying to get in touch with Rose, also to no effect. Jade pesters him and they have a cute conversation in which Jade forgets how a reference goes, but Dave assures her she got it anyway. She tells him she’s setting up as his server player and shows him a picture of the meteor aimed at his house. There are no size comparison points available but Jade assures him that it’s really, really big.

TG: well as if like one the size of a bus wouldnt kill me anyway

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave describes his beating from his Guardian as “i got served like a dude on butler island” and Jade says it’s “(DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA)”. It’s hard to take the abuse seriously when none of the characters do.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 14

BRIGHT: In the Medium, John is getting pestered by carcinoGeneticist again. We now have a picture icon for CG. Look familiar? Yup, it’s the guy from the end of the Intermission.

So I guess this is the first time in the main comic that we get confirmed, visual proof that the trolls are aliens? It’s hard to point to, since the trolls get introduced gradually.

I’ve no idea how this was received in fandom when it first happened, but by the time I got to Homestuck, the fact that the trolls were grey folks with horns was probably the most famous feature of the canon, so...not so much of an impact. Still pretty cool though.

FAILURE ARTIST: I wish I could remember how the fandom took it.

The trolls in these early acts make a big deal all the time about how they are alien and the kids are human. It’s an amusing parody of the way aliens act in fiction but it is weird when the trolls become actual characters and we find out their psychology is surprisingly human most of the time.

CHEL: Hence the WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM count. That’ll spike later.

BRIGHT: CG is unexpectedly friendly this time. Apparently he’s been trolling John backwards through time, which is frustrating as each earlier John knows less and less, so CG keeps having to repeat himself. (Which...doesn’t make much sense? He’d have to explain more obvious stuff, sure, but John would remember things he was told in later-from-CG’s-perspective conversations, so...ugh, time travel!) Despite this frustration, however, John’s relentless friendliness apparently wore the trolls down and now they’re friends. Or at least CG thinks they are. John is less than convinced.

CHEL:

John asks if the trolls are in his land, but CG berates him for self-centredness:

CG: WE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR DUMB LITTLE WINDY PLANET OR YOUR PETTY LITTLE QUESTS. CG: OR FOR THAT MATTER YOUR ENTIRE GAME SESSION. CG: YOU AREN'T THE ONLY ONES PLAYING THE GAME. CG: EVERY GROUP OF PLAYERS GETS THEIR OWN DISTINCT, BLANK SLATE SESSION. CG: AS WILL BE EXPLAINED TO YOU MANY TIMES.

He instructs John to relay an apology for the trolling to Jade and to tell her to GET HER GROSS AND TOTALLY UNATTRACTIVE HUMAN BUTT OFF HER UGLY HUMAN HIGH HORSE AND ANSWER MY MESSAGES. John says he’s a bit focused on his own quest right now, and sets off to find his father’s car.

TIER: While that's happening, we cut back to the gaggle of aliens having a grand old time around a campfire with some good food. A familiar pair of squiddles, now old, is visible as well.

FAILURE ARTIST: AR/PM/WV was a popular OT3 back in the day but you never see it anymore.

CHEL: Pity. It’s adorable.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to Dave’s place, where Jade is setting things up for the game. The air conditioning unit helps with the process, but the birds everywhere don’t. Dave drops the r-slur.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 16

Rose also talks with Dave as this is going on. She says this to him.

TT: I've done nothing but wait for boys to play this game with me all day. TT: First John lollygagging with the client, and then you with the server, downright filibustering my existence with unending fraternal melee. TT: And yet a girl, one who didn't even own the game, was able to connect with you minutes after you connected with me.

I’ve seen this quoted as Rose/Jade Lesbian Power but I wish we had more scenes where the two actually talked to each other.

CHEL: Being happy that one of your friends is competent means you’re in love with them now? And yet if someone used that as evidence for a het ship they’d be run out of the fandom. Anyway, Jade removes Dave’s bed to make room.

TT: And there she goes. TT: She HAS the karma.

FAILURE ARTIST: Rose has been talking to a troll, but she doesn’t know the gender so uses “he/she/it”. Funny to think there was a time when we didn’t know the trolls’ gender. Particularly the gender of Rose’s favorite troll...

Jade tries to tidy up the apartment using “a woman’s touch” a.k.a. a towel drenched in toilet water. Which begs the question of how her home is spotless.

CHEL: Because Hussie is again not thinking through the implications of the living situations as presented, and/or trying to present things as simultaneously a joke and serious. To be fair, considering the dreambot, she could have a super hi-tech cleaning system, or Bec could teleport the dirt away, but if so, we ought to see that.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 10 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 15

FAILURE ARTIST: In doing so, she accidentally rips the toilet out and drops an F-bomb.

CHEL: We now get a video of Rose’s location, the LAND OF LIGHT AND RAIN. Her house is now perched on a tiny island surrounded by glimmering pastel oil-slick-looking water, a waterfall pouring down out of nowhere beside it, with golden clouds scattered around pouring rain. It’s very pretty!

We again see the carapaces finding things in the ruins, and WV brings PM to see inside the bunker. The blast earlier formed an entry into the third room which had been locked, which contains further devices, this one with more spirographs and a frog picture on it; WV doesn’t know what this one does and the power’s too low to use it anyway. Back in the room with the monitors, PM is impressed by WV’s drawings and he offers her the pack of chalk. AR, meanwhile, cooks food.

PM recognises the monitor as similar to the one in her own station, though hers was watching a girl. Here, we get the static panels of the runaround game, from PM’s point of view.

Back in LoLaR, a mysterious textbox in cursive addresses Rose as Seer, suggesting she explore. Recall that the book mentioned the Heir of Breath, the Seer of Light, the Witch of Space, and the Knight of Time. Since Jade is the one who’s been doing the Seer-ing so far, I’ve seen readers assume she was the Seer and Rose the Witch, but it seems not; further explanations of what those titles really mean are forthcoming.

Sudden cut back to John’s land, where the village is under attack! Huts are aflame, and much bigger and more powerful monsters have arrived.

In Dave’s apartment, Jade opens the cruxtruder by dropping the displaced toilet on it, splashing water everywhere, much to Dave’s aggravation since all that juice was going to come back to haunt me. He’s relieved to see the countdown gives him four hours, but Jade doesn’t know till what, and he realises she’s sleep-messaging him again. He orders her not to watch him pee, and dont put anything weird in the seizure kernel.

TG: the last thing i need is for your weird brain webcam to be snapping shots of my dong TG: your grandpa was a sick fuck why would he build a voyeurbot for a little girl CALL CPA PLEASE: 8

Well, he is kinda right. Anyway, Dave spends a couple of pages elaborately planning misuse of the apple juice bottle and tricking John into drinking from the alchemised bottle, but he dismisses it as too much trouble and goes in the shower, kicking out the puppet. Good thing it was only his bladder that was the problem, if you get my drift. Some fans have speculated that this puppet also had a camera in it, but I can’t see evidence of that; I guess if you squint the eyes might look like a camera lens? I feel if that was the case it would have been shown. Hussie didn’t shy away from the weird shit with Dave’s living situation earlier.

Jade is upset to find the bisected bird from earlier, and decides to help the bird by putting it in the Kernelsprite, angering Dave again. He figures she’ll be more helpful when she’s awake, so he instructs her to slap the air to her side; the dreambot mimics her movements and whacks the real Jade in the face, waking her up.

BRIGHT: I burst out laughing the first time I saw that panel. It’s pretty clever of Dave. (Though obviously not kind, but of a variety that’s in keeping with the story.)

CHEL: Cut to the carapace camp, where they’re burning empty crates for a campfire. AR decides to use the Squiddles to Win over that fine carapace in grey, which seems to distress WV and Serenity. PM takes a Squiddle, but rather than being won over is vaguely reminded of something.

TIER: We then jump back into the past, where we find a totalled car and what looks like AR?

CHEL: Yep, though here he’s going by Authority Regulator instead of Aimless Renegade.

TIER: Whatever the case, this dude is not happy with this traffic violation. Another thing he's not happy with? Unauthorized parcels. Which brings us to the Parcel Mistress, who's been looking for this particular package for a while apparently. Now how to get it?

With that we jump back to John! Who's doing decent enough in his clobbering of game enemies. Just when things ain't looking too hot though, a mysterious stranger shoots and kills them with extreme prejudice. He looks familiar ain't he?

And even if he's not, that gigantic book under his arm can only be the work of the ol’ Colonel Sassacre, which John helpfully points out.

CHEL: Meanwhile in some other time period, PM suddenly remembers she must deliver a message to John. Back in the present, Parcel Mistress, for it is she, finds a tablet carved (badly) by John, depicting the SBurb envelope. The prompt suggests PM ready her sword, but she has none, and claims she would never resort to violence. Instead, she tries asking politely. Despite their lands’ enmity, AR finds her attractive and doffs his hat so furiously you are in danger of starting a HAT FIRE. His civility does not extend to handing over contraband, though. The tablet is sufficient evidence for him to give her the envelope, but to get the green parcel she must ask his bosses. PM puts the envelope in a pyxis, trusting the Breeze to move it, and follows AR.

John plans to follow the man, who he does not yet recognise as Jade’s Grandpa, to get his book back, but first he must help put out the fire in the salamander village. He flings the BARBASOL BOMB he made earlier into the volcano.

The cooling lather should work its magic in no time…

OH GOD HOW CAN SHAVING CREAM BE SO FLAMMABLE

Yeah, that doesn’t work so well. Fortunately, just as all seems lost, A big gust of wind conveniently comes along and blows out all the fire. The salamanders declare John a hero, though he’s just confused.

FAILURE ARTIST: A prompt (PM) asks John if he still has the tablet and if he wants to carve something on it. So, in another time loop, he does that.

Back at LOLAR, a very elegant and mysterious prompt ask Rose to find Jaspersprite. Rose cannot find him, but she does find footprints leading to the mausoleum. The mausoleum isn’t there anymore, but the underground passage is still there. Rose takes it down to a pier where someone has recently taken a boat and left a martini. The mysterious prompt says “A mother will do whatever is best for her children.” Nobody ever said “a brother will do whatever is best for his siblings”.

In the future, WV becomes the Mayor of Exile Town. The peace is disturbed when a “huge eggy looking thing” appears in the sky.

Cut to Jade giving the punch card of an “eggy loking thign (sic)”. Guess someone on the forum had bad spelling?

CHEL: It’s a callback to Rose describing the other unfinished GameFAQs entries, which were typed in haste. One described their entry item that way.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave creates a huge red bird with a huge red egg. When he tries to use the egg, the crow sprite takes it and puts it in a nest made of smuppets, swords, and Lil Cal.

Dave doesn’t have enough grist to do anything. He fusses around building what he can. That done, he goes inside and installs gristTorrent to steal grist from John. Who exactly made that software?

Meanwhile, in LOLAR, Rose has set up shop on the pier. The mysterious prompter tells her to consult with the Heir and in the pesterlog we see she’s chatting with John. They catch up on the trolls and various things. Unfortunately, Rose is harassed by a gallowsCalibrator who tells her in 133t speak that her mother hates her and left her forever. Amazing that GC eventually becomes a beloved character since they are such a little shit right now. GC has synesthesia and jokes about their species communicating through “CLOUDS OF FR4GR4NT G4S3S”. They want to be helpful, but they deny wanting to be friends, though later they say they are becoming something called “H4T3FR13NDS”.

CHEL: Rose asks if I'm being courted or trolled here, which with further reveals about the trolls will become somewhat ironic. Other trolls are jumping around in time but GC is ST4Y1NG L1N34R [...] C4US3 W31RD T1M3 STUFF G1V3S ME A H34D4CHE, though will jump forward in the timeline so they don’t have to wait too long between conversations.

BRIGHT: GC isn’t the only one...

FAILURE ARTIST: GC explains the voices in the players’ heads are from the Exiles on Earth. The ultimate goal is to create a new civilization with them. With that important information, GC bids adieu for now.

TT: So the exiles are on Earth? Does that mean our goal is to get back there too? To resurrect it somehow? GC: NO NO NO GC: S33 1RON1C4LLY TH3Y G3T TO DO TH4T GC: 4FT3R TH3YR3 DON3 H3LP1NG YOU TH4T 1S GC: YOUR JOB 1S OF GR34T3R CONS3QU3NC3 TO S4Y TH3 L34ST GC: BUT P4RT OF TH31R JOB 1S TO R3BU1LD L1F3 4ND C1V1L1Z4T1ON TH3R3 GC: 4ND 1F TH3YR3 SUCC3SSFUL 1N THOUS4NDS OR M1LL1ONS OF Y34RS TH3 T3CHNOLOGY 1S UN34RTH3D 4ND TH3 PL4N3T 1S R1P3 FOR S33D1NG 4LL OV3R 4G41N TT: You never answered the question. Where were they exiled from? GC: FROM TH3 TWO K1NGDOMS 1N TH3 1NC1P1SPH3R3 GC: 3XP4TR14T3D DUR1NG TH3 R3CKON1NG

CHEL: We now know who and what the Exiles are, so let’s lop off a point for that:

WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 8

FAILURE ARTIST: Back in the past, when John went by ghostyTrickster, he tries to have a conversation with Jade but it’s interrupted by CG warning her that her robot will explode. After CG leaves, Jade and John talk about the trolls. Seems blocking does no good. John drops the r-slur.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 17

We cut to CG being gray and angry in some mysterious grey room.

Then, back to Jade. Her package from her pen-pal appears again.

Cut to ghostyTrickster John. GC trolls him, outs herself as female and blind, and threatens to cut his throat “4ND L1ST3N TO YOU BL33D WH1L3 1 SM3LL YOU D13”. John is naturally unnerved by this, but he also takes inspiration from her taunt that he’s bad at ectobiology.

CHEL: He takes for his new username a term that the trolls introduced him to, and is surprised when they immediately find him? Maybe we DID need a Too Dumb To Live count.

FAILURE ARTIST: We cut to a troll like CG, but with red glasses and a Libra sign on her shirt. This is our first look at gallowsCallibrator.

CHEL: Okay, does the death threat qualify for SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER? It’s a bit extreme considering at this point in his timeline John has done nothing to offend her. Then again, maybe not; the narrative doesn’t present this as being the right and proper thing to do.

Back in the present, PM arrives in enemy territory, with the parking citation as a ready excuse for her presence. Imps and agents she passes now have features from Jaspersprite; cat faces, princess hats, and we see a DD-like figure wearing a cat-ear headband. PM follows a red carpet, only to be confronted at the end by this eldritch-looking majesty:

PM is naturally trembling, but is merely instructed to speak to the Archagent, who we’ve met before; Jack Noir. We see a ring with four pearl-like orbs on the monarch’s hand; this will become important later.

Rose’s Exile voice bids her farewell, telling her to Find your sprite. Realise your purpose. No longer guided, Rose decides to start making her own decisions, beginning with a sip of martini.

In the desert, A WINDSWEPT QUESTANT suddenly appears, this being a tall white carapace with a feminine figure and narrow eyes, from the eggy lokin thign, with the unsound effect EGG! WV and AR appear disconcerted, while PM is busy telling John to put the carved tablet in the pyxis.

Back in Jack Noir’s office, PM attempts to grab the green box and leave, but Jack appears suddenly behind her, making her jump, and tells her she’d better have the ticket payment or you are wasting valuable time he could otherwise spend shirking his clerical duties. PM nervously explains she’s actually here for the package, and Jack points out she doesn’t have the right courier forms.

In spite of how he's supposed to be dressed now but isn't, he ain't nobody's fool.

However, instead, she could always do an errand for him. Specifically, following his HIT LIST, which is two pictures of white crowns recognisable as the tops of the king and queen chess pieces. He also gives her the enormous black sword we saw her future self use. PM, terrified, departs, and Jack wonders if she’s actually stupid enough to try it.

You make a policy of handing out a REGISWORD and a HITLIST to just about everyone who enters your office.

Curious, he opens the package, and stares into it in surprise.

At Dave’s apartment, Jade has put the Punch Designix in the hallway, making it rather hard to navigate, but regardless Dave’s busy alchemising. He plays with a few add-ons which temporarily render the machines unusable, but eventually manages to use a jumper shunty thing to consolidate all the machines into one. Jade draws some components, gets the captcha codes of their ghost images, and sends the codes to Dave, who plugs them into the machine. Useful, but could probably be compressed into fewer pages, especially when he follows it up by playing with the new machinery. This is adding to my conviction that the machines should have been simplified severely in the first place.

