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yukidragon · 3 years

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Our Life Snippet - Surprise Aquarium Trip

Just because the Step 3 DLC dropped doesn’t mean I’ve stopped writing for Our Life: Beginnings & Always. Figured I’m past due to post another first draft clip for those who enjoy my novelization self-indulgence.

This particular clip was of an original moment for Step 1 that I started even before @gb-patch dropped the teaser image of Cove at the aquarium. After playing Happiness in the new DLC, I now find this scene I wrote fairly amusing for various reasons that will be apparent for those who have also played it. I guess this would add a few extra lines of dialogue to that DLC scene wouldn’t it?

...

Weekends had little meaning for kids on summer vacation, except for those with parents or guardians who were off from work for two whole days in a row. For most kids, these days were an opportunity to go out and do something special with the family, such as take a trip to the movies or a theme park.

For Cove, that was the last thing he wanted if it meant spending time with just his dad.

Mealtime with his dad had become tense since the move, but this morning Cove found Cliff absolutely insufferable. First he was woken up with an obnoxiously excessive amount of cheer. The big breakfast his dad made was fine - pretty tasty actually - but it was the constant battering of conversation during the meal that grated on his nerves.

Things had finally settled into something of a routine at the new store, which allowed Cliff to take the Saturday off. His plan for the day was to spend as much quality time with Cove as possible. He came to his son with a laundry list’s worth of suggestions for fun father-son activities to share.

It was a shame that Cove rejected every single one of them.

Not all of the suggestions were bad. A few sounded kind of fun, but Cove still refused on principle. He hadn’t forgiven his dad for uprooting his entire life and taking him away from his real home and his mom. Being offered to do things that they used to do as a family with only the two of them just reminded him of how broken his family was now.

“I’m going to go play with Jamie,” Cove said, raising his voice as he rose from his seat. He was finally finished eating, so he didn’t have to sit through this annoying conversation anymore.

Cliff faltered mid-sentence at his son’s declaration - he hadn’t even gotten to finish his latest pitch. He had been so sure that a visit to the aquarium would do the trick that time. “Are you sure?” he asked, not hiding the disappointment in his voice. “I heard the aquarium has a big shark exhibit. It might be pretty cool, don’t you think?”

It did sound cool, but Cove shook his head with a displeased grunt, refusing to be swayed, no matter how tempting it was

If his dad was actually giving Cove the option to choose not to go, then he was going to reject anything Cliff threw his way regardless of what it was; it was only fair after what his dad put him through without giving him any choice in the matter.

It was clear to Cliff, as he watched his son walk swiftly away from him, that he would have to resort to drastic measures if he was going to have a day out with his son. “Hey, I have an idea,” he said as he got out of his own seat. “How about we see if Jamie can come with us?”

That suggestion brought Cove to a halt. That… actually wasn’t a bad idea from his dad for once. Jamie had a way of making anything fun, and he knew she loved the ocean as much as he did. He had little doubt that she would be thrilled to come.

The prospect of looking at all the amazing creatures the sea had to offer became just a little more exciting than it already was when Cove pictured doing it with Jamie. It would even be worth putting up with his dad.

“Okay,” Cove said, fighting to hide his smile as he looked back at Cliff. Just because he was now looking forward to the suggestion didn’t mean he could let his dad know that he was excited.

Cliff beamed at his son, easily crossing the distance between them to ruffle Cove’s hair, much to the little boy’s chagrin. Jamie saved the day once again. “That’s great! How about we head over right now and ask her moms for permission and see what Jamie thinks?”

The Leimomis were good people. Noelani and Pamila were all for encouraging the friendship between Cove and Jamie, so chances were good they would agree to let Jamie come on the trip. Sure, it probably would probably mean that it would go from just the two of them to six, but Cliff could still squeeze some father-son bonding in there; he could even offer to pay for admission for all of them to seal the deal.

As long as Cove was happy, that was all that mattered.

Father and son had barely stepped outside the house when they spotted activity at the Leimomi house. Pamela was loading something into the trunk of the car, while Jamie was walking swiftly down the sidewalk in her direction.

“Hey, good timing,” Cliff said to Cove, though his son wasn’t even looking at him. He turned to wave across the street, raising his voice. “Hey neighbors!”

Pamela looked over her shoulder and waved back. “Morning, Cliff. Morning, C-”

“Cove!” Jamie shouted happily, unintentionally talking over her mom. She waved energetically before dashing past Pamela to meet up with her best friend in the middle of the street. “Hi!”

Cove gave Jamie a shy smile. He could never quite match her enthusiasm, but it always made him feel good to see her so happy to see him. “Hi Jamie.”

Cliff grinned at the exchange between his son and his friend before shifting his focus to Pamela. “I hope we’re not interrupting anything, but Cove and I are planning on taking a trip to the aquarium today, and Cove was thinking of inviting Jamie along.”

The suggestion put stars in Jamie’s eyes, and she looked from Cliff to Cove as she let out an amazed gasp. “Really?”

Cove nodded, happy to see Jamie so excited. “Mm hmm. There’s supposed to be sharks there too.”

“Cool!” Jamie cheered as she bounced onto the balls of her feet. “I can’t wait!”

Pamela placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and shook her head when Jamie glanced up at her. “Sorry, kiddo, but I’m afraid that’s gonna have to wait for another day. You’ve got a lesson in half an hour, remember?”

Jamie blinked before visibly deflating with disappointment. Not only was she going to miss out on spending time having fun with Cove, but she was going to miss out on something cool as going to the aquarium. It wasn’t fair.

“Lessons?” Cove repeated, brow furrowing in confusion and displeasure. “But it’s summer vacation.”

“Guitar lessons,” Jamie explained with a sigh. “I have them all year ‘round.”

“That’s right,” Pamela said wryly. “Jamie’s Saturday mornings are reserved except for holidays and special occasions. Sorry. Guess it’ll be just you two boys and the fishes today.”

Cove folded his arms over his chest, not bothering to hide his scowl.

Jamie looked up at her mom, giving her best puppy dog eyes. “But… going to the aquarium with Cove is a special occasion.” She made the argument tentatively as she anxiously twirled one of her pigtails around her finger.

Pamela wasn’t swayed by such adorable charms into changing her mind, but it did make her honk Jamie’s nose lightly. She chuckled at her youngest daughter’s indignant squawk at the playful gesture. “Sorry, kiddo, but Mx. Morgan is waiting, and you don’t want to be rude and cancel on them right before you’re supposed to see them, do you?”

Jamie sighed and wilted as her last ditch effort failed as well, but her mom had a good point. Her guitar teacher was a nice person, and she didn’t want to be rude to them just because she wanted to play with Cove - it might hurt their feelings.

Cliff rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly as he tried to figure out how to salvage the situation. He probably should have expected the possibility that the Leimomis could have other plans. “I guess it can’t be helped,” he said after a moment. “Sorry to disappoint you, Jamie. Next time I’ll try to remember to give more notice.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Pamela said with an easy smile. “We’ll just have to shelve it for another day. Have fun, you two.” Gently, she nudged Jamie’s shoulder in the direction of the car. “Come on, Jamie, or we’re gonna be late.”

Jamie reluctantly went along with her mom, but she gave Cove one last regretful look over her shoulder and waved with far less enthusiasm than before. “Bye, Cove. Have fun at the aquarium.”

Cove gave a small wave in return, but he couldn’t return the weak smile Jamie sent his way, not when he was too busy being unhappy about this development. “Bye.”

This wasn’t fair. Why did adults always have to make them do stuff they didn’t want to do all the time just because they were kids? Cove wished they were older, then he and Jamie could go to the aquarium by themselves and spend the whole day there having fun together.

Cliff tried his best to rekindle Cove’s enthusiasm for the aquarium, but it was clear that his son was in no mood to go anywhere after the one thing he wanted to do the most - play with Jamie - got cancelled. Cove never reacted well to a change of plans once he had his heart set on them.

Although Cliff was unable to talk Cove into going on an outing, he did manage to coax his son into a couple card games at home. Winning a few rounds of go fish did brighten Cove’s mood enough that the grumpy boy let a few smiles slip.

It might not have been the big father-son day out Cliff was aiming for, but he counted himself a winner anyway.

#Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life #ourlifeba #Cove Holden #Jamie Last #Cliff Holden #Jamie Leimomi #My Writing

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droogiesanddiscourse · 4 years

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HCs: Having a Child with Columbo

Original Message: “@anon Hi ! Could i please request an h/c's for having a child with columbo ? It's ok if you don't want to 🥺💖💖!! Ps : i love what you write it's simple amazing ❤❤”

THIS MAKES ME SOOOO SOFT HEHEHEHEH OF COURSE! I love this idea :) and thank you so much for the kind words, I’m so happy this character is gaining such popularity on my blog right now!

Warnings: None! Fluffy fun for everyone :)

• Columbo is content either way, and doesn’t care if you want to have a child or not. But, he will be ecstatic if you decide to have one after all! He always dreamed of starting a family with you.

• He definitely shed a few tears the first time he saw your child, how he held them tightly to his chest, holding their tiny hand in his. From that day on, Columbo promised he would never leave your or your child’s side. He was so proud to be a father, and was going to do everything he could to make both of you happy.

• Having a child is a bit of a learning curve, especially with two working parents. Columbo can’t really take too much time off from his job, but you do parental “shifts” so to speak during the week so that your child gets to spend time with both of you. You always share at least one meal together each day, that’s a given.

• You’ll have to learn how to police your language about Columbo’s job in front of your child. Although they are very bright and understand what their dad does for a living, you want to make sure you never scare them with particularly gruesome details about the cases he works on. So discussion about his job, which used to be common dinner talk when it was just the two of you, are now reserved for after the little one is in bed.

• Your child and Dog form a strong attachment. At first, Dog was a little hesitant about having a little human running around the house, but he started warming up to them when they would cuddle up next to him, shoving their face into his soft fur.

• Dog is protective, which is a bit funny for the old mutt he is. He’ll often curl up next to your child, trying to sit across their lap. He loves when they pet him, and will often fall asleep in their arms. You do have to remind your child sometimes that it’s not okay to pull on Dog’s ears though, no matter how fun and floppy they may look.

• You’ll often play outside on the lawn with Dog and your child!!! Or, well, more like your little one runs around in circles like a goofball with Columbo while Dog takes an afternoon nap in the sun. Still, it’s cute to see.

• Dog follows them around everywhere !!! Before Dog goes to bed, he will walk into your child’s room to make sure they are safe and sound :)

• Beach trips!!! Being in California and so close to the coastline has its perks. You often take weekend trips as a family to your closest beach. Columbo always allows your child to bury him in the sand, only leaving his head sticking out hehe.

• Columbo gets in touch with his untapped creative side with your child, often coloring on the floor with the two of you, or helping make some crazy craft that’s just an amalgamation of glue, glitter, sticks, and googly eyes. He’s not the best artist in the world, but he enjoys the quality time he shares with you both. Somehow he always gets glitter in his hair and on his cheeks that you have to pick out / wipe off for him. He’ll always sneak a quick kiss as you do so.

• You and your child will often surprise Columbo at the office on days he’s not out doing fieldwork, bringing him his favorite lunch :’’) your child always runs over to him with open arms, asking to be picked up. Columbo always obliges, putting the little tyke on his shoulders and spinning them around.

• His work desk is covered with pictures of the three of you, as well as the crafts your child gave him. Every holiday, you and your child make some cute handmade gift for Columbo - not to mention the yearly Christmas tree is covered in all handmade ornaments. If he could, he would frame every single creation your child made, because he refuses to throw anything away. He has a special file in his desk where he keeps all the art / mementos not displayed.

• Columbo always plays “Cops and Robbers” or “detective” with your child, allowing them to put on his signature coat to get even more into the role. Columbo definitely plays the role of the bad guy, always playing a stereotypically dastardly villain that makes you and your child laugh.

• You get in on the fun too, often playing the distressed victim, using your best overacting skills you can muster up. It’s always cute having your child stand in front of you as you dramatically recount the event that led up to your favorite vase being stolen. They are practically swimming in Columbo’s jacket, holding a notebook to “take notes.” Which, let’s be honest are just little scribbles with a purple crayon. But it’s funny how they can mimic Columbo’s stance and personality perfectly.

• Your child look up to both Columbo and you, hoping they can grow up to be a detective just like their Daddy some day. They are always constantly reminded how much their parents love them :’)

#columbo x reader #Lt. Columbo x reader #Peter falk x reader #Columbo #1970s imagine #1970s imagines

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hiro-gari · 3 years

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Hello, I'm back at bringing more Batarou headcanon! 🙋💕

This is a thought that I had lately regarding Garou's and Badd's habit, and how they would impacted on their relationship:

Because Garou had followed a kinda strict curfew rules during training days back then in Bang's dojo, I think Garou is kinda a morning person. And also a light sleeper since he's very sensitive to any sound around him. He would have earlier sleeping hours at least before midnight and waking up before dawn to do his morning exercise routines.

