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desswright29 · 1 year ago

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FEMININITY

Pairing: Shuri Udaku X Confused reader

Word Count: 7.2k 😳

Contains: Fluff, Smut(18+), Reader has a child

A/N: This story kicked my ass so I really hope y’all read and enjoy! An homage to what’s beautiful about being with a woman.

Queen: I needed to get away. I’ll be in your city. Can I come by to see you guys tonight?

You look down at the message and smile. Shuri. You two became fast friends when you began an internship at one of the outreach centers. You ran through the ranks easily which caught the attention of the Princess, and caused you two to form an easy friendship. After your internship was over, you got a job at Stark enterprises with a glowing recommendation from the now Queen of Wakanda. You and Shuri remained friends, though you didn’t see eachother as often due to both of your busy schedules. But every once in awhile she came around to unwind from her chaotic life.

Angel: Anytime Queen. We’ll be glad to have you. 🥰

You text back and sit your phone down. You turn around to your seven yr old son sitting at the Kitchen table, eating his breakfast like a big boy. “Guess what little guy!” He looks up from his food, and smiles at you beaming as he senses your excitement. “Shuri’s coming by today!” His eyes widen as he bounced a little in his seat.

“Shuri!” He said voice filled with joy “Mommy, You think she’ll bring me something cool!” He asked. Eyes big and bright, already anticipating his new gadget. “Who knows kiddo.” You say with a smile. “Finish your food and have an awesome day in school and we’ll see.” You already knew she’d definitely be bringing him something. She was particularly impressed with your son and loved giving him things that would eventually cause you grief.

“Zahir, Let’s go little one!” You yelled to him from the living room. He came hopping down the stairs. You’d gotten yourself and your son ready for the day, and were out of the house in record time, now you were eager to tackle your day. You dropped off Zah with a hug and kiss and headed to work, all smiles and waves as you headed to your office with a bounce in your step. Asia, your work bestie, saw you coming as she got coffee from the break room. Her brow raised over top of her cup as she took a sip looking at you suspiciously. Your eyes connected and you continued walking right past her. “Oh no you did not!” She yells after you as she jogs to catch up, falling in your step.

“My aren’t we chipper and ready for the day!” She says to you sarcastically doing a happy little wiggle. You look at her and roll your eyes. “ I’m always happy to be here. I love my job nosy.” She scoffs. “Uh huh, speaking of nosyyyy, I hear the Queens in town.” She smiled big, cutting right to the chase, typical Asia. You raise a brow avoiding eye contact. “British?” You say inquisitively as you both enter your office. She closes the door behind you both.

“Bitch, you know what Queen I’m talking about. The one that’s got you walking through the office smiling and waving like Ms. America!” She mocks you smiling big, waving, laughing, and pointing, amplifying your earlier interactions. You laugh “I was not doing all that. You’re so extra!”

“Whatever girl, that’s not what I’m here for. Have you heard from her?” She sat in one of the leather chairs infront of your desk making herself comfortable. You follow her lead sitting in the the chair behind your desk. “ Yes I have she’s stopping by tonight.” Asia squeals. “Oh hell yea! I’m coming” You raise both brows and shake your head “Absoluetly not! Don’t bring your ass to my house Asia.”

“You’re right, I don’t wanna be in the way.” She said wiggling her brow and rolling her body.

“Get a life.” You say trying to hide your grin.

“Damn girl! Leave it up to you to pull a fine ass African, stud Queen. Where they making those at? Talk about one of one.” You try to hold back your laugh. “I really hate you, who says shit like that Asia. And Shuri is not a stud, she’s a Stem, and we are very much FREINDS and that’s ALL.” You say with emphasis.

“Ah Ha! You said that shit like you believed it. That was cute. It’s giving Letitia Wright.” She laughed, and you flicked her off. “I’m just saying, Stud, Stem, whatever the fuck she wanna be, I’m straight as an arrow and she could fold me in half and strap my ankles to the headboard! Do you hear me! I’d be turning all the tricks! The neighbors would know my na-“

“Aight! Damn Asia you always take it far. Get out of my office so I can start my day.”

“That’s cool. I’ll do that. But you better hop on that strap before somebody take your seat hoe. Give that baby a stud daddy!” She gets up out of her chair.

“ Please, Leave”

“BYE! Bougie bitch.” She whispers the last part under her breath as she walks out.

“I heard that!” You yell.

“SO!” She yells back.

You shake your head laughing. You smile and continue your day happily anticipating the night.

————————————————————————

You looked in your mirror placing your locs in a high ponytail leaving two locs out in the front. You’d showered and changed into a form fitting black short set. The shirt rose just above your naval showing off your waist beads. You sprayed on your “Killian Love Don’t Be Shy”, glossed your lips, and headed to your kitchen to check on your sides before putting the steaks on the grill. You turned on your speaker and danced around as you cooked. Shuri loved your cooking. You smiled as you thought of how she always reacted to your meals. Zah Sat in the living room playing games on his Nintendo Switch, when you both heard the door bell ring.

You both stopped what you were doing and raced eachother toward the door. Your son ran past you pushing you out of the way. “Boy!” He got to the door and smiled at you. “Beat you Mama!” He laughed, and opened the door. You didn’t have time to react before your heart dropped to your stomach. There she stood with that sexy ass smile, hands behind her back. Her undercut was fresh, beautiful curls sat neatly atop her head stopping right above her brow, right ear adorned in several earrings, and she had a single gold chain around her neck. She wore a dark grey shortsleeved compression shirt with matching sweat pants. Her lean muscles more pronounced than the last time you saw her, tattoos gracing her arms making her even more of a work of art. She looked at you and smiled with a wink before squatting down in front of Zahir.

“SHURI!!” He yelled running into her arms, that she held out for him, as she dropped the bag she’d had in her hands. “Wow little man! You’re getting so big.” She says pulling back and ruffling his individual twist. “Yea, Mommy says I’m a big boy. I got muscles too. “He says stepping back flexing for her.

“Ooooweee!” She reached to touch it and snapped her hand back fast. “Dang kid! You almost broke my finger.”

“Yep, I’m gonna be really strong and fast like you!”

“Oh you’re coming for me huh little panther?” She says as she picks him up and throws him over her shoulder as she stands and walks in the house. Using her foot to close the door. He laughs and kicks as she holds him tight while walking over to you. It felt like your world slowed down, like she was moving in slow motion towards you. Your eyes trailed her body. The way she moved, the way she paired her femininity with masculinity was feminine in its own right. Only something a woman could master so gracefully. With her hands being full, she could only lean down and press a gentle kiss on your forehead in greeting. You wrapped your arms around her and Zah, Her scent immediately enveloping you; vanilla, cinnamon, and a hint of burnt cherry. She was intoxicating.

“Hey Shuri poo!” She pulled back and smiled. “It smells good in here.” You roll your eyes and smack her arm playfully. “It’s good to see you too Shuri” She looks you up and down, eyes lingering on the swell of your hips a while longer than they should, she smirks. “Always a pleasure Ms. Y/l/n.” She walks away, drops her bag next to the couch, and then takes Zahir off her shoulder into the air and slams him into the couch. “Shuri! Don’t start that rough sh- stuff already!”

Shuri looked at Zah with wide eyes. “I know what she was about to say, do you know what she was about to say.” “Shuri! Don’t get put out immediately. Give yourself time.” She bunches up her lips in skepticism. “ Girl, please. We could take her right Zah! We could beat her up and take over the kingdom.” “Yea! You don’t want none mommy!” Shuri laughs. “Tell her Zah Zah!” You bite your lip, and shake your head at the interaction. “It’s been thirty seconds and I’m tired already.” You say walking back into the kitchen. You couldn’t help but smile listening to Shuri and Zahir continue to wrestle in the living room as you finished up cooking.

Zahir excitedly runs into the kitchen with Shuri trailing behind him, she’d taken off her shoes and made herself comfortable per usual. “Mommy! Mommy! Look at what Shuri made me.” You look down at the gauntlet on his wrist. As he aimed it at you and shot little foam balls. You stare at Shuri blankly as you get hit repeatedly. She looks at you, lips folded clearly holding back laughter judging by the furrow in her brow.

“Wow! Another well thought out gift that won’t drive your mother crazy! Way to go Shuri!” You say with false excitement, narrowing your eyes at Shuri. She burst into laughter. “All in a days work!” She says with a salute. You smirk rolling your eyes, and turn back towards the stove. You feared your eyes would roll out of your head by the end of the night. Zahir ran out of the kitchen to continue launching balls from his gauntlet all over your clean home. Shortly after he leaves you feel arms wrap around your waist, as Shuri nuzzles her head into your neck. You lean back into the hug, laying your head onto hers.

“You’re not mad at me, are you?” She askes as she moves her hands up and down your sides, then lower to began caressing your lower back with her thumbs.

“Ofcourse not. You’re not doing anything I didn’t expect. He loves it when you visit you know.” You say bringing your hand up to stroke the side of her face, as you close your eyes body melting into her touch.

“Yes, I know, I wish I could be here more often. He’s a blast.”

“Yea? It’s almost like he’s the only reason you come.” You say teasingly.

Shuri turned you to face her taking your hands in hers, gently placing them around her neck. She wrapped her arms around your waist pulling you flush against her as she placed her forehead against yours.

“You know that’s the furthest thing from the truth. I’ve missed you, Ntomb'am (my girl), You look so appetizing.” You blush looking into her deep brown orbs.

“I’ve missed you too. You look aight” You say, laughing at your own joke. Shuri gasped in exaggerated offense. “Aight!? Damn you’re cold. I’m truly, truly hurt. Really.” She says, staring into your eyes, both of you getting lost until you were interrupted by the chime of her kimoyo beads. You both unwrap yourselves from eachother and you turn fast trying to slow your heart rate, as she steps back to answer the call.

“Hey! What’s going on?”

“Nothing I just missed you, called to see how everything went today.”

“It went great! You know I walked out with them in the palm of my hand.” You hear a little giggle from the other end of the call.

“Ofcourse you did. You’re brilliant!” Shuri smiles, you internally roll your eyes. Turning around to plate your steaks.

“Thank you! You’re so sweet to me. I’m getting ready to eat dinner now, and then I’m gonna lay down. It’s been a long day. I’ll call you first thing tomorrow though. Ok?”

“Ok babe! Talk to you tomorrow.” She hung up and you looked at her as you turned off the stove, eyebrow raised.

“Riri?”

“Yea.” She says walking back over to you placing her arms back around your waist.

“She sounds nice. You two together now?” You ask.

“Why? Do you want me?” A glimmer in her eye and mischief on her face. Those words made your pussy quiver.

“Shuri, don’t start.” You removed her arms from your waist.

“I’ve already started sweet girl.” She stepped back licking her lips.

“Dinners ready” You say trying to hide the effect she was having on your body.

She smiled and nodded. Eyeing you knowingly.

“Hm. Ok Y/n.”

Your relationship with Shuri was….well… complicated. You see, Shuri and you were indeed only friends (much to Shuri’s dismay) because you were “straight”. Atleast, that’s what you’d told yourself all of your life. That is until you met Shuri. From the moment she’d entered your workstation in the lab of the outreach, she’d created thoughts in your mind you had never imagined experiencing before. Casually put, she confused the fuck out of you; and as time passed it only got worse. You’d insisted she keep her distance so that neither of you crossed any lines, figuring that would quell the desire. But, the longer the time apart, the more intense your want became. So, when you would see eachother, touches would linger, hugs got longer, turning into gentle caresses, and intimate forehead kisses; but never further than that.

