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swablueskies · 5 years ago

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100 days until New Horizons

Days 100 - 73

Created by bebebese and low-key tagged by Kendall and I’m so excited that I need to channel my energy into something Animal Crossing related! I altered the question numbers to be a countdown from 100 to 1. Watch me completely fail to do these daily from now on.

100. Do you prefer making up a new name for your villager, or using your own name? I pretty much always use my name or a derivative for my first player character (younger me used Rachael, now I use Rae). Anything after that is completely fair game!

99. Do you use the first map you’re given, or do you reset for layouts? I used to use the first map I was given but now I’m an elitist and I’ll probably spend the first week of release resetting for the best island, which will be hard because there won’t be any online guides to show off what kind of island layouts are possible 😬

98. Do you use the face you’re given, or do you wait for guides and choose your favourite? Wait for guides and choose my favourite, always. However, if player customisation is going to be more along the lines of HDD/PC, then I might not need to wait~ !

97. Favourite town/island name?/Have you a name picked out for your town/island? I’ll assume this question is about my favourite of MY names because if I had to pick from every name I’d ever seen it would be impossible!? My favourite of the ones I’ve had over the years is probably Polaris, my second Wild World town. (I spent several hours after getting New Leaf for the first time agonising over whether to call my town Polaris or North.) I’m very partial to Paprika and Ginkgo too which are two of my New Leaf towns! I might name my island Ginkgo, but I’m not 100% sure yet. I need to start brainstorming

96. Will you be sharing with friends/family, or is your island going to be all your own? ALL MINE B*TCHES I’M NOT LETTING ANYBODY SCREW UP MY SH*T (also my parents wouldn’t play and my brother has his own Switch and I don’t have any friends so)

95. What’s a new feature you’re excited about? Pole vaulting?! I am also SO excited about the idea of getting to choose to have my town in the Southern hemisphere and being able to follow the real seasons! I tend to miss summer in Animal Crossing because I drop off playing over the winter for some reason, and I get bored of the snow really easily when I’m playing obsessively over summer, so that’ll be so nice.

94. Favourite fruit? Honestly I don’t really have a favourite. Maybe peaches or oranges?

93. Least favourite fruit? Durians are ugly! I like pears a lot but I probably wouldn’t want them as a native fruit, as they blend in too much with the trees ... and I’m a little tired of cherries, I always seem to get cherries as my native fruit.

92. Favourite area? (Beach, campground, shopping district etc, from any entry in the series.) I’m not sure if this is 100% my most accurate answer and I’m probably forgetting a special favourite but I really loved and miss Celeste’s observatory. I also like the museum a lot in general! The music and the ambience and slowly watching the displays fill up is so nice.

91. Where do you like to like to put your house? Do you like that level of customization, or do you prefer to have some things decided, like in older entries? In some ways, having restricted choice is easier because you don’t spend so long agonising over the perfect spot. I do like being able to customise my town to that extent though and by the looks of things New Horizon is going to be even better in that regard. I usually like having my house near water and a little bit isolated from my other villagers and shops etc.

90. Favourite grass pattern? Probably circles cos I’m basic, but I’m fond of squares too. I don’t care much for the star shaped snow which I know is a big draw for the circle patterned grass.

89. Least favourite grass pattern? Triangles.

88. Favourite villager(s)? Lily is my ultimate forever favourite but honestly I have so so many that I love. 😭

87. Least favourite villager(s)? It used to be Pippy but I have let go of that anger and become a more enlightened person for it and I even made her a very nice house in Happy Home Designer. Now my least favourite villagers are just the extremely ugly ones like Hippeux/Beardo/Barold (and extra bonus hatred points if they’re Smug, I don’t mind ugly Cranky villagers so much but ugly Smugs are just ... slimy)

86. Did you like doing Tom Nook’s chores, or did you find those to be a pain? I used to not really like them when I was young, but honestly I would be so into those being reinstated or just like getting a part time job in general. (The shift at The Roost in New Leaf wasn’t really that great, I liked delivering items for villagers more.)

85. Favourite NPC(s)? Celeste! And Isabelle and Sable and Blathers and Brewster and I’m quite fond of Joan and Redd as well. AND LEIF!

84. Least favourite NPC(s)? Mmm ... I don’t think I really have one. I used to dislike Lyle in Wild World but now that he’s had a career change I don’t mind him so much. I guess maybe Don Resetti? Nothing against him but I have had literally zero interaction with him ever so he’s my least favourite by default. Also ... as much as I like Tom Nook I’m not sure how I feel about him being like the “mascot” of New Horizons.

83. Do you use paths? Are you excited about the new path tool? I do sometimes and I am!! I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it because I really like grassy paths lined with flowers (and if grass erosion isn’t a thing I might even not use paths at all) but I’m definitely going to give it a go.

82. Favourite feature from an older entry? I miss Celeste’s observatory and making my own constellations. I also miss Flea Market day and when villagers developed their own hobbies that you could help them with ... like for a while they’d be really into gardening and they’d plant tons of flowers, or they’d really enjoy fishing and ask you to catch progressively rarer fish for them. I miss how much villagers used to talk to each other out and about, and how the NPCs had more dialogue and history to them. And I kind of miss how narky the villagers could get sometimes! I liked earning their love instead of having it from the beginning. Also the recycling bin was always fun to look at. OH and!! roof items from HHD and the customisable curtains/window panes/doors and ambient sounds etc. I really hope those interior design options make a comeback in New Horizons.

