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trippinsorrows · 4 months ago

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with me + part twenty

authors note: this is more on the boring/filler side, and i apologize for that, but it covers some necessary things and hints at other things. plus, the one after this is wrestlemania and then after that is the infamous disney trip, and those def won't be boring/fillers. 👀

also, what do you ya'll think reader is having? i'm also open to name suggestions cause i hate naming characters lmao

status: in progress // masterlist

warnings: fluff, language, angst, and suggestive themes

song inspo: with me by destiny’s child

faceclaims

words: 6.6k

taglist: @pixiedust4000 @yolobloggers @wanderingreigns @southerngirl41 @msbigredmachine @romanreignsbae

Life is one crazy ass ride.

You’ve always known this, but the past few months have really shown you just how insane things can be. It’s been up, it’s been down, it’s been just a fucking rollercoaster of events and emotions, but somehow, things always seen to work out in your favor.

You expected, maybe more so hoped, that your Live with Jadah would go over well. Would help people see and understand that there’s so much more to the story, so much more to you than the lies that have been fed to them by your apparently psychotic ex-best friend. That was the semi-goal.

Well, to say that goal was met is a bit of an understatement.

The Live went viral, spreading and making it to most global and some international platforms. TMZ formally issued an apology to you, Joe, and Jadah, and retracted their story with Mariah, even scrubbing the interview, which Joe’s legal team believes is only to avoid getting caught up in the several lawsuits she’s been slapped with.

So many publications have turned the tide, no longer speaking on you and your situation with an almost judgmental stance but rather just reposting the Live and letting the facts speak for themselves.

And social media…..holy shit.

One thing you never expected was for the Live to go viral, but you especially never expected for yourself to also go viral in a different way, that is.

While the general public was initially against you, bashing you every which way to Sunday, it’s almost completely turned with the vast majority now utterly and wholly intrigued with you. They’ve dug up old headshots from when you cheered in college, clips of you either practicing or competing, and a few Snap videos you were in, again, all during your college years.

Not to mention the clips they took from the Live, primarily of you playfully twerking with Jadah. That clipped with the TikToks you did with Naomi has resulted in people making TikToks and “edits,” as Alexis explained, posting and sharing everywhere.

Apparently, the vast majority of social media finds you extremely attractive, and have even been comparing you to the infamous prison bae, Jeremy Meeks, from way back when. Minus the criminal aspects, of course.

“Look at this one! These are my favorite.” Alexis turns her phone so the group of you can see what is yet another edit of you, err, more so your ass than anything to good googly moogly by Project Pat, which apparently was already going viral on TikTok as people post videos of friends and loved ones with a nice ass. Seems you’ve been added to that group.

“I don’t get the fascination,” you admit with a shake of your hand, fingers tapping against your glass of lemonade. “Like, I’m not even famous.”

“You kinda are now,” Bianca suggests. It's a crazy suggestion, too, because in what world does someone like you, from a small ass town with virtually no major social media footprint, qualify as famous. “Not like, A-List celeb famous, but you don’t make it to the Shade Room if you’re not at least kinda famous.”

Alexis makes a sound, adding, “ya’ll whole lil situation made the March event on their calendar.”

“On their what?” Jadah is understandably confused, asking, “what the hell does that even mean?”

“Twin, I’m gonna need to make a PowerPoint for you or something.”

“Please do, and make sure to add the fancy transitions.”

“Custom slide backgrounds?”

“You know the key to my heart.”

The meeting and union of Jadah and Alexis remains to be seen as one of the worst or best things you could have ever done. They’re so damn similar it felt almost criminal to not introduce them, but with both having such strong personalities, a clash could be one of the titans. So far, however, they’re vibing just as well as you and Jadah have. Hence why all of these ladies are sitting around your coffee table, various drinks in hand, most alcoholic, except for yours of course.

Which reminds you…

“Oh shit,” you announce, four sets of eyes falling on you as you realize you haven’t shared the news with the majority of them, ironically, Jadah being the only one to know. “I haven’t had a chance to ask.”

You decide to be dramatic as hell, pausing as Alexis is the first to say, impatiently, “ask what, hoe?”

Another pause followed by an intentional rub of your belly as you nonchalantly ask, “which one of ya’ll wants to be in charge of planning the baby shower?”

You’re met with instant screams and squeals of enjoyment, a big smile falling on your face as you’re hit with all of the questions and exclamations.

“I knew it! I knew it was just a matter of time before BDJ struck again!”

“Y/N! Oh my goodness, congratulations!”

“No freaking way! That’s amazing!”

“I’m gonna act like I didn’t already know, so congratulations, great value sister wife!”

Alexis and Jadah’s statements make you laugh while Bianca and Kaylah’s cause your heart to swell. You then try to quiet them down, “thank you, guys. We’re excited. But, we haven’t told Callie yet, so please keep it to yourselves.”

“Of course.” Kaylah excitedly asks, “how far along are you?”

“Almost three months,” you answer, proudly. Although entirely unexpected, or maybe not depending on how you look at it, you’ve found your excitement at this pregnancy growing every single day. Excitement at having another child, giving Callie the chance to be a big sister, to give Joe the opportunity to experience this pregnancy with you from conception to birth and beyond. He deserves it, especially now that you know what he went through with Jadah.

“Wait. Damn. This means we can’t have a hot girl summer until next year!” Alexis is pouting as she downs the rest of her drink before reaching for the bottle to get a refill. “You couldn’t let that nigga shoot up the club later this fall instead.”

Kaylah’s nose turns up as she also takes a sip of her moscato but not before muttering, “didn’t need that visual.”

Rolling your eyes, you point out, “Alexis, we are too damn old to be having a hot girl summer. Half of us are moms and/or in relationships except your non-committal ass.”

Non-committal has nothing to do with the topic that floats to the front of your mind, but having a room full of women to consult with seems like a perfect opportunity to discuss something that’s still bothering you to some extent.

“Let me ask ya’ll something.” You take a sip of your sparkling apple cider and get to explaining. “So, every time I try to talk to Joe about planning for when the baby gets here, like having my mom or his mom come stay with us a bit to help out when he’s on the road, he either ignores me, changes the subject, or just pacifies me. And I’m trying really hard not to cuss him out, but between baby emotions and me being me, it’s hard.”

Being perceptive is always something you’ve prided yourself on, valued as one of your attributes, so it’s hard not to miss when Kaylah, Alexis, and even Jadah all look suddenly uncomfortable with your question, like they also want to change the subject.

Bianca is the first and only to speak out.

“Yeah, that’s kind of weird.” Her agreement is the quintessential example of validation you were needing for this situation. “I get you’re barely three months, but why not start with the plans now? The sooner the better since it seems like his schedule is pretty hectic.”

Throwing your hands up in the air, you echo her sentiments. “Exactly! And one thing to know about me, which I know he has to know about me is that I like to plan. I hate surprises. We need to start figuring out this shit now.”

“I’d definitely talk to him about it, cause men can be very go with the flow, but this isn’t one of those things that I think should be go with the flow.”

“I feel like you should maybe just wait it out and see where the cards fall.” Kaylah’s suggestion is casual, but her eye contact is sparse, and you actually don’t know what to make of that.

Jadah contributes to the conversation with agreement to Kaylah’s point. “I agree. Trust your man, whore.”

“But—” And as if present and overhearing said conversation, your phone starts to ring, the man himself filling up your lock screen. “Speaking of the devil…..” You lift and show your phone to the group. “I gotta take this ya’ll.”

“Well, duh.” Alexis says like it’s a no brainer. “BDJ probably won’t stop calling until you pick up anyway.”

Laughing, you untangle your legs and climb off the sofa at the same time you answer his FaceTime, quickly telling him, “hold on.”

“I’ll be back,” you inform, but the last thing you hear is Bianca making the awful mistake of asking Alexis what “BDJ” stands for. Alexis and Jadah start to laugh.

Obviously, Jadah also knows what’s up.

Locking the door behind you, you sit down on the patio set that was delivered only two days prior and situate your phone on the accompanying table. Legs crossed, you give him the go, “okay, i’m good now. Just wanted some privacy.”

He doesn’t hesitate to slide right into protective papa bear mode. “How you feeling?”

“Alright.” Your hand unintentionally lands on your stomach as you explain, “had some nausea this morning, but that’s not out of the norm. I had pretty bad morning sickness when I was pregnant with Callie the first few months.”

You can tell he’s not entirely satisfied with this answer, leaning more on the concerned and conservative side. “When’s your next checkup?”

“April 8th. I made sure to schedule it so you can be there.” Joe indicated he wanted the first Monday after WrestleMania to be a day of rest for you and Callie, and it can still be, but you also couldn’t miss the opportunity for him to be a part of your first official well-baby visit. Especially with this being the first time you’ll be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat.

That must especially be special for him.

“I promise I’m okay, Joe.” Out of respect for him and his emotional state at such an important time in his life, you haven’t told him everything Jadah shared with you. Haven’t made him aware of your knowledge regarding his loss. You’re not sure if you ever will, to be honest. If he wishes to discuss that with you, you’ll always be there to listen and support. But, there’s zero desire to dig up painful memories and trigger this man.

That doesn’t, however, mean you can’t reassure him when you can see there’s a level of anxiety and apprehension.

“If I wasn’t, you and Dr. Young would be the first to know.” It’s a promise. You would never do anything to risk unnecessary complications with this pregnancy. “How do you feel? You look tired.”

He’s looked as such for the past couple weeks, and you feel slightly bad, knowing the whole Mariah ordeal must have taken a toll on him. Not to mention his intense training and preparation for WrestleMania.

Of course, he just shrugs, playing it off. “I’m good.” You make a knowing sound. “What?”

“Seriously, Joe. This is me. I know you like the back of my hand. You’re exhausted. It’s okay to admit as such.”

“I’m fine, Y/N. I promise.”

Joe is every bit stubborn as he is caring. He won’t agree with you, but that doesn’t make what you’re saying any less true.

“Whatever, just know I’m giving you a well deserved massage when we come to see you next week.” Coyly, you imply with a shrug of your shoulder. “And maybe a lil’ more depending on the layout of your place and if we can get some privacy from your lil’ twin.”

“Naw, that lil more is happening no matter what, even if I have to fuck you in the rental.”

His tone of surety makes you laugh as you think about something. “I don’t think we’ve ever fucked in a car before.” The list of places this man has been balls deep in you is endless, but a vehicle and plane seem to have not made the list. Yet. “Might have to change that.”

He also laughs. “Wherever you want it, baby, you just gotta tell me when and how.” Just more and more reasons to love this man to infinity and beyond. He matches your freak so well.

Joe asks about Callie, of course, and you let him know she’s in seven heaven playing with her cousin in her new room that’s gradually filling up even though she still doesn’t even have all of her stuff from back in your apartment. It also goes without saying that you remind him she’s absolutely thrilled to see him soon, the same as you, which is the same as him. Reunions between the three of you are just all around enjoyable.

Naturally, Joe apologizes, for no good reason, at not being able to come with you as you take Callie back to your hometown for your final apartment walkthrough and to close all other matters, officially making your move to Florida complete. It’s a bit of a bittersweet thing, leaving the place you grew up and have so many memories in. However, what’s ahead of you is so much better than what’s behind you.

And while you would love Joe to be able to come too, it’s also not necessary.

Especially when he finds out what else is on your agenda before you say goodbye for good.

Realizing your time with him could be cut at any moment, you decide it’s now or never to break the news to him. “There’s something I need to tell you, and I know right off the bat, you’re not going to be in agreement, but I need you to just hear me out.”

He’s hesitant and already skeptical but nods. “I’m listening.”

A deep breath followed by a quick prayer to the big man that Joe will at least try to be open to this plan. “I’m gonna go see my dad while I’m there.”

This is something you’ve really been thinking about, on and off, since the Christmas ordeal. It just hasn’t been such a major priority given all the other fires you’ve been having to put out. Alexis was right when she said the dynamic with your dad has a lot to do with the situation with Joe and not telling him about Callie.

And you being able to acknowledge that has made you realize you’ve been holding onto a lot of pain and anger towards that man. More pain than anything. And it’s time to let it go. The same way you’re leaving that town for good, albeit bittersweet, you need to drop the baggage of hurt at the door before the curtain closes permanently.

In this case, that means sitting in front of the man who is your biological father and nothing more, speaking your peace, and closing that chapter.

For good.

To some extent, you expected, maybe more so hoped, for Joe to be more receptive.

It was wishful thinking, at best.

Immediately, he protests, face turned up in a scowl that reminds you of Callie when she’s in one of her moods. “Like hell you—”

Closing your eyes, you do your best to keep your voice leveled. “Hear me out, please.”

“Y/N, do you not remember the last time you saw that man?” Most definitely do you remember. That was definitely a low moment for you. “You were a fucking wreck. I’m not seeing you go through that again, especially with you being pregnant.”

“Do you really think if I had even an inkling it wouldn’t be safe for our baby I’d be doing it? Come on, Joe. You know me. I would never put either of our children in harm's way.” And you know he knows this, knows this very well, but you can also understand his anxiety from a couple different angles. “Before when I saw him, I was still looking for his love and approval. I can admit that now.” It’s been a tough pill to swallow, going back and forth between emotion and logic, coming to grips with such an uncomfortable truth. “I don’t need that anymore. I don’t even want it. I have you. I have Callie. My mom. Our friends. Even this new baby, but if I’m leaving that town for good, I need to leave all of the hurt it brought me there too. That includes making my peace with him.”

When he still doesn't say anything, you continue to plead your case.

“I need to do this, Joe. I’m not asking you to understand.” You’re not quite sure he could. This is one of those things that unless you’ve lived it, lived with a neglectful, uninvolved parent, you just couldn’t get it. “I’m just asking you to trust me.”

He’s quiet for a few minutes, and you already know it’s because he’s sitting on your words, doing his best to meet you where you are. Eventually, he says in a resigned voice, “I don’t want you going alone.”

There’s an immense amount of gratitude for his blessing, and his request is more than fair. You also figured as such, assuring him, “I already talked with Bianca about it. She’s gonna go with me.”

This seems to make him feel at least a little bit better. He scratches his beard. “Alright. But the minute you start feeling off—”

“I’ll cut it off. I know.” That goes without saying. You meant what you said. Nothing could make you put your baby at risk. “Thank you, Joe.”

Not wanting this to be the last topic you discuss, you switch gears a bit to something that will hopefully lessen his unease. “I also think we should tell Callie when we come to see you next week. I just told the girls today, and I’m gonna tell my mom while I’m there. Callie deserves to know.” The order of which you’ve told people about your pregnancy isn’t exactly how you would have preferred it to go. In a perfect world, it would have been Joe, Calllie, your mom, and then your close friends. But, life be lifing, so you just have to roll with it as best you can.

Joe nods. “I agree.” You overhear a distant voice in the background before his gaze falls on you. “I gotta go, babe.”

It’s hard not to feel disappointed. “I get it.” This pregnancy has your emotions a bit on the high, sensitive end, because there’s no reason for you to feel like crying just because this man has to get back to work. You miss him like crazy, sure, but this has always been a bit of the dynamic. You get him in doses, sometimes big, sometimes small. “Can we still call you tonight? You know Callie can’t sleep unless she can tell both of us goodnight.”

It’s such a twist, a beautiful, unexpected thing. Once upon a time, it was just you she needed to see and/or speak to before she could fall asleep. But now, it’s both you and Joe, and you honestly couldn't love that more.

Their relationship and bond is so precious to you.

And now that you understand what Joe’s been through, you can see why he’s always willing to move heaven and earth for her. She’s the little girl he’s always wanted and finally has.

“Of course.” You weren’t expecting any other answer. “I love you.”

A warm smile sets on your face. “I love you too, baby.”

You settle on a time that works best for him and end the call. Ignoring the sadness at not being able to talk to him further, you walk back in the house for a sure pick-me-up.

“Well, it’s about time,” Bianca teases, dimples nice and pronounced. “Thought we were gonna have to check on ya’ll.”

“No, she’s back too early….” Alexis, as per usual, confuses you when she asks, “ya’ll weren’t having phone sex?” She curses and then grabs her purse, digging out her wallet, slapping a wad of cash into Jadah’s expecting hand.

“Told you,” Jadah says knowingly, smirk on her pretty face as she counts the cash. “One thing I do know about Joe is he’s an all out type of man. It’s rounds or nothing.” She then looks over at you, apologizing, “hope that doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”

“It doesn’t.” It’s an honest answer. You’re old, mature, and secure enough to acknowledge and be okay with the fact your man has been with her in almost every way he’s probably been with you. Outside of the emotional connection component, which is really what matters the most to you. Sex would just be sex if you didn’t love him as much as you do. If he didn’t love you as much as he does. That’s what makes it so explosive.

“Well, it bothers me!” Kaylah looks so disgusted, and you can’t blame her. “Joe is literally like my brother!”

Bianca cosigns with a shake of her head. “And it bothers me because Y/N literally is my sister.”

“That’s so wild, so ya’ll are half sisters, right?” Jadah asks, pointing between the two of you as you move back onto the sofa. “Same mom or…..”

“No, same dad, but we don’t claim him.”

Jadah makes an ‘O’ with her mouth as Alexis leans over to whisper something in her ear. “Got it. Daddy issues. Ya’ll should just jump him then.”

“That’s what I said! Stomp his ole’ mean ass.”

Yeah…..putting Alexis and Jadah together may have created a new kind of threat to society.

“Anyway.” Refocusing them is really the best and only option. “As we were discussing, ya’ll think I should bring it up to Joe when we fly there next week?” You then remember the pact mentality and aim your question toward Bianca. “Let me just ask you, cause you seem to be the only one who gets where I’m coming from.”

At that, Bianca opens and closes her mouth. “Oh. That. I…..I think you should just leave it alone. I’m sure Joe has his reasons.”

Now it’s your turn to look shocked. “What? That’s not what you said literally not even 10 minutes ago.”

Bianca switching up on you definitely wasn’t in the cards, especially since she was providing you all the affirmation and validation you were seeking in your dilemma.

She looks off, almost in a guilty, sheepish way. “I changed my mind….”

“What did ya’ll say to her?” It’s directed toward Alexis and and even Jadah, because Kaylah doesn’t seem like the type to try to sway people one way or the other. “Can’t leave ya’ll asses alone for two minutes.”

“I don’t like your tone, Mama Mia. Watch it.” Alexis warns, and you can only roll your eyes. “What you need to be focused on is what you’re gonna wear to the Hall of Fame and WrestleMania.”

Kaylah gasps, also remembering. “Shit, I completely forgot about that.”

Your eyes land on her with premature excitement. “You’re going to the awards too?” She nods and you let out a big sigh of relief. “Oh thank god, I was kinda nervous. I’m sure Trinity is going too, but the more the merrier, I feel like I’m gonna be so out of place there or everyone’s going to hate me.”

“Girl, like Joe is going to let that happen.” Jadah is, surprisingly, the first one to jump to calm your nerves. “Him taking you in and of itself is such a ‘fuck you’ move. He really said ya’ll not about to bully the woman I love and think I’m finna just keep her on the backburner.”