When she informed you of her budding romance with Riri Williams you’d thought you’d feel relieved, like you move on, but jealousy hid itself deep in the pits of your stomach; And that’s how you intended to keep it. You couldn’t have feelings for Shuri. You were straight and she was no experiment. She was human, and a damn good friend. You couldn’t loose her.

Shuri called Zahir in to eat and then helped you set the table. You all sat down at the table to a dinner of steak, creamy potatoes, broccoli, and homemade rolls, like a happy little family. Moments like this made you fantasize about what it would really be like to be the Queens woman. Whenever she stepped into your home it felt as though everything was complete. Her and Zahs connection made your heart swell, watching them together gave you butterflies.

“What’s going on in that pretty little head over there? “ You were snapped out of your thoughts and met with Shuri’s curious gaze across the table from you. “Nothing really just zoned out a bit,” You lie. Zah giggled. “You said mommy’s head is pretty.” Shuri laughs with him. “It is a pretty cute head kid, you gotta admit. That’s where you get it from”

“You two are so childish” you say. “I am a child mommy.” You all laugh together.

Once you all finish eating, you start clearing the table and preparing to wash dishes. “Alright Zah, it’s time to get your toys all put away so I can give you a bath.” “Aww, mommy I want to stay up and play with Shuri.” He says with his lip poked out. “No sir, you have school in the morning and Shuri will be leaving soon. All of your toys need to be up by the time I finish the dishes.” You told him sternly.

“I don’t wanna!” He screams at you, stomping his foot. Your brows furrowed as you walked up to Zah. “Little Boy-“

“Woah! Allllright little one.” Shuri said swooping in and picking him up, saving him from your wrath. “How about I stay? You go in the room and pick up your toys, let mommy give you a bath, and I’ll come in and hang out with you until you go to sleep. And in the morning I’ll be here to make my famous pancakes. How does that sound?”

“Yes!” Zah shouts.

“Only if it’s ok with mommy, and you have to apologize to her and promise me you’ll never speak to her like that again. That wasn’t cool little guy.” Zah looked at her and nodded. “Ok I promise” Zah wiggled out of Shuri’s arms and walked over to you hugging your legs. “I’m sorry mommy. Can Shuri please stay?” They both look at you with puppy dog eyes and lips poked out. You look back and forth between them and let out a sigh.“Ok, Shuri can stay.”

“Yes!” They both say, and give eachothers high fives. “Go before she changes her mind.”

Zah runs out of the kitchen at lightening speed. “Zah slow down!” You yell after him. Shuri looks at you with a grin like Cheshire Cat. “You two are gonna be the death of me. And how do you plan on explaining where you are to everyone? Where are the Dora?”

“Y/n, I am the Black Panther a security detail is hardly needed. I am also an adult. I can go and come as I please.” You look at her skeptically.

“Y/n it’s fine.” She said dismissively. “And I already came prepared to stay.” She said using her head to point towards the overnight bag on the floor in the living room. “Really Shuri.”

“Really, really. Now let me help you with the dishes.” You moved over and allowed her to help, knowing there was no point in saying ‘no’ to her. As you guys finish up the dishes, “Can’t get enough” by Tamia started to play over the speaker. “OOO I love this song! I learned the dance too. Come dance with me.” She said as she turned up the speaker.

“Oh now I gotta see this.”

“You doubting me?”

“Not at all Panther” You leaned back against the counter looking at her. Humor filled your eyes as you waited for her to dance. Shuri’s eyes lowered as she placed her bottom lip between her teeth with a smile, and began to dance. Just when you thought you couldn’t get anymore attracted to her, watching her smoothly get through the complicated line dance, made your stomach flutter. “Come on entle, don’t leave me hanging!” She says, stopping to sway her hips side to side and raise her arms up in front of her, making a come hither motion with both her hands. Your body floated over to her, grabbing her hands as you danced together laughing, having a blast until the song ended.

“Ok, ok I see you, you smooth with it.”

“ I’m African, of course I am!”

“Oooook conceited.”

“What’s wrong with that?” She says licking her lips. “If you know, you know right.” She walked up to you grabbing your hips. Pushing you back into the cabinets, looking you deep in your eyes, licking her lips. She was laying it on thick tonight and you weren’t sure how much longer it would be before you crumbled under the pressure. You pull away quickly. “I gotta get Zah ready for bed.” She stood smirking. “I’ll finish up in here.” She calls after you. It was gonna be a long night.

————————————————————————

You’d now gotten Zah all washed up and dressed for bed. Shuri sat beside his bed,after a game of hide n seek and reading him his millionth bedtime story. You were down stairs enjoying the quiet with a glass of wine and “Living Single”.

“Alright Zah Man, you gotta go to sleep little guy. You don’t want to be sleepy in the morning. You can’t be the smartest kid in the world if you don’t let your brain rest.” Shuri says.

“Ok. But can I ask you a question?”

“One more and then its sleepy time. Promise?” She held out her pinky. Zah nodded.

“Promise.” They locked pinky’s.

“Now what’s up little one.”

“Shuri can you live with us? You make my mommy smile a lot and you’re the coolest! I wish you could be here forever.” Shuri looked at him a moment, gathering her thoughts trying to figure out what to say. She stood and walked over to lay back on the bed with him as they both looked at the ceiling. She sighed.

“ You know if I had it my way, you and your mommy would be in Wakanda with me. You are such a brilliant little boy. I’d be proud to have you in my lab teaching you all that I know. Maybe one day your mommy will let me take you. Hm? But, right now you have to be here in school, your mommy’s work is here, and I have to be in my Country. I’d love to be here more often, but I’m busy making sure the world is safe for you. I promise to see you and your mommy more often though. Ok?” Shuri looked over at Zah who was obviously fighting sleep now, his blinking slowing down.

“ Ok.” He says in his sleepy little voice. “I love you Shuri.” Shuri picks him up and lays him on her chest, her eyes watering a bit. “I love you too, Zah.” She says rocking him to sleep.

————————————————————————

Shuri lay a bit longer with Zah. The conversation they’d just had overtaking her thoughts. In all honesty, Shuri was taken with you. Had been the moment she’d laid eyes on you. She wanted nothing more than to come home to the both of you everyday. But, you were “straight”, so she respected your boundaries. It seemed that as time passed though, those boundaries became lax. Almost as though you felt the same. She’s tried to let this go, but it’d become so much more than a crush, and she couldn’t fathom that the feeling wasn’t mutual. Maybe she was setting herself up to be hurt, overthinking the signals. Either way, Shuri knew she was in love with you, and it felt like you loved her too.

She sighed, placing Zah gently on the bed and quietly making her way out of the room after placing a gentle kiss to his forehead. As she made her way to the living room, she stopped at the top of the stairs, looking down at you as you sat brows furrowed in concentration, as you tapped away at your laptop. She took note of how effortlessly beautiful you were. How just the sight of you made her heart pick up in pace. How being here with you and Zah made her feel at home. She quietly walked down the stairs, sneakily walking up behind you, she placed her hands on your shoulders. “You work too hard.” She says as she began to massage the tention out of your shoulders. You let out a low moan at the pleasure of her touch.

“Says the Scientist Queen Panther.” You look up at her and smile. Shuri lets out a chuckle, as your eyes close and your head lulls forward giving her better access to your tense neck and shoulders. She bent down to whisper in your ear, “Don’t forget masseuse.” You let out a hum, as she kissed you right bellow your ear. She stopped massaging and walked around the couch to stand in front of you.

“Is there a deadline?” She asked referring the work you were doing. “No. Just staying ahead of the game.” “Good, you’re done for the night. Relax with me.” She removed the laptop from your lap, and placed it on your coffee table. Plopping down on the couch and grabbing your legs to place them on her lap, you bit your lip as you watched her beautiful, tattooed hands go to work on your feet. “So what’s been up here? Have you started seeing anyone yet? “

“Why do none of my friends beat around the bush. Right into it huh?”

“No point. Answer the question.”

“No. I mean, I’ve been on a few dates. They were just… Shit.” You shrug nonchalantly.

“Hm” Shuri turned to look into your eyes as she massaged you.“ I just had quite an intresting conversation with Zah.”

“Hm? Really? What about?” Your eyes started to close again. Her hands were like magic. You couldn’t help but wonder how they were in other a-. “He says I should move in with you guys” Your eyes snapped open, and her eyes were still locked on you. “He says I make you happier. Do I?” She says, she scoots down slouching more in her seat resting her head back on the couch, not taking her eyes off of you. Quite frankly, Shuri no longer wanted to pretend so here it goes. “ I-I enjoy when you’re around? Yes.”

She snickers “You enjoy when I’m around huh?” She turns her head away from you staring straight ahead a moment before turning her body toward you fully. “Y/n. I gotta be honest. I want to move forward with Riri. I really like her. And she likes me. Like really likes me. She’s beautiful, intelligent, she makes me laugh, she’s easy to talk too, and she knows what she wants. Everything I could ever want or need in a woman. I deserve that.” You remove your feet out of Shuri’s hands and off of her lap placing them underneath you. “You’re right. You do deserve that. So what’s stopping you?” Shuri stares as though she’s looking through you.

“That.” She points at your eyes wiggling her finger back and forth between each eye.

“What?” You say, following her finger before swatting it away in irritation.

“The jealousy in your eyes when I mention her. The little eye roll in the kitchen earlier. I saw it.”

“Shuri-“

“Y/n, how do you feel about me? And before you answer, you should know that I see you. The way you look at me. How your body reacts to my touch. You haven’t been able to have a serious relationship since we met eachother. It’s been years. So what I need is for you to be honest with yourself.” You look at Shuri trying to figure out what route to take. You could continue on with your silent crush, or you could lay it all out on the table. You sigh and choose the latter. You stand and began to pace.

“Shuri, you mean the world to me. I’ve never felt like this about anybody before let alone a woman. It’s scary. These feelings I have for you..i-it’s crazy how you make me feel. Just a look from you could bring me to my knees Shuri. The way you walk, the way you talk, the way you look at me and touch me, It’s all so overwhelming. I honestly don’t know what I feel or why I’m feeling it, and feelings are involved. I don’t want to experiment with you to try and figure out whatever these feelings are and then I loose you completely. Fuck! I’m so confused.” You continued to pace avoiding eye contact with Shuri. Nervous tears streaming down your face.

Shuri gets up from the couch walking over to you, grabbing your face with both hands wiping at your tears, and pulling your body up against hers. Wrapping your arm around her waist with one hand, she grabs your chin and lifts it until your eyes meet hers with the other.

“ You’ve never asked if I wanted to be used.” You looked up at her, your confusion apparent. “I don’t think you’re confused. I think you know exactly what you want and it scares the hell out of you. But, see we’re at an impasse here. I can’t move on because you and that little boy have my heart, and believe it or not, you can’t move forward because I have yours.” You try to look away and she turns your face right back to hers.