Once Garou is awake, he couldn't go back to sleep easily and usually have the urge to do some morning routines as he had already used by dojo's discipline schedule. After he lives together with Badd, Garou just doing martial art practice on the backyard or jogging around the neighbourhood. Sometimes also buying something for Badd like hot brewed coffee or mini breakfast food from local shop, so the delinquent hero can functioned enough to cook actual breakfast at home after he woke up.

Whereas Badd is a night person who wont get to actually sleep until it's like 2 AM, then waking up at least 1.5 hours before going to school so he could prepare breakfast and lunchbox for Zenko first. Now that Garou also living with him together in his house, Badd must cooking more meals to feed his boyfriend who has bottomless-stomach, too.

Unless when he was in super exhausted condition, especially after got injured in battlefield after a mission or having hard exam weeks, Badd could sleep for a whole day. He's a quite heavy sleeper because those reasons, but just like Garou he also has sensitive sense whenever something goes wrong happen when he was asleep. He was struggling to fight his sleepiness on every morning, so Badd usually is either becomes too quiet or cranky, depends on his mood and condition.

Now that they're together, maybe Garou could convincing Badd to have healthier sleeping habit little-by-little?

Garou would persuade Badd by offering lots of comfy cuddling time at night, stopping whatever was keeping Badd from getting a good rest, and slowly improving Badd's quality sleeping hours. Now everyone could see that Badd is no longer has dark eyebags, he got less cranky, and just looked more refreshed in the morning. Sometimes Badd even joining Garou on morning exercise if he was in a good mood.

Not only that, what if Badd also becomes even more handsome and sexy after he's dating Garou?

Before Badd met Garou, his appearance still be like a rough delinquent boy. After he met and fighting against Garou then was sent to hospital, we could see him became even more prettier than before.

Imagine after they become friends and start living together, Badd unconsciously made himself more beautiful as Garou often teasing him as "pretty guy". Badd’s hair is no longer hair-gelled neat pompadour style, instead he just let his silky hair in wild messy that Garou is really fond of.

Beside his hair treatment, Badd also start doing body skincare in which Zenko recommended him the best products, so he could have flawless and healthy-looking skin. Garou also enjoyed the result in their private time by body worshipped his boyfriend with lots of touching and caressing, appreciating Badd's beautiful self.

Doing daily routines together also improved their relationship, it's like having someone on their side and supporting eachother make them happier. Be it when patrolling, going into mission together, sparring on their free time, being all domestic at home, or spending quality time together doing anything they like at the moment. Or even when they're in such intimate moment of lovemaking.

Those things are not only improving their relationship, but also balancing the quality of their own body, mind, and soul. Definitely giving lots of positive impacts into both of their life.

Now that after they have a longlasting loving relationship, Badd looks happier, healtier, and also hotter. Garou was really successful on helping Badd bringing out the best side of himself. Because of Garou's encouragement, Badd starting to treat himself better than before..

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---- THE END ----

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Notes:

Tbh, the first half is the actual new headcanon that I got few days ago, whereas the second half was a rewritten version of this older headcanon, ehehe! 😅 You can read it in here: https://the-goddessfighter.tumblr.com/post/623371948314984449/

I think in the end, both Garou and Badd have improved eachother. But I want to focus on Badd because he's so selfless that he hadn't give much time to take care of himself, as he always prioritizing people who he loves so dearly: his family a.k.a. Zenko and Garou 😢

That's why Garou, as a considerate boyfriend, was willing to give more attention for Badd. So Garou could influenced Badd to take care of himself, treating himself better because he deserved all the best things, living the best life together with Garou 👏😤😚👌💕💖

I hope you enjoyed this writing! But I'm so sorry if it's not good enough waaah forgive me 😭🙇💦 I don't know if there's still people who want to read this dumb writings of mine, but I'm truly appreciate anyone who's willing to read them :"") Thank you so much guys, you have big chunks of my heart that I offered! 😳💗💝

Always thankful for: @hiro-gari, @the-goddessfighter, @kaincuro, @garous-nipple, @jusqu-une-etudiante, @guby1620, and @lovelybutnot-ablankcanvas, also all of Batarou shippers in the fandom! Thank you for reading this super silly headcanon, guys, ily~ 😘❤💜💙💚💛💖

I hope you all have a great weekend! 😚👍💛🌼🌻💐

-Little1993lamb-

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~Lilia:

Yesss omfg this is so important!! They help each other become the best versions of themselves :”) And FINALLY Badd realized he doesn’t have to turn his hair into gluey goop to be cool, his natural messy hair is 👌 perfect and sexy :o!! Also now I’m imagining that like post-11pm Garou just *wraps Badd in a floofy blanket* *drags him to the bedroom bundled in said blanket* *flomps on top of him* 😭💗 He really brings out Garou’s responsible side ahhhh!! I also feel like Garou probably looks a bit less gaunt in the face too after being with Badd a while 😌 He be eatin’ good lol

I love this sm 🥺🥺 thank u anon!! I hope you have a great weekend too 💖

#and that’s why we ship it ofc 💕#zenko whats ur skincare routine 😩#she’s glowin #badd with soft skin omllll #👌#garou canNOT keep his hands off #submission #anon #batarou #garou #metal bat #opm

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matchagency744 · 3 years

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britishassistant · 4 years

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But I Like One Piece (3)

Her schedule becomes much busier after that.

She gets up an hour before training with Gai-sensei and goes to get Naruto. He’s taken to setting up traps again to dissuade her, growing more complex and subtle by the day.

She’s getting very good at dodging and disarming them.

They train with Gai-sensei for two hours. Usually running laps and doing katas focused on fluidity and strength. He seems to have taken Sanji’s creed as a personal challenge and she’s usually wearing mitten-like weights over her hands or has her arms tied behind her back.

After training, she returns home to practice katas with her father, using a smaller bokken.

She has a very short amount of time to shower and get dressed before Naruto arrives for breakfast with her family.

Sometimes Gai-sensei joins them, and she never knew embarrassment before she had to watch her parents try not to swoon over his every word. She suspects both Okaa-sama and Otou-sama have crushes on him.

Naruto grimaces next to her and they eat their food in double time and shout their goodbyes as they run to the Academy.

They eat lunch separately.

It’s Naruto’s idea, and rather ingenious if she does say so.

They sit at opposite ends of the same table while Ino, Sakura, Shikamaru (sleepy guy), Chouji, and Kiba are spread out between them. She knows their names now. Ino made sure of it.

Ino and Sakura try to get her involved in girl talk, Chouji alternates between talking to her about cooking and to Shikamaru about classes, while Kiba and Naruto discuss what kind of cool ninja moves they know and will learn next year.

They’re close enough that it still feels like they’re spending time together, but the conversation and slight dispersal of the seating positions mean they’re “technically” not eating a meal together.

After the Academy day is over, she goes to the market with her mother to buy groceries. Once they get back, she prepares their lunch boxes the moment groceries are put away, making extra due to the sheer amount of sharing that goes on, with Naruto yelling ridiculous suggestions as Okaa-sama measures him for new clothes.

He seems to be going through a growth spurt, now his body is getting the nutrients it needs.

They finish their homework together in the kitchen while her mother makes dinner. Otou-sama usually arrives in time for them to finish setting the table and they eat dinner together.

On Wednesdays and Fridays they get ramen from Ichiraku’s. Every other weekend is when the Hokage checks in on Naruto, so she’ll not see him for the entire two days.

After Naruto leaves for his curfew, she helps wash the dishes while her parents ensure she’s up to speed on their family history.

She goes to bed early, because she learned quickly not doing so made Gai-sensei’s training that much worse to bear.

They move up a year.

It’s almost a shame, because towards the end there the teacher had begun warming up to Naruto, if saying “Good luck Ketsugi, Uzumaki.” counts as “warming up”.

She supposes she maybe should’ve had a bit more faith in the teacher, even if the woman does have an unhealthy idealization of the World Government-level tyrant Usagi-hime and is completely, totally wrong about pirates being poor role models to aspire to.

Now they’re going to have a new teacher and begin the whole rigmarole over again.

At least their classmates are already used to him, and they get a three week break before the summer term starts.

Her new birthday’s the weekend before classes start up again too, so there’s that.

Naruto’s being stalked.

She notices it a few days into the break, when Okaa-sama begs for them to act their age for once and go play outside instead of just training or cooking.

Naruto knows a good swing set outside the Academy and they spend half an hour trying to see if they can get the swing to go all the way round.

Yes, she has the memories and partial mindset of a twenty year old, but this is the dream of every child who has ever been on a swing, including her, and they are in an anime ninja world.

If there’s anywhere it’ll be possible to fulfill this dream, it’s here.

She’s managed to go almost horizontal on her swing while Naruto whoops in glee behind her, and on the backswing she spots a blur of dark hair hiding behind a tree and watching them.

No, she thinks, slowing a little while Naruto kicks with increased vigor and whoops again once he touches tree branches, the person’s weird pale eyes remaining fixed on his swinging. Watching him.

The stalker follows them everywhere.

She’s getting reasonably sure the stalker is a girl, because just about the only place she doesn’t follow Naruto is the boy’s bathroom.

She’s almost on par with the masks for stealth otherwise, remaining far enough away that it’s not obvious she’s stalking but close enough that she always has a clear line of sight to Naruto.

She’s definitely a member of one of the village clans. Her skills and the symbol on her high-quality clothing attest to that much. But what’s her interest in Naruto?

She waits a minute after Naruto enters the bathroom, and then walks towards the stalker.

The girl knows better than to run and draw attention to herself, but she does backpedal a bit.

“Look,” She says, not unkindly. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know why you’re watching Naruto. I don’t think you want to hurt him, and I’ll let you off so long as you don’t. Just don’t steal any of his underwear, or invade his privacy and make him uncomfortable, or we’ll have problems. Am I clear?”

The girl blushes tomato red. She opens and closes her mouth several times. She flees.

She sighs. The stalker may have just been too shy for her own good, but it’s always wise to nip a potential yandere in the bud before obsession really takes hold.

That weekend they get an addition to their morning training.

Gai-sensei comes striding onto their training field with a boy about their age trotting along behind him. He has a braid and very bushy eyebrows.

“This is Rock Lee!” Gai-sensei says proudly. “He will be joining our most youthful training!”

“I am Rock Lee and I am eight years old.” The boy introduces himself. “I am honored to meet the students of Maito Gai-sensei!”

“I’m Uzumaki Naruto and I’m seven! Imma be the Hokage, believe it!” Naruto cheers, waking up more with the chance to say his dream.

“Ketsugi Mayu. I’ll be seven two weeks from now. It’s nice to meet you, Lee-senpai.” She bows to him.

“Ah! It is I who should be calling you senpai, as you were students of Maito Gai-sensei before me!” Rock Lee insists, eyes shining. What a polite boy.

“Heck yeah! Just call me Naruto-senpai!” Naruto boasts, hands on his hips and nose in the air.

“No, don’t make him do that...”

“HOW YOUTHFUL!!” Gai-sensei roars, tears of joy streaming down his cheeks. The only person she’s ever seen cry more than him is Franky. “It brings me much joy to see my students getting along so well! Yosh! LET US RUN 50 LAPS AROUND KONOHA ON OUR HANDS!!”

“Yes, Gai-sensei!!” Lee yells back.

“Lee!”

“Gai-sensei!”

“Lee!”

“Gai-sensei!”

She and Naruto share a horrified glance. Oh god there’s two of them now.

There’s a lot of falling on faces, and 50 laps around Konoha do not get completed. They do manage 20 circuits somehow, and Gai-sensei tells them all he’s extremely proud of them.

That’s what’s nice about Gai-sensei. Even if you couldn’t quite reach the goal he set the first time, he’s always encouraging and takes every effort as something to be celebrated and built upon. He makes you want to succeed, but not worry about failing to get there.

They’re doing cool down stretches when Lee’s stomach growls.

Her eyes narrow.

Naruto catches sight of the look on her face and begins snickering.

Gai-sensei, cheerfully oblivious, straightens up. “Yosh! Mayu-chan, would your parents mind if we imposed upon them for breakfast?”

“Of course not Gai-sensei. They’d be delighted to have you.” She smiles.

Lee curls into himself a little, beginning to retreat. “Then I shall meet you all here tomorrow! Have a good morn—”

Her hand clamps down on his arm. She keeps smiling. “Training breakfasts are at my house. Here’s the address for you, so you can join us.”