GET ON WITH IT!: 15

John finds the wrecked car with no dad, package, or game, and gets trolled by GC again. She offers to help him, claiming she wants to H3LP YOU 4DV4NC3 MOR3 QU1CKLY because she’s bored watching his long adventure and wants to help him skip ahead. John points out she could just skip forward on the timeline as she has before, and she admits that she just wants to see if she can change the timeline, as her friends don’t believe they can. She offers him a map, which he accepts.

John complains, naturally, and she relents and offers to guide him directly to the pipe which will help him skip to the next Gate. Honestly, he has reason to complain; her smellovision allows her to read text on a screen, yet not to draw?

Rose, back in LOLAR, battles monsters, doing surprisingly well considering she only has knitting needles for a weapon, culminating in an epic sequence in which she stabs both needles into an ogre’s eyes, flips onto its back, and uses her knitting as reins to ride it down the waterfall. Dave informs her he’s out of grist, but she finds the idea of killing the ogre for supplies when it’s unconscious to be distasteful. He’s interrupted by grimAuxiliatrix, The Troll Who Talks Like This, asking about Rose. The conversation is awkward as GA seems unable to read Dave’s sarcasm.

GA: She Perhaps Even Regards You With Uh GA: Endearment TG: you have no idea dude she is so in my grill TG: like a stray hotdog that rolled down there TG: and now its too much trouble to fish out with the tongs TG: so you just watch it like crack and turn black GA: Um Is This GA: A Common Sort Of Practice In Human Courtship GA: Watching Oblong Meat Products Tumble Into Places They Dont Belong

adiosToreador, meanwhile, does the same to Rose about Dave, with a similar lack of comprehension of Rose’s loquaciousness. GA contacts Rose again, and a confusing conversation about temporal mechanics ensues. Afterwards, we see GA, who proves to be a short-haired troll girl with pronged horns, a Virgo shirt symbol (my troll!), and cute little vampire teeth.

FAILURE ARTIST: It’s been too long for me to remember the fandom reaction, but I feel like the reveal that GA is a girl was framed like a surprise. Surprise! This troll is a lesbian! But I might be mistaken. Still, this isn’t like Dave’s (mock?) offended reaction to AT. Hussie, like many straight men, is more comfortable with lesbians than gay men.

We’ll see more of Rose’s and GA’s relationship as the comic goes on. Some non-Homestucks here might already be spoiled due to the numerous fanart of the two.

CHEL: I wasn’t surprised by her being a girl; maybe I’m stereotyping, but the prissy nature of her dialogue and quirk sounded feminine to me from the start, not to mention the “trix” ending of her username is a feminine one - if she was male, it would be “auxiliator”. Not sure how many people paid attention to that though. I was surprised by the later information that (SPOILER) she actually was interested in Rose, because facetious declarations of romantic intention are kind of a thing for the human kids at this point and her flustered reaction could be taken either way here.

Dave, meanwhile, is trolled by AT, with the most cringe-inducing text-rap I’ve ever seen (and text-rapping is pretty cringy to begin with). I gotta praise Hussie, it takes skill to make something this awful.

AT: oK, lET ME, AT: oRGANIZE MY NOTES HERE, AT: oKAYYY, AT: (tURN ON SOME STRICT BEATS MAYBE, iT WILL HELP TO LISTEN TO THEM WHILE i DESTROY YOU,) AT: wHEN THE POLICE MAN BUSTS ME, aND POPS THE TRUNK, AT: hE'S ALL SUPRISED TO FIND I'M TOTING SICK BILLY, AT: wHOSE, AT: gOAT IS THAT, hE ASKS, wHILE HE STOPS TO THUNK AT: aBOUT IT, aND i'S JUST SAY IT'S DAVE'S, yOU SILLY AT: gOOSE,

Since we’ll later find out trolls don’t have the concept of police in the same way humans do, and nor do they call animals by the same names we do, I think this is worth some WSP points. Did he watch Dave’s life closely enough to pick up those concepts?

BRIGHT: I get the distinct impression none of the trolls watched anything like enough of the kids’ lives to pick up the concept of the police, particularly since as we’ll see later they missed a few things that are rather more obvious -- such as, say, parents.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 11

CHEL: He also namedrops Prospit and Derse, which I’m not really spoiling anything by saying are the names of the two warring chess kingdoms, though I don’t think those names have been applied to them yet. I don’t know why, it’s not like keeping them secret makes a big difference - did Hussie only just think of them? The quality of his rhymes aside, AT appears very proud of himself; he’s a troll with enormous bull-like horns, a mohawk, and a Taurus symbol. I thought he was really creepy-looking the first time I saw him, but he rather grew on me.

Back on LOWAS, John is squirted out of a pipe with a gush of oil. Ew. The Con Air bunny goes flying and lands in an oil river, and he catches it with the Ghost Gauntlets. An adult and child pair of salamanders happen to be standing nearby, prompting a movie re-enactment, much to the salamanders’ confusion.

Watch on YouTube

CG is unimpressed, though he agrees with John that Con Air sounds entertaining. CG claims to have been watching the whole of John’s life and Con Air is supposed to be one of John’s favourite movies; how come CG hasn’t seen any of it before, especially since he says he has seen a movie John hates?

CG: OK I DON'T SEE HOW WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE BECOMING FRIENDS IF YOU RECOIL FROM MY OLIVE BRANCH LIKE I'M WIGGLING A GNARLED TREE MONSTER'S DICK IN YOUR DIRECTION.

Lovely. Though I gotta say the dialogue and ridiculous extended metaphors are one of the best parts of Homestuck. Wish I could pull those off. However, one point here; if they’re aliens, it seems odd that they would use human idioms such as “olive branch” with the same meaning we do. There is a possible explanation later on, but since they only ever use American/Western phrases like this and it’s clear from other things they say that they didn’t pick up anything much about human culture from watching the kids, I’m upping the count anyway.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 12

BRIGHT: We also discover that troll movies are titled very differently to human movies, such as the classic

CG: WHEREIN NUMEROUS VIGILANTES CONFRONT PERIL; ONE OF THEM BETRAYS THE OTHERS;(BUT IT TURNS OUT TO BE PART OF THE PLAN ALL ALONG); CG: SEVERAL ATTRACTIVE FEMALE LEADS PROVOKE ROMANTIC TENSION; FOUR MAJOR CHARACTERS WEAR UNUSUAL HATS; ONE HOLDS PLOT-CRITICAL SECRET; CG: 47 ON-SCREEN EXPLOSIONS, ONE RESULTING IN DEMISE OF KEY-ADVERSARY;6 TO 20 LINES THAT COULD BE CONSTRUED AS HUMOROUS; EB: wait... EB: this is the title? CG: IT GOES ON.

Apparently after thousands of years of film history, you start running out of movie titles.

Also, note that despite their being aliens, quite possibly with different gender roles, the romantic tension is explicitly provided by attractive female leads.

WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 13

CG thinks that Earth civilisation’s lack of maturity might explain why the players are (apparently) doing so badly. John retorts that GC is helping him, so they can’t be doing THAT badly. Apparently this wasn’t in the plan; CG goes to talk to GC about it, and she punches him. Seems she’s talking to a future John at the moment, and he asked her to. CG gives John a message to pass on to GC in reply.

CG: TELL HER TO POLISH MY HEAVING BONE BULGE AND SET A TABLE FOR FUCKING TWO ON IT. CG: IT’S FOR OUR CANDLELIT HATE DATE.

John comments that it’s like they’re trolling each other through him now, and asks if CG has talked to Jade. CG is surprised that he’d want to talk to her. John offers to paste the chatlog; CG refuses, and John heads off to talk to GC.

CHEL: Precisely what a bone bulge is is never explained. Context makes it clear it’s an unsavoury body part, and it sounds like a term for one’s dick, even though the boner does not in fact contain bones in humans. The assumption early in the fandom was that the trolls had primarily human anatomy, which seems odd to me considering Kanaya’s complete obliviousness to her Oblong Meat Products comment - most teenagers familiar with human penises would be on that instantly. Anyway, there soon came a phase of experimentation, and by now we seem to have settled on the “functional-hermaphrodites with tentacle dicks” theory. Which is weird, because a tentacle doesn’t sound like something which would be referred to with the word “bone”, does it?

GC’s laughing mouth is reflected in John’s glasses as they speak in what I desperately hope is a shoutout to the Corinthian. She calls John STUP1DLY 4DOR4BLE (minor typo on the comic’s part as the E in her quirk should be a 3) and laughs at CG’s frustration. John relays an approximation of CG’s message:

EB: he wants you to touch his bone lump or something. GC: WH4T!!! EB: and that he's pretty much basically in love with you.

GC asks him to copy-paste the convo for proof but John refuses, saying it was a private conversation, and informs GC that she’s going to punch CG soon. In other news, referring to these characters with only their handle initials when I know their actual names is hard.

On GC’s instructions, John turns around, to discover this hard-to-miss landmark:

This, according to GC, is the D3N1Z3NS P4L4C3, in which the Denizen sleeps on a grist hoard so big their alchemising could never make a dent in it.

GC: USU4LLY HOW 1TS SUPPOS3D TO GO 1S GC: OV3R TH3 COURS3 OF YOUR QU3ST GC: YOU W1LL W4K3 TH3 D3N1Z3N GC: 4ND TH3N F1N4LLY YOU GO THROUGH TH3 S3V3NTH G4T3 GC: WH1CH 1S TH3 ONLY W4Y 1NTO TH3 P4L4C3 GC: TH3N YOU GO DOWN 4ND F1GHT TH3 D3N1Z3N GC: 4ND K1LL 1T GC: R3L3AS1NG TH3 HO4RD EB: so what's my advantage? GC: YOU WONT BOTH3R W4K1NG 1T GC: W3 W1LL SK1P R1GHT TO TH3 S3V3NTH G4T3 GC: F1ND 1TS L41R GC: 4ND K1LL 1T 1N 1TS SL33P

The grist hoard, GC claims, is for the ULT1M4T3 4LCH3MY, but she won’t explain what this is yet, and she leads John to a R3TURN NOD3 which takes him back to his home to prepare.

In the desert, AR and WV hammer some metal to make a gift for the Windswept Questant, which proves to be a crown. PM is shocked to see this, and emerges from the bunker, sword in hand.

Meanwhile, in a long-discarded memory… A PARCEL MISTRESS seeks audience with royalty.

It seems Windswept Questant is in fact, of course, the White Queen.

PM explains recent events and seeks her queen’s advice, showing her the hit list requesting the white monarchs’ crowns. WQ is wearing a ring similar to that of the monarch we met earlier, the Black Queen. Four orbs are attached to it, two light and two dark. On removing it, WQ loses all her elaborate prototyping accoutrements and becomes the normal-looking carapace we saw in her Windswept Questant identity. WQ seems to have a plan; instead of requiring PM to kill her to finish her fetch quest, she simply hands over her crown and ring, and instructs PM to find the White King on the battlefield. Flashing forward to the desert, WQ places her new crown on PM’s head, much to the astonishment of their companions.

On LOLAR, beneath waterfalls pouring from hovering pink turtle shells, Rose frustratedly consults with Jaspersprite, who will apparently only meow. However, when asked a direct question, Jaspersprite is able to respond. He is attempting to fish with his tentacles, but there are no fish, because her Denizen ate everything in the ocean and got so full that it took a long nap. Being as cryptic as Nannasprite, he won’t, however, explain what the message he gave to young Rose meant, saying she’ll understand when she wakes up.

JASPERSPRITE: Rose im just a cat and i dont know much but i know that youre important and also you are what some people around here call the Seer of Light. JASPERSPRITE: And you dont know what that means but you will see its all tied together! JASPERSPRITE: All the life in the ocean and all the shiny rain and the songs in your head and the letters they make. JASPERSPRITE: A beam of light i think is like a drop of rain or a long piece of yarn that dances around when you play with it and make it look enticing! JASPERSPRITE: And the way that it shakes is the same as what makes notes in a song! JASPERSPRITE: And a song i think can be written down as letters. JASPERSPRITE: So if you play the right song and it makes all the right letters then those letters could be all the letters that make life possible. JASPERSPRITE: So all you have to do is wake up and learn to play the rain!

FAILURE ARTIST: Hussie is very good at writing the dialogue of a kitten turned into a game NPC, you’ve got to hand it to him.

CHEL: It’s also worth noting that his colours have stopped flashing pink and purple, and he’s settled on pink.

Rose asks Jade for further information, and learns that all four of the kids have a dream self which must awaken; Rose deduces Jade’s has been awake as long as they’ve known each other. Jade is in fact asleep now, and can only message at the moment because of her robot. Rose’s dream self is dreaming troubled dreams, causing the real Rose to suffer nightmares all her life, and to stop this she must discover how to wake her dream self.

GG: maybe the stuff you wrote on your walls can give you a clue? TT: What stuff? GG: the.... GG: er GG: didnt dave tell you?

Utterly heartwarming moment; we see in John’s dream tower, and Jade has drawn over the LAME KID messages and creepy clown faces on John’s walls with a big bright yellow heart and the message wake up john!!! you can do it!!!

Rose wants to know what’s going on, but Dave is unavailable. The meteor is about to land and he’s scrambling his way up the tower to his kernelsprite’s nest to retrieve the entry egg.

Back at John’s house, he finds the useless rocket-pack-combined-with-junk he experimentally alchemised earlier; GC tells him that the trolls’ resident hacker, who we haven’t met yet, can use its code to create a usable jetpack. Said hacker doesn’t want to talk to them but WONT B3 4BL3 TO R3S1ST TH3 CH4LL3NG3.

John sends the mishmash code…

GC: OK B3 B4CK IN L3SS TH4N ON3 S3COND GC: PCHOOOOO EB: hello? GC: WH4T EB: it thought you said you'd be back in less than a second? GC: 1 W4S GC: 1 G4V3 YOU TH3 COD3 GC: 1TS PCHOOOOO

Hee. The misunderstanding leads into a brief argument, GC claiming that 3V3N YOU 4ND YOUR UND3RD3V3LOP3D BON3 NOOK W1LL B3 4BL3 TO F1GUR3 OUT WH4T TO DO. Once again, we don’t know what a bone nook is. Context could imply either an obscene body part or a brain-related one. Common fanon holds that it’s the vagina, others have objected and said it surely must mean anus; neither of those sound like a “bone” anything to me, and in fact bone would be horribly counterproductive for organs which have to perform peristalsis. Someone did point out to me that it could mean a place to put the metaphorical bone, but that wasn’t what I immediately thought.

FAILURE ARTIST: I don’t think the phrase “bone nook” ever comes up again, though the word “nook” by itself does and it can be replaced with the word “ass” in those cases. Basically, trolls aren’t a fictional species crafted with any care. Hussie wanted some annoying alien characters with a visual callback to “Little Monsters” and it somehow got out of control.

CHEL: Actually, I believe it does come up in Hiveswap Act 1! But we’ll get to that.

John answers a message from Dave, who now claims to be in the Medium, saying it took him four hours. He asks for advice, saying his sprite wants him to prototype it again, and Rose is randomly asleep.

TG: ok fine but TG: it seems to be suggesting something here TG: and TG: i guess im kinda weirded out by its suggestion EB: i don't know, just do what it says! EB: it knows stuff about the game, so it probably knows better than i do...

Not a good sign. John decides to Take dear, sweet Casey (the baby salamander) into protective custody by captchaloguing her, and blasts off for the gate.

Cut to an animated sequence in The Land of Heat and Clockwork, a nightmarish lava-scape covered in machinery (convection schmonvection), where Dave is being extremely badass and surprisingly successful for someone with only half a sword. In fact, multiple Daves appear to be present. We also see, unfortunately, exactly what he prototyped:

Watch on YouTube

Calsprite is even less helpful than the other two, providing a constant soundtrack of creepy laughter while Dave begs him to shut up. According to Dave’s ensuing convo with Rose, this has been going on for four months. That’s… pretty terrifying even before we hear everything that went wrong. John was unsurprisingly instantly slain by his Denizen, and thus couldn’t save Jade from her meteor. Dave, however, has now mastered the art of time travel via the magical turntables he’s created, and intends to go back and prevent all that from happening, now that they’ve spent four months gathering information their past selves can use. Rose is afraid of ceasing to exist; Dave assures her that their dream selves exist outside the standard passage of time, and this will help her dream self wake sooner.

FAILURE ARTIST: The trolls also stopped “trolling” Dave and Rose after John died. This isn’t the end of the trolls, of course.

Dave uses his turntables to go to the past. We cut to a conversation we just saw, where Dave has just entered the Medium and John is about to go pchooooo, except this time from Dave’s roof.

GET ON WITH IT!: 16

Except at the end, Dave tells John not to go. See, Dave from the future just arrived on Dave from the present’s roof. John refuses to believe that this is happening, thinking it’s just a prank. Not even putting future!Dave on the line convinces John. So, future!Dave unloads everything he has in a stack and flips back into the Crowsprite to become a new characters: Davesprite.