“Let me take care of your body. Express to you how I feel physically, emotionally, spiritually. I can show you how it feels to be loved by a woman. And if you don’t want it after I’m done. I promise you’ll still have me as a friend.”

You look up at her, heart racing, terrified at what she was proposing. This could potentially complicate your friendship, or you could end up in a relationship with the intimidatingly beautiful Queen you called friend. Both were equally scary for you. But, with her standing infront of you offering up her body to the science of your chemistry, you couldn’t resist. You nod.

“Take care of me.” Shuri smiled and nodded. Slowly she leaned in capturing you lips in hers. Her hands began to massage you everywhere releasing your tension. You’re heart beat against your chest as you finally kissed the lips you’d dreamed about. You let out a shaky breath against her lips. This was so much better than a dream. You couldn’t have imagined the feeling of being in Shuri’s arms like this in your wildest dreams. The first brush of her lips against yours took your breath away. Now as you stood kissing her, your hands entangled in her curls, you felt your knees give way. Shuri felt it as well, Her strong arms tightening around you as she moved backward to the couch.

She sat as you straddled her lap your lips never breaking contact. She placed her hands on your plump behind pressing you into her, signaling for you to move. You began to grind against her as her hands moved to your hips helping you as she rolled her body up into you. Shuri breaks the kiss, lust now pooling out of her eyes.

“ That right baby. Keep moving for me.” She slapped your ass. “Here’s how this is gonna go sphalaphala sam (my pretty one). I’m going to make love to you. Well. Very Well. I’m going to make your body feel things it’s never felt before. I’m going to fuck your mind, your heart, and this pretty little pussy all at once. This will feel spiritual. I’ll be gentle this time, but If at any point you want me to stop just say it, and I will. Do we have an understanding?” At this point your body was screaming for her. You were salivating and would do whatever she said.

“Yes” You moaned, and Shuri smiled.

“That’s my good girl. Keep going.” She leaned foreward and removed her shirt.

“Look at you. So sexy in this tight ass set and those waist beads.” She eyes you with her hands still on your ass, still grinding into you as you rolled your hips onto her. “Nah you’re not confused mtuwam. You know exactly what you want huh beautiful?” You opened your mouth but the words got stuck in your throat. You could only let out a soft “Ah”.

“Awww, My sweet Y/n, you need me don’t you. Tell me what you need?” You were panting, rocking against her, pussy tingling from the friction.

“I-I n-need you to t-touch me.” You couldn’t believe this was happening. You were here crossing a line with your friend that could change everything. But you were here now and there was no turning back.

“ You sure that’s what you want?”

“Yes! Yes. Please Shuri” Looking into her eyes, you were now putty in her hands. She bit her lip, and raised her brow as though she was not convinced.

“Please baby. I n-need it so bad.” You whisper leaning in ghosting your lips over hers. You could feel heat seize your body as she smiled against your lips.

“Yea?” She whispered back. “I know baby.” She reached inbetween the two of you rubbing your pussy through your shorts. “She’s talking to me. Leaking through your shorts, so wet and warm. I can smell her. She’s calling out to her Panther.” She rubbed with a little more force as you continued to grind. “ You hear her..” She leaned up to your ear and whispered “Panther, Panther,” as she pressed into your pussy making it squelch.

“Fuck! Shuri please!”

“Shuri’s not here any more babygirl.”

“Ha uuuhn! Panther!”

“You learn fast sthandwa. Let’s take this to the bedroom hm?”

“Please”

She picks you up carrying you to your master suit. Closing and locking the door behind you guys. Once you two exited this room nothing would be the same again.

“Griot play my “Y/n” playlist”

“Yes, Panther”

You looked at her shocked as “Anywhere” by 112 began to play.

“You made a playlist?”

“What can I say. I am always prepared” She grabs your hips and kisses you walking you over to the bed sitting you down. She breaks the kiss once again. Backing up,she begins removing her sports bra. “You see, the best part about being with a woman. Is the body.” She removed her sports bra. “The curves, so soft and supple.” Her voice so soft and seductive drove you crazy, as you were now met with her pretty breast “Do you want to touch me Y/n?” You nod, mouth slightly ajar as you took in Shuri’s breast.

“No, no sweet girl. Use your words”

“Yes, I want to touch you.” Shuri proceeded to walk up to you, still wearing her sweat pants, while her upper half was completely bare except for the gold chain that contrasted so beautifully against her mahogany skin. She grabs your hand placing it up against her soft yet toned stomach. She let out a sigh as you moved your hand upward. Up, up, up until you were cupping her breasts. Shuri bit her lip as you pinched her nipples.

“Can I taste them?”

“You can do whatever you want babygirl.” You lift yourself up and catch her nipple in your mouth. Suckling like a new born cub. She throws her head back. “Mhm. That’s good my pretty girl.“ The taste of her skin in your mouth and the sound of the moans that came from her made your pussy pulse. You hum with her nipple still in your mouth. Shuri pulls on the band of her sweat pants.

“Take these off for me Sthandwa, finish undressing me.” You happily oblige. Reaching forward pulling Shuri’s pants and underwear down at the same time. She giggles. “Eager hm?” She stepped out of her pants and laid back on the bed. “Strip for me, slowly, I’ve been waiting for this, and I want to savor every moment.” You got off of the bed slowly and began to seductively strip for Shuri, determined to put on a show for her; not knowing she had plans to put on a show of her own. She slowly opened her legs and began to play with her pussy, eyes never leaving you. “Watch me while I watch you” She moaned. You were placed in a trance.

You let your shirt come up over your head, as she began rolling her body into her touch biting at her lips. Her soft moans driving your senses wild. The light layer of sweat building up on her begining to make her body glow in the moonlight. Her breast heaving up and down as she let out heavy breaths moaning your name. Her toned thighs spread wide for you, folds glistening, a stream of light hitting it perfectly putting her on display. She was all woman, and that excited you. Your shorts collect one last release of your want before being pulled down your thighs.

“You knew what you were doing with those tight ass clothes and waist beads.” Shuri smirked. “Straight my ass. Look at you. Mouth and pussy drooling for me. There’s nothing like a woman huh? Ahhh!” Her head falls back in ecstasy as you stand there caressing your breast, and teasing your nipples; completely naked, physically, and emotionally. You were entranced in her pussy, your sight not leaving her drenched core. The sounds calling out to you. “Shit! I could cum just from how desperate you look right now. Is that you want intel? You want to watch me cum for you?”

You nod but quickly correct yourself “Yes. Yes Shuri I want to see you cum please.”

“No.” Your eyes glance up to meet hers. “Tell me pretty girl. Tell me to cum for you.” You look at her. You smirk feeling a bit bolder. You lick your lips. “Cum for me beautiful.” Your voice was low in octave filled with lust. Shuri’s eyes widened briefly at the sudden change, before you watched her stomach contract and her body began to shake, as her once methodical strokes became sporadic. “Oh B-bast! Y/n! I’m c-cumming for you! Uuuhhnn!”

As you stood and watched her cum, you knew for sure you were hooked. You wanted to hear her scream your name like that all the time. The girly tones of her voice awakening something inside of you. She was a woman.

“Come my love. Touch me, feel what you do to my body.” You walk over to the bed and hover over Shuri leaning down to kiss her lips, as you reached down and touched another woman for the first time. You moan into her mouth at the feel of her. Her slippery folds encasing your fingers. Meshing around them perfectly. “That’s all for you baby. Now let me show you what I can make your body do for me.” The look in her eyes was devious. As she sat up positioning your body to straddle her thigh. “Grind for me”You began to move your body against her. Shuri wanted to ignite all of your senses, so she grabbed your waist and brought you closer wrapping you in a hug, pressing her body up against yours completely.

The feeling of her bare breast pressed against you felt so erotic, as she held you close and placed kisses all over your chest. “Oh Shuri.” You moaned in a whisper. She handled you so gently moving her hands down to your plump ass massaging into it as she helped you get off on her thigh. It felt as though she was worshipping your body. She kept one hand wrapped around your body and the other she brought inbetween the two of you, finding your pussy she began to rub. “Ah fuck! Baby!”

“You like the way I take my time baby. No rush. I want you to feel good in places you never knew you could.” Before you knew it you were laying on your back as she kissed and sucked down your body, making her way toward your pussy. She held up your thighs caressing them as she prepared to dive into her meal. She licked and sucked all around your pussy, before finally making contact with your clit. “Fuck Shuri!”

“Mhmm” she moaned into you as she devoured you.

“Oooo eat this pussy Panther!” She smacked the inside of your thigh. Then she wrapped her arms around both of your thighs and pulled you to the edge of the bed. Devouring your pussy. “S-Shuri ha hooo my g-god!” You were very sure you were seeing heaven, and then she placed a finger inside. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head “M-more. P-please Shuri more!” You reached down grabbing her by her curls grinding against her face. She placed another finger inside of you, and you felt like you were floating. “OMG! Uhn! I’m gonna cum Panther!” Shuri said something but you’ll never know what it was between euphoria and her mouth being filled with pussy.

You came hard in her mouth, she continued eating, getting you all cleaned up. And then she kept going. “I want some more pretty girl. Can you give me more.”

“Uhn! I d-don oh Sh sh pleasassee!! “ your words were failing you.

“Yea you can give me more.” She palms your ass. Getting back up on the bed laying on her back. “Come sit on my face. Drown me in that shit baby. Use me.” She opened her mouth wide sticking out her tounge ready to be your seat. You carefully lower yourself onto her face, but she grabs your thighs holding you down as she ravished you. You started moving your hips faster getting close to another orgasam. “Oh baby I’m gonna cum again! Fuck me Panther! Drink me!” Once again the band snapped and you were cumming, but this time liquid sprayed from your pussy as you squirted on Shuri’s face. She took it like a pro drinking you up.

“Good fucking girl! You’re my good girl huh Y/n. You taste so good.” She said as you fall to the bed trying to control the shaking from the after shocks. “You’re doing so good for me. You’re going to give me one more. Can you do that for me? Want to watch me cum on top of you? ” You look up at her tears falling from your eyes. You didn’t know if you could, but you’d damn sure try if you could see Shuri cum for you again. “Mhmm” is the only sound you could get out. Shuri understood loud and clear.

Shuri sat up, grabbing your legs pushing them all the way back, she straddles you in a squat. “As bad as I want to strap you until you’re unconscious, I want their to be no misunderstanding that it is a woman is fucking you like this” She begans to move against you, feet planted firmly on the bed, the muscles in her legs flexing. “Mmmm!” You let out a long groan from the overstimulation. “Shshsh. Don’t worry baby I got you.” She slowly whined her body against you in a circular motion. You looked down at her, chin still covered in your cum, body glistening in sweat. “ Ahhhh! fuck” she moaned throwing her head back. You followed a large bead of sweat that moved down from her long sexy neck, to her chest, down the valley of her breast, slowing at her waist that whined expertly above the backs of your thighs. It was femininity in all it’s beautiful, ethereal, glory. You snapped. “Oh My God Shuri! You’re so fucking sexy!” You reach and grab her waist moving underneath her as best you can.

She looked down at you like a goddess on her throne. “ You never felt like this before?”

“I c-can’t t-take it. You’re d-driving me crazy. Please! I want you! I need you Shuri. I want to be yours! Please Let me be yours!” You screamed, tears streaming down your face, as you were full out crying now. The whole experience was overwhelming.

