#i know you’re in norway but i think this all still applies

[tributary]

Hey, Norskie again. I am interested in Standing Together, which seems to me a viable, good-faith actor who avoids the deal-breaking 'Jewish identity is yet another white nationalism!' position that has turned me away from other such organizations and voices. However, I find it unconscionable to send any money to Israel that may be collected as taxes. Do you how where my donation would end up? If that would become a problem, how may I support Standing Together outside of monetary help?

hi norskie,

thanks for asking. the donation would be handled under US tax laws, so tax-exempt. there was a threat of israel passing a law to tax donations to israeli NGOs, but this has not happened.

standing together’s US fiscal sponsor is the new israel fund, a progressive grantmaker with experience handling these donations.

in addition to spreading the word, there is a google doc that includes other (non-monetary) ways to help. i’ll try to dig that up.

[nicolesainz]

Footloose (MØ 8)

Martin Ødegaard x f!reader (Erling Haaland’s sister)

Warnings: extreme fluff

Summary: She’s on the way to her school dance, with no parter along. Martin has an obstacle standing in his way. But he is willing to go through it, just for a dance with her.

Special dedication to my besties @freedaxf1+ Jo

“Let me see you baby sis, come on!” Erling shouts from downstairs, as I apply my final layer of lipstick. I take a deep breath and put on my heels, before going down the stairs carefully.

Whilst I make my way down to the hall, I can feel my brother’s and mother’s eyes following my path, pictures being taken of me and the awkwardness kicks in.

Suddenly, a third figure catches my eye, even though his were already glued on me. My brother’s best friend and Norway teammate, Martin, was a part of my life for a long time. He’s two years older than my brother but five years than me.

The age gap was never an obstacle for me to be attracted to him. He was my first love, he still is, considering I refuse to look at another man, or a man at me. Martin was always more mature than my brother, more sensible and thoughtful.

He would always ask me if I wanted to join them in a game of football or attend one of their matches, to which Erling would always respond “I don’t think she’d be interested in that” or “It’s boys time now, mate. We’ll hang out with her later”.

Martin was smart enough to notice the frown in my face and disappointment in my eyes. In between his games or whenever he found an excuse to leave the room, he would always come up to me and apologize. Even if we spent five minutes together, they meant a lot to me.

“Oh my Kjære, you look breathtaking! A proper lady. Erling, take the pictures, I need a minute” my mother mumbles in between her cries and sniffs.

My brother holds his phone up and snaps multiple pictures of me. Only in those pictures I don’t look once in the camera. My eyes are locked with Martin’s and I feel like the world has stopped for a brief moment.

Martin was always a man I looked up to. He surely is the fierce, powerful and restless captain of Arsenal, but I know him as the sweet, tender and humble Norwegian, that would always help me, even if that meant fighting with Erling afterwards.

His tongue swiped across his lips, wetting them and making my heart beat a little faster than usual. I have to admit that he was the most handsome boy I’ve met in my life. No man is perfect but for him, I will make an exception.

“Okay, stop the lovey dovey eye talk you two. Her boyfriend is coming soon” Erling says and in seconds Martin’s head spins with a shocked look in his eyes. I almost fell down the stairs but I thankfully manage to steady myself on the handle next to me.

“Are you alright Y/N? You’re not hurt, are you?” Martin’s eyes were a mixture of concern and jealousy at the same time. He quickly moved to my side, holding my hand firmly.

“I’m okay. Saved by the bell. Tusen takk, Martin. And what are you saying? What boyfriend?” I ask my brother, trying to understand the theory created in his head.

“The guy who was yesterday with you, while I was picking you up? Isn’t he your boyfriend? You looked pretty close” I could feel Martin’s eyes glued to my lips, hanging from them, waiting for my answer.

“I don’t know if anyone has fouled you at the head but no. He is Jason and my best friend, who surely isn’t into women” my brother was silenced and a soft breath escaped Martin’s mouth.

“So, you’re going to the final dance alone? No date?” My mother said, with a concern drawn all over her eyes as if this is the end of the world.

“My friends will be there. We are going to have some fun and then I am coming back home” I reply bluntly, trying to hide my sadness and disappointment.

If I could have a dance partner tonight, I’d love for him to be the blonde Norwegian, whose hand is on my wait, holding me still, and causing a million little sparks to fly.

“I’m sorry, Y/N, I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t know. If there’s anything I can do to make your night better tell me and I will do it in a heartbeat” Erling comes up to me and wraps us into a big hug, one that he doesn’t often give to anyone, but I am the exception.

“We will take you there. It’s on our way to the pitch, so we can also pick you up quicker” he continues while picking up his car keys and looking at my mom, whose eyes were still very red fro crying.