CHEL: Note that, instead of Dave’s theme colour of red, Davesprite is orange. I did wonder if this was potentially supposed to show that Bro (whose theme colour is orange) is overwriting/overshadowing Dave’s real self, but since the sprites of the others aren’t the theme colours of their respective kids (Nannasprite is teal to John’s dark blue and Jaspersprite pink to Rose’s purple) I don’t think this is really a reliable sign. Pin in the colours, though, that’ll come up later.

FAILURE ARTIST: Meanwhile, John blasts off with the words “THIS IS STUPID”.

Present!Rose tries to pester Dave, and we get another repeated conversation.

GET ON WITH IT!: 17

Present!Rose decides to nap, and at that moment, Future Dream Rose ceases to exist and becomes absorbed by Present!Rose. I think.

WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 9

Davesprite pesters GC to tell her not to talk to John anymore. GC first reacts by saying “YOU SM3LL L1K3 OR4NG3 CR34MS1CL3S” but then finds out she killed John. She had assumed since she could talk to John in the future, he hadn’t died, but she guessed there was a chance he could die. She’s a little put-out and wants to apologize, but she’s not as sad as you’d expect someone who accidentally killed someone to be. Davesprite asks who is in charge of timeline management.

GC: SH3 DO3SNT W4NT TO T4LK TO 4NY OF YOU GC: 4ND H4S M1SG1V1NGS 4BOUT TH1S WHOL3 TH1NG GC: NOT 4LL OF US 4R3 TH4T 3NTHUS1AST1C 4BOUT TROLL1NG YOU GUYS GC: 4ND TH3 ON3S WHO 4R3 SORT OF SUCK 4T 1T >:|

We do get to meet her, but not until the next act when we meet all the trolls.

Davesprite gives GC permission to talk to John if she cuts out her “coy bullshit antics”. GC mocks his threatening tone and points out she’s higher on the echeladder, from the future, and blind. Davesprite says his self-prototyping gave him great powers and GC says that was a bad idea. They then engage in some banter over GC posting screencaps of Wheeler from Captain Planet (which she calls a “soap opera”). Davesprite and GC end the conversation with mutual respect. Which is honestly really weird after all future!Dave had to go through because of GC.

CHEL: Does this count for SLAMMER points? I think it does. Here’s the first of our new count, then!

SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 1

This will go up whenever a character does something awful and neither the narrative nor the other characters seem to care.

This also brings us into another point. We’ve seen only hints of it, but alternate timelines are a big theme of this comic. Davesprite in particular is a major focus of said theme, specifically the nature of his personhood separately from the focal or “alpha” Dave. However, as we see here, not even the Dave from the dead John’s timeline particularly seems to mind that John just died in an alternate timeline. At the moment, they appear to feel that because there is an alive John, everything is okay. Let’s see how that progresses.

FAILURE ARTIST: Davesprite and present!Dave (who I guess we can just call Dave at this point) talk. Davespite says as a sprite he has lots of knowledge but is obligated to put it in riddles. However, he says he doesn’t feel like it so he’ll answer Dave straight.

DAVE: alright DAVE: here goes DAVE: why are we so fucking awesome DAVESPRITE: thats the best fucking question anybody ever asked

After that best fucking question, Dave asks if John will be alright. Davesprite says that’s up to John, and if John doesn’t listen they’ll just bail him out again. Davesprite says the gear he piled up will help Dave get to the next gate. The two versions of Dave decide to collaborate on a SBaHJ comic and fist “bunp”.

Meanwhile, “hundreds of pages ago”, John gets his bunny from Dave. We see Dave’s note and it’s cool how each of the kids have their own style of handwriting. There’s a very prophetic sentence in this sweet note:

one day your gooberish ways are gonna land you in a jam and i know im going to have to get you off the hook but its cool i got your back bro.

We cut to the present, where John is blasting off. The human emotion of friendship causes him to reconsider his action. John pesters Dave and tells him he’s just flying around and not going to the gate. Crisis averted.

This might seem like a cul de sac, but it created a new character (Davesprite) and introduced many concepts, so it really isn’t.

CHEL: Primarily, it introduced the theme of jumping around in time in the literal sense as well as just hopping between apparently-disconnected scenes. The latter’s not a generally well-advised style of writing, but considering the time travel motif of the comic, I think it actually works fine here. Also, as a webcomic, if one spends too long on one group of characters then by the time you get back to the other ones the readers will probably not remember what happened, so shorter scenes for each group are probably more acceptable than in a novel or movie.

CG trolls John again, and after a discussion of their becoming reverse anti-mutual friends, John complains that CG hasn’t really answered his questions.

CG: SO GO AHEAD, ASK ME ANYTHING. EB: ok... EB: what's the point of the game. CG: ASK SOMETHING ELSE. CG: ALREADY TOLD YOU THAT.

John asks where they are now in their Medium, and CG explains they’re HIDING IN THE VEIL, a meteor belt between the two planets. To clarify the layout for our readers, Skaia the big ball of sky is in the centre, with Prospit the golden planet orbiting it closely enough for its moon to enter Skaia during the “eclipse” where Jade gets her visions. Then there are the players’ Lands, their little adventure planets where the consorts live, the consorts being the little NPC creatures (in John’s case, the salamanders). Every player has a Land of Something and Something. Beyond the Lands is the Veil, and beyond that is the Furthest Ring, the orbit of Derse, the dark planet.

CG: OK, THERE COMES A TIME WHEN BLACK INEVITABLY BEATS WHITE CG: ON THE BATTLEFIELD IN THE CENTER OF SKAIA CG: THE WHITE KING IS CAPTURED OR KILLED OR SOMETHING CG: THAT'S WHEN THE RECKONING STARTS. EB: ok... CG: THE RULERS OF DERSE CG: THE BLACK KING AND QUEEN CG: GET THE POWER TO SEND THE VEIL TOWARD SKAIA CG: TO DESTROY IT CG: THAT KIND OF STARTS YOUR BIG "COUNTDOWN" CG: WHEN SHIT GETS SERIOUS. EB: so then it's up to us to save it? CG: YEAH, YOU HAVE THAT LONG TO KILL THE BLACK QUEEN AND KING CG: AND SKAIA ITSELF SORT OF BUYS YOU SOME TIME CG: BY ACTIVATING ITS DEFENSE PORTALS CG: TO CATCH SOME OF THE METEORS

Ordinarily, the players would have plenty of time before this happens, but something done by the human players has caused things to go wrong, and now they’ve not only ruined their own chance of winning, but somehow affected the trolls’ game too. CG refuses to explain how, because he’s already told him again.

John asks if they’re hiding in a crater or something, but no, CG explains there are buildings in the Veil. It’s considered neutral ground, and both sides have laboratories there where they genetically engineer new soldiers and agents. John asks CG to tell GC “nice try”, but he refuses.

Now comes the mid-point animation of the act, “[S] Jack: Ascend”. I thought it was an ending animation, but no, there’s still more. If you don’t want to or can’t watch video I’ll explain the content, but I do recommend it.

Watch on YouTube

Pan over the Skaian system, from LOWAS to the Veil to the purple towers of Derse. Four towers are close together, topped by orbs. On three of them, we see the silhouettes of the sprites, while the fourth is dark. Jack Noir sits at his desk, doing paperwork, a pink princess dress on a stand next to it. He doodles on a parking ticket, declaring the Black Queen to be a HUGE BITCH. Closeup on BQ’s hips as she approaches, because we totally needed gratuitous sex appeal. She’s remarkably curvy for a probably-non-mammal. Still, we’ll forgive the standard scifi tropes. Jack watches on the Fenestrated Wall, until BQ appears and hacks it in half. She waves the dress and a pink pointed hat at him; apparently, now that the princess doll has been prototyped, the carapaces must represent it in their clothing as well as the jester. Jack is understandably displeased, and after a quick-fire montage of various outfits representing the sprites’ themes, he tears the final colourful tunic up.

Meanwhile, Rose’s dreamself has awoken, and discovers what she wrote on her walls; the word MEOW and other arrangements of the letters M, E, O, and W, over and over again, over every inch of the walls except the part covered by her bed. She finally remembers what Jaspers said to her, which was, of course, MEOW. This seems like nonsense, but as she looks, the letters switch to G, C, A, and T, the letters used to denote DNA nucleotides. It’s a genetic code.

The guardians, meanwhile, are battling enormous monsters; Mom and Dad respectively punch out a three-eyed spider-like giant and a rock cyclops, Dad pausing afterwards to carve a hat on a pyxis tablet, and Bro swordfights against a lava-dwelling tentacle beast.

Back to Jack, matters have got worse; not only are the carapaces required to dress like the sprites, but Davesprite still has the sword sticking through his torso, so now so must Jack. Considering what else we’ve seen carapaces survive, he’d probably be fine, but he’s still understandably hesitant. BQ offers him a sword, but he slices off her ring-bearing finger, which… causes her to explode? Jack puts on the ring, which causes Derse to glow white and him to sprout the features of the sprites; a sword grows from him without him having to fall on it, and wings and tentacles emerge. End scene.

So, approximately, human children have possibly caused the destruction of an alien civilisation’s last hope by putting a cat in a princess dress. Whatever else you think of Homestuck, you can’t say it’s not inventive.

BRIGHT: It is that, among other things.

COUNTS ALL THE LUCK: 0 ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 15 CALL CPA PLEASE: 8 CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 17 GET ON WITH IT!: 17 GORE GALORE: 9 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 15 HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 6 IN HATE WITH MY CREATION: 0 RELATIONSHIP GOALS?: 1 SEND THEM TO THE SLAMMER: 1 SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS: 0 WHAT IS HAPPENING??: 9 WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 13 TOTAL: 111

#homestuck #homestuck review #homestuck meta #homestuck reread #let's read homestuck

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friedengineeryouth-blog1 · 4 years

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7 Work from Home Essentials

Working from home used to be a dream for a lot of 9 to 5 jobholders before, but if you ask them now — the story is quite different.

Remote work is always a double-edged sword. It can be a good thing and it also can be a bad thing. The two foremost things you need to keep in mind are productivity and health while you are working from home.

Both are very important for your work and both go hand in hand. Hence, here is a list of seven essential things you need to have at your home.

Let’s dive in…

Essential Items:

Dedicated workspace

A comfortable chair

Armor laptop radiation pad

Noise-cancelling headphones

A reliable and fast internet connection

Project Management Software

Solid keyboard, mouse, and monitor

#1 Dedicated Workspace

If you are like me, it is very easy to overlook this simple but effective tool. Trust me, I have experienced a lot of struggles just because of an uncomfortable workspace. An effective workspace can impact you in a lot more ways than you can imagine.

Workspace may not look significant but think of your office atmosphere and why it makes you work. Yes, it looks professional and is a soothing environment at the same time.

Due to its serene surroundings, you don’t feel any negative vibe around your workspace and it lets you work without distractions. Hence, try to create a workspace that replicates your office environment. Keep it clean, keep it organized, and keep it functional.

In short, keep a clutter-free environment.

#2 A comfortable chair

Time and time again, I’ve noticed that having a great chair is crucial to being productive. A comfortable chair doesn’t make you feel uneasy while doing your work.

Also, your back, arms rest, and comfortable height are all significant while you are doing your work. Make sure you have a comfortable seat so that you can work properly and be productive at home

Most of all, a comfortable chair is great for your body.

#3 Armor

If you are working on your laptop for long hours, it is most likely that you are going to face a lot of health issues in the future. Laptops not only emit heat but also emit some harmful radiation.

I have been constantly worried about my health due to this very reason. Recent studies go on to show that radiation from laptops can lead to several health issues, some even as serious as infertility in men and miscarriages in women.

So, I have now decided to buy one good Armor that can shield the laptop from emitting harmful radiation and heat.

Working in front of a laptop for a major portion of our day is exhausting, to say the least. Therefore, it is very important to take care of your health.

#4 Noise-canceling headphones

One of the hardest things at home is probably working without any disturbances. We all know the home environment is entirely different compared to the office. In this case, it is important to make your environment as noise-free as possible.

I, for one, consistently faced this issue time and time again during this pandemic period. In fact, it not only wasted my time but also affected my work.

I am a person who is very conscious of my work. It is not that I want perfection, but I want some quality. There is no point if you do work for the sake of it.

The work should be a testament to your character. Whenever someone sees your work, instantly that particular person needs to realize that it is your work. It is like creating a brand for your work.

Hence, I suggest, noise-canceling headphones as a valuable addition to your work from home essentials that guide you to excellency. The thing is that they not only provide soothing surroundings but also let you work efficiently.

#5 A reliable and fast internet connection

This goes without saying. We all know how important it is to have a good and fast internet. The internet is probably the lifeline of any type of online work today. Don’t we all get impatient when we lose our internet connection for even a couple of minutes?

A good internet not only enhances your productivity but also allows you to work faster so that you can save your time.

#6 Project Management Software

Sometimes working from home can be difficult due to the volume of work. If you have deadlines for a project, then it is important to keep track of it and work on projects that are the main priority so that you won’t finish the project late and irritate the client.

Oftentimes, there might be some requirements to be included in the project. If you have too many requirements for the project — more often than not, you are going to forget the requirements due to so many projects that are on the line to complete.

In that situation, a project management software is a very useful tool to keep track of everything you are doing and not miss a thing.

Plus, you can draw a chart of what you should do every day, every week, every month, and if possible, every year so that you will know what your goals are and what you want to learn and what you want to achieve in your career.

#7 Solid keyboard, mouse and monitor

All three are indispensable to your work from home journey. This might be as important as a fast and reliable internet. If you have internet but not a good keyboard, mouse, and monitor means — you cannot do your work without any of these.

Invest some money in all these three items so that it’s durable rather than just for a short period of time. You will realize the value of it as time progresses.

So, invest some good amount of money in all these three items for better results, but don’t overdo it because ultimately, it depends on the requirement of your job. If you are a graphic designer, it is reasonable to go for a higher definition monitor rather than a less expensive one. Hence, invest the money according to your need.

Final Words

Today we are living in an uncertain reality, a lot has changed during this pandemic period, especially in conceiving the work from home jobs. Those early morning wake-ups, commuting daily on a bus/vehicle/metro, or whatever it is — There was some sort of order in doing it even when you don’t like doing it every day.

Yes, it was very hard. Daily you have to wake up pretty early and get ready for breakfast and take the bus/metro/vehicle for transportation, but remember, it was still a good feeling to do things in order.

Due to the pandemic, everyone has missed those things, especially going out. Yes, you can go outside now with some relaxation in the lockdown, but it is still not as safe as earlier.

But during this lockdown period, everyone realized it is not that easy to do work from home. Mainly, it is due to the absence of an office-like atmosphere.

I don’t blame anyone for this. Yes, working from home indeed has some shortcomings to it — but is it really that bad? I don’t think so.

If you can manage the above seven essential things at home then you will be good to go and you will also start appreciating the work from home option again.

I want to end this article with a slogan — work hard, work smart, and get the work done.

All the Best!

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frospino · 6 years

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Ah, but I’m flying like a bird to you now

A Klaus Hargreeves Imagine

Warning: Death mention

Summary: Klaus Hargreeves helps (a non-gendered) reader connect with a dead loved one.

Word count: 1.719

A/N: I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, but I really wanted to write for Klaus. Let me know what you think please! :) Title is from the lyrics of Hozier’s “Shrike”. I took some liberties with the way Klaus can use his powers.

Ah, but I’m flying like a bird to you now

Klaus Hargreeves was excited to feel the heavy rain on his skin. The way the drops made his hair stick to the side of his face. His eyeliner drawing intricate patterns on his cheeks. The splashing sounds his naked toes made on the pavement.

Klaus had been sober for a couple of weeks now. He saw no point in counting just how many, but his body wasn’t racked by terrible cramps, sweat attacks and all the other fun stuff that came with his new life anymore. Tiny moments of mindfulness, such as letting himself feel nature’s power, had become a beautiful distraction from the moaning, accusations and dark stares that followed him wherever he went.

He was aware of the irony behind using mindfulness as a distraction, but well, Klaus Hargreeves had never been someone who let rules and expectations dictate the way he did things.

“You may want to put on some clothes. It must be cold. And wet.” Ben’s voice pulled Klaus out of his semi-meditative state.

“I don’t really care, but I appreciate your concern, little brother.”

“You do know that we are the same age?”

“Ssh. You stopped aging when you died. Therefore, you are younger than me now.”

An old lady, maybe around 80, raised her eyebrows at him and made a disgusted noise. Klaus grinned at her and tipped an imaginary hat in her direction. “Have a wonderful day, Queen Elizabeth!” She didn’t turn around, only hurried away.