“Nobody’s ever known your body like this b-baby? Uuhn! Made you c-cum s-so much? Knew exactly how touch you huh?”

“N-no, n-no, nobody baby! Nobody m-makes me feel like you Shuri! I’m gonna cum again for you!” Shuri fell to her knees, causing her pussy to grind harder against yours as she picked up the pace. “Oh Fuck! Go ahead b-baby let it go, I’m right behind you!” As if your body ran on her command you opened up the flood gates cumming into Shuri’s pussy, as she followed behind.

“OH GOD SHURI! I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU! I’m so in love with you.” You cried. She collapsed on top of you shaking and breathing hard from her intense orgasam. You both held onto eachother tight. You wrapped your legs around her waist as she nuzzled her face into your neck. You heard the sniffles before you felt tears dropping onto your neck.

“I know sthandwa. I’m in love with you too”

#letitia wright #letitiawright #spotify #shuri udaku #shuri x reader #shuri fanfiction #shuri fluff #shuri x you #shuri fic #shuri smut #Spotify

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officiallordvetinari · 8 months ago

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Below are 10 articles randomly chosen from Wikipedia's Featured Articles list. Brief descriptions and links are below the cut.

Bride of Frankenstein is a 1935 American science fiction horror film, and the first sequel to Universal Pictures' 1931 film Frankenstein. As with the first film, Bride of Frankenstein was directed by James Whale starring Boris Karloff as the Monster and Colin Clive as Dr. Frankenstein. The sequel features Elsa Lanchester in the dual role of Mary Shelley and the bride.

Chew Stoke is a small village and civil parish in the affluent Chew Valley, in Somerset, England, about 8 miles (13 km) south of Bristol and 10 miles north of Wells. It is at the northern edge of the Mendip Hills, a region designated by the United Kingdom as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and is within the Bristol and Bath green belt.

David Hillhouse Buel Jr. (July 19, 1862 – May 23, 1923) was an American priest who served as the president of Georgetown University. A Catholic priest and Jesuit for much of his life, he later left the Jesuit order to marry, and subsequently left the Catholic Church to become an Episcopal priest.

Denbies is a large estate to the northwest of Dorking in Surrey, England. A farmhouse and surrounding land originally owned by John Denby was purchased in 1734 by Jonathan Tyers, the proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens in London, and converted into a weekend retreat. The house he built appears to have been of little architectural significance, but the Gothic garden he developed in the grounds on the theme of death achieved some notoriety, despite being short-lived.

Courbet was the lead ship of her class of four dreadnought battleships, the first ones built for the French Navy. She was completed shortly before the start of World War I in August 1914.

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate dietary therapy that in conventional medicine is used mainly to treat hard-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates.

The football match between Manchester United and Ipswich Town played at Old Trafford, Manchester, on 4 March 1995 as part of the 1994–95 FA Premier League finished in a 9–0 victory for the home team. The result stands as the joint record, with Southampton having subsequently lost by the same scoreline at home to Leicester City in 2019 and away at Manchester United in 2021, while Bournemouth also lost 9–0 to Liverpool in 2022.

M-185 is a state trunkline highway in the U.S. state of Michigan that circles Mackinac Island, a popular tourist destination on the Lake Huron side of the Straits of Mackinac, along the island's shoreline. A narrow paved road of 8.004 miles (12.881 km), it offers scenic views of the straits that divide the Upper and the Lower peninsulas of Michigan and Lakes Huron and Michigan.

Santa María de Óvila is a former Cistercian monastery built in Spain beginning in 1181 on the Tagus River near Trillo, Guadalajara, about 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Madrid. During prosperous times over the next four centuries, construction projects expanded and improved the small monastery. Its fortunes declined significantly in the 18th century, and in 1835 it was confiscated by the Spanish government and sold to private owners who used its buildings to shelter farm animals.

Sarcoscypha coccinea, commonly known as the scarlet elf cup, or the scarlet cup, is a species of fungus in the family Sarcoscyphaceae of the order Pezizales. The fungus, widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere, has been found in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Australia.

#going back to basics on this one #I'd appreciate reblogs

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abbiesage · 3 months ago

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ammg-old2 · 2 years ago

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Behold Mongolia's Camel Beauty Contest

Humps and hair. That's the scene in Bulgan Soum, a tiny Mongolian town in the middle of the Gobi Desert about 160 miles north of the Chinese border.

Bactrian camels arrive in all directions on foot, bearing bundled-up riders wedged between their two humps. It's early March. While the sky is cloudless, the wind can pick up quickly. Officially called the Thousand Camel Festival, the crowd that arrives for the kickoff appears to consist of 100 camels.

The two-day festival begins with a camel beauty pageant.

"Mostly young people participate in the Beautiful Couple Contest. But we wanted to represent the older generation of herders," says lifelong herder Enkhbaatar Dashnyam. At 59, he and his wife, Dulamsuren Yunden, 47, have been herding all their lives. They rely on their animals as a form of transportation and sell products from their wool and milk.

The judges are looking for earmarks of tradition; contestants who wear herding decorations and utensils will have a better chance of winning. Both members of this husband and wife duo wear leather boots with upturned tips and fur hats. Enkhbaatar's belt is slung with an ornate knife and a silver bowl.

When visiting a herder, it's customary to be offered milk tea. "Since old times," he says holding a silver bowl, "Mongolians would carry their own cup."

Enkhbaatar and Dulamsuren will showcase two of their most gentle camels, Mashan Huren and Hos Yagaan. Translated, that means "floppy brown one" and "double pink." Their Chewbacca-colored hair, which hangs like a beard, is brushed. Their humps are draped in gold fringe. A harness is kept in place with a nose peg.

Bactrian camels were domesticated thousands of years ago to carry goods and people across Asia. Adapted for desert conditions, the camels can perform Olympic-like feats: carry over 400 pounds on long journeys, withstand 100-degree Fahrenheit summers and -20-degree winters and, when nourished, go without eating and drinking for weeks. Their humps act as fat reserves for energy.

The camels kneel down so Enkhbaatar and Dulamsuren can climb atop. They enter the festival grounds, a dusty square cleared of camels with spectators now packing the perimeter. Music swells over the loudspeaker. After a burst of applause, the pageant begins.

When it's their turn, the couple ride proudly across the square. The beards of their camels billow. Everyone is taking their picture, which matters more to the couple than winning. Enkhbaatar wants future generations — his grandchildren included — to have photographic proof of their lifestyle.

"Since no one lives forever, I wanted to leave our pictures behind for future generations and my descendants," he says, "so they can feel proud. That's what we were thinking when we decided to participate in this contest."

The judges don't announce the winners until the following day. But there's plenty to do at the Thousand Camel Festival until then. Herders sell fermented camel milk, alongside camel toys stitched from felt. Sporting events — like the camel polo tournament and camel race — continue into the afternoon. In 2016, the festival broke a mark recognized by the Guinness World Records for largest camel race. Over 1,100 camels crossed the finish line.

Why this regional craze for the two-humped creature? The origin story is intertwined with Mongolia's transition to democracy.

Under socialism, herding was centrally planned. Herders sold their animal products to the state. With the onset of capitalism in 1990, herders faced new pressures within the free-market economy. For some, their camels were worth more dead than alive.

"Camel herders couldn't get a good amount of money selling products from camel milk and wool," says 35-year-old festival organizer Ariunsanaa Narantuya.

Camel milk and wool wouldn't sell, but camel meat would. Some herders began slaughtering their camels. The festival was created a few years later, in 1997, by the newly formed Camel Protection Association — a local nongovernmental organization — to reverse that trend and protect the desert creature.

Bulgan Soum is now distinguished by its love and stewardship of Bactrian camels.

After the pageant, Dulamsuren tells NPR that she and her husband have 200 camels in their herd. The birthing season is coming. While most newborn camels make it, some don't or are stillborn. When that happens, she says, the mother camel will mourn.

"The mother camel literally weeps with tears in their eyes," Dulamsuren says. "The camel has a big body, but they have a very soft heart."

Dulamsuren has a song for moments like these, one herders have used for generations to soothe camels over heartbreak. The full practice of "camel coaxing," to unite mothers with calves, was captured in the 2003 German film, The Story of the Weeping Camel.

This bond — between herder and camel — is hard to put into words. But you know it when you see it, and the judges definitely noticed. The next day, Dulamsuren and her husband were declared the winners of the 2019 Camel Beauty Pageant.

#these photos are so gorgeous oh my goodness #culture #animals #herding #livestock #clothing #textiles #art #mongolia #gobi desert #camels #bactrian camel

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rabbitcruiser · 3 months ago

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World Coconut Day

Discover the tropical taste and versatility of this round, hairy fruit with a hard shell. From coconut water to oil, there's so much to love about them!

A popular fruit consumed around the world, the coconut is healthy and tasty, and it grows in tropical regions. World Coconut Day celebrates everything that has to do with this delicious and nutritious fruit!

History of World Coconut Day

Coconuts are a food that humans have found sustenance in for at least 2,000 years. Probably native to Indonesia, the name coconut translates to “walnut from India”. While coconuts would have traveled throughout the Indian subcontinent and even to Africa in the early years, they didn’t make it to Europe until some time around the 16th century.

It is likely that coconuts were introduced to Europeans through the Maritime Silk Road, which connected the East with the West. Marco Polo may have been one of the many travelers and explorers who would have brought coconuts back with them.

When the Asia Pacific Coconut Community (APCC) was founded in 1969, it was created in an attempt to help support and promote the tropical countries that are high in growing, producing, selling and exporting coconuts. Located in Jakarta, Indonesia, this group stays connected with the production and export of coconuts. Sharing scientific expertise and coordinating activities within the industry, the members of the APCC are responsible for the growth of more than 90% of the coconuts produced and sold all over the globe.

Founded in 2009, World Coconut Day was started by the Asia and Pacific Coconut Community to promote the activities of coconut growers while raising awareness about the fruit for those outside of the growing community.

The celebration of World Coconut Day offers plenty of opportunities for this important product of the Asia-Pacific region to enter into the forefront of conversation of people around the world!

World Coconut Day Timeline

1st Century BC

Coconuts are present in Indian subcontinent

Historical records from Sri Lanka show that coconuts existed before this time.

16th Century

Coconuts are introduced to Europe

Arriving as many exotic foods did, through the Maritime Silk Road, Europeans were exposed to coconuts through traders like Marco Polo.

1946

Almond Joy candy bar hits the scene

This candy bar combines the sweetness of shredded coconut with an almond and then covers it in delicious milk chocolate.

2004

Vita Coco introduces coconut water

Offering a delicious and nutritious beverage, Vita Coco begins a trend of bottling coconut water and making it commercially available.

2009

World Coconut Day is first celebrated

Started by the Asia-Pacific Coconut Community, World Coconut Day aims to raise awareness and bring harmony to the growth and distribution of coconuts.

How to Celebrate World Coconut Day

Getting involved with World Coconut Day is easy – all it takes is tasting and enjoying this delicious fruit. Consider some of these ideas to celebrate the day:

Enjoy Eating a Coconut

Some people who haven’t grown up around this delicious fruit might be intimidated by its brown, hairy shell. But once it is broken into and the creamy white flesh is exposed, it is a fragrant delight to behold.