I went up to her and gave her a big hug. Eve though attending this prom was never in my original plans, I do it for her. She couldn't attend her school dance, because she got pregnant with my brother. I love her too much to let this opportunity go to waste.

"I hope you have a wonderful time min elskede. This is your night. And who knows, maybe a prince will come along the way. Be careful and take loads of pictures. Jeg elsker deg" she softly says, caressing my curls that were falling all the way down to my elbows.

"Come on princess, before your carriage turns into a pumpkin with me and Martin into mice" My brother whines, while honking loudly enough to disturb the neighbourhood.

"Slutt å være et rasshøl" (stop being an asshole). I hear Martin complain to Erling, as he was clearly being very annoying at the moment.

On our way to my school, I play with all my rings that are hanging from my fingers, while Martin's eyes are roaming all over my body, scanning my every move and little detail on my outfit. I refused to look up, so our eyes would lock, but even the feeling on me, caused a thousand little tingles on my heart.

When I finally looked up, so I could tell my brother where to stop, my eyes fell on Martin's, who was still looking at me through the mirror at the front. A smile was formed on his lips and so on mine. It wasn't awkward in the slightest. It was like a conversation between us, where he mouths at me 'You look incredible'

"Okay missy. We have arrived. A few rules, so we get things straight. No drinking. No smoking. No running behind boys. No weird danced that I may see by accident on insta. But most of all, do not bring along anyone afterwards unless it's one of your girlfriends"

"You sound worse than dad. I will be fine, Erling. You guys will be less than fifteen minutes away from here. If I need anything I will ring you up. Martin, can you go and escort her? I seriously don't need to go back there"

"Of course. Unless Y/N, doesn't want me to, then I won't pressure her"

"It's okay. I truly don't mind. Better than the beast of a brother I have. He will take all the attention away and people will start to gossip"

"I love you too, lillesøster" Erling flashes me an ironic smile before I open my door.

"Aldri sagt at jeg gjorde det" (Never said I did), I reply, with a soft laugh escaping Martin and earning a death stare from my brother.

Martin offered me his hand and I held it firmly, so I could walk up the stairs, without tripping on my dress. Holding his hand was like a hundred butterflies hovering on my stomach and throat. I felt safe, even if that was for a few minutes.

As we reached the top, Martin's fingers were fixing my hair messed by the wind and skimmed through my skin softly. The lightest touch of his could make my knees go weak for him. He doesn't know the effect he has on me.

Our faces are very close to each other's and my entire body is shaking. I can't possibly take my eyes from him. I take every chance I have to cherish his presence, when he is not back in London. Seeing him on the television screen, doesn't compare to his real life grace. He is simply majestic and I hate myself for loving him this much.

"Nyt denne kvelden, min favoritt. Du vil være den vakreste jenta der inne" (Enjoy your night, my favourite. You will be the most beautiful girl in there). Martin whispers in my ear, before landing an unexpected kiss on my cheek. My whole face had turned scarlet red and I thought my heart would run miles to find his after that. We were very close, but not in a million years I thought that my first kiss, even if it was on the cheek, would be by my lifelong crush.

"Thank you. I appreciate it very much. I hope the game goes well tonight and you win. I will root from afar!" If I could drag him inside with me, I certainly would do. And if I wasn't afraid of his reaction.

In the face of the angry, pained, harsh Arsenal captain that everyone knew, I saw a man that I would do everything to have. A loving, heartfelt, adoring man.

Martin's hands drop mine slowly, hesitating and waves me goodbye before going back into my brother's car. I find it very unfair that I can't spend my night with him.

Once I open the gates and witness the beauty of the stadium, my eyes fall on all my friends who were dancing with their boyfriends. Stephanie notices me and excuses herself from her beloved one, before making her way towards me, wrapping her arms around me.

"I am so glad you decided to come! If you didn't, I would start ringing your bell until you hates me. My goodness, you look amazing. Oh my, Y/N!" Stephanie showers me with compliments and I repay her with the same gift. She shows me where we are supposed to sit and I see Jason on the table, alone, looking at his crush, who is on his phone, equally alone.

"Hey Jace. You look great. I am sorry for being late" I greet with a smile and give him a hug. I can hear him sighing loudly, clearly disappointed at tonight.

"At least now I am not entirely alone. You look very nice by the way!" he says, still looking away from me an focusing on a few tables afar. I feel so bad for him, because I can understand the position he is in.

I have to help him. If it can't be me who is happy tonight, at least let it be Jason who is. And he deserves to be happy, I know that he has chances with that boy and that the feelings are mutual.

"Can I give you a piece of advice? And if you want follow it. I am sure though that it will help you with the situation” I caress Jason’s back, trying to calm his down, as his whole body is tense, seeing that the man is about to leave.

