#earlier this year I was at a used book store and found like three of them that I didn't have and I was so excited

[causeimanartist]

WAIT I LOVE IVY AND OLIVIA!!! IT'S BEEN SO LONG!! (not really, I read the books in October). Hands down one of my favorite series to this day just because it's so GOOD!

Yah!! No one I know IRL has read these books so I'm so happy finally finding others who love them!

[suuuupernovaaa]

The Book Seller - Azriel x F!OC (Part 1/3)

Summary: Azriel meets his mate at long last, thanks to Nesta’s reading habits.

Content Warnings: None

Part 2, Part 3

The package arrived just before closing on a Saturday, hours after one of my favorite customers, The High Lady’s sister, had been in to check on it. Three books I’d recommended to her, an ancient romance between warrior and queen.

She had been waiting for weeks for these to arrive, and now she’d have to wait two more days. I sighed, thinking of the excitement that shone in Nesta’s eyes when she’d entered my bookshop earlier that day, and set them under the desk to wait safely for her.

The bell dinged and I looked up to see a tall blonde dressed in red. Her face looked familiar, but I’d never seen her before, I thought.

“Hello!” she greeted.

“Good evening,” I nodded with a smile.

Instead of browsing, she approached my desk. “Nesta sent me to check on her books. I’m Mor.”

My jaw fell a little slack at that. Of course, this was the Morrigan. As stunning as ever, dressed in her signature red, with her blonde locks side swept. “Of course! I have them, they just arrived.”

“She’ll be thrilled, she talks about them non-stop. Not to me but, you know,” she said with a wink, and all I could do was smile, because I did not know. Did Mor not like Nesta?

“She actually asked me to bring you to the house if they were ready,” Mor said, and I blanched.

“What?”

“Asked for a personal delivery! Of course, you don’t have to. But, you could join us for dinner, if you want.”

Us. Did she mean, the High Lord and Lady? Their inner circle? The handsome warriors, Feyre’s sisters, everyone? The thought had my normally tan cheeks turning pale.

I ran my hands over my pale green dress. It was very simple, something for work, flattering but unthreatening.

Morrigan smiled at me in a disarming way. “Yes, please come! It’s so fun to have guests. Dinners are very informal.”

I glanced once over at her beautiful gown, and looked at her skeptically. She laughs, a beautiful, melodic sound.

“I promise. Please, join us.”

“Oh, sure,” I replied a little shakily, and grabbed Nesta’s books, carefully packaged under my desk in brown paper tied with twine. “Let me just close up.”

I stepped around my wide wooden desk and entered into the bowels of my store. Thousands of books surrounded us, on tall, dark shelves in front of walls painted a dark emerald green. Plants sat atop the bookshelves and between sections by genre, adding an earthy scent and feel to the space. Though books were my first love, plants and flowers were not far behind.

I went through the steps I went through every day to shut down the store, speeding a little and telling myself that tomorrow was my off day, and I could come fix any mistakes I made in my haste.

Once everything was prepared, I rejoined the High Lord’s cousin at the front door, and she beamed at me as if we had been friends for years.

“I’ll winnow us up!” she said cheerily, and extended a hand to me. My shaky palm found hers, and she winked before we disappeared.

—

The home was even more beautiful than I could have imagined. Set into gorgeous red rock, we landed on a sprawling landing, with intricate flooring and a beautiful view of our beloved city below.

“Wow,” I said with a sigh, looking down at where we came from moments ago.

Mor, surely used to such a breath taking view, waved me on towards the large archways that led into a very formal looking dining room. Tall ceilings. Stone and marble everywhere. It was truly stunning.

I glanced down again at my appearance, and shuddered. I hadn’t even thought to freshen my face or tie my unruly curls back into a braid or bun. I surely fit in more with the serving staff than those I would be dining with.

My heart thundered in my chest as I followed the blonde into the elegant dining room. A few people were present already, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see Nesta next to the table, standing and talking with her mate, Cassian. I had met him once or twice, when he stopped to pick something up for Nesta.

They turned to see Mor, and Nesta’s normal scowl turned to an almost smile when she saw me, package in hand.

“Holly!” she said warmly, walking to close the gap and meet me. “Thank you for making a home delivery for me.”

I extended the package to her, and she noticed the shake still present in my hands. As she took the books, her hands lingered over mine for a moment, and she leaned close.

“Don’t let this group intimidate you. They are informal, and you’re my special guest.”

Cassian joined her side and smiled down wide and warm as she stepped back with her books.

“Nesta must be your favorite customer, for you to come all this way,” he said, a teasing glint in his eye.

I smiles back at him, glad for Cassian’s natural talent to put anyone at ease.

“She is, actually. We share a taste in books, and hardly anyone else takes my recommendations so readily as your mate,” I replied, and Nesta gave me another small smile.

Footsteps alerted us to more joining, and my nerves became alight again as I looked to the eastern entrance and saw three figures entering.

I was at a loss for what to do when I saw my High Lord and Lady enter, trailed behind by the infamous shadowsinger.

Though I knew this group is a part of their people, frequenting our town and shops and night life, they were still our leaders - still something else, above us, and my spine stiffened, even though the entered with wide smiles and relaxed shoulders.

As they approached, I bowed, and Cassian laughed.

“No need,” said the High Lord in a deep, silky tone. “Nesta speaks of you, well, more than she speaks of almost anyone.”

I looked up to meet his deep blue gaze to see warmth and welcome there. At his side stood Nesta’s sister, their son in her arms. 

“Thank you for joining us,” Feyre said warmly, and the baby, nearing toddler, nuzzled his head into his mother’s shoulder.

They looked resplendent, the two of them together, and I was again at a loss for words. We owed so much to the people in these room, and I felt unworthy of being here.

“It’s truly my honor. I… thank you both,” I said, hoping they read the meaning in my eyes.

The baby, jet black hair like his father and a regal nose like his mother, lunged for me then, nearly leaping from his mother’s arms. She gasped, and I scooped him up on instinct, after years of being an aunt to my sibling’s children.

“Oh hello!” I cooed, and he put a chubby hand on my cheek, staring into my eyes.

Nesta laughed. “Well, Nyx likes her.”

I turned to Rhysand and from behind him, the Shadowsinger stepped around, joining our small circle.

I was over come with how utterly breathtaking he was. Tall and slender, though his black shirt and pants revealed the taught muscles beneath. His golden eyes were shining as he stared at the babe in my arms, and I could look nowhere but at his beautiful, golden-brown face.

His eyes rose from the child to meet mine, and I felt it then.

A thread. A tug. From his chest to mine. A calling - like to like.

Mate to mate.

His mouth fell open, a breath escaping, and I clutched the baby to me to stop from dropping him.

“Mate,” Azriel whispered, and everyone around us fell silent.

[ebongawk]

pls show us how eddie would ask chrissy to marry him ❤️❤️❤️

The ring was burning a hole in his pocket.

The ring had, in fact, been burning a hole in his pocket for, like three goddamn months now. Because he'd been kinda-sorta-basically flying by the seat of his pants this entire relationship, up to and including his potential proposal, and three years of accidentally tripping and stumbling into all of the right messes with Chrissy made him think he could just buy the goddamn thing and wait for the most opportune moment.

The ring itself was an unanticipated surprise. Eddie had been shopping for a new-to-him amp, and buying those off the belt was a mistake he'd never make again. Rewiring older models with newer technology was basically Henderson's forte, though, so every time he and Chrissy popped back into Hawkins to visit Wayne during their long stints on the road, Eddie had a couple projects that Dustin's eager little mitts made grabby hands at.

(If Eddie found another tech kid on the road, he was pretty sure Dustin would spit and hiss and claw the newbie's eyes out so he would never be able to touch Eddie's projects again. He fucking loved that little shit. Had no clue what he was gonna do when the kid went off to MIT in a few months.)

So, yeah. While Eddie had walked into that pawn shop with a singlemindedness, he'd still perused the aisles like a perfectly respectable patron.

And the ring had been right there. Grinning up at him from the display case a winking in the overhead lights when it caught his eye.

Chrissy was literally right up the street, struggling over which books she wanted to trade in at the used bookshop so she could read some new material. That was the worst part about being on the road – they never got to keep anything. Like, sure, yeah, they had some shit stored at Wayne's, but they couldn't pop into Indiana whenever Chrissy needed to drop off her books so they could fit new shit in the van.

If they could, Chrissy would have a veritable library by now. He'd told himself a year ago that, as soon as they hit a label, Corroded Coffin's first purchase would be Chrissy Cunningham's dream house so she could have shelves of books. The guys were all in begrudging agreement.

"Hey, uh," he'd said, grabbing the attention of the shopkeeper and pointing at the ring. "What's that?"

About six months ago, he and Chrissy had been walking a mall in search of a birthday present for Wayne when a jewelry store grabbed her attention. Eddie had kinda expected her to beeline for the engagement rings – and maybe that was his own underlying fantasy, honestly – but she hadn't. She'd gravitated toward birthstones, pointing out his and hers and Jeff's and Gareth's and Grant's and Wayne's, gushing about which looked best together in her opinion.

"That's a, uh, ring," the cashier said, looking down at the thing. "With, y'know, stones and shit."

"Very fuckin' descriptive, man, thanks," Eddie responded. "How much?"

"For you, kid? Twenty bucks."

"I'll give you fifteen for it and thirty for the amp."

"Deal."

He didn't even get a box. The guy had been 'fresh out', allegedly, so he'd given Eddie a little drawstring bag for it.

Which was fine. Easier to hide. He just had to remember to transfer it around his three pairs of jeans while they were doing laundry.

"Look, that's your birthstone," Chrissy had said that day at the mall. "A garnet. And mine's right there! Aquamarine!" She'd sighed. "If I had been born a day earlier, I would have been an amethyst. But our stones look pretty together, don't they?"

They did, in his humble opinion. And wouldn't you fucking know it, Eddie had found a garnet ring inlaid with two aquamarines on either side at a thrift store in fucking Norton, Kansas when they'd stopped at a motel for a couple days to rest before a show in Kansas City. He'd even had it assessed at a jeweler in Saint Paul a week later just to be sure.

The thing was legit. The jeweler had polished it and everything. From there, it was just actually proposing.

But, as the weeks wore on, Eddie had to wonder if his decision to wait for the right moment might've been a fucking mistake. What was the perfect moment? What if it'd already come and gone and he didn't even know it? What if it never happened and Chrissy got upset and left him before he had a chance? Did she even want to get married? They were still young, and, outside of her shitty high school relationship (that predated her amazing high school relationship with him, thanks so much), Chrissy had never really dated around. What if he popped the question and she laughed in his face?

(She wouldn't. He knew she wouldn't. But, shit, what if, y'know?)

So, yeah. That fucking ring had been sitting in his pocket for, like, ninety-seven days, whispering platitudes and anxieties in equal measure. Building him up and tearing him down at every opportunity, like it found joy in watching him rise higher and fall farther.

Or maybe that was his own stupid brain.

They'd been booked on a mini-tour to open for another band that was just a few steps beyond Corroded Coffin. The money was kinda shit, but last night, at their show in Reno, a few people had been wearing the merch they'd sold weeks prior at a show in Vegas, and that had made Eddie feel like a goddamn superstar. He'd played his fucking heart out, and Chrissy said they sold out at the merch booth before the headliner even took the stage.

He'd even been asked for autographs. What the fuck?

Afterward, he and Chrissy were squeezed together into their motel room's bathtub. It was entirely too small for the both of them, but Chrissy sat between his bent knees, letting the hot water and scented bubbles relax them after what felt like a ridiculously long night. As though he could ever really relax with Chrissy's naked body all wet and pressed against his.

Her head was on his chest, listening to the slow thudding of his heart as the radio played almost imperceptibly in the background. Chrissy had gone so far as to light a few candles, and on the floor next to them was an open bottle of wine they were taking turns sipping.

It had to be somewhere around two in the morning, and Chrissy was probably exhausted. But she knew Eddie was always off-the-walls after a show, so corralling him into a shared bath was to help him wind down.

"You did amazing tonight," she said, her fingertips tapping against his shin where her hand rested. "All of you guys, but you especially. You were electric up there."

"Did you even look at the other guys?"

"Of course! It's hard not to, but I always look at you the most. Promise."

"Pretty sure you're legally required to say that, as I'm the one who makes you co––"

"Eddie."

Laughing, Eddie pressed his lips to her crown. "Thank you, sweetness."

"I'm serious. Like, I think that was the show, you know?"

He knew what she meant. Their discovery show. The one where some talent scout was hiding out in the crowd because he'd heard Corroded Coffin's name making the rounds. The one where they'd be getting a phone call first thing in the morning asking to meet at an agency.