Klaus turned to his brother’s ghost again. “People are so rude.”

“You do make a rather strange sight. At least put on some shoes.”

“My feet are never rude to anyone. And if they were, they’d apologise.”

Ben’s laugh echoed through the deserted street, and Klaus felt a twinge of sadness that he was the only one to hear this beautiful sound.

For a while, Ben and Klaus just sat next to each other, each of the pair following their own trails of thoughts. To an outsider, Klaus must have made a pitiful sight—a 20-something with runny eyeliner, a shirt that was at least one size too small and distinctly naked feet, soaked to the bone.

Klaus was happier than he had been in a long, long time.

---

Your day couldn’t get much worse. Your ‘favourite’ colleague had found a way to blame his mistake on you, your boss had jumped at the occasion to scream at you, you forgot your lunch on the kitchen counter, and your best friend had called earlier to cancel your date for tonight. Life had just taken one turn for the worse after another, after… the incident. You forced yourself to push the thoughts way. You wouldn’t dwell on it now.

As you stepped outside of the office, you were engulfed by the heaviest rainfall the city had seen in weeks. And you didn’t have an umbrella. Of course.

At least the rain obscured your tears to anyone watching you.

Not that there were a lot of people on the streets to begin with. Most sensible people were probably huddled up on the sofa, hiding under a warm blanket, hot cocoa in hand. You contemplated taking the bus home, but decided the rain might help to cool your temper. You absent-mindedly nodded a greeting to the young man on the pavement.

“Your sister would like me to tell you that it wasn’t your fault.”

You turned around and finally noticed the state he was in. His face looked vaguely familiar, but you were pretty sure you didn’t know anyone with a fable for rainbow-coloured shirts and leather pants.

“I’m sorry, I’ve had a shitty day and really don’t feel like playing games right now.”

“Alice, right? Around 12, long blonde hair, died in a blue summer dress? From the looks of her, run over by car, poor thing. Ah yes, no, tact isn’t really my thing. Say, does your sibling punch people? Ben shut up, you’re not helping.”

You clutched your bag and took a step towards the stranger. Hot fury bubbled up in your stomach, and indeed, you wanted nothing more than to punch that stupid grin of the guy’s face.

“What. The. Fuck. Do. You. Want.”

He got up and took a small bow in front of you. “Klaus Hargreeves. Number Four. Umbrella Academy. You may have heard of me, we’ve been all over the news lately.” The stranger—Klaus—offered his hand in greeting.

Ah. That’s why he looked familiar. You remembered something about a family trying to stop the apocalypse. After Alice’s death, your life really had been one apocalypse after the other, so you hadn’t cared much.

Klaus or Number Four or whatever the fuck he wanted to be called let his hands drop to his side again. “Alice tells me you’re not big on strangers. Understandable. She’s worried, you know? You really need to eat something. There’s a nice place just around the corner. Wanna grab a bite?”

“You’re the one who can talk to the dead.”

“I probably should have led with that. Yeah, I guess that’s me.”

“Alice is—Alice is here?”

Klaus looked at the empty space next to you for a while and laughed. “She’s witty. I like her. Yes, Alice says she’s been following you. Says someone has to look after you, since apparently you’re bad at it yourself.” Klaus held up his hands in defeat, giving you a good luck of the words ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ tattooed onto his palms. “Her words, not mine.”

The tears started again, heavier than before. Sobs shook your body, and you felt your knees give out. Klaus caught you before you could hit the ground.

“Can you—can you tell her that I miss her? And that I’m so, so sorry?”

For a second, Klaus looked as if he wanted to give you a hug, but he opted for an awkward pat on the back instead. “She can hear you. And she says it’s not your fault.”

“But I—I should have looked after her better. I should have—should have—“

You didn’t manage to finish the sentence as your grief held you in an iron grip. You were shaking like a leaf in the wind, and if not for Klaus’ hand on your arm, you would have fallen down again.

“You know, in the last weeks, I’ve learned that hot cocoa is very comforting. Let’s get you out of the rain, and then we’ll have a nice chat, you, Alice and I.”

---

True to Klaus’ word, there was a nice café just a few walking minutes from where you met. You were very conscious of the wet trail you were leaving on the floor, but Klaus moved as if he couldn’t care less. His wet, naked feet made quiet splashing sounds with every step he took. There was only one other customer in the café, but his sigh was loud enough that it could probably be heard at the other end of the city.

“How about you sit down over there—the table with the four chairs—and I’ll get us something? Chocolate cake okay?”

You only nodded in response, pondering why Klaus would point you towards a table with four chairs. Up until now, you hadn’t really thought about the physicality of the dead. Did they need chairs to sit?

One or two minutes later, Klaus set a cup of hot cocoa and a slice of chocolate fudge cake in front of you.

“So,” Klaus looked at you with as he wiped eyeliner smudges from his face with a napkin. “Alice here tells me you’ve hardly eaten anything. That’s not good for your health, you know.”

You sighed. “Thank you. I know that.”

“She says you need to stop being so hard on yourself. And that your boss is a dick.”

You poked at your cake, unsure of what to say. “How would—how would she know?”

“Oh, she’s been following you around since she died.”

“She—what? She’s been here all this time?”

“…not when you go to the bathroom, if that’s what you’re asking.”

You shook your head, trying to process this new information. This whole time, Alice had been there? She had been with you when you cried over her dead body, during the funeral, during everything?

---

Two hours later, the barista informed you that she would close the shop soon. You were amazed by how calm she took in the whole situation—as if it was normal that two people had conversations with their dead siblings. Maybe she recognised Klaus, or maybe she just had an amazing poker face. Either way, you thanked her with a big tip.

Once outside, you gave Klaus a long hug. If you had any tears left, you thought you might have cried again; the conversation with Alice had taken all the shame and guilt away, but the sadness of her passing would stay with you forever.

Klaus slung his long arms around you, and so you two stood there for a while, a comfortable silence engulfing you.

When you eventually let go, Klaus looked at you with serious eyes. “Promise you’ll take better care of yourself.”

“I will.”

“If you need to talk to Alice again, you can always find me, okay?”

“…have you considered becoming a therapist? That power of yours could come in handy.”

Klaus smiled at you and shook his head. “Not all ghosts are as positive as your little sister, you know. Some are… better left with the dead, where they belong.”

Klaus waved at you, his tattoo telling you “goodbye”. Perhaps that was the only thing left to say. You felt a pang of regret as you watched Klaus Hargreeves go—regret that you did not get to know the man who spoke with the dead better. He turned a corner, and you were left wondering whether you really just spoke with your dead sister.

The only proof you had of what just happened was the sound of naked feet on the wet pavement.

And Klaus arguing with who you guessed was Ben—

“I know man. I should get that line tattooed somewhere. What? Nope, not asking them out. Yes I saw that. Yes. Just—shut up, will you?!”

#klaus hargreeves #klaus hargreeves imagine #klaus hargreeves x reader #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy imagine #robert sheehan #my writing

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alyghea · 5 years

Text

Germany!!!!

So I’m a little late posting this since I’ve been trying to catch up on everything that I missed from getting stuck in Germany earlier this week. Anyways! To start off, I had to grab a bus to Dublin at 0300 and then take another connecting bus to get to the airport for my 0805 plane to Frankfurt. While waiting to take the bus (which picks up right outside of Stables), I actually met a few girls that were going to Frankfurt as well! It was weirdly coincidental, and, one of the girls happens to be in one of my modules (LIO, the volunteer class) so I found that really funny and cool. The same girl is also the roommate for one of the girls I came from point with which just made it much more fun to talk to her and the other 2 on the 2.5 hour bus ride to the airport. When I finally got to the airport, I had about 2 hours to kill before we were going to board the plane. Got onto the plane and arrived in Frankfurt without any issues whatsoever. We deplaned on the tarmac and were shuttled over to the airport where customs took less than a minute to get through. I was planning on going to the zoo, but didn’t want to walk the 6+km to the zoo, so I ended up grabbing an Uber, which was cheaper than the bus or taxi getting there. I went to the zoo, which had a Komodo Dragon, and then I walked over to the Iron Bridge and Roemerberg. I walked about 3km to the train station where I met up with my friend, Harry, who I was going to stay with for the weekend. We had a bit of time to kill, so we went to a bar and got a beer (Franziskaner Weissbier). While waiting for the train, I got a notification from the app saying that it changed platforms last minute to the other side of the station. We ran, but didn’t make it. Harry went over to one of the train officers and asked what to do and basically said I’m American and stupid and don’t know what I’m doing so the officer told us to just grab the train on another platform that was going to Marburg and if tickets were checked, to just explain the situation and that there shouldn’t be any problems. Thankfully, no tickets were checked. Once we got to Marburg, we headed to the shoppe to get some food and alcohol for the weekend. After taking the ridiculously steep trek up what seemed like a mountain to his dorm, we chilled out a little before heading out and trekking up even further to this little place where he would do a fire with his friends and just hang and drink alcohol. His friends didn’t join us, but it was great nonetheless. We had a good fire going and started drinking a bit and once we were out of the wood we collected, we hiked back down to his dorm where we sat and talked and drank some more before throwing a movie on and going to sleep for the night. When we woke up on Saturday (at the butt crack of noon) we got ready and headed out. We first stopped at this hole-in-the-wall Turkish dining place and I tried a dümur, which wasn’t half bad. Afterwards we hiked up to the Oberstadt which had a lot of these cute little shopping centres and just walked around. I ended up grabbing some chocolate and we continued onwards to Café Vetter and got dessert. I ordered a pot of tea and a Heerbeeren Vannila Sahne Torte (Raspberry-Vanilla Creame Torte) while Harry got a hot chocolate type drink which was the best thing I have ever had. It was amazingly good. On top of that, he also got a chocolate mousse cake. We ended up sharing and combining our dessert and taking drinks of each others beverages so we could both enjoy all the café had to offer. After Café Vetter, we walked to the Landgrafen Palace (Marburg Castle) and got some of the most beautiful views of the city. The journey up to the castle was long and was quite hard on my shitty lungs, but it was so worth it. We went up just as the sun was setting, so it was just a picturesque scene. Heading back down, I saw Cinderella’s Shoe and at the bottom of this ridiculous hill, I found a puppy. I squatted down to pet said puppy (it’s a normal thing to do throughout Europe) and ripped my jeans. All the walking from the past few weeks and the friction from my big thighs caused them to thin and rip. Lucky me. Thankfully, it wasn’t super obvious and nothing that my extra sweatshirt couldn’t cover up for the time being. After the puppy and jeans incident, we stopped at Hinkelstein (a bar) and sat down for a few beers and some card games. When we walked back, I sewed my jeans up and they were functional enough for the rest of the trip. I came to find out that one of the Grimm Brothers used to live (briefly) at this house in the Oberstadt and another building on our way back to the dorm that Saturday night had the 7 flies on the wall. I thought it was pretty neat. Anyways. We went back to the room and had some more drinks and basically just had fun trying different concoctions of mixed drinks while listening to music and watching movies throughout the night. On Sunday, Harry got up and made brunch for him and I and invited on of his friends to join as well, which was pretty nice. After brunch, we cleaned up and sat around watching movies all day since we were both tired from the past few days and because I was originally planned to take the late night train back to Frankfurt, but Storm Ciara had different plans. The winds in Germany got so bad that entire trees went down on the tracks and therefore prevented me from being able to leave Marburg. Harry was super chill about it and I eventually just changed my plane ticket to Tuesday morning instead and we just spent Monday sleeping and watching movies until the late night train Monday night when I was finally able to get a train back to Frankfurt. I got to Frankfurt without any issues and waited about an hour before my next train was to arrive to go to the airport. That train got delayed by over an hour because some wild animals decided to take a freaking stroll on the tracks causing a huge delay. Eventually I got on and got to the airport without issues and went straight through security to get onto my flight home. I found out later on Monday that the plane I was supposed to be on actually made an emergency landing in London due to the winds being too dangerous to try and make it all the way to Dublin, so I’m kind of happy I got stuck. The Tuesday flight went well until we tried landing in Dublin and then there was a lot of turbulence and we almost couldn’t land because every time the plane nose dipped down to lower our altitude, it got kicked up from the wind and caused people to start freaking out a little. We were able to land in Dublin eventually, only about a half hour later than expected. When I got off, I rushed to customs to get through and to get to my bus in time so that I would be back in Limerick in time for my 1400 Cognitive Psychology class (my favourite class thus far). Thankfully, customs took a whole 30 seconds and I made it to my bus on time and back to school on time. This was such an exciting, and though slightly stressful and anxiety ridden weekend, was so worth being able to go to a different country and I was very happy to be able to meet up with one of my best friends (who let me crash with him for free!). I can’t wait to go back to visit my other friend (in Heidelberg) sometime in May. I’m super excited. Pics to follow!

#university of limerick #university of wisconsin stevens point #blog?#Germany #Frankfurt #Marburg #Anxiety #Travel #study abroad #fun #trying new things #walking #tired #iron bridge #chocolate!#friends

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meditationadvise · 5 years

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Three Simple Ways to Pay Attention

The most usual reaction I listen to these days when I inform a person I teach reflection is "I'm so worried out. I might actually make use of a few of that." I am also entertained to listen to fairly often "My buddy should actually fulfill you!" I enjoy to see that meditation is recognized increasingly more as something that could be directly handy in our daily lives. Anywhere stress plays a function in our problems, meditation can have a possible role in its relief.

Meditation technique need not be tied to any idea system. The just necessary idea is not a dogmatic one, yet one that says each of us has the ability to comprehend ourselves much more fully, and to care extra deeply both for ourselves and for others. Its techniques work to free us of regular reactions that create us excellent sadness, such as harsh self-judgment, and also to develop wisdom as well as love. Meditation gives any person who seeks it a chance to look within for a sense of abundance, depth, and also link to life.

Rather compared to an ornate, arcane collection of directions, standard reflection is composed of practical tools to help deepen concentration, mindfulness, and compassion.

1. Concentration

Concentration is the art of collecting all that energy, that stormy, scattered interest, and settling, centering.

Concentration steadies as well as focuses our interest so that we could allow go of harmful internal distractions-- is sorry for concerning the past, stresses over the future, addictions-- and also keep from being attracted by external ones. Interruption loses our power, concentration restores it.

We commonly experience our interest scattering to the four winds. We take a seat to assume something through or work with a problem, and prior to we understand it, we're gone. We're shed in ideas of the past, commonly concerning something we currently regret: "I should have said that more masterfully." "I ought to have been less shy and also spoken up." "I should have been smarter and also closed up." We aren't assuming things via to locate a method making amends. We're just lost.

Or our distractedness drives us right into anxiety-filled projections regarding the future. Envision you are resting in an airplane at one of the New York City flight terminals. All of a sudden you begin assuming, "Oh no, I think this airplane may leave late. I make certain it will certainly be late. Currently I'm mosting likely to miss my connection. Exactly what will that suggest? That suggests I'm mosting likely to show up in Rose city, Oregon, after twelve o'clock at night. There will not be any taxis! Exactly what's going to take place to me?" It's as though Portland were famous for having people vanish if they land after midnight!

Without concentration, our minds dilate into the future in such a way that isn't really such as competent preparation however more like exhausting rumination. When I see my very own mind starting that arc of anxiety, I have a claiming I utilize to assist restore me to balance: "Something will certainly take place." There will certainly be a bus. I'll invest the evening in the airport. Something will certainly take place. I can't figure it all out right now.

Concentration is the art of collecting all of that energy, that stormy, scattered focus, and settling. A person came near speak to me just recently when I was educating, opposing my use words focus. He said it advised him of suppression, as though he were squeezing his attention into something, withstanding and feeling bitter anything else that came near pull his interest away. I asked him if steadying or clearing up would excel substitutes, as well as he happily accepted them. That's what concentration in fact suggests. It's not a required, stressful, stretched effort. It's letting points choose exactly what goes to hand.

2. Mindfulness

Mindfulness fine-tunes our focus to ensure that we can connect extra totally as well as straight with whatever life brings. Numerous times our understanding of just what is happening is misshaped by bias, practices, worries, or desires. Mindfulness aids us see with these and also be much more aware of exactly what really is.

Imagine you're on your means to a celebration when you run right into a good friend who points out an earlier meeting he had with your brand-new colleague. He claims, "That person is so boring!" When at the celebration, that do you locate yourself stuck speaking to but that brand-new associate! Because of your good friend's comment (not even your personal understanding), you end up not really listening meticulously to them or looking completely at them. More probable you are assuming about the following 15 e-mails you have to send or fretting as you gaze concerning the room and also see a lot of individuals you prefer to be speaking with. Whatever he or she is stating increases your displeasure and frustration.