81. What was your first Animal Crossing game? Wild World!

80. Favourite activity (fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, other)? I like it all really! I maybe have a special spot for watering flowers though. Something about it is very soothing.

79. Least favourite activity? Diving. Great concept, horrible execution. I do hope it returns in New Horizons but I sincerely hope it is improved somehow because it was just painful. I don’t know a single person who actually enjoyed it after the novelty wore off and they started hunting the more skittish sea creatures.

78. Favourite bug(s)? Birdwing butterflies are prettiest but I love seeing fireflies in the summer. Also I like the crickets in autumn. Also honeybees and snails just make my heart full and I think orchid mantises are really pretty too! Possibly my number one hope for New Horizons is a revamp of bug containers so I can display them in my house.

77. Least favourite bug(s)? Basically the gross ones lmao, flies, ants, fleas, and mosquitos are f*cking annoying. I hate hate hate wharf roaches I don’t know why, I think I just hate the sound they make when they scuttle around. Also I hate centipedes on principle. Oh and diving beetles because they’re a pain.

76. A quarter of the way there! How’s the wait? I am so desperate for this game to finally come out. I thought I could make it to March 20 without losing my mind but it’s hit me all of a sudden and I WANT IT NOW

75. Favourite fish? I really like Napoleonfish because they’re so iridescent when you catch them in the sun~ I like frogs because of the sound they make and goldfish on account of them being pretty much the only fish with a nice display, also soft shelled turtles because TURTLE and arowanas because they’re pretty.

74. Least favourite fish? Hmm ... maybe eels? Also sea bass naturally.

73. Favourite fossil? I ... really don’t have much in the way of an opinion on the fossils to be honest.

#rae's new horizons countdown

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porter-sydney-blog · 8 years ago

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Awkward Encounters || Chatzy

WHO: Sydney Porter, MJ Martinez @mj-martinez, Kendal Cohen-Chang @privileged-ken-doll

WHEN: February 16, 2017 - Morning

WHERE: Sydney & Blythe’s House

WHAT: After Kendall shows up unexpectedly the night before - and ends up staying the night - MJ shows up as planned and is greeted by someone she wasn’t expecting to see.

WARNINGS: Plenty of awkward tension to go around. Food CW, Depression mentions.

MJ had absolutely no intentions of going to school today, or the next day. A lot of the time, it seemed irrelevant. She knew was an amazing actress - why try to better something that was already perfect? After what Sydney had told her, though, she knew she had to spend the day with her. She felt possessive in a sense, not wanting Sydney to hurt herself again. And fuck it, she was worried. It wasn't often she let herself feel that for someone, but the blonde was the exception. After picking up six large breakfast burritos, she drove towards Sydney's place - a place that was slowly becoming second nature to drive to. After she grabbed the bag of food and parked out on the street, she made her way to the front door. Who the hell was she, really? MJ was pretty sure she hadn't done this for anyone before. And yet, here she was. She pressed the doorbell button a few times to grab the girl's attention, and stood there and waited for her to arrive and let her in.

Kendall had woken up early, her body all too used to be up with the sun for her daily run, but finding a warm body all but plastered to her side had made it impossible to even consider moving. So she had laid there, dozing on and off for hours. The previous night had been strange, to say the least, they hadn't really talked in depth and Ken couldn't begrudge that; they had started as fuck buddies, we're quickly becoming friends, but they were nowhere near heart to heart conversations just yet. Even tho she had shed her sweats and hoodie, the heat had gotten the best of her and unwilling to wake Sydney up, she laid spread eagle on the comfy bed, half of her body exposed to the early morning and the other still in Sydney's possessive hold. Then the doorbell rang, and when it became obvious Blythe wasn't around, she carefully extracted herself from the bed and Sydney's hold, padding downstairs to open the front door, ready to tell whoever was there to fuck off, and instead ended up with her eyebrows high on her forehead at the sight before her. "Well then, I didn't think you'd be so eager to see me. Come on in, Syd is upstairs." It was such a Kendall thing to basically take over any place she found herself at, and figuring MJ had a reason to be there, she merely turned around and went back upstairs.

Sydney wasn’t awoken by the sound of the doorbell ringing so much as it was the warm body she had koala-ed herself onto for the night extracting itself from her grips that did it. The night before last, Sydney had barely gotten an hour of sleep, let alone a full night's rest, so she was more than a little bit unimpressed to be awoken from a deep and much needed slumber. After a few moments of letting her eyes adjust to the light coming in from the crack in the curtains and allowing herself to adjust to conscious life, Sydney shot up out of bed, realizing just who was at the door. She wasn't aware of what Kendall and MJ did behind closed doors, but she knew it extended beyond mere friendship. She nearly stumbled over herself a few times as she raced down the hallway and the stairs to get to the door, only to see that Kendall had already made it there. In almost no clothes, to boot. The icing on the cake, really. "Morning," she greeted them both shyly, offering up an awkward half-smile to them.