“I agree.” Kaylah chimes, providing additional and useful context. “The internet wrestling community is a cesspool, and they’ll always find some reason to complain and bitch, but Joe has never been about that. He’s gonna have you on his arm regardless of who has something to say about it.”

“Ummmm, why are we acting like majority of the internet isn’t all on Y/N’s dick now that ya’ll cleared up the air?” Alexis lifts her phone, adding, “I literally can’t get on TikTok or Twitter without seeing edits and photos of Y/N that the internet has dug up. They can’t get enough of her.”

“Her ass, specifically,” Jadah adds, and you shake your head.

“I think what they’re trying to say is that maybe you should redirect your focus on fashion and hair choices vs public perception, because it seems to be in your favor currently.” Bianca’s advice is wise and on time. It also is very much giving off teacher vibes, just another thing you two can connect on.

You’re really happy you asked her to come visit you.

That you gave her a chance.

It’s proving to be a really good decision.

“Well, I’m gonna have my mom do my silk press while I’m there, so there’s that.” Typically, you avoid heat like the plague, sucking up the pain in the ass wash days to keep your curls hydrated and thriving. However, you’re okay with every now and then sitting in that damn chair for what feels like, and is, hours for these special occasions. And attending the Hall of Fame awards as well as WrestleMania definitely constitutes a special moment. “As far as fashion…..I have no idea. I don’t really have a lot of fancy clothes, and the ones I do have are before Callie and even now with the weight I’ve gained from this pregnancy already, I don’t know if I can still wear them.”

“Well then it’s obvious what we need to do.” Alexis says with a ‘duh’ tone. “We need to go find you some dresses! Like, today.”

“I probably do need to pick up something too.” Kaylah says with a heavy sigh. “I think Josh said something about wearing red.”

“Of course you have to wear red. That’s Bloodline colors.”

You chuckle at Bianca’s enthusiasm. It’s kinda cool that she’s also into wrestling. You’re so tempted to ask Joe if he can get tickets for her, Darius, and Taylor, but you also don’t want to do too much. It already means a lot to you that he got tickets for your mom and Alexis.

“I hate to pull the girls from their playing. They must be having a blast considering not one has come down in like over an hour.” It’s true. Not to mention you can also occasionally hear the chorus of giggles and shouting indicating just how great a time they’re having.

“I can watch them for ya’ll.”Jadah’s suggestion causes all sets of eyes to land on her. She rolls her eyes. “You all go get the shopping done, and I’ll stay here with the kids.”

“Jadah, you don’t have to—”

“I don’t mind. I’m not really that big on shopping anyway.” Finally. A difference between her and Alexis. “Plus, I have some client stuff I can get caught up with.”

You’re still reluctant, offering her another out. “If you’re sure….”

“Y/N, I would hope by now you’ve figured out I’m too blunt to lie. I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t want to.” Jadah shrugs, directing her next statement to Kaylah and Bianca. “If you’re also good with it too, of course.”

Bianca and Kaylah echo agreement with you, hence it being decided.

With a chuckle, you announce, “I guess we’re going shopping.”

———-

Things have been hard since you first landed back in your hometown.

Saying goodbye to your students was hard.

Saying goodbye to friends in town has been hard.

Bidding farewell to the apartment you first brought your sweet little girl home to after she was born was very hard.

Visiting your grandma’s grave one last time for who knows how long…..that’ll be brutal.

But this….confronting your father for the last time…

To say you’re a bit on the anxious side is putting it nicely.

This was always going to be on the nerve inducing side for a variety of good and valid reasons. It’s just getting to the moment where it happens, where you sit in the parking lot of the restaurant he agreed to meet “you” at is just bringing out some indecision you’re certain comes from a place of anxiety.

Finally stepping out of the car, you and Bianca reach the door of the restaurant when she turns to you, mouth turned into a bit of a frown as she reminds, “you sure you want to do this?”

“It’s not about what I want to do. It’s about what I need to do, Bianca.” It’s the truth. This isn’t something you’ve been dying to have happen your entire life, but for the sake of your healing, it’s what needs to happen. “But, if you feel uncomfortable, I totally get—”

“Not at all.” She reaches for your hand. “You’ve got this.”

A deep breath followed by a head nod as you accept her hand. She gives you a little squeeze and opens the door, leading the way figuratively and literally. As expected, he’s already there and waiting, sitting near the back of the restaurant. You’re not surprised a man like him is right on time. He seems like the punctual bastard type.

And Bianca has reiterated as such before.

Together, you walk hand in hand towards him. Your eyes never leave him, watching as he lights up with a genuine smile at seeing Bianca, but that smile almost instantly drops when he sets his gaze on you.

Expected.

Wholly expected.

Immediately, his nose is turned up in visible disgust, primarily directed toward you. “Bianca, what is the meaning of this?”

“What?” Her voice is full of nonchalance as is the expression on her face. “I told you your daughter wanted to speak with you.”

He just didn’t know which daughter.

There’s no denying or misunderstanding his anger at the subterfuge. He shoots up from the table. “I’m not putting up with—”

Bianca is quick with it, assertively informing him, “if you want even a chance of seeing Taylor again, you’re gonna sit right back down and hear her out.” It means the world to you that not only has Bianca agreed to be here with you today, but it’s the fact that she’s willing to be so loyal to you.

Like a sister.

Because she is your sister.

He scoffs almost immediately. “Using my grandchild to blackmail me? That’s low, Bianca. Your mother and I raised you better than that.”

She crosses her arms and matches his energy. “You are the last person that needs to be talking about raising anyone.” She then looks at you, placing a comforting hand on your arm. “I’ll be right over there if you need me, okay?”

Nodding, she gives you one last supportive squeeze and ignores her father to walk over and slide into a booth across the room.

Left alone, you watch him begrudgingly sit down so he’s across from you, same set of brown eyes locking. It kills you how much of yourself you can see in him, starting with the same set of eyes. You just have to remind yourself that that’s where the similarities end.

“This won’t take long, which I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear.” He doesn’t agree nor disagree, not that it makes much of a difference to you. At all. “I’m moving from this town. Tomorrow’s the day I hand over my keys, and I’ll officially be living in Florida full time. Not that you care, because we both know you never have and never will give a flying fuck about me.”

“Is there a point to this?” The edge in his voice, maybe even a couple months ago, might have killed you. Stolen your joy. Now, it does nothing. He no longer has that power over you, because you’ve taken that power back.

And it feels so damn good.

“I did it, you know.” Without giving him a chance, if he even would, to respond, you continue. “I made something of myself. I’m successful. I have a career. I found love all without you ever doing a goddamn thing for me.”

For a second, you swear you see a different emotion flash in his familiar irises, but it’s gone almost instantly, replaced with that permanent disdain you refuse to allow sway you from your goal.

“I have a man who loves me in every single healthy way that exists, who loves our daughter more than there are words in all the languages put together.” Emotion chokes you up, but you manage to stick with the mental points you made for this conversation. “And you wanna know something? We conceived her when he was still married.”

Leaning forward as you lower your voice, both for privacy and emotionality. “But, I didn’t tell him. I deprived him and our little girl for the first almost five years of her life because I was so scared that he was going to be like you, that he was going to reject her and hurt her the way you hurt me.”

It’s a bit painful for you to verbalize those words, but also so damn liberating to free them from the confines of your subconscious.

To also release those shackles they had on you.

“But, I was so so so wrong, because he is the best damn dad she could have asked for, and he was angry with me for not telling him about her. He wanted to be in her life. He wanted her. And it’s through that I finally realized something.”

Your voice cracks as you finally release your truth and acknowledge freedom from over 30 years of emotional bondage.

“I’ve finally realized after all these years that it’s not that I’m not good enough for you.” You shake your head, pointing at him with all the intention and determination you can muster up. “You’re not good enough for me. Not good enough to be my dad. Definitely not good enough to be a grandfather to my kids. Not good enough to be in my life.” There isn’t an ounce of hesitation or a stutter in your voice. “It’s not that I don’t deserve to be in your life. You don’t deserve to be in mine. You never did, and you never will.”

And never again will you seek out that love and validation from him. You don’t need it.

You never did.

“I actually feel sorry for you, because I am an amazing, strong black woman who was raised by an even more amazing, strong black woman who was also raised by a phenomenal black woman. And my daughter….” Just thinking about Callie, her warm smile and the great big hug she gave you, before you and Bianca left her and Taylor with your mom, makes you all choked up again. “—is the kindest, sweetest, smartest kid you could ever meet. But as long as there is breath in my body, you will not know her or any other kids I bring into this world.”

That’s a promise, an oath, a swear on everything that you love and hold dear.

“After today, you are dead to me, and I truly hope you one day see all that you missed out on, but I’m not going to wait around for that. I’m going to spend the rest of my life surrounded with love and family because that’s what I deserve.” Grabbing your purse and sliding out the booth, you make eye contact with Bianca who starts to head over. “Take care, Captain Wilson.”

As soon as she’s at your side, he shoots up from the booth. “Bianca, if you leave with that girl—”

“That woman,” Bianca corrects with all the sharpness. “You mean my sister?”

His lips turn up with a hateful snarl. “This hoodrat trash is not your sister.”

You actually laugh at his words, laugh at the fact that he’s truly so pathetic and a piece of shit he couldn’t even take any of what you just said to heart. It also makes you wonder if he’s aware of all the shit that’s been happening online regarding you. Not that it makes a difference.

It’s just something else he would try to use to justify not being in your life.

Like a coward.

“No.” She lifts her chin, taking your hand. “She is my sister, but you?” Bianca shakes her head, and you can hear the emotion catch in her voice. “You’re not my father. You’re the trash.”

If he offers a visible response to her harsh words, you’ll never know because Bianca tugs on your hand, directing the both of you to turn around as she marches you out the restaurant. Once out of the vicinity, she spins you around and brings you in for a big, loving hug.

“I’m so damn proud of you.” Eyes closing, you accept and lean into her embrace. You’re also insanely proud of you. “You said what you had to say. The ball is in his court now.”

“I highly doubt he’s gonna do anything with it.” Separating, you again thank her. “I really appreciate you being here with me today. I’m not sure Joe would have been okay with me doing this, if you weren’t here.”

She smirks, head tilted to the side. “Nowhere else I’d rather be, hun.”

It’s the truth. Along with the fact that you’re not even sure you would and even could have gone through with this if not for her assistance and support. It’s crazy how the people you’ve met in recent months have become such important figures in your life and the people you thought were important are now strangers.

Life….always a wild ride, for sure.

“And speaking of Joe….” She’s understandably confused as you casually throw out, “guess who’s going to WrestleMania with her little sister?”

Bianca’s eyes are as wide as saucers. “Seriously?” Laughing, you nod. “Oh my god—” She captures you in another big hug, the two of you nearly hopping like damn teenagers. “Wait, just me or—”

“Of course not. Taylor and Darius too. I feel like he might divorce your ass if you tried to go without him.”

“You’re not entirely wrong.” Her laughter lessens as she looks at you with admiration and appreciation. “You really didn’t have to do that, Y/N.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal.” And it wasn’t. After biting the bullet and pushing aside unnecessary anxiety, you just shot Joe a text asking if there was any way Bianca and her family could attend Mania. His response was an almost instant yes. “Besides….we’re sisters.” Your eyes begin to water as you give a one shoulder shrug. “We look out for each other.”

Her smile matches the emotionality of this moment. “You’re damn right we do.” Sniffling, she wipes her eyes and then gasps. “Shit, now I need to find a dress. Does this town have any stores where I could maybe find something?”

Her question is so laughable. “Not really, sis. Let’s just wait till we fly home. I’m sure we could find you something there. Maybe the boutique where I got my dresses."

Home…..

You’re not sure if you’ve referred to Florida as home prior to this moment, but it feels so good, so right. Like it’s where you’re supposed to be. Where you were always supposed to be.

Home with your daughter, with your man, with the baby growing inside you.

With your family.

#roman reigns x black!reader #roman reigns x black!oc #roman reigns fic #roman reigns #arisnotebook

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scruffyssketchbook · 5 months ago

Note

I remember having this idea for an SSEC AU where Harmony owns a cafe, and all the main characters work there (even Eve, who's older in the AU.)

My ideas so far:

Harmony: The owner of the cafe alongside Rick (who retired.) She often works at the cafe's bar with Dusk as a bartender and counts profits at the end of the day. She's responsible for like 90% of the cafe (Dean is responsible for 10% of it.) Also, at her station at the bar, she keeps a shotgun under the counter in case someone tries to perform an armed robbery at the cafe (IT'S FOR SELF DEFENSE, DON'T WORRY!)

Dean: The manager of the cafe. He also makes sandwiches there (he LOVES sandwiches, almost to the point of obsession. Or maybe he's not obsessed. *totally not lying here* <_<;)

Vay: While he doesn't look different than his canon counterpart (because it's difficult to imagine Vay as a normal Vaporeon, and because I like his design,) he's friendlier/more pleasant and gets along with Blizz and Eve better than in canon. He cooks and serves most of the food/baked goods.

Blizz: He takes orders and is a janitor! He enjoys it. =D He used to cook back when the cafe was a diner, but... well, let's just say Harmony shouldn't have left him with an air fryer.

Dusk: He's a bartender! He loves his job! He often likes to show off his bartending skills! For some reason, it never impresses Bart, one of the cafe's regulars. Wonder why...

Dawn: She makes cappuccinos! She loves making little elaborate cappuccino art! =3 She gets a little sad when customers just stir it and ruin the art, though.

Daisy: She also makes cappuccinos and coffee, mainly because she's too anxious/awkward to be a waitress (social anxiety, am I right? Bolt has the same thing.)

Bolt: Because he has social anxiety, Bolt is a cook, and also a janitor like Blizz. He used to be a waiter until he had a bad experience with a pretty nasty customer, which is kind of why he has social anxiety in the first place. Poor guy, he was so close to being a manager at that time, too. Bolt works the hardest out of everyone and is so much of a workaholic that he even stays after closing to clean the ENTIRE building...someone get this guy a hobby.

Flame: The laziest out of everyone. He used to be a cook, but after an "incident," he was demoted to a dishwasher/busboy and given tenure. This will never be explained at all, I'm leaving you guys to imagine how tf he managed to get tenure.

Eve: Due to being around 15 in this AU, Eve sometimes shows up to help. She works part-time at the cafe, helping with small things like giving food orders to customers or cleaning tables.

Miku: I actually will admit that I didn't know what to do for Miku for this AU besides letting her be a barista. So I guess she's a barista.

It’s funny Blizz is the janitor cause in canon, he’s the best cook in the cast and he gets SERIOUS when it comes to his job.

I can def see Dusk as a bartender, that job is super Dusk coded. He’d def love mixing drinks and entertaining people. =w= Dusk being actually happy sounds so nice.

Flame being demoted sounds like him 100%. >.>;;; I bet he barely does any dishes and leaves it to Bolt.

Speaking of Bolt, if he is a janitor too, who out of all of them is a waiter/waitress? I assume it’s Vay but him cooking and being a waiter/server by himself sounds like a lot.

It’s very interesting that all the girls (except Eve) mainly deal with coffee stuff. I cant see Dawn do delicate coffee art, I feel like Daisy would be the one who’s sad that Pokémon ruin her art, but I can see Dawn as a bouncer/ Security guard.

Very interesting AU idea!!!! Cafe vibes lmao

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horizon-verizon · 2 years ago

Note

Martell’s stans pretending that they’re representatives of Global South in ASOIAF where instead they’re a region who’s constantly in clash with their neighbours cause they can’t stop looting and raiding the Stormlands and the Reach.

*EDITED* (11/5/23)

I haven't come across a Martell stan yet, in all my 7-month life here on Tumblr. But I already wrote a post on why the Martells aren't exactly PoCs (because race, as Americans and modern peoples know the thing, doesn't exist in this fictional universe) so much as "Others" are seen as ethnically different but not enough for there to be concern over "miscegenation" or "dirtying the blood" or losing actual social privileges the Martells still had like other "white", nonDornish nobles.

Ethnicity doesn't equal race, and "people of color" denotes "non-white" people, and "white"/"PoC" are racial terms.

Nationality also does not equal race, nor does it equal ethnicity, though in some racial hierarchies it def gives whatever racial meaning of black/poc the society in question has. "Race"--as in just the practical applications of their real modern realities and economic and social structures as a result--is not accurate or a paltry thing the further you go back in time. There were definitely racializations, racial & ethnic biases, and ethnic & racial tensions/violence, but religion and/or language more often defined a person's belonging and identity within a different hegemony until maybe the late 14th to 15th centuries.

The Rhoynish would definitely be considered PoC in our modern American & British racial categorization; in the world itself, yes they were a "foreign" and literally foreign people and a different ethnicity from First Men and Andal.

However, ONE -- Dorne is not progressive in terms of class, not at all, and TWO -- these two are both Essosi in origin while several of their original cultural aspects [the Faith, the symbols, chivalry, court culture, oaths, the kin slaying taboo, the importance placed on swords, guest rights, etc.] still exist in the main events of ASoIaF right now. These didn't change or get lost upon their arrival to the Westerosi continent.

Dorne, by virtue of the fact that their succession customs are equal gender, will inevitably be Othered and thus they have that sense of "not white-ness" but this doesn't really pin them down as "PoC" bc the emphasis of why the Dornish are Othered is much more about there being less misogyny than religion, region, etc. and the Martells still independently/non-coercively share Andal cultural aspects then they do Rhoynish. Because, how can the whites (nonDornishmen) racialize a region based on skin color or principles of "purity" seen through the outside (as this has been used to create current racial categories) with people with different skin colors?

The First Men are not Andals, the Andals and FM fought several times in past history, come from different regions of Essos, have different religions and both typically have paler skin. Both have misogynist practices and are more stringent about male primogeniture and able-bodiedness mattering to leadership.

The "salty" Martells and other Dornish--even those who are "sandy" or "stony" as Daeron I categorized them--are more analogues of both Welsh vs. the Anglo-Saxons or Normans (all "racially white" ) because of their constant wars with Reach people and Stormlanders. AND Spaniards (European people, so racially white) because Spain has a history of Moor, Hebrew/Jew, and pre-Moor Spaniards having intermarriages and other types of exchange or interaction LONG before King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jewish and Muslim peoples. Even then, she and her King husband were not at first the rulers of all of "Spain", but of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile freshly uniting these to develop and become what we know as "Spain". Like how England used to be Kent, East Anglia, Essex, Mercia, Northumbria, Sussex, Wessex, the Welsh peoples (a Celtic people) before the Normans arrived (Northmen/Scandinavian/Swedish/Danish/Viking originated) and conquered the English islands.

Once again, do we consider Spain a "white" country, or not?

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf asks to me #asoiaf ethnicities #dorne's history #dorne's ethnicity #dorne #the martells #Daeron i #fiction vs reality #european history

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monamipencil · 4 months ago

Text

yet another long reblog. (spoilers below!!)

first of all, the banner looks so good and cute?? and he looks so handsome. forget black panther, horanghae forever.

and?? this is so cute and sweet? anna, you ate this and left no crumbs.