First, start by poking a hole in the coconut at the end near the ‘eye’, where the shell is the thinnest. Use a screwdriver or hammer with a clean nail to make the hole. This will allow for the water of the coconut to be drained.

Pro Tip: Strain the coconut water through a cheesecloth and into a cup, and then drink it up!

Once the juice has been drained out of the coconut, one of the easiest ways to break open the fruit is by using a handsaw to cut it in half. Other people might want to simply put it into a sturdy bag and bang it against a stone or concrete until it breaks. This method is a bit messy, but it works.

Once the coconut is open, remove the meat from the shell and enjoy eating it fresh!

Cook or Bake with Coconut

One way to enjoy National Coconut Day without having to go to the trouble of cracking open the fruit is by purchasing the coconut in bags that are shredded or chipped. These are often pre-sweetened and ready to be used in recipes. Since the fruit is a tropical one, and the day falls at the end of the summer, many recipes are cool and refreshing.

Consider cooking or baking with some of these recipe ideas to celebrate the day:

Coconut Cream Pie. This classic pie contains coconut flakes or chips, coconut milk, heavy cream and eggs, and is topped with mounds of sweet whipped cream.

Coconut Ice Cream. This refreshing dessert is so simple, all it needs is 6 ingredients: whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, milk, salt and, of course, shredded coconut.

Coconut Milk Pudding. This delicious recipe is similar to the consistency of flan, but is made with coconut milk, gelatin, mango, butter, grated coconut, condensed milk and other simple ingredients.

Coconut Rice Pudding. A special blend of coconut milk and rice, this dessert is delicious when served with a homemade rhubarb compote or jam. The coconut and rhubarb flavors just meld together on the tongue!

Drink a Piña Colada

A classic tropical drink, the piña colada contains delicious ingredients like pineapple juice, coconut cream, rum, lime juice and ice, all blended together into a delicious frozen beverage. Throw the ingredients in a blender at home and mix it up. Garnish with a drink umbrella and skewer with red cherries for a vibrant presentation.

Try Out Some Coconut Water

A fairly new product on the market, bottled coconut water can be found in many places around the world now. Coconut water is actually the juice or liquid that comes from young coconut plants. Some brands of coconut water that might be worth trying out in celebration of National Coconut Day include Vita Coco, ZICO, Naked Coconut Water, and C2O.

Listen to Some Coconut Themed Music

One fun way to enjoy National Coconut Day is to enjoy a few songs that were written around the theme of coconuts. Try out some of these ideas to get started making a tropical playlist just for this day:

Coconut by Harry Nillson (1971). Probably the most famous song about coconuts, the lyrics are “put de lime in de coconut and drink ‘em both togedder”.

Cocoanut Woman by Harry Belafonte (1957). Released on his album called “Belafante sings of the Caribbean”, this song is about a lady on the island who is selling coconut water.

Coconut Telegraph by Jimmy Buffet (1981). Appearing as the title song on the album of the same name, this song speaks of a Tuesday on the island when information and gossip is exchanged.

I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Merv Griffin (1950). With lyrics that make a story out of a coconut toss at a fair, this song is a silly and playful classic from a bygone era.

World Coconut Day FAQs

Is coconut a fruit?

Even though it has the word “nut” in the name, coconut is a fibrous, one-seeded fruit that falls into the drupe, or stone fruit family.

Is coconut oil good for you?

Yes. Coconut oil has a variety of nutrients that are healthy when consumed by humans, including fatty acids, healthy cholesterol, ketones and more.

Do coconuts grow on palm trees?

While coconuts do grow on a certain type of palm tree, not all palm trees are coconut trees.

Is coconut water good for you?

Coconut water offers many healthy benefits, including electrolytes, magnesium, potassium, antioxidants and more.

Should coconut oil be refrigerated?

Coconut oil is long-lasting, up to two years, and does not need to be refrigerated.

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bangtanpurplearchive · 4 months ago

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BTS trip through time. October 2015.

13 October Jimin’s 21st birthday. Run BTS! Ep.6

Twitter: BTS (1). RM (1), Jin (1). Yoongi (1). JHope (1). JK? (1).

151013 Happy 21st JimJim day. Big Hit post (1), (2). Japan official (1) (archive)

151013 Live Jimin Birthday.

151013 Jimin's Log.

BTS performed at several festivals

151003 2015 Gangwon K-POP Festival- recorded (aired 151030) (BTS 2015 K-POP World festival Interview.). (interview) (Dope). (For You) . Fancams. (archive)

151009 One K Concert ‘One Dream One Korea’ in Sangam World Cup Stadium. fancams. (archive)

151016 BTS at Opening Ceremony of 10th Asia International Youth Film Festival. Fancams. (1) (2) (archive)

151031 [Eng sub] BTS Halloween Party.

BTS started their Puma promotions

151030 [A.R.M.Y #2] Happy Birthday to you~ (November)

#BTSARMYPROMISE2025 #BTS #BTSOctober2015 #BTSHistory #BTSthroughtime #방탄소년단

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alyjojo · 10 months ago

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Past Life 🪡 Karmic Spread January 2024 - Aquarius

Character Card: The Poet (past), The Pilgrim (present)

Gender I’m Picking Up On (in the past life): Male, a soft & romantic one that embraced their feminine energy (quietly). Either that’s the same story now, or you’re a woman, I can’t tell. It’s a beautiful energy either way.

Who You Were: 5 Wands rev

What You Did: Knight of Pentacles rev

How It Ended: Strength

What Karma Was Brought With You: The High Priestess

Who You Brought With You: 10 Cups

Additional energy: The Tower rev

Past Life Oracle: Asia & Egypt (past), Celtic (present)

Dreaming Way: Bouquet (past), Anchor, Ship & Tree (present)

Charm:

Racquet 🎾 on Bouquet

Lips 👄 on Strength

Lips 👄 on The Tower rev

Bat 🦇 on The High Priestess

Dress 👗 and Music 🎶 on Celtic

So far your reading has led me down countless historical rabbit holes that don’t give me any answers, it’s a fruitless endeavor, and that’s kind of the whole point to this past life. Everything you did was a fruitless endeavor. Not by choice of course 🙏 Who you were as a person and what you did were two totally different things, you could say you were two totally different people. There may be an lgbtq aspect to this identity, I’m not picking that up specifically, but it would explain the love area, and maybe some of this gender bendy energy.

There is a major lack of historical records that combine Egyptian & Indian cultures even though they were close trade partners and very similar in religion and practice. It was a common occurrence for the two to intermingle, one lives in the other, or in your case works there. You were an Indian man, with an Indian name, it wasn’t “John” and you were a bit intolerant towards white people, because they had a way of waltzing in and taking credit for everything, which made you bitter. You were an archeologist, or some kind of scientist, and what you did specifically, I’m not sure. You never published anything, never spoke your findings out loud, because your life was more of a you vs. the establishment battle, a constant fight for funding, for others to have the same priorities as you and work as a team. You didn’t have that team, or if you did, it disbanded before you could come to any solid conclusions. During the preshuffle I just kept hearing “I have been forgotten”, like you are just wiped from history, and Wiki has a whole list of archeologists that have worked in Egypt specifically, none of them are you. I did find a British woman born in India and heard a clear NO, with the name thing, your name is not John, you are not a woman 😆 The irritation is crystal clear. But you didn’t publish anything either, or maybe you weren’t the lead person I’m not sure - thus got no credit. It burned your ego, which was otherwise healthy. I kept hearing “a white guy took credit”, and with every British archeologist on the list (most of them), I just felt an energy of squirm & disgust. Yeesh 😅

The subject you were studying is the only thing about you I can actually lock down. The Unfinished Obelisk, said to be built by Pharoah Hatshepsut - the longest successful ruling female pharoah, that liked to be depicted in male ways, with a beard, or certain markings, to assert her dominance - that I’ve found anyway. You felt a strong connection to her, possibly identified with her in some way, both of you could toe the line of gender based identities, or maybe it’s a past life within a past life 😆 That would be pretty cool. I spent a lot of time researching her thinking maybe that was where this was going, or I’d find a trail, and kept hearing no, male, Indian, everything I’ve said.

You uncovered something you either never gave to a higher up, the lead boss man, the university or whoever was funding this, etc., or it was just information you kept to yourself due to the fact that you wouldn’t get credit for it. 7 Swords is Aquarius energy after all, very strategic, but along the lines of fairness for you, and either race, titles, hierarchy in “the system”, personal bias for sure, something prevented you from achieving success in the way you wanted to. You stole the sword before someone else did to use it against you. I call this side of Aquarius “going all Darth Vader”, because regardless of loyalty, titles, positions, responsibilities, you’re intelligent, and can smell problems a mile away. And right is right, wrong is wrong, fair is fair - King of Swords. This behavior is probably why you’re an Aqua now, if you weren’t before.

Now for the softer side of you, which was quite dreamy and romantic, head full of fantasies. The Poet falls in love with anyone and everyone, love at first sight may have been a regular thing for you, you were full of inspiration and it didn’t take much to stir your affections. I’m getting this being due to a lack of genuine emotional expression, you didn’t have a partner. I’m not really sensing one, ever. Bouquet with the racket describes one person in particular that either played an Indian racquet sort of game, or you played together, again showing it’s possible this was an lgbtq sort of connection/situation. Because you never ended up with this person, or any, you were very quiet, dreaming, fanciful, obsessed with the idea of love but afraid to take action, ask, even flirt to some degree. I get no energy off of them, you may have just watched from a distance, or this was a friend, they probably never knew that you were madly & obsessively in love with them. You may have been a literal poet, as a hobby. This life is described as Knight of Pentacles rev, there never was any progress, nothing ever became of anything you did, and it burned your soul. You never said word, about love, discoveries, your life, you returned to India after failure and “gave up”, didn’t do anything significant, you didn’t care anymore, and eventually contracted some sort of painful disease, I’m getting this lasted for quite a while, 10 years or so, before it finally took you. If you wrote anything, you tore it up, burned it, got rid of any “evidence” of your feelings, inner nature, confessions, etc.

In this life, you’re already older, The Anchor here shows you’ve already completed your soul mission where *this* life is concerned, which seems to be centered around family trauma or generational healing. Your healing is, you’ve pushed them all away. The circumstances aren’t mentioned specifically, except that you are defensive and have the high moral ground for an argument where you could justify your position on things and *know* you’re right about it - regarding childhood, the past, possibly with a mother or female figure in particular. You could also be someone who does not want children, because you feel like your bloodline is toxic or something, you wouldn’t do that to a child. There’s also a note of possible adoption/abortion that could be being kept secret, only you’d know. Whatever was done was supposed to be done, or has already been done, and it was done in a similar Aquarian way of handling a problem before it’s a problem, stealing swords that could cut you, avoiding Towers before they fall - which is here. That’s a part of you that isn’t as negative as you or others may perceive it to be. You know what you’re up against, and how to handle it, others can either join you or not…I’m getting you’ve left a lot of people behind. A whole family possibly.