MJ was slightly taken aback when Kendall answered the door, and not Sydney. Her eyes scanned the girl, realizing she had little to no clothes on. While she was aware that the two were friends, she didn't realize that the two of them were sleeping together. Kendall's greeting was less than friendly, which only amused MJ. As she made her way inside the house, she looked up in time to see Sydney looking frazzled. "I have no idea what the fuck I just walked in on," MJ started, an eyebrow quirked. She stuffed the bag of food underneath her arm, walking towards them and up the stairs. She couldn't help but feel a tinge of something, but she couldn't really place a finger on it. If it wasn't jealousy, then what was it? MJ could tell that Sydney felt awkward, but she didn't match those feelings. It was surprising, sure, but she didn't feel awkward. "Forget about our plans, Sydney?" MJ asked, amused. She held out the breakfast she had gotten the two of them, and then looked back at Kendall. "Looking good, Kendall."

Kendall was oblivious to Sydney's frazzled state, still being half asleep, she bumped her shoulder softly against the blonde's on her way back to the bedroom, where she flopped down face first without a care in the world. Little by little the pieces started coming together, and had it been anybody else, she would've at least put her sweats back on, but this was MJ, and if there was anyone that knew her body from every possible angle, with or without clothes, it was the brunette. "I know, I always look good." Ken said, flipping onto her back and stretching like a cat with a satisfied groan. "Until I have coffee I so not care to figure out if this real life, or just a wet dream."

Sydney felt that the trek upstairs took even longer than it usually did, with MJ a few steps ahead and Kendall not far behind herself. She didn't have anything to say, really. She hadn't forgotten her plans with MJ, per se, she just wasn't expecting for Kendall to have stayed as long as she did. Not that she was complaining, of course. She needed the sleep and the woman's presence had helped with that tremendously. Sydney stood in the doorway, her gaze focused on the ground and definitely not on Kendall's well toned back that was stretched out luxuriously over her bed. "No, I didn't... I just... We didn't sleep together last night," she explains, the last part rushed out in one breath. "I mean, we /slept/ together but we didn't like...you know..." she said, finally looking up to meet MJ's gaze and gesturing lamely with her hands as if that was going to explain the word she suddenly seemed too shy to utter. It didn't take long for her to realize that her words may have somehow offended Kendall, as if suggesting there would be something wrong with that if they had. "Not that I wouldn't have, of course. I mean, it's not like it would be the first time or anything," she said looking at Kendall and letting out a painfully awkward laugh. God, this was a nightmare. She was still sleeping, she was sure.

MJ took a short moment to appreciate Kendall's body, getting distracted by the situation unraveling between the three of them. It didn't take long for Sydney's words to take her out of her daze, and she turned her head towards the blonde as she stuttered out her words. She had thought it was important to let her know that they hadn't slept together -- as if that was important to let MJ know. Before MJ could get her words out that she wouldn't have cared if the two of them actually had sex, Sydney was speaking again. So, they had slept together. "You need to calm down, Sydney," MJ finally said with a wave of her hand. "Whatever happened last night, I don't give a shit. Though, congratulations on the sex." She paused, her eyes meeting Sydney's. She did say that she had sex in the last year. Little to MJ's knowledge then, Kendall was included in that list. Letting out a sigh, MJ held up the food again. It wasn't that she was annoyed, per se.. it was just the fact that this was not how she expected to spend her morning. "Do you want your breakfast or not?"

Kendall's amusement grew the deeper Sydney dug herself into a hole. She definitely wasn't sleeping, and mimicking her position from last night, folded her hands underneath her head, watching the scene unfold with curiosity. Why was it so important to give MJ so much clarification about what they did -- or didn't do -- the night before? And just as the thought of the possibility of the other two women being involved in some way popped into her head, MJ casually waved it off. Which, by the way, was a huge relief, considering the mess she was already in, unknown by the other two. Then it clicked. MJ had shown up with breakfast for Sydney, and the blonde hadn't seemed surprised, just mighty awkward. There was only one part that didn't fit into this equation, and it was her. "Well, as awkwardly fun as this has been, I won't intrude with your plans any further than I already have." With a sigh, Kendall heaved herself off the bed, looking at Sydney with a small smile as she looked around for her clothes. "Do you have a spare toothbrush by any chance? My mouth feels like a sheep spent the night in it."

Sydney found the congratulations to be odd - especially coming from MJ - but her face turned a rosy shade of red at it, nonetheless. Yeah, this was extremely awkward for her now. Not a moment later she was holding up the food she had retrieved for them and Sydney, though her gaze was partially focused on the floor again, nodded at MJ, only looking up when Kendall spoke up. "Y-you...can stay for food, if you want?" She half-suggested and half-asked MJ, glancing between both of them for what felt like the longest moment of her entire life. "The, um...guest bathroom should have some under the sink," she answered, lamely gesturing toward the hallway. Kendall hadn't been given a grand tour as of yet, but she was sure the woman would be able to quickly figure out which one it was.

MJ couldn't help but feel like she had gotten in the middle of something, which was odd due to the fact that Kendall was acting like just that. She stood there for a moment and watched the situation unravel, brows furrowed and confused. She was under the impression that she would be spending all day in bed with Sydney, and it was not turning out like that. Before she could tell Kendall to stay, Sydney was asking in a shy manner. "I don't care," MJ shrugged, looking between the two of them. She didn't mean for it to come off as rude (even though that was mostly the girl's intentions if she was talking to anyone else), but she thought that Sydney might take it that way. So, she decided to clarify, "yeah, I've got.. six large as fuck breakfast burritos in here. I don't think me and blondie over her can eat all of that, even if we wanted to." It wasn't often that MJ felt awkward, but at this very moment? She definitely did. She had to wonder if Sydney really wanted her there, or if she would prefer Kendall stayed instead. It seemed as if she would find out, anyway.