“Go and talk to him. He’s been waiting for you. Trust me. It will be okay. I’m sure things will turn out the way you like them” I flash him a smile, while he’s grinning innocently, afraid of being embarrassed and things going south.

“I’ll change name and country if this fails. But I’m still taking you with me, even if this is your plan. I need someone and you’re the only who tolerates me”

“I don’t tolerate you Jason, you’re my friend. And I want the best for you. So for this once, trust me. I’ll be here waiting”

“I love you so much to be mad at you, no matter what” I said before leaving in a rush, trying to catch the man who would have been his possible date.

I plumped on my seat and watched everyone dancing with their partners during very slow romantic songs that made my heart melt. It was a sight for sore eyes. I went on my Instagram to scroll a bit through the stories. Everyone had posted the ballroom, so I decided to snap a few pic too.

It didn’t bother me that I didn’t have a boy to dance with. It bothered me that I couldn’t be with a certain boy. Other girls at the pitch were probably flirting and cheering for him, old friends of theirs and I was in a long blue dress, unable to go anywhere, thinking I’d be considered crazy if I walked all the way from the school up to the field.

Scrolling accidentally to my first story, didn’t help either as Martin’s face popped up and the unease inside me grew bigger. I probably have more pictures of Martin than I have of me or my brother and friends.

I decided to shut down my phone and just let myself enjoy the slow music. It was peaceful and thanks to my luck, Jason was seeing leaving with the guy he was eyeing since forever. He waved me goodbye and mouthed ‘thank you, I owe you’

I waved both of them and made the heart symbol with my fingers. Mission accomplished as they say. At least someone got what they desired tonight.

As I was about to make my way towards my friends who were telling me to come on the dance floor, my phone clung and the name I so badly desired appeared on my screen.

Martin: having fun? do you need anything?

If I could, I’d say ‘please come, pick me up and simply take me with you’ but that would have too much so instead, I played it cool. Well, as much as I could.

Me: not a fun fest, but decent.

Martin: Do you need me to come around?

Me: What? No. Don’t waste your time. Go and play. I’ll be fine.

Martin: No way. I’m coming there. Stay inside so you don’t get cold.

Me: I’ve told you I’m okay. Erling will blame me for whining. We will talk later.

Martin: Too late. Already on my way. Stay inside.

Why was he doing this? Why would he drop his game just to pick me up, when he could have easily told me to go get a taxi or ask mom to take me?

Because Martin isn’t that type of person. Because he actual cares about you. He isn’t a simple man who won’t give the slightest attention. He is willing to give you the world, but you simply don't know it yet.

I walked towards the door, before I saw Stephanie, looking weirdly at me, asking where I was going. I told her that I was going to leave and asked me if I needed anything from her. I thanked her for tonight and making an effort to cheer me up.

As I was about to open the gates, a rushing and sweaty Martin came up to me, with an angry looking in his eyes.

"Didn't I tell you to stay inside?" he took my hand and led us outside, covering me with his jacket, so I couldn't get cold.

"I was just about to go out. Nothing would have happened. Relax" I say in an annoyed tone, clearly not wanting to sound as mean as I did.

"Fuck, Y/N, you never know. I was just being careful and thoughtful towards you. I don't want anything bad to happen to you"

"Tell that to yourself, because now you are getting sick, being all sweaty and without wearing a jacket. Are you insane?"

"I don't care about me. I know how to handle the cold in those situations. All I want is for you to be safe, but you are making it very difficult for me"

"Why Martin?"

"What why? Are you seriously asking me why I care about you?"

"Yes. Yes I am. Why are you always taking my side, instead of my brother's? Why are you always willing to let me join your games, when I know shit about football? Why are you always coming to my aid when I've let myself be alone?"

"Because, my dear, you have always been kinder than anyone else. You have been my angel on earth. In denial. In denial of my love towards you. In denial that someone can love you. And especially someone like me who is presented as coldhearted, mean and selfish"

I felt the earth stop spinning and my heart thumping against my chest so hard, I thought it was about to burst out, with Martin's name carved on top of it. Did he actually admit being in love with me? The Martin Ødegaard? My Martin?

"Y-you l-lo-love m-m-me?" the words barely came out of my mouth. I was stunned and I think starstruck but what had just happened.

"Jeg elsker deg som om det ikke finnes noen morgendag. Jeg elsker deg som om jeg kan ta på stjernene og gi dem til deg. Jeg elsker deg så høyt at jeg dedikerer hver eneste målfeiring til deg, mens verden ser på oss." (I love you as if there is no tomorrow. I love you as if I can touch the stars and gift them to you. I love you this much to dedicate every of my goal celebrations to you, with the world watching us.)

I felt tears escaping my tears and falling down to my wet lips. I couldn't stop smiling for a single second. This was all that I wanted.