But if you understand just what's taking place, it could be that you drop the filter of your pal's comment and also determine to discover out for yourself, from your own straight experience, exactly what you think about your new coworker. You pay attention, you observe, you are broad-minded, interested. By the end of the evening you could choose, "I concur. I locate that individual really uninteresting." However probably not, life also supplies many shocks. Just what is essential is that we're not just led by exactly what we've been told, by the beliefs of others, by conviction or bias or presumption. Rather, we shape our perception with as clear as well as open an assumption as possible.

Mindfulness does not depend on just what is occurring, however has to do with how we connect to what is taking place. That's why we state that mindfulness can go anywhere. We could be conscious of pleasure as well as grief, pleasure and also discomfort, stunning songs and also a screech. Mindfulness doesn't imply these all flatten out and also come to be one huge blob, without distinction or intensity or flavor or structure. Instead, it indicates that old regular methods of connecting-- maybe holding on fiercely to pleasure, to make sure that, ironically, we are in fact appreciating it less, or frowning at as well as pressing away pain, to ensure that, regretfully, we experience a great deal much more, or numbing out, detaching from average, not really interesting experiences, so that we're half in a desire a great deal of the moment. All these self-defeating, restricting reactions don't have to be there.

We could easily misinterpret mindfulness and consider it as passive, complacent, also a little bit boring. I was showing someplace lately and also began the formal meditation guideline, as I usually do, with the recommendation to just sit in an unwinded method and also hear the sounds in the room. Somebody raised his hand right now and asked, "If I hear the noise of the smoke detector, should I simply rest here 'mindfully,' knowing I'm hearing the smoke detector go off, or should I stand up as well as leave?" I responded, "I 'd 'mindfully' obtain up and also leave!"

I understood his concern. When we hear phrases typically used to explain mindfulness, like "simply be with exactly what is," "approve today moment," "do not get shed in judgment," it can appear very inert. The actual experience of mindfulness is of vibrant, alive, open area where imaginative responses to situations have area to emerge, precisely since we're not stuck in the well-worn grooves of the same old habitual reactions. In mindfulness, we do not shed discernment and also knowledge. These high qualities, in reality, come to be much more intense as stagnant preconceptions as well as automated, inflexible responses no more rule the day.

3. Compassion

Compassion opens our attention and also makes it a lot more inclusive, changing the method we view ourselves and the globe. Rather than being so caught up in the construct of self and other and also us and them that we often tend to see the globe via, we see things much extra in terms of connection to all. This fundamental makeover from alienation begins with more compassion to ourselves.

Even in methods that do not especially emphasize compassion or concern, these high qualities are inevitably being created in reflection. If we return and also consider the fundamental workout I defined, establishing focus, we locate that it is typically done by choosing a things such as the feeling of the in and out breath, then resolving our attention on it. What we uncover at first, often to our shock, is that it typically isn't 800 breaths prior to our minds wander. Much more commonly, it is one breath, maybe two or 3, after that we are lost. Possibly extremely shed in a dream or memory.

Then comes the minute we understand we have actually been distracted. Our usual reaction would certainly be to feel that we have actually failed, to rail against ourselves. Just what we practice, however, is releasing delicately rather than roughly as well as returning to the breath or our item of concentration with kindness as well as compassion for ourselves. Therefore, those high qualities of concern as well as kindness strengthen also if we do not offer voice to those words.

And what we provide for ourselves, we could likewise start to do toward others. A few years ago I got on my means to Tucson, yet my strategies were tested when I located myself in an airplane resting on a path for four and also a half hours at La Guardia Flight Terminal. Looking back on it, I often refer amusingly to those hours as "the breakdown of human being." It was hot, and also it expanded hotter. After a point, people beginning screaming, "Let me off this aircraft!" The pilot resorted to hopping on the system and also stating sternly, "No person is leaving this plane."

I had not been really feeling all that chipper myself. I could not connect with individuals in Tucson that were intended to select me up at the flight terminal, as well as I was concerned regarding them. I had a house to head to in New york city City and also maintained thinking, fruitless, "I can simply return there and also try once more tomorrow." I was warm. I really felt mauled by the people yelling around me.

Then I recalled a photo that a friend of mine, Bob Thurman, writer of Infinite Life: Seven Merits for Living Well, typically uses to define the flow of generosity and also compassion that comes from seeing the world more truthfully. He says, "Imagine you get on the New York City metro, and also these Martians come and also zap the train vehicle to ensure that those of you in the cars and truck are mosting likely to be with each other ... for life." What do we do? If somebody is hungry, we feed them. If a person is freaking out, we attempt to calm them down. We could not such as everyone or authorize of them, yet we are mosting likely to be together for life. We need to react with the knowledge of just how interrelated our lives are-- as well as will certainly remain.

Sitting on that airplane, I recalled my close friend's story. I browsed the cabin and also thought, "Perhaps these are my individuals." I saw my worldview shift from "me" as well as "them" to "we." The claustrophobia eased.

In terms of meditative understanding (as opposed to our usual mindset, which may relate to these high qualities as gifts we could do nothing to grow or as prompt psychological reactions we take pleasure in yet can't support), compassion and compassion are undoubtedly skills we establish. Not in the feeling of compeling ourselves to feel, or perhaps worse, pretend to really feel, a feeling that is not there. Instead, if we learn to listen in a various, more open means-- seeing the excellent within ourselves rather than focusing on what we do not such as, noticing those we usually neglect or look right via, releasing groups as well as assumptions when we associate with others-- we are producing the problems for generosity and also empathy to flow.

We method meditation ultimately not to come to be great meditators however to have a different life. As we deepen the skills of focus, mindfulness, as well as empathy, we locate we have less anxiety, even more satisfaction, more understanding, and also greatly much more happiness. We change our lives.

#meditation #what is meditation

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ecofinisher · 5 years

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Wedding in Japan - Chap. 4

Chapter 4

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18972931/chapters/45226396

https://www.wattpad.com/739249079-wedding-in-japan-chapter-4

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13295790/4/Wedding-in-Japan

The next morning Adrien walked in the restaurant of the hotel he had overnight to head to the breakfast buffet a couple of guests were standing scooping for themselves, what they wanted to eat. The blonde stood in the queue behind two men, who were taking from a cheese plate a bit of cheese for their plate, then Adrien looked at the croissants, that lied inside a basket covered with a white cover and two tongs on it for the use. Adrien took the tong and picked a croissant from the basket, then placed it on a plate, that was on top of a pile of dishes, then picked it up and walked forward to pass by other types of breads, then took two toasts with another tong laying beside the layer-in-layer lied pieces of bread afterward he looked down at the portions of butter, jam and margarine. Adrien picked two pieces of portion butter and one cherry-flavored jelly, moving forward to the cheese and meat plates, where another man was serving himself by taking a few salami slices onto his bread to make a sandwich after it. Adrien took from the six available varieties two of each to his plate, then the next plate in front of him, where a younger boy stood together with a woman, that aided him by putting cheese slices on the plate, Adrien waited for the woman to finish, then she handed Adrien the tong, making the blonde smile.

„Thank you, “ Adrien said looking at the various cheese sorts on the plate all presented nicely to the guest and behind each sort lied a small card with the cheese‘s origin and its name. The blonde took one of each sort and walked away to another table, where a service worker stood serving drinks to the customers.

„What can I offer you to drink Mr. Agreste?“ The man asked the blonde.

„Orange juice please“ Adrien responded watching the man fill a glass with a dark liquid, then handed it over to Adrien. „Thank you“ He friendly thanked the service worker, then looked around the room at the many tables, that were available for him to sit down. Adrien walked the dining hall to look for a place to sit, then he smiled as he found Kagami sitting on a table for two persons and was all by herself eating a bowl of Bircher muesli. Adrien walked to the woman stopping by the table.

„Is this seat taken?“ The blonde asked, then the woman looked up at him and smiled as she saw it was his friend.

„Sit down“ Kagami offered the blonde, that sat down vice versa to the woman. „Where‘s your friend Nino?“

„He left a little earlier“ The Frenchman replied. „He had to look for something here he couldn‘t find in France“

„So we‘re the only ones, that haven‘t left the hotel yet“

„Yeah, “ Adrien said taking a slice of cheese into his mouth, therefore he opened the butter portion, then used his knife to spread it on the toast. „What kind of cornflakes is that‘“

„Bircher muesli“ The blue-haired woman responded. „It‘s mixed with cornflakes, Milk, fruit and yogurt,“

„Sounds delicious“

„It really is“ Kagami admitted taking another bit with her spoon and led it into her mouth. Adrien watched her chewing her breakfast mannerly, then Adrien held up his toast close to his mouth to bite it off and chew it. After taking another spoon and swallow the food down, Kagami faked a cough, before she raised her voice to speak to the friend.

„Are you going after breakfast to the airport?“

„Yes and you?“ Questioned the blonde taking another bite of his toast bread.

„Same“ Answered the Japanese girl. „We could both take the bus together?“

„I don‘t mind. Sure I‘ll go with you“

„Good and you better be fast, the bus comes in ten minutes and we have forty minutes to the airport“ Warned Kagami earning a nod from the blonde.

„Good, “ Adrien said finishing his toast, then picking up the second toast. „Does the bus come every hour or something?“

„To the airport, I only saw it drives one time per hour. Two or three times are other line buses“

„Okay,“ Adrien said taking a bite of his bread. „We still got three hours before the flight and we don‘t need to deliver our baggage“

„I know, just it‘s always better to plan a little more time, than usual. Just in case“

„You got a good point,“ Adrien said at the woman shoving his whole toast into his mouth. „I‘m awmhost donn,“ Adrien mumbled with the food inside his mouth making Kagami chuckle a little.

Adrien and Kagami sat inside an articulated bus together behind the gaiter holding their backpack on their arms while they were traveling with the public transportation vehicle.

„Chloé is going out with my cousin Felix and are at the moment in New York with her mother.“ Told Adrien her friend. „I have chatted with Chloé last week and she‘s loving New York so far“

„It‘s amazing, how you and the others are still in contact“

„Our class chat is actually still present, most of us still chat with each other there“ Explained Adrien. „Oh and recently Mylène posted a picture of an ultrasound scan she had last week. She‘s expecting a baby“

„That sounds amazing“

„Yeah“ Agreed Adrien. „I think she's in the third month“

„Sweet“

„Are you…..uhm…. Planing in the future to h….have a child?“ Questioned Adrien a little warily the girl, who shrugged her shoulders.

„Well I‘m waiting one or two years“ Responded Kagami. „At some point, I have to have one to not let my mother down or out legacy“

„But if you don‘t feel like you want a child you don‘t need to have one. It‘s your life, not hers“

„It‘s not that Adrien, I would really love to have children, but I don‘t think we‘re both ideals for it,“

„Why not?“ Questioned Adrien. „You two like each other, that won‘t be a problem, “ Adrien told Kagami, who then looked away from the blonde to observe the landscape making Adrien feel worried about her relationship with her fiancé.

„Is there something wrong between you and Hiroki?“ Questioned Adrien and Kagami shook her head. „Then what is it?“ Questioned the blonde and the blue-haired woman looked back at him opening her mouth to speak, then a loud burst ran on the outside of the bus shrieking Kagami, Adrien and the other passengers of the bus and the bus started to slow down. The two looked back to the other passengers, that noted the part, where they sat had sunk a little, therefore, the bus had turned the warning lights to stop the bus on the right side of the road.

„What was that?“ Asked Kagami, then Adrien looked behind, where he saw two passengers look down from the window and talking in Russian about the situation.

„I think it was the tire“ Replied Adrien looking at the cockpit, where the bus driver sat speaking on his communication device with the central.

„Gosh we‘re not even ten minutes inside the bus and now we have a breakdown“ Kagami said annoyed placing her hands on her forehead.

„Don‘t worry Kagami, everything will be fine“ Adrien calmed Kagami down, then in front the bus driver turned on his microphone who spoke in Russian to the passengers.

„I hope anyone here speaks English cause I don‘t understand, what he‘s saying“

„He‘s telling, that the bus‘ right tire had broken and that we needed to get out and look for another transport vehicle, cause this bus was going to get towed“ Responded Kagami.

„Oh, I totally forgot your mother used to teach you Russian, “ The blonde guy said doing a facepalm. „And now we have to go look for ourself for another way to get to the airport?“

„Most likely, “ Kagami said getting up from her seat and walk to a map with the city and all the various connections of the public transportation of Saint Petersburg. „I only see this bus with a direct connection to the airport“

„And everyone else you need to move out in some stops, but which ones will be difficult to figure out“ The Frenchman mentioned to his friend following with the index finger a red line away from the airport.

„I ask the other passengers, “ Kagami said walking to two women around her age to question them about the connections of the transports.

„Okay….“ Adrien said hearing his phone whistle as it got a message, then he took out his phone from his jacket and saw a message of his friend Nino Lahiffe.

„I‘m already at the airport, where are you?“

Adrien opened the message, then typed down for his friend a message.

„I and Kagami were going together with a bus and it had a breakdown. We‘re now trying to find another solution to head to the airport.“

Adrien put his phone back in the pocket, then Kagami approached him taking him by his hand, surprising him.

„Uh…..“

„We got a big problem now Adrien“ Kagami warned the blonde. „In 8 minutes there is a train, that passes by the airport and the trainstation we need to get one is about 20 minutes away from here acording to the navigation“

„And the next train?“

„In a half hour“ Responded Kagami. „Come get out of the bus“ Kagami ordered pulling Adrien behind her out on the sidewalk.

„Okay and where‘s the train station?“ Questioned the blonde as Kagami had let is hand down.

„I‘m trying to recalculate the destination, but it‘s taking long, “ Kagami said a little tensed about the situation, then Adrien placed his hand on her shoulder.

„Kagami take a deep breath and keep calm. We‘re going to make it in time“ Adrien promised. „If we don‘t, we can always book another flight and a direct one“

Kagami sighed and nodded to her friend, that calmed her down. „You‘re right, I‘m sorry“

„After 1000m turn left, “ Kagami‘s phone said and the two looked down at the navigation system of her phone working.

„Now let‘s follow her instructions.“ Adrien said earning a nod from the blue-haired woman and both walked on the sidewalk listening to the GPS giving them the direction.

After an hour Adrien and Kagami sat inside a train heading to the airport. Kagami leaned against the window observing the landscape while Adrien stared holes in the air waiting until the ride was over for them. Adrien took out his phone then saw a missed call from Nino and a message, then he opened the message to see, what he wrote.

„For real?“ Adrien asked as he read the message and the Japanese looked at him wondering, what happened.

„Are you alright?“

„The planes won‘t be able to take off or land, because the people at the airport are striking“

„Oh gosh, now that!“ Kagami complained as she heard the bad news. „And now?“

„I‘m trying to call him, “ Adrien said clicking on Nino‘s phone number and pressed the green button to call him. „Hey Nino, what happened?“

„I don‘t know, suddenly the workers on the field of the airport stopped doing their job and appeared down at the main entrance striking“

„And you can‘t now leave the airport?“

„I‘m sitting inside the plane and we can‘t leave it at the moment. But the way the strikes are going there won‘t be any landings or takeoffs today“

„Darn it and now how we‘re supposed to go to Japan?“ Questioned Adrien.

„I don‘t know, maybe there is another airport you two could go instead?“

„We‘re inside a train heading to the airport. We could try and see if the airport in Moscow would be free of strikes and then board there into a plane to Japan“

„I‘m not sure if it‘s going to work out. It‘s going to be difficult to find a flight today or this week“

„I don‘t know, I could ask Kagami to look for flight tickets from Moscow to Tokyo...“ Adrien suggested looking at Kagami, who quickly took out her smartphone and entered into the internet to look up for flight tickets.

„I‘m on it, “ Kagami told Adrien, which nodded at the woman.

„She‘s on it, “ Adrien said. „I hope we‘re going to find some“

„If you don‘t, try to find for the other days or your only chance would be cross the whole country and try at other airports.“

„Well I hope we manage to find spots in Moscow“

„Well I don‘t know, what you think, but if you two have to cross the whole country together just to find an airport, you should both go together. I don‘t think your smartphone‘s battery survives this long“

„Well I got the power bank inside my backpack, but I don‘t know if it has enough charge or not“

„Sure, in case you really have to cross Russia by train or anything else, don‘t waste your phone‘s battery. Use those days to get to know Kagami better. Maybe that‘s your chance to show Kagami how much you care for her and she might fall in love with you again“

„You‘re right Nino, I‘m gonna take this chance and make the best out of it“

„That‘s my boy, so I better turn the phone off, before you lose more percent of your battery“

„Yes thank you, Nino, for the information“

„No problem dude, feel free to send me any messages of how your trip is going and between you two“

„Sure I‘ll do, “ Adrien said turning his phone off and putting it back in his pocket. Adrien looked at Kagami putting her phone back and sigh disappointedly.