Kendall went about dressing herself as the other two kept making the situation more tense and awkward than it ever needed to be. It was clear that neither of them knew how to handle the situation, so it was up to her. "How about I go make myself a little more decent while you two finish squeezing all the awkward out of yourselves?" Foregoing the hoodie, she stood before them in sweats and the same white tank top she had slept in, the fact that she wasn't wearing a bra not bothering her in the slightest as she walked out of the room in search for the bathroom. "You have five minutes, use them wisely to whisper amongst yourselves furiously."

Sydney let her gaze fall to the floor again as Kendall moved about the room to get dressed. You could cut the awkward tension with a knife, and she was certain it was all a product of her doing. The more she thought about it, the more she came to realize that the other two hadn’t been awkward until she made it that way and it only made her feel even more awkward. It was a vicious cycle. Seconds felt like hours, but eventually Kendall was speaking up again, breaking the silence, and informing them that they were to get their shit together before she came back, a comment to which Sydney merely nodded in response to. Once the woman was out of the room, Sydney looked up sheepishly at MJ, offering a small smile. “I didn’t forget that you were coming... I just wasn’t expecting Kendall to be here last night. Or for her to still be here this late in the morning. I’m sorry,” she said softly, her gaze staying level with MJ’s.

MJ didn't feel as awkward as the two of them were making it out to be. In fact, she was over it. To feel awkward about this whole situation, she'd have to care some way or another. And she didn't. Not about who Kendall slept with, and not who Sydney slept with. She finally turned towards Sydney, though, when she was apologizing once again. "Don't worry about it," she shrugged. "I get it, and I really don't care. The more the merrier, right?" She plastered on a fake smile for Sydney, wanting her to be reassured. While Sydney easily could make her smile, right now wasn't one of those times. "I mean, I just wanted to give you some company.. and you found some. Nothing wrong with that."

Kendall's smile dropped as soon as she was out of the room. Why the hell had she stayed? She must've been more of a masochist than she originally thought, willingly subjecting herself to what she just knew would remain awkward one way or another. Gripping the edge of the sink until her knuckles turned white, dark eyes watched as the last remains of foam were washed away by the water, staring as if it had the answers she needed. Tough luck, for it remained as silent as expected. Finally forcing herself to walk back out, she stopped just outside Sydney's room, giving the other two a half smile. "I'm gonna go downstairs to make some coffee, since I assume there should be some, like in any normal household. Join me whenever, I'll be leaving after, I promise." And with that, she continued on her way downstairs, looking for coffee and tinkering with the coffeemaker to keep her mind entertained. Again, why had she stayed in the first place?

Sydney wrapped her arms around herself, something she had always done when she felt as though things weren’t going right, and took a step further into her room toward MJ. She knew the woman well enough to know when she was faking a smile - which was most of the time, when not directed toward herself. “She just...randomly showed up last night, MJ... Didn’t call or text or anything - I wasn’t going to just turn her away, you know?” she explained further, hoping the explanation would help her understand that while Kendall’s company was more than welcomed, it was MJ’s company that she had sought out in her time of need. MJ knew everything, now, and having someone around that understood was far and beyond more helpful that having someone around who was there solely as a distraction for her. Maybe in the future Kendall would be someone she actively looked for when she needed help out of a mess like this, but this time it was MJ and she felt infinitely bad that she had made it all into the awkward mess of a situation. A few moments later, Kendall was poking her head in the room, informing the two that she would be downstairs whenever hey were ready to join. “We’ll be right down,” Sydney responded, offering her a small smile before her attention turned back to MJ. “We’ll share breakfast with Kendall, and then we’ll get back to our plans, okay? Just us.”

MJ could tell that Sydney felt badly, and the last thing she wanted was to make her feel any more negative feelings than she already was. It wasn't that she was upset with the situation at hand, really. It was more of the fact that she had spent her night with Kendall while MJ spent it tossing and turning, worrying about her best friend. "You don't have to explain to me," MJ finally said after Kendall popped her head into the room momentarily. She took a step forward and pulled her into a hug - not something that she did very often, and Sydney was well aware of that. "I'm honestly just trying to make sure you're okay here, Sydney." Her words were quiet and against the blondes ear. She pulled back and gave her a small peck on the cheek, letting it linger for a moment. This kind of affection was uncharted territory for her, but she felt as if it was needed. "I'm not mad about Kendall, you know? She's one of the people that I like talking to, after you. The two people that I actually can stand are in the same house. It's not as terrible as you're making it out to be." MJ shrugged awkwardly. Not because of the situation, but because of the affection that she was showing. And with that, she made her way downstairs and found Kendall making coffee. "You sure do know how to make an entrance, Ken. Nothing like seeing your ass first thing in the morning."

