#i also forgot like all my ps settings in the meantime

[junranghae]

I’m back from hiatus!!!

[anxiousarchitect]

Marie Laveau’s House of Voodoo - Lot & CC !!UPDATED!!

UPDATE 23.12.2023 : You can now download the lot ! A HUGE thanks to the best girl operationpinkdollhouse who motivated me like crazy to get it done and was just so nice, patient and supportive 💖✨ I have reworked the shop a little bit, and considerably reduced the amount of CC for your convenience. I also made some new original, voodoo-related CC ! Check below the cut for more information.

Download lot, check CC and read more information ⬇

⚠ Important Disclaimer : I am not a vodou practitionner nor am I ethnically connected to or from a lineage of vodou practitionner (as far as I’m aware). I’m just a french lady witch interested in all religions, myth and folklore around the world. However, I tried to educate myself as much as possible as I was building the lot, to make sure I was being respectful to Vodou -and other related religions/practices like Hoodoo - culture and history, and wasn’t perpetuating any offensive clichés - while keeping the lot visually fun. My goal was only to celebrate New Orleans culture and Vodou, and maybe get you interested in learning more about it, as it is a very complex and incredibly interesting topic ! Also, I understand there are different spellings for “vodou”, not necessarily meaning the same thing everytime. For the lot, I chose “voodoo” as it is the actual name of the shop that inspired me, but I used “vodou” for everything else. To all vodou practitionner/New Orleans natives out there, please let me know if you find my content inappropriate or offensive, and I will correct it ASAP. 🌷

VOODOO DECOR & CC (required for the lot)

Mostly art and recolors bc I don’t how to make meshes - just yet -

DOWNLOAD FULL SET (SFS, no ads) or pick and choose :

- 1. Powerful religious figures portrait. [x]10  swatches.I think you need Living Together for that one. I’m working on more swatches, stay tuned ! - 2. Vodou flags/drapo. [x]10 swatches. Pretty sure it’s BG compatible... - 3. Vodou posters. [x] 10 swatches. Requires University! These are the ones you can spot on the shop’s wall ! - 4. The Book of Voodou. [x] This is a bit of an experiment, I wanted to try myself at retexture non-flat objects. MESH REQUIRED *find it here* (you only need the botanical book open book) - 5. Entrance sign (’Strange gods, strange altars’). [x] Base game compatible. - 6. Marie Laveau’s shop neon sign. [x] Requires City Living ! also it’s a bit big but ya know, just shrink it. It’s not perfect especially when it lights up at night but I like it the feeling of it! - 7. Vévé (traditionnal Vodou sigil). [x] Requires Realm of Magic! 5 swatch, find it under ‘rugs’. I’m working on more swatches ! I’m also trying to transform it into a meditation spot, if anyone knows how to do that...

MARIE LAVEAU’S HOUSE OF VOODOO - LOT

Lot size : 30x20 (shop)

To build this little shop, I got inspired by the real Marie Laveau’s in Bourbon Street, New Orleans. It is not a replica, but I tried to reproduce the atmosphere while creating a functionnal, aesthetical space in the meantime. The lot is fully furnished and quite heavily cluttered, however it works fine on my laptop which is a bit of potato when it comes to gaming (sorry computer, I love you though). Enjoy ! PS : As I was reworking the shop I remade some of the rooms, so it won’t exactly look like in the picture. But I didn’t change too much though, don’t worry. I’m too lazy to take new pictures though...... Please check the new updated CC list to get the lot working properly ! All credit go to the artists credited there, nothing is included in the lot to respect creator’s T.O.U, so you need to get all the CC before you install the lot. Let me know if I forgot something so I can update the list !

DOWNLOAD LOT (CC required !!! [Get the list]) + YOU NEED MY VODOU SET TO MAKE IT FUNCTION, read the article before DL !

[pillow-anime-talk]

mistletoe. {pt.1}

synopsis: A little joke on Giyuu, making gingerbread cookies with Edward and a date with Ryouta.

# tags: scenarios; christmas!au; current relationships; romance; fluff; sfw

includes: female reader ft. giyuu tomioka {kny} + edward elric {fma} + ryouta kise {knb}

part two {click}

author’s note: for @yvsevie​, my precious smol baby. i love you.

— GIYUU

It was the first Christmas you spent as Pillar, as Giyuu’s girlfriend, and as teacher of your first and also last tsuguko. You didn’t mind spending Christmas like this; frankly, could anyone think of feasting at the moment when bloodthirsty demons and other strange creatures were running around each villages or towns? That’s why you spent your time training in your estate with a young boy who would replace your Ice Pillar position in a few next days, weeks, months or years.

“... We should take a short break, right?” You asked, seeing your successor breathing harder and harder. “I’ll go get something to drink and you can sit on the engawa.” You put your katana into its scabbard and then headed towards your home. However, when you entered the small kitchen, you chuckled at the sight of Giyuu who was sitting at the table, drinking his coffee as if he were at his own home. “Well, hello. Why didn’t you say ‘Hi’ to me earlier?” You asked, taking out two glasses.

“You were training, so I didn’t want to disturb both of you.” He replied calmly, setting the black mug on the wooden table. “Are you two finished yet?”

“We’re taking a break.” You poured cool water and then you stood in front of your dark-haired lover. “You would like to sit with us?”

“Yes, why not.” He smiled gently, then walked with you towards the entrance to the pretty, snowy garden.

When you got outside, however, your frowned as you determined that your heir wasn’t in the garden. Instead of his light blue haori and long blonde hair always pinned up in a ponytail, you noticed a little, white note. So, you picked it up quickly and read the content on the paper:

‘Sorry, sensei! I forgot that I had to help my mom bake a cake for Christmas! So see you tomorrow.

PS. Look up :D’

You frowned, and when you looked up at the wooden roof of your engawa, your cheeks automatically flushed a bit at the sight of a small sprig of mistletoe attached to a wooden beam with a thin string. Giyuu glanced at the same place, and seeing the little plant, he only smiled slightly under his breath.

“Your successor is quite funny, don’t you think?”

“Yes. It is true. He will replace me very well.” You giggled, letting your mouth taste the flavor of coffee and something sweet that you couldn’t identify at first.

Nevertheless, this little joke made you feel the magic of Christmas, despite the lack of a Christmas tree or gifts, and you were incredibly grateful to your beloved student for that.

— EDWARD

“... Edward! Stop throwing flour at me!” You looked imploringly at your fiancé, and he just giggled as he looked away at the huge, metal bowl in which he mixed hot water with powdered sugar to make frosting to decorate your cookies. You sighed softly under your breath, then returned to kneading another dough with your hands. After a while, however, you felt the white dust, commonly known as flour spread around you one more time. “E-Ed! Please!”

“Sorry, sorry!”

“Do it again and I swear you’ll sleep naked outside.” You spoke in a serious tone of voice, even though both of you knew you would never let him freeze to death, much less during the holidays, even more the first holidays that were supposed to be full of guests.

Alphonse and Mei with the smol panda were to appear! Also Roy with Rize and dear major Armstrong. Of course, Winry with her boyfriend, her grandmother and their cute dog were also invited. Gracia with Elicia cannot be forgotten. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis too and even Ling Yao with Lan Fan as well. There were supposed to be many of your loved ones, so you had to make just as many food, cakes and cookies. And Edward didn’t make it easy for you, because instead of helping you, he was throwing flour, sugar, cocoa and edible, colorful sprinkles or glitter at you.

Like for example now; once again you felt something hit your head and it turned out it was a handkerchief, rolled in a small but quite hard ball. So, your hands  slowly backed away, then you wiped them on your red apron and you turned just as slowly towards your boyfriend, smiling at him as if you were telling him you were going to break his neck or crush his long legs. Edward, however, only chuckled and then walked closer to you with the same dumb smile he always had on his lips when he knew he had done something silly but funny.

“Sweetheart, don’t be upset. Christmas isn’t the time to fight! Better look up, my pretty angel.” His broad smirk made you sigh again loudly and loosen your tense arms. Nevertheless, you looked up and the first thing you saw was Edward’s hand holding a small twig of green mistletoe. You glanced at him again, laughing to yourself.