Lee blinks, eyes shining suspiciously. “Ah...uh..is this...okay?”

“Don’t fight it Lee!” Naruto calls behind her. “Or she’ll hunt you down to feed you, believe it!”

“I did not hunt you down!” She yelps indignantly. “You set traps when I left you food!”

“I just wanted to say thank you!” “With chalk dust?!”

And so Lee joins them for breakfast.

He’s loud and a bit awkward, effusively thanking her parents for even the smallest of things and easily getting caught up in Gai-sensei’s pace.

He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body though, and can be surprisingly level-headed and reliable when not overexcited. Which, admittedly, is a lot of the time.

He also likes her curries, which Naruto wrongly insists are “pure LAVA on a plate, Mayu-chan, curry’s supposed to be sweet and savory, not burn your mouth off!”

She’s just glad she now knows somebody who can appreciate what a real curry is rather than the sweet, spice less sauce that cowards attempt to pretend counts.

Her parents are convinced he’s somehow Gai-sensei’s long lost son. To be fair to them, the eyebrows and enthusiasm are very...similar. Their theorizing ran rampant when Lee mentioned he lived in the Village Orphanage while assuring her he did, in fact, get enough to eat.

Gai-sensei isn’t exactly dissuading these theories with how much he mother-hens the boy either. She suspects he overacts and exaggerates his normal robustness a little bit for Lee, to stop the boy from glancing around during training sessions or meals like he can’t quite believe he deserves to be here.

She can’t exactly criticize, since she and Naruto and Okaa-sama and Otou-sama are also doing all they can to make Lee feel welcome.

The weekend of her birthday isn’t like any birthdays she’s had before in this life.

For all that she grew up in Konoha, she never had any friends before Naruto. Running laps was a much more productive use of her time, even if her mother worried about her being lonely.

A quiet dinner in with her new parents was enough for her.

Naruto missed her sixth birthday because he had to spend the weekend with the Hokage, then insisted on trying to draw Luffy for her from the stories she’s told him as a late birthday present.

It’s not a very accurate drawing—Luffy’s straw hat is upside down and he’s got lasers shooting from his eyes and looks like a distressed noodle overall, but it hangs on her wall all the same.

Naruto has been pulling a vanishing act sporadically throughout the week, which she wasn’t overly concerned about.

She knows about birthday preparations, and if he wants it to be a surprise, she’ll humor him.

Though she did stumble upon a scene where Lee was on one knee in front of Sakura, while Naruto prepared to hit him with a bag of mulch from behind.

All three froze when they realized she was there, stammered out something incomprehensible, and fled like startled mice.

She has no idea what was going on there, but she’d pay good money to find out.

Or at least cook a good meal, because all her ingredient purchases leave her perpetually broke.

Naruto isn’t in his apartment the morning of her birthday.

She gets past all of his traps only to knock on the door and hear no answer. The neighbors yell at her when her repeated hammering on the entrance gets too loud.

Lee isn’t with Gai-sensei when she finally arrives to training. He pointedly ignores all her questions about where the other two are, but teaches her the kata for a dropkick in exchange.

It’s difficult, but the grin she gets when her heel hits the ground and leaves a dent is blinding.

He walks her home too.

That’s when she realizes this was planned.

Sure enough, the curtains on the windows are drawn, and Gai-sensei is a little eager to go ahead of her into the house.

The lights coming on are blinding, and the yell of “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYU!!” should not be as loud as it is considering there are only five people in the room.

She’s sweaty and worn out and for some reason she can’t stop smiling so hard her cheeks hurt.

Lee and Gai-sensei present her with a set of weights and a few pairs of orange leg warmers to cover them, like the ones they wear on a daily basis. She grins and thinks it might be nice to wear something that reminds her of the two of them and Naruto, who has insisted on getting mainly orange clothing since Okaa-sama once told him he had the coloring for it.

Okaa-sama and Otou-sama give her a book on baking bread that’s about as heavy as the weights and several bags of different types of flour. She hugs them as tightly as she can. There’s wheat and rye and multigrain and gluten-free and she can’t wait to see what she can create with all of this.

Naruto fidgets and shoves a small pot with a rosemary plant in it into her arms. “Ino let me have this if I helped out at the Yamanaka flower shop with her and Sakura-chan, believe it, and she said it tastes really good in food and its name is Habu-san because plants are living things, so they should have names like people and animals do, right?”

She inhales the slightly salty scent.

Later, after she’s finally had a shower and gotten dressed with the addition of the leg warmers, Sakura and Ino will drop by with a set of sparkly silver hair clips and a chef’s hat keychain.

They’ll all go to a restaurant owned by Chouji’s family to eat, and she’ll devour one of the best plates of chicken katsu, intent on figuring out the recipe through taste alone. She’ll share a chocolate cake with Chouji and Naruto, laughing as the latter pouts when describing Lee’s declaration to woo Sakura when he becomes a worthy ninja.

But for now, she just beams at her best friend and tells him, “I really love Habu-san. Thank you so much for giving this to me, Naruto.”

They return to the Academy.

Lee walks with them there, and they wave to each other as they go to their respective classrooms.

Kiba runs up to them within seconds of arriving in their new classroom, a beam on his face so bright it could outshine the sun itself.

“Igotmyninkenpartner!!!” He bursts out, practically vibrating with happiness.

She blinks. Looks at Naruto, who shrugs. Looks back at Kiba. “Beg your pardon?”

He groans, cuddling a bundle close to his chest. As she’s looking down at it, it squirms.

“I. Got. My. Ninken. Partner.” He repeats, with exaggerated slowness. “It’s a huge thing for the Inuzuka! We get chosen by a ninken, and they can understand human speech and learn cool ninja moves with us, so when we grow up we’ll be twice as awesome as any other ninja!!”

“What’s a ninken?” Naruto asks as the bundle squirms again—

And a puppy pops out.

“Meet Akamaru!” Kiba says proudly. Akamaru is white with floppy brown ears and big dark eyes and—

“Akamaru.” She says seriously. “You are a very good boy.”

The puppy yips in response and she could die right then and there from happiness.

This year they’re actually moving into the ninja portion of Academy learning.

The new teacher is a white haired man and he has them sit criss-crossed on the floor.

“Chakra is a force found in all living beings, a combination of their spiritual and physical energy, or yin and yang. It is a ninja’s greatest tool, the source of genjutsu and ninjutsu.” He drones on.

Does it run on midochlorians too? A voice in her head that sounds like her past brother’s mocks.

It just all sounds so inaccurate, like a bunch of different ideas mashed together to seem cool.

At least Devil Fruits were somewhat understandable. Eat a weird fruit, it messes with your genetics, you get powers. Much more plausible.

She pokes Naruto awake again and the teacher glares at them. “Today we’ll focus on basic chakra awareness. I want you to meditate and locate your chakra center.”

The classmates around her close their eyes. After an especially sharp glare, she does so too.

It’s warm in the classroom.

It’s noisy outside, and she can feel Naruto’s knee press into her leg.

She focuses on her breathing. It’s almost peaceful, retreating inside herself like this—

There’s something inside her.

It wasn’t there before.

It doesn’t belong in her.

She thinks it doesn’t like that she’s found it.

It’s like forcibly being made aware of blood circulating through your body. Not simply your heart beating, but the friction as the liquid scrapes through your veins, the pain as the breakneck current is divided and divided again, until dead ends send the liquid flying back to where it came from at the same terrifying speed.

“What the shit?!” She gasps out, eyes flying open.

Then she hears what she just said and claps her hands over her mouth as the children around her break into surprised titters.

The teacher glowers. “Ketsugi, go stand in the hall.”

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happyacademia · 5 years

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Sometimes it’s not our fault. Most of the time we do it unconsciously, and we simply forget basic things we need to do in order to keep our body in a healthy state while being busy taking care of our brains and working it constantly for our assignments, exams, and so on. Still, remembering to do a few things every now and then every day, or pushing yourself to create new and uncomplicated habits can help you immensely on the long run - by making sure we’re healthy, we’re making it easier for our brain to retain information and focus for a longer period of time.

This post contains a few tips followed by a series of resources that will helpfully aid you get your healthy habits on track!

Drinking more water

This might not be a priority while you’re revising for your subjects, but while it won’t take you more than a few seconds every now and then to take a sip or two from your water bottle, it can also bring you a bunch of benefits. You’re losing great amounts of water every day, so you need to replace it by drinking it back - it will help you think more clearly, relieve fatigue and keep concentrated.

It can be hard if you’re not used to it, so you can start small, with 1 liter a day (33 oz).

Try to slowly increase you intake to 2 liters (which is about eight 8-ounce glasses of water, and hence why people say you should drink about 8 glasses of water per day)

Keeping a water bottle with you to track your intake is the best way to go about it!

Using apps such as the Drink Water app is really useful so you remember throughout the day how much you’ve drank and how much you still have left. This app is my favorite but is only available for iOS, but there are tons of similar apps for any kinds of devices out there!

Eating healthier

You don’t need to change your entire diet overnight and suddenly start incorporating veggies to every meal (but, if you already do, great!), but you can always do a few things that will slowly improve your diet without having to spend a lot of money or having to learn how to cook complex recipes.

Try switching soft drinks during meals with water more often - this way you’ll also help achieving your daily water intake goal faster

You don’t have to stop eating junk food - just leave it for the weekend

If you don’t have a lot of time to prepare meals, instead of eating instant food like ramen all the time, try healthier alternatives such as sandwiches which are really easy to prepare and that can contain a bunch of nutritional ingredients

Another idea for students who don’t have a lot of time to prepare meals, you could try meal prepping (further reading + resources on this bellow)

Use your favorite fruits as your quick, to-go snack instead of processed snacks

Meal Prep 101

38+ Meal Prep Easy Ideas

19 Healthy Sandwiches with 5 Ingredients or Less

Exercising

By exercising I don’t mean that you have to start going to the gym a few times a week or going for a run every day. However, moving your body a little more every week can help you tremendously. Exercising can help reduce anxiety and stress and increases your energy levels. By increasing you heart rate, you’re aiding the flow of oxygen and blood to your brain, and it later can help you relax and improve your sleep, too. There’s a few easy ways that you can start moving around more without having to go hardcore or even leaving your home:

Try pilates! There are so many quality youtube channels online that have great videos on apartment-friendly pilates workouts, and most of them are pretty quick too

Yoga is also a good alternative - it works your muscles and flexibility and there are a bunch of yoga routines that have the aim of specifically helping with anxiety, stress, insomnia, and other things you might be going through because of school

If you’re not a fan of running, you can always try power-walking (or just regularly walking, if you prefer) around your neighborhood or at the gym for an hour or so, every day or a few days a week

If you wish to join and gym and complete full, heavy workouts but don’t find the time to do so, remember that exercising two days a week for an hour - or even less than that - can also bring you benefits and you don’t have to sacrifice a lot of time. By keeping a healthy diet throughout the week and working out two days a week, you can also achieve your fitness goals without compromising your school time!

Youtube Channel: blogilates (pilates)

Youtube Channel: POPSUGAR Fitness (pilates)

Youtube Channel: Yoga with Adriene (for yoga, obviously - one of my fave channels!)

Improving your sleep

Sleep has a major influence in our day since it affects our mood and our energy levels. If you have trouble falling asleep at night, here are some tips:

Bit obvious, but don’t consume caffeine drinks later in the day, even if you have to stay up a little bit later to complete an assignment - once you’re done and ready to sleep, you’ll find that you can’t!

You can power-naps, but remember to keep them short (not longer than 30min) and not frequent

Try to keep a consistent sleeping pattern - your body will get used to it if you start going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day

Don’t use your phone/computer before going to sleep. Try to stop using your devices an hour before going to bed, because the bright lights might affect your sleep. If absolutely necessary, turn on the night shift on your phone, and you can also download F.lux for your device, which automatically “warms up” your computer display as it gets nearer to your bedtime, so the blue lights exposure is not present and therefore doesn't hurt your eyes.

If you think you’re suffering from insomnia or any other kind of sleep disorders, please seek professional help - this way you can treat it clinically if necessary

Having fun and relaxing

Getting away from our work every now and then is an important step to keep motivated and focused. If you only study and revise every day, even if breaks, but don’t have any distractions, hobbies or other “light" ways to spend your time, please consider taking some time off for yourself. This will help you avoid burnout, and you’ll be able to keep on track for longer!

Going out every weekend with your friends is not a bad thing. Outings one day per week won’t harm you, as long as you don’t have anything crazily important for the start of the following week.