— plot; the plot is so damn cute and fluffy and warm and just feels like a long hug after a hectic day. this will get me cancelled but this is the first long fic that i read for soonyoung. and i'm so glad that this is my first one. the romance did not feel rushed or forced but it was so natural and just so lovely. them having feelings for each other from the first is just so adorable. your honor, i love this story.

— oc; as much as i love badass female characters, i love the quiet and cute ones too! and istg, i started simping for miss oc after reading her description. move over soonyoung, my turn. and she's so sweet and lovely? as a fellow type-a, i understand her so much. and her pining for him was so adorable, like girl already had a heartbreak before even developing serious feelings for him. and the way she matches his energy at the last?!?!? ughh, so well-crafted.

— soonyoung; this guy, lmao. classic ball of sunshine who falls for shy, quiet girls. pouring hot espresso into a plastic cup, standing up (read: almost fist fighting) for her, losing his shit over a tiny spider, being convinced that they're soulmates and informing that they're locked in for life ?!?! aasdfghjkl pleaseeee. and him introducing himself as 'hoshi' 😭😭😭 i wonder what her reaction was when he explained the meaning. i love this guy.

— seokmin; OH I LOVED HIS CHAR. he's so cute and adorable. and wym he's TEN-YEARS OLDER??? him being so invested in her lil crush had me cackling. why is he like this?? "surrogate dad looking for tea," lmfaooo. my daddy issues peaked whenever he appeared. *cough cough* anywhooo

— the friend group; BOO SEUNGKWAN, lmao. he was so sus and dramatic. i'm sure they all teased the shit out of him and he wasn't even able to look at her without breaking into a big-ass blush the next day. and yes, if it wasn't obvious from my ramblings below, I LOVE LEE CHAN. begging for almond croissants?? (i will not forgive soonyoung for jumping to be mad at him without even hearing her. my boy deserves better 😔😔) and ofc, social butterfly mingyu making friends so smoothly and making them feel comfy.

incase, it isn't obvious. i love this story with my entire being and it was fluffy and adorable. i will def re-read this on bad days, i just know that. and i annotated some of my fav moments below!!

“I’m your only employee!” you shout back while he can still hear you.

pls, i already love their dynamics

Plus if he wanted to fund both his dance trip and tiger collection, it was either he get a job near his school or he would have to resort to selling feet pics online. But getting a job at the cafe seemed like the safer and more logical option.

Soonyoung, pls. I love this guy.

“Everything went well though, right?” he asks you, trailing behind you like a lost puppy.

Fav seokmin moment part 2

His soft eyes had your heart palpitating, you never took him for the type of person to defend you from mean customers. If you weren’t fully attracted to him before, now you are. There was something about the way his demeanour had changed while trying to protect you that made you look at him in a different light.

Noo, cause why did this make me blush???? Full-on anime girl giggling and shit 😭

Soonyoung chuckles while shaking his head, giving you that same smile he did on the first day. The one that made his eyes look like a cute emoticon, and his cheeks puffy as if he were a hamster.

I’m just a girl. I see a cute guy, i lose my shit.

A giggle escapes your lips as you watch how desperate Chan is for a free croissant, you’ve never seen someone so passionate over bread before.

chan pls, im here for soonyoung. and give him his bread pls. (i can imagine his boba eyes going all big and wide. chan is so- *gets dragged back to my enclosure* )

Soonyoung offered to walk you home and you refused but he insisted that he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly if you walked alone at this hour.

He’s soo sweett, pls. where do i find a soonyoung in real life? someone drop the amazon link.

you sigh, admitting your feelings so that your boss, nearly ten years older than you, would stop prancing around like a lunatic for all the passersby to see.

Fav seokmin moment pt 3

Leave it up to Seokmin to disregard professionalism in the workplace. If anything he was more like your surrogate dad that liked to be filled in on the latest drama.

i laughed like a lunatic at this. your phrasing pls-😭😭

His eyes widen as his gaze sets upon you before sending you a flirtatious wink. He goes back to facing the centre of the crowd, your whole body enveloped in heat.

gahh, lola giggling like a maniac pt 23456

“I like you, I know we didn’t meet that long ago, but every time I see you I get so happy, and I love how all my friends like you, and you’re just so beautiful, I can’t keep it to myself anymore, but if you don’t feel the same–,” He blurts out, redness crawling up from his neck to his cheeks once again.

oh- the classic confession speed train. Why is he sooo cute??

you pull him into a hug, which is not something normal for you, but Soonyoung is the exception. You can’t help but want to hold him in your arms, your own personal ball of sunshine that has been crafted specifically for you.

ASDFGHJKLKJHGFDSASDCFGHJK. me too, oc, me too

“Fucking Chan,” he curses at his best friend, “what did he say exactly?”

LMFAO BRO CALM DOWN. not him jumping at his bsf so fast-

“THAT WAS YOU?” He practically jumps out of his seat, hands now placed on your shoulder, inspecting every corner of your face, “now that I think of it, your glasses do look familiar.”

“Oh my god, we’re meant to be,” he mutters to himself, his hand covering his mouth in shock.

“I hope you know we’re locked in for life now,” he stares at you earnestly, taking both your hands in his and you look at him quizzically, “Sorry baby, but we can’t disappoint the universe after all the hard work they put into our love story.”

he’s so dumbie and cute. *chokes and dies*

“I want to be your boyfriend, like really really bad, but only if you’ll let me,” he declares, eyes piercing into your soul with all seriousness.

“I want to be your girlfriend, like really really bad,” you echo his words.

This is so cute and im so lonely. pls, i love how she’s matching his energy. THEY’RE SO CUTE, GAHHHHHHH

His hands move lower on your body, your skirt hiking up your thighs as he grips at your flesh. Your skin is so soft, and he can’t get over how sweet your lips taste. Soonyoung knows if he were to miraculously die now, he would die a very happy man.

Just the first kiss and they’re already so horny.

Out of all the people you could fall for, you’re happy it was your clumsy coworker with an oddly large tiger collection. You’re thankful for the fact that out of all the people, he was the one to help you on that rainy day. Even when it’s gloomy outside and the clouds cover every inch of the sun’s rays, Soonyoung still glows under the grey sky. Rain or shine, you want him no matter how good or bad the weather is.

you finished the story so perfectly. pls, i love love love this SO MUCH.

Rain or Shine Cafe

Ⱄ pairing: kwon soonyoung x f!reader Ⱄ wordcount: 10.5k Ⱄ genre: fluff, cafe coworkers au, suggestive

Ⱄ reblogs, likes and comments are always appreciated ♡! tumblr is based on reblogs not likes, and they help writers like me to get better reach. thank you!

Ⱄ summary: with no umbrella in hand on a rainy day, you felt like your life couldn’t get any worse. losing your glasses while it’s pouring cats and dogs, well maybe your life really was the worst. thankfully a faceless stranger was there to pick up your glasses and hand you his umbrella. you weren’t able to ever thank him for his act of kindness, but the sweet memory stays with you for awhile.

Ⱄ tags/warnings: cafe coworkers!soonyoung and reader, dancer!soonyoung, reader wears glasses, set in vancouver canada, they develop feelings quickly, reader is a little type a, mentions of other svt members, mentions of alcohol, hoshi tiger agenda is very present, allusions to sex, making out, grinding, groping, heavy petting (thth host voice activated), if anything is missing here lmk!

Ⱄ note: it's finally here!! this is my fic for the world tour @svthub collab hehe. thank you to my two lovely beta readers @junkissed and @highvern who helped me so much (ily both sm) ♡!!!!!! and also to the svthub members who helped me when developing the banner for this fic :) i hope you all enjoy this fic because i loved writing it and hoshi is just so silly. its all fluffy and cute and no smut which is a first for me but i hope it's still enjoyable for u all hehe. talk to u soon - anna ♡

Today was one of those days. The birds don’t sing in your wake, the sun doesn’t shine as bright. You weren’t sure what had been the catalyst to such a terrible day; maybe it was forgetting your umbrella, losing your glasses under the gloomy sky, or the rain that pitter-pattered against the pavement and mocked your misfortune.

It wasn’t until a faceless stranger entered your blurred field of vision, offering their umbrella and picking up your glasses. Before you could even thank them for their help, they whisked away so quickly that it was like they were a figment of your imagination.

That small kind gesture had stuck with you for days, wondering if you would ever be able to meet them again. You desperately wished you could see what they looked like, but from the softness of their voice to their gentle touch, you had a feeling that their personality was just the same.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

Working a shift at Rain or Shine Cafe is always the highlight of your day, especially after spending so many hectic hours at your university. The cafe was always serene, the customers were kind, and you liked how calming it would get once the Vancouver rain started to pour in. The droplets hit the glass windows in a rhythmic pattern that could probably put you to sleep if you allow.

Rain or Shine Cafe was like your little haven from the busy city and university town. You were working the evenings while your boss, Seokmin, would cover the mornings. It was a little bit complicated with only the two of you, but you didn’t mind. You liked being the only person during your shift, it meant that you were practically your own boss.

It wasn’t until the day that Seokmin decided it was time for a new hire, your safe space seemingly turned upside down.

“Y/n, I’ve hired a new person, you’ll have to train them okay?” Seokmin informs you the moment you clock in.

Giving him a defeated sigh, you knew it was time for a new coworker to join you. Although you hate the idea, you feel bad at how hard Seokmin works in the mornings, and on the rare occasions when you’re sick, evenings as well.

“I don’t know Seokmin… are you sure I should be the one training them?” your tone wavers, if anything the owner would be able to do a better job than you at training the new hire.

“What! You’ll do great, you’re my best employee after all,” he gives you a reassuring pat on your shoulder.

With furrowed brows, your eyes bore holes into his back as he headed back to his office.

“I’m your only employee!” you shout back while he can still hear you.

The idea of having to train a new person after spending so much time finding your rhythm while working at the cafe doesn’t particularly thrill you. With many many prayers to the universe, you just hope they aren’t a pain in the ass to deal with.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

Soonyoung wasn’t sure what to expect on his first day, and he was especially nervous because he’d never worked at a cafe before. Although his coordination is great when it comes to dancing, he isn’t so confident in his coffee-making skills.

The moment he walked through the door, he saw your face shining against the afternoon sun, his heart beating so fast he thought he might have to go to the doctor for a serious case of heart palpitations. He can’t help but curse at himself silently, knowing that he is going to be extra nervous because of his extremely pretty coworker.

As he approaches you he starts to feel a sense of familiarity bubbling at the bottom of his stomach. Wondering if he’d seen you around before, but he quickly scratched that idea knowing that there are millions of people living in the Greater Vancouver area.

Clearing his throat he tries to get your attention as you delicately refill the pastry shelf with almond croissants and bagels. Your eyes turn towards the figure in front of the counter, assuming it’s another student from the university wanting to order.

“U-uh hi,” Soonyoung blurts out, his pillowy cheeks turning red under your gaze.

“Hi, what can I get for you?” you ask him, trying to ignore the awkwardness between you two.

“Oh! I-I’m not here to order, I’m the new hire?” He tries to explain, but you can tell he feels a little unsure about being here at the cafe.

“Oh. Soonyoung right?”

“Yeah, that’s me, but uh- you can call me Hoshi,” he chuckles, scratching the back of his head.

The words ‘play it cool’ keep repeating in his mind as he continues to talk to you, not wanting to make a bad first impression with his gorgeous new coworker.

“Ah, I see, Hoshi,” you say apprehensively while nodding your head, yeah I’m not calling him that, you think to yourself.

Seokmin told you that the new hire would be coming in for his first shift today, but he didn’t mention anything other than that.

At first glance, Soonyoung wasn’t the type of person you expected Seokmin to hire. His dark clothing, bright blond hair and piercings along his ears didn’t scream “barista”. The aura around him screamed men’s fashion influencer just from the way he dresses. Although his clothes were casual you could tell there was still thought put into his outfit, from the baggy dark wash jeans to his graphic tee and earrings.

“How about you come around the counter and clock in so we can get started,” you add as you finish placing the pastries on the display shelf.

Scratching the back of his head he walks over only to hover behind you, a meek expression washes over his face.

You turn to him with a quizzical eyebrow, not sure as to why he’s just standing there like a lost child in a supermarket.

“H-how exactly do you clock in?” Soonyoung mumbles while twiddling his thumbs.

“Seokmin didn’t show you where to clock in?” You question him.

There was a part of you that had a feeling that you might have to teach him every little thing around the cafe. When Seokmin told you the new hire was coming in today, you were hoping that they would at least have a little bit of background knowledge.

“U-uh no he pretty much hired me on the spot and told me to come in today,” he mutters, feeling a little embarrassed by your judgement, “this is actually my first job ever.”

“Ever?”

“Yeah, so I’m not sure why he even hired me, but I needed a job so I didn’t turn it down,” he continues, the blush on his soft cheeks becoming more apparent.

You sigh deeply, this shift is going to feel a lot longer than you initially thought. Knowing it’s his first job means that you’ll have to train him a little slower. As you walk to show him where to clock in you silently pray that he’s a fast learner.

Soonyoung can tell that you’re not excited to train him, and he feels bad that he doesn’t have the experience to be good at his job right away. But he’s determined to learn quickly, not wanting to disappoint you or Seokmin.

He spent most of his time in university being able to pay for his expenses from his dance scholarship and the little money he was given from his parents, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to fund his trip for his and his dance troupe’s upcoming competition.

They had entered a national competition taking place in Seattle and although the commute was only a two-hour road trip, there were so many other fees that he couldn’t afford unless he found a way to earn money. Plus if he wanted to fund both his dance trip and tiger collection, it was either he get a job near his school or he would have to resort to selling feet pics online. But getting a job at the cafe seemed like the safer and more logical option.

“Well now that you’ve clocked in, this is your apron and the tag that Seokmin made you,” you inform him while handing him his things.

Soonyoung doesn’t say a word, only nodding while listening to you explain how everything works at the cafe.

“First we need you to learn all the drinks that we serve,” you explain, pushing the double doors that lead back to the main room of the building.

“Okay, I can do that, it can’t be that hard right?” Hoshi shrugs, trying his best to act nonchalantly to mask his nervousness.

…

“Wait-No! That’s wrong,” your voice raises in panic as you watch Soonyoung put a fresh shot of espresso into the plastic to-go cup.

Freezing, his eyes go wide as his mouth forms an ‘O’ shape and you start to scramble with panic. The plastic started to shrivel from the heat of the coffee.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know it would melt!” he exclaims, pouring the contents into the sink.

It had been an hour of teaching Soonyoung how to make the drinks that were on the cafe menu, and he had somehow made a mistake every single step of the way. Thankfully today is a slower day in the cafe, allowing Soonyoung to observe your routine on serving customers.

“It’s fine, how about we take a break and I'll show you how to use the oven to heat the pastries,” you sigh with defeat.

Soonyoung’s face drops a little because he knows that he’s disappointed you. He wishes that he was good at his job the same way he is with dancing but his naturally good coordination and reflexes can only take him so far.

“If a customer asks for a pastry they can have the option for them to be toasted in the oven, you just need to use the tongs and place them onto the rack,” you explain, demonstrating the steps that you would usually take, “then you don’t want to set the timer for more than twenty seconds or it’ll burn.”

Soonyoung nods along, trying to follow your instructions closely, but he can’t help but get distracted by your features. Your hair is tied up, and glasses perched on your nose as you try to concentrate. He knows that it’s important to pay attention but he can’t help but feel attracted to you. There was a certain familiarity to you that he couldn’t seem to pinpoint. He hasn’t felt like this about someone he just met ever, and it’s not helping that you’re the one teaching him how to do his job properly.

If he could stare at you during his whole shift instead of working, he would.

“Does everything make sense so far?” you pull him out of his thoughts, staring at him expectantly.

“Yeah, the pastry stuff seems like the most simple thing so far,” he comments, watching you put the croissant into a bag to eat after you’re off work.

“How about we go back to making more test drinks? Just so you can get the hang of it,” you offer, wanting him to get more practice just in case it’s a busy day the next time he comes in for a shift.

“Sure, you’re a great teacher by the way, I’m just new to all this,” he comforts you.

“Thanks, and don’t worry too much, you’ll get better with time,” you pat his shoulder.

You give him a smile of gratitude. The past few hours had you doubting your knowledge, patience, and teaching skills all at the same time. But his words of reassurance make you feel him warm inside.

The way Soonyoung’s cheeks puff as he smiles makes you giggle. There was something about his soft features that made him so endearing, which made you feel a little bad for raising your voice at him earlier while he was trying to learn.

Sure, he’s not the smartest when it comes to working at a cafe, but you have faith that he’ll be able to learn as time goes by. From the looks of it, Soonyoung seems determined to do better, that or he’s faking it. Either way, you owe it to Seokmin to show him everything you know.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

“So…” Seokmin looks at you expectantly while you get ready to start your shift, “how was it?”

“Well… he’s definitely new,” you sigh as you put on your apron and clock in.

Seokmon gives you a concerned look, he felt a little bad for handing Soonyoung over to you knowing he had zero experience working in a cafe, but he trusted you, his best (only) employee to be able to train him well.

“Everything went well though, right?” he asks you, trailing behind you like a lost puppy.

You can’t help but laugh at the way he follows you to the counter, wanting to hear every detail about what happened during your last shift.

There wasn’t much to say other than the fact that Soonyoung wasn’t very good at his job, but you don’t want to be an asshole and rat him out when you could tell how eager he is to do his job properly. Instead, you decided to lie to your kind, and very naive boss.

“Oh he’s perfect, honestly you made the right decision in hiring him,” you force a smile.

Seokmin’s eyes light up with excitement, you could practically see his imaginary tail wagging back and forth with happiness. He trusts you so much that he never thought to hire anyone else, meaning this was a big step for him and the cafe. You could already start to feel the guilt seep into your nerves as he stared at you with so much trust.

“Really? Oh, thank god, I was so nervous when he told me he’s never had a job in his life before, honestly Y/n, I’m so happy and I’m sure things will–” Seokmin is cut off by the jingle of the bell above the door.

Both your heads whip around as Soonyoung enters the cafe with a bright smile along his lips, refreshed from the last time he was in and ready to work a real shift this time. His clothing was more appropriate for work, a simple black tee shirt and black pants, his blond hair reflecting with the sun, giving him a halo effect.

You wish you had met Soonyoung in different settings, then you would be able to admit how attractive he is. If only he wasn’t such a clutz, then maybe you would have a full-blown crush on him.

“Afternoon Soonyoung,” Seokmin smiles at him.

Fridays were always the busiest days at the cafe, even during the evening. You're just hoping that the odds were in your favour and Soonyoung actually retained all the information you told him last time you saw him.

“Afternoon everyone!” he exclaims cheerfully.

Waving at him you watch him descend to the back to clock in for his shift, your stomach churns with anxiety because you aren’t sure how well today is going to go.

“Okay Y/n I’m off, you’re in charge as always,” Seokmin declared before leaving.

…

About half an hour into your shift, the pace of the cafe started to pick up and the line was starting to get longer. As the clock hit three-thirty, all the university students started to pile into the tiny building.