“How old are you to still play this?” You rolled your both eyes and was about to go back to your dark dough, but the blonde man grabbed your waist and pulled your body much closer to his more muscular one. He placed a tender, quite long kiss on your lips, and when the caress was over, Edward rested his forehead against yours.

“I’m old enough to still giving you stupid reasons to keep kissing me.”

— RYOUTA

“It’s... It’s so beautiful here.” You whispered under your breath as you looked around. “W-Woah. I...”

Kise took you for a ride in his car, however, two minutes ago he parked the car on the side of the road and then grabbed your smaller than his hand saying he had a little ‘surprise’ for you. Of course you went with him and it turned out to be a breathtaking view of the city, all lit up with colorful lights and sweet decorations. It was also snowing a bit so everything looked even more magical. You were incredibly surprised, of course most positively.

That’s why you turned to smile at the blonde-haired young man, and he only returned your facial expression, but then coughing delicately so that you would open the shiny eyes you closed a few seconds ago.

“You have a gorgeous smile and I love it the most in the world, but I think...” He started quietly, suddenly taking something green from his coat pocket. After a second it turned out to be mistletoe. You chuckled under your nose and your loved one looked at your flushed face again. “I think I deserve more, princess. All the more so because it’s Christmas day... You know.” He said in an amused, but still gentle and emotional voice, at which you only giggled again, standing on the tips of your toes or rather your shoes, to be able to reach his pretty face, and more precisely to his lips which tasted of coffee and chocolate-nut cake.

The kiss was slow, but very warm, and although your lips were cold due to the temperature outside, this peck gave the two of you a lot of heat on your hearts and cheeks. You even smirked during this wonderful caress, grabbing the boy by his soft, pale skin. The fabric of your wool gloves tickled Kise a little, but he didn’t pay much attention to it; instead, he kissed you once more, but this time on the nose that was red from the cold, and on the forehead, covered in the material of the cap, perfectly matching your gray gloves.

“... Thanks for showing me this, Ryouta. It’s really, really amazing.” You whispered, glancing once again at the colorful and white lights that decorated your whole city, including all the trees, buildings and houses. “I didn’t expect to see something like this in my life.”

“Then get used to it, because next year I’m going to take you to many other equally cool places.” The sincere tone of his smooth voice, and another short kiss on the cheek, made you cuddle closer to the side of his massive body.

In meantime, you still watched the magnificent sights and thought about where you both should go next time.

[disslve]

𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐰 & 𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐝𝐲 ! this is nai and my cowboy ass is here to throw roxy @ u and also tell u bad jokes and cry over life is strange 2 because i’m still not over this game and I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. just a heads up, i came up with roxy on a whim because this rp just looked so good,  so if it seems like i don’t know what i’m talking about ... it’s most likely the case whoops . ( this is an excuse for me bringing shitty muses ). anyway, my fake cowboy ass loves to ramble so if you’re interested in plotting feel free to LIKE this post or hmu. i forgot to mention that i’m also a fake grandma so idk anything about discord at all and i still need to set it up which will happen in the next few days dsdnsdsdn. 

ps: wanted connections/plots can be find in my wanted tag ( a link is on my blog ) and i’ll also list some below !

EDIT: discord name is nai #7158

 * [ kristine froseth + cis-female + she/her ] —— have you met roxanne ‘roxy’ bailey ? they are a twenty-two year old junior currently studying romance languages and literatures. they live on decker house and word around campus is that this scorpio is compassionate + dedicated, as well as impatient + dishonest. i wonder if they’ll make it out alive. 

basics.

full name: roxanne elise bailey

nicknames: roxy, rox

sexual orientation: bisexual

birth place: valencia, spain ( but only lived there for five years ) 

history. 

one could say that roxy had lived an easy life, though her parents weren’t distinguished by their social status, it didn’t mean they lacked money which was enough to support their daughter in whatever she wanted to do.

truth to be told, roxy was indeed a little spoiled, the type of kids who would try all kind of things on the expenses of their parents only to quit a new ‘hobby’ again. she could barely stick to anything. she was some twisted kind of golden child, good at many things but never had the patience to continue something for long enough to cultivate it. 

skipping over the part where she almost tried everything from arts, music etc. she finally found her passion ( and even roxy herself was surprised ). figure skating. she didn’t know what drew her in, she couldn’t explain it, she tried it and it felt right. roxy always describes the feeling as finding a soulmate if she feels extra dramatic that day. 

unsurprisingly, she was good at it. not that kind of good at something she was at all the other things she tried before, but that being good at which stemmed from genuine interest. maybe, that is why she managed to get so far. and it didn’t take too long that people even started to call her a figure skating prodigy. 

at this point at her life, she had it all, spinning the stars on her fingertips ( or warning bad pun ahead: spinning on the ice ). until, well, her parents company was in some crisis and they had to cut corners in the meantime. also oh so ‘conveniently’ roxy lived at the arse end of nowhere and getting to her practices was now even more difficult because as mentioned before they had to save their money for more necessary things. of course, there were more things , small and big, which totally threw her off ( which i am too lazy to list rn).

roxy tried to work part time, but a) the money wasn’t enough b) she didn’t want to cut more hours of training she managed to get. AND well, here comes the turning point and roxy thinking she was oh-so-smart without realizing that it would cost her career. oh-so-smart roxy came up with the idea to , well, just steal some stuff. after all, she trained with many other wealthy peers and she could just sell off their stuff or something. 

at the beginning she only did it to afford certain things she needed, but soon it somehow became an addiction. she felt in control when everyone else in her life was an utter mess. however, the more she took things away from others the more she felt comfortable, doing it more often and sometimes taking things which weren’t even worth that much. it was only a matter of time until she was caught. and as if she was lucky for too long, the person who caught her pressured her into either giving them a hefty sum of money (which she didn’t have) or to quit figure skating. she decided for the latter.

well, here she was and her sudden departure was quite a shock. but she had no choice and stated it was for personal reasons. 

skipping over her being devastated over it, etc. her parents managed to save their company (whatever this company is) but at this point it was already too late and roxy was accepted into holloway. 

right now she actually wants to pick up her figure skating career again, however, she’s too afraid that the blackmailer is going to expose her and also she doesn’t really know who they are (lets pretend they wrote her letters, txt messages >??) and also she’s kind of afraid due to the lack of practice she had .

personality.

okay i’ll keep this short bcs i wrote way too much for her background story. but to sum it up, roxy kind of has that perfect girl facade.  considering how many friends roxy has and how social she appears to be it is odd that no one seems to be able to describe her.  roxy doesn’t want people to know who she truly is, and she keeps her distance as she actively avoids conflicts that might cause her to say something wrong and exposes herself. 

she shields her feelings by only presenting polished version of herself, the facade of the perfect girl: kind, hard-working and polite. someone whose life is easy and someone who looks like she doesn’t have any worries. it doesn’t mean she isn’t anything of that, but it’s not as if her kindness has no bounds or that she doesn’t need to put effort into the things she does. nevertheless, she believes that she must be perfect in order to make people like her. and while, she is pretty good at masking her emotions and smile along, as soon as someone threatens to see past the illusion, she will become defensive and won’t hesitate to lie in order to preserve it.

plots.

best friends: although roxy pretty much keeps her distance from everyone else, this person had always stood by her side. maybe they knew about roxy’s sudden wannabe-thief phase ( which she is still in ) and well tried to talk her out of it ( which obviously didn’t work ). also adding some drama here and maybe they had a big argument over it and distanced from each othr because of it. however, my angst ass doesn’t want to ruin it and they’ll rekindle their friendship. they might meet again at holloway and it’s awkward at first, maybe they even have some arguments but they’ll get over it because everyone loves a good rekindled friendship story.

annoyance: someone who gets under roxy’s skin.seeing past the perfect girl face and constantly calling her out on it. maybe they just have fun annoying her and want to see what she really likes or they just don’t like roxy , thinking that beneath all of this act, she is a really unpleasant person. perhaps, they’re even doing it with good intentions and want to show her that she doesn’t need to hide who she is. whatever it is, they’re determined to expose to the world who she really is. 