Their we finally fucking made it show.

"Unlikely," Eddie said, wet fingers brushing a few strands of loose hair back over her ear. "But I appreciate the vote of confidence."

Chrissy said nothing for a moment. Then, using some expert maneuvers won over years in dance and cheer, she pivoted, working her lithe little body until she was comfortably situated in his lap. Eddie's arms automatically wrapped around her, sinking lower into the water so she didn't go sliding off his slickened skin and into the faucet.

"You guys are amazing," she said without a hint of irony coloring her tone. Wet hands cupping his jaw, she nudged her nose against his. "You have a contagious stage presence and you play incredibly. There's no way you aren't going to make it. Got it?"

"Yeah?" Eddie asked, eyes on her lips. "You gonna be my little cheerleader the whole way?"

"I've been with you this far, haven't I?" she shot back, wearing that gorgeous grin he loved so much. "I'm not going anywhere, Eddie. You're stuck with me."

"Hey," Eddie said, affronted. "That's my line. Who's stuck with who?"

Wiggling her hips in his lap (which was... yeah, doing things), Chrissy smiled. "I think you're the one who's literally stuck here, love."

Tucking his thumb against her chin, Eddie just chuckled, drawing her in for a kiss that tasted of promise. Of this future she was certain would come to fruition, where they stood hand-in-hand as recognition fell upon the band. Because Chrissy had sacrificed so much for him, for all of them, and Eddie would be damned if he didn't have opportunity to return the favor.

Oh shit, he realized as she chased his lips for another kiss. This is it. This is the fucking moment.

And his pants are on the other side of the goddamn room.

Shit. Shit. Okay. He could make this work.

"Hey, uh." He smiled when she kissed him again, the wet skin of her squirming in his lap again as she made a little huff of disapproval. "Wait, wait, sweetness, hang on."

Chrissy blinked at him. One hundred percent caught off guard because Eddie had never turned down her advances before. (How could he? He had an actual goddess sitting naked in his lap. Who was he to tell her no when she wanted to, y'know, get closer?)

"Did I, um. Did I overstep?"

"No, fuck no, just, uh––" Grabbing Chrissy's long-handled loofa off the tub rim, Eddie set a firm hand on Chrissy's thigh, anchoring both of them as he leaned as far out of the tub as he could to drag his jeans toward them. Sloshing water out of the side and making Chrissy yelp his name as she grabbed his shoulders to hang on.

The handle slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor with one pant leg right there. Eddie leaned further out, stretching his fingertips as Chrissy squealed. He heard the water splashing, but that just seemed a small price to pay.

Whooping in excitement, he managed to get a small piece of denim between his middle and ring fingers, yanking the jeans across the floor and digging around in the pockets for that fucking bag.

"Eddie! They're gonna get all wet!"

"They'll dry," he responded, finally finding the stupid ring bag in his back pocket. He dropped the jeans uncaringly into the puddle he'd created, resettling Chrissy against him and tangling his hands in her hair as he kissed her question of what he was doing off her lips.

"You know I love you, right?" he asked, a little breathless from the combination of half-crawling out of the tub and the spark from their kiss. Chrissy, wide-eyed and confused, giggled a little when she nodded. "Like, more than anything?"

"Yes, Eddie, I know."

"And I wanna spend, y'know, the rest of my goddamn life with you. You know that, too?"

Chrissy blinked, her smile fading with parted lips as realization seemed to dawn new horizons across her face.

"I-I mean, yeah," she said after he waited a second for her answer. "Eddie, what––"

"I, uh, picked this up a while ago," he admitted, brandishing the tiny bag. "Been waiting for, like, the perfect moment, I guess. But, I dunno. Kinda realized that, maybe all our moments are perfect, y'know?"

He opened the bag, tilting it so the ring fell into his opposite palm. Her eyes widened, jaw falling slack as she gasped.

"I just want to make more moments with you, Chrissy," Eddie said earnestly. "Before and after a quick trip to the altar, I mean."

"Oh, my God," she breathed, trembling fingertip reaching out and gently stroking the gold band. "Are you–– Are you serious?"

"You are the one thing in my life I am one-hundred-percent serious about, sweetness," Eddie replied, softly brushing a thumb against her cheek. She glanced at him, so briefly he almost missed it, but she couldn't take her eyes off the ring. "Marry me?"

"Okay," she said, voice still breathless. Blinking, she shook her head as though she were falling out of a trance, her eyes instantly filling with tears that spilled over her cheeks, mixing with the water of their bath. "I mean, yes, yes, of course, Eddie, oh, my God!"

Throwing her arms around him, Eddie heard more water as it splashed over the side of the tub. It made him laugh, burying his face in her hair and holding her close as she cried into his neck.

"I love you," she sobbed, pulling back and letting him open his fist so she could take the ring. "Oh, my God, and it's our birthstones!" The realization made her cry harder, and Eddie had to help her get the ring on her finger. "You remembered!"

"Of course I did," he chuckled, his own eyes wet with the amount of love he felt for this girl. "I remember everything you say to me."

"We both know that's not true."

"Okay, well, I make an effort, at least!"

She laughed through her sobs, pulling him in and kissing him soundly. Crying, laughing harder, then crying some more between desperately locked lips. Completely soaking his jeans next to the tub, but Eddie couldn't care less.

He had his fiancée in his lap.

"I love you," she gasped between kisses. "I love you, I love you, I love you."

"Love you, too, little wife," Eddie grinned. "So much."

Yeah. Perfect fucking moment.

[heerocks]

CURIOUS CAT — the connection

SYNOPSIS! Curious Cat is an app that peaked three years ago where people use it to flirt with their crush anonymously and then suddenly forgot about it.

or wherein, Y/N was devastated when her crush, Lee Heeseung indirectly rejecting her in high school. Three years later, both of them have this unknown beef between them that even their friends don't know the real reason behind. One day, Y/N suddenly remembered and opened her C.C. account, and saw that someone by the name 'Ethan' confessed to her three years ago.

With an envelope of personal paper works safely tucked in between his body and arms, heeseung made his way inside the library. The place witnesses different days into his life, and realizes he has grown fond with that said place especially, it was a non speaking witness to the moments he shared with you that he enjoyed through this day.

Heeseung was met with a familiar scent of books — new or old, a sign of comfort. He turned his head around, scanning the whole place to find you.

Instead of your usual spot near the entrance, heeseung found you on the other side of the room near the wide windows overseeing the greeneries of the university. There's a book in front of you, together with your laptop and several binders as your right hand plays with a pen. You were working so hard, focus on wherever your attention binds, whilst the soft beam of sun shines through the windows and to your skin that makes it glow. Just like an ethereal. How can someone be so beautiful doing something that is so normal? Heeseung thought.

He was in trances that he didn't even realize how you turned your head in his direction to finally grace him with attention. This time it was you who found him. Heeseung observed the next events, it didn't became unnoticed how the world turn into slow-mo when your nonchalant mask changed into a smile, eyes writing pleasure as you focused it onto him.

You smiled, softly whisking your hand to signal for him to come. And just like a moth attracted to a fire, he did so without his eyes wavering away from the beauty you hold.

"We just need to check the outcome before passing it right?" You greeted, not bothering to say an actual greeting deeming that after everything happened — you and heeseung are close enough to do that. You unconciously hummed eyes now focus on the laptop you had in front of you.

Heeseung softly agrees, gently picking up the chair as to not disturb you or the other students trying to study in peace. He then put his bag and the files on top of the table before taking his seat.

"I double checked the files before sending it to your email, you can add things on some parts if you want" He whispered, taking the concept that students should not create any noise as an advantage to lean closer causing his cologne to drown you — in a good way.

Your eyes flickered to him but to his dismay it didn't last long. There's a bitterness arose in his heart, why can't you look at him like what you did earlier? But heeseung misread it.

He didn't know how he affect you in every way possible. The memories that occur in the little grocery store two days ago still fresh on your mind. Replaying every chances it gets — more often now that heeseung, the sole reason why your heart react in an unfamiliar way is just right in front of you.

"Okay, I'll work on it later then..."

"I actually can't stay that long, y/n" He mumbled, trying to squeeze a reaction from you.

"Oh, do you have other things to do?" He again nodded silently observing every move. "That's fine, I still need to stay though. Have an exam coming up."

He smiled before grabbing his bag, sliding it in front of him. "Here," Heeseung said finally getting your attention as put the snacks and your favorite strawberry juice in front of you. "Make sure to take breaks in between."

You squint your eyes at him, "You're suspiciously sweet today. Something's not right..."

Heeseung put his bag to his shoulder before standing up, but clumsy lee heeseung forgot to zip his bag causing some of his things to fall all over the place.

Shit, he mumbled.

The man immediately bend down to pick up his things, his heart almost jumped when he sees you doing the same.

You leaned back to your chair, heeseung following suit as he stood up. He unconsciously swallows as his eyes darts back to you, who silently handing the fallen object back to him. Relief washes over his orbs when it's just a small notebook in your hands. Heeseung smiled, taking the notebook before softly patting your head, "What do you mean? I'm always sweet, maybe you just didn't realize it." He shrugged before stepping away but decided to stop and turn around again, "Oh, and make sure to chat riki. He's been sulking these past few days because he didn't get your number last time and said that he wanted to hang out with his mom again"

"What? But, that was only one time."

"Riki would be hurt if he heard that. Basically, for him... I'm his dad, you're his mom, and he's our adopted child," He said in 'as a matter of fact' tone. "See you later, sweetheart. I'll go to work, now!"

The man can see your cheeks burning and how you decided to fight it by jokingly hitting him which he just laughed at. He waved goodbye before finally walking away outside the library.

Heeseung uncontrollably smiled all the way outside the building, descending through the stairs and onto the street. He just can't help it whenever your face flashes through his mind, you were basically his happy pill everyday. That's a known fact, at least to him.

"You seemed happy these days aren't you, lee?" Heeseung stopped in his tracks, soft gaze shifting into scowl before lifting his head to look at the person.

"...that's none of your business, jeongin"

The man smiled, albeit full of vile. "Is it because of y/n?" He asked pretending not to hear the warning in heeseung's voice. "Well, to be honest, I can easily figure it out."

"Don't even think about going near her agai—"

"Do you really think I forgot what you did to me last time?"

Heeseung scoff, sending sharp beams on its way. "It was just a punch. Why are you throwing a tantrums for something so trivial?"

The blonde haired man walked towards heeseung equating his position.

Jeongin pat his shoulder, "I'm not the only one who has secrets keeping from her. Remember that, cousin."

He was about to walk away but Heeseung thought otherwise. "Just like what I said..." He started, voice louder than before causing jeongin to stop. "That's none of your business, Jeongin." Heeseung turned around walking closer to the other man who turned around to face him. "I don't know why you still concern yourself with y/n. What happened between you two was created because of your lies that also ended years ago. So, just... fucking drop it."

Heeseung keep his sharp stares on jeongin before finally, turning around. The other man, jeongin didn't retort back. His eyes keeping on heeseung's back that was slowly fading into the distance.

Chapter 50 — the connection

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GENRE! smau + written, on crack, slow burn, mutual pinning or past pinning, university au, kinda enemies to lovers troupe, heeseung is a simp, reader is kind of dumb, friends bullying friends

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© heerocks 2023

[hopelesslyromanticgay]

Lemonade — Vada Cavell

When I was seven years old, my friend , Vada and I started a lemonade stand.  Ever since then, she and I have been inseparable.

It was a hot summer week, and quite frankly, we had nothing to do. Her mom had just gotten back from the store and asked us to unpack the groceries. Neither of us wanted to, but like I said earlier, we had nothing else to do.

"Oh my goddd the weather is killing me!" I complained, putting the milk carton in the fridge. She nodded in agreement.

"Look!" she squealed, "lemons!" She takes out a huge bag of lemons.

"That's a lot of lemons, V," I laughed.

"Buy tuh-woo, get three free," she desperately tried to read the label.

"You mean buy two get three free?" I tried to raise an eyebrow.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes, "we should make lemonade!"

I got out her mom's fancy pitcher and a knife, and miraculously didn't get cut while slicing the lemons. Less miraculously, the juicing of the lemons on multiple occasions stung our eyes.

"Okay, we gotta add lots of sugar," Vada told me, tasting the pure lemon juice. Her face puckered up in a way that even then I knew was not good.

"I love sugar!" I smiled, pouring an unhealthy portion of sugar in.

By the end of the afternoon, we made one dollar an seventeen cents with our one sale to the boy, Nick, down the street. 

"We should go buy candy!" Vada's eyes lit up.

"Ooh! M&M's! And jolly ranchers! And gummies!"

That was also the day we learned that there's not much you can but for $1.17.