You were starting to sweat and because Soonyoung still doesn’t know how to make all of the drinks you put him on cashier and pastry duty. It seems to be the only way that you were able to get through to all the customers in a timely manner.

“Is there really only two of you?” A male customer whines at the back of the line, clearly annoyed by the wait.

“Yes, unfortunately, this is usually the busiest time of the day for us,” you try to explain politely, but your anger issues start to creep up onto the surface.

The overstimulation from the heat of the coffee as well as the chatter of customers was causing your patience to thin. You didn’t want to have to argue with anyone today, especially because you had a newbie working with you.

“Could you at least hurry it up?” He scoffs, eyes rolling with annoyance.

You don’t reply to his complaints, because if you were to start talking you would probably end up starting a fight mid-shift.

“Dude, you can’t talk to her like that,” Soonyoung retaliated, obviously annoyed with the whiny customer.

“What’d you say to me?” the customer fumes, coming to the front of the counter.

The two men size up each other while you stand there a little shocked at how fast Soonyoung was to defend you.

Soonyoung scowls as he stares at the asshole who was yelling at you. He wasn’t expecting people to get so angry over coffee but he wasn’t going to let someone disrespect you.

“I said, you can’t talk to her like that,” he seethes, looking at the customer up and down with his chest puffed out, “if you’re so sick of waiting then go somewhere else.”

“You know what I will. I don’t want some slow bitch making my drink anyways,” the customer retorts.

“Fuck you! And don’t come back!” Soonyoung yells at his descending figure and turns at you silently asking if you were alright.

…

By the time it was closer to the end of both you and Soonyoung’s shift, the amount of customers coming in slowed down considerably, allowing you to rest after what had happened earlier.

The sun was down and it was nearing eight in the evening. While you were cleaning the counters and organizing for the morning shift, Soonyoung was mopping the floors and putting the chairs back in order. He looked peaceful as he was cleaning, you couldn’t help but stare.

Soonyoung’s jawline is sharp as he appears to be deep in thought, and you allow yourself to admire the way his biceps flexed under his shirt as he swayed the mop back and forth. The veins along his forearms popped with each movement he made, you practically had to pinch yourself in order to not get caught ogling at him.

“Uhm, I just wanted to say thanks for earlier, you didn’t have to do all that,” you speak up, catching his attention, “I appreciate it.”

Soonyoung chuckles while shaking his head, giving you that same smile he did on the first day. The one that made his eyes look like a cute emoticon, and his cheeks puffy as if he were a hamster.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal, I wasn’t going to let that asshole talk to you like that,” he shrugs nonchalantly.

“Yeah I know, but still, thank you,” you reiterate, heat starting to creep up your neck as you recall the way he acted earlier.

“Of course,” he continues to smile before he says something you didn’t expect, “also, I know we’re not all that close, but me and my friends were going to go to the bar down the street. Do you want to join us?”

Your eyes widen in shock, an answer flying out of your mouth before you can even think properly, “Sure!”

“Okay, cool!” his eyes lit up at your acceptance to his invite, “we’re going to watch one of my friend’s shows, so you can meet me here again at like, 10 pm?”

“Are you sure they’re okay with me coming though? I don’t wanna impose,” you ask with uncertainty.

“Yeah, of course, they’re chill,” he reassures you before going back to finish his task.

Turning around you silently scream at the thought of going out with Soonyoung, being able to talk to him off work hours, it made you blush deeply. You don’t understand why you’re reacting this way all of a sudden as if you weren’t constantly annoyed by his clumsiness just a week ago, but you’re not opposed to the feelings of your developing crush on your coworker.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

This was the first time in Soonyoung’s life that he had been wrecked with nervousness. Not even when he was performing on stage did his nerves get the best of him. You were just so pretty, and the more he worked with you, the more he wanted to get to know you, to interact with you outside the cafe and learn more about your personality.

“Soonyoung!” he hears you call out for him, forcing him to look up from the pavement.

His heart beats out of his chest, and his palms start to sweat. Your hair is down and frames your face. As you start to get closer he allows himself to appreciate the view in front of him. The moonlight shining above, the stars twinkling beautifully and yet he can’t seem to take his eyes off of you.

Your outfit suited you so well, a short skirt, an oversized graphic tee and a pair of knee-high boots. So this is what you look like outside of work, Soonyoung thought to himself. He already found you attractive in your work clothes, with your brown apron and baseball cap. But seeing you like this made his mouth go dry, forcing him to gulp like a starved man.

“H-hey! You look really good,” he stutters and he curses at himself silently from how nervous he is.

“Thank you, you too,” you blush, a timid expression falling on your face, not being able to meet his eyes as you play with the keychain on your bag.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks, his head nudging in the direction of the bar.

You nod with a smile, following his steps toward your destination. With clammy hands, you grip the strap of your bag while you and Soonyoung walk in perfect harmony. This is the first time you’ve gone for a night out in a while, and your body is filled with nervousness and excitement at the thought of being able to spend more time with Soonyoung.

…

“Hoshi! The show is about to start, what took you so long?” a brown-haired man calls out, walking towards the two of you.

His eyes widened with curiosity, realizing that Soonyoung hadn’t come to the bar alone tonight.

“And who is this?” he asks, observing you closely with a glass of beer in his hand.

“Y/n, this is Seungkwan, Kwan, this is Y/n,” Soonyoung introduces the two of you, and you can only reply with a shy wave and smile.

“I see,” he mutters, taking a sip from his glass.

Seungkwan’s eyes are boring holes into your face and it causes your cheeks to heat up.

“She’s my coworker at Rain or Shine,” Soonyoung adds, before giving Seungkwan a pointed look.

Seungkwan, although usually friendly, is very intrigued as to why you were brought over to hang out with Soonyoung and their friends tonight. It wasn’t a normal occurrence for Soonyoung to bring anyone new to Vernon’s shows, especially a girl. He concluded that you must mean something to Hoshi, and not just because you’re his coworker.

“Ohh okay, it’s nice to meet you,” Seungkwan smiles and that allows you to let out a breath of relief that you didn’t realize that you were holding, “but we should get to our seats, the show is about to start.”

There’s a collective agreement and the three of you head over to a reserved table that’s located closer to the stage. It must be a perk to know the band that was playing because it had the best view in the bar.

As you reach the table you meet with a few more people sitting around talking and drinking. Your naturally introverted attitude increases tenfold when your eyes lay on the group of men talking loudly and laughing with each other.

“Soonyoung’s finally here! And he’s brought a friend,” Seungkwan announces, his back facing you and you don’t catch the way his eyebrows wiggle suggestively.

The group’s conversation is cut off and they go over to greet you and Soonyoung. They were all so tall and attractive, you didn’t expect it at all. But it somehow makes sense that someone as good-looking as Soonyoung would also have good-looking friends.

“Y/n, this is Chan, Mingyu and Minghao,” Soonyoung introduces you, pointing everyone out one by one.

“Hi, I work with Soonyoung at the cafe,” you greet them with a small wave.

The three men smile at you warmly before you sit down, and Mingyu is the first one to talk to you. You’re awestruck at how attractive he is, his wide smile and sharp teeth poking out added a charming factor to him that you wouldn’t notice if it were anyone else.

“Hi, did you want something to drink?” he asks you, his voice husky and warm.

“A diet coke and rum is fine,” you tell him and he nods before getting up and heading to the bar.

Watching him walk away, you turn your attention back onto Soonyoung who seems to be deep in conversation with Chan. Seeing him laugh and talk with his friends is new to you, and it makes your stomach flutter at how concentrated he is.

“No I can’t give you the leftover pastries, stop asking me, I literally just started working there,” Soonyoung groans as Chan begs him for leftover almond croissants.

A giggle escapes your lips as you watch how desperate Chan is for a free croissant, you’ve never seen someone so passionate over bread before.

“I can give one to Soonyoung next time we close, we always have leftovers,” you chime in, giving Chan a warm smile.

Chan practically lights up with excitement and Soonyoung rolls his eyes at the fact that his younger friend is somehow always able to get what he wants. You can’t help but smile at how eager he is over such a simple thing.

��Are you sure? You don’t have to do that,” Soonyoung looks at you.

He watches as you give him a reassuring smile, your eyes reflecting the bar lights. There are so many things that he got to learn about you today. The way you get shy meeting new people, yet you’re kind and willing to get to know his friends. You were tugging on his heartstrings and he didn’t want to stop getting to know the little things about you.

“Yeah, it’s fine, Seokmin always lets me bring some home after my shift is over anyways,” you wave your hand, letting Chan know that Seokmin is a chill manager.

“Really? Thank you Y/n,” Chan gives you a look of gratitude, going over to hug you. Laughing at his sudden burst of affection, you pat his back while telling him it wasn’t that big of a deal.

The lights in the bar started to dim and you see Mingyu coming back with your drink. He places it in front of you and says not to worry about paying for it. There wasn’t much arguing coming from your side, who are you to refuse a free drink? Instead, you thank him and pay attention to the band coming out onto the stage.

“Oh yeah, whatever happened to your ‘beautiful stranger’? Did you ever find her?” you hear Chan ask right before the band performs.

There was a pause in the air and Soonyoung’s words were drowned out by the music. You are grateful for the fact that you couldn’t hear his answer. Honestly, you didn’t want to know what he had said in response. Instead of worrying over something you had no right to worry about, you allow the music to take over you. Paying close attention to the melodic singing flowing through the speakers.

…

“Thank you for inviting me out tonight, I enjoyed it,” you break the silence on the walk home to your apartment.

Soonyoung offered to walk you home and you refused but he insisted that he wouldn’t be able to sleep properly if you walked alone at this hour. The time was nearing one in the morning and you were able to meet the rest of his friends after the show. They were all nice to you, except for that first moment with Seungkwan, but he warmed up shortly after.

The descent to your place was relatively quiet, the two of you admiring the Vancouver skyline and high mountains. Sometimes you forget that you live in such a beautiful place, a city that never sleeps. You watched Soonyoung appreciate his view and you smiled inwardly at how content he seemed.

Watching him interact with his friends earlier warmed your heart, he looked so happy being around them it made you forget how bad he is at his job, and that he’s a little clueless when it comes to working at the cafe. You felt bad about getting angry with him so quickly, but as you started to understand him more, you realized that there’s more to him than his clumsiness. He’s a bright person, he has the resemblance of a ball of sunshine. Always smiling, eager to bond with his friends, to laugh and to make thoughtful memories.

You realize how much you had envied him in that moment. It’s easy for him to get along with everyone, and the fact that he’s able to go out without overthinking the smallest things. You just wanted to be as carefree as Soonyoung.

“It's no problem, I wanted you to come, and they all loved you!” he chirped, eyes turning into slits from a wide smile. You blush at his outward personality.

“Well, this is me,” you motion toward the entrance of your apartment building.

You were a little embarrassed at its homely nature. All the nicer apartments surrounding your tiny building. But you couldn’t help but think that it had a charm to it that the modern buildings in Vancouver didn’t have.

“Have a good night Y/n,” Soonyoung grinned as you two stood there, the breeze flowing through your fingertips while you stared into his sparkling eyes.

“Have a good night Soonyoung,” you repeat him, and he doesn’t say anything else, pulling you into a hug.

Soonyoung wasn’t sure if you like to be hugged, and he was hesitant at first, but with the way you were staring at him, he couldn’t help but want to hold you. He understands that you aren’t that close, but he knows he wants to get to know you more.

As he holds you in his arms, he breathes in your scent, and it’s addicting. You smelt like a rainy day, reading books against the window sill and drinking a warm cup of tea. You felt like home to him, he finds it odd that he thinks of you that way so early on in your friendship, but he can’t help it. Soonyoung doesn’t want to deny his growing feelings for you.

Although you were surprised by his actions you didn’t hate the way his arms felt around you. Strong and muscular, holding you tight while you breathe in the scent of his cologne. He smelt good, like roasting marshmallows over a campfire, or a beach day where the sun warmed your skin in the best way.

There's something comforting about Soonyoung’s demeanour, his personality, his everything. Why was he so nice to you? Why did he express so much interest in someone he barely knows? You didn’t know and you were too shy to ask.

He pulls away and opens the first door to your building for you, making sure you enter safe and sound. But before you could get to the door with the lock he asks you a question.

“Uh, Chan and I have a dance showcase coming up next weekend, did you wanna come and see me perform?” Soonyoung asks while blushing.

“I’d love to!” You answer back, and he just nods, letting go of you so that you can go up to your apartment and rest.

“I’ll text you the details! Good night!” He yells from down the sidewalk, arm flailing to wave goodbye. You can’t help but giggle at him, your cheeks heating up at his goofy personality.

As you enter your apartment, your mind travels back to the question Chan had asked Soonyoung before the band started performing. Who was this beautiful stranger that he was talking about? It made your stomach churn at the possibility that Soonyoung wouldn’t be available if you decided to tell him about the crush you’d developed. Sighing at the thought, you try to not let it affect you. You’ve only known him for a short time, and there’s no reason for you to feel jealous of someone you’re not even sure that he knows.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

“How was your weekend, kiddo?” Seokmin’s presence welcomes you into his cafe, giving you a dazzling smile.

“It was fun, me and Soonyoung went out with his friends,” you blushed as you recollected the time you got to spend with him.

Seokmin walks up to you, his eyes panning over your body, eyebrow quirked up. He taps his chin acting as if he’s in deep thought before moving closer, sniffing you and you almost slap him square on the cheek. But he’s quick to avoid your hand.

“I smell a crush!” He points his finger at you, his tone accusatory.

“What?! Pfft, I don’t have a crush,” you deny his allegations, but your forehead starts to collect sweat out of nervousness.

You didn’t think that Seokmin would put you on the spot like this, but it would feel awkward to admit that you have a crush on your coworker. Who just so happened to start working here less than two weeks ago.

“Don’t lie to me, I can smell it on you! You have a crush,” Seokmin sang, dancing around you teasingly. Poking at your cheeks like you were a grizzly bear he’s trying to provoke.

“Okay! Okay. Maybe I do have a crush, but it doesn’t mean anything,” you sigh, admitting your feelings so that your boss, nearly ten years older than you, would stop prancing around like a lunatic for all the passersby to see.

“Why? What if he likes you back,” he wiggles his eyebrows, and you cringe at him.

Leave it up to Seokmin to disregard professionalism in the workplace. If anything he was more like your surrogate dad that liked to be filled in on the latest drama.

“He doesn’t,” you deflate, moving over to clock in and put on your apron.

You know for a fact that Soonyoung couldn’t like you back, his mind was too preoccupied with much more important things, and some other girl who he doesn’t even know.

“What are you? A mind reader?” Seokmin teases you, not wanting to see you pretend to be so apathetic.

Of course, you couldn’t read minds, but it was clear that Soonyoung’s interest lay somewhere else. You don’t even know what to say to Seokmin at the moment, how do you even explain your feelings properly? Yes, you have a teeny crush on your coworker, but that’s all it should be, right? It wouldn’t be realistic to date him.

The chime of the bell hanging on top of the door breaks your thoughts, “Good afternoon to my amazing boss, and my amazing coworker!”

Soonyoung is practically skipping through the door with delight, and it makes you smile. He always seemed so cheerful coming into work. It warms your heart.

“Ahh good to see you Soonyoung,” Seokmin smiles, watching his figure disappear into the back.

He turns to you and makes a face, his eyebrows wiggling while his lips widen into a shit-eating grin. Seokmin can’t help but tease you, he finds it cute that you have a crush on Soonyoung. In all the years that you’ve been working for him, there hasn’t been a time where he’s seen you so smitten over a boy.

You roll your eyes at him, shooing him away before Soonyoung comes out and realizes why your boss is teasing you.

…

Once Seokmin had left, you and Soonyoung were left to fend for yourselves. Although today wasn’t as busy as the last time you were working with each other, it wasn’t a shift with Soonyoung if there wasn’t at least one thing that went wrong.

You were minding your business, restocking some of the supplies in the storage room. As you were peacefully putting new syrups on the shelves, there was a high-pitched scream coming from the front part of the cafe. Your eyes widen at the sound, and you come rushing to the counter.

“What happened?!” you stumbled in, your chest heaving as you tried to get to Soonyoung as fast as you could.

“I-Uh-,” Soonyoung seems to be at a loss for words, you can he the audible gulp before he continues, “there was a spider, and I tried to kill it but I lost it.”

A wave of relief washes over you as you realize that no one is hurt and the building is not on fire. Your eyes travel to where he’s crouched behind the counter, hands gripping the marble while his eyes peek over to observe the spider crawling across the floor. You can’t help but laugh at how terrified he is over a small insect. Instead of cowering away in fear beside him, you walk over to where the spider had begun to crawl up the leg of one of the chairs.

“Y/n be careful! You could die if you get stung, and then we would have to call 911, and what if you don’t make it? I’d feel so guilty, I would carry the weight of my guilt as I grow old, we would hold memorials for you–Oh." His sentence comes to an abrupt stop as he sees you grab the spider with a tissue and place it back outside onto the pavement.

“It was just a daddy long legs, no need to be afraid,” you reassure him.

Soonyoung sighs in relief before standing up, patting down his clothes to get rid of the imaginary dust. He wipes his forehead as if he were the one to take care of the insect problem.

“If there’s anything else wrong just call for me, I’ll be in the back,” you announce, hoping that would be the first and last incident for the day.

Soonyoung nods, giving you a thumbs up as you walk into the back. You let out a breath of relief, giggling to yourself, recollecting the memory of him crouched behind the counter. The redness on your cheeks doesn’t seem to fade at the thought of him cowering over a small spider.

No matter what Soonyoung does, you can’t help but find him endearing. And when he’s not, you find him undeniably attractive. How does this happen? How does one guy who once annoyed you turn into someone who has you completely flustered? It feels odd falling for someone so fast, and you’re just hoping he’ll feel the same. Especially because no one has had this effect on you before.

The more you think about your budding feelings for Soonyoung, you’re constantly reminded of the fact that he’s searching for someone he thinks is his soulmate. You’re apprehensive, but at the same time, he might never find her. So what’s the point of trying to fight these feelings knowing you’re competing with someone he isn’t sure even exists?

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

There were tingles all over your body. Today was the day of Soonyoung’s dance showcase. Although you were excited to see him in his element, you were still nervous. It’s only been a month since you two met and him working at the cafe, but even then, you still feel like a stranger to his outside life. You weren’t sure why he invited you, but you’re grateful that you’ll be able to witness this side of him.

As you make your way into the auditorium of his University, you find yourself in awe at the amount of people in the crowd. It was obvious that his dance team was well-liked at his school, causing admiration to bloom within your chest.

Looking around for a familiar face, you spot Seungkwan and Mingyu sitting in the front row that’s reserved for close friends and family for the people on the dance team. You make eye contact with them, their hands motioning for you to come and sit with them.

“Y/n! You came, Soonyoung is going to be so excited,” Mingyu exclaims, pulling you into a bone-crushing hug.