pen pal ??:  muse a and roxy had been friends for a very long time, yet the funny thing is that they’ve never met each other nor do they know what the other look like. all they know is their name ( or maybe they only know each other by their usernames ) and their deepest secrets. maybe they already have crossed paths many times and perhaps even know each other but don’t like each other irl. or they never had noticed the other.

blackmailer: BECAUSE WHY NOT??? the person who forced roxy to give up on figure skating. maybe, they were a rival or just didn’t like her, or any other reason. they might as well, have noticed that roxy is secretly training again and might be back at their shit again. 

exes: GIVE ME THE ANGST, maybe muse a and roxy used to be in a serious relationship and as naive they were back then both of them thought this love would last forever. however, at some point roxy started to distance herself from muse a, constantly cancelling their dates because of their busy schedule. at first muse a tried to be understanding towards her, but as time passed things only got worse. roxy hating any kind of conflict just decided to ignore the problem instead about talking about it and eventually stopped replying to muse a messages. muse a never really got to know the real reason behind their break up and was left with unanswered questions. but anything works  

unrequited love: (this is just me throwing in my favourite way to make myself suffer) It doesn’t matter who is the one with the the one sided love because i just want some good angst.a)  muse a has a crush on roxy, yet they never told her about it. yet, muse a can’t hide it and it doesn’t take too long until roxy notices it. but instead of trying to talk to muse a about it, roxy just ignores it acting as she usually does and perhaps even give them false hope that she might like them back. maybe muse a even confessed to her and because roxy didn’t want to hurt them she told muse a she’d think about it.

b) roxy has a crush on muse a but doesn’t admit it. she doesn’t want to show their vunerable side and just plays it down. maybe they’re friends and roxy doesn’t want to lose another friend. but one day she confesses to muse a on accident, making everything awkward between them.

someone she stole from: idk i thought this would be fun ? maybe she confessed to them about it or maybe they caught her but decided to not confront her about it.

fan: someone who used to watch her perfomances on their tv and is still not over the fact that she quit.

i also have a connection page on my blog if these are too specific or none of these work 

i’m too tired to come up with more dsdsdnjsd but gimme everything !! THE ANGST, FLUFF, DRAMA PLS!!! 

[artificialqueens]

Sweet like Sugar (Branjie) - Delia

AN: Hey lovelies! This is my first time writing fic, so please be gentle but also let me know what you think…a little Branjie sugar mommy for your nerves x ps: if you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to hit me up on @thvnderfuckz pps: tw for some, very minor, implied daddy kink

BLH

25/F/New York City

I’m a 25 year old dancer from Toronto, working to start my career. I like fashion, nights out, and travelling. Seeking a partner who is fun, adventurous, and willing to support me in pursuit of my dream.

Brooke Lynn read over her bio for what must have been the seventh time in as many minutes and let out a sigh. Each draft that she’d written had sounded more robotic than the last. It’d been a long time since she had to write anything like this, having deleted Tinder, Bumble, and HER off her phone not long after she left Toronto. Since moving to New York, she’d discovered that she much preferred going out and finding women to hook up with in person. With her long blonde hair, dancer’s physique, and innate flirtiness, it was easy enough to find someone willing to take her home for the night. Easier, at least, than talking to a girl on an app for weeks, only to find out that she was interested in a long term commitment, and having to deal with their messy emotions after Brooke told them that she wasn’t interested. If there was one thing that she did not do, it was relationships.

And now, she was trying to get paid to be in one.

She’d be lying if she said that she never thought she’d be in a position like this. From the time Brooke had told her friends and family that she’d wanted to pursue dance as a full time career, she’d been given the “wouldn’t you rather something more secure” speech more times, and by more people than she could be bothered to count. Even her older sister Katya, who’d chosen to make abstract semi-sacrilegious art her vocation in life, had tried to suggest to her that she do something with a future that was less uncertain. But Brooke knew that she was born to dance, no matter what anyone tried to tell her to the contrary. If anything, their doubt fuelled her drive, and made it all the sweeter when she’d been offered a role in ensemble of the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge! upon her graduation from Ryerson. The moment that she’d stepped off the plane at JFK and stepped into the apartment that she would be sharing with another ensemble member from the show, Scarlet, she felt as though she was living her wildest dreams come true.

In all of her excitement at the time, Brooke forgot that the most wonderful dreams often lead to the harshest wake ups.

Four months into her run, the cast began to notice a dwindling number of fans at the stage door after each performance. Five months into her run, cast and crew alike began whispering about finding new jobs soon. Six months into her run, on a particularly humid Sunday in July, the cast and crew were gathered by the production team before everyone left the theatre and were told that the show would be closing at the beginning of September, after the Labour Day weekend. Brooke immediately started panicking at the prospect of being out of a job in one of the most expensive cities in the world. There was nothing she wanted less than to have to move back home to Toronto with her tail between her legs.

It had been two years since Moulin Rouge! closed, and although Brooke had managed to avoid making the move back home, she hadn’t been able to get a job performing since. She was always too tall, or too technical, or didn’t have enough personality. She’d been able to find a job in the meantime, teaching classes at a dance studio in Tribeca, but the money she made from that was barely enough to cover her necessities. It certainly didn’t cover luxuries such as brunch with your ex-roommate, as Brooke found out after her credit card was declined at her and Scarlet’s bi-weekly date. She barely had time to try and form an apology before she witnessed Scarlet reaching into her purse and placing a crisp one hundred dollar bill on the table, telling the waitress to keep the sixty dollars in change. Her embarrassed expression transformed into one of jaw-dropped shock as the redhead pulled her from the restaurant.

On the walk back to the subway, Scarlet revealed to Brooke that she’d been various “mutually beneficial relationships” with different men since she’d first moved to the city when she was 19, and that it had been her main source of income even while she was performing.

“It’s easy money, plus it’s kind of empowering,” explained Scarlet in her low voice, which still held a hint of the drawl indicative of her Southern upbringing. “It’s like, they have the money but I have all the emotional power. Without me generously donating my time to them, all these men have are their frigid marriages, or soul sucking jobs. A lot of the time the only thing standing between these powerful, rich men and a complete nervous break is me. And if that’s not power, I don’t know what is. So if I have to laugh at a few bad jokes and kiss a couple of CEOs to be able to live the kind of life I want, all while knowing that I could end any of these men at any given moment, then so be it.”

Oddly inspired by her friend’s speech, Brooke downloaded the sugar dating app onto her phone later that day.

And now here she was, sitting in front of her laptop at 11:00 pm on a Saturday night, drinking a bottle of wine and stress reading her three sentence bio for at least the tenth time. Fuck it, she thought, this is as good as it’s gonna get.

After clicking the “submit” button, Brooke was redirected to a page showing all of the potential sugar daddies in her area. As she scrolled through pages upon pages of photos of headless torsos, she became increasingly regretful of her decision to not filter out men immediately.

CEToEs

Disgusting.

KinkyExec

Nope.

DominantDaddy

Absolutely not.

Brooke was a lesbian, and had known that since she was 14. However, Scarlet told her that there were far more sugar daddies than sugar mommies in the New York area, and that a lot of the time the men didn’t necessarily even want sex. But as she clocked the usernames of several of the daddies on the app, it was clear that the redhead had either lied to her or was somehow the most blissfully oblivious girl in the city.

The blonde promptly returned to her settings page and deselected men as an interest. When she returned to the home page, she was delighted to see the profiles of fifty-or-so women pop up. She began scrolling again, hoping that someone would catch her eye.

WorldsMostPunkRockMoms

Meh. The two blonde women in the thumbnail picture were definitely beautiful, but Brooke didn’t know how she felt about getting involved with a couple who had a child.

Detoxicant

The woman in this picture looked like she’d had a lot of plastic surgery. Still, she was hot. Brooke tapped the little heart icon next to the photo and continued scrolling.