„I can‘t find any tickets before the wedding day, only two weeks after it“

„Oh no, “ Adrien said looking unhappy at Kagami.

„What are we going to do now?“ Questioned the Japanese girl.

„Nino suggested in looking in Russia for other airports, possibly we‘re going to have to cross Russia by train for the next few days“

„I have looked for Moscow, the next one on the list was Khanty-Mansiysk, which had also no free space to fly to Tokyo“

„Okay well our only choice now is to head to the central station and get informed about other airports and possible trains to go there“

„Correct and our last chance would be the Vladivostok airport at the other end of Russia if it has any free spots to fly to Tokyo or not“

„Good“

„And we might have better luck there since short flights to certain cities usually have like five or six times per day. The chance is great for us to be able to book one to Tokyo“

„And when are you planning to book them?“ Questioned the Frenchman.

„I think later“ Replied the Japanese woman. „First I need to know, how many days it takes to head to Vladivostok when I know the exact days I can book one“

„Sounds brilliant, “ Adrien said earning a nod from Kagami.

„Thank you, “ Kagami said and the two looked out of the window, where the train was slowing down to stop at the first station to collect more passengers for the upcoming stations, the train hasn‘t passed yet.

#adrimi #adrami #adrigami #miraculous #miraculousladybug #fanfic #fanfiction #update #ao3 #Wattpad #Kagami Tsurugi #adrien agreste #kagadrien

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voibongg-blog · 6 years

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Seriously what do you do in a long-distance relationship?

My boyfriend and I just celebrated our 2-year anniversary earlier this February. And during 24 months officially being a couple, we only spent 9 months with each other physically. Our relationship began when I was already in Finland finishing my freshman year, so it was natural that our relationship went this way. It was tough, really tough, but we have made it this far (wow… (seriously, wow)). I guess it is because we made up our minds already in the beginning so it was easier for us to accept the fact that this road was no flower road. Almost everyday since then, we call each other every evening. A lot of people wonder what we talk about everyday and how we do not get bored of those conversations. So in this blog, I am gonna give an answer to that by sharing some activities we do together in our long-distance relationship, and hopefully, I can help other long distance couples out there generate some ideas to spend time with your partner.

I tell him about my day and listen to his.

It sounds very simple and obvious, but this really matters. This is what we do everyday to show that we care for each other and we are not bored of it. When I tell him about my day, I tell him the interesting things happened during the day. I tend to notice the little stuffs that I find really amusing and I cannot wait to share with him at the end of the day. The story can be as simple as how slowly I walk and how I invented a game to entertain myself because it took me forever to get to the school. And he will tell me what he studied today and try to explain all Economics and Finance stuffs in my language so I am really excited to hear all about those. It is a balance between my afflatus stuffs and his knowledgeable stories that our conversations keep going on. But in the end, if you have strong feelings for someone, it does not matter (that much!!!) what that person is talking about, you just feel grateful that you have time for each other.

We found a lot of games to play with each other, and we are still searching for more!

Of course we do not spend all of our times talking about our day. As the relationship going, we found out some interesting games we could play together and it is just as fun, both online and offline! Okay, here it goes…

ONLINE GAMES

8 ball pool: This is a stable online platform for those who love playing pool, we connected to our Facebook accounts and challenged each other with many types of pool. We even created our own rules or bet on something (rather than fake coin they give us in the game) to make it more exciting.

Zynga Poker: Okay, we play poker together… But the funniest part is we play against the others in the table. We do not cheat, we only set a goal to win all the money in the table every game we play. It makes me feel like in old tales that the two of us against the world.

Scrabble: A more “intellectual” game than pool and poker. I introduced him to this game and now he is even more addicted to this game than I am. Basically, it is a word game and you play against each other or you can choose a random partner to defeat together.

Rummikub: This is also a brain-fucked game (sorry we are really into these stuffs). Basically you arrange numbers to win.

Battleship: We play in this link: http://en.battleship-game.org. It is an “ancient” game but everything gets better with bets, trust me

Go and Chinese Chess: Well it seems that we don’t fuck our brain enough with our education, we keep asking for more…

Loveball and Jellydoodle: Two more brain games, you cannot really interact with each other through these, but you can go through the challenges together (with two different phones at two different locations but yeah, still counts). It is just really nice to rack our brain together. True story!

Wordlink or Wordscapes: Words game, nothing much.

The Impossible Test, The Idiot Test, What’s in the box,…: Some other brain games if you’re interested. Cannot stress enough that we’re into these stuffs.

OFFLINE GAMES

Charades, pictionary, all those stuffs: thegamegal.com is a word generator platform for these kinds of games. There are different categories and different difficulty level for you to choose.

Whisper challenge: This is actually from Jimmy Fallon videos that we know about this game. One person mute the call, and say a sentence or sing a song, whilst the other one has to guess what is the sentence or what is the song while listening to some distracting music.

One-word song: Also from Jimmy Fallon channel. Basically you can only sing a song with one word, for example “goose”, so the whole song will go like “goose, goose goose goose, goose goose goooooooose….”. We use a song generator to random a song and thegamegal to choose the word.

5-second rule: This one is from Ellen’s channel. So my boyfriend will ask me to name three things in a categories and I need to answer it within 5 seconds. And then we switch. It is easy to find the questions by Google but we also make up our own categories like “3 things you will do when you see a penguin”. The more unique and creative the categories are, the more fun and unexpected the game gets.

Eat, befriend or fight: This is an interesting game from The Big Bang Theory. I will choose 3 animals like dinosaur, bear, and elephant; and then I will ask him to choose which animal he would rather eat, befriend or fight with. He needs to answer and give an explanation to that. We had quite a lot of fun with this game.

We also watch TV shows and movies together!

Instead of going to the cinema or sitting next to each other watching TV, we do it through Skype. We both turn on the episode we want to watch and then press play at the same time. We watched 10 seasons of “F.R.I.E.N.D.S”, 12 seasons of “The Big Bang Theory”, and 6 seasons of “Criminal Minds”. We choose series that are about 20-40 minutes long so we can watch it while we’re having meals (dinner for me and midnight snacks for him). If time allows, we would watch longer movies like “Our times”, some silly chick flicks (I choose of course) or mind-fucked movies (yeah you can tell). Recently, we do not have time to watch a long movie, so we switch to short videos from Ellen’s and Jimmy Fallon’s channels. It is soooo fun that I finally have someone to share all of these videos with. I used to watch these all alone and this really is amazing to me. Also, I watch NBA highlights with him because he’s crazy about basketball. I like basketball, not in a passionate way, but yeah I enjoy it. I never watch it all by myself, because I don’t know the teams, I don’t know who is who, and sometimes I don’t even know what just happens on the court. But it is really nice to watch basketball with him because he will not let me sit there like a potato but he will explain things to me, or give me some background information like who the tall black guy is and so on. I think we can share our interests like this mostly because one person is willing to share and the other one is open to it and ready to find out more.

We take breaks from the fun and have deep talks too.

By deep talks I mean we talk seriously and truthfully in emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects. It doesn’t have to be serious and stiff, we still laugh and joke along the way but we know the talk is real stuff. It can come very naturally in our conversation, one thing leads to another and we have the “deep talk”. They say that we cannot force a “deep talk” but turn out we can. We find some questions online, (they are available at thegamegal or you can use Pinterest and Google – there are plenty of them), and we take turn answer it and discuss our answers together. We understand each other much much better through this experience. I get to know his reaction and thoughts on certain situations and subjects. And through his explanation, I understand his reasons, his perspectives and clearly I could understand him better. It is really interesting how sometimes I think what I see is obvious but it turns out very differently in his thoughts. These questions are mainly for the emotional and spiritual aspects, but it is really good to talk “intellectually” too. So when we come across some interesting topics that we both have knowledge and interests in, we discuss and sometimes, debate about that. Being in a relationship with a person means growing with them in all three dimensions. Therefore, it is important for me, and I believe for him also, that we have those talks. Also, it is really fun to prove someone wrong, so why not?

We plan something special for special occasions.

Surprise is my favorite element in life. And I’m talking about good surprise from my loved ones. I myself enjoy very much the process of planning and making presents for people I love, and distance doesn’t make it any harder. For example, on his 19th birthday, I prepared an Instagram account full with our pictures and stories to show him how much he means to me, and last birthday, I made him a playlist so that he can listen to that on the long bus to his university. We also called each other from a chicken restaurant to have a lunch date with each other – both dressed up! In return, he filled an empty USB with all the videos of himself singing and playing ukulele for me so that I could bring to Korea and listen to that when I was sad. He even wrote me a song on my birthday! There was one random day, it was after our first summer together and I already came back to Finland, he just went around in Hanoi taking pictures of places that were meaningful to us and sent them to me because “I suddenly miss you”. These special little things remind us why we do this in the first place, and show the other person that we care and we are also trying hard for our future.

These are basically everything we do during our 2 years of relationship. It has not always been fun and games and special things like I wrote above. Sometimes we just leave the Skype there and do our own work (and watch the other person do theirs) because we are too busy. But that is okay, because we know everything will turn out well for us as long as we still cherish each other everyday a little bit more and set some times to ask the other “How was your day?”

#long distance #long distant couple #ldr #ldr blog #nvdxcmh since05022017

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coeurdastronaute · 7 years

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Either/Or: Rosie 5

As much as she knew her mothers would go with her, Rosie couldn’t do it with them. She just couldn’t, and so she got off the bus in an unfamiliar neighborhood after hacking into the police database and doing a little bit more of her own research.

She shouldered her bag and she took a deep breath as she walked down the street, occasionally looking at her phone for directions to the restaurant.

Her movie was almost done, and for some reason, Rosie felt happier than ever with her family. She just couldn’t shake this final thing she had to do, and she was raised to be brave and kind and so she couldn’t do it to her parents. They wanted to be there and hold her hand, and she couldn’t let them be that selfless.

The bell rang as she entered the little coffee shop. It was warm and smelled like bread and coffee and everything sweet. There was a few people throughout, relaxing and meeting, they didn’t do anything to notice her at all.

Rosie scanned the shop, looking for a face she didn’t mean to memorize. She slid into a seat before deciding on an order, and she tried to blend in while also searching.

Just like that, she suddenly existed in a room with the woman who left her on a subway train. Just like that, she suddenly spotted a woman, and waited for the connection to zap into her being, though nothing came at all. Instead, Rosie just sat her bag down on the ground and stared and waited for something to happen.

Eventually, she set up her laptop and camera to work on editing footage. She slid an earbud into one ear and listened with the other to the happening of the tiny world. About an hour into her watching, and still afraid to say anything, her phone buzzed, and she texted her mother that she was at the library.

“Hey, sweetheart,” a voice interrupted her texting back about dinner.

Slowly, Rosie lifted her eyes and followed the apron up to the collar, to a familiar face, to eyes that were very similar to her own. Her mouth went completely dry and her heart turned into that of a hummingbird’s.

“Can I get you anything? You look like you’re working hard. We have coffee and really good cinnamon buns.”

Still, she stared back and cleared her throat.

“No? I also have some donuts and apple twists. Tea, cakes, you name it, we try to make it well.”

Only silence existed as Rosie desperately tried to talk, her brain screaming at her tongue to do something, and it all getting jumbled in her cerebral cortex.

“You look… do I know you from somewhere?” the waitress furrowed and searched the weird, quiet patron’s face.

“Tea is fine. Green tea, if you have it.”

“I’m sure we do,” she smiled sweetly. “Back in a flash.”

As soon as she was back behind the counter, Rosie let out an entire lungs worth of air and felt her hands begin to shake. She hadn’t fully anticipated the telling part. Somehow she had to say things, and she couldn’t even order coffee properly.

Halfway through her belittling of herself, the door dinged again, and a pair of kids ran in with a gentleman following, lugging their colorful school bags and chiding them about being quiet. They were young, in no more than kindergarten and second grade, but they were cute enough, and obviously familiar with the place enough to feel comfortable to climb up on the stools and lean over the railing.

“Hi, babies,” the waitress greeted. “How was school?”

Kids. They were her kids.

Rosie shook her head and felt the blaring signals in her head telling her to bolt, and unlike just a minute ago, she decided to listen to them. Quickly, she shoved her camera in her bag and resigned herself to running scared.

“Sorry about that. The noise will die down. My kids are on the way out,” the waitress explained. “Sorry if they disturbed you.”

The mug of tea slid across the small table, joined by a delicious looking donut on a separate plate.

“Kids?”

“Those are mine,” she nudged over her shoulder. “Are you sure I can’t get you anything else?”

“No, thank you.” With that, she tossed a few bills on the table, gathered up what was left on the table, and bolted out of the café without looking back.

Rosie couldn’t leave. She left, but she couldn’t leave. So she sat at the bus stop and tried to clear her head, while at the same time, her brain did nothing but cloud it even more.

She had siblings. She had two siblings. She had a brother and a sister. She hadn’t thought of that part, of her… of Amy moving on and having a life. That was blindsiding.

Rosie sat and thought for a good, long while. She wondered if it was smart, she wondered if she could even meet this person. She wondered what to say, until she knew the words. She knew them but couldn’t articulate them. And she gathered a bit of spine and she nodded to herself as the sun went down, and she knew it was for herself. It was better to know. Her moms said as much, and her mother missed her chance, not finding out until it was too late that her birth mother was dead. Rosie didn’t want to risk any freak accidents when she came this close.

The bell dinged once more as she pushed through the door of the café.

Her mother was once the best superhero in the entire world, who lifted trains and stared at dangerous creatures and wasn’t afraid. Her mom took over entire companies and survived terrible things people said about her, and still she was hopeful and alive. Rosie could do this.

“Everything okay?” the same waitress greeted her as she approached the counter.

“Amy Carvallo?”

“I haven’t been called that in about ten years,” she smiled and searched the stranger’s face. “How can I help you?”

“Sixteen years, almost seventeen years, you left a baby on a train.”

Rosie said it very straight and very honest because like her mom said, there was no reason to stray from the facts. The facts were like a lion, able to defend themselves. She watched the stranger’s face go ghostly white.

“You’re…,” she gulped.

“I had a project to do. I was wondering if you would let me ask--”

“You have to go,” she shook her head. “You were… you were a different life. You have to… I can’t.”

It was hard enough to think of saying words to this woman who gave her away, so much so that Rosie never considered what she might say back. It stung more than she would have liked.

“I wanted to ask you--”

“Please. I’m sorry.”

The door rang again and the kids from earlier approached, racing to hug their mother. And all Rosie could do was disappear.

There was a sense, a cosmic understanding, a special way of figuring things out, that Lena just always knew what her daughter was feeling, no matter how hard she tried to find it. Kara attributed it to the fact that Lena was constantly in awe of, and therefore, constantly watching Rosie as a child. But she also believed it was just because their family was meant to be.

“Something’s up with the kid,” Lena muttered as they laid in bed reading.

But it never surprised Kara to hear Lena say such things. Her wife had premonitions often, which she described as an ability to read subtle clues on people she knew well. Kara rolled her eyes and put her book down on her lap.

“She seemed fine today.”

“She was off,” Lena corrected. “Something happened.”

“You’re worrying too much. It’s the video and how it’s coming to an end. There’s only one interview left.”

“Kara, I’m serious. Something is off with Rosie.”

With a heavy sigh, Kara tossed her book on the nightstand and rolled over toward her wife. Lena was the worrier, and she took the job seriously. There wasn’t a day that she wasn’t going out of her mind about something. Often, it was their daughter. Most of the time, it was global warming.

“What do you think is wrong with her?” Kara asked, knowing how to deal with this mood already. She learned how to weather her wife’s moods constantly.

“Obviously it has something to do with finishing her project. Do you think I pushed her too hard? Should we have talked to her about this sooner?”

“I think we wanted to forget. I know I did. I kind of just… I made myself not think about it because it was easier and because I knew that it would hurt her. In some way, it would.”

“She’s quiet,” Lena nodded, staring at the door at the other side of their room. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Just love her, and be there when she needs it. Believe it or not, you raised a pretty independent and resourceful young lady, Ms. Luthor.”

“Don’t call me that,” she smiled despite herself.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Danvers. I just think it’s important to remember that the next Luthor to take over the company will be another Danvers. I’m pretty impressed.”

“She doesn’t want to run LCorp,” Lena disagreed, settling into her wife’s arms despite her distracted brain.