You laugh at how excited he is to see you, your cheeks turning red at the mention of Soonyoung. As you pull away, you say hello to Seungkwan before taking your seat between them.

The three of you make a little small talk until the lights start to dim and the spotlight glows against the stage. Your heart is beating out of your chest as you spot Soonyoung walking onto the stage. His hair and makeup were styled, his outfit complimenting his muscular arms perfectly. You’re thankful that the background music was loud enough, hoping that neither Seungkwan nor Mingyu heard the enormous gulp you took the moment your eyes laid on their best friend.

“Good evening everyone! Thank you all for coming to our showcase tonight, I hope you enjoy the performances we prepared,” Soonyoung speaks into the mic, his eyes gleaming under the bright stage lights.

Your breath is caught in your throat once again, Soonyoung’s confidence exuding from where he stands. He looks so handsome under all the bright lights as if he’s born to be on stage. To dance or to entertain, he has the charisma to make the audience laugh and cheer for him.

You’re hot in your seat, your hands starting to sweat as he continues to charm the crowd.

“Everyone has worked so hard for this, and you all get a sneak peek at our performance for the National Dance Competition taking place in Seattle!” He informs the crowd, his smile widening as he unveils his dance troupe's little secret.

As he walks off stage you can’t help but stare in awe, anticipation swirls in your stomach as the lights start to dim once again. The dancers fill up the stage, indicating the start of the performance and you can see the outline of Soonyoung’s frame from where you sit.

Soonyoung’s eyes blaze in the stage lights as the spotlight is cast on him. The dancers are behind him in their rightful positions as the music starts to play. With your mouth agape, you watch his body flow with the music. The strong bass of hip-hop flows through the speakers with every move Soonyoung makes along with his dance crew. The rest of the crowd sits there cheering them on while you’re left speechless.

The serious gaze he holds, as he dances, makes your knees weak, especially because you can tell how passionate he is about his craft. He was made for dancing, born to tell a story with his limbs as they move languidly with the beat of the song.

As the routine comes to an end you can’t help but feel lucky to see Soonyoung in his element. Far from the man who you’ve witnessed make the most silly mistakes while working, he’s so different on stage. Although you’ve come to appreciate his presence at the cafe, seeing him dance instills a profound sense of pride in your stomach.

With each passing second the dance routine comes to a close, Soonyoung spots you in the front row as he continues to move on stage. His eyes widen as his gaze sets upon you before sending you a flirtatious wink. He goes back to facing the centre of the crowd, your whole body enveloped in heat.

The song ends and you’re left sitting there with shocks of electricity passing through your entire body. Your crush on Soonyoung has turned into something deeper.

…

Your palms sweat profusely as you stand at the entrance of the auditorium, an almond croissant in one hand and a bouquet of yellow flowers in the other. While you stand and wait for Soonyoung to come out of the dressing room, your mind is filled with thoughts of his performance. The image of him on stage doesn't leave your thoughts, not even for a second.

“Y/n!” You hear a voice call out for you, pulling you out of your light daydreaming.

Turning your head in the direction of the voice, your eyes land on Soonyoung, his tall figure making its way over to where you are. Your breath is caught in your throat as your gaze focuses on him. Bareface but his hair still styled, he looked breathtaking.

“Soonyoung! Hi, you were amazing up there,” you tell him breathlessly.

He smiles bashfully at your compliment, his cheeks turning red at your appreciation. Soonyoung doesn’t take compliments well as it is, but when it’s coming from you, he becomes even more flustered. The twinkle in your eyes never leaves as you smile at him.

Pulling you into a hug, your shoulders tense in surprise at his sudden burst of affection, but you don’t hate it. You don’t mind how he likes to express his gratitude towards you. Instead, you embrace it, relaxing as his strong arms hold you close. You don’t ever get tired of how good he smells. Warm, bright, and comforting, like the sun personified.

“Thank you for coming, you don’t know how much this means to me,” he mumbles while his arms are still wrapped around you.

Your face buries itself deeper in his chest as you hear him talk, wanting to hide your already burning face from him. He makes you feel like you’re important like he would’ve been disappointed if you didn’t show up tonight.

Pulling away, Soonyoung smiles at you, the same smile that reaches his eyes in the most adorable way. And then he notices the bouquet of flowers that are held tightly in your grasp. His eyes widen, cheeks red, he’s never received flowers in his life before, but he’s happy you’re the first.

“Is that for me?” he asks, and you nod shyly, “thank you! You didn’t need to get me something, I invited you remember?”

“I know but I wanted to thank you for inviting me, think of it as an advanced congratulations when you win the dance tournament next month,” you say as you hand him the bouquet.

“Also, the croissant is for Chan, I know I promised to get him one,” you add.

His laugh rings through your ears delightfully, finding it cute that you make good on your promises. Even the smallest things like getting a croissant for his best friend, he admires everything about you. The fact that you’re so earnest and willing to share so much with the people he cares about. He falls for you more as each day passes.

Soonyoung knows it hasn’t been long since he’s met you, but he doesn’t care. He knows that he likes you, that he wants to take you out, shower you in all his love and affection, and do whatever it takes to see you smile. He doesn’t care about time unless he can spend the rest of it with you.

˚∗˖⁺⑅ ˖⁺⑅˖◛

When Soonyoung asked to hang out after his dance showcase, you couldn’t help but happily oblige. The way he looks at you, how he shows that he wants to spend time with you makes your stomach flutter. How could one possibly say no to someone like him?

As you two walk over to his apartment, your palms begin to sweat again, even with the cool Vancouver breeze that flows between you. You think about how close you two have gotten since that first day in the cafe, and you can only smile to yourself. He makes you feel wanted, like there's more between you than just friendly coworkers.

Although you want to tell him how much you’ve grown to like him, there's a part of you that still holds back, just because of that little comment Chan made all those weeks ago.

“We’re here!” Soonyoung announces, stepping into the front entrance of his apartment.

It’s considerably nicer than the one you live in, making you feel slightly intimidated by the high-rise building. You tried not to let it show, but you didn’t fully realize how different you two were until now. He’s outgoing, a ball of sunshine. You tend to prefer living in solace, keeping to yourself whether it be at work or school.

“Your place is nice,” you comment as your eyes follow the expanse of the building's height.

“Thank you! Let’s get inside, I think it’s about to start raining,” Soonyoung ushers you in, already noticing the way the clouds start to thicken in the evening sky.

The ride up to the elevator is peaceful, you two enjoy each other's company in silence while you continue to admire the building. As he leads you to the front door of his apartment, your breath gets stuck in your throat once more. You knew Soonyoung was a stylish individual, but you didn’t think that a person in university had much knowledge of interior design.

In short, you found his home to be comforting, the furniture and decorations suited his personality perfectly. It felt warm, it felt like a home.

If only you knew, that Soonyoung was just as nervous as you. His heart beats faster as your eyes look over his apartment. He cleaned it this morning in hopes that you would say yes to coming over. Otherwise it would’ve embodied a pig stye, and he couldn’t have the girl he has feelings for thinking that he was a slob.

“Your place is beautiful, Soonyoung,” you mumble as you continue to look around.

“Really?” He acts shy, scratching the back of his head.

“Yeah! I like it, it suits you,” you turn back to him, flashing him a warm smile that makes his cheeks heat up.

Soonyoung releases a breath that he didn’t realize that he was even holding, happy to know that your first impression of his home is positive. Usually when he has his friends over they tell him it can get a little messy, especially when Mingyu visits. His best friend is always helping him clean up the place because of his natural tendency to declutter any space he’s in.

“Do you wanna watch a movie? Or maybe just talk…?” Soonyoung stutters a bit, his head all over the place because the girl he has been crushing on is in front of him. Not while his other friends are around, and not in a workplace setting either.

He doesn’t know how to act when you’re around, he’s typically not a shy person, but when you’re around all his thoughts fly out the window.

“Uhm, talking is just fine with me,” you laugh at how red his face has gotten.

There was an obvious tension in the air and it was hard for you to ignore, but you’re just happy to be alone with him. For once, his friends weren’t here or Seokmin, it was just you and Soonyoung.

He grabs your hand as if he had no control over his actions, guiding you over to his couch. You two sit there, a little closer than what would be considered friendly for coworkers. His eyes twinkled against the ambient lighting.

“What did you want to talk about?” you ask innocently, trying to ignore the rising tension between you.

Soonyoung shies away from your gaze, your eyes becoming the size the saucers the more you stare at him. He wants to tell you how he feels, although he isn’t sure that you feel the same. He wants to take his chance with you while it’s still in front of him.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, and I’m actually really nervous but I just need to say it,” he lets out another puff of breath, trying to calm his nerves.

The beating in your chest increases with each word Soonyoung says, and you don’t know how to feel. You’re nervous too, but you want to hear what he has to say. You feel his hand over yours, squeezing it softly. He’s not sure whether it's to soothe himself or you, but it's working.

Before you could even register anything past the words ‘I like you’, you pull him into a hug, which is not something normal for you, but Soonyoung is the exception. You can’t help but want to hold him in your arms, your own personal ball of sunshine that has been crafted specifically for you.

“I like you too,” you whisper in his ear as you hold him close.

Soonyoung gasped in surprise at your declaration, and you could practically feel him vibrating in his seat with excitement.

He pulls back from the hug with the biggest smile on his face, eyes brighter than the stars that have been covered by the rain clouds swirling outside his window, “You do?”

“Yes, I do like you back,” you giggle while intertwining your fingers with his, “but I’ve been holding back ever since that night at the bar.”

Soonyoung raises an eyebrow, trying to rack his brain as he thinks of every moment that happened between you that night, but nothing comes to mind.

“Wait why? What happened?” He asks, curious as to why you two have gone this long without confessing to each other.

“It was something Chan said…” you trail off, staring at how your fingers are laced between his.

“Fucking Chan,” he curses at his best friend, “what did he say exactly?”

“Well he didn’t really say anything, but he just asked you a question on the stranger who you’re convinced is your soul mate or whatever,” you shrug your shoulders, trying to act like such a simple thing didn’t torment you for weeks.

Soonyoung eyebrows raise even more and his mouth forms an ‘O’ shape, and he starts to connect the dots. He didn’t think that would be the reason you hadn’t told him. If anything, he thought it was because he was not very good at his job at the cafe or that you just weren’t sure about your feelings.

“Oh, that… well I got over it a long time ago. It happened at the front of the cafe, this girl lost her glasses and it was raining and everything. I didn’t see her face because she walked away so fast I didn’t get a chance to act on it.” He recalls the moment between him and the stranger, “I was going in for my interview with Seokmin so I picked up her glasses and gave her my umbrella.”

Sitting quietly beside him, your heart plummets to the bottom of your stomach. This whole time, the person who helped you on what you considered one of your worst days to date, was Soonyoung? You aren’t even sure what to say but it's almost laughable. As if the universe had known that you two were meant to meet one way or the other.

“Soonyoung, that was me,” you reveal to him, and his eyes widen.

“THAT WAS YOU?” He practically jumps out of his seat, hands now placed on your shoulder, inspecting every corner of your face, “now that I think of it, your glasses do look familiar.”

Bursting out laughing, you can’t believe that he would react in this way. He looks like he’s just been let in on an ancient secret, “to be fair, I didn’t know it was you either, I’m practically blind without my glasses so I didn’t see your face.”

“Oh my god, we’re meant to be,” he mutters to himself, his hand covering his mouth in shock.

Soonyoung is elated, to say the least, he gave up on his beautiful stranger the moment he laid his eyes on you. But to find that you are his beautiful stranger. Well, now he knows that he can’t ever let you go.

You giggle at him, even when it’s just the two of you, he’s just as silly. That's what you like about him though, the fact that he makes you laugh and smile practically on command. You’ve never laughed this hard with anyone before, Seokmin probably being the only exception, but you don’t want to think about your boss right now.

“Baby? Eager aren’t we?” you tease, and Soonyoung blushes hard, moving away from your peering eyes as he lets go of your hands.

“I can’t help it, you’ll just have to get used to it,” he shrugs, acting nonchalant, but you can see the way he side-eyes you, wanting to still see your reaction.

“Does this mean you’ll take me out on dates? And all the other couple stuff,” you whisper in his ear, your hands circling his bicep as he faces away from you.

“W-well duh! Of course, I’m gonna take you on a proper date, I need to show you how good of a boyfriend I can be!” he exclaims and another giggle slips past your lips.

Squeezing his muscular arm tighter, you can feel his pulse increasing under your touch, “boyfriend? When did I say anything about you being my boyfriend.”

Those few words break his act and he turns to you in shock, he looks like a deer in headlights. Soonyoung is embarrassed about how ahead of himself he’s gotten but he doesn’t want to date anyone else either. If you’re not going to become his girl, then he’d rather just give up on dating altogether.

“I want to be your boyfriend, like really really bad, but only if you’ll let me,” he declares, eyes piercing into your soul with all seriousness.

Watching his demeanour change once more makes you gulp involuntarily.

“I want to be your girlfriend, like really really bad,” you echo his words.

Gasping, Soonyoung can’t contain his happiness, pulling you into a tight hug, and showering your cheeks with kisses. Giggling in his arms, your stomach begins to hurt at how much he can make you laugh in such a short amount of time.

Your body heats up at his affection, feeling the way his plush lips press against your skin. You haven’t felt something like this in a long time, but the fact that it’s Soonyoung makes it better.

Getting up from the couch you stand in front of him, and he’s confused as to why you pulled yourself away. Did he take it too far by kissing you like that? He can feel the apprehension rising within himself as he stares up at you.

“Do you wanna show me to your room?” You ask, and Soonyoung has never stood up so fast in his life ever before.

Taking your hand in his, he leads you to his bedroom. As he opens the door you're met with at least twenty different tiger stuffed animals staring at you. Soonyoung on the other hand isn’t phased at all, if anything, he takes pride in his plushie collection.

“Do you… collect all of these?” you ask him, and he just smiles and nods.

You decide to have a conversation about the plushie collection another day, but you do find it cute that he’s into something seemingly harmless.

Sitting on his bed, he doesn’t take his place beside you right away. Instead, Soonyoung carefully turns each tiger plushie around so that they’re all facing away from his bed. He turns back at your figure sitting on his mattress, a shy smile across his lips.

“Can’t have them witnessing what we’re about to do y’know,” he giggles before turning the last tiger around.

Once he is finally done, he jumps into the bed and smothers you tightly in his strong arms. You’re not over the whole tiger thing, but at least he’s happy, you think to yourself.

“Now where were we?” He looks at you, eyes still glittering even in the dim lighting of his room.

You shake your head and smile at him, pushing him down so that he's lying with his back against the bed. Each of your legs moves over his hips, hands feeling up his chest.

Leaning closer, you two share your first kiss, and it’s everything you’ve hoped for. The two of you move together in perfect sync as he grabs your sides tightly.

“You’re a good kisser,” you mumble against him, and he just smiles as he pulls you into another kiss.

Soft moans leave your mouth as he gropes your ass under your skirt, feeling the way your lack of clothes leaves more for him to grasp at. He can’t stop touching you, exploring your body like it’s his and his only to discover. The fact that you even agreed to let him be your boyfriend was enough for him, but also getting laid on the same night, well, Soonyoung could really die a happy man.

The kiss becomes heated with each second that passes, but Soonyoung just wants to let you know how much he likes you. You invade his thoughts relentlessly, not that he’s opposed to it at all. But he likes the way you smile at him every time he tells you how much he wants to be with you.

“I’m so happy you’re mine,” he whispers to you, your smile widening even more.

“I’m happy you’re mine too,” you repeat his words again, giving him the same reassurance he gives you.

Ⱄ a/n: if u want more of them please lmk hehe, and if u liked this story please leave a like or a reblog hehe it is very much appreciated :3 thank you ♡ p.s rain or shine is an actual ice cream shop in bc heheh

Ⱄ perm tag-list: @christinewithluv @todorokiskitten @peachescreamandcrumble @minwonfairy @oneandonlyluvv @ihrtmingyu @tigerhoshii @sleepzyy @luveveryonewoo @thepoopdokyeomtouched @chan-s-laptop @aksweet7 @leah-rose03 @woofie-nctzen-fanarts @gyuguys @crystal-rhyming @jenoxygen @hoshhhiiiii @babigriin @bouclesdefeu @mingyuecstacy @iluvseokmin @odevote118 @wonvsmile @suga-bitch @chickpea-jimin @lar3ine @bias-recs @hanniebub @iluvmingi @vapidlynn @aaniag @yogurttea @blurr3db3rry @lovejoshua @woozixo @drunk-on-dk @noiceoofed @angelfeverdream @leahhhher @hanniebwii @yuyunhoo @whowantshota @hannniiiiiehae @afslme @writingbarnes

#anna #i would like a trip to your brain pls #HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH SUCH CUTE STORIES #ugh #and yes #i opened my google docs to annotate and write my thoughts as i was reading #THAT GOOD #i love this soo much #lola's recs <3 #anywho #now that our couple is happy and all #seokmin #one chance pls-#*gets dragged back to asylum by feet*#moots; anna 🎀

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sergeantmicah · 2 years ago

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Micah Lore pt 1:

I think he would get a long with everyone like soap cause why not. The 141 call my oc and Soap twins because of how similar they are

He is on loan from the Canadian military. Former sniper. Was pretty good at it but it is not his thing. Turned to medical and loves that instead. The 141 needed another pair of hands in the medical office so they came up with an agreement with Canada to loan Micah to the task force provided that Micah also is involved with missions

He is that meme of I’m a healer but and is also I can name every bone in your body while breaking them

He’s like 5’9 and medium build. But he can hold himself in a fight

Can’t win against bigger guys but knows the human weakpoints so he uses his medical knowledge in a fight

Can read French is shit at speaking it. I want his youth to be involved with swimming and kickboxing. His canines are really sharp and longer than normal. He jokingly gets called a vampire cause of them but he swears he doesn’t like the taste of blood. Loud laugh and isn’t afraid to show it

He is very protective of his friends. He kinda rivals Soap. If someone gets hurt on a mission he gets very angry and will literally handcuff his friends to the bed if they are injured enough cause he knows that they are really stubborn

Has had to killed his comrades in more than one occasion due to them betraying him and joining Hassan. So he is determined to make sure that never happens again

I feel like he was taken a tortured a couple of times so he has some deep gauges on his ribs and stomach. So he doesn’t like to go shirtless

He randomly wakes up with bruises and doesn’t know where they came from. Will murder anyone in the morning before he gets coffee

I want Micah to be shy meeting new people. Social anxiety™️

Fav drink is cocktails. The guys make fun of him but like in a friend way

"That’s a cute drink there Mikey" "Fuck off Soap"

Him and Köing are really good pals. Talking about being on loan from different countries and anxiety. Also they just get along

Köing putting Micah on his shoulders>>>

You see them running towards you like 11ft tall at night wdyd. It’s scared Ghost. GHOST

Gaz and him tpose at Price. Price is never amused

Gaz and Micah having matching friendship necklaces. Like from Clair’s

Def intimidated by Ghost at first but warms up to him. Don’t let Micah, Soap and Ghost in a room alone. They will make bad dad jokes until someone murders them

He is Price’s secret second fav. (His first is Gaz obviously)

Always has a mini med kit on him

Price knows about his trans status obv but no one else really does. He showers late at night when everyone is asleep and no one sees him with his shirt off

Micah sends Ghost memes and has to explain them to him

“They’re makin a bloody Barbie movie?” “YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT THE BARBIE MOVIE??”