Toward the bottom of the page there was one profile that had a little green dot next to the thumbnail. Brooke took a little comfort in the fact that she wasn’t the only one on this app at this time on a weekend night. She clicked on the profile and two pictures filled her screen. The first was a headless torso shot of a woman wearing an oversized Versace t-shirt as a dress. Although her face was out of frame, Brooke could tell that the woman’s hair was a caramel brown, at least at the tips, and went to just below her collarbone. The second image was another faceless picture, but in this one the woman was wearing a spaghetti strapped red dress, showing off her deeply tanned skin and an, in Brooke’s opinion, weirdly specific chest tattoo of a hairless cat atop a red rose. The bio beneath the pictures read:

V 23/F/New York City

no face pics because i gotta stay lowkey. promise i’m not gonna kill you or anything like that, just lookin for a cute girl i can take out and trEat right.

Brooke rolled her eyes at the innuendo and let out a small huff of a laugh. The girl obviously had some sort of sense of humour, which she supposed was important. And it was pretty impressive that someone so young was in a position where they could support someone else financially.

The green dot was still displayed next to V’s username. She was still online. Brooke took a deep breath and clicked the chat icon at the bottom of the screen, typing out a quick, hopefully flirty-but-without-coming-on-too-strong, message.

BLH: I hate to break it to you, but saying ‘I’m not gonna kill you’ sounds exactly like what someone who would kill me would say ;)

Brooke quickly exited out of the app and opened up Instagram to check and see if Katya or her wife had added any new photos of their cats or dog. Before she could even begin typing her sister’s name into the search bar, her phone dinged, letting her know that V had responded.

V: hate to break it to you babe but saying youre looking for a partner sounds like youre tryna open up a lawyers office

Brooke swore under her breathe. She knew she sounded too robotic.

BLH: Oh god, I’m sorry. I’ve never done anything

V: lol relax mami, youre cute with all your worrying

She bit down on her lower lip, half in frustration and half trying to suppress a smile. V was already teasing her about her worrying, and they hadn’t even met yet.

BLH: Aren’t you more of the mommy in this situation though ;)

V: i mean i usually prefer daddy ;)

Brooke felt a quick rush of heat to her center at the word “daddy”. She closed her eyes trying to stave away memories of various nights in the alleyways behind various bars with various women.

BLH: I think I can make that work ;)

V: listen, not to be too upfront but youre gorgeous and id love to take you out sometime if youd want?

V: we could meet and figure out an allowance or something if thats what you want! ive done this once before and it was a really good experience for both of us…i gave her around $8000 a month for rent and stuff but we could figure out something specially for you if you need somethin different

Brooke could’ve sworn she felt her heart stop when she read the word “month”. She’d never been with one single person for more than three nights, much less on a month to month basis. But V seemed nice at least. And if not nice, she was at least experienced at this kind of arrangement, and was apparently quite generous to boot. Eight thousand dollars a month would cover her rent and utilities almost four times over. Eight thousand dollars a month would mean that she wouldn’t have to worry about getting her card declined at brunch. Eight thousand dollars a month meant that she wouldn’t have to pick up every possible shift at the studio, and could spend more time going to auditions.

Eight thousand dollars a month meant that she was definitely not turning V down right off the bat.

BLH: I’d love that. Name the time and place, I’m free when you are.

BLH: Daddy ;)

Brooke Lynn Hayhoe doesn’t do relationships — but for eight thousand dollars a month, she was willing to fake it.

[abundantchewtoys]

Homestuck Candy p17-23 (holy shit)

So, yeah, this baby coming up.

I wonder if there's going to be callbacks to Dirk's art for Caliborn in any form. ("jake no, what are you doing - to our baby?")

John can't erase this baby in any case, since no retcon powers.

I wonder if we're going to learn its name. I kind of like one of Blaperile's theories, that he would name a boy after his Dad... It would reveal one of those long hidden mysteries in Homestuck.

Otherwise... Liv? :P

Theresa, after Terezi?

---

Page 17

Oh wow.

OH WOW.

Yeah, now we're getting to the juicy bits.

The candy is turning into diabetes around John. Details about the past are getting vague for his friends, the harmony trumping the validity of their experiences. It's all turning out a lot more existential for John in this path than I thought!

"Harry Anderson Egbert", heheh. But yeah, John has a good point. He wants his wife to have some identity, but it's like she's ... malleable, or something. Everything shapes around each other and forms the least offensive shape.

On the one hand, I want to imagine Vriska Lalonde-Maryam and Harry as childhood friends, growing up together.

On the other hand, I wonder what there is in store for this John. He's lost his retcon powers. But he says Terezi is the only thing that still makes sense to him. So maybe, if he rejects this reality, he can escape it again?

It all is going to depend a lot on what Terezi has to offer. (Going by the assumption it really is Terezi, by the way, not an imposter.)

It would really be something if this John, a twenty-four year old now, crosses back into the Meat timeline. He'd be leaving a lot behind, and frankly, be a shitty husband and father by going through with it. But yeah, Meat John is dead, has been for some time.

Jegus, John keeps filling his own dead self's shoes. Alternate John who dated Vriska. (Okay, in fact, in that situation, it was more of an inversion as the other John continued his developing relationship. On the other hand, for Davesprite, alpha John must've felt like the replacement John in the beginning.) Post-Retcon John who was killed by Typheus. Even Poppop Crocker, when he met up with B2 Dad.

The Candy path is definitely shaping up to be quite suspenseful, all expectations be damned!

---

Page 18

Wow.

Jake's so much more mature here. I want to see more of this man.

So yeah, it had occurred to me that part of the reason Gamzee hooked up with Jake and Jane could be because he was somewhat thinking of a) the other Page he was attracted to, and b) the Hope and Life players in his session, who were close to him on the hemospectrum?

But... I hadn't imagined Gamzee being Jane's kismesis. But it works so well. Got to say, it brings back memories of him on her land during the session.

So Jake and Jane had a baby! The first cross-species naming, then. After Tavros.

It's remarkable, isn't it? Dad, GCATavrosprite, Jasprosesprite^2, Nannasprite, Nannasprite*2... They fell on the wayside, we have no idea what happened to them. The sprites could've dissolved, we didn't seem them in the official credits after all, only the extra possibly outside-of-canon snaps, explaining why Jake would name his firstborn after Tavros. But Dad?

As for Jade and Davekat. Wow. Well, I guess, I really want to know now whether this revelation is also canon.

Cause Jade is either intersex or trans now, after fusing with Beq. (Also, it might be a dog penis, but capable of transferring human DNA? *Shudder.*) I can understand this would make her uneasy in exploring sexual options with Dave.

Wow. Yes, it seems that things are, in a very different but equal sense than in the Meat path, very raw and heartwrenching in this timeline as well.

At the start of the page, I started thinking for a minute that Gamzee would also find something off about the timeline. It would have been something for him to join John in pursuit of relevance, truth and all that. But no, it was just to bait Jane, it seems. If anyone, it would be Jake who might go through something similar as John.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Still said to see Jake getting the small end of the relationship stick, once again. Boy has no luck in love.

It was interesting to get Jane's honest take on politics on Earth C. If she and the others had just been honest with each other, they might have been able to struck an accord. Alas, through Dirk's meddling, it was not to be.

Also, it was funny to have Gamzee refer to the 5000-year skip in sweeps. Yeah, that... That doesn't convert well.

---

Page 19

Wow that took a turn!!

I thought it might have been time for them to discuss their relationship. How Jade has turned into the third wheel stopping the Davekat bicycle from taking off.

(Those references to Jane and Jake, I could've gone about.)

But then.

Something hit.

I thought instantly it would've been the other Jade. A moment or two I thought an ecto baby or First Guardian infant, for these three to take care off in lieu of a biological child. But no.

It's really REALLY the Postscriptum Jade!! (Well, I hope it's her, and that the Postscriptum doesn't take place on Future Candy Earth C.)

She "escaped" the black hole, into relevance, the PS said. So... It seems... As if...

Dirk was very much wrong.

Candy Earth C is going to play an important part in what's to come, yet.