It was a devastating day.

Twelve years later...

"Hi Vada," I exclaim, running up to the shorter brunette, giving her an obligatory head pat before enveloping her in a hug.

"Hi!" she smiles widely. I love her smile so much.

"What do you wanna do today?" I ask.

"What's there to do?" she replies. We end up lying down on her trampoline for at least an hour, scrolling through TikTok's together.

"What is it with the Lana Del Rey, will you serve me Lemonade trend?" Vada says, confused.

"No idea," I confess, "but it's fun to see celebrity glow ups showcased by it."

"No, totally," she laughs, "You've totally gotten a glow up."

"No, you're literally hotter than the sun, shut up Vada!" Vada's definitely the prettiest girl I know. Everything about her is so flawlessly beautiful. She could literally wear the silliest most random outfit she found at the bottom of her closet and pull it off perfectly.

"You shut up!" 

We sit in silence for a moment, then an idea pops into my head.

"Let's make lemonade!" I decide. Vada shoots up excitedly, "yes please! Anything other than TikTok's!"

"I agree."

We set off to work, making (much better) lemonade than we made last time.

"Okay, first of all, your mom has a lemon juicing thingy now, which feels over the top fancy, but we should probably use it," I tell her.

"It's literally a thingy you put lemons on and twists them, that's not fancy!"

"Whatever, let's use it!"

We slice up the lemons and begin to juice them.

"Damn, if this is what giving handjobs to guys is like, I do not want to date guys. Honestly, not really into that even before this. Like honestly, they're not doing it for me," she rambles. Her rambles are the cutest thing. If you don't interrupt her, she can go one for hours about conspiracy theories, shows, books, songs. It's one of the many things I love about her.

"Vada, you're literally gay, you don't have to worry about handjobs."

"No you're literally gay!" she points a finger at me. I pretend to take offense, slapping a hand over my heart. Joking around with her is the highlight of any day.

"We're both gay, now work on the water to sugar to lemon ratio," I decide.

"Why are you turning lemonade into mathhhhh," she complains.

"Just work on it!" I exclaim.

"Anything for you, my dear," she winks at me.

We finally finish the lemonade after fifteen minutes of bickering. I'm excited to try it, honestly. I haven't had good lemonade in years.

"Will you give me some?" she asks, noticing I've poured myself a glass.

"Pay Up!" I laugh.

"Is $1.17 enough?" she asks innocently.

"Why, you got that much?"

"The exact same coins," she confesses. I blush at the fact that she's kept coins from twelve years ago that we earned selling lemonade this whole time. I've never seen her as the sentimental type

"Damn, I must have meant a lot to you," I tease her.

"Not as much as you mean to me now," she takes a step closer to me, booping my nose.

"Oh yeah," I say, "and how much is that?"

She smirks, taking the lemonade out of my hand and setting it down on the counter.

"Enough to do this," she cups my cheeks and stands on the tips of her toes to brush her soft lips against mine. I hate to sound like a stereotype, but I swear I can feel fireworks go off in my stomach. My arms wrap themselves around her waist before finding their way to her hips and gently pulling her closer. She tastes like lemons and sugar(unsurprisingly considering we're making lemonade). Such a perfect taste for such a hot day. I could get used to this. It's hard not to crave more and more.

It's funny that just a few nights ago we were making fun of couples on TV who were like this, and yet now we're completely totally a cliche.

"Sorry if I read that wrong," Vada apologizes after pulling away.

"You're not reading it wrong, don't worry," I reassure her, kissing her lips again.

[lacunafiction]

(Yes, I made a special header that doesn’t relate to TFS’s emblems because today is Friday the 13th. XD)

Progress Update: January 13th 2023

TFS: Book One Masterpost (Reblogs are appreciated!) | TFS Patreon

Hi Everyone!

I hope you’re doing well 💚

It’s extremely fitting to have a weekly update on one of the Friday 13ths within this year given TFS’s slow-build horror themes and the total number of chapters in Book One. That was an intentional choice! This number is sometimes associated with creepy things from the eerie clock in the Haunted Mansion attractions to the Friday the 13th slasher series and so on. 🔪🐈⬛

It’s been just over a week since Book One’s release. I’m so grateful for all of your support during the wait and now that you all finally have a chance to experience the full story. TFS: Book One is live on all available platforms. I was always curious, possibly a bit anxious, about how the different stores would work, like if Steam would let it unlock earlier or later than let’s say the Google Play Store offering it. (I realized that they probably all wouldn’t unlock at a synchronized time.) It’s well past the release date and everything went smoothly!

I’m still kind of taking things in right now after waiting and hoping. TFS made its debut to the public in June 2021 with the release of the first demo (containing the first three chapters). I submitted Book One on June 17th 2022, and then it was a matter of being patient for the Hosted Games queue until January 5th 2023. We all waited together for only 18 months.

I hope to keep up this rigorous pace with your continued support.

To see Book One released to the public is both exciting and nerve-wracking, so I’ve been taking a little break from writing on Book Two during the release until everything sinks in before shifting back to prepping for it. That being said, I am eagerly working on Patreon content. Some of you may have seen January’s Content Schedule, if not you can use the link to the page. I’ve been patiently waiting to share so many ideas on there that it’s been fun deciding the topics.

Aside from processing my ~emotions~, I’ll be working on future content, replying to Patreon emails about character portraits, answering questions, and, of course, continuing to prep for Book Two’s chapters. (The sheer amount of variables from Book One means I made a spreadsheet, lol. 📊 You might have a guess about the scope if you’ve finished a playthrough, or you will experience the butterfly effect in the future. Each chapter gets its own sheet of variables I can call-on or trigger.)

Again, a huge thank you to each of you who found TFS and stayed with me through this process! A gentle reminder about please leaving a review/rating, if you’re enjoying the game, but most importantly, I’m wishing you all the very best! 🥰

[turtleations]

Interview with SEIJI KIMURA (Ex-Zeppet Store vocals and guitar, currently active with solo-unit hurdy gurdy)

Published in the hide BIBLE (by Akemi Oshima) 2008

Note: Just like with INA's interview, I am keeping the honorifics on all names as Kimura used them (i.e. hide is referred to as hide-san throughout the interview).

Note 2: As with the two previous long interviews, this is very, very close to an actual translation. Many of the things I give you here are Kimura’s exact words, just moved from first to third person. The prompts and questions of the interviewer are actual translations.

Note 3: On the name "Seiji Kumura": Usually, when written in roman letters, I found the name transcribed as "Seizi Kimura". I am using "Seiji" because this is was the book uses. I also have it in the title in the order given name - family name, even though on all other interviews I keep the Japanese order of names, because, again, this is what the book does.

Note 4: The desciption in the title is from 2008. Zeppet Store did in fact reunite in 2011.

Kimura-san, after hide-san passed away, you were asked to speak in various places, weren’t you?

Immediately after hide-san’s death, Kimura wasn’t in a situation to talk about anything. He was doing a live radio-broadcast at the time, and about three days after the funeral, there was a broadcast from a satellite studio in Sendai. Numerous listeners gathered there at that time because everyone wanted to hear about hide-san, and it was very hard to speak in all that.

This is going back in time, but when how did you first meet hide-san?

A year earlier, the indies label UNDER FLOWER RECORDS had made 1000 copies of Zeppet’s album “Snap, Slide, Sandpit”, but since they did no lives and were overall unknown, those didn’t sell well. Among the acquaintances of their drummer Yanagida was a stylist who knew hide-san. According to tales from the office, that person passed the CD to a bunch of people, and one copy ended up at HEADWAX.

The CD just happened to end up in hide-san’s office?

Yes. Hide-san was living in LA at the time, but it seems that after he returned to Japan, he took a selection of the CDs scattered around the office home to listen to them. One of them was Zeppet’s, but since it was all sung in English, he didn’t think it was from a Japanese band at first. When he learned that it was from a band near Shimokita, he said “We have to do something with this” and contacted them. At the time, HEADWAX was associated with a band called DEEP, and it was at their one-man live that Zeppet Store met him for the first time. They knew they were to meet him that day, but the band members still questioned it, wondering if this was for real, when the elevator doors opened and hide-san was standing there.

Was he there by coincidence?

No, it was like he had been waiting for them. He was sitting there on his own, going, “Yo!” and they were very surprised.

While you knew X JAPAN, there was no similarity between their music and yours, was there?

None whatsoever. Zeppet Store couldn’t believe it when they heard that hide-san had taken an interest in them. Since their musical activities and their field were so different, it seemed very strange. Until they met him for real, they were sceptic and took that talk with a grain of salt when someone told them about it. It was only when they were drinking with hide-san after the live and he kept talking about their songs and their lyrics that they were thought, “Hey, this guy was really listening to us!”

What image did you have of hide-san after meeting him in person?

Before, Kimura did not know him at all. Even X JAPAN he only knew as far as “Kurenai” and such. They were on TV often, but the only impression he had of hide-san was that he had an existence completely separated from his own. When he heard about hide-san’s interest in them, he borrowed his solo CD from a co-worker, listening to his music properly for the first time.

Did you think it would be rude not to?

Yes, but frankly, in the beginning, he didn’t quite get it. It was completely divorced from X JAPAN, and while Kimura thought that hide-san was the kind of person to be doing appropriately interesting stuff, it was so different from what Kimura listened to that he didn’t know what to make of it.

What impression did you have when you met hide-san for the first time?

It was at the afterparty of a DEEP-live, when hide-san went directly to the members of Zeppet without even talking to those of DEEP, to chat with them on his own. They were drinking and Kimura was lacking confidence in it all, but seeing the earnest look in hide’s eyes, he ended up thinking, “This is a grown man I can trust completely.” It made him happy that hide-san cared about and spoke passionately with them, and he gave the impression of really loving music. At that time, they didn’t talk about business at all, and with hide-san endlessly asking about their lyrics and melodies, the impression changed to that of one single-minded about music. Until then, Kimura had thought him just a scary young man.

After that, did you sign up with hide-san’s label at once?

That fateful album came out in ‘94, they met in ‘95, but with hide-san living in LA, they couldn’t often talk directly. So, they started talking business with the representatives of HEADWAX. They talked about recording a demo tape with all their new songs of that time, but when that tape was done,　it was deemed so good that all those recordings ended up as the final version. Since the songs were all in English, the idea quickly changed to releasing it in the US, and they eventually did so with the album “716”. They met hide-san again when they went to LA.

For the second time?

The second time, yes.

Had it been hide-san’s idea to do a proper recording on the demo tape?

 Yes. Since Zeppet were amateurs, they didn’t really understand the meaning of demo tapes. Since they were now in a studio much more splendid than what they had worked in before, they reworked their lyrics, fixed the arrangements, and recorded it all giving their best.

And suddenly, you debuted in the US.

Yes. Because they released the demo tape like it was a competition, three companies put their hands up for it. They picked the one with the most favorable conditions. Since they would come out specifically in the US, it was decided that they should do some promotion, and while they only gave three concerts, they stayed over there for about a month.

That’s amazing! (laughs)

It was mostly sightseeing. In LA they did serious promotion: Went on the radio, gave interviews, appeared on TV, had a live at the “Viper Room” run by Johnny Depp, and more. They were put in charge of an event by an organization like the Japanese JASRAC [Japanese Society for the Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers]. Because there are a lot of Japanese people in San Francisco, they  interviewed with the local newspaper and gave a concert, but next they went to Seattle and there was nothing (laughing). So they went to have fun at the club night after night.

What was meeting hide-san for the second time like?

Kimura’s got an entire mountain of memories of that second time in LA. One time, hide-san took them to a Japanese restaurant he often went to, and as they went back to the hotel in two cars, music by Zeppet was played on the radio of the car hide-san was in. The car suddenly stopped, and hide-san said, “It’s on!” while crying.

Crying?

Yes. They were drunk, but all the band members and hide-san sat in the car, motionless, for four minutes, and hide-san was crying. And then he fell asleep, with an extremely happy expression on his face. They delivered him home like this.

Did you talk a lot when you were in LA?

They did. Hide-san came to see them live in LA, and after the concert was over, he said, “If you ever win an award, you can say, “Thank you, hide”. That’s enough.” At just that time, hide-san was starting zilch, and Kimura thinks that releasing an album in the US had been his dream as well. It seemed like the fact that he got this small indies band in his employment to debut there first made him very proud and happy.

You said you had three lives; did hide-san come to see all of them?

No, just the one in LA. It seems like he wanted to come to the others, but his own schedule made that impossible. Since there had been no opportunity for him to see them in Japan, LA was the first time he got to watch them perform. Anyway, in Japan, they were a band with roughly fifteen people in the audience. Fifteen was the biggest crowd they had ever assembled. At their worst, it was three.