“No kid wants to hang out at their mom’s job. That girl is obsessed with you,” Kara promised, kissing her wife’s cheek and temple, wrapping her arms around her tighter. “And she’s okay. She’s tough.”

“I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m telling you-- something is up.”

“I know, I know,” she soothed. “I don’t think you’re crazy.”

“Sometimes.”

“Yeah, sometimes.”

“Do you think she’s on drugs?”

Kara couldn’t help the laugh that came from her chest. It was so sudden, and emerged so completely, that she was almost startled by it. Lena pushed herself up on her elbow and looked at her wife, already disappointed in the reaction.

“I’m sorry, but that’s… no. There’s no way.”

“Do you think it’s a boy?”

“She tells you everything,” Kara shook her head, tugging Lena close again to soothe her worried mind. “There’s no way she has a secret boyfriend.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Oh honey, that girl is straighter than straight.”

“What is it then?”

“She’s sixteen years old,” Kara shrugged. “That’s a debilitating disease enough. That’s why I kind of just let her exist and don’t read too much into every frown or furrow.”

“I’m not crazy.”

“I know, I know,” she lied, cooing against the grump in her arms.

“If you wouldn’t have brought a stupid baby home, none of this would have happened.”

“I know.”

Kara closed her eyes and smiled. In her arms was the girl that changed her entire world, and there wasn’t anywhere else she wanted to be, even if she was slightly crazy and very unreasonable. But gradually, she felt the CEO relax and give into the warmth and the arms and the lips that murmured and kissed what they could reach.

“Rosie is fine. I’m fine. We’re all okay,” Kara promised.

“I love you,” Lena whispered, tugging Kara’s arm tighter around her own body.

“For someone who didn’t want a kid, you’re kind of a great mom.”

“I learned from you.”

Under the blankets, their legs shifted together. Kara smiled and hid it in her wife’s shoulder, content to have her back to normal for the night, amazed that she was still able to bring her back down from inside her head.

“So… do you want to fool around?” Kara murmured as they stilled.

At first she earned an elbow in the ribs. Just after that was a kiss that took her breath away, and she had her answer. Gratefully, she didn’t have any follow up questions.

“Hey, I’m thinking we try that new Moroccan place tonight,” Kara said as she did something on the other end of the phone. “Rosie is going over to Alex’s to work on the movie, and I haven’t romanced my wife in two weeks.”

“I cooked for you and wore that new Agent Provocateur corset three days ago,” Lena rolled her eyes and signed her name on a few documents as she sat at the small table in the corner of a café and worked the day away. “That wasn’t romantic enough for you, darling?”

“Oh, yeah, no, that was… yeah, plenty romantic,” she recalled, swallowing a lot of other adjectives to describe it, getting awfully sidetracked in her memory of the weekend when their daughter was at a friend’s house and they were alone.

“I hope I’m not so forgettable.”

“I haven’t thought of much else since, if we’re being honest,” Kara snorted. “But I know you’ve been stressed with the merger and your daughter, and I wanted to help you relax. A proper date. I’m courting you, Lena Danvers.”

“We’re married.”

“Courting!”

“I have an errand to run after work, but maybe a late dinner?” Lena compromised, checking her watch quickly. “Say around eight?”

“Eight. I’ll meet you there. I’ll be the one in the hot little red number.”

“Oh?” her interest was piqued. “Red you say?”

“I have a fancy black card too,” Kara reminded her. “And I had a minute to do some shopping. If you’re a good date, you might find out what else I bought.”

“Are you trying to seduce me, Kara Danvers?” Lena smiled, blushing still at the idea of her wife. Something about Kara always just earned the same reaction of disbelief and awe.

“Me? Never. I’m simply extending a cordial invitation to dine together.”

“I know what I’m hungry for already.”

“Lena!”

“You’re allowed to make innuendos and I’m not?” she chuckled, stacking her work in a new, neat pile and smiling to herself victoriously. She absently scrolled through some email on her tablet and sipped coffee, knowing full well she got a perfect little blush from her wife.

“I’ll see you at eight.”

“I can’t wait.”

It wasn’t a complete lie. Lena was over the moon excited, still feeling the remnants of ancient butterflies floating about because her wife asked her on a date. For a moment, she didn’t dread the rest of her day.

But today was the day. She wouldn’t tell her wife this part, or that she’d left the office almost two hours early, just so she could sit in the small café and watch the woman who gave birth to her daughter.

Frantically, Lena kept looking up from her work at the woman she’d come to memorize. There was a slight tilt to her nose that was almost Rosie’s, though Lena was almost sure it must have been her father. She had those eyes though, and the chin. The curls though, that wasn’t to be seen. It might have been frustration or jealousy, but Lena nitpicked everything until she was just a stranger with no tie to her daughter.

It was stupid, and Lena should have been excited or getting ready for her date. Instead, she was having a hell of a time coming to terms with her life at the moment.

“Hey, can I fill you up?” a voice interrupted her thoughts as she stared at a few more emails.

“Hm? Yes. What? Okay. Sure. Yes,” she managed as she met the eyes of her daughter.

“You look like you’re hard at work,” she smiled. “You visiting town on business?”

“I live here, actually.”

“We don’t get many Mason Street types down here,” the waitress smiled, laughing it away.

Nervously, she smiled awkwardly as Lena stared back with nothing but rapt attention. The gaze was intense, and it took her fidgeting slightly for Lena to blink and clear her throat.

“Thank you.”

“Do I know you from somewhere?”

“I don’t think so.”

“I do,” the waitress furrowed and cocked her head, breaking Lena’s heart. “I recognize you now. You’re Lena Luthor.”

“Danvers,” the CEO corrected. “Been married about twenty years now.”

“Right, sorry,” she smiled, happy with herself. “I just never thought I’d have the most powerful woman in the country or world in my little coffee shop.”

“I do enjoy a good cup of coffee, just like normal people.”

“I didn’t mean… I just… It’s kind of amazing.”

“It is,” Lena nodded, staring back at her expectantly, waiting for her to know, to just understand. But it wasn’t coming, and her stomach burned.

“Well if you need anything else, just let me know--”

“You left a baby on a train sixteen, almost seventeen years ago,” the CEO blurted, unable to stop herself.

The look of horror evident on the waitresses face was the most grotesque thing she’d ever seen, but still, Lena couldn’t back away.

“There’s no-- You-- she--”

Without asking, Amy took a seat and stared, dizzy and dazed at the table, her eyes wide and her mouth kind of sputtering to find something.

“She wants to meet you. I don’t know how to do this, but as her mother, I think--”

“I can’t. I told her I can’t. I’m sorry. That was a different life. I’m a different person. I have a family now, a business. I just--” she looked helplessly at Lena before steadying herself. “She’s not my daughter. I have a life, and kids, and I gave up all of my vices. She is from another person who doesn’t exist anymore.”

“She’s your daughter.”

“She did fine without me. She’s Lena fucking Luthor’s daughter. I’m sorry. I just can’t. I don’t have anything for her, and she doesn’t need anything from me.”

“You don’t even want to--”

“Please. Tell her to stay away from me. You have to understand that it’s for her own good.”

“How?”

“I was an addict. Her father was a good-for-nothing dealer who died in an alley on the low end of the streets where she’s probably never imagined going. I had her and I got clean. I found a life, and I always hoped she had a better one than I could offer. She doesn’t need anything from me.”

“You don’t want to know her?” Lena balked at the idea. Her daughter was the greatest human on the planet. Everyone should want to know her.

“I’m sure she’s spectacular. Hell, I’m sure she’s probably the greatest kid on the planet, which is a miracle considering me and her father, but no. I can’t. I’ve moved on.”

“Have dinner with us, at least.”

“I’m sorry. It’s better if she forgets. Trust me.”

“You’re protecting yourself, not Rosie,” Lena stood, agitated and angry, wishing her own birth mother was alive to hear a rant. “You’re a coward, and I am glad she’s nothing like you.”

“Me too,” Amy whispered, shaking her head, her eyes glassy as she flexed her jaw. She couldn't look at the CEO as she gathered her items and put them in her bag.

Disgusted and angry at mothers in general, Lena dug in her bag and tossed a large wad of bills on the table.

“You get one chance here. If this is what you decide, then you can’t go back on it.”

“I’ve already decided,” she said, not looking up.

With a shake of her head, Lena blinked back tears herself and walked out.

The bench at the bus stop was becoming a home. Nearly every day for the past two weeks, Rosie spent the afternoon watching the woman who gave birth to her move around the café. She watched those kids run in and love her, and for the life of her, Rosie just couldn’t understand any of it.

She also couldn’t understand what her mother was doing leaving the café. And most assuredly, she could not begin to comprehend the flood of emotions on the CEO’s face as their eyes locked across the street.

Both simple stared at each other, unsure of what to do or what could even matter. They knew they couldn’t pretend it didn’t happen, and yet they both desperately hoped for that with their entire beings. Lena immediately tried to compose herself, wiping her cheek and setting her jaw before walking across the street, barely giving a glance in either direction.

“Going with Aunt Alex to the DEO to work on the movie,” Lena repeated as she sat down beside her daughter on the bench. “That was what you said this morning.”

“I was there for a minute, so I didn’t technically lie,” Rosie offered before earning an exasperated look from her mother. “I’m sorry.”

Fiddling with her fingers, Rosie sighed heavily, afraid to look up at the coffee shop again, afraid to look at her mom, afraid to really move, if she was being honest. Instead, she just sat there and knit her hands together.

“I told Kara that something was going on with you. I’m guessing this isn’t your first visit?”

Guilty, Rosie shook her head. She flexed her jaw, and the wavy kind of curls fell in her face before she gathered them in an antsy hand and pushed them around atop her head, creating a bigger mess. It was Kara’s quirk that she’d picked up somewhere along the past sixteen years. It broke Lena’s heart slightly.

“I don’t think I’ve handled it very well,” Lena finally sighed, fiddling with the ring on her finger as she did when she was anxious. “I’m sorry for that. You’re hiding things to protect me, and that should never be something you feel you have to do.”

“I know. I didn’t mean to, I just didn’t know how.”

“As hard as it is, just you… yous ay the words, honey. I won’t ever hate you or be hurt.”

“I thought this would be easier,” Rosie ran her hands over her face and leaned forward, huddling into herself slightly.

Lena put her hand on her daughter’s back and rubbed there until she leaned back and rested against her shoulder.

“It’s not fair. It feels like everything is different now, and I can’t get it back to how it was.”

“Nothing has changed,” Lena promised, kissing her forehead and resting her cheek against her daughter’s messy hair. “We’re still a family. You’re a Danvers, just like me. You’ve always been your own person, and not one thing that has happened changed your character, and it certainly hasn’t changed our family.”

“Yeah.”

“She didn’t want to even talk to me. I didn’t know what to ask. I have… she has… a son and a daughter.”

“As hard as it is, you have to respect her wishes. I can’t understand not wanting to know you,” the mother smiled. “But I can certainly understand leaving the past there. I was a different person when I met Kara. I was different when my father was around and going crazy. We grow and change, and sometimes people only survive by completely shutting it out.”

“Yeah.”

“No more lying, okay?”

“Did you tell Mom you were here?” Rosie challenged, peaking her eyebrow like her mother, which was annoying and endearing all at once to Lena.

“Tomorrow. No more lying tomorrow.” Her daughter shook her head and settled back on her mother’s shoulder. “I love you, darling.”

“I love you too.”

“Did you eat?”

“Not yet. I really do have to go see Aunt Alex.”

“I’ll drop you off on the way. Let me call Cal to get us.”

“Could we stop for Thai?”

“We can grab you and Alex and J’onn some, but I have a date tonight.”

“Do I know her?” Rosie joked, earning a laugh and roll of her mother’s eyes. “It’s a school night. I need you home by ten.”

“This afternoon might not be the time to press your luck.”

“But I’m so cute and charming.”

“God you’re just like your mother.”

From the café, Amy watched the most powerful woman on the planet kiss her daughter’s temple and laugh at something she must have said, each taking a kind of comfort in the embrace, and for the briefest of moments, she reconsidered before shaking her head and deciding to leave it be in the past, as much as it hurt all over again.

“Are you nervous?” Kara asked, lulling her head to the side as she looked at her wife.

“Actually, I’m not,” Lena smiled, and it was the truth. She squeezed her wife’s hand and lifted it to kiss the back of it. “She worked hard on it, and I think my nerves were just me being afraid and wanting to protect her. But man, our kid is so smart and strong and good.”

“She really is. But I did overhear her talking to Maddie about a boy at school.”

“I trust her, but perhaps another sex talk.”

“It’s your turn this time.”

“But you do so well, honey,” Lena promised, watching her wife wane. “I’d just muck it up.”

“It’s your turn,” Kara disagreed.

“Fine.”

The car wove along the busy streets back toward their home that they’d been dismissed from by their daughter to set up for the first screening of her only movie. An impromptu date was always welcomed though.

“Do you want to fog up the windows a bit?” Kara asked, a small grin dripping from her lips. She wiggled her eyebrows to add to it, earning a laugh.

“Hmm,” Lena debated, looking out the windows to estimate how long until home. “You’ve got about seven minutes, Supergirl. Make it worth my while?”

Kara didn’t even respond, just kissed her wife quickly.

“Are you nervous?” Connor asked as his cousin paced around the kitchen, looking for nothing in particular. Rosie’s cousin snagged a carrot from the platter and crunched it. “You look nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.”

“You look nervous.”

“I’m not,” she snapped before leaning against the counter. “I lied to them again.”

“How am I the one who gets grounded more than you? I wish I had two moms instead of Superman and the best reporter of all time.”

“Second best,” the younger cousin retorted with a smirk.

“We’re not having this debate again.”

Rosie crossed her arms and debated what to say, but there wasn’t much point in sugarcoating anything with Connor. He understood what it felt like to live up to unfathomable love and self-imposed expectations. Both of their parents, both sets of world-saving philanthropists, they never expected anything other than joy and happiness from their kids, and yet both Connor and Rosie held themselves to high, invisible standards.

“How do you feel, after it all?” he asked, eyeing his cousin.

There was a familial soft spot for her, even though she was younger. He remembered when they got in trouble together for the first time, when he took her flying, and her their mothers about lost their collective minds. She was the only person he could commiserate with to some degree, and one of the few people who he could be Superboy around.

But the past few months, he saw her change slightly, grow nervous, grow upset about the entire situation. Everyone around him had different parents or were adopted, and he remembered how lucky he was to have his.

“I always knew it was an option that she might not want to know me, but I never expected it. I think I understand though. I feel bad for hurting my moms though.”

“I don’t think you could hurt them,” he promised, crunching on more snacks.

“I did,” she sighed. “Not because of asking questions. I think I just-- I got really confused.”

“Happens to the best of us. Shall we go watch?”

“If we must.”

The living room was completely converted to a theater, and it was spectacular. Naturally, the daughter of Lena Luthor had a knack for the dramatic. But still, Lena smiled and took her seat beside her wife while he daughter and some friends camped on the floor.

Aunts, uncles, friends and family all crowded together, ready for the documentary.

“I’m so excited,” Kara buzzed, putting her arm around her wife’s shoulders as she leaned against her.

“Please tell me you made my interview look better than it was,” Lena ribbed her daughter.

“Okay, okay, everyone get ready,” Rosie ignored her mother and pressed play. “Here we go.”

The first images were pictures from their life together, flipping through the photo album that Kara so diligently kept. Rosie explained the story, showed the newspaper clipping about the Subway Baby and how she got her name, earning a chuckle from the audience.

The interviews started, and Lena smiled as her wife talked about their first meeting, and then about their life together. She grinned as there was them going through the shoebox of their memories. She sighed contentedly when she saw footage she didn’t know her daughter had of her wife and her, still very much in love. Sometimes she forgot just how much they were in love, and then she was confronted with it.

When her interview started to show, she hid in her wife’s shoulder, who just squeezed her and chuckled at the image and mumbled words. Despite the attitude that Lena Luthor always carried, there was so much Danvers appearing on screen that it was endearing.

Kara blushed at the things her wife remembered and said. It was impossible not to enjoy it too much. Lena was always kind and doting, but hearing her talk, one might realize just how romantic she was.

The movie was an ode to family, formed and tested and loyal.

“This is spectacular,” Lena whispered, wrapping her arm around her daughter’s neck as she leaned forward and found her on the floor, kissing her cheek. “I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks.”

It was only about a half hour long, but as the end grew nearer, Rosie grew a little more uncomfortable. She heard her mother shift slightly behind her, the hero realizing the café appearing meant something. It took Lena a second to realize what was happening.

But she couldn’t stop watching, and as Amy’s face appeared, she steadied herself.