Kendall

felt better by the time the coffee was slowly brewing. The awkwardness and feeling of unsettlement had all but washed away in between the menial task at hand, and the quiet muttering of numbers and percentages under her breath. It was a strange habit she had developed over the years, going over the family business' finances to quiet the rest of her mind. Hearing steps coming down the stairs, she didn't bother turning around, and the familiar teasing from MJ was a blessing in disguise. "See, don't say I never spoil you, princess." Throwing a wink over her shoulder, she started looking around the cupboards for mugs, depositing her bounty in front of her and pouring the steaming liquid. "And I have to say, it's always been a secret fantasy of mine to actually see your face in the morning. Different circumstances, but I can work with this too." Placing a mug in front of the brunette, she then went on search for sugar and cream, or at least milk while they waited for Sydney to make an appearance.

Sydney was a little thrown off by the somewhat unexpected hug from MJ, but she quickly melted into the familiar embrace. It wasn’t often that the other would initiate the hug, but by her own doing, they did hug pretty well every time they hung out, whether MJ wanted one or not. She was a bit of a cuddler - sue her. “I know you are,” she responded just as softly, her arms tightening slightly around MJ’s waist before she was pulling back and placing a kiss on her cheek - and action she smiled shyly at. She let the woman head downstairs and decided to stay back for a few moments to regain some mental stability. The awkwardness still lingered, at least for her, but as the minutes passed as she changed out of her pyjamas and into...well, another pair of sweats and a baggy t-shirt, and pulled her hair up into a messy bun, she could feel it fade away. At least Kendall was someone MJ could stand being around - this would’ve been far worse if it was...anyone else, really. Eventually, she made her way downstairs to join the two, smiling warmly as she entered the kitchen, seeing Kendall with a cup of coffee in her hand. “Oh, good! You figured out where the dishes are. I’m sure MJ was no help,” she teased, moving further into the kitchen to grab a few plates and heading toward the table to join the two.

MJ took the coffee from Kendall happily, even though she had already indulged in two mugs earlier this morning. One thing that MJ would never say no to was coffee. Without it, she'd most likely get kicked out of every single one of her classes for causing a disruption due to some kind of violence. More than usual, anyway. She quirked an eyebrow in curiosity at Kendall's words and couldn't help but smirk. The idea of seeing her in the morning due to having sex throughout the night excited her, but she kept that to herself. Thoughts like that weren't appropriate for this kind of setting, and even she was aware of that. When Sydney came into the room and made a remark about MJ being no help, she reached over and pushed her playfully. "It's not like I've been here enough times to know where everything is," she remarked with another roll of her eyes. She took a sip of her coffee, happy to be comforted by the warm liquid. She took the burritos out of the bags and placed them on the table. This actually wasn't terrible - which was surprising to her. Having the two of them around at the same time was comforting in an odd way.

Kendall watched the scene unfold before with a look of fondness in her eyes. As different as night and day as MJ and Sydney were, Ken was quickly becoming rather attached to both in ways she couldn't explain, and it was such a funny thing that both connections started based on sex. "Nope, not a good enough excuse, I've been here twice and this is the first time I've actually been inside the house. Try harder again next time." She teased MJ shamelessly, though it was obvious it wasn't with the intention to actually take a dig at her. She waited politely until they were both all set and seated before plopping down on a chair herself, the mere smell of food already making her senses perk up. Sydney had seen her eat, and she just hoped MJ wouldn't be too horrified by how quickly she could put away whatever was set in front of her. "I can't believe I'm going to say this, but even with the awkward episode upstairs, you are a godsend, Diabla."

Sydney had a playful glint in her eye when MJ nudged her and Kendall only added onto the teasing a moment later with her own comment. Glad to have the awkwardness put aside for the time being, she was glad to put the events that had transpired just a couple days prior to rest in her mind, and enjoy breakfast with her friends. Once seated, Sydney distributed the plates to each of them and grabbed a couple of the burritos. It wasn’t until she began to unwrap one and her stomach growled loudly that she realized she hadn’t eaten for the entirety of the day prior. There was a guilty feeling that settled inside of her as she sheepishly continued to open it and take a greedy bite, her eyes suddenly finding great interest in the table top rather than meeting anyone else’s gaze.

MJ wasn't one for small talk. Even when it came to the few people that she cared about, she didn't waste her time with filling the silence. She'd just rather not. Instead of talking, she'd constantly try to push thoughts of her uncle out of her head. No matter what she did and who she was with, he plagued her mind. More often than not, it made her feel sick to her stomach - causing her to forego any food that she would eat. However, when she was in front of others.. she'd eat, of course. Enough to then lie about the fact that she was no longer hungry. She enjoyed the company of the two girls, and let them talk among themselves as they already knew that she wasn't keen on making small talk. MJ finally made herself take a bite of the burrito, quickly washing it down with the coffee. All this time her eyes had been trained down towards her food, but she let her eyes wander over towards both Sydney and Kendall and she gave them a small smile around the coffee mug.

Kendall decided to play the blissfully oblivious role, concentrating on the food for the time being. The silence that had befallen the table wasn't awkward anymore, per se, but it felt a little off and Ken wasn't even sure she wanted to risk breaking the metaphorical ice herself. She liked both women sitting with her, but having to handle the both of them at the same time was proving to be a daunting task, and for once she found her mind completely lacking anything that could possibly make it better. Expression one of cool confidence that she definitely didn't feel at the moment, she kept looking from MJ to Sydney in between bites, wondering just what the hell was it that she had unknowingly disrupted with her impromptu visit last night.