And then you suddenly gave concerts in the US.

It was like a dream. Until then, they had only had stages of around 20 minutes. Now there were 40 minutes, and that they came out for encores also started in LA.

Did hide-san say anything about his thoughts on your live?

There was only one negative thing Kimura got: That he did not convey enough strong emotions with his eyes. “You have to put a bit more power into your eyes,” he was told. “Don’t make eyes like Mogutan,” hide said and called him Mogutan [Character from “Manga Hajimete Monagatari”, an educational program for children that ran from 1978 until 1984] for a while. Aside from that, he didn’t say anything. He liked Zeppet as it was and didn’t feel the need to interfere with Kimura’s handling of it. He said he was not a producer, just a collector who liked Zeppet, so as long as he could get their work out into the world, he was satisfied. Hide-san didn’t say anything about their musicianship or their visuals. In fact, it was a bit anti-climatic.

Weren’t there any songs he didn’t like?

There weren’t. Their first two albums – the one that got them to meet hide-san and the one after that – were in English, but their debut was made in Japanese. Since he had been singing exclusively in English until then, Kimura was very anxious about that and wondered what hide-san thought about it, but hide-san only said, “It made me cry.” Afterwards, Kimura was called alone to the Sendai concert of the PSYENCE-tour to perform there on his own. He took the Shinkansen to Sendai and performed their single “Koe” before the encore. Since he came alone and didn’t bring anything, hide-san said, “Use my guitar”, and let him borrow it.

Your impressions of that time

It had been just before hide debut, and Kimura realized what it meant to give music his own color. hide-san’s thought process was unpredictable. Kimura thinks his way of thinking must have changed somewhere along the way to keep up with hide-san’s. When they they had someone from the audience come up on stage and dance during the song called “Beauty & Stupid”, Kimura asked hide-san, “Please let me dance as well” and was allowed on stage. Since he didn’t have a personality like that, something must have changed. The tour was stimulating like that. While he was dancing in female clothes wearing a wig, it was pointed out during the MC that “Kimura, who was singing yesterday, is dancing over there.” Later, during the afterparty, DIE-san sang and played “Koe” on the keyboard and the members of hide-san’s band were crying. Inada-san (INA) was wailing. At that moment, Kimura thought, “I’m lucky to debut among people like these.” In the end, Kimura couldn’t keep going with them due to some sudden developments, but it was fun, that year, shocking as it had been.

Zeppet’s activities then?

They also went on tour. When they did their tour starting with their second single, they were also in a place where hide-san was scheduled to be. They saw his live in Sapporo.

Did your impression regarding hide-san change?

Kimura thought that if you know him better, hide-san is a pretty kind person. Even if he raged when drunk, he would always say, “I’m sorry” the next day. While irrational things made him angry, he was never angry at the members of Zeppet. No matter how drunk he was, he always supported them. He took them to a lot of bars, and later they heard from the staff that he paid for everything with his own money. He was like the embodiment of kindness. To Kimura, he was a music-loving, mischievous older brother.

You were taught many things.

Drinking until morning was one of them, that was something Kimura did not know before being dragged around. He liked alcohol, but wasn’t tough enough to keep going all night. He was taught to go through two or three places and finish it off by eating ramen. Then, when moving on, the walked with a skip to their steps (laughing).

What do you mean?

It was a silly thing, but he liked silly things, and he enjoyed being in that circle. It seemed unbelievable to him, a plain guy who had just debuted, should be friends with these flashy people and be on good terms with them.

Were you ever given advice?

Hide-san never told them to do things in a specific way, but at the time of their major debut, he said, “If you’re active in Japan, wouldn’t it be better to do so in Japanese?” Also, they were often told that bands that do not have a concert at the end of the year are not bands at all.

At the end of the ear? On New Year’s Eve?

They were told to “do that, no matter what.”

What were things you consulted with him about?

When it came to writing lyrics, they consulted hide-san on how to put them down in Japanese. Kimura asked, for example, if it was okay to write the song in Japanese and have only the hook in English. hide told him to just write it the way he likes it and see what happens. They were talking about their second single, “TO BE FREE”, and Kimura was told that it wouldn’t be any problem at all. Then, Inada-san taught them various recording techniques. Like how to make the core sound of the guitar stronger. When hide-san was drunk, he talked a lot, but those were just trivial stories. There was talk about music for about the first 30 minutes, after that it’s all silly but fun stories. He did get passionate talking to guitarist Gomi about effectors, though. Gomi-kun was using a guitar called “Jaguar” at the time, and hide-san ordered a guitar with the exact same shape from Fernandez, which had been, again, extremely cool. The song he used it for, saying he was influenced by Zeppet in this, was “Flame”. That hide-san had been so open about having being influenced by them made them extremely happy. At the time of recording “Flame”, hide-san said, “Please lend me your drums”, and so Zeppet Store’s Yanagida beat the drums for that song on the album. There had been plans for a Zeppet Store concert around that time, but then Yanagida went to LA, and Kimura gave a concert on his own for maybe the second time in his life. Now he does that all the time, though (laughing). Then, however, he was like, “Curse you!” towards Yanagida.

He just had to go to LA on his own. (laughs)

The finished song was amazing again. It had a melody Kimura had not heard before, and it was interesting that hide-san said, “I was influenced by Zeppet and this is the result.” Also, Zeppet had a song called “Flake”, and it made Kimura happy that even the title was similar to one of theirs.

Did you watch an X JAPAN live at that time?

They bothered them at the 1996 end-of-year concert. Hide-san wore a green costume and gave off the kind of fashionable, cool air that had led to PSYENCE. After that, they went to the afterparty, and there was a year-end party from the office as well, it was magnificent. The following year, Zeppet, as per hide-san’s advice, also gave an end-of-year concert.

Did you also hang out with hide-san in Japan?

Yes. At that time, hide often went to a bar called “Rally” in Nishiabazu, and since he also took Kimura along, Kimura also ended up going there on his own.

Huh? Until then, you weren’t the type for that, were you?

Not at all. That, too, is clearly hide-san’s influence. One day, Kimura was drinking on his own when hide-san happened to come into the bar. Except, he was walking on crutches. Kimura had heard rumors that hide had broken his foot in Atami, but the people from the office didn’t tell them anything so they wouldn’t worry. Due to his injury, hide-san was not allowed to drink alcohol. It was not often that you saw him not drinking in a place like that, but having a strong sense of service towards those around him, he still stayed with Kimura for two hours and kept him company without drinking. During this time, he was regaling Kimura with wild, hilarious stories from the past until Kimura was rolling with laughter. “I want to meet Kimura’s girlfriend. Let’s call her, so you can introduce us!” So Kimura called his girlfriend of the time and the three of them kept drinking together. When hide-san got drunk, he would always talk about how useless he was. He liked to make fun of himself. It surprised Kimura how a rockstar like hide-san would look down on himself like that. The truth is, Kimura took after that trait and starts by talking shit about himself when drunk.

Hide-san could tell funny stories, couldn’t he?

No matter what kind of story, if hide-san was telling it, you ended up roaring with laughter. He had mastered the art of conversation. In any case, it was extremely funny. The next time they were drinking together, Kimura passed hide-san a cassette with hurdy gurdy [Kimura’s solo unit] music and asked him to listen to it. Then, it was used, without anyone telling him, in LEMONed’s catalogue video (laughing). About forty seconds of it, and the sound was bad, because it was from a cassette. Just letting it flow at its own convenience. Kimura was happy.

Was it rare for people to drink with hide-san?

It was more like a general trend, they were never alone at the time. The moment hide-san aimed for the counter, Kimura was at his side. Since they couldn’t really talk among all those people, those moments were his chance. They requested their favorite music and talked about bands like KISS, POLICE, or QUEEN. It was a wonderful time.

Kimura-san, what did hide-san mean to you?

Even though the things they did and their music were different, he is somehow still a mark Kimura is aiming for. He would probably get angry if he said that, though. As a human being, Kimura loved him, as a man he respected him, and even now he has yet to meet another person with this passion towards the music they are doing. When Kimura lost his way in regard to music during some part of his life, it was hide-san who helped him find it again. If he hadn’t met hide-san, he would probably be doing some other work now. If you think about it like that, hide-san was his benefactor. Although Kimura can’t surpass him, a small ambition to try still exists somewhere.

What did hide-san do as your benefactor?

Kimura loved music and had always wanted to do it, but he didn’t think he could make a living out of it. When he met hide-san, he was twenty-eight years old and pretty late to making his debut as a newbie. As he reached that age, he had given up on a lot of things in his life. He was facing the decision of whether to continue making music while working part-time, or find full employment and become a self-sufficient member of society. It was a time of great worries. Then he met hide-san and his way of thinking changed: He decided that he could trust this person and that he would follow him as far as possible. At that time, Kimura was jobbing at a pachinko parlor, and if he did not become a full employee, he would have to give that up. If he did become one, he could make it to manager. Also, it came with a nice salary – more than double than what he would make as an office worker. Since he was living at the pachinko mansion, quitting that job would also mean giving up his room. His life would change drastically, he’d have to move out, and while he wondered if he could really do this, he was also aware that a chance like the one hide-san offered him would not come again, and so he decided to follow him.

That decision required courage.

So it did. If Kimura remembers it now, he wonders how that was even something to think twice about, but back then, he agonized about it a lot.

He was someone who changed your life, wasn’t he?

If Kimura hadn’t met hide-san, he wouldn’t be the person he is today. He wouldn’t have stood in the Ajinomoto-Stadium. He would probably have continued to do music but would have performed in front of an audience of maybe fifteen to twenty people. Through meeting hide-san and being recognized by him, Kimura became an adult. Hide-san was his patron.

What would you want to tell young fans about hide-san?

They can learn about his music from CDs and DVDs, but the plain, unadorned part of hide-san is not talked about much, so Kimura would like to tell them about him as just a guy. He was made of kindness, extremely thoughtful. Even though he was the main act, he never lost sight of those around him. He showed great consideration for the staff and even gave attention to people like Kimura, who had a completely different view on things. “Kimura-san looks bored, so let’s entertain him” he’d say to the staff. Kimura thinks he was massively tolerant of other people’s faults. He could be troublesome when drunk, but everyone understood that that was just the flipside of all the affection, and no one around Kimura ever said a single bad word about him. Of the people who had even a little bit to do with hide-san, no one really said anything bad. Kimura got the strong impression that he was someone who was loved by those around him no matter what. There is no one else like that. The impression he left was that of a person who wasn’t perfect, but good.

That no one got angry with him even when he was acting irrationally is amazing. Simply put, it speaks of virtue.

Really. When Zeppet was DJing at the LEMONed Club Event, hide-san unexpectedly came to visit. Since there would have been an uproar if he had been discovered, they went drinking together in the back, and because Zeppet Store’s second single had just come out, talk inevitably turned to the band. At this point, hide-san asked a staff member, “Are you promoting it properly?”, showing a glimpse of being the head of their company in a business context. When the staff member said, “I have no idea,” he lost it. So he hit the wall hard enough for it to break and for blood to flow.

……

 Of course he couldn’t hit his own staff member at his own event. Instead, he raged wihtou involving other people and chased a taxi, that’s all. Hide-san liked chasing taxis, it seems. He liked running, too.

Did you see him run a lot?

He did. Running, rolling… He never failed to do something funny. On hide-san’s birthday, Sugizo-san and J-san of Luna Sea came by. J-san had brought a 1-sho [1,8 litres] bottle of Japanese sake that hide-san liked, putting it on the table with a “Happy Birthday!” And hide-san just said, “I appreciate it, J, but I quit drinking Japanese sake. When I drink it, I flip out.” That got him the admiration of his close friends. Hide-san introduced Kimura to Sugizo-kun and J-kun and really, a lot of other people. Even though hide-san is already gone, Kimura still meets people through him. While it’s not just people hide-san introduced him to directly, he became friends with kyo-chan through hide-san, who came to stay the night at Kimura’s just the other day.  

He had a gift for connecting people with each other, didn’t he?

At the time of Kimura’s debut, most of his fans knew him through hide-san, and even now, it’s thanks to hide that he can connect with his fans. Kimura Seiji is someone living his life in hide-san’s protection and is thus inseparable from him. Even now, the memorial portrait of hide-san in the room where Kimura makes his music is properly decorated. For a while, it was right in the center, but he eventually moved it back some because it was awkward like that. Even now there are probably people who mistake hide-san for LEMONed’s producer. But that is far from the truth. Hide-san always said that he was just a simple collector who wanted to release the things that were good. He approached it with the basic mindset that good things didn’t need to be tampered with, Kimura and the others had complete freedom. They only got four singles and one album delivered through hide-san. For the last single, they had to overcome the fact that their guitarist Gomi-kun, whom hide-san had loved, had quit, but they still got extremely high praise for it. Hide-san called them specifically to tell them that he had cried about a hundred times. It’s because of memories like this that Kimura is still taking singing seriously. Because even until today, there’s been no one else to say such things to him.