Unless this Jade has only come to lift some of the people here away, like the mentioned Blue Fairy.

But in any case... It seems Davebot and Aradia can't be far behind.

This idyllic fantasy, who's already shown cracks, is about to be shattered.

What hit Jade, though, it almost seemed like those shards from the Furthest Ring, though it was called massless, here.

---

Page 20

Wow.

So, this Jade is suffering from a metaphysical poison. Just like John was from Lord English's tooth. Only... This Jade went into the black hole, and last we saw she was okay.

Is it because she's back in the "real" world that it's affecting her now?

For a minute there I thought Jane and Kanaya and Karkat could actually *explain* their grievances to each other. But no, alas. Karkat, validly I must say, just exploded with everything he's pent up.

Gotta say, if the trolls are getting antsy in this timeline, just imagine how it was going to pan out in the Meat timeline! I'm reminded of the troll rebellion that was referenced in the non-canon snaps.

Also, of course. OF COURSE, these Vriska and Tavros would clash on their first meet. Everyone should've seen this coming.

If anything salvages this scene, it must be Jake being able to placate the two toddlers. It's that sort of attention that Joey and Jude deserved to get from their Pa.

It's interesting to note how Rose is no longer sure about their situation. Maybe that's the influence of this corpse and its heavily-dripped-in-canon origin.

Roxy keeps being almost a vanilla version of herself, although the intent to hold a corpse party is horribly in character for her. Still, she feels less *real* than the other characters, who all seem to be kind of recovering from their diabetes-filled state.

John and Roxy, and Dave, Karkat and Jade are in dire need of some therapy, in any case. It was nice to see Karkat telling Gamzee off though. And weird to see Jane and Roxy keep jumping to his side. Like, they have no idea of the history here, and seem to think anyone can redeem themselves if they try hard enough. It kind of shows how they're not really all that streetwise.

Oh, forgot to mention - John has a moustache now. A manly one. Dear god, he's gone full Sassacre :P

---

Page 21

WHAT THE SHIT.

WHAT THE SHIIIIT.

WHAT THE SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT.

Roxy was right. The chances of all of them coming together like that, with all the stuff going on between them, are so infinitesimal.

But then she got into labor, and I thought that was that.

But

But

So, Aradia and Sollux turn up, and when I heard Jade had the shard still in her torso....

It would seem that this Jade isn't Postscriptum Jade... Yet.

Aradia and Sollux found a way out of the Furthest Ring on their own??? And somehow ended up on Earth C without explanation. Just when last page I almost thought as if all missing trolls mentioned in the epilogues' ToC were going to end up appearing as babies to the characters.

Karkat and Jane are in dire need of an actual debate.

Rose's lack of a good consolation was hilariously described.

But of course, the meat (Meat) of this page.

Is that Alt Calliope found a way through the Black Hole into the Candy path, and sent Reload Jade's corpse through it.

And just like in the Candy path, alpha Calliope is scared off. But it bears mentioning that Calliope herself was acting kind of weird, and was weirdly absent for a lot of the pages. It almost seemed to set her up as the narrator of this path, trying to give everyone what she thought they wanted. The fact that she and Roxy "broke character" for a moment was one of the things pointing in this direction.

But now Alt Calliope is here.

The narration is about to force everyone to confront who they really are. For better or worse.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ends with Candy Earth C as the battlefield seen in the Postscriptum. But what does that imply for Meat Earth C, where Alt Calliope ALSO put her influence to work.

She may claim not to influence, but even when she retreated into the narration, the atmosphere wasn't just magically improved over there.

Aradia and Sollux talking with Gamzee was... weird, but funny. I wonder if they are supposed to have aged some sweeps in the meantime. We know Gamzee must be about 8.5 sweeps now, while Karkat and the other trolls are about 11 sweeps.

I guess it's time we learn what Alt Calliope understands under "protecting" a world. I don't think Meat Dirk is coming over there, though I'm unsure what his grand design really is.

---

Page 22

Oh my god.

what is happening.

So Alt Calliope's influence didn't really do anything at that point but upset the group.

And now a 3 year time skip took place. So... wow. They're all 27 now.

And the troll ghosts that were sucked into the black hole are appearing everywhere now. The government is going bananas, but in fact, it must all be repetitions of the same 24 trolls, how weird is that.

I'm sure that in due time, some human ghosts will be appearing too. But this is just getting ridiculous.

Karkat went underground and into the resistance. Jane, as the shadow president, is secretly maneuvering things to invade the troll kingdom. This was supposed to be the Candy path, I thought it was going to be all shits 'n giggles!!!!

I do like that John, finally, after years, is starting to realize Terezi doesn't share anything about her at all. He asked for a picture, which I guess is nice. But, just like in the Meat path, he's torn up about the girl that he didn't stay with.

This has "disaster waiting to happen" written all over it.

Calliope seems to hunker after Roxy, but she still doesn't act on those feelings. It's like a twisted inversion of the Meat path.

It's like, all the sugar we started with has been turned into energy, and the rush has dissipated, and now there's only a tummy ache.

---

Page 23

Wow.

What the shit.

I could only root for John and Tavros' relationship. Seems like the little man is very sharp for his age. Since Harry is into atomic clocks as well, it seems that the tradition of children being into adult subjects like philosophy and psychology and science, continues.

But alas, it was not meant to be.

John finally couldn't take it no more, he had to scream what he'd internalized for so long. But it turned into something really messy, towards Jane and Jade. All valid points, but by losing control he most importantly scared Tavros and Harry Anderson.

The reaction of the other people was so... empty, though. Non-confrontational to a fault.

And I agree with John, Gamzee has apparently set himself up as Jane's subjugglator.

For all that Alt Calliope was saying, she sure seems to have NOT used any influence, though. And things very much have gone to shit here.

It was very cool to get to know Tavros and Harry Anderson as people, though. Tavros is indeed a kind of brother, biologically, to John (and Jade, and a half brother to June and Joey) in appearance. But it's like, personality-wise, he's more like a sad but smart version of Tavros. While his speech is colored in Gamzee's purple, ugh.

And Harry Anderson... A prankster in the making, for sure.

So, what is Terezi going to talk to him about? Is she talking to him from the end of the Meat path, just before she left Earth C? Or is she talking to him just after the other John died. :(

I can say this: I didn't think for a millisecond I would get THIS attached to people from the Candy path.

[topiom]

Woman Dumped Boyfriend And Quit Job To Travel Across US In Van With Her Dog

Divine On The Road/Instagram

A 24-year-old woman decided to live her best life after breaking up with her boyfriend, so she ditched the 9-5, bought a van and now travels the US with her beloved dog. 

Sydney Ferbrache, from Indianapolis, Indiana, was inspired to start her new life after seeing a picture of another girl travelling in a van.

Rather than living with envy, the young woman decided to do something about it, and asked her boyfriend at the time to join her on an adventure.

View this post on Instagram

It was honestly one of those places that no matter how many photos you take, it just doesn’t look the same. If you ever have the chance to see the Grand Canyon, I really recommend going and hanging out for a couple days. Free campsites only a few minutes from the park too.

We’ve seen so much on this adventure but 200 miles of this view? Nothing has compared to it. Hiked for hours and my legs will never feel the same

Every day so thankful for this journey. PS: Edgar and I are finally both back in San Diego after weeks of being on opposite sides of the country!

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Apr 10, 2018 at 9:40am PDT

The couple were working ’70 to 80 hours a week’, with Sydney telling INSIDER they were both ‘totally miserable’, so they purchased an $18,000 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and spent thousands of dollars to make it fit for travelling.

She explained:

I saw this picture and it took me down this black tunnel hole of van life. I was scrolling for hours a day on my laptop and in between homework and everything else, just looking at vans.

We bought one, had it shipped to Indianapolis, and that was the start of how I discovered van life.

View this post on Instagram

If life has taught me anything over the years, it’s that rarely does anything go as you plan or how you hope.. And sometimes it will go completely off course. Living in this beautiful home with the person I shared it with was one of the greatest adventures I could have ever asked for. That said.. This summer I’ll be building out another van alone and learning a completely different kind of adventure. Excited for the process and super nervous for what’s to come. But ready to take on whatever that’s going to look like. PS. The biggest thank you ever to everyone who has reached out. This community always blows me away.