Celtic is here, with the dress, music, and I’m seeing bright red flushed cheeks. You could be Irish, and when I say Irish I mean like you go to a St. Patrick’s Day parade and actually belong there, not like the rest of us browner/tan people just having a good time 😆 Ancestral heritage may be very important to you regardless of the specific people in your life. You could listen to Celtic meditation music or dancing could be involved in this too. Your intuition is a gift that you often question but is actually quite powerful, this is saying it only grows with time, but The Pilgrim is exhausted. You’ve done it all, seen it all, escaped or dodged the worst of it, and now you’re at the point you just keep going with no real inspiration, spark, you’re just passing life by with no notice, and The Fool is at the bottom showing it’s time for a new beginning. You’ve done it, you’ve made it, whatever “it” is.

What is The Fool and this new thing: Strength, Justice & 2 Swords

That’s very cryptic, you already know what you need to do, you just know that it’s not going to be easy for you. Strength shows up when it’s required, Justice is finally making a decision that’s kept you in 2 Swords for awhile, unsure of which path to take or what to do. Idk the what, but you can take it as confirmation that whatever it is, YES, it’s what you need to do 💜 If you beat yourself up over family dynamics, did you do the right thing by holding back from this or certain people, the answer is yes. And you’re free to start all over with something else - The Fool, enjoy your life.

#Aquarius #past life reading #january 2024 #past life #karmic lessons #karma #tarot #tarotblr

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after-zeno · 1 year ago

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Comment: An important (if retrospective) overview of 'queer' presence' in an era of regression in the US and elsewhere.

Extract 1: A record 87 out LGBTQI athletes, including eight team captains, will be competing in the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Australia and New Zealand this July.

There are 736 women’s players in this year’s World Cup. This means that more than 1 in 10 of the female soccer players competing this year identify as gay, bisexual, queer or non-binary.

This number is more than double the 38 players who were out at the last Women’s World Cup, in 2019.

According to the LGBTQI sports site, OutSports, while the number of teams in the tournament has grown by a third (from 24 to 32) over the past four years, the number of out athletes has more than doubled, which “reflects the growth of acceptance”.

Most of the publicly out athletes come from Europe, the Americas and the two host nations, Australia, and New Zealand, which have more favourable laws for LGBTQI people in comparison to places like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Extract 2: FIFA has faced criticism in the past for allowing countries with hostile LGBTQ laws to serve as hosts for the tournaments.

Last year, Qatar hosted the Men’s World Cup and threatened sanctions on national teams for wanting to wear rainbow armbands to show support for LGBTQ+ pride. In Qatar, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison.

Teams participating in the Women’s World Cup tournament will not be permitted to wear the OneLove and rainbow-coloured bands. Instead, eight FIFA-approved armbands with messages including: Unite for Inclusion, Unite for Indigenous Peoples, Unite for Gender Equality, Unite for Peace, Unite for Education for All, Unite for Zero Hunger, Unite for Ending Violence Against Women, and Football is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope, and Passion will be offered as alternatives.

Earlier this month Australian captain Sam Kerr made the tough call to not wear the rainbow captain’s armband during the upcoming Women’s World Cup, to avoid “putting everything at risk”.

“For me it’s not worth the risk; putting the team at risk; putting everything at risk; and there will be multiple opportunities where I get to use my voice for things,” Kerr said.

#Sam Kerr #lgbtqia #soccer #women's world cup #2023

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mikalahawkins · 2 years ago

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youtube

The Cupping Therapy

Cupping therapy is an alternative medical sort of practice and it has truly flooded in the new past because it is profoundly used by athletes and superstars also. Cupping therapy can be used for treatments and famous athletes have been known to use something very similar for their throbbing muscles. A great many people who have gotten an opportunity to give the therapy a shot appear to concur that it truly gives results at the day's end. Numerous superstars really display the injuries they get from cupping, to show the world that they are likewise making it happen.

There are lots of advantages that are associated with cupping and there are different methods that can be applied to arrive at the shared objective. The cups used in the process can be made using different materials. Different ointments can be used on the skin and furthermore, different cupping techniques can be applied in order to accomplish the objectives that are set.

Where it started

Any individual who has caught wind of the cupping therapy may really think something has just begun as of late. However, this isn't accurate. This is definitely not a recent fad. As a matter of fact, cupping therapy is exceptionally ancient and an astounding alternative medicine choice. A practice has been completed in Russia and china doe quite a while.

The therapy is additionally legitimate in the Ebers papyrus. These are records of the most established medical texts that are accessible today. This method was used by Hippocrates and Egyptians. The methods have been known in all pieces of Europe and Asia also.

This cupping therapy has been embraced by such countless societies on the planet. Their point was different. There are those that needed to manage different sorts of inside infirmities while others attempted to address a wide range of structural misalignment.

#youtube

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ffloorageorge · 1 year ago

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Bangladesh hosted the Asia Cup Cricket Tournament in 2000, 2012, 2014 and 2016. There is some environmental protection in law, but it has not been a government priority. Effective tax rates were higher in Britain than France in the years before the French Revolution, twice in per capita income comparison, but they were mostly placed on international trade. In 1901, the Division of Scientific Research was formed, which included the Hygienic Laboratory as well as other research offices of the Marine Hospital Service. The newly founded Peruvian Congress named Bolivar dictator of Peru, giving him the power to organize the military. This, and an ensuing ground invasion, killed nearly every human in the facility, including their father and sister. Some linguists have encouraged the creation of neologisms to decrease the instances of confusion caused by puns. For a while after this, some koi farmers in neighboring states stopped importing fish for fear of infecting their own stocks. Conditions for workers were often poor and exploitative, and local islanders often violently attacked any Europeans who appeared on their island. In 1547, New Granada became a separate captaincy-general within the viceroyalty, with its capital at Santa Fe de Bogota. Because the method relies on antigen rather than viable bacteria, the results are not disrupted by prior antibiotic use. Sir Kay briefly appears in the season 5 opener of Once Upon a Time, where he betrays Arthur and attempts to pull Excalibur out of the stone to rule Camelot for himself. Following the end of the Cold War, defence policy has a stated assumption that the most demanding operations will be undertaken as part of a coalition. Group 1 faxes take six minutes to transmit a single page, with a vertical resolution of 96 scan lines per inch. An additional, more lasting punitive measure taken by the Romans involved expunging Judaea from the provincial name, changing it from Provincia Judaea to Provincia Syria Palestina. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are still celebrated with special foods. Many migrant workers racked up debt and depended on the help of charities. The library system also houses original and microfilm collections of Virgin Islands Archives, records, newspapers and other materials. A rapid appraisal survey of Kuy dialects spoken in Cambodia. According to the Black Tie Guide, the peaked lapel and shawl collar are equally authentic and correct, with the latter being slightly less formal. With Salazar gone, Carrera reinstated Rivera Paz as head of state. In 1989, Babangida started making plans for the transition to the Third Nigerian Republic. The Garhajis also have a significant presence in the western and central areas of Sanaag region as well, including the regional capital Erigavo as well as Maydh. Soviet Russia adopted a red flag following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Initially, each conference was numbered after the release, and not regular held. Modern surveys in Europe and the United States show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love, and joy. God is often believed to be the cause of all things and so is seen as the creator and sustainer and the ruler of the universe. Both teams set out to confirm their results by these methods. This was chased away in November by a visit from four British warships, but later returned.

#graceful actress #magnificent female model #fit female artist #foxy woman #spunky lady #tall young girl #beautiful women #charming ladies #gorgeous girls #sexy model #amazing female artist #slim woman #tall girl #sweet ladies #handsome girls #young model dancing #music #street dance #dancers

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female-buckets · 2 years ago

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A record WNBL crowd of 7,681 at John Cain Arena fell silent as Lauren Jackson was assisted from the floor just 62 seconds into the game.

Just minutes earlier, the legendary Jackson was the final player announced to a raucous ovation. Like much of the last twelve months, the gravity of watching the all-time great go to work had drawn the eyes of many to the WNBL, perhaps for the first time.

After her bronze medal heroics at the Women's World Cup in Sydney with the national team last year, Jackson has played a major role in the Flyers campaign, averaging 14 points and five rebounds in a perhaps more than expected 21 minutes per game.

As if the fairy tale story needed any more juice, Jackson's trademark determination and will once again came to the fore, with the recent news that she has been carrying a fractured left foot through a large portion of the season.

"The great news is that it's not my broken foot, it's the other one," Jackson joked of the suspected serious Achilles injury.

With scans to come on Sunday morning, there is a genuine fear that this may be last chapter written of the remarkable comeback of Jackson, with just four games left on the Flyers schedule before the postseason.

"For me, I said I was on borrowed time," Jackson said. "It's hard, the way that I feel right now, I don't know. I'm pretty tough, but when I felt it, I felt something pop. I was just standing there, I said to the referee that I can't actually walk. Now I can't put any weight on it, whatever it is, I'll go get the scans in the morning and go from there. Hopefully it's just a stinger but I don't know."

"As soon as I felt it pop, I was like oh my god, that's my day over. I went to try and walk and I couldn't. The poor ref, she said she can't stop the game, I said that's fine, but I can't actually move so I don't know what to do."

Jackson's absence understandably took the air out the building for the first quarter, before the Flyers and Flames put on a show that came down to the final possession with Tiana Mangakahia knocking down a free-throw with 2.7 seconds left to help lift the Flames to the 68-67 road win.

The aura of Jackson may have brought a large portion of the crowd, but in the end, it was the high-quality play on the court that captivated those in the stands. The 26-point performance of Mangakahia in particular is of note, with the star guard recently included in the Opals extended squad in preparation for the 2023 Women's Asia Cup and 2024 Paris Olympics.

"I obviously had a lot of time to take in the atmosphere and the crowd was just incredible. That was so awesome to see that at a WNBL game, just to suit up was one of the greatest privileges," Jackson said.

"What a magnificent thing for women's basketball in this country. It's a domestic league, it's the premier national league but to have that kind of support in Melbourne was just incredible.

"I've said it a million times, but I think off the back of the World Cup and the visibility that basketball has had, it's really lifted the profile of our sport. Hopefully it's just the start of many games like this. It was great to be able to prove that it can be done and I'm pretty sure every single person in that stadium enjoyed that game."

Flyers head coach Cheryl Chambers set aside her disappointment for Jackson and the Flyers, to praise the Southside organisation for what was a spectacular advertisement for the league.

"There is some real talent across the whole league, so hopefully there's some people there that don't go every week that think they are going to get on board and support women's basketball," Chambers said.

"The other thing I'm proud about our organisation is, we probably weren't ready for this game, we could have asked if we were perfectly ready for this game, was it the perfect one to have against Sydney, all that kind of stuff. Gerry (Ryan) and Ian (Coutts) took a chance on women's basketball because we weren't one hundred percent ready and I think sometimes we wait until we're one hundred percent and it's too late. It's an awesome thing for women's sport."

Postgame, Jackson took part in a presentation on court, before remarkably presenting to the media for a press conference that she could and should have been expected to skip. Shifting between crutches and a wheelchair for comfort, understandably in pain, Jackson continued to lead the discussion for the growth of the women's game in Australia.

"You've got to take risks to take that next step and evolve and grow. As a league, we're doing that," Jackson explained. "As a team in the league, I think Southside is definitely pushing those barriers and trying to set the standard.