"You don't know, how long I had been wanting to hear those words. And I would have waited for you as much as necessary. Whether that was weeks, months or years, I would have waited for you and loved you unconditionally. Because, I love you too Martin."

I got picked up by him and held in his tight hug. The sweetest most amazing hug I have ever received. This felt like a dream coming true. Like magic.

He closed the gap between us with a soft kiss, full of every emotion I had felt for Martin and every emotion he had felt for me. His lips connected perfectly with mine, dancing along and not letting each other apart.

He put me down and put his hands on me cheeks, holding me firmly and deepening the kiss even more. We both refused to let each other go now that we found wonderland. I felt Martin mumbling in between the kisses:

"I am going to kiss and love you for forever. You are truly my favourite person on this planet"

[vertebrae-entertainment]

20.03.2023 - The year so far!

What do you mean its only been three and a half months?? Our schedule has been packed- there's only so much a couple’a queers can do at once. While we’re still gearing up towards full-time fishing game work and we have a bunch of loose ends to wrap up, lets give a recap of the year so far:

COLLAB PROJECTS: We’re in the works on some very interesting collabs, centering on causes that stand us near. Altruistic game design aimed at highschoolers seems to be a running theme for us! While we cant talk too much about our current collabs yet, this is stuff we’ve done before. For those of you who have been around that long, you may remember our educational museum touch screen games? Or my educational work?

Point is, exciting stuff is happening and we’re thrilled to be apart of some seriously important ground work. These are long-term projects and it’ll probably be a while before we can share anything about them- especially because we’re only a piece of the puzzle, and there are lots of pieces that need time to fall into place. New doors have certainly opened for us!

GODDAMN WE GOT PROJECT FUNDING?: Again, if you’ve been around for a while, you know how exciting this is for us. For context, a lot of Norwegian games rely on state funding to get made and competition is pretty tough- especially if you’re a small studio like us! We’ve had a repeat struggle of trying to get funding for our projects for years now, and multiple projects have been put on ice because of a lack of interest from these instances.

Now- however you feel about the idea of the noble indie game made from nothing but pocket lint and sweat, i think we can all agree that having working lights and a roof over your head is pretty nice. So we bid our time and kept applying, finding work elsewhere while we waited. This time it worked! Imagine our surprise, having assumed that we didn’t get better at applying over time. And if i wasn't hyperventilating when we came in to present our game in person for the first time, i certainly was by the time we got the answer in the mail.

We’ve had a lot of help from Hamar Game Collective, the local gamedev hub that we joined last summer. Hamar, while ordinarily known as a small-ish lakeside town for farming and lumber, is also actually the home to Norway’s first dedicated game design course as well as some absolute indie titans. These folks have been here since the beginning!

As mentioned in an earlier post we’ve been orbiting around them for years, hoping to get enough funds for an office space. By the time we joined, they’d actually been waiting years for us to join as well. It felt nice finally being able to join, and it has more than paid off! If you take anything away from this, its to never underestimate the power of a good community! *flexes*

FISHING GAME THINGS: Now that we have funding, we have time to work! Here’s whats happening on that front. First, HEY, we totally had a name for our game that worked super well and we were excited to share! I swear i checked and everything, there was no games with that name when we made the decision. I started sketching out, almost finalizing a logo- only for me to THEN figure out that in the span it took for us to decide and start designing around this logo, a game with that exact name came out!!! It was incredibly frustrating, but i had to go back to the drawing board. Worst part is, its happened twice now!

During a call with my dad i voiced this exact frustration, and he hit us with another title suggestion: “Fangst“. And you know what, that one has really stuck around for us- and its in Norwegian (and isn't Norse-themed), so someone accidentally making anything with that name is way less likely! While its original meaning is literally just ‘catch’, it also doubles nicely with the English ‘fang’ and ‘angst’, which is close enough in tone that it works out! I might try that one- what do you think?

On another note, i think the aftermath of that funding round may have revealed the makeshift project title as the actual title of the game so, there may be some cleanup to do on that front. If you read those newspaper articles: The title is NOT Maritime!! Maritime is the project name that we use while it doesn’t have a real name. Right now its an untitled fishing game, but it may change soon!

From an entirely different front, we’re currently gearing up to start development but forreal this time. This development period is especially exciting- we’ll basically be mapping out the final pillars of the game design! Åge is currently designing a moveset that we’re eager to test, and that they’re very excited to start talking about when prototyping starts up. Meanwhile, i’m designing some rather mean looking fish! (On a game like this, being a biology nerd pays off)

IN CONCLUSION: We’re soon starting up the next phase of development, and we’ll have more updates and stuff to show off for y’all! Social medias have been a bit dry because we’ve been busy with our collab projects, but we’re still very much riding the high of finally getting that project funding. I’m very much looking forward to being able to sit down with y’all and share what we’re making again. This fishing game just keeps getting better!