On the same note, socializing is very important for our mental health, so make sure you’re in contact with your family and friends and meeting them every now and then, in case it’s something you forget to do

Choose a specific part of your day to have a longer break so you have the time to work on a hobby, watch your favorite TV show, or even take the time to prepare a full meal! Anything you consider pleasurable and relaxing other than academic-related things

Taking part in clubs with other students might also be a great way of working on your academic life while having fun with other people - it can be something related to sports, arts, and so on!

Relaxing is also important - choosing one day of the week to wake up a little bit later or do something else that will help you relieve stress is essential to avoid burnout

Hope this has been helpful! :-)

original posts / instagram (new!)

#studyblr #studyspo #study tips #study advice #studygram #students #mental health #study motivation #studyinspo #study inspiration #tips #advice #ref #resources #original

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annakie · 5 years

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We're back for part two! Remember the last time how I said....

And after that game... I parted ways with my friends once again. Because I had tickets... to Critical Role.

Well... not only that, but I was finally meeting @thievinghippo IRL to see it!

CRITICAL ROLE (aka Friday Night)

I took off right after the previous game had ended and headed for the show. My one big frustration was that it took 30 minutes for my Lyft driver to arrive from AROUND THE BLOCK (ok, about a quarter of a mile, but still). In retrospect, I think he was hoping I'd cancel so he could get a bigger fare or something. I think he just fucked himself over because he could have done that route twice in the time it took him to come get me. So I got there with just a few minutes to spare and no time to get in the merch line. But hey, I found Hippo and met a few other people from Tumblr whose names I recognized!

It was so great to finally meet her, but we had almost no time to talk beforehand (but when we did, it was all about how mad we still are about Jaime / Brienne and also I tried to catch her up to what's happening in CR since she's pretty far behind.)

The show was AWESOME. It was so fun to see live! It was particularly awesome when the entire audience sang along with the theme song (See this video if you haven't yet for those of you not there: https://twitter.com/PhoenixHeart815/status/1157446225223962624 ). It reminded me a lot of singing along with the Sparks Nevada theme the last few TAH shows, I got a little misty-eyed.

The bad? It was really really hot in the theater. At intermission I bolted out to the bathroom and buy cold waters. I was about to get in the merch line but the lights already started flashing. SIGH. I gave Hippo a water and before we could settle in much, the show started again. I told her my plan for the end of the show, though.

I will admit, my lack of sleep from the previous two nights was starting to catch up with me, and I had no caffeine available to combat it with. I almost ducked out of the show early because I felt myself nodding off with the heat in the theater masked with the dark of the theater and that the second half of the show was less exciting (but still fun!) than the first. Seeing the show live was amazing!

Just as Matt said they were ending the show there, I hopped out of my chair (I was in an aisle) and went into the lobby. I was dying to get a set of the metal dice... and they were sold out of EVERYTHING except the big blue d20 and some pins. ARGHGHGHGHGH. So I got the d20, and watched the rest of the show including Liam's very surprising win, on the monitors. (I'd voted for Liam because I assumed Sam would win. I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. :) Though I love Sam to bits.)

Hippo joined me outside in the lobby early, and we left the theater just ahead of everyone else and she waited and we chatted while I called a Lyft. She wanted to get out before traffic got too crazy, too, so she took off. I am VERY MAD I didn't get a pic with the two of us at all. Next year?!

Then of course my Lyft driver didn't come to where I was exactly (literally at the Lyft pickup/dropoff designated location) and I had to walk around and look for him and by the time I found him, he'd gotten boxed in so we had to wait in traffic anyway. Ah well.

At least the freeway was re-opened that night heading back to the airport, and thus, my hotel, for a shorter ride. I ended up not falling asleep til close to 2.

I loved my evening and would do it all again but that Jeremy and Marcus told me that the Starfinder game they played in that night was AH-FUCKING-MAZING and was literally one of their favorite games of their entire lives, both of them. It was a multi-table megagame that had a pass-fail condition and would shape the next season of the Society, and I'm sad I missed it while being really glad I did what I did. Sometimes it's feast or feast, and you gotta pick which awesome meal you want.

I didn’t take many pics, just one as they were settling in after Sam came out in his costume, and one during intermission. It’s all on Twitch, anyway!

SATURDAY

Oh man, for some really dumb reason we'd scheduled our Saturday morning for 8AM... but it was Starfinder!! Uh, I will say I consumed more caffeine on that Saturday than maybe any other day of my life. But it was needed.

What also helped keep me awake that it was FUCKING FREEZING IN THE ROOM. The game itself was an absolute blast, though. It was a brutal slog through a dead planet with hostile aliens everywhere and we had to stealth through, collect information and get out. This was the game I felt the closest to death in all weekend, I'll say that for sure. But we did it!

The very kind Felice(sp?) who was at the table decided she didn't want to carry her hoodie through the dealer hall, where she was going next, and her husband was working the main table at the Pathfinder room, so she told me to leave it there with him when I was done with it. Since our next game was also in the Paizo room, I took her up on this offer and was warm and comfy the next few hours.

Our DM, an Operative, and Felice, plus the Hoodie of Warmth +2.

A very rare picture of me, on the internet, along with the guys.

And our next game was our first Pathfinder 2 game! We were very excited to try out the system, and were put at a table with a father and son duo. Jeremy and Marcus were excited because the DM was the same guy who'd DM'd their Starfinder game while I was at Critical Role.

The only bad thing that happened here was that the El Paso Cielo Vista shooting news broke. I grew up in El Paso, from when I was 12 to 22... it's Middle School through college for me. Even though I've now lived in Dallas twice as long as I lived in El Paso and I haven't been there in like ten years, it's still... a little bit home. So I left the table for a little bit to get on Facebook and make sure my friends there were all okay (they are), and text with my mom to make sure a family member who still lives there is okay (she is, though she took awhile to answer mom so we were worried.) I have a lot of thoughts though, which belong in another post, and I'm still angry and upset about the shooting, even though it didn't affect me personally. But for now, that's the end of talk of that terribleness.

At our table were a father and ~10 y/o son, who I'm cutting out of the pics because posting pics of minors without getting permission is not OK. Also, the game was SHORT. It turns out it was designed as an intro to Pathfinder 2 or maybe even RPGs in general so we knocked it out pretty quick, like 2.5 hours.

One very cool thing that Pazio was doing was that when you played in a game, you got a wooden token that you took up to the prize table, and rolled a d20 + d10. No matter what you rolled, you got a prize, though most of them were cool little boons for your official characters. However, if you critted, you got to pick a physical prize from the table. Well, we played so much that Jeremy and Marcus both critted twice. They ended up getting ALL THREE Token boxes (like cardboard minis, very nice quality) for Starfinder, plus the Starfinder Beginner's Box. Pretty sure those four things together retailed for over $100. Score!

So after the short game, with time to spare before our next game, the gang decided it was Dealer Hall time, literally the first time Jeremy or Marcus had time to go AT ALL. I volunteered to be the stuff-holder. After dropping off Felice's hoodie, I found a comfy seat near an outlet that was near the dealer hall and let everyone dump the stuff they didn't want to carry with me. They came back and left stuff with me, and then after a couple of hours, also brought me dinner from the food trucks. It was a fair trade.

I also asked Jeremy to stop by one particular booth and pick me up a set of dice I'd decided on, Blue Turquiose stone dice from Metallic Dice Games. I took some pics of the dice below, though the next day I did have Jeremy swap out the d20 at the booth because I didn't like how some of the faces looked (by far the angle in the pic is the best side, there was too much solid color on the other sides of the die.) These are going to be my official dice for my 4e character, who is a storm sorcerer reskinned as a druid.

LOVE THESE DICE, can’t wait to roll ‘em.

DM, Dad and blurred-out son.

A blurred-out boy and my guys.

Our final game of the day was the Cypher system, which is made by Monte Cook (one of the original D&D designers). Cypher is a fairly simple system which mostly just uses a d20 and d6, and the DM never rolls dice. The original system was made for a game called Numenera, which we'd played the beginner's box adventure for a few years ago but didn't feel like we got a good feel for the system, so we wanted to give it a go with a DM who knew the system well.

Overall, we enjoyed the game, it definitely wasn't "bad"! But the problem was, we all agreed later, that the module that was being run was the kickoff module for a much longer campaign, there was a huge lore dump near the end and we also didn't really "get" everything that was going on.

It also had the most memorable ending, though. We ended the game by trying to escape from a base while being chased by some guys who greatly outmatched us. My character was a pilot, and we needed to leave via a shuttlecraft. One of the players who we didn't know was on the "get the door open and provide covering fire so everyone else can get to the shuttle" team. And then he needed to make a roll in order to also GTFO and get to the shuttle.

He rolled. Got a 5. There's a mechanic where you can spend a card that you've collected in order to re-roll. So he did that, got a 2. Someone else gave him a card to re-roll. He rolled a 3. Someone else did. He rolled a 5. I was the last one with a card on the table, so I slapped it down. He rolled a 4.

It was amazing. Amazingly terrible rolling.

My pilot already had the craft powered up and was waiting for only him to get on. I sighed, looked the player in the eye and said...

"I'm so sorry, but my character sheet says that I have a personality flaw. I'm impulsive and impatient and have a setback to anything that requires patience, concentration or willpower. I'm not waiting for you." I looked at the DM and said "I decide that he's sacrificing himself to save us, and take off."

So I left him behind.

The player was 100% cool with it, we had a laugh about it, and he agreed it was what my character would have done. So it was kind of a tragic and funny way to end the game. Also Brian needed to get some sleep that night so he hadn't come to that game, and Marcus left a little early to tend to the family, so just Jeremy and I closed out the night.

DM on the left, players I didn’t know in the center, and one on the right. The guy in the bright blue shirt in the center? I killed his character. Sorry not sorry.

SUNDAY

The next morning, sadly, was the last day of GenCon. We only had one game scheduled that morning, our second Pathfinder 2 game. And EVERYONE was gonna be at the game!

I hadn't even SEEN Gwen or Laura the entire con, and when they arrived at just about the same time Jeremy and I did, we joked that we hadn't believed the others were at the convention.

We'd hoped that they'd let us put all 7 people at the table (Kirstyn had left late Saturday night to fly home and be at a concert she was playing in.) They did not. So we split up "Kids" and "Adults".

Sadly, this didn't work out super well for either table. Gwen/Brian/Ally's table had a DM they did not enjoy and also a married couple who actually fought with each other uncomfortably at the table(!!).

We had a good DM, but also an old guy who... I did not like. At all. He talked over the DM, even when the DM was explicitly trying to answer a question we'd asked him, things like rules questions on how game mechanics in PF2 had changed from PF1, since, you know, it was a system that had released THREE DAYS AGO. Also, he was very... helpful... in telling me how skill checks worked and also questioning my decisions on how I was playing my character. (YES, thanks I did consider carefully before casting Sanctuary on myself, and yes, it WAS THE RIGHT CALL. I was the only healer in the party and had gargoyles flanking me, THANKS.)

I literally told the guy (as nicely as possible) "Sir, I've been playing RPGs for over twenty years, I'm well aware of how RPGs work, thank you" the second time he told me how skill checks worked as I was adding up my die roll with my skill modifier and took two seconds to do the math. And sure he'd probably been playing for thirty or more but um... I know how to roll a skill check.

After a short break, I told my friends I might need to leave the table. Instead, Marcus and I switched seats so I wasn't sitting next to him anymore and the DM tried to refocus the game a bit. It helped me at least. I just did my best to ignore the guy. I'm pretty sure he just didn't have the greatest social skills in the world but sometimes my tolerance for people like this can be... low. His brother was also at the table and seemed okay, at least.

The game itself was pretty good, ignoring everything having to do with that guy. After the game the DM thanked me for sticking around and basically empathized that he was getting pretty annoyed, too.

Not the greatest way to end gaming at the con, but hey, it also could have been worse. I took pics of that game but decided not to put pics of someone I didn’t like on the internet.

Gwen, Brian and Ally's game ended like 45 minutes before ours (sadly, much to their relief) and they'd left to do one more run through the vendor hall and then left the con to start their drive home. I had Gwen pick me up a set of dice that... I haven't even seen yet... and they were hella expensive. I'm kinda feeling buyer's remorse about them right now, I didn't need to spend that much on dice this con but... well, we'll see how I feel when I see them in person. If I hate 'em, I'll resell 'em.

All weekend long I'd been texting with my BFF from High School's husband, who is also my friend. He was at the Con as well but doing his own thing and we'd been trying to arrange a meetup. Well, we finally did it! He came and saw me, and we hung out for about 45 minutes, just talking about the con, and old times and what we're doing now and the family etc. etc. So that was great! I was really glad to see him and catch up.

It’s Richard!