Hide-san was also gifted at giving praise.

Hide-san’s praise really became Kimura’s stepping stone. That he could just go for it, thinking, “Next, I’ll write another good song” was also hide-san’s power. That single became the last song of his that hide-san listened to. Even though that is what it is, Kimura wanted him to listen to many more songs.

Is there anything you would like to say to hide-san today?

Even now, Kimura still asks hide-san how to deal with it when he has a problem. But now, he has to find the answer himself. He received that strength, and now, by asking, he feels that he is growing up a little. To speak plainly, hide-san’s meaning to him exceeds family. He is so important that inside Kimura, he has the status of a god, even if it seems strange to say it like that. Kimura is truly grateful that he got to meet hide-san, because of that one CD that happened to end up in his hands.

[its--deandraa]

My 2023 Recap!!

January:

▫️got a 2nd job that’s a WFH job!

▫️went to the library

▫️139 day streak for duo French!

Febuary:

▫️actually started my new job!

▫️read 3 books! (The first three in Shadow and Bone series!)

▫️169 days for my French streak!

▫️went to the library more!

March:

▫️made some yearly goals

▫️189 French streak!

▫️started new workout plan!

▫️started my Saturn Return 🪐

▫️learned how to use printer at the library! (Game changer for me!)

▫️got a new hairdresser and haircut!

April:

▫️216 for French streak!

▫️follow up for anxiety program referral.

▫️continued workout plan!

▫️finished reading another book!

▫️started paint-by-number

▫️started growing cucumbers!

May:

▫️wrote my resignation letter for my first job.

▫️quit one of my jobs!

▫️went to a surprise party!

▫️finished majority of my YT script

▫️244 for French streak!

▫️survived a cold

▫️bought gel plate for art

▫️got $20 for completing surveys

▫️bought a backdrop + tripod

June:

▫️had fun at one of my friends b-day party!

▫️worked my last day at my first job.

▫️made some art with the gel plate!

▫️another $20 for doing surveys

▫️spending a lot less on transportation and ordering out because of my job.

▫️worked more hours at my WFH job.

▫️269 french streak!

▫️bought the book “the Artists way”

▫️cooking more!

▫️found a scam in my bank account!

July:

▫️still growing tomatoes and cucumbers!

▫️continued workout plan!

▫️cooking and making food more!

▫️deleted my Flo app to track more on paper!

▫️saving more money!

▫️saw the Barbie movie with some friends!

▫️bought BEYONCÉ tickets and planned a whole trip!

▫️290 for french streak!

August:

▫️finally got reimbursed for the scam in my bank account

▫️planned my outfit for the RENAISSANCE TOUR! (Are you ready?! SHAWHAM!)

▫️finished a sewing project

▫️did a mini photoshoot for my sewing project

▫️309 days for french streak

▫️made pasta salad!

▫️got a new phone!

September:

▫️329 french streak!

▫️went to Vancouver by myself!

▫️had an overall successful trip to and from Vancouver!

▫️went to the Blodel conservatory in the van Dusen Gardens in Vancity!

▫️WENT TO BEYONCÉ!!! 🪩

▫️got my picture taken for a CBC article!

▫️got Beyonce merch!

▫️went to the aquarium!

▫️found a real fur scarf at the thrift store!

▫️had a going away party with former co-workers!

▫️finished a journal & started a new one!

▫️had movie night with a friend!

October:

▫️347 French streak!

▫️several Halloween movie night with my friends!

▫️bought two new journals!

▫️bought new headphones from warranty!

▫️bought my own candles and birthday balloons

▫️cleaned out a lot of my Twitter likes and hopefully deleting soon!

▫️got a call from a psychotherapist to determine next steps for therapy.

November:

▫️cleaned out two shelves in my room and reorganized a bunch of stuff!

▫️cleaned/reorganized desk and bought a desk mat!

▫️1 year french streak!

▫️cleaned out mini fridge and tea area!

▫️got a gift card from my work!

▫️got a refund from an Astro reading I didn’t get earlier in the year!

▫️enjoyed Kurtis Conner special! (Damn he’s funny!)

▫️started Christmas shopping!

▫️finished one of my yearly goals which was Reading 10 books!

▫️printed more from library like my workout sheets and debt tracker!

December:

▫️380 days for French streak!

▫️went to see the Renaissance movie!!

▫️finished Christmas shopping!

▫️made a friend a bucket hat!

▫️turned 29!

▫️got myself two bras and a sweater!

▫️found an Oleg Cassini wool skirt set from the 60s at the thrift store!

▫️started holidays with my WFH job!

▫️got some Oh doughnuts for my birthday!

▫️got most of the stuff I wanted/needed for Christmas!

[josephbrassey]

On Liechtenauer, Martial Arts, and a specific definition of winning.

To love for a lifetime is to fall in and out of infatuation. To see faults and determine to continue to put in the effort. It is to find yourself exasperated by the flaws in the place your affection is vested, only to come around again and remember where that love grew from to begin with. This essay is going to be about HEMA generally, about Kunst des Fechtens specifically, and about old books and why I don���t think anything passed down can belong to you.

This essay is going to be a series of disjointed thoughts that may or may not tie together at the end. There will be no citations, no references to specific pieces of text to prove a point. I’m not going to back anything up with data, and I’m not going to point to a specific part of something written and say “this is proof of what I mean.” This is no more and less than one person’s opinion, based purely on feelings and experience and anecdotes, for whatever that’s worth to the reader.

I have three books in my office that are over one hundred years old. Of these, one is a copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It does not actually belong to me, but it was loaned by a friend who moved out of state before I could give it back. It is beautiful and thought provoking, but—and this will be relevant later—it does not actually belong to me. It’s on-loan, even if that loan is extended. The second of these books is a copy of the collected poetry of Sir Walter Scott. I have not read it, mostly because I am afraid that it will fall apart if I flip too thoughtlessly through its pages. I found it at an antique store ten years ago, and I did not realize how precious it was until I got home, where I discovered a letter from a father to his daughter written in the early 1900’s, and a perfectly preserved rose pressed between the pages. I do not want to damage either, so I keep them where I found them. They are in my keeping, but like the first book, they do not feel like mine.

The third book is a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. I had a weird introduction to this book, which I have also read many times. When I was seventeen I was standing in a grocery aisle in Oregon, looking at beer that I couldn’t legally drink yet. Out of the blue, an old man I had never met approached me and started quoting from the poems. I don’t remember exactly what stanza—I think it was one of the ones warning people about drinking too much—but it stuck in my head and over the years I have acquired multiple copies, though none are as rare as this one. Even though I found it in a box of old books a friend had in their trunk, this one, like all the others, feels like a gift that I need to safeguard, until someday I give it to someone else.

I do not think that old things truly belong to us. Especially not those that have been passed down, and I think that treating them like possessions to be altered or discarded at will is a very consumerist way of thinking about things that should have more value. Especially when those things were created with blood, sweat, and tears, and when their existence was paid for in lives. Even if those lives were ended a long time ago. Even with treasured family heirlooms or old things that we stumble across, we are far more transient than they are, and at most we only keep them for a little while.

I started studying HEMA in 2008 with Fiore, and I transitioned to training Kunst des Fechtens exclusively in 2015. Liechtenauer’s art occupies a strange space, as far as Martial Arts go. Like the majority of earlier HEMA sources, it does not possess a living lineage of teacher-to-student transmission. What we have as practitioners is a series of texts expressing common principles and techniques, with only hints and bits of secondary and primary sources that offer suggestions as to the traditions that surrounded these arts when they were living. Because we are working to recreate this art from what has been left to us, it is easy to imagine that what we are creating is wholly new and our own, and that we have the right to make it our own. It is a common sentiment in many modern martial arts that the goal of training is to create a fighter whose deepest skill is expressed by the number of wins in competition and freeplay, however that’s defined. A not uncommon line of thought in many HEMA circles, including ones to which I am very close, is that creating great fencers, great fighters, is the primary purpose of our study. In some cases the only purpose.

I don’t really think that way. I used to, or at least I used to think that I should, but I don’t anymore.

What distinguishes Liechtenauer from other sources for me is the same thing that changed how I look at HEMA and functionally at Martial Arts in general. More than a set of techniques, more than the Five Words or the Haupstuck themselves, it is a system that teaches understanding of its subject material in a very layered way. I know consensus on this isn’t settled, but it’s always been my impression that the Zettel and several of the glosses are laid out in deliberate manner where techniques are unpacked in order to express the principles that they are trying to teach. Each section goes on to break down multiple ways to express the principle, and then the next section begins to unpack the next principle that the student will most benefit from learning in that order.

This layering of concept on top of concept, with later sections closing the loops that earlier ones began, immediately caught my attention, and years later it still has a hold on me. I think there is something deeply useful about the style of teaching that feels implicit in the text. We’re missing big parts, obviously, in-person pedagogy and the associated traditions that were associated with how the art was transmitted directly from teacher to student, but you can infer a lot from the structure of the texts. One of the things that stands out to me is that these aren’t just a formula for learning a martial art, but an expression of the writer’s understandings of how to learn to begin with.

And ultimately it has been this idea of understanding, itself, that’s come to shape how I think about not just Kunst des Fechtens, not just HEMA, but just about everything I approach in my life. The longer I do this, the less I give a shit about winning anything. The less I care about competing, or proving, or demonstrating the worth and value of this art. Some of that might be burnout, but I think the lion’s share of it is that as I’ve gotten older the value of what I’m doing has started to feel self-evident. This is something that, despite its severed lineage, was once a carefully guarded secret, an artform by which people lived and died. I don’t intend to wax romantic or melodramatic, but that weight means something. Immense and broad efforts were made through it’s two-century history to preserve and proliferate Liechtenauer’s art, and even though those works ultimately failed and the tradition died out, I feel strongly that those of us working with its remnants today owe it to the memory and spirit of those distant humans to respect the drops of blood and sweat staining the pages they wrote. The best way to honor this for me is to look at what they left behind, and dedicate my effort to understanding.

I talked earlier about how old things don’t belong to us. How what is old and has been passed down is on-loan, at least in an ideal world, because we are not its owners, but its caretakers. Through understanding, the Liechtenauer you study becomes not something you simply absorb and use as you choose, but a reframing of your mind that reshapes and reorganizes the flow of your thoughts. The ceiling on what a person can come to understand is so much higher than the accomplishments that are directly limited by physical health, age, ability, and athleticism. You can only win for so long, but your ceiling for deepening your learning is—if you’re lucky—limited only by your lifespan. Via this, the art expresses itself more and more through not only our arms and hands, but through how we think and feel and breathe. I don’t believe that any art-form can be grasped without allowing it to alter the fabric of which you’re stitched together, and when understood this way, not only does the art not belong to you, but it can’t.

Because the art expresses itself through you. You belong to it. It’s passing through you as you live your life, like the old books that come into your keeping to safeguard.

Until such time as you have to pass them on to someone else.

[chaoschaos1]

hey uh. more echo lore please

*pulls up fifty slide powerpoint presentation* well I'm glad you asked!

So, potential TW cause Echo's backstory is pretty dark.

(For context, Echo is the child with bandages in this post.)

Their story starts in a small town. It's the average, run of the mill kind of village you'd see in the countryside. The townspeople themselves are quite poor, and most families are struggling. By this point, they're four years old and have a different name, that as of right now I haven't decided on, partially because it's irrelavent to the lore anyway.

A group of scientists visit the town in search of children they can use for some experiments. Of course, they don't tell the parents this. All the townspeople know is that these people have offered to give their children a better life, and many of them give their children away. Echo was one of the offered kids.

For the next nine years of their life, they grew up in a lab, mostly unaware of their previous life. The lab is split into four sectors. Each sector contains five blocks, and each block contains ten children. Echo was in Sector 2, Block 1, and their assinged number was #56. To keep track of each child's number, they had them either carved or branded onto their left cheek, just under their eye.

The lab itself was focusing on creating the "perfect army". Echo was part of the earlier experiments, which were less broad and more so about creating the perfect soldier than a whole army.

Echo was one of the more promising results among their block. They had a shard of a Dynite implanted in their chest.

I might make a seperate post for Dynite lore, but to put it in simple terms: it's something the Gods use to store power, remain eternal, switch between human and god forms, and some other things I can't think of right now.

So, because I don't want to get too graphic here, a God's human form can't handle a Dynite shard's sheer power without their body quite literally melting. On top of the fact that the Dynite is what grants the Gods immortality, you can probably imagine how badly that went for Echo.