Sydney continued to concentrate on the food for a few minutes until she realized there was a silence that had settled between them. If she had been anyone else, she wouldn't have felt as though it was an awkward one, but alas. She was still Sydney and Sydney liked to unknowingly make things even more awkward than necessary. "These are really good burritos," she muttered after finishing a rather large bite, finally glancing up at MJ and then Kendall. "They have no idea how to make good burritos in Atlanta. It's like the only spice that they know how to use is pepper. It's actually kinda gross."

MJ hadn't realized that she was the only one that was going to be keeping quiet. She rather the silence than anything else, so there were no complaints from her end of things. It was Sydney that finally broke the silence, of course, and MJ looked back over to her. Talking would stop her from eating.. so she decided to reply. "Mi madre loves this place. Authentic Mexican - except breakfast burritos aren't a real thing. Let's just say it's the closest you can get to the real thing, if there was one," she explained. Was this really the type of shit that they were going to be talking about? MJ wanted to cringe, but she kept it to herself. The situation at hand was an odd one, yes - but it wasn't that. She wasn't good in social situations due to her lack of patience, so she just sighed and pushed her plate farther way from her and made a mental note that she should probably eat later.

Kendall wanted to groan as the atmosphere between them started shifting again, it seemed that there was just no way around it, and as much as she liked Sydney and MJ, this was not something she could handle without eventually losing her mind and adding to the ridiculous tension. Having made her choice, she all but wolfed down the burrito, draining her mug a moment later. "While this is absolutely riveting in some twisted way, now I will really take my leave, my darlings." Picking up her plate and mug to take to the sink, she quickly rinsed them, then washed her hands, itching to get out of the stifling room. "I'll try to take the awkward with me on my way out." Ken said, turning back to the women still sitting at the table as she fiddled with the keys in her pocket. "Princess, thank you for breakfast, shoot me a call soon, yes?" Then her gaze fell on the blonde head. "And thank you for putting up with my less than appropriate visit, Syd, I'll find some way to repay the kindness, but for the time being..." She walked towards the entryway to the kitchen, making a split decision to leave her flask and hoodie behind, a fair price if it meant being able to breathe again, "Please, do try to shake off the weirdness. Have a great day, both of you, and thank you again." And with that, she all but ran out of the house.

Sydney could sense that Kendall was frustrated, simply by the way she practically inhaled her burrito and washed it down with what would've been still fairly hot coffee. The guilty feeling of not having eaten for an entire day had now shifted to feeling guilty about making thing weird again - this time knowing it was her own fault - and she was sure it was going to take quite a bit to shake it, this time around. "You don't have to repay anything..." her words were soft, barely audible, she was sure, but she let them linger there before Kendall was heading out. Sydney turned her attention to MJ, quirking up an eyebrow when she noticed that the plate was pushed away from her. "I made it weird, didn't I?"

MJ wasn't quite sure why the two of them were acting so off, as if someone had done something wrong. In all honestly, she was consumed by her own thoughts. When Kendall made her exit though, she returned her words with a simple smirk - she really didn't need to say much more than that, and Kendall knew that. When Sydney turned back towards her after Kendall made her exit, she realized that she was probably feeling something about the whole situation. MJ wasn't really able to read a room when it came to these things - but she did know Sydney. "I didn't think it was weird," MJ shrugged and took another sip of her coffee. "You said some awkward shit, yeah. But I don't think it's weird." She waved to the front door, where Kendall just was. "I don't know why she all but ran out the fucking door, but that's her business." MJ shrugged once more, locking eyes with Sydney. "I know she felt as if she was intruding, but honestly? That's what this shit felt like for me. You could've texted me last night that Kendall was taking my place for the day. I wouldn't have minded."

Sydney continued to pick away at her burrito, little by little, managing to finish it up as MJ spoke, eventually nudging the plate away from herself. “She wasn’t taking your place, though... She literally just...showed up here out of the blue and we ended up falling asleep,” Sydney said with a small shrug of her shoulders, folding her arms over her chest as she looked at MJ. Kendall seemed to think that she had overstepped and now MJ seemed to think that she was being...replaced, or something, with Kendall and it was all just a huge mess in her mind. It certainly didn’t help the guilt, either. “She doesn’t know about...me. I wanted you here, MJ. You weren’t being replaced with her; she just showed up outside of my house and we accidentally fell asleep when she was over.”

MJ leaned over and placed her hand on Sydney's leg, as if to tell her to calm down without saying anything. "I don't mean like that. I understand the situation at hand, Sydney. I know that she randomly showed up. I just meant if you had rather she be here today than me, after that." MJ shook her head. The conversation wasn't going anywhere. Instead of saying anything, she cleaned up the plates that were left behind and put the rest of the burritos in the refrigerator. There was no way she was going to be eating that anytime soon, but she wanted Sydney to have an easy breakfast - so that was perfect. "How about we just pretend like this morning never happened? Continuing to talk about this shit is giving me a headache." She paused, walking over to her and grabbing her hand to guide her back to her bedroom. "Let's just get in bed and you can talk, or not talk. Whatever the hell you want."