-Hauk

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

CorpMedia #Idiocracy #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #DemExit #FeelTheBern

[UPDATE] ACTUAL U.S. U6 TABLE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE 2 JUN 2023 6.7%* [W/LTU 24.7]

*Does NOT Include Long-Term Unemployment (Total 24.7% - See Below)

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES IN PROGRESSIVE/SOCIAL DEMOCRACIES

DENMARK 2.4%

NORWAY*** 3.0%

ICELAND*** 3.4%

NETHERLANDS 3.5%

GERMANY 5.6%

EUROPEAN UNION 6.0%

***ICELAND AND NORWAY NOT E.U. MEMBERS

NEW ZEALAND 3.4%

AUSTRALIA 3.6%

HOW IT'S DONE - WHAT THESE COUNTRIES HAVE IN COMMON

Higher Minimum-Wage/Prevailing Wage Than U S

Green Economic And Social Policies (Environmental Performance Index)

Socialized Higher Education (Free Post-Secondary Education)

High Trade/Labor Union Participation

High Government Transparency Ratings (Less Corruption)

Equitable Distribution Of Income

Universal Healthcare

Longevity

Universal Literacy

Lower Crime Rate

Lower Homicide Rate

Farthest Right U S State VS Furthest Left U S State

SEE A PATTERN? FORWARD AND TO THE LEFT, PLEASE…

*JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR, I SPENT AN AFTERNOON WATCHING FAUX NEWS (SHUDDER) AND RECORDING ALL OF THE THINGS THAT REPUBLICANS SAY KILL JOBS, AND THEN DID THE RESEARCH TO SEE IF ANY OF THEIR CLAIMS HOLD UP IN THE REAL WORLD.

WHAT I FOUND WAS THAT THE OPPOSITE IS TRUE. IN FACT, THOSE COUNTRIES WHICH TOOK THESE POLICIES TO THE FURTHEST EXTREMES ALL SEEMED TO OUTPERFORM THE US WHEN IT COMES TO EMPLOYMENT.

SO I CREATED A SURVEY OF ONLY THOSE COUNTRIES, EXCLUDING ANY THAT DID NOT FIT ALL OF THE CRITERIA. FOR EXAMPLE, I EXCLUDED BELGIUM, BECAUSE, EVEN THOUGH THEY FIT MOST CRITERIA, THEIR ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD IS ACTUALLY WORSE THAN OURS, HOWEVER, IN CASE YOU WERE CURIOUS, THEIR UNEMPLOYMENT RATE WAS STILL LOWER.

I ALSO FOUND THAT THEY BEAT US WHEN IT CAME TO EVERY OTHER SOCIAL MEASURE I COULD THINK OF…?

Actually, North American unemployment stats are pretty misleading and don't report the real jobless rate and the poverty it creates.

For example, European countries measure their real unemployment far more honestly and comprehensively than the US [which is what I'm referring to. Bill Clinton had the long-term unemployed removed from the Dept Of Labor's stats in 1994]

For example, in France now the official jobless rate is 7.1%—that’s quite a bit higher than the US, which has an official rate of 3.4%.

However, France, like Italy and Germany, which all have a 35-hour regular work week, consider anyone working less than 11 hours a week to be unemployed, and adult full-time post-secondary students training in a recognized profession are considered part of the work force and therefore unemployed as well—in addition to employable welfare recipients.

The US does not include students and has no minimum hours provisions in its calculations. By these standards, if you worked, even an hour in a week during the federal survey, you’re considered employed. If you didn’t work and hadn’t looked for a job in four weeks, you’re not considered part of the work force. Non-disabled adult welfare recipients and the huge chronic poor populations, especially in urban areas, aren’t considered either. Canada is similar.

So if you apply US-style measures to France, the rate turns out to be 3.4%. Now, if you apply French measures to the US, the rate jumps to a whopping 24.7%—that’s largely because of the huge under-employed low-paid part-time work force in the US, and the huge number of employable welfare recipients and chronic poor.

[missduplicities]

OTASD | Chapter 5: Waitlist

For the following week, Nabi managed to disappear from the public eye at school. She avoided the cafeteria and library, staying in her classroom during lunchtime. Her friends didn’t suspect any of it, since it was usual for her to sneak away to less crowded rooms. She didn’t even tell Dani what had happened, being too embarrassed to acknowledge it with anyone.

When her parents got back to the city, Seokjin’s dad picked them up from the airport and invited them over to their place for dinner. Nani actually lied, telling her mother she was on her period and had terrible cramps. When she least expected, two full weeks went by without her seeing Kim Seokjin.