“Don’t you know culture ghost?”

When they go out to a bar Micah always seems to get free drinks. The 141 don’t know why they get jealous

Some how one of them finds out that Micah is trans and he freaks out like yeah. But the other guys are chill they beat up people if they ever find out

A rookie makes like a trans joke and the 141 just death

Sleepy drunk Micah piggybacking on König >>>

He customized his boots to hide some gauze and some small knives in them. He’s got like a million tiny knives on him at all times because he doesn’t want to get captured again

Micah absolutely gets mad when he tastes the “syrup” the base has. He’s like this isn’t…the real shit… (brought the real stuff w him). Soap n Gaz steal it and Micah nearly kills them. He is fine with Gaz cause he asked politely but Soap rip it was nice knowing you

That’s all for now!

#Micah Atkinson #oc #cod modern warfare #cod #my posts #cod oc

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jade-parcels · 3 years ago

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👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕

The bunnies’ other jobs!

From my bunny cafe au

((I am so peeved :((( I had this all written out!! And I deleted it by accident!! Darnnnnn!!!))

Anon asked “You mentioned that some of the bunnies have day jobs so do they all have jobs outside the cafe or just a few?” (Something along these lines…again…I deleted it by accident 😔)

👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕

Diluc/‘Angel’

After his father got bored with the wine industry, he passed the whole company off to Diluc on his 18th birthday in order to shift his focus to mining. Diluc found himself swamped with all kinds of business decisions while just barely being an adult. He expanded the company and hired some very trustworthy people to handle things for him so he could finish college

When the business was given to him, Diluc and Kaeya had an explosive fight over it. Kaeya felt like he deserved to have some say in what happens to the business, he’s still a part of the family! But Diluc refused to let him in on any decisions so Kaeya packed his bags and left (not before cussing him out in front of their father, staff and business partners). He was just in a silly, goofy mood. They’re fine now, not on the best terms but they do chat and meet up for lunch on occasion.

He is filthy rich, he couldn’t spend all of his all of his money if he tried, so he doesn’t really need the job at the cafe! Kaeya got him the job because he knew his brother was stuck in a weird, antisocial funk and needed some fun in his life

Diluc loves this job, he has a great time, but it isn’t his main job. His priority will always be the family business!! If he has to quit his job at the cafe, he would in a heartbeat

👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕👯‍♂️💕

Kaeya

Kaeya was going to go into the police academy but was scouted out by a modeling agency. They had seen him at Ragnvindr company events and thought ‘well damn’ so they gave him a pretty generous deal

Kaeya makes a good living off of modeling, the tips and paycheck from the cafe. He rakes in cash pretty quickly just cause he knows how to get it. That, and his dad sends him checks every other month as well. Kaeya thinks of it as ‘I’m sorry’ money. He isn’t wrong

He doesn’t travel much for modeling, which he doesn’t mind, so he kinda just hangs around the city with a lot of free time on his hands between photo shoots. That’s why he got this job at the cafe! It gives him something to do and it’s fun as hell ;)

Albedo

Bedo is one busy bunny. He finished college early and is getting his masters degree online. He works most days at the cafe and on the weekends, he tutors other college students in bio/chem/science related subjects

(He was actually Xiao’s tutor back when he was failing chemistry!! Xiao is very thankful for Albedo’s help!!)

His dream is to become a biochemist, he’s always been interested in cells and what makes up living beings. So having a career in that field would make him the happiest man alive

His mother and sister live outside the city in a more rural area so he spends a lot of time FaceTiming the two of them! Klee is always so excited to hear about Albedo’s experiments or the people he’s met while working in such a bustling, fun city :)

Zhongli

Zhongli is a simple man! He’s a bunny waiter and an artist

He creates intricate pieces based on folklore from different cultures, focusing mostly on dragons. His favorite medium is paint, he loves painting on glass and layering the panes in order to create a 3D piece

He sells his works to galleries, shops and anyone who wants them! As long as they appreciate the story behind the artwork. Sadly…He undersells his work. He could def be making more money but he just does not desire money or material goods the way others may

So he got his job at the cafe in order to help out his dear friend Ningguang, not for money, he only planned on working there for a month or two until she got more bunnies but…he ended up really loving the people he works with :’) he looks forward to working with them now and texts/calls them outside of work to meet up for lunch or bowling (such an old man thing to do omfg)

Dainsleif/‘Sweetie’

Dain was a bouncer at another bar before leaving to come to Celestia’s! He’s good friends with Beidou, they belong to the same motorcycle club so when she was talking to him about the lack of security at the cafe/bar, he stepped in to help out

Little did he know…he’d actually become a bunny…And like it

This is his full time job now, he doesn’t have another for the time being. While he is a bunny at the cafe, he still keeps an eye out for any threats to his coworkers and has access to the offices upstairs (Ningguang’s office and the security office)

When he isn’t waiting tables, he’s upstairs in a tank top and sweatpants keeping an eye on the security cameras and talking to the other security guards through their ear pieces

Ajax

Ajax is a student who doesn’t really have much time on his hands

He mows lawns in the summer and he’s quit his job as a cashier to come work at the cafe! He mostly works night shifts his cause he’s still going to school aaaaaand he’s on his college’s swim team! He’s about to graduate so he works close with his coach to help train the others on the team

He doesn’t really want his family knowing that he skips around in a skimpy bunny outfit and fucking customers most nights but I mean…They’re bound to find out if they see him in pictures people post

Xiao/‘Tofu’

Xiao is an art student!! He wants to be a tattoo artist :)

He’s already got one sleeve of tattoos, it’s unfinished but you can’t really tell just by looking. When he isn’t at the cafe, he’s either in class or shadowing Ganyu, his best friend and tattoo artist. Their art styles greatly differ, she focuses her craft on cutesy, colored tattoos, but she is skilled. And Xiao looks up to her

Xiao admires Zhongli too, they met at the cafe and when Zhongli found out Xiao wants to be a tattoo artist he told him that once he’s licensed, he wants to get a tattoo from him :’)

Baizhu/‘Honey’

Baizhu is a (mostly) full time pharmacist, hence why he isn’t usually at the cafe

He also has a niece, Qiqi, who he babysits often. He loves her very much so he has no problem watching her! Baizhu will even bring her to the pharmacy with him when he’s swamped with work. In the break room, he has a play kitchen, coloring books and a bunch of puzzles to keep Qiqi occupied while he works :)

When he’s not at work, he’s at home resting. He has chronic pain flare ups in his back and shoulders that can make life miserable :( he has plenty of good days that outweigh the bad! And as a pharmacist, he has access to any medicine he needs to make his life easier!

Dottore(Alain)/‘Doc’

Alain’s an oral surgeon who’s a little bit….too into his job

He isn’t phased by blood or gore so he’s easily able to conduct procedures that would make other squeamish. He’ll pull teeth, put in dental implants, remove rotten tissue, any of that without even flinching

Outside of that, he works at the cafe. He wears a mask in order to avoid being recognized even though at his job as a surgeon, he’s usually wearing a medical mask anyways. It’s just a precaution

This has nothing to do with his career but he used to be a tap dancer and actor so he’d join in on local theatre shows! He helped build sets when he wasn’t rehearsing. He doesn’t have time for that anymore (which kinda makes him sadddd) but he has all kinds of theatre playlists on his phone and in his car that he’ll sing along to

Scaramouche/‘Boss’

Scara’s job at the cafe is his main job! His side job is something you may not expect from such a grump

He works at an animal shelter! In fact, he brings cats home to train so they have an increased chance of being adopted. Someone is more likely to adopt a potty trained, socialized cat than a feral cat who doesn’t know what a litter box is. So Scara brings them to his apartment for some one-on-one socializing, training and cuddling

One time he offhandedly mentioned working at an animal shelter while he was working at the cafe and sure enough, three separate customers from the cafe came by to adopt!!! Only one actually took an animal home but he was still surprised that those people had listened to him and cared enough to come by

Scara is a jerk most of the time but when he’s at home…by himself…With a lil kitten sleeping in his lap while he plays games on his PC…Yeah, he softens up a bit

So as you can see, we have a very diverse group working at the cafe! They’ve all learned a lot from each other, come to appreciate each other’s friendship and come to help each other out when one of their coworkers is in need or upset.

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paint-music-with-me · 3 years ago

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so i just finished Tasty Florida

here’s my ramblings that people have already said before (+ more?)

Yes i loved how short it was (the whole run time is 45 min!) - it’s fast and easy to keep up with and i love the ost. honestly i can see myself easily rewatching this again when im just in a mood. i def rec this to anyone just wanting something sweet and nothing too heavy on plot (think like Ingredients the series)

i think bc of how easy and short this show is, it opens the doors for potential to be definitely longer (whether in episodes or in duration in each episode) - though whatever I say is no way saying it’ll make the show “better”, i just love expanding more on what’s been given.

- explore Hae Won’s motivations - I know he’s there for school but the whole idea that he’s quite sheltered (I think from his mom’s hover parenting) and then moving to a new city for school is very interesting to explore. I’m imagining more cute little misunderstandings throughout his first day as he tries to find the Rooftop Hostel (imagine each misunderstanding he meets a different staff worker from the restaurant >.< ) or even go into his dreams/ambitions - what’s he in school for? What is his dream? Does he discover that cooking is a passion? - basically we started with Hae Won as the MC (bc he was the first guy we “met”) then Eun Gyu became the MC despite being the love interest (not a bad thing but the balance of their stories wasn’t even for me)

- more dynamic between Eun Gyu and Ji Soo - i want more bromance between them in backstory and explore it a bit more - i like their talk on the roof about how Ji Soo’s family took Eun Gyu in when his father left and his mother passed so Eun Gyu feels indebted to him and his family so he never asks for anything. i want more of that dynamic where they are close but not as close as you’d think because of this elephant in the room and maybe there’s some resentment in that because how can one not feel/notice it throughout 15 years of friendship!

- the whole burn injury was not milked out enough! - basically, Eun Gyu has to teach Hae Won because he’s not as skilled with cooking so this is the perfect opportunity for them to get closer with this situation in mind. so picture this: Eun Gyu is still a bit standoffish to Hae Won but is curious at what Ji Soo sees in Hae Won so he slips in and out of dazes. BOOM! injury occurs then Hae Won HAS to cook and Eun Gyu is stuck having to teach him. He’s a bit exasperated but he begrudingly does it. Ji Soo tries to find a way to use this to his advantage (drops Eun Gyu off, brings over lunch, spends time during break, etc). Soon enough it’s v close proximity of cooking and learning with each other. Maybe Eun Gyu talks about why he loves cooking or Hae Won talks more about his dreams. Shoot, you can even bring in that one auntie from the first ep who was the close friend of the mom! I liked her! but this couldve honestly stretched the show for one more ep (not that i’m saying it NEEDED to)

- BITCH! GIVE ME MORE OF THOSE TWO SUPPORTING CHARACTERS OMG IDEK THEIR NAMES - (researches) Ha Jin and Seo Hyeok!! I NEEDED MORE OF THEM OMGG i honestly don’t care if they got together or whatever but my gods they look like the chaotic duo that i needed in this show omggg just let them loose pleasee can you imagine the amount of chaos that could’ve happened if you jsut let these two loose? So many situations that could’ve put Eun Gyu and Hae Won in positions where they are close or alone together or even Ji Soo and Hae Won together?? just... elevate the chaos pleaseee

- talk more about the social media/exposure between customers and service - idk if i said it right, but the idea that people/customers push the boundaries with the staff people bc they are all handsome men is an interesting concept to explore - have a situation that escalates that causes a kerfuffle. Maybe someone gets too touchy with Hae Won or Ha Jin or Seo Hyeok, who ofc react negatively and maybe a fight breaks out - this puts the restaurant in a negative light and now the staff are stuck in a situation where customers are hesitant to come by bc oMg tHe sErVIce pEOplE aRE rUdE, then Hae Won probs feels bad and Ji Soo comforts him saying he did nothing wrong and maybe Eun Gyu is rightfully upset and blah blah blah but hopefully you get where I’m coming from

but overall this show is really nice, def a different vibe from My Sweet Dear which i enjoyed v much and it def helped me feel better after that disastrous Bite Me :/ so ultimately my final notes are: Nothing is better than To My Star and season 2 better be fucking good okay goodnight byeee

#tasty florida #blabber time #ranting #ignore me #how the fuck does the dramalist sypnopsis make it sound so much more than what actually the time run is #efknaw;eoifne #bl drama #korean bl #hae won x eun gyu #hae won x ji soo #zeze

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jq37 · 4 years ago

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On a scale of 1-10, how difficult is it to make a podcast? I’ve been following ANA since you first announced it (I’m so excited for it) and the other day I came up with an idea that I think would make a good series

Hey, thanks for the message! And thanks for being interested. Absolutely No Adventures has been a lot of fun to put together and it's nice to see that people are looking forward to it.

As for your question I'd say maybe a 6? But that's a really incomplete answer and I did a lot of searching for help on how to get started when I decided to do this so I'll give you more in depth breakdown of the steps and if you have more questions you can totally message me off of anon.

(1) Write The Thing

So yeah, no getting around it. The first thing you have to do is just write the podcast. For some people, this is the hardest part. For me, it was probably the easiest part because it's the thing I was most familiar with. You already have an idea, which is great. So now you probably want to sit down and figure out things like is this a limited miniseries or will it be on-going with multiple seasons? How long will each episode be?

You also want to make sure you write for the medium. For example, in a book, you can just say, "She hugged him." But if it's audio, you have to make there's some kind of indication for that (ie: Man: Oh, and now we're hugging).

Format doesn't matter too too much as long as it's consistent. I used film script format in Celtx (which is free) but people also use Google Docs. Just pick what's easiest for you and get going.

I also highly recommend you finish a full season of scripts (or the whole set if it's a mini series) before you move on. Some people write as they go and if you want to do that, cool, but it's one less thing to worry about once you're in production and you don't want writer's block to slow you down once you're already going.

(2) Casting

So this is where I left my comfort zone and had to learn to do things I was unfamiliar with. The good news here is, there are a lot of actors available to be a part of projects like this for varying amounts of money or no money at all if it's an interesting enough project. I will advocate for paying people if you can though because I wanna make money off of my art someday so I think it's only fair to reciprocate. If it is unpaid, just be upfront about that. It's common among indie projects so it's not scandalous or anything.

Anyway, the basic process here is you write up a casting call that says what the project is, what the deadline is for auditioning, and has some audition lines for each characters (called sides). Then you post on Twitter which has a pretty active voice actor community plus some other places like reddit and certain FB groups and auditions will start rolling in. Casting calls tend to spread--people came to me from Discords I'd never heard of. Once you get a bunch you can pick who you like or, if you can't decide, invite back some people for callbacks and then pick.

I think 2 weeks is a good length of time to keep auditions open, longer if you're looking for something really specific.

It's also possible to simplify this step if you happen to know friends who have mics and wanna help or if you want to do a podcast with a very small cast--maybe even just one person who could be you. There are a number of podcasts with that format. I maybe should have mentioned this during writing but I'll mention it here instead. Anything you have to write, you will have to produce, so keep that in mind. Like, when you're writing, it's easy to have a bunch of extras and sound effects and crazy things happening, but remember that you have to bring that all to life later, so maybe a different character can give that exposition so you don't have to cast ANOTHER person as an extra.

(That being said, most actors I've worked with are chill with doing an extra voice or two.)

Oh! Also. Time zones are a thing. Keep that in mind. I do no regret casting an Australian, a Brit, and Americans across the country because they were all fantastic, but it was hell to schedule.

(3) Recording

So there are 3 main ways to record--in person in studio, remotely together, and remotely apart.

Option one is kind of a no-go right now because of Covid so let's talk about the other 2.

Remotely Together means you get all your actors on a Zoom call with you and they're all in their studios and you record as if you're all in the same room. I did this for ANA and I think it's the best way to do it cause people get to react to each other in real time which is great. The only thing is, it means you have to line up everyone's schedules which is a total bear. Still, if you can do it, worth it.

Remotely Apart means you give everyone their scripts and tell them to send in their lines in x weeks. I did this for some episodes of Secret Podcast Number 2 and it works fine. But for the more emotional eps, we still recorded together. This method is good because it gets rid of timing troubles which was necessary since we're doing a December release (which, trust me, is crazy quick for what we’re doing), but there are some things, you want people to be able to adjust their intensity levels for in the moment.

Either way, but especially in scenario 2, I'd suggest you do a table read first where everyone gets on call and reads through everything. It helps everyone get a feel for each other so they're not going in cold.

Wrt directing, it can feel a little weird to tell people how to talk or inflect or how much they should be crying, but, as long as you're polite, just go for it. They're actors. They can take the notes. That's what they do. All of my actors were always super great about it.

(4) Production

Alright so you have lines in from all your actors.

The next question is, how are you going to handle your production? The actual putting together of the lines and cleaning them up and balancing and adding effects and all that?

I specifically wrote ANA to have relatively simply sound design and it was *still* too much for me to handle so I opted to outsource for that and it was for sure where most of a budget went. If you happen to know how to do this or have the time to learn, you'll def save yourself some money. It is still very time consuming though. The one part that I did do--deciding which takes to use from the lines my actors sent (aka: picking takes) and putting them together to send to my sound guy--took super long as is.

If you're going to hire/recruit someone to do this stuff for you, I recommend you do it before you cast because they'll be able to let you know if the actors who want have compatible audio quality.

IDK what standard procedure is here but the way it works with my guy is I send him lines and then he puts stuff together and sends me a draft of the episode. Then I say what I want changed in an excel spreadsheet with time stamps and we go back and forth until it's done.

(5) Ancillary Stuff

Theme music! You probably want that! There are a couple of routes you can go here. You can get something from a music library--either totally free or for a relatively small fee. This is the most cost effective but will probably more generic and likely in use somewhere else if it's fully free.

You can write it yourself if that's a thing you're good at obviously. Or you can pay someone to do it which will probably cost you a couple hundred bucks but will be totally tailored and unique.

Cover Art! Also very important. People do judge things by their covers so I def rec getting a really dope one made. Canva is also your friend for like icons and stuff.

A Website! You'll want at least a basic one for like contact info, transcripts, stuff like that. I just use Carrd. You can get a pretty classic, website-like setup by using sections and you can link to a custom URL for only like 13 bucks a year which is great.

(6) Marketing

OK so, I'm gonna be real with you, this is the step I'm working on now so I'm still figuring it out!

Besides posting on social media and stuff, you also need to make a press kit which is basically a doc with all the info about you and the show. You can see mine on the ANA site.

I also have mood-board-y graphics I made on Canva to drop with each ep (or ahead of them. Haven’t quite decided).