After all these tests and adjustments, the Dynite finally began to become comfortable with Echo as its host.

(Small note that isn't really to do with anything, I just wanted to mention it: Echo was AMAB, but obviously dysphoria is a thing and the Dynite picked up on that, so it changed their body to be fully androgynous. We stan a suppprtive gem.)

Once they had recovered, Echo became part of a group that was regularly taken to an arena of sorts. Their "task" was to test the strength of the true "perfect soldier" that the scientists had managed to create. This was a boy named Aeste, and he was what you'd expect from a fully grown soldier, but in the body of a thirteen year old.

The majority of the group was no match for him, and under the influence of the observing scientists, he disposed of every child that was pitted against him. Except for Echo, no-one could last more than a few minutes.

Over time, because Echo managed to survive each fight, the pair began to form a sibling bond, and eventually destroyed the facility together. They were seperated for a while, but Mai found Aeste, and then a week later, she found Echo.

And then the three of them became a found family. So yay, happy ending, at least until I get this book written!

I'm not sure if I missed some stuff, but if I did it was likely either spoilers or irrelavent to the story anyway.

[mennobottema]

The Camino Catalan, an attempt

You can live in Spain, but still - in November the rain beats against the windows here too. Just when I'm considering booking a ticket to the tropics, I get a text from Luke from Bristol. 'Hey, I'm tempted to do a bike trip from Girona. Want to join?'.

A few days later - on Saturday - Luke enters my house in Girona. It's pouring rain outside - the city's river is now at historic heights and runs like a roaring stream of peanut butter through the city. Luke doesn't care and has a plan. Earlier that year he cycled a Camino route from Pamplona and he now shows me that you can start a 'Camino' (pilgrim route) from almost anywhere in Spain.

We zoom in on the Camino Catalan which runs from the Mediterranean Sea via Girona to the west and ultimately Santiago de Compostela. I think it's a great plan and we decide to plan two routes. A first stage to Vic and a second stage to the famous monastery of Montserrat. From there you can pick up the 'Camino' and follow the famous shells. 

The road bike is not an option if we want to follow the pilgrims route. We are going on an off-road bikepacking trip on two rented mountain bikes. 

It's a wonderful feeling to set off from home with your bike. It is a grey Monday, but the autumn colours give everything a golden glow. 

We finish the first stage in Vic. An elegant place with a beautiful central square. Sausages are important in Vic and the surrounding area - and you can buy them here in shops that display their wares from shops that look like jewellery stores.

On Tuesday morning we are out on our bikes early to make the most of the day before the weather gets worse. It's mushroom season in Catalonia. Old men cruise through the woods in minivans and follow their noses with a wicker basket. The roads in the forests have become red mudslides due to the rain and our bikes have almost no grip.

When we end up in front of an electric fence, it also starts to rain. Great. Earlier in the day we started with a beautiful climb from Vic and were surprised by some stunning light. Now, Luke decides to brave the fence and canonize the shells - you follow what you should follow. And I follow him.

It is a day of wet socks, multiple coffee stops and six hours in the saddle. Just before we decide that we are done with this day we receive a gift. The view of the Montserrat mountain range and the asphalted descent to the town of Monistrol de Montserrat. What a dream to finish after spending most of the day in the trenches of some Catalan forests.

Day three goes off with a bang. The climb to the Montserrat monastery starts directly from the hotel. Dense fog when we leave and start the climb. We rise slowly into a white world. And then, after a few kilometres, we see a mighty rock wall looming in front of us. Pointed rocks surrounded by white cotton wool clouds and deep blue sky. We are cycling towards a miracle.

The climb to Montserrat is the highlight of our Camino. The magnificent climb and then the contrast at the top where you are surrounded by selfie sticks and flag-following-Asians. It is at that moment that Luke mentions the opening sentence of The Rider, the famous book by Tim Krabbé. “I take my gear out of the car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafés. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me."

We continue cycling, enjoying and cursing wholeheartedly as we plough on, stuck in the mud. We pass the town of Cervera - the birthplace of MotoGP rider Marc Marquez. We drink coffee in the bar where a museum and fan shop about Marquez has been set up.

In Tarrega, we ring the bell at an apartment. Spacious and not expensive - well-found. Still, there is a bad smell of smoke and incense, the heating appears to be broken and the host enters our bedroom unannounced. When we return from the city, our drying cycling clothes have been removed from the room. They will be washed after payment of five euros. Right. The next day, when we get our clothes back from the man they smell like chorizo.

We don’t pay the five euros for our clothes and decide to spend money on breakfast before we leave Tarrega as quickly as possible. We are on our way to Lleida. We are making good speed because after Lleida the desert awaits and that prospect does not warm us up.

We reach Lleida just before twelve o'clock. One of the oldest Catalan cities - located at the beginning of a kind of sunken plateau. At the big old castle in the middle of the city, we drive into a sign - literally. It is an image of all Camino routes in this region.

Half an hour later everything is different and the desert is forgotten. Luke and I are going to Tarragona - to the sea. The prospect of the beach, sardines and a sunny rest day on Saturday is impossible to ignore. The emptiness after Lleida, flat land with a headwind, is not a prospect to long for.

Ultimately, we cycle 110 km this day and finish exhausted in the mountain village of Rocallaura. This is 17 km as the crow flies from our starting point Tarrega. You better laugh about that. At the edge of the village, we find an enormous spa hotel. Luxury in everything, but dirt cheap. We eat in the village in Rocallaura Cafe - a lot more atmospheric than the hotel restaurant. A girl from South America turns out to be running the cafe after Barcelona became too busy - somehow I understand that.

A day later we plough on our bikes through the rain and over muddy paths, looking for Camino signs. We finish with - only - 70 kilometres early in Tarragona. Our host Xavier is already standing in the doorway at the hotel. We, friends, should come in quickly. Bags on a rug, bicycles by the heater and 'listen boys, you enjoy Tarragona - my beautiful city'. Hotel Pigal, in any case, gives a warm welcome. Sardines and paella in the harbour complete it - after all, this is a holiday.

Saturday - exactly one week after we decided to follow the Camino route. We cruise through Tarragona on our Bianchi's. What a lovely city this is. Not too big, by the sea, with no tourists and with many old buildings in the centre. Tarragona only becomes more beautiful as we slalom through restless Barcelona in the evening. We took the train in the afternoon to the departure point of our last stage.

On Sunday we get up at 7:30 am. We follow a route from Cyclocat, which organises an annual tour for MTB and gravel riders between Barcelona and Girona. The route starts on the outskirts of Barcelona, ​​but before we get there we have already cycled for 45 minutes through the city. 

It will be the longest day of the week - and also the toughest. It is quite a mental battle to complete the last leg of this trip. Luke, with a limping knee, pedals himself into Girona on one leg.

After more than 115 km we stumble into the house. We are tired, very tired - after six days of battling against wind, rain and mud. We lost the pilgrim trail after Lleida and our sacred route slowly disappeared into the background. What remained was hunger, thirst, dirty bikes and yet... a memorable adventure.

[chloemarievaughan]

May 6

today we left Inverness for fort William! While the two places are not very far apart, they aren’t connected by trajn: taking the train would be an estimated 10 hours with multiple changes. A bit much even for train lovers like Grey and I!

There is a fairly cheap bus that connects the two. It’s a pretty straight line along Loch Ness, where we had already driven and boated past. When we got on board, the driver warned us that the Road Æwas winding and if we were bad travelers, to sit in the back near the on board toilets. As a seasoned pro of Scottish bus tours now, I figured I wouldn’t have any issues, but the heat was blasting and I was horribly carsick the whole time 😂

Tried my best to appreciate the scenery even with feeling terrible- even snapped one or two pictures, but was very glad to get off the bus 2 hours later 😂 Fort William, our next stop, is a small mountain town (population of the town including surrounding villages: about 5000). It was MUCH harder to find a good hotel/ air bnb here, probably not helped by the fact that again it’s a three day weekend in Scotland so people were visiting Fort William, which is something of a Mecca for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts. the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis, is nearby; there is also a hike called the Great Glen way which follows the opposite of the bus we took yesterday, from Fort William to Inverness. it’s a 74 mile hike and fort William is the start. There are also lots of hiking trails, and in winter, skiing.

We arrive at about 11, dropped our bags at the hotel (the luggage storage closet was absolutely Packed with other travelers presumably doing the same thing. we then went to lunch at a local pub (grey had some fish and chips, I had a ham and cheese toastie and some lentil soup, drank some coke and sparkling water and fully recovered from my car sickness. we had some time to kill, so made an unexpected but lovely stop at the West Highland museum. It is a free museum on the main street of Fort William (there really is only one street in Fort William 😂) and it had a cool collection of random donated historical items found through the highlands, touching on again the Rising and Bonnie Prince Charlie, to earlier development of the area, to the nature and geology, to World War II and the local Commando military training grounds. we next ducked into a grocery store for some snacks and then sat in a park for a bit before we were able to actually check into our hotel.

Our hotel was called the Garrison and the rooms are inside of old jail cells complete with the hallways having the jail cell doors 😂 we have the tiniest room I have ever seen and a bunk bed; Grey has the bottom and cannot sit up fully, and I have the top with a window. We have a private shower but it’s out in the hallway haha. Grey and I thought the gimmick was funny but we are also glad we are only here for two nights we have no space at all 😂

we had been planning this day to ride the Jacobite Steam Train, otherwise known as the Harry Potter Hogwarts Express shown in the movie. I had first class seats booked including a tea service, and was looking forward to the fancy steam train. However, about a month ago I got an email that the train company was being forced to shut down operations because the locking mechanisms on their door are not up to code with the Scottish rail system laws, and it’s a safety hazard. This had been a known issue for about ten years, with both sides suing each other and the West Coast Railways getting an exemption each year to continue running. Well, of course, this year they did not grant the exemption. I had hopes it would be fixed by the time we came to ride, but alas, they were only operating on reduced capacity (only the carriages that met the safety standard I suppose) and so our booking was cancelled.

however, the normal trains still run between fort William and Mallaig, and instead of a $150 round trip ticket, grey and I were able to ride round trip for about $20 bucks- the view on this ride might have made this the best $20 I ever spent!

We were scheduled for the 4:00 train to Mallaig, and so made time for a quick pub pit stop to try a locally made whisky, the Ben Nevis distillery. Both of us thought it was pretty solid!

In Europe, you can usually drink on trains; not in Scotland which was too bad. we caught a glimpse of the returning steam train we were supposed to take and then headed out. It was a little bit hard to take pictures because our windows were dirty, but the pictures I did manage were still incredible. But nothing compares to the view in person!

in Mallaig, we had a 20 minute stop, just enough time to use the restroom and buy a little iced gingerbread cake from the stall by the station, and to take a picture of the ocean (directly across the water was the Isle of Skye again!) on the way to Mallaig, we sat on the left side for the best views, including a picturesque turn over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. We could see tourists down below taking pictures of our train going across! we passed by very tiny train stations, including the most westerly train station in Scotland. It was wonderful and I took loads of pictures on the way out. The train is a one track line, so the same train goes out and back all day for about an hour and a half journey. On the way back, I decided not to take more pictures since it was the same view and soaked it all in, noticing some details I missed out the way out and seeing more wildlife, including deer and herons and noticing the bluebells in the woods starting to bloom. And of course more sheep and cows :) Again, best 20 dollars I’ve ever spent- didn’t much feel like I missed out on much of anything by not riding the Harry Potter train!

we stopped for dinner at a Scottish brewery and I tried some of their beer? Enjoyed the cider and thought the Red Ale Nitro was interesting but not my new fave. We had a 45 minute wait for the wood fired pizza with venison but it was very tasty. This ended up being the latest we have been out all trip, heading back to the room at about 9:30. Our days have been full and we are tired by the end haha! tomorrow, we have plans for some separate hikes in the mountains! Can’t wait!

[yhwhrulz]

Worthy Brief - March 4, 2024

Don't be deceived by riches!

Hebrews 13:5-6 Let your way of life be without the love of money, and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, "Not at all will I leave you, not at all will I forsake you, never!" so that we may boldly say, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."

The city of Laodicea was founded nearly three centuries before the birth of Christ. Built on a trade route, Laodicea was quite prosperous. The wealth of the city was legendary, as Jews who lived there sent 9 kilograms (20 lbs) of gold to the Temple in Jerusalem on a yearly basis according to historical records.

By the time John penned the book of Revelation around 90 AD Laodicea had survived an earthquake 30 years earlier. Though partially destroyed the city refused Rome’s offer to help rebuild, insisting it could take care of itself — Laodicea was self-sufficient. Tacitus, the Roman historian, wrote: "Laodicea arose from the ruins by the strength of her own resources, and with no help from us.” The city was so wealthy it minted its own coins!