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Jun 16, 2018 at 6:59am PDT

Sydney and her boyfriend hit the road in September 2017, but the 24-year-old soon realised her partner wasn’t ‘the one’. The keen traveller wanted to ‘reach for the stars’, so she decided to go it alone.

The Indiana native decided to start afresh, and let her ex keep the van. Sydney then worked three jobs, as well as a ‘ton of side gigs,’ for two months in order to save up for transport of her very own.

By May 2018, Sydney had saved enough to purchase a $24,000 Ford Transit van. She renovated it, adding a full kitchen, a king-size bed and a toilet, and got ready to hit the road.

View this post on Instagram

It’s been awhile since I shared an update! Honestly I’m just never sure what to show you because this is what the van looks like 99% of the time during a build… Hectic and kind of a mess. Stuff everywhere and small details taking up so much time that you can’t really tell all the work going into it. But we’re getting there. Things are being done and hitting the road can’t come soon enough. But in the meantime, did you see the best part of it all?!

My little van babe will be joining me next week!

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Aug 30, 2018 at 7:39am PDT

Just before she set off, however, she decided she needed one more thing to make her setup complete – a golden retriever puppy, named Ella.

The 24-year-old began her adventure earlier this year and has since travelled to 20 different states, including Montana, Utah, Arizona, California and Oregon, as well as Quebec in Canada.

She funds her travels through advertising and affiliate marketing on her website, and by helping people design their own blogs. Sydney shares her adventures through a podcast and on her Instagram page, Divine On The Road.

View this post on Instagram

Spent the last few days with basically no service hanging out at Yellowstone and then Grand Teton. It totally surpassed my expectations and the drive down to Salt Lake City was probably my favorite drive of all time. We only left because I needed to catch up on laundry, showers, and work but I’m already thinking of going back before it gets too cold! I think Grand Teton has got to be my new favorite park. I could’ve stayed there for weeks. I’ve also been amazed at how well this girl does with traveling. She LOVES everyone and is almost always the start to every conversation I’ve had. Anyways, what’s your favorite national park?! I’m curious if I should go to any more before heading west to San Diego.

Oh! Also I’ve been getting some questions about the free campsites I stay at and I always put every single campsite on my website! So you can find any of them there whenever you need em.

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Oct 2, 2018 at 7:44am PDT

Recalling her first few days on the road, Sydney said:

It was the most freeing. I truly felt like such a bad*ss. I made this happen, I cannot believe I actually made this happen.

It was such a cool feeling of ‘I’m driving my home around the country.’

The traveller returns home to in Indiana every few months to see her family and spend some time with her two-year-old nephew, but she has no plans to quit her new-found way of life any time soon.

View this post on Instagram

This morning we went for a long walk through the neighborhood I grew up in. We walked down the court where I played kick ball with all the other kids, showed Ella the trailhead that leads to my secret hideout, and passed the park where I kissed my first love. My whole life I was so desperate to leave this place. I wanted to escape so badly and would dream of all the places I’d get to explore some day. But it’s funny now that I get to do exactly what I always dreamed of, I drive thousands of miles across the country to get back here. To see the place I deemed mundane and boring. To type this from the kitchen table where I ate breakfast every day before school and had to endure way too many “family talks”. Traveling for me is exciting, intoxicating, and constantly teaches me new things that I would probably never learn otherwise. But being home is familiar, comforting, and re-teaches me all the things I’ve already known but forgot somewhere along the way. – So many of us are desperate to escape. To get out there and leave it all behind. But I wish I would’ve seen this place for what it was all along. Don’t be like me and wait until you return to find the magic where you are now. There’s a kind of beauty in the boring that you won’t find in the excitement.

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Jun 5, 2019 at 7:56am PDT

Sydney hopes to make it to Alaska by spring 2020, and plans to visit Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia along the way.

She expressed her love of being on the road, saying:

I’ve never woken up once in the last year and not felt like this isn’t exactly what I should be doing. I don’t foresee anywhere in the near future where I want to stop, but I also don’t want to hold myself to this idea that I have to be on the road.

View this post on Instagram

Someone recently messaged me, “less dog, more van” and I’ve actually thought a lot about that lately. Not the comment but the concept. I’m supposed to be all van and van life and van builds. But the truth is that this van is merely my home and transportation. If it went away tomorrow, I’d be devastated but I would be okay. Sometimes I like thinking about if the van and this lifestyle wasn’t here, what would I be doing? But if Ella went away tomorrow… now that’s something I don’t even let cross my mind. My van is my home but my dog is my life. One gets me from point A to point B, but the other quite literally is my other half. I don’t mind sharing more van, but never ever expect less dog. In this photo, I hardly see past her. I watch Ella watching everything else. She’s my favorite view and the vans got nothing on her. _ In other news, the podcast is still in the works and I’m so sorry for the delay! It’s been submitted and I’m simply waiting on approval now from the various platforms. Still so excited to share all things van AND dog in this really fun, new way.

A post shared by Sydney Ferbrache (@divineontheroad) on Jul 18, 2019 at 8:04am PDT

Sydney went on to encourage other women to follow in her footsteps, adding:

I really believe society has instilled in us that we should be fearful of the world and that we should have a man by our side to see things. We are taught to be scared, we don’t feel that way innately.

I like to prove in the way I do things that that’s not how we have to live our lives.

With Ella for company and the whole world ahead of her, Sydney has certainly chosen an amazing path.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via story@unilad.com

This content was originally published here.

[footiefanficwonderland]

Plumber in Shining Armour (Mats Hummels OS)

A/N: Morning lovelies, This one is for Mikaela, a wonderful girl who has requested Mats OS ages ago. I hope you are still around and will read it eventually, and that you will forgive me for making you wait this long; I am really truly sorry. This is just a random, cute story and I hope you guys like it. Even if you hate it, please leave me your feedback, I would love to know what you think, I feel a little rusty tbh lol. PS: I don’t even know what is with this title, I forgot how hard it is to come up with a proper one. Please excuse my extremely poor sense of humor. :( Anyhow, enjoy xo

“I swear I've never met a woman as messy as you, Mikaela,“ Mats commented disapprovingly as he rose from her couch where he was sitting with his legs resting on her coffee table, pretending not to watch Pretty Little Liars marathon which was on. He marched to the kitchen and picked up a wet towel lying in front of the sink, but dropped it even faster once he realized it was soaking wet.

“Why are you leaving wet towels all over your kitchen?!” he exclaimed in disgust.

Mikaela appeared in the doorway, putting on one of her earrings. “Please don’t touch that. It’s bad enough that my family is coming over tonight and my sink is leaking, I don’t need any other mess around here.”

She was wearing a tight, deep maroon dress which reached to her knees and flattered her body shape quite well. The off-shoulder effect accented her sun-kissed shoulders. Her lob was bouncing in waves around her shoulders as she titled her head to fix the earring in place.

Her family was coming over tonight after more than half a year, and they were Portuguese so that included much more than just her parents and siblings- there would be at least twenty people at this dinner. Knowing how judgmental women in her family were especially to the fact that she was twenty- five and still without a sign of being married soon, she has tried extra hard to make everything perfect for their stay. She has been cleaning around her house for days, cooking and preparing all different kinds of food, just for their liking. And then her sink started leaking and she has called her plumber but his wife has just went into labor and- thanks to her superb luck- it was the summer vacation season and every other plumber she has called was either on vacation or couldn’t get back to her before Monday. And so she was left with a tiny pool in her kitchen on the day of the grand family dinner. Amazing.

“Your sink is leaking?” Mats questioned “Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked a bit offended.

“What for?” she sighed going into the bathroom to find her other earring.”

“I can fix this in no time.”

“Sure you can”, she snorted under her breath.

“Hey, I heard that!” Mats said offended, appearing in the bathroom as well. “Where do you keep the tools?”