I will say, I’ve made friends in the community and a lot of them have hyped up my stuff without me even asking. Which isn’t me saying, “Make friends for what they can do for you.” Gross. What I’m saying is that just participating in the community can help.

Anyway, this is getting way too long. I hope this was at least somewhat helpful. Like I said, if you (or anyone else) has more specific questions, hit me up!

#asks #anon #podcast #podcast advice #audio drama #Anonymous

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douchebagbrainwaves · 4 years ago

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EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT FOUNDERS

Even a day's delay can bring news that causes an investor to your cofounder s should be like introducing a girl/boyfriend to your parents—something you do only when things reach a certain stage of seriousness. Counterintuitive as it feels, it's better most of the calories. There's something fake about it. So while they're often nice guys, they just can't help it. History tends to get rewritten by big successes, so that in retrospect it seems obvious they were going to grow into big, beautiful swans. So there you have it: languages are not equivalent, and I think this is the preferred way to solve the problem in its full complexity, it would seem crazy to most people to try to make it big is not simply a constant fraction of the things that will surprise you if you build something popular is that you shouldn't relax just because you have to create a special visa for startup founders. ITA in New Architect magazine said that one line of Lisp can replace 20 lines of C, and since they're the customer you can take that without having to think.

The combined code can be much shorter than if you had no users, it would still be important to release quickly, because for a startup the initial release acts as a shakedown cruise. A couple days ago I found to my surprise that I'd been granted a patent. If you talk to investors in parallel rather than serially. But that's another issue. Not just small, lame. If life is short. What they really dislike is the sort of big social shift that only happens once every few generations. In phase 2, yes. One thing all startups have in common is that they probably will, one day.

Such a high proportion of successful startups raise money that it might seem fundraising is one of the organizers got up on the stage to deliver an impromptu rebuttal. Ken Anderson says that the following code is about as close as you can, to a limited extent, simulate a closure a function that takes a number n, and returns a function that generates accumulators—a function that takes another number i and returns n incremented by i. So here we have two pieces of information that I think are very valuable. Don't be hapless. And yet we'd all be wrong. Introducing an investor to your cofounder s should be like introducing a girl/boyfriend to your parents—something you do only when things reach a certain stage of seriousness. And frankly the thought of a 30% success rate at fundraising makes my stomach clench.

But the founders contribute ideas. So things don't happen in the Python example, where we are in effect simulating the code that a compiler would generate to implement a lexical variable. This is why we even hear about new languages like Perl and Python. This was the Lisp function eval. Similarly, when investors ask how much you plan to raise a $7 million series A round, and we'll be accepting termsheets next tuesday. And yet within a month it had happened again: an aggressive west coast VC who had met the founder of a company in trouble, which makes it difficult to tell founders what to aim for. To get a truly random sample, pollsters ask, say, every 20th person leaving the polling place who they voted for.1 If it were, so you don't need money take some to grow faster than the salary that seemed so high when they left school.

A group of 10 people working together in the usual way. The challenge is whether we can keep things this way. Often it's one the founders themselves hadn't seen yet. It is. A bottom-up program should be easier to raise money in phase 2 get the best investors is in the bank so far. If an acquirer thinks you're going to stick around no matter what, they'll be more likely to buy you. If they reject you in phase 2, as a sort of Gresham's Law of trolls: trolls are willing to use a forum with a lot of animals in the wild is that each species thrives in groups of a certain size. Because some people don't respond. The sites's guidelines explicitly ask people not to say things they wouldn't say face to face contact that makes deals happen, but whatever it is, it hasn't yet been duplicated by technology.2 In a place where there was infrastructure for startups, accumulated knowledge about how to make them act. $15k per month is high, so don't actually spend that much.

This is not just a synonym for annoying. But this approach is industry best practice, and the odds of finding programmers, libraries, etc. Even a day's delay can bring news that causes an investor to commit, ask them to introduce you to other investors they respect. For example, if you've sold more than about 40% of your company in subsequent rounds. If your startup is connected to a specific industry, you may be better off in Silicon Valley. And yet a large number of startups. Investors are pinched between two kinds of fear: fear of investing in startups that fizzle, and fear of missing out on startups that take off. So you must cushion the blow with soft words.

Most visible disasters are not so alarming as they seem. When you pick a big winner, you won't know your users, it's dangerous to guess what the eventual equity round valuation might be. Most programming probably consists of writing little glue programs you can use, if the upside looks good enough. So if you lop off the top of the base language, you build on top of the possible rewards, you thereby decrease people's willingness to take risks proportionate to the returns. Wufoo took this to heart and released their form-builder before the underlying database. Because Python doesn't fully support lexical variables, you have a lead. Its purpose is to shield the pointy-haired boss believes that all programming languages are pretty much equivalent. And as software shifts off the desktop and onto servers a future even Microsoft seems resigned to, there will be more of them go ahead and do without startups. It will be easier to modify as well, and with it growth. Their lives are short too. And when people seem to think, any economic upper bound on this number. The other big driver of change is that startups are becoming cheaper to start a consulting company, or a niche product company, but against a backdrop of constant disasters.

Users love a site that's constantly improving. Slashdot, for example—because they're confident you'll pick them. And it is not clear whether you can actually solve this problem in other languages, of course, projects where the choice of programming language doesn't matter much. If it were, you could fund everyone who seemed likely to succeed at all. Inc or class foo: def __init__ self, s: self. What's important about startups is the pool of potential founders. When a decision causes you to develop software at a fraction of the probability that the company will die or at the very least people will have to be.

Notes

The company may not even be conscious of this model was that it makes the business spectrum than the rich paid high taxes? Investors are one of the words out of fashion in 100 years, dribbling out a preliminary answer on the y, you'd ultimately be a variant of the world population, and that's much harder it is very long: it might be 20 or 30 times as much difference to a bunch of actual adults suddenly found themselves trapped in high school junior. I believe, is this someone you want to either. 39 says that I know this is a variant of the ingredients in our own version that afternoon.

Down rounds are at selling it. Only founders of failing startups would even be working on Y Combinator makes founders move for 3 months also suggests one underestimates how hard they work. People tell the craziest lies about me.

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kainefloyd · 4 years ago

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{ KJ APA . CIS MALE . 23 . HE/HIM } did you see that { KAINE ‘KAI’ FLOYD } just pulled up in hidden hills with { LORENA RAMOS } sitting next to them in the passengers seat - isn’t that cute ! you know, for a { NBA PLAYER - LAKERS }, i’ve heard they’re really { INDECISIVE }, but that they make up for it by being so { CHARMING }. i see them all the time on snapchat && yesterday in US WEEKLY i read that they { HAVE } 2 sons - can you believe that ?!

some basics;

Kaine ‘Kai’ Floyd is originally from Hawaii. He is Samoan & Hawaiian.

Goes by the nickname K-9 in the NBA for his name and number.

Born August 19th

Most of his friends back home call him Kai.

There’s over 100 people in his immediate family. At this rate, he has lost count.

Oldest of 9 siblings.

Has the two most cutest, adorable baby boys with Lorena.

He’s a starting point guard for the LA Lakers

Attended UCLA for college where he got drafted out of. Never finished his degree.

Works with lots of children organizations and likes to give back to kids however he can.

Has endorsement deals with top athletic brands, drinks and his own branch/line off of everything he partakes in.

Him and Lorena were on basketball wives. They have a huge fan base of their relationship on social media thanks to the reality show.

Lives HERE currently

as a dad;

Father of Two Sons; Tide Alexander and Evian Reign.

Tide’s nickname are Ty, Ty Guy, My Ty. And Evian’s are Evy but Tide calls him baby Evy

He wants as many kids as Lo will give him. He’s huge into family, loves being a dad and is very careful when it comes to sex. His goal is to only have one baby mama in life that he’s in love with, can spoil and get to tie down/be a stay at home mom which can be an argument/disagreement point that we can work on.

Tide and Evian are his parents first grandkids, his grandparents first great grands and he has a sister who is four. His parents were young when they had him and now only 45 & 44. and his grandparents are in their 60′s and 70′s.

He’s such a push over, his kids pouts and when they wrap their arms around his neck or want to be held makes him melt.

They literally are the light of his life. Nothing means more to him than those two little boys.

Has a play room for them that is extreme, full out little kid basketball court, swing set inside, slides, arts and craft sections, all the toys, everything.

Tells bad dad jokes sometimes. Okay most of the time.

Has their names tattoo’d over his heart

Kaine will also be there to babysit, help out single moms and do whatever whenever. He’s super caring and loves friends that can turn into family. There’s nothing more that this guy loves than throwing down a huge bbq for everyone, being behind the grill and when the kids go to bed, turning up with all the drinks.

lorena;

Love of his life.

Her smile and laugh are everything. Making her blush and their size difference. Huge turn ons.

They have an on again, off again relationship since Evy. which he hates for him and his sons but knows he is an ass and they have to figure their shit out before having another kid.

Kaine can be super romantic at times, makes sure to include things she enjoys like candles and pays attention to the little things she loves in life.

Still keeps her closet open at his place, buying her things to have there to try and get her to spend the night.

Compares every girl in his life to her.

Flirts around sometimes but that’s mostly his personality when they’re off cause she’s kinda hot when jealous?

Downfall is Kaine. entirely. they are set for life with money and their family’s shares in ebay, then the millions he makes from the nba, his endorsement deals, reality tv and all of that so he expects lo to want to be a stay at home mom?

He’s a dumb dumb but literally is the type to grab up on her butt and kiss her neck, very affectionate with her is his personality no matter what.

Expresses his appreciation and admiration for her frequently for their family, their sons and her, etc.

Wants to always provide for her, in lots of ways.

Never gives up hope they’ll be together forever. that’s why he hasn’t really laid down roots in his place? because he has his own ideas.

Wants to build an empire with her.

Knows how lucky he is and like, admits it but has big jerk energy sometimes when it comes to pride and needs to recognize her dreams matter too? like she is an amazing mom and wifey type. 100 percent. but she should get to live out what she wants to do just like he does.

His father is the terrible influence he learned things from and his mom really needs to speak to him about all of this.

his hawaiian family life;

His father was super unfaithful and always stepping out on his mom. They had a very toxic relationship, but in the culture, his mom was pretty much left to deal with it.

Christianity and church is an important aspect in Hawaii so is their image.

They are Hawaii’s most famous family.

Kaine is the oldest of 8 kids that he knows of? would love a half sibling.

Kaine’s Tutu and Tuma (what he calls his paternal grandparents) are the matriarchs of the family and own acres and acres of land. They are beyond rich and created their own compound beachside where they had custom homes built for their children.

Kaine’s paternal grandfather and father are part owners of ebay and billionaires.

Kaine’s mother, Maria came from nothing. She was a model in New York City when she met Kaine’s father, Elei - EJ for short who was there for business. Her parents didn’t approve of her running off to marry him, but it wasn’t a question in her eyes. It was what she wanted to do and thought he was going to provide her with a life of luxury that allowed her to continue to stay in the modeling world.

All of his brother’s and sisters carry on the Hawaiian tradition with strong, Hawaiian names that came from ‘dreams’.

Maria is always in town as often as she can to visit, stays usually at Kaine’s and brings some of his siblings. Her family is estranged and she is struggling with trying to reconnect with them after all of these years.

kaine’s personal life;

Super loaded & knows what he likes and doesn’t in this world.

Is pretty private about things, not super flashy. Isn’t one for suits and stuff like that, even on game day. He does dress up during the playoffs though.

He’s into surfing, skateboarding, the island life and living, four wheeling, going on adventures, tanning and living more relaxed when he can.

His home is super open planned which he fixes and gates up accordingly when he has his kids, don’t worry.

Loves a good beer, chilling outdoors, going to the beach or having a bonfire on a Friday night.

Listens to all kinds of music.

His party habits are kind of wild when he does go out, though.

Dark Liquor has him crazy, tequila makes him super duper horny.

Def sends Lo risky texts when he’s drunk and you can tell by the look on his face when it’s time for him to go home.

Kaine is into working out, very dedicated to his ab life, has a home gym and a half basketball court at his house outside but also a personal trainer he visits and has over. His work is never done.

Very strict with his diet and has a chef that cooks for him weekly, prepares meals and stacks his fridge and freezer.

Tattoos are life. Has 12 currently and his artist on speed dial.

Has a huge man cave, collects old school vintage band and sports memorabilia.

Also into buying arcade games for his home to play at any time.

Is best friends with lots of top named players in the league and has a close, big brother/big brother relationship with Lebron James. Kobe was his idol.

Cars. This boy has 8 in Hidden Hills alone.

The house he owns is massive, but hates living in it without Lo.

Family owns a few private jets.

Wants to get dogs, he has some back in Hawaii that are his family dogs but for now he’s waiting until him and Lorena lay grounds better? Plus, he knows she loves her pup and doesn’t want to try and one up her.

connections;

in between on and off times with his baby mama, he has had some dating flings featured in the tabloids. not all are true, some are just friendships.

he knows that people could use him easily for fame and clout, so he is protective of himself and who he lets in his life.

no one random their sons ever. he’s extremely protective of them and his privacy, but is trying to make sure to branch out more and make more parent buddies.

as for friends, he’s a guy’s guy. loves saturdays being for the boys. would love all the friendships.

you can count on kaine to show up and come through with helping you whenever you’re in need. he’s a good listener, doesn’t care much about drama so you don’t have to worry about him repeating anything.

#hiddenhintros #kaine floyd | about #character study | muse #character study | kaine floyd

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sweetlittlehawke · 6 years ago

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Keep Moving Forward

It’s December. Yknow what that means! Let’s reflect on the year. When I made a post like this last year, it was a hopeful thing. I was excited about the coming year, because I was excited that I’d finally met some people I could hang out with. I love Alea and Brooke to the moon and back, but only having two friends for most of my life is not the best. As much as I denied it for years, my mum’s right. I’m very social. I have social anxiety. But I am a very social person. So, if you wanna read about all that, it’s under a read more. Cause fucking hell did this get long.

So, this year started and I was single, I was in Unity, I was in school, and I was living with my parents. By May I was not single and I was not in Unity. Shortly after that- because end of the semester and stuff and things happening- I was no longer in school or living with my parents. At this point in the year, I’m still not single, nor in Unity (as I doubt I’ll ever go back. To the troupe at least, I absolutely wanna go back to taking classes), or in school. But I have plans to go back to school. I’m halfway to being able to afford a car, and then saving for an apartment, so Sammy and I can go to Cleveland. Because I wanna be close to my friends. I don’t like most of the people I live with presently, and neither does Sam. So we’re gonna move out in July when the lease is up on our place.

When I made this post last year, I talked about the only table top rpgs I’d played was a D&D 5e oneshot, a game of Roll for Shoes, and was just then stepping into a campaign. Needless to say, that changed. A lot. I’ve played West Marches to it’s end. I’ve been in Alex’s Pathfinder campaign for a year. I spent a semester in Andrew’s Pathfinder campaign (and met my girlfriend through that). I’ve spent two semesters in Jacob’s 5e campaign. I’ve started a campaign of my own at Breakout to get those people into D&D. I’ve gone so far with this, and I love it. I love every second of it. I also mentioned that I’d kinda started in Magic, but hadn’t put any money towards it. That didn’t last either. I’ve built my own custom deck, and that def required spending money. Once Andrew got me a starter deck it was downhill from there. I don’t play a ton, but Magic def did get my interest.

Last year I kinda just made lil shoutouts to Scott, Trevi, and Andrew. But this year I have so many more people to talk about, and to be thankful for. Because they’re not just new people that I’m kinda sorta friends with. They’re my family. So lemme go through this. Lemme take a bit, to talk about this gaggle of people I’ve found, that I love.

It’s primarily the Pathfinder group. The original Pathfinder group. Alex, Jacob, Andrew, Thomas, Susannah, Molly, and Will. Most of these people are also the people in West Marches, but there are some West Marches people that aren’t in Pathfinder. People like Joey and Adriana, Freddie, Michael, and of course, Trevi and Scott. Now, to go into detail about the specific people, and why I love them.

Alex is just, great. I don’t always feel like I’m super close with him, but he does pay attention to everyone in the group. We recently had a session that really hit that fact home. It was a Christmas session, because it’s December what else are we gonna do? Each of our characters had gifts, and these gifts meant something to each of us. Outside of games though, he’s just as attentive. He’s always supportive, and very understanding of when people need distance or aid. He’s encouraging, and frankly I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him say something bad against anyone. Ambiguous maybe, but never bad.

Jacob- fucking hell this guy. He’s literally the sweetest man I’ve ever met. He’s always trying to help, and encourage people. If he knows he’s done something wrong he apologizes and does whatever it takes to fix it. He knows I’m short on money, so whenever I’m around he’s always offering to buy me food- or just straight up give me his food. He even bought Sammy’s Christmas present for me, because I’m just too broke to do it. I don’t understand how someone can be that selfless?? Jacob wtf?? You’re too good??

Andrew. What an asshole. I love him though. He- quite frankly- is half the reason I’m so close with the Pathfinder group. I befriended him easier than I befriended the others. He’s the one that got me into Pathfinder. At first he seems quiet, and kinda apathetic, he’s incredibly forgetful. But he cares. I got scared one time that I’d fucked up a friendship, and in his awkward Andrew way, he gave me 3 Magic cards and a hug as comfort. It may not sound like much, but giving away Magic cards is a big deal for Andrew. This nerd is also the reason I met my girlfriend, so yknow.

Admittedly, I’m not as close with Thomas as I am some of the others. His personality clashes with mine, so I don’t typically talk to him one on one. But he’s part of the group. We all poke fun at him, but we all poke fun at everyone. This family of ours wouldn’t be the same without him. It’d be too quiet.

Susannah is a darling. I haven’t seen her as much recently, because she dropped out of the Pathfinder campaign, and I haven’t been at school. But we still talk from time to time here on tumblr, or the very rare occasion we see each other on campus we always stop to give each other a hug and say hello. Because our friend group had a hellish spaghetti mess of relationships, and we had a good relationship through that. The guy I liked liked her, and it was kinda rough, but we just helped each other. Then when that spaghetti mess was over, and I was getting with Sammy, she was one of the people I’d text like “Holy shit Sam is so cute HELP”

Molly is the best. She- like Susannah- isn’t in Pathfinder this semester, so I haven’t seen her as much. But she had a similar position in the spaghetti mess but without being so tied to me. She just was right next to Susannah and was super supportive as well. She was the other person I texted about Sam. Cause group chats. I’d text her and Susannah together. But even though we don’t see each other a ton, we’re still close. Hell we’re looking at getting an apartment together next summer.

I really never think I’m that close to Will. He’s very quiet, and he’s not very affectionate, so it’s sometimes hard to tell if he actually likes being around people or he’s just dealing with us. But, after a year of being around him, I’m pretty sure he does actually like us. I think he’s just introverted. He doesn’t want to get in people’s way, so he sits to the side and is quiet. But also, his character in Pathfinder was 110% tryna get another PC laid and Will and Susannah both were willing to let me in on that. So, yeah, pretty sure Will is cool with me. We just have different ways of showing that.