Yeshua's parable of the seed sown among thorns speaks of the "deceitfulness of riches" which "chokes the Word making the seed unfruitful". Laodicea's history exemplifies this danger, and John's letter to the church is the Holy Spirit's warning to all who fall into the temptation of prosperity: “Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.”

Pete, it's not difficult to understand how wealth can deceive us. Luxury, comfort, and prosperity can make life in this world a lot easier, causing us to forget spiritual essentials. The Lord understands this when He says to the Laodiceans, "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent." Yeshua wants all of us to store our treasure where it won't rust or corrode, and where thieves can't get at it either. So be careful not to allow your wealth to destroy your spiritual health… or your eternal inheritance!

Your family in the Lord with much agape love,

George, Baht Rivka, Obadiah and Elianna (Dallas, TX) (Sarasota, Florida)

Editor's Note: We will be co-hosting a 2 day in-depth confernce in Jacksonville, Florida on March 8-9 entitled, "Israel, the Kingdom of God, & You." - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/israel-the-kingdom-of-god-you-tickets-747599950577 Tickets are limited.

Editor's Note: During this war, we have been live blogging throughout the day -- sometimes minute by minute on our Telegram channel. - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/israel-the-kingdom-of-god-you-tickets-747599950577 Be sure to check it out!

Editor's Note: We are planning our Winter Tour so if you would like us to minister at your congregation, home fellowship, or Israel focused event, be sure to let us know ASAP. You can send an email to george [ @ ] worthyministries.com for more information.

[cesium-sheep]

day summary/decompression below the cut

so we met up with mom at the mall around 11 and I gave her my rollator for the day, she said the most helpful thing was just not carrying her backpack around because she could set it on the little seat, although having the little seat was also helpful. overall it helped her back but it hurt her shoulders, so it's a hard maybe. probably with a pt to fit it properly. we went to bath and body works for more little hand sanitizers, then after some frowning at the map we went to box lunch (I got a cute hello kitty pattern shirt and matt and arin got tmnt hats) and sephora (so mom could tell arin what foundation she should use) and out to warby parker for mom to try on some glasses she'd seen (they worked great). we had a conversation as we were walking out there about her resistance to mobility aids that probably accomplished something. sure fuckin wish she still had a therapist. then we stopped by fuego just to look while arin got us an outdoor table with wheelchair access at the cheesecake factory, I had a slice of lemon raspberry cheesecake and a peach smoothie. mom said pets didn't work well with nana because nana wanted a very precise house.

after lunch we went back into the mall, mom went back to the candy store to get more of her favorite candy bar that's hard to find, then it turned out that there is a physical squishables store in our path so of course we had to stop there (and get arin the plague doctor she'd been looking at since it came out years ago). then we went to hot topic, they had a cute kirby hair clip and a cute tank top but I wasn't sold on any of it so we moved on. decent stock of cute stuff tho, just by volume.

then we headed to the cars and met at daiso, mom was starting to feel under the weather but she got to see the san x stuff and the craft supplies, and I found some useful stuff for myself, cork boards for the craft fair and cute washi tape to package things and a basic heart shaker mold. a new pack of toothbrushes and some needle threaders. I also got a couple sheets of stickers and a set of jinbe-san ink stamps and a bag of my beloved ramen snacks. arin got some stuff too, her biggest prize is three whole sudoku books.

after daiso we went to target, mom just stayed in the car and arin left partway through due to static. they didn't have a bunch of the stuff I was looking for, unfortunately, and I had to wheel myself around some more after wheeling myself around pretty much all day. I got mom's okay to get tears of the kingdom, but it turned out games have to be bought at the back counter rather than being allowed to take them to the front, and she was waiting for me at the front without her phone. when she came back she was really like. sickly and irritable and stuff, and a line had stacked in front of me. but she insisted on still going to dsw. (I also got a couple random little things. hair spray and coffee syrup and shampoo. cat food and gum for matt too.)

I was pretty irritable when I got back to arin, but she was very patient about it. we got to dsw and I switched to the walker cuz my arms were tired and the shoes are hard to see from the chair, and mom decided it wasn't working for her anyway. she was also inexplicably in a better mood. I didn't have any luck, but I nagged arin out of the boots and she found some clearance clarks that mom insisted on buying her instead of running the risk of them also being discontinued like the first pair of clarks she was never able to get.

we came home while they went back to the hotel to rest and regroup, then we went to pick up fried chicken to eat at the hotel. I'd told matt and arin before we headed out that mom had teetered towards her bullshit earlier just so they were warned, and they refused to send me up to the room alone even when I offered. even though they both like her. it was sweet of them.

dinner was fine, I brought my crocheting and honestly mostly just read tumblr on my phone while I worked. jeff and mom verified their socks fit. arin texted me to say she was tired and suggest we wrap up then immediately got kitted up and just started staring at me, which like, that's not really how that game works my love. also we were all bickering about the "beige man" comment and its context and mom laughed and said something about how good we are together. they also mentioned at lunch how much they both enjoyed his banter yesterday.

arin will probably meet up with them near campus tomorrow, since mom wants to do a last bit of shopping there and arin has a meeting down there later anyway. I couldn't come even if I wanted to because I would have to just sit there on campus for hours.

I'm tired. I hate this game. but I won this time. gonna feel disgusting for the next couple days, and matt's gone all friday and saturday and arin's starting to get eaten by her anxieties again. (also she commented in the car in the way home that it was surprising to her that she startled when I poked her, and she was kind of incredulous that she'd been in denial about her ptsd for so long.)

[cyncerity]

:0 part two to the karlnapity sizeshifter reveal fic? it was so good i'd love to see fluff or noms with them if you wanted too :D

This was literally like 5th thing in my inbox, and was asked the same day i posted the first part to this au, which means it’s been in there for well over a year.

Anyway i haven’t stopped thinking about it. It’s always just kinda been in the back of my mind, so i hope this anon is still around to see it actually get answered shsklssjshw

So, without further ado, here are some karlnapity soft noms 💖

tw: vore

“Sapnap, i’m fuckin tired. And hungry. Get me food.” Quackity said, burying his face further into Sapnap’s chest where he was laying and weakly slapping the “ground” below him to make a point. Karl weakly nodded in agreement from his place laying beside him. Sapnap sighed. “I would love to if you two would get up for 2 seconds and let me grab something from the fridge.” He responded, barely looking up from a comic book he’d taken earlier that day.

Ever since Sapnap had told his fiancés he was a shifter, it had opened up a whole new world for them, and the three of them loved it. Quackity and Karl could boss Sapnap around a bit and make him gather things cause it’s be “easier for him” and he has an “advantage cause he could blend in with the humans.” Which, to be fair, was true, but Sapnap had a feeling that his boyfriends were just lazy. Not that he minded, he preferred the teasing over them being scared of him (like he had expected) by a long shot. It made him happy to know that even if he didn’t feel 100% ok at his human size yet, they trusted him fully, even if he looked like something they were all taught to fear. They’d also taken to hanging out in the employee break room after the store closed. Even if they loved the traditional hole in the wall home they’d built together, the break room had a microwave, fridge, beanbag chairs, and other cool human things that it had taken the trio way too long to figure out how to use (especially the microwave).

Which led to where they were now; Sapnap at human size reclined on a beanbag with his two tiny fiancés laying half asleep on his chest at what had to be around 2 in the morning. And as much as he loved them and was internally awwing and screaming at how cute they looked and how much they trusted him (they were his boyfriends, all right? he was allowed to fawn and simp over them as much as he wanted), he was actually pretty hungry and also tired and was getting sick of their refusal to move and let him get them food so they could fucking sleep. He loved them but god could they be impossible.

“Just shift a bit more and reach the fridge, it can’t be that hard.” Quackity said, face still shoved down in the fabric of Sapnap’s hoodie. Karl once again just nodded in agreement, though Sapnap didn’t think Karl was actually processing anything. Sapnap groaned. “I fucking hate shifting that big. I don’t wanna.” “Oh so you’re gonna let your fiancés starve huh? Rude.” “Fine, ok, i’m not playing this game, but you owe me, alright?” “Yup, whatever you want.”

Sapnap smirked at that last bit. Since Sapnap had found out about some…other abilities, he and his fiancés had been testing those a bit more often. One in particular they’d only tested out a few times, but for Sapnap, the few times he’d done it had been absolute bliss, and now he had an excuse to do it again.

But he had to get to the fucking fridge first. Sapnap groaned obnoxiously just to show Quackity how annoyed he was (he assumed Karl had fallen asleep at this point, given that he had gone practically still and his breathing had evened after the last time he nodded) and began to turn around on the beanbag. He had been facing the fridge, so he had to shift so he could reach the other end of the room, and he had a grow a good bit in order for his arm to be able to grab the door. Without any more hesitation, he began to shift bigger.

He held back a grunt of pain. He didn’t shift bigger than human size often cause it took more energy than was worth it most of the time, and now that he was tired it was especially achy. He didn’t want Quackity to feel bad for suggesting it, though, and the thought of what Sapnap would get to do after kept him going. He moved agonizingly slowly and carefully to not disturb the two on his chest (and especially to not wake Karl), but eventually he managed to reach over to open the fridge and grabbed the first thing his hand touched, quickly closing it and shifting back, pulling the thing he grabbed back with him.

He laid a hand over his fiancés to steady them as he looked over the food in his hand. Huh. One of those meat and cheese snack packs. Could definitely be worse.

Quackity pushed one of Sapnap’s fingers away gently and looked up expectantly, tapping Karl to wake him. Karl hummed a bit but made no move to lift his head. Sapnap chuckled and removed the packaging from the snack and handed 2 little blocks of what he assumed were cheddar cheese and pepperoni to his boyfriends and watched Quackity eat both of his almost immediately and Karl take a few bites out of each before falling asleep again soon after. Quackity ate his fair share before looking up at Sapnap again, confusion clear on his face.

“Aren’t you gonna eat?” Sapnap just smirked. “Nah, I was hungry for something else tonight.” He grinned wider as he gently swiped a thumb across Quackity’s cheek, watching his boyfriends eyes widen face darken in color, freezing in place for a minute before he sighed, trying to hide a smile. “C’mon, Sap, really?” “Yeah, really, you owe me, remember?” “For fucks sake, do I have t- hey!!” Quackity was cut off by Sapnap reaching to his head and plucking the bandana he always wore off, taking joy in messing up his fiancés hair, and lightly tossing it into his mouth, swallowing shortly after. “You want that back, right?” Sapnap said slyly, a lighter blush forming across his cheeks.

“…fuck you.” Quackity responded, face deadpan but still the same shade of red, showing Sapnap that he wasn’t really as opposed to this as he’d like to seem. Quackity began to climb higher on Sapnap’s shirt before Sap just brought a hand under him and lifted him up to his face. “You ready?” “Again, fuck you.” “Q, be honest with me here, im not gonna do this without your permission.” Sapnap responded, a note of concern in his voice. Fuck, this was why Q fell for him. As much as Sanap was brash and kinda stupid, he was the most genuine and kind boyfriend a borrower could ever want. Even if he was a bit weird. So, he sighed and smiled, rolling his eyes before making eye contact with the giant in front of him. “Just get on with it already, you’re hungry, aren’t you? I’m good.”

Sapnap smiled at the fond look his fiancé gave him and began to lift him higher. He slowly brought his hand closer to his mouth and used his tongue to pull his tiny boyfriend in, gently shutting his teeth behind him with a soft click. After he felt Quackity get settled, he started to lick him, slicking him up for the journey down. He heard Quackity yell in disgust, but he simply stifled a laugh and kept going.

He tilted his head back gently, letting gravity pull Quackity farther back into the throat. He felt a few gentle pats on his tongue and took this as his que, starting to take small swallows to bring his fiancé down. He gently pressed a hand to his throat and felt the bulge that his lover made as he descended farther down past his collarbone and deep into his core, shifting and moving slightly the rest of the way down only because Sapnap had admitted to him once that it felt nice.

He soon felt a weight drop into his stomach, the organ giving a loud gurgle in response, making Quackity laugh from within. Sapnap flustered a bit and pressed down where he could feel his boyfriend for a few seconds to mess with him before releasing the pressure and starting to massage the area. “You alright in there, duckling?” “Santo mierda,” Quacktiy sighed as Sapnap felt him get more comfortable, “I forgot how tight it was on the way down. There is, like, no tension left in me at all, it’s like the worlds most constricting massage.” “So…you’re good?” Quackity chuckled a bit in response before patting on the stomach wall next to him. “Yeah, i’m good. And i got my bandana back, so, again, fuck you.”