“Mats, just leave it, you’ll make an even bigger mess.”

“I won’t. I know what I’m doing.” He assured. “So, where?”

“There is a toolbox under the stairs,” she sighed as he already headed in that direction.

“But if you break something more, you are buying me a new kitchen, mister!” she called after him. He just showed her a thumbs up, as he started searching under the staircase.

As Mikaela was setting up the finishing touches on the dinning table, Mats was under her sink, touching this and adjusting that. The noises that he made and curses that escaped his mouth made Mikaela know better than to ask how it is going. Finally, he appeared from underneath the sink with a triumphant smile on his face. “All done!” he exclaimed.

He had barely had the time to finish his sentence, when something broke and a strong stream of water started pouring all over his head. At least it was the clean water. Mats cursed and hurried to try to stop it, but it was of course out of his abilities and he was only able to tighten the pipe a little bit, still leaving the water to leak from underneath. Mikaela was staring at him with such intensity as she was still holding one of the plates in her hand, and Mats examined her carefully actually scared that she might throw it at him.

“New kitchen it is.” Was all she said however, as she kept on adjusting the plates around the table. Suddenly she slumped in one of the chairs and, putting her head in her hands, started to whimper.

“Why does this have to happen to me all over and over again? Why can’t I just once impress my family so at least one year I can save myself from their snotty little comments on how big of a loser I am.” There weren’t any tears on her face, she just ranted in agony.

Mats approached her and squatted before her, taking her hands off of her face.

“Hey,” he started in a comforting voice. “You are not a loser, not even close. You are the smartest and kindest person I know. You are also one of the most independent ones. I’ve never seen someone so young build themselves such a life as you did. That is impressive. Hell, if you consider yourself a loser than I am an even bigger one. Which is of course not true because we both know how awesome I am.” He tried to joke but it seemed to be in vain as Mikaela continued.

“You don’t know my family Mats. This house, my career, that “life” you are talking about- it means nothing to them. As long as I don’t have a husband by my side and at least a child on the way, they will consider me a failure. And I’m not saying having a family is bad, but there are also other things in life. Not that I don’t want a big family of my own but I’m proud of who I am for now; I’m proud of my career.” She sighed in despair.

“Oh that’s easy,” Mat’s face lit up. “If your love life is the problem, you can just say I’m your boyfriend” he winked at her.

She gazed at him and wondered how everyone would think she’s crazy for not taking him up on that offer. Because who wouldn’t want Mats Hummels as their boyfriend. At least pretend-boyfriend for one night. But she didn’t, seriously. She met Mats when she bought this house- he was her first neighbor. And since there weren’t many single people or even people their age for that matter in this neighborhood, they eventually started hanging out quite often and somewhere between their coffee breaks in the afternoon on her porch or long rants about everything and anything what bothered them sitting in pajama shorts on his couch or bed at 2 am, they became quite great friends. Despite the fact that he was a world famous football player and a very handsome one indeed, she never regarded him as anything other than her friend. That is until recently when she started to notice things about him that she normally wouldn’t. For example, the V-line of his body when he changed shirts before her, asking for her advice on what suited him better, or the tight line of his jaw, or how incredibly hot he looked with water dripping from his hair whilst they were lazily hanging out by his pool. Suddenly she became very self conscious about what she wore or how she behaved around him, and suddenly she would start having this very strong, strange feeling going through her body whenever he touched her, whenever he came really close.

Mikaela tried to convince herself that it was simply due to her lack of interaction with man. However, after she has called a man she has started dating in the meantime “Mats”- thankfully his nickname was Max so he didn’t quite get her mistake- she finally admitted to herself that she was falling for her neighbor. The thought of admitting how she felt to him was- to her- never a possibility because she was one of the youngest scientists at the Naturwissenschaften Institute in Dortmund, while he was the Mats Hummels- and more importantly, the one whose only type of women seemed to be models and/or actors with waistline of 60 cm. She realized this was superficial way to judge one’s so- called “friend” but she had his dating history to confirm her theory.

And so she said, “Thanks for the offer but I’ll deal with them somehow.” Then she flashed him a reassuring smile, “Thank you for your support, I’m fine now, really.”

“You still owe me a new kitchen though,” she joked to lighten up the mood.

Mats laughed and pulled her into a hug, “Come here, you.”

“Ew, no, Mats let me go, you are all wet!” she objected trying to wriggle out of his hold.

“Have you considered having this dinner at a restaurant, though?” Mats asked as Mikaela returned to arranging the table. “I mean, I know this place where they have really amazing food, plus the place is big enough to take all of you. I think your family would like it.”

“But dinner is supposed to be in couple of hours, I don’t think anyone will have a place for such a big dinner now without reservation,” she sighed.

“That, my dear, is when the perks of being a “world cup winner” come in handy”, he winked at her, “The manager is a really close friend of mine. So what do you say? I call my plumber to come and fix this mess while you are at the dinner, so your family doesn’t have to even see any of this mess?”

“Anything to save yourself from having to buy me a new kitchen, huh Mats?” Mikaela joked smiling at him gratefully. “Thanks for doing this for me.”

He pulled her in for a hug. “Ah, anything for you. You know I hate seeing your pretty face all sad and sullen.”

And there it is. These were the mixed signals that Mats freaking Hummels kept sending her. Every once in a while, he would look at her like she was the only women in the world or he would cuddle with her sometimes a bit too intimately, or he would give her these compliments that made her feel so special, or he would just take care of her in every way that he possibly could. But Mikaela was always the rational one, so she never let herself get her hopes up.

While helping her clean up the table she has so carefully arranged, Mats fake- sighed, “You will have such a great time with your family. Eating alone gets so boring sometimes, you know.”

Mikaela knew very well what he was trying to do but decided on letting him try a little harder.

“It would be really great to get to know your family,” he continued, “I’m really curious to see who you look like the most.”

Mikaela put down the table cloth that she had just folded, “My dad, and if you want to come with, you should just ask,” she teased.

“Well, I’m waiting for you to be polite enough to ask, women”, he narrowed his eyes at her. “But I don’t need any more invitation than that. I really hate eating alone”, he sighed.

 xxx

The dinner seemed to go much better than Mikaela has hoped. Her family really seemed to like the choice of restaurant. Even more however, they seemed to like Mats, which was very surprising for Mikaela considering that her family has always been pretty clear about how disappointed they were in some of her partner choices who weren’t Portuguese, and how they strongly believed she ought to settle down with a Portuguese man. Nonetheless, Mats seemed to have fit right in, making conversation with everyone, retelling funny stories, making jokes. On couple of accounts, the women of her family questioned subtly and then later on not even so subtly anymore, whether the two were “a thing”. Mikaela assured them they are not, but she didn’t miss the flash of disappointment in her parents’ eyes. Like she said, everyone seemed to be very fond of Mats. Some of her family members even a bit too much for her liking. Her two-years younger and breathtakingly good-looking cousin Patricia seemed to not be able to take her eyes or hands for that matter off of Mats. As soon as she realized that Mats and Mikaela weren’t together, she was all over him. She had somehow managed to sit next to him, and had spent all night chatting with him. Not that Mikaela hasn’t already heard all those stories, but she couldn’t stand how her cousin kept touching him, coquettishly giggling at every other word that left his mouth. She even asked him to dance! In the restaurant where no one was dancing! Thankfully Mats has passed the offer. Somehow, she has even managed to convince him to take her to one of his games, and she wouldn’t shut up about the whole thing during the ride home. Mikaela thought her head was going to explode. She had no idea she could be this jealous.

 xxx

“Thank you for everything, I just hope my cousin didn’t bother you too much.” Mikaela said when she and Mats were finally standing on her porch while she was seeing him off.

“You know that you don’t have to take her to any games right? I know you just wanted to be polite, but she has bothered you enough.” She was a bit scared that Mats would say that he liked it, though.

“Oh, it’s fine,” Mats smiled, “I would love to take her. I would also like it very much if you came with us. I’ve been asking you for ages.”

“I think Patricia would prefer it if it was just the two of you,” she carefully said, analyzing his reaction.