Joey and Adriana I’ll talk about together, because I swear these two are inseparable. When I first met them I thought they were dating, but no they’re just very affectionate- and I can’t blame them for that. I’m the same way with Scott and Trevi. I’ve still not gotten to talk to them a ton, but the conversations I’ve had with them have been good. They seem very light hearted on the surface, just comparing ourselves to our characters, but really that says a lot about us.

Freddie and Michael, I’ll also put together. Not because they’re together all the time, but because I have less to say about them. I don’t know either as well, but they’re both very warm people. It’s easy to become friends with these two. Freddie loves to rub my hair, cause of course half of it is shaved. Michael’s just akin to a ray of sunshine tbh.

Trevi. Where do I even start? To just say you’re my friend isn’t enough. You’re more than that. You’re fun to be around and talk to, and dance with. You’re relatable and silly and serious and helpful and supportive. You’ve given me a place to sleep when I was too tired to go home. When you graduated I was terrified of you leaving, either going back home or going out to Cali to get a doctorate, cause I knew you’d talked about it. I didn’t wanna lose you. I’d just gotten to know you. Then you stayed here, and I’m glad. Cause you’re my friend and I love you. A couple weeks ago as you were leaving you signed “I love you”. You had your back turned but there was a window in front of you, so idk if you saw, but I signed it back. Cause I really do.

Now Scott. You sir, have literally changed my life. I would not have met most of the people I’ve talked about. I’d have met Trevi, but without D&D as a common ground, idk that we’d have ended up so close. So thank you, for introducing me to D&D. Thank you for being my DM. Because honestly, no matter how many DMs I have, no matter how great they are. You will always be my DM, because you were the first. And now, you’re graduating. You’re leaving school, and you’re going to Columbia. I’m gonna miss you. As selfish as it is, I don’t want you to leave. I’m glad you’re going to keep moving forward, as we all should. But fucking hell will I miss you. You’ve led me on adventures, fighting monsters and demons, I’ve made pacts with Eldritch gods and become War itself. So you go. You go, live your adventures. Write your stories and play your parts. Keep Moving Forward. But you better get your ass back here and visit from time to time okay? Cause I’m gonna miss you. I’m gonna miss your free hugs, and the meowing, and the hair ruffles, and hugs so tight I feel like you’re bout to crack a rib, and the games, and the stories, and just everything. I’m gonna miss you, and I love you.

This past year, and every one of the people I’ve mentioned have changed me. There’s more people I could talk about. Alea, and Brooke, and Tommy, and Sammy, and Tahli, and Sebastian, and Kenna. My actual family. My cousin and my best friend, who I don’t feel the need to write about, because duh I appreciate them. Duh I love them. Tommy and Sammy who’ve both had their own impacts. Who have both changed my life in their own ways. Then Tahli, Kenna, and Sebastian. My nieces and nephew. Tahli, who wormed her way into my heart in an instant, and got me to a place where I actually cared for the other two. Because for so long I shrugged at Kenna. She lives across the country she’s not gonna know me. But then when Sebastian came along, I was so used to Tahli and her reaction any time I walk in the door. Then Sebastian got hurt, and it wrecked me. Because no, he’s tiny, he’s fragile, this shouldn’t happen to a six month old baby. I was so scared to hold him at Thanksgiving because I didn’t want to hurt him.

I just. I love my friends. I love that I can say that. Because two years ago I hardly had friends to love, and I certainly didn’t feel like they should love me back. Last year I had a few more friends, and I was feeling a bit better about myself. But this year I’ve realized. It’s not just that I have friends that I love. But that they love me just as much. During intermediate acting Abby called me a yankee candle, cause I apparently had a warm, homey, aura. I felt like that was weird, cause I’m so used to being Shadow. I’m used to being ignore, glanced over. But then suddenly, I have friends that won’t do that. Friends that pay attention and love me. I’m still not sure how to handle that, but I’m doing the best I can.

#personal #heyo its a new year #college life #except only sorta

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techscorn · 7 years ago

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so many cool badges this year. #defcon via Hackaday

Hardware is the future. There is no better proof of this than the hardware clans that have grown up around DEF CON, which in recent years has become known as Badgelife. I was first drawn to the custom hardware badges of the Whiskey Pirates at DC22 back in 2014. Hardware badges were being made by several groups at that time but that was mainly happening in isolation while this year the badge makers are in constant contact with each other.

A slack channel just for those working on their own DEF CON badges sprung up. This served as tech support, social hour, and feature brainstorming for all on the channel. In the past badges were developed without much info getting out during the design process. This year, there was a huge leap forward thanks to a unified badgelife API: the badge makers colluded with each on a unified communcations protocol. In the multitude of images below you frequently see Rigado modules used. These, and some others using different hardware, adopted a unified API for command and control, both through makers’ “god mode” badges, and for wireless gaming between participant badges.

I was able to get into the badge makers meetup on Thursday of DEF CON. What follows is the result of a frantic few hours trying to get through the sheer volume of badges and people to share with you all the custom hardware on display. One thing is for sure — there were literally thousands of custom badges built and sold/distributed during DEF CON. I can’t wait to see what the artisanal hardware industry will look like in five years time.

The MrRobot Badge

I knew that Brian Benchoff was working on a badge in his spare time. I had no idea the production he had undertaken. Brian’s Mr Robot Badge was one of the most popular of DC25. He had been working on it for months, ordering several PCB test runs to get the look just right. That’s not a custom solder mask color for the skin tone. Brian used a clear solder mask and two layers of silkscreen when he had Seeed Studio produce the PCBs. It’s driven by an ESP8266 and includes a 144 LED matrix driven by an IS31FL3731. Check out @MrRobotBadge to see the drumbeat of social media he built leading up to the con, and hear the entire story in Brian’s words on his recent project page update.

[Benchoff holding Mr Robot Badge photo by @catmurd0k]

DC DarkNet Badge

DarkNet has got to be the most popular contest at DEF CON. It starts off with a pre-conference online challenge called a casefile. Anyone who solved the casefile was able to purchase one of these badges two hours before they went on sale to the general conference-goers. The badge is necessary to solve the rest of the contest challenges

Our friend [Krux] is the mastermind behind the badge design. As you can see, it is laid out to resemble a rotary phone. Each of the numbers on the dial is a capacitive touch sensor, and the numerals/letters are open spots in the copper. These let back-mounted LEDs shine through. The badge comes as a kit so to use it you first must solder on those surface-mount LED as well as a connector for the screen and the LiPo on the back.

Who Doesn’t Love Blinky?

[Brian Benchoff] actually built three badges for DEF CON. The second was terrible, but the third was a solder kit of Ohm, the Tindie dog. [Jasmine Brackett] and [Shulie Tornel] were on hand talking to people about Tindie (a great place to sell extra hardware badges) and handing out the solder kit that includes two self-blinking LEDs, coin cell and holder, and a custom PCB.

[Sean McCabe] had a 3D badge. It’s the DEF CON 25 logo (note the 2 and 5 make up a skull with keys as the crossbones). There’s an RGB LED controlled by an ATtiny85 and coin-cell on a custom PCB. Grab the design files on his repo.

There was also a ‘punt’ badge. The SecKC folks built a badge (shown later in this article) but couldn’t produce enough in time so they showed up with edge-lit acrylic badges.

DC Zia 505

The DC Zia crew had about 10 people working on the badge this year. It’s their third year building badges for DEF CON and this one features four Cherry MX mechanical keyboard switches… clicky! The badge is a shield for an Arduino 101 (RIP). Last year they built a badge that was a shield for a Raspberry Pi and had a full-color video screen which they were showing off at the meetup. They are also joining in another trend, several badge groups (including MrRobotBadge) were giving away custom fidget spinners as swag.

AND!XOR God Badge

I’m not going to go too far into the AND!XOR badge since I did a full hands-on with the badge before the con. Here we can see the “God” badge that only the core team had. The Bender on a Bender was top three most popular badges at the con if not the most popular. They had a hugely successful Kickstarter and everyone was trying to get one at the con.

They shipped with the multiplayer features disabled until a code was input. This was Tweeted out at the beginning of the con and once people unlocked theirs the botnet game began. I was able to terminal into it and escalate my privileges to get root ([@Hyr0n] did help me out by suggesting which of his hint Tweets to revisit). I came across [Samy Kamkar] with on in the Chill Room. The code running on the ARM processor was read protect and [Samy] was using a Chip Whisperer to try to side-channel attack the badge. That’s pretty awesome!

Note the brain-slug addon board. There were about 10 of these built to test out the breakout header for hardware hacking.

Car Hacking Village Badge

Badgelife is often pushing right up against deadlines to get everything finished — this is an extracurricular activity after all. This is the un-populated Car Hacking Village badge. The assembly took longer than expected and the finished boards hadn’t arrived as of Thursday evening but did make it for sales in the village on Friday. 900 of these were for sale at $50.

You can see the full glory in this animated Tweet. An OLED display makes up the grill of the truck (which is a PCB itself) with amber blinkies all around. This is car hacking after all so the footprint on the left is for an ODB-II connector.

The Tribble Badge

The Tribble badge was a total surprise for me. [@emilyincarnate] built 58 of them and they were all hand-sewn and hand-soldered. The little balls of fluff were built around Adafruit Trinket boards, with addressable LED discs for eyes. I’m a sucker for the PCB badges with challenge games built into them, but I fell in love with this and it was my favorite to wear around the con. Perhaps I’m anthropomorphizing? I checked out the associated website and it seems there are some crypto challenges waiting to be solved over there. Get to work.

DC801

Look on the back of the DC801 Sheep badge and you’ll spot the familiar Rigado module that drives it and links it to the unified botnet game spanning many of the badges and Bluetooth greetings that talk back and forth. In addition, the firmware broadcasts username and then play a game of contagion.

[@rushan_ee] has been developing the board. The prototype boards carried by the core developers have “God” mode that can make clients go in and out of party mode. In total, they built 290 boards plus the 10 prototypes. Presales were coordinated through 801labs hackerspace in Salt Lake City. This is the second year Rushan has led the design and 5 years total for the hackerspace.

Octopus Badge for Bsides Vancouver

The Octopus badge was built for Bsides Vancouver a few months back. [Jake King] made a total of 120 for Bsides Vancouver. It is driven by an ATtiny85 with blue LEDs on four of the eight tentacles. There are two WS2812 modules for the eyes but [Jake] usually leaves them off because they drain the coin cell battery really quickly. You can get your hands on the design files on his blog.

Ides of DEF CON

I think the Ides of DEF CON badge was one of the other top three most popular badges. It was inherently a multiplayer badge, letting you discover and battle other badge owners wirelessly in a video role-playing game. You could walk around the con and see people sitting around glued to these badges like a Game Boy.

Thursday night was the first night everyone was getting together and when we ran into [Zapp] from the AND!XOR crew he was already topped out in level, and XP. The firmware wasn’t read protected (like the AND!XOR firmware) and so [Zapp] dump and disassembled it to artificially boost his player ranking. It’s an instant classic.

You can read about the dev process on the Ides of DEF CON project page. They had a very successful Kickstarter earlier in the summer.

Team Bazooka Badge

This badge was introduced to me as the only badge with a Vacuum Fluorescent Display on it. The VFD is an HD44780 addressable character display. Powering it is a 18650 cell in a battery holder. This is becoming an incredibly popular setup for badges and other custom hardware. You can check out the design, which is based around an ATmega382, on the Team Bazooka repo. This is an ultra-rare badge — so far there’s only one.

Hardware Warehouse

We also took a close look at the Hacker Warehouse badge before the con. It has an ESP8266 laid out right on the board rather than opting to solder on a castellated module. The badge is a built as a WiFi testing unit, leveraging the ESP chip’s flexibility in that realm to scan for AP, listen to packets, and even spew deauth packets. I don’t think there was too much mayhem cause on that front this year.

One of the really cool things that went along with the Hacker Warehouse badge is that they shared their space in the vendor area with other Badgelife folks. This provided an area for people who had acquired any of the badges shown off in this article a place and time to meet up with the badge creators themselves. Neat!

It’s worth noting that this was the first hardware endeavor for Hacker Warehouse which has focused on offensive security up to this point.

DC503

The DC503 throws503.party. Thank you to [Joe Fitz] for letting us crash it. The party is privately financed and supporting these badges is one way to get yourself into the party. [Joe] is behind this badge, as well as the bicycle design we saw at DC23.

One hundred of these badges were made through the effort of four team members and with the labor-saver of professional assembly. You can see the Rigado familiar rigado module on the back, and the coin cell that powers the badge. I really enjoyed seeing the lanyard, which is a USB-to-Serial cable. You are literally wear what you need to hack it around your neck. The badge hacking contest was judged in the suite at Caesar’s during the 503 party.

SecKC Badge

SecKC is the Kansas City infosec meetup. They wanted the badge to be a devboard and based it around an NRF module from Sparkfun. So far they’ve seen numerous hacks on the design, the best of which turned it into a cellphone with a rotary dial.

The crew had a preorder of 50 boards and ended up building 60. There was demand for more but they couldn’t get the boards fast enough so they made the acrylic badges we mentioned earlier in this article.

Puffy Badge

The puffy badge is another that we had an in-depth look at before the con. Shaped like a puffer fish, the badge is based on a router chipset module that was sourced from “some dude in China”. Searching for router chips that could run linux, 40 of the modules were ordered for the project. More details about the development process are available on the website.

Megabling and Derbycon Black Badge

Some people feel like they need to answer the question “How bright can a conference badge really be?”. [Blenster] answered this with a huge triangle badge powered by six 18650 Lithium cells. Look at the power regulation on the back of that thing!

Not to be outdone (by himself), [Blenster] was also sporting a DerbyCon 2016 Black badge which he designed and built himself. Those LEDs have a tiny pitch and he hand-placed and hand soldered with an iron — incredible.

Dragonfly Badge

The Dragonfly Badge was featured on Hackaday before the con. It’s primarily a blinky badge, but put more than one of them within sight of each other and they’ll sync up their flashing. One of the really nice touches is the aesthetic of the IR receiver on the tail.

106 of these were built but only 85 were fully functional on Thursday night. In true hacker fashion, the rest were being reworked in the hotel room. I saw a ton of these around the con so I suspect the rework effort was worth it!

Crypto and Privacy Village Badge

The Crypto and Privacy Village badge was one of the most gorgeous pieces of hardware on hand. The team went all out, even delivering the badge in beautiful matte black boxes with guilded lettering and a magnetic closure. The lanyardware have a cypher on them, the back of the badge has a cypher on it. There were PCB keys, ornately cut in interesting shapes. The badge is based on the WROOM32 (ESP32) moduel. It drives a backlit display with a rotary encoder on the front and a few capacitive touch sensors. The package included earbuds; the badge has a headphone jack and was set up to stream DEF CON radio all weekend. That’s a feature of a different color and quite fun!

Plugging into the badge you were greeted with MicroPython for you own badge hacking. On the wireless side, it finds other badges. I couldn’t get confirmation for sure but I heard that these were putting backdoors into the Bender on a Bender badge. Yes, it’s wireless badge warfare out there, friends. These boards were selling for $120 in the Crypto Village. When they sold out the team was trying to get the nonfunctional badges working but would sell to enterprising hardware hackers for $50 upon request.

Bsides San Francisco Badge / Life’s A Breach

[bon] and [redacted], the team behind the Bsides SF badge, came out with two badges this year. Their ‘official’ badge is being pitched as a ‘body camera badge’ for their conference in February. Their second badge is quite literally the best 3D printing work we’ve ever seen.

The Life’s A Breach / Tiki badge is more or less what you would expect from a conference badge — there are blinky bits, batteries, and some nice silkscreen art on a PCB. This gets dialed up to twelve when the 3D printed parts are added. The plastic parts on the Tiki badge are snap fit, with plastic bosses for holes on the badge, tiny ledges to clasp the PCB firmly, and a bit of vellum used as a diffusor for the eyes. We’ve been around the block with 3D printing, and we’ve never seen anything that marries milled PCBs and printed parts this well. We’re literally begging the Tiki crew for a write-up on how they managed to do their plastic parts.

1Bitsy 1UP

The 1Bitsy 1UP badge should be an incredibly familiar form factor. It’s shaped just like a Game Boy, but with an extra set of right-hand buttons like on the old SNES controllers. With a beautiful color display and audio, this is the portable gaming experience you remember, but hanging around your neck as a conference badge.

The dev board on the front is the 1Bitsy. This was given out to all attendees at the Open Hardware Summit last October. Mine is still on my desk waiting for some love and this is the type of demo I needed to get really excited about it. At the con, [Piotr Esden-Tempski] was running a custom game he wrote for it and the thing is super fast. The pattern demonstration shown here is running at 80 FPS and this is without a framebuffer. It’s the STM32F4 banging 8 bits into the ILI9325 display using DMA that makes this possible. On the back you’ll find an 18650 for power, along with a battery minding circuit and an SD cards slot. We can’t wait to bump into [Piotr] at he next live event to see what’s been a added to the part of the board marked:

Here be dragons. Well, not at the very moment, but soon, I promise! Just wait for it. :D

Red’s LoRa Badge

I missed syncing up with him at the meetup but later ran into [Red] in the Chill Room. He has been doing the hardware badges for SkyDogCon and built a special badge just for DC25. It is sniffing LoRa packets and displaying them on two screens. He wrote the firmware on the plane. The platform is meant for development so plenty of room to grow here. It has a multitude of switches, both momentary press and DIP, which are controlled by the Propeller chip that runs the board. For connectivity there is the LoRa module and an ESP8266.

There’s actually a really cool concept at work here. He sets up a server in his room in a different hotel as the Internet gateway. The badge phones home on LoRa, which has great range, eliminating the need to navigate the shady WiFi options during the con.

Quadcopter Badge

This badge is a lot of things in one. Primarily it’s a quadcopter complete with a badge-based remote control. [Brian] covered it in depth before the con and we were so excited to receive this badge kit at our Breakfast at DEF CON meetup.

Weight was carefully considered during the development process. But for some reason the thing just wouldn’t get off the ground after everything was assembled. For this reason, there are two versions of the skull badge, one that flies and one that bling. You can see the add-on board for prototyping which is mean to look like a pirate’s bandanna, and in the upper left you can see the dual-stick controller complete with a buzzer and screen.

The greatest year of electronic conference badges yet

Badgelife is truly amazing. Should you give it a try? Yes, but not for the money. This is an art and not a business endeavor. There is no badge competition between makers, there is only a willingness to celebrate the effort and ingenuity to that go into every badge, whether it be a blinking LED or a networked multiplayer game. This is what drives the developers and what makes the badges themselves such a hot commodity at the conference.

This was the greatest year of badgelife yet, and we can’t wait to see what everyone will come up with by next year.

[Featured image source of all badges taken by Cat Murdock. You should follow her on Twitter.]

Filed under: news

#IFTTT #NewsBlur

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kainefloyd · 5 years ago

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some basics;

Kaine ‘Kai’ Floyd is originally from Hawaii. He is Samoan & Hawaiian.

Goes by the nickname K-9 in the NBA for his name and number.

Born November 14 - Scorpio