#privmaria #privkendall #mjmartinez #p:mjmartinez #privilegedkendoll #p:privilegedkendoll

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trendingnewsb · 8 years ago

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The Weird Origin Story of the Viral, Dangerous Hoverboard

A few weeks ago, I bought a new toy. $595 on Amazon, Prime shipping, showed up 36 hours after I clicked buy. It weighs 22 pounds, and, after about an hour of practice, I had it going top speed, about 6 mph. (It feels faster than it sounds.) I’ve fallen off it a million times, often after it does this weird seizure-crash thing that I cant figure out how to stop or predict.

My new toy is called a Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue), and it’s kind of like a Segway—but with no handlebars. It’s not a skateboard, but it’s kind of like a sideways skateboard? It’s like a scooter, ish? The world has mostly decided to call it a hoverboard. I don’t know what to call it.

Whatever it is, I love it. And it’s all Justin Bieber’s fault. It just looked so fun in his Instagrams.

All it took was one Instagram of Kendall Jenner on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen it before. It’s sort of a phenomenon. Here is a (very) partial list of celebrities who have tweeted, Instagrammed, or YouTubed themselves riding one in the last couple of months: The Biebs himself, Chris Brown (who is awesome at it), Nick Jonas, Zedd, Soulja Boy, Kendall Jenner, JR Smith, Nicki Minaj, Wiz Khalifa, Nina Agdal, David Ortiz, Karim Benzema, and Skrillex. It’s been on the Tonight Show, and showed up at the NBA Finals.

Every time anyone uploads a video or picture of this scooter, the commenters all want to know two things: What’s that called, and where can I buy it?

That’s where it gets weird.

What’s in a name?

In late May, in front of a Fleet Week audience of military members, Jamie Foxx rolled onto the Tonight Show stage on a scooter. Once he figured out how to get off it, Foxx explained to Jimmy Fallon, “It’s, uh, a PhunkeeDuck,” as he rolled the board toward himself to make sure he had the name right. Fallon got on it, and did what everyone does their first time: wobbled jelly-legged for a minute, and then slowly inched around before getting comfortable.

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That whole scene really annoys IO Hawk’s Curtis Hedges. Because, he says, that scooter was not a PhunkeeDuck. It was an IO Hawk, his companys product. Hedges tells me to look closely at the wheels, where there’s clearly an “IO” logo in the center. He’s laughing, too, as if he can hardly comprehend the idea that PhunkeeDuck isn’t stealing. And he’s right: PhunkeeDucks look just like IO Hawks, right down to the IO logos on their boards and wheels. That, Hedges says, is because they’re exactly the same thing. “Put a sticker on it, call it a totally different name, and start selling.”

That’s exactly true, actually. The PhunkeeDuck guys don’t even deny it. But they’re quick to dispute the idea that theyre rebranding IO Hawk’s board. “The owner of IO Hawk went around telling everyone he was the inventor of this product,” PhunkeeDuck co-founder Matthew Waxman says, referring to IO Hawk CEO John Soibatian.“That’s just completely false.”

PhunkeeDuck and IO Hawk are the two biggest players in this nascent scooter market, but there are many others. There’s Oxboard, Cyboard, Scoot, Future Foot, Monorover, Airboard, Freego, Esway, Airwheel, iEZWay, Overoad, and a hundred names more along the lines of Two Wheels Smart Self Balancing Scooters Drifting Board Electric (blue).

The real story doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Depending on which one you buy, you’ll pay anywhere from $600 to $1,800 for a scooter. But make no mistake: They’re all the same. The designs may vary slightly—sometimes the faux hubcaps are shaped in Mercedes-like triangles, sometimes there are five or six spokes—but like painting tiger stripes on your kitty cat, nobodys getting fooled here.

The real story of the scooter doesn’t begin with IO Hawk or PhunkeeDuck. It begins, as just about any modern technology story does, in China.

Made in China

Before we go any further, I need to admit that I don’t know, positively, where the scooter comes from. The Chinese manufacturing industry moves so quickly and with so little documentation that it’s basically impossible to fact-check any company’s cries of “first!”

But here’s what I think I know: Theres a company called Chic Robotics, which is also known as Hangzhou Chic Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd, and I think it invented the scooter. (There’s a scooter called the Hovertrax that predates it slightly, but it’s not quite the same thing.) Chic’s logo—the horizontal line on top of an oval that just so happens to look like “IO” when rotated 90 degrees—is plastered all over most versions of the board. And Chic’s name keeps coming up when you talk to the people selling the thing.

The company was founded in 2013, born in connection with China’s Zhejiang University. It was created to make stuff, obviously, but also to champion IP protection in China, to improve patents and copyrights and and foster what the company calls “sustainable innovation.” It holds a series of patents related to the scooter, and has diligently (and apparently pointlessly) attempted to protect them.

Chic’s first scooter was called the Smart S1. It debuted in August of 2014, with a goofy commercial that almost certainly isn’t meant to be goofy. It shows a man walking down the hallway, laden with heavy books and a heavy heart, before finally being saved by the smooth ride of the Smart S1. It’s like a bizarro take on a heartwarming Coke commercial.

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In the fall of 2014, Chic took the S1 to the Canton Fair, China’s largest trade show. This semi-annual extravaganza attracts more than 180,000 buyers from around the world, there to see tens of thousands of Chinese exporters hawk their wares.