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t worry about that if I were you. I have this thing for my neighbor anyway.” Mats smiled cheekily and Mikaela was left speechless. Her rational brain didn’t even have time to try to explain this, because in the next moment, Mats leaned in and kissed her goodnight. He has done it a thousand times before, but this time, his lips lingered on the corner of her lips a bit too long.

Mikaela thanked heavens that it was dark outside and he couldn’t see her face properly because she was sure it was tomato red. A million thoughts ran through her mind, as Mats started walking away from her. When he got near her fence he called, loud enough for her to hear, “Sweet dreams, beautiful.”

And Mikaela was sure the butterflies in her stomach won’t let her get any sleep tonight.

[juliadgaddis]

Bring on the Squillions!

 Today's the day, friends! We're officially kicking off FUNdraising season!! Team Itty Bitty Kitty Committee, for the ninth consecutive year, is participating in Dog-A-Thon, The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County's fundraising walk for homeless pets. For those of you who are new to the blog, I think you're going to be surprised by how fun this fundraiser is. It's a really exciting time of year at the IBKC, and so many look forward to this event. During the next three weeks, we will all work very hard raising funds for our shelter, and we will have a great time doing it. We will talk about all of the positive and wonderful things our Humane Society is doing. You'll hear lots of feel-good stories about the cats we have helped. We want to keep you entertained while we're pestering everyone for donations, so you'll see lots of extra posts and pictures during this stretch. We keep it all very light and try to make it as painless as possibles for all of you! During this season, you'll see the whole IBKC community rise to support our shelter. You'll witness lots of very kind, generous, and caring kitty-loving people in action. You'll see some pretty magical moments. You'll cheer (and breath a huge sigh of relief) when we meet our many matching donation challenges. It will make you feel warm and fuzzy, and you might just even cry a few happy tears. I know I always do. You'll see some tense moments -- it can be a nail-biter at times -- but I promise you that in the end, you will always feel uplifted. Seeing so much good can't be anything but positive. And gosh, with all that's going on in our World right now, don't we need a little more positive? Even though this event is called "DOG"-A-Thon, because we're all about the cats and kittens around here, all of the money we raise goes directly towards helping our feline friends. EVERY single cent of it! This money will help life-saving projects and programs -- like our foster program. It will help make shelter improvements for the cats. It will buy cuddly beds, toys, scratchers, litter boxes, and cubbies to help make a cat's stay at the shelter more comfortable. It will help reduce the cost of spay and neuter surgeries for pets of lower income families. It will help fill the shelves of the Emergency Pet Food Bank with cat food. It will help fix and vaccinate the feral and free-roaming cats in our community. It will help lost kitties get reunited with their owners. It will fill bellies with nutritious food. It will provide medical care for tiny kittens, adult, senior, and special need cats. It will help make cats healthier and happier while they wait to meet their forever families. It will help save lives. Many lives. This year, I've set our goal at $100,000. It's a huge amount, but we've set this goal before and have exceeded it every time. It's going to take some hard work to get there, but I have a lot of faith in our community, and I know we can do it. I just know we can! In all of these years of fundraising, this little community of ours has donated over $750,000 to help homeless cats and kittens. Can you believe we did that? The Humane Society has put our donations to good use, and I've seen so many positive changes happen for the cats at the shelter because of our community. WE came together and provided them with the resources to make wonderful things happen. We've helped them help more cats. I am so proud of us! So, what can we expect this season? There's lots of great stuff on the calendar, and I'll be adding more as we go.We'll have lots of auctions this year. Once our current crew graduates, we'll bring in the next batch of babies and auction off the rights to name those kittens. I also have a very lovely cat-themed quilt that a couple of special people made just for this occasion -- I am so excited to reveal it! We'll be auctioning off some art and other cat-related items, too. We will be auctioning off the always popular "Tea with the Bean" --- your opportunity to have lunch with us at IBKC headquarters and meet Charlene, Wylla, and kittens. The tea has been a huge success over the years, so of course, we'll do it again. Even if you don't toss your hat in the ring, it's exciting to watch the bidding frenzy! We will be checking in on some of our IBKC grads, and I'll be posting lots of alumni updates, too! Thanks to some very generous folks, we will have MANY awesome matching donation challenges to help us read our goal. There's still room on the schedule for more, so if you would like to offer up a match, please send me an email, and we can discuss the details. We'll have days dedicated to some of your favorite programs and causes: The Senior Cat Medical Fund, Community Cats, Special Need Cats, The Emergency Pet Food Bank, the Foster Program and our Low-Cost Spay and Neuter program. It's a great way to give and have your money go  directly towards something you really care about. The HS is using trying a new online fundraising platform for Dog-A-Thon, so things look a little bit different this year. The new platform is pretty straightforward and easy to navigate, so I don't think anyone will have issues. But if you do, please let me know. It doesn't have a few features the old system had, but I'm working hard with my techy husband to find ways to provide some of the things that are missing. The big thing is getting a "progress bar" up on the blog.  Hopefully, we'll get that resolved today! In the meantime, you can track our progress on the fundraising page --- maybe even "bookmark" it for your convenience, so it's easy to follow along. Another thing that's a little different this year is that sadly, I won't be able to walk the Dog-A-Thon walk.  I've got a family wedding in Colorado happening that very same day, so I have to miss it the event.  I can't tell you how heartbroken I am over this -- it makes me so sad that I can't be there to celebrate our victory and the Humane Society, too.   I haven't broken the news to Wylla yet, who always joins us for the walk. I know she'll be disappointed and sad to let down her adoring fans. I am SO SORRY we can't be there. Normally, we wrap up the fundraising the day before the Dog-A-Thon walk, but because of my traveling, we'll be ending it a couple of days earlier on Wednesday, July 19th. We wanted to have a really awesome first day, so we're starting this show with a huge $5000 matching donation challenge. Our Awesome Anonymous Donor is back this year, and she will be matching every single dollar we donate today until we reach the $5000 cap. I know it's a big challenge to meet on our very first day, but to hit our big goal, we're going to have to keep things going a pretty good clip. It's going to take big matches like this along the way to get us there! Just in case you forgot how the matches work, here goes: For every dollar we give, our Awesome Anonymous Donor will do the same until we hit the $5000 max. SO, if we're able to meet the match, our $5000 will turn into $10,000! Of course, even if we don't complete the match, our dollars will still be doubled, but when someone offers up a challenge, we hate to leave a single dollar on the table, so we work hard to max it out. To jump in on this match, get your dollars doubled by our donor, and make a tax-deductible donation to our campaign, please visit our FUNdraising page. This matching donation challenge ends at 7:00 PM (Pacific Time) tonight. Thank you Awesome Anonymous Donor for this very generous match to kick things off! Our shelter has provided us with so many wonderful kittens over the years. These kittens have made us smile, they've brightened many days, they've warmed our hearts -- especially during these troubling times. Here's our chance to give something back - we can honor all those itty-bitty kitties and say "thanks" by supporting the organization that gave them their start in life - The Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. Thank you for listening, friends. It will be an exciting and emotional stretch, and I can hardly wait to see how much we can raise to improve the lives of our precious shelter cats and kittens. We appreciate every dollar you give! No matter what the size of the donation, it helps because when we put it all together, we make BIG things happen for our little friends. 100 Squillion! HERE WE COME!! OK, I'll be back with lots more today! As I mentioned before, I post a lot during the FUNdriaser, so do stay close! We've got LOTS of cuteness coming your way!!! THANK YOU for being here. Thank you for caring. We love you!!  Wheeeeeee!  Here we go!!!!! OK, Robin! You've got the fist shift on the phones, are you ready?  Yoohooo, Robin, are you ready? Don't worry, blog land. I've got this.  Please click HERE to learn a little bit more about Dog-A-Thon and make your donation! PS I know that not everyone is in a position to make a donation - you can always help by spreading the word! Sharing on Facebook, Twitter or via email doesn't cost a cent, and it helps tremendously! Thanks!!! from The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee http://www.theittybittykittycommittee.com/2017/06/bring-on-squillions_26.html