Finals were approaching, so she had other things in mind. She had done great in her CSAT but had only applied to one Korean university. She was still waiting for the approval letter from the universities to which she had applied abroad, and every day that passed she became more anxious. There was no Plan B for her; she had to leave the country as soon as she graduated.

During the last months of class, she saw her friends get accepted to their dream colleges, while she had to sit and wait.

The first letter appeared one day:

Dear Ms. Ahn,

The Yale Admission Committee has completed its evaluation of this year’s candidates, and we are genuinely sorry that we are not able to offer you a place in the Class of 2011.

It’s okay, Nabi thought. I didn’t even want to go to Yale anyway.

“When are you moving to Norway?” Yuna asked Eun-Chae one day in class.

“Right after graduation,” Eun-Chae proudly said. “Dad wants to take us on a trip to Europe first, then they’ll help me install in the dorms,”

“Isn’t it exciting?” Yuna said. “It’s just like the movies!”

“No news from NYU yet?” Eun-Chae asked Nabi; a sad smile appearing on her face.

“Uhm, I got waitlisted,” Nabi said, hiding the disappointment in her voice.

“You still have Boston, right?” Eun-Chae said with hopeful eyes. “You know how Americans are, leaving everything until the last minute,”

“Yeah,” Nabi said, trying to convince herself. “What are your plans for the summer?”

“I’m just hoping to see Nick all summer,” Yuna said with a smirk on her face.

“Nick?” Nabi asked. “Weren’t you seeing that Woo Hak guy?”

“Yeah, we broke up,” Yuna sighed. “But Nick texted me, he’s going to summer camp as well,”

“Is Nick the Australian?” Eun-Chae asked.

“The one and only,” Yuna proudly said.

“So, you’re leaving all summer again?” Nabi asked.

“That’s the plan,” Yuna said. “I think this will be the last year I’ll go unless they want me to become Cabin Tutor,”

“I miss camp,” Eun-Chae sighed. “Why don’t you go, Nabi?”

“No, thanks,” Nabi chuckled. “Spending a month in a hot cabin is not to my taste. You have fun, Yuna-ssi,”

“This is our last summer of high school!”

“So?”

“So, you need to start living and having fun, babe,” Yuna said, sitting on Nabi’s desk. “You don’t want to be unexperienced when you go to college, especially if you’re planning on going abroad,”

“I still have time to get some internships,” Nabi innocently said, making both her friends laugh. “What?”

“I’m talking about guys,” Yuna said.

“You stick to guys, I’ll stick to graduating with honors and getting to an Ivy League uni,” Nabi’s ego was getting a bit hurt. If she wanted, she would go out with guys. She just didn’t want to waste her time on that at the moment. Feeling annoyed with her friends’ comments, Nabi decided to leave, excusing herself saying she had to take the bus.

Nabi: Are you picking me up or am I riding the bus?

Dad: I’m running late

Dad: sorry honey

Nabi: It’s ok

Her streak of not seeing Seokjin was broken at that moment when she saw the guy sitting at the bus stop. He was too busy playing with a Nintendo DS to see her, which gave her enough time to turn on her heels and walk to school again. She planned to wait for the next bus so she didn’t have to talk to him. The bus approached the street, so he had to put his Nintendo aside to look for his bus card. He was so afraid of missing it that he left without realizing he had left his console behind. Nabi wished she hadn’t seen it. He surely can buy another, she thought, but she didn’t have the heart to leave the forgotten Nintendo behind. With a sigh, she walked over to the place where he had been and secured the console inside her backpack, waiting now for the next bus where Seokjin had been waiting.

About ten minutes had gone by when she heard someone’s hurried footsteps approach. Scared that she might get robbed or something, she turned around only to see the guy she had been avoiding, soaking wet in sweat and out of breath.

“Hi,” he struggled to say, taking deep breaths with his hands on his knees. “Did you… see… my….?”

“Did you run all the way here from the next stop?” She was honestly impressed; the next stop was pretty far. He only nodded, still too tired to say anything. Nabi took the Nintendo out of her bag and handed it to him. He looked so thankful, as a mother reuniting with the child she thought she lost at the supermarket.

“Thanks,” he said, sitting on the bench next to where she was. “I thought I lost it,”

“No problem,” she awkwardly said, not knowing what else to do.

“Are you feeling better?” he asked, still short of breath. She looked at him confused, not knowing what he was talking about. “Your mom said you felt sick the other day,”

“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, it was just a headache,”

“I get those all the time,” he said conversationally. “Are you good now, though?”

“Yeah,” she hated how nosy he was sometimes. Checking the time, she realized there were about 15 minutes left for the next bus to arrive, so she finally sat back on the bench next to him. Seokjin put out his Nintendo and handed it to her, making her very confused.