After he left because he had to go help tear down the booth he'd been working at, like the day before, I set up "basecamp" in the same place as before. I had thought about going back to the vendor hall where Jeremy, Marcus and Laura were, but I'd already sent Jeremy off to ask him to pick me up the one last thing I wanted (the official GenCon dice tray. I have a Wyrmwood Lacewood dice tray for home use, but wanted a nice travel dice tray. I had a leather one for Kraken, but I'm real unhappy with Kraken Dice now and wanted something else. I don’t plan on buying from them ever again in the future. The official 2019 Gencon tray is very nice, and Jeremy had gotten one the day before, so he picked me up one as well.)

POST-CON

I only had to wait about an hour for the end of the con, and by that time the only ones from our group left were "the adults." So once we were all gathered back up, the four of us headed out and walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant, which we couldn't get into, so we went to the restaurant next door, the Yard House.

Wherein we had comically bad service, but they were very nice about it, and also WE were really nice about it, and ended up getting about half our meal comped. Like our waiter had put in all the drink orders for all his tables to our table, so we had the wrong drinks delivered about five times. We never got water refills. Marcus had half a beer spilled on his leg (not even his beer, just another wrongly brought to our table), Laura's Appetizer-as-entree came out as an appetizer. We asked for more chips for the chips and guac and queso we'd gotten as an app and never got it, etc. Also while the manager was there assuring us we wouldn't have any more drinks brought to our table we didn't ask for... drinks were brought to our table we didn't ask for. It was actually hilarious by that point.

The waiter was brand new (his second day) so we got it. It was just one of those things. But they took care of us, we tipped well, it was all OK.

So that was the end of Gencon. Back at my hotel, which Jeremy and I had long decided we wouldn't stay at again, I'd taken a shower very early Saturday morning after Critical Role. Sunday morning when I showered again, the water still hadn't drained from the tub(!!) but I was in a hurry and just showered in gross cold water at my feet. Then told the front desk.

They hadn't even been in my room all day to even clean up the room at all, much less do anything about the bathtub when I got back to my room Sunday night, so I switched rooms. And then the room next to me had left the alarm clock on, and it went off at 9pm. And my phone in that room didn't work, so I had to go downstairs a second time to get someone to go shut it off. Also the AC in that room never turned off, the controls seemed to do nothing, so it was like 60 degrees in there the entire night. It was actually a relief to leave the hotel the next day. Next year... we'll pay a little more for a bit nicer hotel.

Annnd.. the next morning Jeremy and I got to the airport early enough, flight was full but not delayed, and had no problems getting home. Spent most of the day from getting on the plane to going to sleep that night with a massive migraine so I spent the afternoon at home sleeping and drinking lots of water.. but yay... no con crud!

I miss the con, but being back in my own bed with my kitties is all worth it. Still, I can't wait for Gencon again next year. :D

#gencon #gencon 2019 #critical role #critical role live #starfinder #pathfinder 2 #gaming #tabletop games #annakie's misc stuff

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whykingdomministries · 5 years

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Spiritually Domesticated

This morning I woke up with a list of things to do which included cleaning the fish we caught the night before. After pouring a custom Starbucks quality coffee in my cup, I went out on our back deck and proceeded to size up these tasks. Gus (our senior citizen dog) came along for the fresh air as I opened up the ice filled cooler. It was full of fish ready for the knife and as I looked over at Gus, he had the biggest smile on his face. I then glanced back at the fish and shared a victorious smile with Mr. Gustavo. This was a moment of reflection for me as I became submerged into deep thought.

Obviously our dog wouldn't know what to do with a fish unless it wasn't processed into dog food and placed in his bowl. In fact, if he were to be relocated out in the wild and was forced to fend for himself, the pour guy wouldn't make it. This got me thinking about myself and if I was transplanted into a primitive situation, would I have the survival skills to sustain life. This past weekend we took the family on a camping trip, ate wood fired food and slept in tents but it was only for a few days. Embarrassingly I mustered up the strength to complain about the air mattress and fishing arrangements.

There's less than a one percent DNA difference between everyone who has ever has, is and will live on this earth. With that being said a question is presented, "Have I become domesticated like this dog?"

It's natural to compare yourself to other people and although they look like me, there's often a huge difference. It's kinda like the side by side comparison of a dog and a wolf. You'll also find less than a one percent difference between a dog and a wolf while they are very different in behavioral aspects. Let's explore these creations and see if God is saying something here.

1. The wolf matures considerable faster than the dog and can process or digest more food. The wolf can break up and hold between 10 to 20 pounds of raw meat as the dog usually has a cup in the morning and a cup in the afternoon.

2. A dog can breed several times a year as the wolf only breeds once between February and mid March. These wolf pups are born between April and May which interestingly coincides with our resurrection celebration. For those who do not know, Easter is the first full moon after March 21st and the Sunday that follows it. Lastly, the dog is solely dependent on it's mother as the wolf is supported with a mother and father system.

3. A dog will learn to obey commands like "sit and stay" to receive a treat as where a wolf has the ability and would rather get it's own food. Another interesting point experts have discovered is that a dog will not share it's food as the wolf will wait until it's pack can join in on the feast.

This was very interesting to me as the Bible clearly informs us that there should be a difference between a Christian and a non-believer. Unfortunately, we witness many times our brothers and sisters are disguised so well that you're unable to tell them apart from unbelievers. In fact the sad thing is, I'm thinking about myself and wondering if I'm lacking to make an impact for the Kingdom. Let's look at ways to put our faith in action and bring God's supernatural in our lives.

1. Can you break down and process spiritual food or are you still living on the milk of the word? Do you constantly need to be entertained and led to Christ through music, talented teachers and videos? Are you a Sunday only Christian? Do you spend time praying and living the Word and reflect the biblical values in your life? When I compare a former me from years ago, does my life illustrate GROWTH. Being fully transparent, I have thought about what Church we will be attending on Sunday and debate with myself. The worship is awesome here or there, this one the preacher is boring, this other one is just goes on too long. What makes us choose a particular place of worship?

Let's reflect on Acts:2:42-47 to be exact. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching AND to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. They learned what God said as they sat together to share a meal. They reasoned with one another, prayed for one another and bore one another's burdens. They sold all they owned to care for one another much like the example given in the wolf pack. They never left anyone behind like Christ taught about the one sheep missing from the 99. Where is that today? Some churches do get this right in some aspects with "home groups" and allow their members to "share the meat" through fellowship.

2. Am I being the father that my children need? Do I resemble the qualities that our Heavenly Father has installed for a man of God? A percentage of our society has become poverty stricken from single moms struggling on their own. Much as the female dogs raises the pups on her own, our men are not taking their place in their families either. Where have we lost our way here? We need to raise up men who lead the way for their pack like it says in Titus 2. Men, let's set an example for the younger men and hold each other accountable. Galatians 6:1-2 "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

3. Are we stewarding our blessings with a Kingdom mindset or trying to "get all we can, can all we get and sit on our can"? Are you sharing your "Food" with others? Are we a replica of Christ as He is a great example of a selfless servant leader?

With this enlightenment, I wonder how many Christians could survive without having their spiritual food spoon fed to them. What I mean is, if you took away everything including your Bible, could you still have a relationship with the Lord? Much like the wolf and the dog, is there a difference between you and a non-believer? Have we become spiritually domesticated and have lost the ability to survive on our own? My thought is we have gotten so far away from New Testament Church living that this would be very difficult for most of us. I'm not talking about "you," I'm referring to "us." With all of the scriptures that we have memorized, are we confident that we could return to an Acts way of living. Can I look at my walk and say that through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit I could be lead without my Bible? That's certainly a good goal to set for ourselves.

Brother Lawrence from 'The Practice of the Presence of God' wrote: "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it." I want that. To elaborate a bit further, I witnessed during my trip to prison last year a brother who wanted a relationship with God like Moses. Brother Perry wanted his face to shine so bright from being in His presence that he would need to be veiled from the people. This man of God became a mentor of mine as now a year later I continue to challenge myself, my family and you. I believe that each of us in the body of Christ can make a difference towards a GREAT spiritual awakening. Beloved, it is time for such as time as this. You were brought to this place for a purpose!

May the Lord bless you, keep you and be glorified through our faith in action.

#domesticated #spiritual #WHY Kingdom Ministries #wolf

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omegaling · 6 years

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Allez Cuisine! ~Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen: Deviled Eggs and Leftovers

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“For the last time, Finn, she said she doesn’t want to, so let’s go! If I miss out on Mami Trooper’s deviled eggs I swear to God I won’t give you a moment’s peace all weekend!”

“But…” Finn started to protest, but Rey lay a hand on his arm before another argument could break out.

“Really, Finn, I’ll be fine. I always appreciate your family including me in their holiday celebrations, but this year I just want to be alone. Besides, you need to spend some quality time with Poe instead of always worrying about me for a change. I’m a grown woman; I can look after myself.”

Finn looked crestfallen, and Rey had half a mind to throw him over her shoulders and carry him fireman-style to Poe’s car herself. Luckily Poe rescued her by placing his hand gently yet firmly on his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“I think we should respect Rey’s decision, Finn.”

“Really Finn, I’ll be fine,” Rey insisted, picking up his duffel bag and handing it off to Poe. Finn pouted, but finally allowed Poe to steer him to their apartment’s front door.

Every year, Finn’s grandmother, whom was affectionately known to everyone as Mami Trooper, prepared a Thanksgiving feast of unprecedented magnificence. By the time all her family and guests started to arrive at her brownstone in Brooklyn, her table was already laden with all of her favorite holiday dishes from her childhood in Louisiana: Cajun-spiced turkey, cornbread dressing with andouille sausage and pecans, collard greens slow-cooked with ham hocks, crispy fried okra and oysters, candied yams, ham baked with brown sugar and pineapple, made-from-scratch macaroni and cheese, sweet potato pie and, most importantly, her legendary deviled eggs (the spunky old woman loved to proudly boast how she turned down Emeril Lagasse and Paula Dean both offered to by her recipe from her and she shot them both down after pretending to consider it for a week).

What was even more impressive than the food itself was the sheer quantity of it, as Mami Trooper strongly believed that no one should eat alone on Thanksgiving. Not only had Rey been a fixture in the Trooper family since the first Thanksgiving after she moved in with Finn, but his grandmother also opened up her home to the entire block, inviting every overworked single mother, young man trying to get back on his feet after coming out of a rough patch, and lonely senior citizens whose families were scattered around the country and no one could make the trip to New York that year. Everyone who came always brought something of their own to contribute, and by the time dinner was in full swing Rey was amazed that the dining room floor didn’t simply collapse under the combined weight of the people and the food.

The next day, while the rest of the city was caught up in the throes of Black Friday, the Trooper family (complete with Rey in tow) would drive up to Finn’s uncle’s farm upstate for traditions and activities to ring in the start of the Christmas season. Just a few weeks ago Rey had been adamantly looking forward to the Thanksgiving holidays: then everything with Kylo happened, and she worried that her sullenness would only drag everyone down. Making excuses to Finn, Poe and Rose was exhausting enough; she did not want to have to do the same with people she barely knew all weekend.

Poe’s Fiat was full to capacity, making it look like he and Finn were going on an extended vacation instead of a holiday weekend. Even if Rey suddenly did change her mind she doubted there would even be any room for her. Mami Trooper ran a very tight ship during Thanksgiving and only allowed those she trusted the most into the kitchen while dinner was being made, but she had no objection to letting others take over the cooking duties afterward. From the look of it, Poe was planning on taking full advantage of having farm fresh ingredients to play with all weekend.

As Poe tried to stuff Finn’s duffle bag into the last available slot of space in the car, Finn cursed and made a dash back to the apartment building, shouting that he forgot something over his shoulder.

“You owe me five bucks,” Rey said with a roguish grin when Poe joined her on the sidewalk.

“Yeah, yeah,” Poe grumbled, jerking his wallet out of his back pocket. “I made him a checklist and everything. How is it possible for him to still forget something?”

Rey gave him a half-shrug. “He’s your boyfriend. You own that mystery now.”

They waited for Finn to emerge in companionable silence for the next few minutes. People trickled in and out of the other buildings on the street as they went about their own Thanksgiving festivities. The peacefulness was momentarily broken by a chorus of cheers from an apartment somewhere over their heads, no doubt in response to one of the ongoing football games. The breeze picked up gently, bringing the scent of someone’s cooking with it. Saliva exploded in Rey’s mouth; she was going to miss Mami Trooper’s food something fierce this year.

Finn reappeared a moment later, empty-handed and grinning sheepishly. “Turns out I had my phone charger packed after all.”

Poe cocked an eyebrow at Rey. “Does this mean I get my money back?”

“Nope. The bet was he went back to the apartment to get something, not that he already packed it and forgot.”

“Hardy-har-har,” Finn said with a dramatic eye roll. “Come on, let’s get going. The Saints play in an hour.”