Sapnap laughed as he continued to rub circles over where he felt his little fiancé, trying his best to ignore the consistent gurgles his stomach would make and the fact that Quackity seemed to find it hilarious, though he was trying to hide his laughter. Whatever, Sapnap knew he hadn’t eaten real food, he’d just ignore the noises for now. Unfortunately, someone else was having a harder time ignoring it.

“…Sapnap?” Karl said, rubbing bleary eyes as he sat up from his position on the shifter’s chest, causing Sapnap to panic almost immediately. “Oh my god, Karl, i’m so sorry, i didn’t mean to wake you up.” “You didn’t, your stomach did.” Karl laughed, yawning and stretching his arms. “Did you forget to eat?” “Hmmm, not quite,” Sapnap smirked, laying a finger on Karl’s head and lightly messing with some of his hair, which the smaller man made no complaints against, “but isn’t someone missing?” At this, Karl looked up at Sapnap past his finger and then around the area where Quackity had been with him. He looked confused for only a moment before he registered what Sapnap had meant. “You two are weird.” Karl scoffed, pressing himself more into the finger in a headbutt-like form of affection.

“You wanna be weird with us?” Sapnap asked, licking his lips so Karl could know exactly what he meant. But while Karl’s face turned a light pink at this, he merely shrugged. “Not tonight, too tired for all that. I just wanna sleep.” Karl said, shifting himself to slide further down Sapnap’s torso. The shifter was confused for a moment until Karl reached the bottom of his shirt and tried valiantly to lift it higher, and Sapnap turned red, realizing what his boyfriend was trying to do. He reached down and pulled his shirt up higher since Karl was having trouble moving it by himself, and Karl wasted no time climbing back up until he was right above Quackity. Karl pressed against the top of the stomach from the outside and Sapnap saw his eyes light up as Quackity pressed back.

“Hi lovely!” Karl shouted, face practically pressed into Sapnap’s belly, which definitely didn’t fluster the shifter at all. “Karlos!!” He heard Quackity call back, shouting loud enough that Karl could barely hear him through the layers of muscle and skin between them. “Sorry we woke you up, mi amor.” “That’s alright, i’m gonna go back to bed, i just didn’t want you to fall asleep without knowing how much i loooove yooou.” Karl responded in a sleepy, drawn out syrupy voice, which made Quackity laugh loud enough for Sapnap to feel the vibrations. “I love you too, Karl, goodnight darling. Just one question, though: how flustered is Sapnap right now?” Karl looked up and, though Sapnap did his best to avoid eye contact, he couldn’t easily hide the bright red that shone through his cheeks. “I’m not, fuck off.” Sapnap retorted, looking back at Karl to see a cheeky grin on his face. He pressed his face back into Sapnap’s torso, the pride clear in his voice as he responded “Oh, very.”

“Ok, enough, this is bullying, this is harassment.” Sapnap said, picking up Karl with one hand and laying his free hand over his stomach, effectively blocking out Karl and Quackity’s communication. Nevertheless, now both boys were just trying to get Sapnap flustered, with Karl making kissy noises in his direction and Quackity rattling off some of the worst pick up lines Sapnap had ever heard.

He just laughed, blushing and sputtering excuses while the two he cared more about than anything in the world laughed with him. God, what did he do to deserve them? They were his world, his everything. He loved them. He loved them more than he could ever love anything.

Their laughter died down, fatigue finally catching up with them after what could only have been the past few minutes. Sapnap set Karl back down on his chest, where the smaller man immediately slid back down and rested himself above the hand Sapnap still had laid over Quackity. Karl was out like a light almost immediately after he was settled, and Quackity joined him shortly after. Sapnap stayed awake a bit longer, just looking down at them. He could feel Quackity’s calm, even breaths from within him, and Karl had a slight smile on his face, a light pink still brushing his cheeks. He felt like every time he looked at them, he fell in love all over again. How he got lucky enough to end up with the most caring, understanding partners in the world was beyond him, but it meant more to him when he saw them like this. Quackity trusting him enough to sleep literally within him, where he was fully at Sapnap’s will. And Karl not flinching away from him for a moment, even choosing to rest on his hand, trusting Sapnap not to grab him or hurt him. His heart swelled the more he thought about it. They trusted him. And, as he fell asleep, he promised himself that he’d make sure they always had a reason to.

[monstersandmaw]

Male werewolf x female character - Chapter One (sfw)

Edit which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.

Hello lovely folks! Thank you so much to those of you who contributed to the post which somehow now has over two hundred notes, indicating your interest in this story! I only hope I can live up to your expectations!

Here is Chapter One, in which our protagonist leaves the city behind on a whim and travels north to a cabin retreat in a small town. I promise we’ll meet our werewoofer protagonist soon. If you can believe it, I’ve got nearly 10,000 words of this written already, though not all of it is in the order it will be told, unfortunately, so I’ve still got my work cut out for me, but I’m feeling good about writing again, which is fun. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it, and will consider reblogging it and letting me know if it’s headed in the direction you hoped! It’s become a rather personal project for me, so I hope you’ll be kind at the very least!

And so, without further ado and a-waffle here is Chapter One:

She might very well have been a good deal warmer with the car’s sputtering little heater cranked all the way up, but the scent of pines and the crisp, mountain air beyond was too delicious to shut out after what felt like years of recycled office air and polluted city streets. So instead, shifted her old VW into fifth and let the curves of the wide road take her through the forest, with wild, damp, green-tinged air whipping in through the windows and tangling her hair into a matted brown bird’s nest.

The thing about this holiday was that she hadn’t even intended to take one at all until three days earlier, when she’d booked a tiny cabin in the woods on a whim, without telling anyone that she’d done it.

They would have thought she’d gone completely off the rails if she’d brought it up anyway — most of her friends already seemed to think as much after she’d quit her job seemingly out of nowhere two weeks ago.

And yet, this was the first thing to feel truly ‘right’ in months.

The mess of the past year seemed as inconsequential as the previous bend in the road now, and she vowed silently as she entered the quaint little town of Pinewatch, with her car boot full of walking gear and waterproofs, that she was damn well going to enjoy herself for a change. This was going to be something purely, completely, and entirely, for her.

In person, the town itself felt even smaller than it had looked on Google Maps as she slowed to drive up the main street, but she couldn’t keep the grin off her face. It was perfect. Old houses and wooden shop fronts lined the road, with cafes and a traditional looking bar dotted amongst more practical businesses like a grocery store, post office, and doctor’s.

Spotting a space, she parked the red VW up outside a veterinary clinic and stretched the muscles of her back and shoulders out, letting them pop and creak blissfully after a three hundred mile drive north. Outside, an older lady with a Pomeranian left the clinic and began their tottering way up the street together with almost matching gaits.

Glancing at the time on her phone, she scrunched her nose up and sighed. A couple of hours too early yet to check into the little cabin just outside the town, she locked her car and meandered along the pavement in the sunshine, thinking vaguely of grabbing a coffee and something to eat to kill the time.

After browsing in the windows of a few artisan craft shops though, she found herself at the end of the main street — the length of which seemed to be the extent of the town. A metal sign just a little way ahead announced the Information Centre for the National Park which stretched around the town in a dark green blanket for miles in all directions, and with another hour to go, she figured she might as well check it out.

Gravel crunched beneath her scruffy old boots as she crossed the muddy car park and a bell tinkled above the glass panelled door as she pushed inside. Set back from the main road, the Information Centre was an old cabin, log-built and cosy, with the feel of having been someone’s home before the reception desk and leaflet stands, posters, employee photos, and bookshelves had been installed.

Behind the counter, a woman in a pastel pink hijab looked up as she entered and smiled broadly at her. “Hi. Can I help?”

“Hope so,” she said with a shy answering smile, approaching the counter. “I’ve booked a cabin nearby and I’m looking to do some hiking in the area. Nothing super adventurous — no more than ten miles or so at the very most — but I figured I’d get some local information before I head up to the cabin. I’m kind of early.”

“Sure,” the young woman said, standing up. “You must be staying in Trapper’s Lodge?”

Her slight frown was met with a friendly chuckle.

“It’s basically the only holiday rental around here.”

“Of course, I forgot it’s owned by the park service,” she laughed.

“You’re the first person to rent it this season, and it was ready yesterday so you could head on over whenever you like. We don’t get too many visitors on this side of the mountain,” she went on. “People who come for the famous views tend to go to the other side of the park, where Three Peak Falls are — you know, the ones you see all over Instagram?”

“Oh, I see,” she said, grateful to her late-night self for picking this part of the park then. Hordes of people all chasing the perfect Instagram photo weren’t exactly what she was looking for out here.

The young woman turned to fetch some leaflets from behind her. “Anyway, I’m Tala. How long are you here for?”

“Odessa,” she replied, and shuffled and rocked on her heels for a moment. “I’m booked in for two weeks, but it already feels like the kind of place I could stay forever.”

Tala chuckled wryly and handed a small stack of information leaflets and hiking trail maps out to her across the counter. Her eyes glittered playfully and she said, “Careful; the forest tends to hold on to people like you.”

Odessa raised her eyebrows and took the proffered leaflets. “That’s not ominous at all,” she snorted. “Thanks. I’ll take a look at these tonight over some supper.”

Tala nodded. “If you’re hiking solo — even if you’re in a group, actually — we recommend checking in here before you head out,” she said and indicated a trail book lying open at the far end of the wooden counter. “Just so someone knows where you are and how long you’re intending to be.”

With a nod and a warm smile, she thanked her and added, “I’ll be back tomorrow after I’ve settled in.” She waved the leaflets for emphasis and added, “Thanks for these.”

Back at her car, she stashed the maps in the front of her bag on the passenger seat, and started up the engine. A big, red Toyota pickup paused to let her pull out ahead of it, and she thanked the driver with a friendly wave and set off with her phone balanced precariously in her lap while it dictated directions to the cabin.  

In fact she hadn’t needed them at all, and after just a few minutes’ drive north out of town through dense pines, she spotted the painted white stone that marked a twisting drive through the trees to the former trapper’s lodge.

As she halted on the small, gravelly patch of ground in front of the house, she stared through the muck-flecked car window and her breath caught.

In person it looked even more like a fairytale than it had on the website.

The place had clearly been recently renovated, with new plants still establishing themselves in beds around the walls, and new windows to keep the cabin insulated, but it had the feel of a standing stone; of something deeply rooted in the landscape; as much a part of it as the trees and rocks on all sides.

Stepping out, Odessa inhaled the cool damp of the forest and a short, nervous laugh bubbled out of her.

“I can’t believe this is real,” she muttered, looking around with hands on hips. A moment later she rolled her eyes and laughed again, though this time it carried a slightly hysterical tinge to it. “What the fuck am I even doing?”

No steel-frame building nor wall of glass was to be seen; just a cosy wooden cottage and the endless peace of whispering pine needles and chittering birds. Somewhere far off to her left, a rushing stream sounded in a gully, and she couldn't decide if she wanted to explore inside or out first.

Hefting her rucksack onto her shoulder a few minutes later, she unlocked the key from the little safe on the wall and shuffled into the storm porch like a tinker with a hundred groaning packs.

Inside, the cottage was everything she could have dreamed of and more. Someone, presumably Tala, had left a small welcome basket on the scrubbed kitchen table, with freshly-baked scones, a loaf of bread, some local cheese and a jar of local honey, and a note with some contact information. There was milk and butter in the fridge too, which was another nice touch.

She tramped back out to the car to bring in the last of her gear, leaving her walking boots in the enclosed porch and dumping her rucksack on the wooden boards of the cosy bedroom just off the living space.

That night she ate the slightly squashed sandwiches she’d brought with her, and afterwards, stepped outside in the dark to stare up at the patch of endless, starry sky above the cabin’s clearing. Night skies like that just didn’t exist in the city or outside of the movies, and she lost track of time as she gazed up.

Eventually, her breath started to fog in the autumn air and it wafted around her like a drifting ghost. Off to her right, the loud, mournful hoot of an owl made her jump and she turned instinctively but saw nothing in the endless dark between the trees. A twig cracked and she twitched. Taking it as a sign to head back inside before she got too cold, or too freaked out, she scuttled back inside, closing the chill of the largely silent night out behind her.

Odessa didn’t turn her phone back on once all evening, and as the wind wafted in through the open curtains later, brushing across her body in a cold whisper where she lay on her back in bed, it felt like the start of a brand new chapter in her life.

At that, she found herself almost too excited to sleep.

___

Next chapter --->

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If you enjoyed this first taste, I hope you’ll consider reblogging as well as leaving a like, and if you’re excited about it, you can always let me know with a comment and/or an ask. Take care, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.

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