Everyone shifted forward slightly, eager to watch the interview that no one knew happened. Rosie refused to turn around as the woman who bore her shared a single picture of her father, and told her about her life. Instead, she just stared and felt relieved to be done with it all.

The movie concluded with the fact that she didn’t have a relationship with the woman who gave her away. It concluded with home videos of their family and plans for the future. It concluded with everyone answering the final questions Rosie asked in every interview: What do you hope for in the future?

To their credit, most people actually thought about it, considering some answers. Some answered quickly, easily, putting forth the first idea in their head.

“That your Mom will let us get another dog,” Kara said in her interview.

“To go to the same college my dad went to,” Connor smiled.

“To finish healing,” Amy decided, after thinking about it for a moment.

“That things stay kind of the same,” Lena whispered before looking at the camera. “I have everything I could ever want in this exact moment. I don’t need anything else.”

The End

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jesseching2001 · 4 years

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14/10/2020 (Week 4)

Task: Story development (Day 8 - Day 14)

Day 8 (7/10/2020) - Magic Broom Another Monday blue and a new tiring task for myself today. I really wish to be like a witch who has a magic broom. The magic broom fulfilled my desires but just my imagination anyway. What I'm gonna do today is to clean up my messy room especially my desk. Most of the time, I’ll wait for the arrival of semester break only I start my chores but a short article shows that a cozy and tidy room can work more effectively compare with a messy room. That’s the reason why I push myself to try today. I have a hard time just categories every of my stuff and I sweat a lot. At that moment I was thinking, why not I start my chores at first every week? Perhaps I’m not gonna spend less than 20 minutes repeating sit and squat cleaning sigh. Almost forget my workout! Arghhhh, exhausting! After finish, my tasks I have a sense of accomplishment but not necessary my room has to shine brightly like a diamond, as long as it's clean and cozy. What my thoughts on this task are that not really hard but takes time to do it and at the same ability to take care of the hygiene and good for myself and my family.

Day 9 (8/10/2020) - Closet Of Bloom Roses are red, violets are blues; Sugar is sweet, and so you are. Everyone is beautiful when they feel like dressing up themselves. Your beauty symbolizes your kindness in your heart, I believe people who like to dress up themselves to get a better self. However, that's only a physical presence of beauty, the beauty I mentioned is inner beauty. Well, in my past it's unnecessary to dress up myself, such as wasting time and money. Never ever once thought that I would love to dress up myself after I started my first job at Inside Scoop at the age of 17. We mostly are peers but I don’t really believe they are in the first place. Their makeups and styling are mature and beautiful the same to their heart, well that moment is when I want to change. After I get myself a brand new style and dress up, my friends completely treated me differently, they were shocked and don’t even believe it's me. I was wondering at that time, am I really change a lot? Is this dress-up suit me? Why they started noticed me when I get dressed up? Wonder if I have the value of inner beauty after I get myself dressed up. If yes, thanks to my personal professional stylish, my dearest mom. The one who always gives my suggestion and dresses me up nicely. If I wear like a clown she definitely changes me into a queen. Well, today gonna give me a good looking attire and enjoy this day by paying it with my savings. Well, I rarely bought myself good-looking attire, my first time choosing a shirt without asking anyone. Well, I understand that you no need to choose to be the most beautiful rose. You just need to be who you are, what you really like. Inner beauty came from your kindness, a gift for you to be a real and natural beauty of its own. Not much about how pretty the rose is more about how the rose spreads the fragrance of its beauty.

Day 10 (9/10/2020) - Smile Again today in front of the mirror, this time not the magic mirror just an ordinary mirror lol. I think I have gone insane this time, oh boy... I’m smiling terribly to a mirror to nobody. Nah, chill. I’m just practicing smile today, I laugh myself in front of the mirror just to see myself smiling, that’s really unusual to me. I decided to do this just because I found this on the internet. Perhaps this could cheer me up, yes it works. I feel I’m in a good mood after giving myself a smile, I think there’s something happy will be happening soon. Peace and harmony start from a smile, this might change your whole day mood. Well, you think it's a piece of cake? Why not you have a try, definitely you feel weird trying this, that’s what I feel for the first time. I try in the morning afternoon and night, wow at night its really creepy I smile in front of the mirror, I just quickly get myself to sleep as fast I could...

Day 11 (10/10/2020) - The only snuggle I miss. “Goodnight, bye.” As usual, the call ends at 11pm or earlier with my bu. Left me and the empty space in the room while listening to Talking To The Moon from Bruno Mars. Almost forget the moment and the feel we spent time together after we graduated from secondary school. We met each other not more than 3 times a month due to I have work, studies to work on the same to him. Well, after the MCO started sadly we can't have any chance to meet up for months. No idea since when I’m not been love, even he says I love you, I doubt what he says. Over the storm, I decided to meet him today before another lockdown is coming soon. Brought along with the birthday present to meet him, that face I familiar with finally we meet up. Wonder does he feel as excited as I do... Well, I really thought he welcomes me to his home but ends up just sitting at the dining table doing our own stuff... That's not what I expect to happen, feel sad in this pity journey. However, I try to talk to him and he answers normally, but it's hard to accept this kind of communication... In the end, I just pass him the present I brought and he feels happy with it but just thank you and touch my head. Well, I can’t stand it anymore... I ask for a hug from him, I thought he rejects me but he's not. That bear kind of snuggle I probably remember how we have been together in this almost 3 years. A hug changes my thoughts and feelings, feel love again. A simple hug gives me a really huge impact to stay connected with the person I love. Even I love him at the same time, I’m loving a person who loves me as well.

Day 12 (11/10/2020) - A day without disaster Another relaxing Sunday, a day everyone loves the most. Well, today the alarm rings in the morning at 8am which ruins my mood... I set the wrong date and time oh gosh... Well, suddenly in my mind try to challenge myself not to touch your phone fully one day but I think one day is too much for me and I still need to reply to the messages. Therefore, I set a half-day challenge, I keep it in the drawer in the room so that I not easy to reach it. At first, I feel unusual, like nothing to hold or to be done. I think this is not the best way to spend time, I just look for some tasks for myself. I found my own collection of illustrations I drew, that really motivates me to create one, it’s been a very long time I didn’t use my watercolor and train my drawing skills. I got myself everything I needed but my mind totally went blank at that moment. I really don’t know what to draw. In the collection file, I found some sketches which haven’t finish. Therefore, I picked one of them and started to paint. Spend almost 3 hours until my painting is finish, not so bad but really different styling like before, well at least I try my best. Spend an hour eat my lunch, I really focus on what I eat wow, but I bored until I count the amount I chew, its 10 to 12 every bite. Until 4pm I able to touch my phone after taking a nap. Well, when I got back my phone, my first thought was happy but I think that if I without the phone I have plenty of time doing and focusing something I didn’t notice like my hobby. The phone is like a disaster that took away our time and heart in a negative perception. What surprised me is that someone called me and keep on waiting for my messages I feel significant to them and I was happy about it. Well, explore new things outside the world, don’t stay in the room without a window but get yourself out from the room.

Day 13 (12/10/2020) - The Tremendous Stone. Well, always a tremendous stone that lives in my heart that couldn’t let go of. The stone that I hard to get rid of, favors, and desires that are asked from my friends or strangers. Today, a friend from my secondary school texts me to get herself a free illustration artwork from me. A long story, I used to be a person who been known as famous in drawing in class after one of my classmates check with my bag for no reason, my hands never stop drawing and they just ask for free. At that time I wasn’t into money but after years I found that that wasn’t what I want. They ask for it whenever they want and without asking my opinions. After started my journey in college I think I should reject, otherwise, they take this for granted. Yes, I think more than twice to reply to her, in the end, I choose to reject it. Even she might not want to be my friend anymore or she thinks I’m a stingy and arrogant person or hates me but it's my choice. I don’t really want free illustrations sending away again like my art have no value to own it. Fortunately, her replies are what I never expected she’s fine with it and she says the artworks I gave her she still keeping it well. I feel touched at that moment... At least she appreciates my efforts. However, thanks to them who motivate me at the same time I really learned and enjoyed those moments but I really have to break the stone so I could break the restricted rules for the better me.

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edinburghtattootickets-blog · 5 years

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Information about Edinburgh Tattoo 2020 Tickets, seating plans, packages and transports

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo will start from the 7-29th August of this year. It is an evening of live military performances from Regiments and Military bands that include the dancers, performers, singers, military displays, massed pipes and drums, special lighting effects and the Lone Piper.

Edinburgh Military Tattoo is just closer to its 70th anniversary that the International Festival and Fringe are celebrating in August 2020. Tattoo fans who want to join this iconic festival can buy Edin Tattoo Tickets from our most consistent and unfailing online platform.

When should I buy 2020 Tattoo Tickets?

Edinburgh Military Tattoo Tickets sale has been started from December 2nd, 2019. Households can buy a maximum of 8 tickets. Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets can be bought from the office in York Street.

For the best selection of seats that suit your budget the earlier the better. Weekdays the performances are Monday to Friday at 9:00 pm and on Saturday at 7:15 pm and 10:30 pm. There is no tattoo on any Sunday in August.

The dates for the extended fireworks at the end of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2020 are 8th/15th/22nd and 29th August 2020.

Its great fun and the 70th birthday year, 2020 will be pretty spectacular. It is also the last year for Brigadier David Allfrey MBE, the Tattoo’s outgoing Chief Executive and Producer of the last 10 years.

A temporary stand is erected here and the seats are outside with no cover or protection from the elements unless you are in the Royal Gallery. These seats are of course are very expensive and can be found in the purple section.

factors must consider when booking Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets 2020.

Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets Prices:

The more you pay, get the seat better. A rough guide to the prices is sections 1/16 & 17 (dark blue and green) are the cheap Edinburgh Tattoo tickets found nearest the castle and sections 8 and 9 (pink & purple) are the most expensive.

The only downside to the cheapest seats is that you may have slightly more awkward visibility to the fireworks display.

The other seats for The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, (metal and quite steep) much prefer sitting in the middle sections 3/4 or 13/14/15 lower down.

The Light blue section offers excellent views and is reflected in slightly higher Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets prices in these sections. Blue Sections 2-5 and 12-15.

Tickets for the Edinburgh Tattoo are priced dynamically, therefore, these seat prices may change subject to demand and availability. Order as early as possible before demand increases so much that the price does too!

The seats for the tattoo start at rows A/b/c and then after the alphabet, they begin in double letters. CC/DD, these seats will be higher up. At ground level the front two rows, A and B are reserved for wheelchair users.

Brown section: Sections 6/7, 10/11 brown colors are regarded as having good views and as such the price rises Fridays and Saturdays. There are no Tattoo performances on a Sunday.

Cheap Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets:

If you apply for the preview 2020 Tattoo tickets before the official opening ceremony these are cheaper.

17-21 August 2020:

These are the expected evenings the program is being recorded by the BBC for worldwide transmission at a later date. August 12, 19, 26 August at 9.00 pm are off-peak evening shows and should be cheaper.

The Best view of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo?

Everyone gets a really good view. People think that they have to sit high up to see but this is simply not the case. The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is arranged and planned to enable everyone to see. The Regiments may enter from Edinburgh Castle but often other performers will enter from the center of the arena.

As the show starts, all artistes came the Royal Boxes initially (purple/pink sections 8/9) but then will move around the large esplanade.

Join Friends of the Edinburgh Tattoo:

If you are worried about getting the Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets you want, then this may be a good option. The benefits are

· The opportunity to purchase Tickets to Edinburgh Tattoo during a priority booking period.

· The opportunity to purchase Tattoo Edinburgh Tickets to attend exclusive Friends’ Backstage Tours (subject to availability).

· 10% discount on Tattoo merchandise.

· A copy of Salute Magazine of Tattoo, the magazine exclusively for Friends of the Tattoo sent to you twice a year.

· A Single membership can be purchased at a cost of £25.00 per year, or a joint membership (two people at the same address) can be purchased at a cost of £45.00 per year.

Edinburgh Tattoo 2020 Packages:

There are many packages, some include a 4-course meal, champagne, or toast to the haggis. Some packages require dress code and some offer seats outdoors and others let you choose your seat. Be sure to check what you are buying.

Something to remember:

Restricted Access:

If you have booked disabled/wheelchair seating – you may be able to request a vehicle pass that will allow access to the Esplanade by car, taxi or ambulance. They are subject to availability and are not available for the preview evening or for any Saturday.

If you have a vehicle pass then you will go on convoy onto Edinburgh Castle Esplanade. Be aware if you are in a taxi you may be waiting for some period of time, pre-agree a set fare, many taxi or private chauffeur will help with this.

Wheelchair Seating:

Large coaches are not allowed to join the convoy. In The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, wheelchair seating is along the front rows of sections 1-5 and 12-17 at ground level and Section 10 facing Edinburgh Castle.

These spaces allow for an attendant’s seat. There are medical services on the esplanade if required and help can be given to push wheelchairs up the cobbled street.

Also, remember that the convoy arrives before everyone is seated which means a longer evening. If it is cool be prepared and bring a blanket, there are people to help and medics on-site if required. Hot drinks are also available to buy on the esplanade and seat cushions and ponchos.

Note:

No umbrellas, no flash photography, no alcohol, and no glass bottles are permitted. Only small bags or rucksacks under 25 liters are permitted. All bags are searched. No vaping or smoking allowed in the tattoo arena. You will also need your ID with official Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets for entry as security is very tight.

What to wear in Edinburgh Tattoo 2020?

It may be warm, it may be cold. This is Scotland after all. Always wear layers and buy the £1 padded seat cushion at the event.

Take a warm jumper over a top. Warm coat with hood, remember, no umbrellas if it rains, comfortable shoes for walking up the cobbled Royal Mile and gloves in my pocket as a backup. The temp changes dramatically around 9.30/10 pm and the later Saturday night 10.30 show will be significantly colder.

The queue to enter the Edinburgh Military Tattoo?

Everyone has allocated seating. It is a very long queue down Johnson Terrace and it’s uphill all the way back to the Castle.

There are no pre-show acts. The commentator is the only warm-up before the Tattoo starts. You may wish to be seated and enjoy the atmosphere. The entrance to the castle is narrow and cobbled and does a bottleneck. If you don’t like crowds wait till nearer showtime.

Edinburgh Restaurants:

There are plenty of restaurants around the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket offering something for everyone's purse.

Book your Edinburgh Tattoo Ticket when you Book your restaurants. Some of the popular nearby restaurants include, Devil’s Advocate, Witchery – can’t get much closer to the Tattoo – The Tower restaurant, 5 min walk, Castle Terrace Restaurant, Amber Restaurant at the Scotch Whisky experience- beside Tattoo, Vittorio on the bridge and the lovely Divino Enoteca Italian restaurant.

Transport for Edinburgh Tattoo 2020:

Edinburgh Transport:

Trains can also be an issue if you are staying for the 10.30 late Saturday night performance which finishes at midnight. The last Scotrail train to Glasgow is usually 11.45 and you would not catch this train after the late show.

City link buses run through the night from Edinburgh to Glasgow. The bus station is beside St Andrews Square.

During the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, there are extended train services for Perth, Dundee, Fife, and North Berwick. The Edinburgh Military Tattoo show lasts one hour and 40 mints.

Edinburgh Buses and Trams:

There are buses and trams around the city to the airport. This may be a good option if you are worried about parking. Consider leaving your car at the ‘Park and Ride’ near Edinburgh airport and take the tram in and out.

Edinburgh Trams have in the past operated an overnight service through the night to 5.30 am during the festival and tattoo making it easier to move around the city and return to your accommodation.

The nearest tram stop from the Edinburgh Military Tattoo is on Princes Street and this will take a brisk 10 min walk to reach but realistically with the crowds more like 20 mints. Walk down the Royal mile then turn right down the Mound to connect with the tram.

Lothian buses have an excellent website and run a night bus till 4.30 am. For details and to plan your route home check out Lothianbuses.com. They have an excellent app and remember an all-day bus pass costs £4.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Charity:

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is a none for profit organization, to help support the many Royal military charities and veterans.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo has its own fireworks at the end of the weekend performances but the locals of Edinburgh know that the best show is always at the end of the Festivals.

Glasgow Annual World Pipe Band Competition:

If you love the pipes and drums don’t miss Glasgow's annual World pipe band competition again held on August 14/15th 2020. It is an amazing day out and of course, Glasgow is a fabulous city famous for Rennie Mackintosh, stunning architecture and a stone's throw from Loch Lomond.

Where Can buy Edinburgh Tattoo Tickets?

Tattoo fans can get Last MinuteTattoo Tickets through our steadfast online ticketing market place. www.edinburghtattotickets.com is the most unfaltering source of Tattoo Ticket Edinburgh.

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