“You’re a traitor to all native New Yorkers, Trooper,” Poe said as he moved to the Fiat’s driver’s side.

“Hey, my family’s roots run deep. I have to represent where I can. Besides, you’re one to talk, Mr. Green Card,” Finn shot back.

“Guys, guys!” Rey interrupted them, laughing. “If you don’t get on the road now I’ll call Mami myself and tell her to ban you from her deviled eggs all weekend!”

“You’re a stone cold bitch, Jakken. Maybe that’s why you do so well in the business.” Poe grinned, his eye sparkling with good humor as he at last ducked into the car.

“You only have yourself to blame for that one!” Rey shouted after him.

Finn climbed into the passenger seat, but before he shut the door he looked imploringly at Rey one last time. “If you do change your mind, we’re only a phone call away. That’s for anytime this weekend.”

“But it’s a three hour drive to you uncle’s farm. You’ll be wasting a whole day if you come back for me.”

Finn shrugged. “Maybe. But you’re kind of worth it.”

Rey felt her heart swell with affection for her friend. The backs of her eyes prickled hotly as she gave him one more long hug and thought, in spirit of the season, how thankful she was to have such wonderful friends.

I don’t deserve them, Rey thought as she waved Finn and Poe off until the Fiat turned a corner and disappeared. She knew she had been mopey and distant over the past few weeks, but instead of pushing the issue they respected her need for space and never attempted to coax the information from her. Even when she told Finn she wouldn’t be going to Mami Trooper’s for Thanksgiving he didn’t so much as ask for a reason, even though he looked heartbroken when she broke the news to him.

It’s time to let go of this Iron Chef ordeal and everything tied to it, Rey vowed as she returned to their apartment. Poe and Kylo Ren could claim that she had all the makings of being a great chef in her own right until the cows came home, but after everything that happened following the their now infamous episode Rey firmly decided that the celebrity chefs could go right ahead and keep their fame and glory for themselves. She was perfectly happy where she was in her life and grateful for it. Very few people ever had the privilege to say the same thing.

A sudden epiphany hit Rey, like a soccer ball getting kicked into the side of her head. She might not have felt up to a big family gathering this year, but that didn’t mean she had to confine herself staying home and feel sorry for herself all weekend. A quick Google search provided Rey with the information she needed, and ten minutes later she was headed out of her apartment donned in a fleece coat, scarf and knitted beanie, making her way to the Bowery neighborhood in the crisp November morning.

When Rey arrived at the Bowery Mission homeless shelter her heart sank. The building’s main dining hall was already packed with both people in need and volunteers; she hadn’t even thought about calling ahead to see if they even had any openings for additional help in her off the cuff decision to volunteer for the afternoon. To her relief the smiling receptionist assured her that more help was always welcome. There was a waiting list to work in the kitchen and serve the meals, so until a spot opened for her Rey opted to spend some time with the shelter’s youngest patrons.

Rey was directed to another room off the main dining area, which was filled with about twenty toddlers and younger children being looked after by half a dozen or so volunteers while their parents had the opportunity to shower and rest. Looking out at them, Rey felt her heart clench painfully in her chest, accompanied by a surge of guilt that squeezed the air from her lungs as her mind became awash with memories of spending much of her young childhood in similar places. While unwelcome memories of Unkar Plutt still resurfaced from time to time, she hadn’t given any thought to her earliest years in the system since before she started working for Poe. The last time she had seen Kylo Ren she had railed on him about forgetting where he came from, but hadn’t done the same as well?

A tug on her hand brought Rey back to the here and now. She looked down to see a small boy of about six or seven staring up at her with wide, limpid eyes. Rey smiled at him. “Well, hello there, sweetie. What’s your name?”

The little boy didn’t answer her question, but instead proffered to her an extremely battered copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone . Rey understood immediately.

“Do you want me to read this to you?”

He nodded eagerly.

Rey walked over to one of the furthest corners of the room, away from the louder cartoons and video games, and settled on one end of a small futon sofa. The little boy perched at the other end, like a cat that still didn’t fully trust her. Rey opened the book, mindful of the first few pages that wanted to come loose from their binding, and started to read.

“ Mr and Mrs Dursley of number four, Privet Drive, were very proud of say that they were very normal, thank you very much…”

By the time the wizards all raised their glasses to toast The Boy Who Lived, the little boy had moved across the couch to snuggle into Rey’s side. Another four children came over to listen to Harry talk to the boa constrictor, and when Harry’s Hogwarts letters started pelting out of the Dursley’s fireplace her audience swelled to ten. She had to take a break when someone started pounding on the door of the shack on the rock out at sea, her throat dry and scratchy from reading for almost two hours. The children started to protest as she got up, but she promised to be back to tell who was on the other side of the door after she got herself some water. When she reached the volunteer’s break room, one of the Bowery Mission staff members informed her that there was an opening in meal service, but Rey politely declined. She didn’t want to disappoint her audience.

“Um… Excuse me?”

A soft, timid voice made Rey stop in her tracks on the way back to the play area, a bottle of cold water in her hand. Standing behind her was a full-figured teenager of about fifteen or so, wringing her hands together in a nervous gesture. Rey smiled kindly at her. “Can I help you? Are you okay?”

“Oh… Yes, I’m okay… I was just wondering… I mean, I’m sure I’m completely wrong, but…” The girl clasped her hands so tightly together than her knuckles started to turn white. Rey waited patiently until the girl visibly gathered her courage and blurted out almost faster than Rey could follow, “Were you just on an episode of Iron Chef America ?”

The question caught Rey off guard, and she answered that yes, she was, without really thinking. She kicked herself mentally for doing so - the whole point of this weekend was to try to get over Kylo Ren - but the girl suddenly lit up so brightly that Rey forgot her own grievance.

“Oh… Oh, wow ,” the girl said breathlessly. “I thought that maybe it was you because of how you hear your hair, but lots of girls started wearing their hair like that after that episode and…” She trailed off, looking deeply embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I know I’m rambling and you’re busy. I just always loved Iron Chef America but the episode you were in was just so...so good . I mean, Kylo Ren is always fun to watch and Chef Dameron is really hot, but you were my favorite part.”

Now it was Rey’s turn to blush. While her coworkers and the other chefs of the Village complimented her fairly often on her work, she didn’t consider herself particularly exceptional. True, she could imitate any dish down to the exact amount of salt used, but it wasn’t the same as coming up with the recipes on her own. Getting compliments from someone she didn’t know humbled her to the core.

“Thank you. So much,” Rey said, her throat tight with emotion. “Do you like to cook, too?”

“I do!” the girl said enthusiastically, only to deflate a bit immediately after. “When I can, that is. A lot of the homes I stayed in don’t let the kids in the kitchen, so I don’t get to practice a lot. I mostly only watch shows like Top Chef, Chopped and Iron Chef. I don’t think I’ll ever be as good as someone like you.”

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” Rey said with a mischievous smile. “The first time I tried cooking for myself I ended up exploding eggs all over my new roommate’s kitchen. The whole front of the apartment smelled like a fart for a week.”

The girl tried to capture her laughter by clapping a hand over her mouth, but her giggles still managed to slip through her fingers. Her reaction prompted Rey’s smile to widen even more.

“And I’ll tell you another secret. I didn’t learn to cook until I was nineteen. That wasn’t even three years ago.”

Now the girl was openly gaping at her, all signs of mirth wiped clean from her face. “But… But what you did on Iron Chef was incredible… It was like art…”

“How about this? How about you come with me and hear how Harry learns he’s a wizard, and afterwards we can talk about cooking.”

For a second Rey was worried that the girl was going to faint on the spot. Thankfully, she only ended up nodding. “My name is Lucy, by the way.”

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Lucy. Now let’s go see a man about an owl, shall we?”

Two chapters and a trip to Diagon Alley later, Rey and Lucy sat at an unoccupied table near the back of the Bower Mission’s dining area with a mug of tea and a glass of soda, respectively. Lucy peppered Rey with every imaginable question pertaining to cooking, jumping from what it’s like working in the kitchen of an upscale restaurant to how certain kinds of meals are prepared to what was it like being on TV (and is the Chairman like that all the time or is it just for the show?). Finally she calmed down enough to ask - at least in Rey’s opinion - the most crucial question of all.

“Where do I even begin? Like, what is the first thing I need to know?”

It took Rey a few minutes to wrack her brains to remember the first lessons she had, way back when Poe gave his cooking seminar at NYU. Everything she did as his prep cook was now so ingrained into her that it was difficult to remember that there was a time when she could hardly tell the difference between one end of a knife and the other. She ran through all the basics that not only aspiring chefs should know, but everyone as they came into adulthood. Lucy didn’t look particularly impressed when Rey told her the importance of learning how to properly prepare eggs and pasta and vegetables, but Rey quickly set the record straight.

“It’s all about the foundation,” she told Lucy, bobbing a tea bag into a fresh mug of hot water. “DaVinci didn’t paint the Mona Lisa the first time he picked up a paintbrush any more than Beethoven composed the Fifth the first time he sat down at a piano. If you don’t have a proper foundation lay down, anything you try to build on top of it will just collapse sooner or later.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Lucy said. “But how do I even start?”

“Like anything else that requires practice: at the beginning. Offer to help your foster parents prepare meals, even if it’s as simple as something as cutting up vegetables or making side dishes. Take a cooking class if you school offers it, or see if there are any programs for high school students you can enroll in. Start looking into culinary schools for after you graduate; there are a ton of them in New York, not just the CIA, and a lot of the city colleges have basic cooking courses you can take while you work on your general education courses. And when you apply to work at a restaurant, don’t turn your nose up at the grunt work, like dish washing or the messier, more time-consuming prep work. It will prove to the head chef that you want to be there because it’s something you’re passionate about and not because of romanticized assumptions.”

Lucy nodded slowly, and Rey could tell by the set of her mouth that she was worrying the inside of her cheek. Rey knew exactly what she was feeling, as clearly as if it was projected into her own mind: a fear and self-doubt born from living a life in the system, that no matter how well Lucy behaved or how hard she studied or worked, she would always be inadequate in the eyes of “normal” society; that being a foster child was a sigma that marked her for failure for life. The ghosts of Unkar Plutt’s hurtful words started to crawl into Rey’s own mind, a cruel taunting slur that dogged her throughout high school. Without thinking Rey’s hand shot forward to grasp Lucy’s. Lucy jumped at the unexpected contact, but she didn’t yank her hand away.

“Hey,” Rey said, looking Lucy straight in the eye. “I was just like you when I was your age. I was in the system since I was five, and it was thirteen years of being bounced between homes of sub-par care, falling behind in school every time I got transferred and living with the certainty that it was never going to get better. And it did, not only because I worked for it, but also because I got help. So I want you to do this: if you need to put down a reference for a college application or a work resume, you give them my name and the number to BB8. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“But you don’t even know me!” Lucy blurted out, looking very much like she wanted to cry.

“And Poe Dameron didn’t know me, but he took that leap of faith anyway. And someday I’ll take that same leap for you. You just have to promise me one thing.”

It took Lucy a moment to calm down, wiping the tears off her face with the sleeve of her sweatshirt to ask Rey what she wanted her to do. Rey felt her heart go out to her. She wondered how long it was since the poor girl was given even the smallest sliver of encouragement by an adult.

“No matter where you end up, never forget where you came from.”

It wasn’t until later that Rey realized Poe Dameron’s cooking lessons were not the only ones she tapped into while she was talking to Lucy.

Rey might have missed out on Mami Trooper’s Thanksgiving feast, but that didn’t mean that she had to give up a traditional meal altogether. And while she could just as easily make herself an upscale dinner of cranberry-glazed roast turkey and French aligot potatoes, she chose a much more non-hassle option. She could not put her finger on an exact reason why, but there was something deeply satisfying about eating a sandwich made of pre-cooked turkey breast, instant mashed potatoes and stuffing, canned gravy and cranberry sauce on plain white bread. She had picked up all the items on a whim on her way home from work on Tuesday, and now she was glad she did. Preparing Michelin quality food day in and day out made her appreciate the simpler, nostalgic foods and the comfort they brought. No matter how good their food was, that was something that chefs like Poe and Kylo could never replicate in their restaurants.

Rey paused, her sandwich halfway to her mouth. Her last conversation with Kylo rose from the recesses of her mind she banished it to, but now she made no effort to stop it. She had told him that she would rather keep her sentimental memories than trade them for a lucrative career, but wasn’t she already kind of guilty of that? When she came to New York she suddenly had the entire culinary world at her fingertips to explore. Before that she had no idea that so many different types of food existed; she could eat at a different restaurant every night and never go to the same place twice. Hell, there were still places in the Village she’d never been to. And yet there was nothing else she’d rather be eating at that time than her Thanksgiving leftovers sandwich.