“I just won a battle with the Gym leader,” he proudly explained, even though she had no idea what he was talking about. “I just caught this Houndour a week ago, but he’s been great in battles. I think I’ll be able to evolve him into a Houndoom in no time,”

“Congrats, I guess,” she wasn’t trying to be mean, she just really didn’t know what to say. He saved his game and put it back in his pocket.

“Did you get your college acceptance letter yet?” why did he have to ask that?

“No,” she said. “You?”

“I got a lot of rejection letters,” he chuckled. “Dad is not happy about that,”

“Why do you look so calm about it?”

“Well, I just got back to school. I knew it was a long shot getting into a good university on my first try, but Dad still wanted me to apply. I’m preparing for next semester,”

“You’re not graduating?” She asked, confused as to why he didn’t look upset.

“I am graduating, but I’m taking a sabbatical semester to actually prepare,”

“Aren’t you afraid of wasting more time?” she regretted including the word more, knowing she sounded rude.

“It’s not a waste if I get something good off it,” he sighed. “I’m getting a job and getting tutors to prepare for the spring semester. Maybe you could do it too, I mean, if you don’t get your letter,”

“I’m getting the letter,” she said, trying to convince herself.

“I’m sure you are. You’re top of the class, aren’t you?” she figured her dad had told him that. “Where did you apply?”

“Where didn’t I,” she scoffed, smiling for the first time. “I sent too many applications for schools way out of my league, I don’t know why. All I wanted was to get away from here. Start my life from scratch in a different country, and all that,”

He didn’t say anything.

“I’m still waiting for MIT to answer,”

“MIT?” he asked; his eyebrows higher than she’d ever seen. “Wow! Which field?”

“Science. Neuroscience, to be precise,”

The bus finally arrived, so they instinctively got to their feet and prepared to ride it. The conversation ended as they went on the bus, sitting on opposite sides. She thanked God that he didn’t text her every bus stop, hoping that they kept pretending her slip-up never happened. When she thought she recognized the bus stop, she turned to the back of the bus, where he was. He understood her question, nodding with a smile to let her know this was their stop.

“When will you know if you got in?” Seokjin asked as soon as they both got off the bus. “When is the deadline?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed, wondering the same. “I think they have to let me know by the end of next week,”

“I’m sure you will get in,” he said, grabbing the straps of his backpack and standing awkwardly in front of her.

“Thanks,” she said, not knowing what to do.

“Thanks for saving my Nintendo,”

“Don’t go around leaving important stuff behind,” she pretended to scold him.

“I’ll learn from this lesson,” he smiled and they went back to silence.

“Well, see you around,” she said, desperate to get out of there.

“Sure,” he said. “See you!”

(Previous) (Next)

[withthewerewolves]

I know I reblogged this earlier but I’ve been thinking about it and have headcanans now. (I have seen only one Bond movie and it was years ago so I apologize if I get canon wrong)

First: The accents. While it would be funny if Bond’s accent was real and Blanc’s was fake, it’s funnier if Blanc’s accent is real and Bond had to learn the British accent so he could blend in for spy reasons. But it’s even FUNNIER if they grew up in like. Norway. And have heavy Norwegian accents naturally. And they both, entirely separately, decided to fake different accents, professionally, with differing levels of difficulty and differing levels of success. Blanc thinks Bond is deeply boring and unoriginal. Bond thinks Blanc should have gotten an accent coach like he did before he brought that monstrosity of an accent into public. 

You know those Kim Possible characters where one is a supervillian and the other heads up the anti-supervillian taskforce? And they’re twins? And they spend the whole fight arguing about grievances from their childhood until one of them breaks and calls their mom? That’s Bond and Blanc. Phillip and Q get along great and the monthly family dinners involve a lot of alcohol. (Q did not like the revelation about Bond’s accent. Q: “Is our entire life a lie?” Phillip would’ve been more upset if Blanc’s accent was real.) Blanc mostly criticizes Bond for being traditional and boring and wearing suits and working for the government (Bond: “I’m an international super spy!” Blanc: “Exactly. Basically a beaurocrat, but worse”) Bond mostly criticizes Blanc for being over the top and ridiculous (Blanc: “You’re just jealous I got all the fashion sense” Bond: “This suit was made by a designer you don’t have the security clearance to know the name of” Blanc: “You only wear suits because you know you can’t match colors”)

Second: Their names. James Bond is obviously a codename. But he uses it all the time, even with his family. Q doesn’t know his birthname. Blanc says ‘James’ with a snide twist to his mouth, but it’s because he thinks it’s a boring name. Benoit is also not his birthname, because Blanc is trans and picked it for himself. He never forgets to use James, because Bond used to get his name wrong and he’s still petty about it. Bond isn’t transphobic and he never got Blanc’s pronouns wrong, he just hates that Blanc picked a name that’s so FRENCH. Out of all the options available! He subconsciously blocked it from his memory. ‘Blanc’ is also not their original last name. He took Phillip’s name when they got married, not because he has any opinions about married people having the same last name, but because he liked it more. It matched his first name so well! Sometimes, when Phillip has a bad day, he’s genuinely worried that Blanc only married him for his last name. The rest of the time he knows that’s not true. 