In China, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Chic’s supply of scooters disappeared quicklyeverybody wanted one. Soon, people were riding them all over the gigantic convention center. The hordes of buyers and suppliers were all over the Smart S1. Distributors across the world noticed, and so did other factories in China. Before long Alibaba was littered with manufacturers offering the same board—often using the same images and promotional videos, their logos hastily Photoshopped over Chic’s.

If you’ve seen one…

This manufacturing virality, where as soon as something is created it is immediately everywhere, isn’t unique to two-wheeled self-balancing scooters. It’s how Chinese factories make and sell everything from iPhone chargers to televisions to headphones. Or e-cigarettes, another recent favorite Justin Bieber accessory: Just about every brand is the same thing with a different label. “All you have to do is make a phone call to one of the six manufacturers or so in China that are producing these e-cigarettes,” says James Monsees, CEO of e-cigaretteer Pax Labs, “and youd say how much? And oh, I want it to be an orange tip on the end and say Orange on the packaging. Its an hour-long conversation…and youre in the e-cig business.”

In many ways, that’s one of China’s greatest assets as an industrial country. From iPhones to Harry Potter to Starbucks to basically the whole country of Austria, China’s ability to take anything and build it faster, cheaper, and maybe even better, is without equal. But China has made clear that it doesn’t just want to copy Apple anymore—it wants the next Apple to be Chinese. That would require better patent protection, and better regulation from the government. “The political economic institutions and system in China make it so entrepreneurs cant make profit by developing novel innovation,” then-Georgia Tech professor Dan Breznitz told the New York Times in 2011. As it is, the reward for being first is still just being first to be copied.

Because the Chinese manufacturing industry is so centralized, anything new spreads like crazy through the supply chain. One manufacturer creates a product; another reverse-engineers it and makes it too. And that next company can make it cheaper and faster, because it has no R&D costs. In most cases, this endless game of product-telephone makes the product worse.

Jeff Wells, who sells a scooter he calls The Scoot, ticks off a number of corners he’s seen factories cut. “Weaker motors, not as reliable batteries, gyro boards, improper motherboard design,” Wells says. “There are a lot of areas where they can shortcut.” He laughs when I tell him about my board’s nasty tendency to randomly start shivering uncontrollably, before spinning completely out of control and shutting down.

The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

“You probably, right now, have five manufacturers in China that are beginning to make these,” Wells says. He’s been importing products from construction materials to medical equipment for years, and says the key is quality control. “Youve got to tour the facilities, youve got to see them manufacturing over the long-term basis.” Because when factories take shortcuts, the problems that crop up can be hard to see in an online listing, and they can be devastating.

That’s why the Scoot costs $695, when you can buy a seemingly identical device on Alibaba for $200 or so. (He thinks the magic price is somewhere in the $500 range, though, and says we’ll be there by Christmas.) The craziest part? Wells is actually leaving a lot of money on the table. IO Hawk, an LA-based company with a virtually identical story (and product), sells its scooter for $1,799.99 and still can’t keep up with demand. The PhunkeeDuck costs $1,499.99, and there’s a waiting list to get one.

Lets talk about the PhunkeeDuck. Its sold by PhunkeeTree, a New York-based company that began as two guys repackaging and re-branding phone cases and chargers for stores like Nordstrom and Forever 21. Last year, the guys went to the Hong Kong Electronics Show, to talk to their existing suppliers and to see what else they could add to their selection of chargers, cases, and cables. “While we were there we actually found this other factory that for the first time debuted this product to a select few,” Waxman says. “And we happened to be in the right place at the right time, so we started working with them to customize our own version of it.”

“Customize,” at least in this first version, consists of putting PhunkeeDuck stickers on the board and its box. Waxman and co-founder Maxx Yellin say they’re working with the factory—which they won’t name—to modify it in more significant ways, and says patents are a-pending. But they won’t share details yet.

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IO Hawk is a step ahead, having launched first—at CES in January—and already offering a few improvements in its model. Theres a metal frame, for one thing, which can take a heavier load. It can handle up to 400 pounds, though they don’t advertise it as quite that high. The company is also developing custom firmware for the device to make it run better. And, like PhunkeeDuck, IO Hawk claims it has big ideas it’s not ready to share for fear they’ll be stolen.

While they wait for patents to be granted and modifications to be implemented, though, this scooter just keeps popping up in unexpected places under new names. And with every celebrity appearance, every Instagram of Chris Brown dancing or Nick Jonas rolling into a pool, the pace picks up even more. After PhunkeeTree managed to get Kendall Jenner a board, thanks to a well-placed friend in LA, all it took was one Instagram of her being a little bit too confident on the board for the PhunkeeDuck to blow up. (That gram alone netted 1.1 million likes.) Celebs starting hitting them up left and right for samples, and as they shared their adventures on social media more people wanted to try them too. “We didnt have to ask them to post,” Waxman says. “They just loved it so much that Chris Brown was riding it around, and Wiz Khalifa was using it onstage.”

One of their most consistent askers was the rapper Soulja Boy, who finally got a PhunkeeDuck after months of pestering. A couple of days after his board arrived, a new device hit the market: The Soulja Board. $1,500, available in green and red. Its site, souljaboard.com, was put together so quickly there’s still dummy text on the About page.

“He starts posting, hey guys come buy my Souldja Board,” Waxman says. “And he’s standing on our PhunkeeDuck!”