A new idea materialized, which was quickly followed up by a plan. She was still of the opinion that Kylo was a pretentious asshole and she doubted now that that would ever change, but she didn’t want to leave things as they were.

Maybe, like her, he just needed a reminder.

Rey finished her lunch, changed into warmer clothing (it was decidedly colder today) and set off for the nearest grocery outlet.

The store was virtually empty when she arrived. The one cashier on duty gave her a smile just large enough to acknowledge her presence before returning to fiddling with their phone.

Rey moved up and down the aisles, tapping into her memories of when she was a college student living on a very limited income. She grabbed pasta, ramen packages and rice that only cost a few dollars for several boxes and two jars of generic tomato sauce; Kraft macaroni and cheese and a few cans of soup; peanut butter, jelly and bread; half a gallon of mind and half a dozen of eggs; a couple of frozen dinners on sale for a dollar each; and finally a small package of ground beef that was marked down two dollars because it was going out of code tomorrow. By the time Rey checked out she had spent just under thirty dollars and had enough food to make meals for the next two weeks, three if she really stretched it.

With her purchases made, Rey called for a Lyft car (she wasn’t even going to attempt the subways, even with the hub of Black Friday shopping on the other side of the city) and went straight to Walker Tower.

Roger was off-duty when Rey arrived, but the doorman who was there knew her well enough to not give her any issues as she walked in. The Tower’s lobby was already adorned with beautiful Christmas decorations, but Rey did not give them so much as a second glance and she went to the elevators. On the ride up to Kylo’s floor, she re-adjusted the note she prepared in the Lyft car so it sat in plain view on top of the bag. When she arrived at Kylo’s apartment, she dropped the bag outside his door, then immediately turned around and went back the way she came.

About twenty minutes later Kylo’s neighbor, fresh back from a refreshing jog, took notice of the lumpy plastic bag sitting outside his reclusive neighbor’s door. Curiosity prompted the man to go over to investigate. He couldn’t see what was inside because a note that read “This is where I came from” lay over the top.

The man’s interest immediately vanished, his mind back on the shower he was looking forward to. He didn’t know his neighbor other than what he heard from the other Tower’s residents, and that the unanimous decision was he was a grade-A jerk.

Rey was reading on Saturday morning when her phone pinged with a new text message. She was sure it was going to be another text from Finn telling her how much he missed her (complete with a crying emoji face) so her heart skipped a beat when she saw it was from a number she was sure she would never see again. The whole apartment felt to tilt under the weight of the two words on her phone’s screen.

“I’m sorry.”

Rey stared at her screen for a full five minutes as she deliberated on the best way to respond, because she knew no matter what, it would send her down a road of no return.

Finally, she made up her mind.

“ Come over to dinner. My roommate it out of town. I’ll cook.”

She held her breath as she waiting for an answer.

Ping.

“I’ll bring the wine this time.”

#reylo #reylo fan fiction #reylo au #reylo chef au #allez cuisine!#omegaling writes

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chantellehere · 6 years

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A rainy day in Paris

I have been very lucky with the weather in Paris. I remember when I visited this time two years ago, the weather was much colder and wetter. Yesterday, it rained for only the second time since I arrived one month ago, and having lived here for 1/12 of the year, I finally figured out a good and relaxing way to spend a rainy day in Paris, which hopefully will brighten up the gloomy day for all those who are travelling to this beautiful city.

Rainy days are the best excuse for a lazy morning. I had a lie in and woke up just before 10. I made myself breakfast - the classic fruits and yoghurt. For those who are travelling, I suggest you head to any of the boulangeries around you - any of them will have plenty of pain au chocolat or croissant in store. Many of which also do a brunch menu during the weekend. You can enjoy your morning meal slowly with a cup of coffee or have your food and drinks on the go. I always take mine to a park nearby and have my breakfast there.

After my meal, I met up with a friend and headed to the Louvre. I mean, if you did not visit the Louvre, did you even come to Paris? The Lourve, famous for being the biggest art collection in Europe, as well as the residence for the small but mighty portrait of Mona Lisa. Every time I walk into the room where the painting is, I immediately feel bad about the rest of the art that are so unfortunately placed in the same room as Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, as they often get little to no attention from the museum visitors. I always find it ridiculous that people try to get a picture of the painting, or any paintings as if they would go home and look at them. Let’s be honest, 90% of us would not even look at the pictures we took not of ourselves once after we have left the place, am I right?

Wandering around the Louvre, you can find windows looking out to the exterior of the museum. Some of them are right next to the benches and I find it rather meditative to sit down after an hour of hectic art education, to look out at the ever-busy and touristy street, while sitting quietly in one of the most magnificent archives of the world.

Do not expect to see everything in the Louvre. It is ginormous and frankly, not everything is worth seeing. The best way to do it is to have a plan to tackle the few major pieces of art that you must see, then spend some time in the Jardin des Tuileries just outside of the museum. It is so wonderful even in the rain - walk through it to get to the metro station or to your next destination if the weather does not permit you to sit down leisurely around the fountain.

After spending two hours in the Louvre, we headed to one of the cutest cafes in Paris for a quick bite and some drinks. To get there, you have to walk through the Jardin du Palais-Royal, which is another beautiful place to be whatever the weather decides to be. If the weather permits, I highly recommend sitting in the garden, again, around the fountain/ pond, with your friends, or simply to read and spend some quality time alone and enjoy the view. As you reach nearer the end of the green tunnel, you will find several cafes on your left, and Cafe Kitsuné is the one in the middle.

This cafe is the perfect independent coffee shop for all parties. You will see elderlies, friends and families sitting outside of the coffee shop underneath the big umbrellas, chatting away whilst enjoying their pastries and hot drinks. The cafe itself is fairly small, with only several stools along the right side of the wall for customers to sit and enjoy their beverage. Nonetheless, it is decorated nicely with many of its own merchandises that are available for purchase, like sweaters, reusable cups, stationaries and coffee beans.

We got ourselves some hot chocolate (€5), a chai latte with almond milk (€5,50) and a chocolate chip cookie (€3,50) and sat outside facing the garden. Our drinks, even the hot chocolate, came decorated with latte art. The waitresses spoke in English, which was helpful as I was reluctant to showcase my broken French in public.

Beware of the pigeons! They are everywhere, especially if you got yourself a pastry from the cafe. They can be like your annoying child, hovering around your ankles, waiting for you to drop that piece of brownie or cookie crumbs! But I suppose this would make the perfect Parisian experience, no?

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naturecoaster · 6 years

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Shop Small for the Holidays all around the Nature Coast

Halloween is past. November is upon us and Thanksgiving is less than a month away. What a blessing it is to live in the paradise of Florida’s Nature Coast during the fall season. While we do not have extravagant color shows from the changing of the leaves, we do have beautiful wildflowers that change with the seasons, and more subtle things make this an ideal time of year. My favorite change is in the temperature moving into comfortable. With the temperatures averaging the mid-seventies during the day, the ideal time to get out and shop the friendly merchants of our downtowns is now. One of the unique features of our area is the number of historic downtown districts with friendly shopkeepers to visit.

At Quilts on Plum Lane in Dade City, owner Donna Lillibridge is on-site daily and employees, friends and community members gather for classes throughout the seasons. Downtowns with a courthouse include Dade City, Inverness and Brooksville. Each of these historic districts offers you the ability to shop for antiques, cards, gifts, apparel, home décor, outdoor recreation items, furniture, art, food, coffee and more. I much prefer the selection of items available at these smaller retailers to the common items of the big box stores.

Mary Garcia, owner of Stay and Play Pet Getaway in Hernando loves dogs and cats. Her family runs the top-shelf boarding facility.

The Shop Small Movement

In 2010, American Express began the “Shop Small” program to help us discover the value of purchasing from a local merchant. In 2011, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution to officially support Small Business Saturday. In 2015, 95 million Americans went out for Shop Small Saturday. While Small Business Saturday is highlighted as a special day when we can show our support as a nation for small business owners and our communities, the Shop Small Movement is a year-round campaign to celebrate and support small businesses every day.

Where to Find the Shops

Our NatureCoaster.com directory contains listings of local small businesses who will give you superior service, as well as in-depth knowledge of their product lines. For example, I recently needed a lot of lumber. I went to my local big box store and found out that it’s a “small” big store and they do not carry the size of lumber that I want for my project. I was told that I could go to another of their larger stores and get what I wanted and the price.

The Royal Dalton House is a locally owned and managed Assisted Living Facility and Memory Care residence in Homosassa. The owners have made a huge commitment to the community. I was tired and decided to go home and do some research. I’ve been driving by a lumber and building supply store for several years but decided to call them and ask. They have what I need at 35% less! When I visited the store, they were very conscientious to pick out the straightest boards on their lot and had to check their warehouse to complete the order. After taking my number, they called the next day to tell me that they have what I need but it will take a couple days to “dig it out of the warehouse.” The same person called me who had helped me in the store and will call me back in a couple of days when the product is in stock. They know my name and I know theirs. This will now be my first stop when I need building supplies.

This little angel has just helped her mom, brother and grandma pick a bucket of strawberries at JG Ranch, a u-pick farm in Brooksville that offers strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, corn and assorted produce, as well as fresh eggs and locally-made items at their produce stand on the farm. Joan and George Casey, as well as Jeff and Debbie Casey and their children run this family farm.

Communities are Strengthened by Small Businesses

Which brings me to my next point – community relationships. You know, the more we talk to each other, the better our world is. The person who runs a shop is an expert on their merchandise. They go to trade shows where the newest products are shown and choose what they best think will sell, as well as the best quality products to sell within the price points of their market. They invest in the merchandise, pay rent or a mortgage for their storefront, taxes to the municipality they operate in, and provide jobs to residents of the area.

William Bunch and his grandson, Xavier, at William's restaurant, Oysters in Crystal River. Family owned and operated, William greets nearly every guest in the restaurant and is a consistent community supporter. And what is the price for this? Is it really more expensive to “shop small?” There are high end retailers in both large and small shops. Still, the fabric in a specialty fabric store is unlikely to cost more than a comparable quality fabric in a big box craft store. Years ago, most small retailers only wanted to carry the higher priced items but today I have noticed that most small shops carry a variety of price points to meet the needs of their patrons for inexpensive, mid-range and expensive items.

James Cook met his wife, Heather, while at Johnson and Wales University. They began roasting coffee in a popcorn popper. Today they have four Cattle Dog Coffee Roaster stores with fresh-roasted coffee, amazing breakfast, lunch and pastry items and are going to the World Food Championships for the second year in a row. Their stores are in Hernando, Lecanto and Inverness. In fact, one Chicago study found that for every $100 spent at a local business, $68 remained in the city while only $43 of each $100 spent at a chain retailer.

The Service keeps me Coming Back

Laura Starkey wanted to combine her love of nature and caring for people with an innovative Nature Preserve and natural burial cemetery called Heartwood Preserve in Trinity. Some retailers offer free gift wrap with your purchase. In fact, I have become a loyal patron for just this service. A last-minute gift that is wrapped for me while I chat with the shopkeeper is so much more relaxing than running into a big box or discount store and gathering gift, paper, ribbon and card and haphazardly assembling things in the car. And the retailers make a much nicer package!

In Floral City, Aunt Martha's Produce is also known as the Floral City Visitors Center. Martha has lived in Floral City for most of her life, raising her daughters here. Now her granddaughters help in the fresh produce market that carries Amish goods and grass-fed beef. So, while big box retailers barrage you with Black Friday deals and online catalog ordering, let’s forego the hurry up and spend mentality this holiday season. Instead, enjoy your family on Friday. Go out to a small retailer and enjoy the process of holiday shopping within our community starting now.

Susan Gagliolo, co-owner of DogMania and Cats Too in Dade City, will help you find the perfect food to help your best friend with any ailments or the perfect outfit to dress them up. Her husband Bruce makes one-of-a kind gifts featuring your pet - and they have a huge assortment of pet-centric gifts and supplies. And a meal out! Locally owned restaurants provide a welcome pick-me-up between purchases. There are choices for every type of food throughout the Nature Coast’s shopping areas. Did you know that locally owned restaurants return 65% of each dollar you spend to the community vs. chain restaurants returning just under 35%?

Mrs. and Mr. Ebbecke began a winery in 2016 on their u-pick farm in Masaryktown, Upicktopia. They craft wines from several berries available at the farm and provide free tastings and regular weekend entertainment for guests. What a bargain it is to enjoy time with neighbors and make new friends while discovering your new favorite destination in Florida’s Nature Coast. Be sure to get out and shop small for big returns – and please, tell them NatureCoaster sent you. Post photos of your favorite finds on our Facebook page, or comment below with your favorites and we’ll have a great holiday season together.