"That's what we did tonight. Gerry and Ian and our whole team should be so proud of what our front office was able to do, to bring that crowd out here tonight. I'm very, very proud to be a Flyer."

It would be difficult and near on impossible to imagine another athlete of Jackson's status in any sport presenting in this manner given the difficult circumstances, though, in some ways it shouldn't have been a surprise. This is who LJ is. A class act.

"Nobody could have scripted this last year, it's been completely insane. Then how ironic, how ironic (is this), it is what it is," she said with a smile and a shake of the head.

Claiming another medal for the national team could have been the perfect swansong for Jackson, but her work was not yet done, with her presence in the WNBL a delight for basketball fans young and old. It would be foolish and premature to write Jackson off given what has been witnessed over the last 12 months, but in a bittersweet way, if Saturday night is ultimately the last time Jackson suits up in a professional environment, doing so in front of a record-breaking crowd would be fitting for a legendary legacy.

All Jackson has done is create history since she first burst onto the scene more than two decades ago as a teenage star. Saturday night at John Cain Arena was no different.

#lauren jackson #wnbl #wnba #seattle storm #southside flyers

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belovedindierock · 2 years ago

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Rolling Stone #1155, April 26th 2012

Radiohead Reconnect

How the most experimental band in music learned to rock again

by David Fricke

Thom Yorke walks into the catering room backstage at the American Airlines Arena in Miami wearing a dark T-shirt, tight red jeans and a crooked smile. "I'm feeling quietly excited – and quietly nervous," Radiohead's frontman says as he pours himself a cup of coffee. Yorke flew in from Britain late yesterday – his eyelids are still heavy with jet lag – and he is due onstage shortly for Radiohead's final rehearsal before the launch of their most extensive tour since 2008: 58 shows over 10 months in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. They open here tomorrow night.

"Everything – the production, the new lights, the set list – is still a work in progress," Yorke says. "But it's finally getting started." Soon he can be heard warming up his voice behind a closed door, practicing scales in a high, precise warble, holding notes in long, clean aaaahs.

Radiohead are not only beginning a tour; they are unveiling a rebirth. The band is ending one of the most challenging and confounding eras in its career: nearly three years of public silence and private chaos during which Radiohead struggled with reinvention and their future. They made some of their most beautiful music on their least popular album, last year's The King of Limbs, but didn't promote it and stayed off the road, uncertain how or if they could be a performing band again.

"We're still flailing around," Yorke admits, sitting in one of the band's dressing rooms. He recalls the early practice sessions for this tour. "I was freaking out, going, 'Oh, no, it's not enough time. I want to do all these new things.'"

But onstage, a little while later, he and the rest of Radiohead – bassist Colin Greenwood; guitarists Ed O'Brien and Colin's younger brother Jonny; drummer Phil Selway and new second drummer Clive Deamer, who has played with the group for the past year – sound exuberant and confident as they push through "Bloom," from The King of Limbs. What sounded on that record like a glassy enigma of loops and ghostly incantation is now rushing water, arranged by the new six-man lineup as a fury of rhythms and murky-treble guitars. "Morning Mr. Magpie" is also harder and faster than the version on Limbs, while "Meeting in the Aisle" – an instrumental from the sessions for 1997's OK Computer – is played with fresh pepper, like Turkish surf music with a trip-hop step.

Radiohead have worked up more than 75 songs for the 2012 shows, including material written during rehearsals this winter at their studio in Oxford. The band will run through a pair of newborns tonight, "Identikit" and "Cut a Hole." Yorke, 43, describes the former as "joyful, slow but with a wonky hip-hop beat." He beams. "That one wormed its way to the head of the class." Colin, who is 42, is excited about another new one, "Full Stop," particularly the part "where Thorn's voice jacks up into this amazing falsetto. The song just takes off."

20 Songs You Can't Believe Are 20 Years Old

In an interview before practice, Yorke credits the addition of Deamer, who came from the British band Portishead, with Radiohead's live renewal. "Having another musician to go back over old stuff was as important as coming up with new songs," says Yorke. He's slumped on a couch, but his voice crackles with restless energy. "Along the way," he says, "you discard songs, because you can only do them in a certain way. To breathe new life into them is a good feeling. You don't have to ask, 'Oh, how does it go again?' It's 'How can we do this properly now?'"

The best example at this rehearsal is the title song from 2000's Kid A. Recorded at the height of Yorke's loathing of guitar-band convention, "Kid A" was barely a song at all – a cloud of whoosh with Yorke singing through a vocoder like a child robot. Tonight, it sounds huge and metallic, a bolt of argumentative double drumming with a striking, classical temper in the piano chords, played by Jonny.

"It was an anti-song," says O'Brien the next day, in an ocean-view lounge at Radiohead's hotel. "Now it's something warmer, particularly the end. Suddenly, it has this sunrise." For a long time, in a lot of the band's music, he admits, "nothing was allowed to be genuinely beautiful. Jonny was always so brilliant about throwing that slashing guitar through things.

"This is very much where we are – and Clive has brought this," says O'Brien, who turns 44 this month. "Didn't they say when the Beatles got Billy Preston everybody was on best behavior?" He laughs. "Having someone break up the energy – that's good. It got people out of old habits.

"You hear it all the time," says O'Brien. "These bands say, 'We're in the best phase of our lives,' and they don't make very good music. I'm reluctant to say that. It's not our best phase. It's another one – and it's a good one. It doesn't feel like a new band. It feels like a band that knows itself."

Yorke isn't so sure – yet. "It's weird not to have any definitive versions recorded," he says of the new songs, "because that's where you make the final decisions. To be rehearsing new stuff, not have it recorded, with a sixth member in the band . . ." He rolls his eyes in mock terror. "It's all very fluid. I'm not really sure what it is."

Jonny, 40, sitting on the sofa next to Yorke, remembers the singer arriving for the first day of practice in Oxford: "He came in and said, 'I had a dream that we had an extra month for rehearsing.' I thought, 'Wouldn't that be great?'"

"We haven't played in front of people yet, so we don't know if it's any good," says Yorke. "We might not even find out tomorrow." He flashes that crooked smile. "Maybe it will take a while."

Radiohead have been a recording band for two decades. This year marks the 20th anniversary of their debut EP, Drill, and the initial release of their seething Top 40 hit "Creep." Since then, Radiohead have enjoyed the weirdest forward motion of any major rock band. Their hit albums, including two American Number Ones, Kid A and 2007's In Rainbows, are slippery and jarring: blends and collisions of violent guitar dynamics, cryptic dance-floor electronics and barbed, elliptical balladry. Radiohead's last "conventional" album, according to their longtime co-producer Nigel Godrich, was their art-rock classic OK Computer. "Essentially, that was a guitar record dabbling in other dimensions," Godrich says. Radiohead have begun every subsequent album the same way. "We start," O'Brien says, "with what we don't want to do next."

There has been substantial outside work in recent years. Selway's first solo effort, Familial, came out in 2010. Yorke is almost done with the first studio album by his band Atoms for Peace. Jonny, a prolific writer for soundtracks and orchestras, just issued an album with Polish composer Krzystof Penderecki. An independent act since the end of their EMI contract in 2003, Radiohead also explore alternative ways of releasing music. In Rainbows was first available as a pay-what-you-choose download. A gorgeous 2009 track, "These Are My Twisted Words," was free.

The King of Limbs arrived as a complete shock: a download with a week's notice and no publicity by the band. A CD followed a month later. But the surprise attack, combined with the music's vexing restraint, backfired. "There were clearly people who were interested in the band's music, but they didn't know Radiohead had released a record," says Bryce Edge, one of the group's managers. To date, The King of Limbs has sold 307,000 copies in the U.S. – Radiohead's first album to fail to go gold here.

But that tally, Edge points out, "doesn't include all of the digital stuff we sold" – an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 copies purchased via Radiohead's website. "The majority of the sales were band-to-fan," says co-manager Chris Hufford. "Financially, it was probably the most successful record they've ever made, or pretty close. In a traditional deal, the record company takes the majority of the money."

Radiohead played only three concerts in 2011, after recruiting Deamer to help re-create the overdubbed tangle of drum loops on The King of Limbs: a surprise set at Britain's Glastonbury Festival and two hot-ticket gigs at New York's Roseland Ballroom. So now the band is going overboard: Its long U.S. itinerary includes festival dates, two at Coachella and one at Bonnaroo. O'Brien says the group has already "talked about the way the gigs might evolve, maybe doing them in three sections – three movements, if you like." Colin is excited about the prospect of studio time along the way. "Maybe we'll do some hit-and-runs," he says, "go in over a weekend somewhere and play."

The band is touring mostly in three-week legs with substantial breaks, in part for family matters. All the group members still reside in the Oxford area except for O'Brien, who lives in London, and all are married except for Yorke, who has been with his partner, Rachel Owen, since they were students at the University of Exeter. The five are busy fathers. Colin, Jonny and Selway have three children each; Yorke and O'Brien have two apiece. "My kids are changing schools in September," Selway, 44, notes. "I wanted to be around for that."

But there is a strong sense in the interviews conducted for this story over the past year – in Oxford, London, New York and finally Miami – of a band anxious to engage the world again after spending too much time too close to home. The first night at Roseland last September was, O'Brien claims, "a great lesson. The sound-check was a fucking nightmare. The monitors were rubbish – we couldn't hear ourselves. We felt underprepared. But you know what? It was all good. Our managers were like, 'Top-five gig!'"

"It was a fucking trip – the best adrenaline buzz I've had in absolutely years," Yorke crows. "It didn't feel like we were treading the old ground, walking over our graves. We were still wandering around in the darkness, stumbling. That was nice."

"It made us feel like a rock band again," Colin says, more thoughtfully, backstage in Miami. "It's fine to be in a band in a nine-to-five way: Get up with the kids, take them to school, do some work, come home. But I see my friends in Oxford who have jobs they work hard at that they don't enjoy, and it frustrates me. We have a job that is a passion. Roseland made us remember how great it could and should be."

Radiohead speak about The King of Limbs like it is unfinished business, an album with a future and an audience still waiting for it. The group is not touring this year "specifically to push that record," Selway says. But, he adds, "people hopefully will connect with it through that."

"It was amazing to just put the record out like that," Yorke says. "But then it didn't feel like it really existed." He mentions a chat he had about the album, a few months after its release, with Phil Costello, a friend of the band and a former executive at their old label, Capitol. "He was like, 'It's gone, just gone.' Really? Fuck.

"But that was the consequence of what we chose to do," Yorke concedes. "You can either get upset about it, or say, 'Well, that's not good enough.'"

It is a warm afternoon in New York, the day before the first Roseland concert, and Yorke – between sips of tea in a downtown hotel lobby – is recalling his Friday nights in college, working as a DJ while he was going for his bachelor's degree in art at Exeter. Radiohead were a part-time operation, writing songs and making demos under their original name, On a Friday, during the members' school breaks.

"I wasn't particularly good," Yorke says of his spinning, "because people were buying me drinks to get me to play what they wanted to hear. At the end of the night, I couldn't see the records." Yorke remembers mixing electro-dance tracks by a Belgian duo, Cubic 22, and the English trio 808 State with early Seattle grunge. He was especially keen on the way Manchester bands such as Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses were fusing Sixties psychedelia and British rave culture. "Which then stopped," Yorke complains. "Suddenly, guitars were the authentic way to go. We were a part of that."

Since OK Computer, Yorke has persistently fought to increase the distance between his band and customary rock instrumentation and record-making. "I talked about it endlessly while we were doing In Rainbows," he says. "It was a constant frustration that we were actually going the opposite way."

The King of Limbs is Yorke's student-DJ dream come true: rock fundamentals wholly transformed by electronics. The drum, bass and guitar parts are all samples, individually played by the members of Radiohead, then manipulated, looped and layered into tracks shaped by Yorke's reverie-like melodies and haiku-style lyrics. "Lotus Flower," "Codex" and "Give Up the Ghost" hover and throb more like suggestions than songs, exotic murmurs in no hurry to become declarative statements. "I can see why it's alienated people," Yorke says now of the album. "I didn't realize it was its own planet."

"We didn't want to pick up guitars and write chord sequences," Jonny says, sitting in a London cafe near Abbey Road Studios, where Radiohead made part of their second album, 1995's The Bends. "We didn't want to sit in front of a computer either. We wanted a third thing, which involved playing and programming." It was a long hunt: Radiohead worked on The King of Limbs in bursts from May 2009 to January 2011.

Readers' Poll: The 10 Best Radiohead Songs

Tall and shy, constantly sweeping a long curtain of black hair from his face, Jonny is the only member of Radiohead without a college degree; he left his studies in psychology and music at Oxford Polytechnic College when the group got its record deal in 1991. But he is arguably Radiohead's most gifted musician: a classically trained violist who also plays violin, cello and keyboards. Jonny also created the software program used to sample the instruments on The King of Limbs. "I was never happier," he says, "than when I was in my bedroom as a kid, working on rubbishy computer games.

"The brick walls we tended to hit," he adds, going back to the album, "were when we knew something was great, like 'Bloom,' but not finished. We knew the song was nearly something. Then Colin had that bass line, and Thom started singing. Those things suddenly made it a hundred times better. The other stuff was just waiting for the right thing."

"They are unlike any other band in the studio," says Godrich, who has worked on every album since OK Computer. "They could not record 'Bohemian Rhapsody,' because they don't have the attention span. If it's not happening straightaway, Thom gets confused. That's not his way."

Godrich cites one classic Radiohead song that was never finished in the studio, "True Love Waits," a popular concert ballad: "We tried to record it countless times, but it never worked. The irony is you have that shitty live version [on the 2001 mini-album, I Might Be Wrong]. To Thom's credit, he needs to feel a song has validation, that it has a reason to exist as a recording. We could do 'True Love Waits' and make it sound like John Mayer. Nobody wants to do that."

Radiohead did not support Limbs with an extensive tour last year for two reasons. One: "We thought it might not be playable," Jonny says. The other "was partly my fault," Yorke acknowledges. The album "released such a load of weird possibilities." He wanted to go right back into the studio, then decided against "carrying on in the same vein. We couldn't do that, we couldn't play live: 'Aw, shit, now what?'"

Deamer, 51, a veteran jazz and dance-music drummer who has also worked with Robert Plant, was the answer. "I've loved his drumming for ages," Selway says. "He seemed like the natural person to go to." In early 2011, the two started dissecting the new songs and deciding which of the many drum parts they could feasibly perform live. A year later, Selway is on the phone from Oxford after Radiohead's final day of tour rehearsals there: "Everything is wide open," the drummer declares in an ecstatic version of his soft, gentlemanly voice. "Seeing that dynamic between the six of us bearing fruit – we have started something. A lot of bands at this stage don't get that opportunity. Or they miss it when it's there."

But, Yorke says, "There is no way in hell we could have come up with what we're doing now, live, if we hadn't been sitting in front of turntables and samplers, piecing the record together in this method. There is no way it would have turned into this dynamic thing."

Asked which songs on The King of Limbs have changed most in performance, Yorke mentions "Lotus Flower." "With the two drummers it suddenly got nasty," he says. "I quite like it." And he agrees that "Give Up the Ghost" – a spare, repetitive ballad on the record – became something else at Roseland: a booming, circular prayer as Jonny sampled and manipulated Yorke's live vocal.

"You're sampling what the mic is taking from the room too," the singer explains. "It's getting the room back, again and again and again. What it's going to sound like in an arena. . ." Yorke's eyes go wide with delight. "I'd forgotten about that. It could be something."

On a cool midsummer evening in Oxford, Colin is strolling briskly to a pub in the old center of the city, noting historic sites along the way. He gestures at a narrow door leading into Modern Art Oxford, a prominent gallery. When they weren't playing together or in school, the young members of Radiohead hung out in the basement lounge, "talking forever, each of us over a single cup of coffee for five hours," Colin says.

Around the corner, he points to a store – part of Cult, a clothing chain – and notes with a bemused smile that Yorke worked in another local branch as a salesman. It is an improbable image: Yorke, a compact man of impatient energy and lethal irony, closing a deal on designer jeans.

Passing a phone booth, Colin remembers Radiohead's first, stumbling attempts to make records, before they got their EMI deal. "There was no e-mail or cellphones," the bassist says. "We'd find a call box, put money in it and call a studio." Once, when they asked how much a session cost, "the guy said, 'Nine hundred pounds.' We said, 'Thank you!' and hung up." Radiohead ultimately cut most of their first album, 1993's Pablo Honey, at a studio co-run by a producer who had worked with the Sixties-blues version of Fleetwood Mac.

Then there is the Bear Inn, a truly ancient pub (established 1242) with perilously low ceilings. Colin, an Oxford native, and Yorke – born in a small East Midlands town, Wellingborough, and raised for a time in Scotland – first met in their preteens. They were both taking classical-guitar lessons at Abingdon School, outside Oxford. At the Bear, the two managed to buy drinks even though they were underage and talked about their role models for the band they planned to form: New Order, Talking Heads and Yorke's favorite, R.E.M.

Over a pint of ale at a picnic table outside the Bear, Colin fondly recalls "that excitement of noise" at Radiohead's first local gigs, "when you play in a pub, borrowing some older guy's Fender bass cabinet and you've had four cans of lager to get your courage up. We did that for the first show we ever did. It was a 20-minute walk that way." He points down the street running behind the Bear, toward the Jericho Tavern. Radiohead made their concert debut there in 1986 under the name On a Friday, after their usual rehearsal day, when the members were all at Abingdon School. Selway, the oldest member, was 19; Jonny was not yet 15.

Later, standing outside a restaurant in a residential neighborhood, Colin notes another Radiohead shrine: the house near the corner of Magdalen Road and Ridgefield Road that Colin, Selway and O'Brien rented in the summer of 1991. The band stored its equipment there, and all five members lived there, in varying combinations, for about a year. "Good times," Colin says with a sigh, "although Jonny never did any of the washing up."

Selway characterizes that period as "good training for tour buses. There were piles of pizza boxes in the corner. It would get so unbearable that someone would have to do the cleaning. I was coming and going for most of the year. I seem to remember Colin moving into my room after I'd decorated it quite nicely."

Yorke arrived after he graduated from Exeter. "We would come back from gigs," he says, "and listen to the answering machine. There would be messages from 10 A&R men."

The Ridgefield Road house was the end of Radiohead's adolescence – the point at which they became a full-time band obsessed with their work and progression. Jonny describes one Christmas when he was still in high school and the others were home from college: "We rehearsed in some hall in town every day, including Christmas Eve. It was insane. There was no concept. We were working on songs for some nebulous future reason we had not clearly thought through.

"That's the kind of intense time we spend together," he says. "That's how it's always been. Our gang principally revolved around playing musical instruments, songs to talk about."

"I think that was when we wrote 'Creep,'" Yorke says when asked about that Christmas. "There are these periods when you get energized. You can't force yourself to hang out. But when we're working, when it's happening and it's all good, all that shit just occurs."

Yorke's aversion to the road surfaced early. So did his distaste for the play-the-game decorum expected of a major-label band. Manager Edge recounts "a famous gig" in Las Vegas "when we'd done some ridiculous routing because of the seeming lack of knowledge American promotion guys have of geography. We were doing a radio show, supporting Tears for Fears, and everyone was grumpy." During the show, "in a fit of pique," Yorke smashed half of the stage lights. Edge maintains that "the idea of him doing anything like that now is long gone."

But Yorke looks back on his not-much-younger self – particularly the tormented anti-star preserved in Meeting People Is Easy, the 1999 documentary of the OK Computer tour – without excuses. "I was bored," he states flatly, backstage in Miami, of his aggro-zombie aura in that film. "I loved that record. But the idea of being stuck with those songs for a year and a half, in the same form, no change, no nothing – I struggled with it. We'd finish a song, and I'd stand there, frozen.

"I understand now why we did all of those shows," Yorke confesses. "If we hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are. But I lost my nerve. We've been through different stages – that was a bad one."

"What's different about us," Jonny chimes in, "was that right from the beginning, our obsession was songs. As a byproduct, we tour now."

"It wasn't a bunch of mates" on Ridgefield Road, O'Brien observes, "more like a bunch of co-conspirators. We had this common goal. That's what it was all about, dreaming it up. All this stuff we have now – there was never any doubt it was going to happen. And it did, because the material world caught up.

"But I would say this – they are my brothers. Some of the others don't realize that. But we'll be at one another's funerals. We've been through this. We're family."

That is "a strength we don't really acknowledge to ourselves," Colin says. "We're far too English."

There is a physical side to it that I find interesting – the breath," Yorke says. He is trying to explain where he goes in his head and what he feels when he sings. "It's a meditative state, like standing in the tube station when the train is coming through. Things go past you – trains, people.

"It took me a few years to learn how to do it," he says of performing, during a breakfast interview in London last July. "Seeing people like Michael Stipe and Jeff Buckley – I realized it's a good place to go. It's OK to shut your eyes."

Later that day, Radiohead convene with Edge and Hufford to discuss touring in 2012. Afterward, O'Brien describes the meeting as "fraught." Yorke already sounds uneasy over his egg-white omelet: "The level of machinery freaks me out sometimes. You walk backstage, and there's people and stuff everywhere.

"We never wanted to be big," he says. "I don't want to be loved in that way. You can say it is selfish. You can also say this is someone who gets a kick out of what they do: trying to fuck with your head." Yorke enunciates the last phrase with relish.

"Because that's what it's all about," he continues, "casting the net wide, creating chaos and trusting something will come of it – not panicking, just going with the blind faith and all of these moving parts. This idea – where will the band be in five years? Fuck that. I'm just looking for little diamonds in the dust."

"Thom has the most acute bullshit detector in the band," O'Brien says, with awe, in Miami. "It's that balance – an intensely critical life, with an ability to feel, to have great intuition. We're not necessarily making the smartest business decisions. But we are following our intuition. It's about the art."

"This is a work in progress – that's the bit I like," Yorke confirms, just before that last practice. Then he says something else. "I was thinking, when I was on holiday recently – I've been doing this more than half my life." He pauses. "That's bonkers!" Yorke proclaims with an astonished laugh. "And it's cool. It's a job – and a good job.

"We actually need to get on a stage now and see where we're at," he declares, ready to play. "It's a large stage, and there will be a lot of people." There's more laughter. "But I've been told that's OK."

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