David and Melissa Perry own Hunter Spring Kayaks in Crystal River. Local residents, who want to share their love of nature and watersports, they offer guided tours and rentals of all types of paddle craft. Read the full article

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moneyfinanceplus · 3 years

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I spend over $400 a month on cleaning, cooking, and yardwork. After doing the math, I'm actually saving money.

My journey toward this liberating realization went something like this: I took out a pen and paper and made a tally of how many hours I spent each week doing household chores.

Then, I compared what I could have been earning at my job instead of doing these tasks based on the amount of time I spent on them. I'm a work-from-home freelance writer who is largely paid by the project, so my time is worth money.

Finally, I did a bit of research to find the best rate I could for hiring out each of these tasks, and then subtracted the latter from the former. I realized I could make a net profit by hiring out these tasks by using the saved time to focus on my work.

I spend $200 on cleaning services, but save over 10 hours of time

I live in a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath home that was originally meant for a family of five. Of my two living children, one goes to boarding school and the other is with her father 40% of the time — leaving very few people to use this very large space most of the time.

The time it takes to clean from top to bottom is tough to nail down, because it's rare that I'll tackle this job all at once. Here's why: Finding a multiple-hour chunk of time during the work week is nearly impossible, and highly unlikely during the weekend.

Even a conservative estimate of three hours each week means that I'm losing about 26 minutes each day at minimum. This might not seem like a lot, but if I have to break up this chore in increments every day, I'm also spending a ton of time lugging items up and down stairs, and disrupting my focus and flow for the day.

Over the years, I've hit the jackpot with two different, long-term cleaning people who are reliable, trustworthy, and really good at what they do. Plus, I am no longer purchasing cleaning supplies, or maintaining a vacuum cleaner.

I spend $120 per month on yardwork, but save 4 hours of time

As the owner of a large property and a push-mower, mowing the lawn myself takes an excess of two hours each week if I do it thoroughly and regularly.

More often than not, I put this dreaded task off for long periods of time, which always creates extra work. The results of putting it off too long are large grass clumps that need to be raked, and an overall accumulation of debris that threatens to kill the lawn — requiring more money to address.

One day I found a lawn-maintenance crew in my neck of the woods, jotted down a phone number, and I've yet to look back. Even better? I sold my unused equipment and got some cash. I don't have to pay for gas or maintenance anymore, either.

I spend $100 a month on ready-made meals, but save over 4 hours of time

Don't get me wrong: I love to cook! Word on the street is I'm good at it, too. That said, cooking quality meals is time consuming, and one human can only do so much.

Which is why I purchase a ready-made meal from one of my many talented local food producers in our area once every week. Sometimes it's quiche and a quart of soup, other times a pair of sourdough pizzas, or frozen pot pies.

Splurging on ready-made meals frees me up for more important tasks like homework help or post-dinner board games, which goes a long way toward creating a happy, healthy household for everyone — including me.

Sometimes, I hire people to do other time-consuming tasks that I don't need regularly. For example, when my daughter turned 14 she wanted her room painted navy blue.

I hired out the hassle, paid the painter his requested rate, and still earned in the process by using the hours I could have spent cleaning brushes and taping the ceiling to complete more writing projects.

Hannah Van Sickle

Hannah Van Sickle is a freelance writer who lives and works in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

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anpacgang · 6 years

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The City of One Thousand Eyes

In the recently refurbished city of New York, where each person is guaranteed a minimum quality of life simply for living, where the ancient smog of the fine precursors lazily licks the window panes, and where images of two eyes, simply watching you without judgment, adorn the landscape as frequently as street numbers, lives a man named Harold.

Harold had nothing to do with the decision to adorn the city with eyes, and in fact, no individual can be held responsible. It was a public effort; Harold had no objection to the installation of the eyes, because the eyes do not record anything, nor are they there to intimidate anyone, nor are they to remind you that the government is “always watching.”

No, scientists simply discovered people are significantly less likely to commit crimes when they feel someone watching them, and merely the presence of two eyes gives them that feeling. Once this very cheap way to prevent crime was discovered, the city government wasted no time in implementing it, and it was expected that nearly every population center on the planet would soon follow suit.

Harold understood this, for rationality is sovereign of all the mental faculties, and Harold took great pride in being a citizen among his peers.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are Harold. You’ve known no life outside of New York, nor outside of the vaunted democratic virtues of the United World Government. Like most people, you actively sought out employment; but unlike most people, you found opportunity. It’s important to Harold that no one misunderstands, he was never afraid of being unemployed, for the government readily provides for the unemployed to have all the necessities plus a little extra spending money. Harold works not out of fear of poverty, but out of his internal need to produce wealth for his society.

So when I say Harold puts on his government issued pollution filtering mask, opens the door, and leaves his apartment building to walk through the numbered and categorized streets of New York to work every morning, I mean he does so of his own volition.

You navigate the city streets– hardly paying attention to the great hydroponic processor facilities looming in the distance, for they have become part of the landscape– thinking of work, thinking of home, thinking of family. You have a pretty good life.

Then one day, imagine your life begins to change.

Harold’s arc begins with a simple realization. He doesn’t love his wife anymore. He does the appropriate thing. He waits for the kids to be preoccupied, shut the door to the kitchen, and quietly converses with his wife about their feelings, as adults do. They work through their feelings, and it turns out she doesn’t love him anymore either. They’re not sure how they arrived at this point, but they mutually decide that it would be best to proceed with an amicable divorce.

An epiphany grows slowly over time, of course. He did not suddenly wake up without loving his wife one day. Rather, the feelings, the passion, the fire, which had once possessed them to wed and to enter this very apartment as groom and bride, all smiles, all giggles, all secretive whispers and intimate kisses, was gone now. No one’s fault, really. The human heart is a fickle thing; its wishes and whims wax and wane with the tides. The way of the world dictates that all fires eventually burn out, just as it dictates all young romance eventually gives way to the drudgery of routine, of taking turns driving the kids to school, of once a week designated date night at the Olive Garden.

Still, memories of other people carve homes out of your heart, and Harold had no interest in reliving painful memories, and he agreed his children deserved the stability of remaining in their childhood home, and so he moved out into an apartment as the divorce continued.

I can not stress enough, this divorce is as amicable as such affairs get. There’s a little cold draft between them, but no more than in their loveless marriage, and he keeps the children at his new apartment during his 3 day weekend. He agrees to pay for any child rearing related expenses the mother has, and the mother never lowers herself to spending any of this money on personal pleasures. She, like most people, lives on Universal Basic Income, which provides enough to care for children and for herself, and to have a little bit of spending money left over, but Harold– having a job– makes quite a bit more than that, and extends to his family an appropriately enjoyable lifestyle. Additionally, he has to work the other four days at his job, and so he cares for the children the three days he has off, and cherishes them greatly.

Still, on the days he does work, he comes home to the vacant echoes of a room empty of life. He comes home to darkness, without the soft glow of screens illuminating the soft faces of his children. Without even the cordiality of his wife, cold as it may have been during the later years of his marriage. He comes home, eats a lukewarm meal he picked up on the way, and falls asleep by himself.

This amicable arrangement continues in an easy equilibrium for a little over a year. After the courts have finally completed all the necessary paperwork, he stands outside the court staring at the little paper in his hand telling him his marriage is over. He stares at it for a long time, and suddenly feels a strange anger well up inside him. He wants to kick over a trash can and yell, but when he looks up and sees those two eyes staring back at him, he feels guilty, tucks the document into his jacket, and walks out of the building.

Harold has neither time for himself– nor romance– since on the days he does not work he cares for his children. Granted, the world is not experiencing a shortage of single parents, but putting in the effort to meet people, deal with children that aren’t even his, and participate in a game he’s well over a decade out of practice in, is just too much for him to really contemplate.

Then, one morning, another realization comes upon him. He’s bored by his job. It makes sense he’d be bored, he does the same thing every day and the nebulous hope of a promotion on the horizon through excelling at that seems to have evaporated into fantasy. You most likely know what it is to be bored by a job, or by school. It’s different from being bored by a relationship, a job isn’t just something you can just walk away from one day. Harold could, theoretically, just quit and live on UBI, but doing so comes with a significant salary decrease, and his children would experience a decreased lifestyle quality. He takes pride in how spoiled his children are, he secretly delights in the envious looks from others, and how the other children flock to his to see all of their neat toys. No, he can’t walk away any more than you, or anyone else, can.

So of course he comes to a wholly natural conclusion; if his job bores him, tough shit.

He gets up every morning, same as usual, same as you, and drags himself to work. It’s different now, for he must drag himself, because regardless of how tough your shit is you can’t reconnect what has been severed. Every morning, he walks to work, his head hanging a little lower, his walk a little slower going, a little faster coming home. He starts looking at anything to distract him, the clouds, the smog, anything but the vast carbon dioxide scrubbing structure looming in the background, where he worked. Just like with his marriage, when he started there his mind was on the bigger picture, a part of a grand purpose far bigger than himself. What purpose could be more noble than reversing centuries of damage to the environment?

No higher calling than the return of Terra, the Earth itself, to its once glorious status as a garden, the gem of the solar system, could exist.

In fact, when he started, his job was not only a duty, but a part of his identity. He enjoyed wearing his uniform to work, and sometimes he’d even wear it other places even though he’d had plenty of time to change. People would pay him a modicum of respect, maybe even starting a conversation about it and expressing admiration for the project in depth.

Still, reminders of that fact merely compound his feelings of guilt. He comes to hate being there, hate the files, the desks, his co-workers, and even how looming and monolithic the structure itself was. It just sits there, larger than the largest skyscrapers. You could see it from anywhere in the city. As you get closer, the air gets cleaner, and you can even take off your mask. He began to hate that too. He started wanting to keep his face covered, so no one could look at him and he could sneak in and out as quick as he could. Then, as he’s entering the building, he notices another poster; two eyes, looking directly at him. He banishes his selfish thoughts, takes his mask off, and offers the lady at the front desk another customary smile.

Now, again, picture that you have been single for three years. You’ve come to terms with your divorce by now, but you haven’t really gotten over it, and sometimes you still spend your alone time thinking about what went wrong. This is where you are when your boss walks into your office, starting what would seem a typical conversation.

But it isn’t. He’s there to fire you. You ask him why, you think perhaps your performance has been slacking off due to your steady slide into ennui. Maybe the divorce hit you a bit harder than you thought, and you don’t even really know what you’ve been doing at work. No, he assures you, your performance is fine, they’ve just been steadily automating more and more, and human labor has become significantly less necessary. He’s telling the truth, by the way. He likes his employees, considers them friends despite the awkwardness their hierarchical inequality brings into any social interactions between them.

Harold exits the building at an even more hurried pace than usual. His mind swims like swarming eels, electric with spurts of rage and grief. You should be happy. You hated working there, so why aren’t you happy? He passes through the streets and the eyes following him. He passes through the city, taking advantage of New York’s excellent public transportation, through the clean streets where homelessness has been eradicated. He returns to his house, situated comfortably in that utopia, and grits his teeth in the dark heartbeat.

He grabs the lip of his table. He feels a scream welling up in his throat. He feels the need to flip it, to smash it, to destroy his house, to smash the windows, to burn it all down. He feels like he’s being watched.

He looks around. No one’s there, no one but a single poster of two realistic eyes looking through them, directly at him. Did someone put it there recently? Did they put it there when they knew he’d be fired to watch him, to watch his life crack at its weakest points and collapse into dust, and to remind him that decency and duty demanded he bear his fall from grace with pride?

No, it was always there, even before he moved in. You just get used to them; you stop seeing them. They proliferate, until they’re just as much on the walls of your own skull as on the walls of the city.

You call your wife– ex wife– with shaking hands, you tell her about how you lost your job. Your tears leak through your teeth no matter how hard you try to hold them back. They drip onto the phone, they seep into its cracks, but your ex wife doesn’t acknowledge the taste of salt. She acknowledges the lifestyle changes the news brings, but your inner pain is her business no longer. She tells you to take care, leaving you the last drop of human concern anyone has for you, and you cling to it even as you hang up. Then you put your phone on the table.

You take deep breaths, but even the air inside your house tastes like smog. You throw open your door, and you start tearing the posters down. You rip your hands through the eyes and throw their viscera onto the streets. Passerby become concerned. You ascend beyond noticing as you cover your fingers with the blood and guts of your life’s great lie. You tear until the police finally arrive, and as their batons bruise your body and their boots on your chest make it difficult to breathe, you look up at them through the stains of your own blood, and your darkening vision, and you thank them, because someone is finally being honest with you.

#short story #science fiction #social democracy

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