The fact that neither of them live under their original names has not escaped them and could be explored more by someone who isn’t me. Probably they both have completely different issues regarding identity and selfhood that, when stripped down, are actually the exact same issues. 

It’s important to me that all of their bickering be about petty things. They’d never say it out loud, but they both do love their brother. They’d tear the world down to protect each other. But they will not forgive that toy that was borrowed and broken when they were five, and they will not agree on which of them it originally belonged to or which of them did the breaking. They also will not get through a family dinner without bringing it up. 

In conclusion, some questions: When Blanc does accidentally take a case in the aftermath of one of Bond’s exploits, what does he do? Does he call his brother to laugh about it? Does he pretend to be Bond pretending to be him? Does he apply himself to the mystery as if he doesn’t know what happened? Does he cover it up? Does he figure out the shady tycoon is an asshole and then destroy him more thoroughly than Bond did, for bragging rights? 

It would be so funny if somehow the studios decide to confirm Benoit Blanc and James Bond are twin brothers that for whatever reason just have different surnames. Like, the Bond-verse and the Blanc-verse are just facets of the same universe/franchise, meaning both of these well dressed, well spoken and widely renowned gents were operating their little mystery lives at the same time. Imagine being some old shady tycoon that gets totally bamboozled by a suave British spy and so hires a detective to track him down and the same exactly guy you’re beefing with shows up in a flamboyant little outfit and tries to convince you he’s legit with the fakest accent you’ve ever heard.

[flutteringphalanges]

                                                      ME n U

Summary: After an unfortunate accident involving your co-worker, a position opens up at Edda Grillen. When a group of your schoolmates place bets that “Mr. Popular” Fjor Jutul can’t handle the job, the two of you soon find yourselves in a situation that not even Wenche could have predicted.  Ship: Fjor x Reader Rating: T

                                                          Part One:

It may have partially been your fault that Jens broke his leg. After all, you were the one who was supposed to have salted the sidewalk outside the restaurant’s doors. But maybe if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with his phone instead of where he was walking… No. No, that wasn’t fair. Jens was a really nice guy and even made the extra effort to insist you weren’t to blame as the ambulance came to transport him to the hospital. Nevertheless, the guilt was there. Somehow,  you promised yourself, you’d make it up to him.

“So, did you hear they are hiring extra help here until Jens comes back?”

You try to not make it obvious as you look up from where you are washing the counter. The usual crew is there--Oscar, Hilde, Signy, Laurits, Gry, Saxa, and, of course, Fjor. There are several places you can think of off the top of your head where they could hang out besides the Edda Grillen. They rarely spent any money on anything and took up space that paying customers could use. To say you weren’t exactly a fan of them was an understatement.

“Temporary help,” Oscar continues, leaning on the table. “However long that is.”

Refocusing your attention, you reach for the spray bottle when Jenny nudges you. Out of the corner of your eye, you can see she’s holding a tray of french fries and soda. Inhaling deeply, you stop what you are doing and look at her.

“Can you take these out to them?” She asks rather sheepishly. “I have to flip the burgers.”

“Did they pay for them?” Her lack of an answer says it all. “Jenny…”

“Just this once, I promise, then I’ll stop.” You highly doubt that, but sighing, you take it from her anyway. “Thanks, Y/N! I really, really appreciate it.”

“Yeah, yeah…” You huff, slipping from behind the counter. “I’m a real saint.”

The chatter at the table stops as you draw closer, everyone’s eyes so focused on you that it feels like you’re being studied. It takes a lot, but you force a smile as you begin to place down the baskets of fries and cold drinks.

“So Y/N…” Oscar ventures, his lips parting into a smile. “Have you guys found anyone to take Jens’ place?”

“It’s unfortunate about his leg.” Saxa comments, pursing her lips as she reaches for a fry. “I hope this place will compensate him for his time off. After all, he did get hurt on the job.” You don’t like the way she’s looking at you when she says it. “Who knows how long it will be.”

“There’s still an opening.” You respond, not taking Saxa’s bait. “We have applications at the front if people are interested.” Please, God, don’t let them be. “...Can I get you anything else?”

“You know, you should apply, Fjor.” Oscar teased.

“You should!” Hilde chimed in. “I’m sure you’d look dashing in an apron holding a spatula.”

“Careful though. Y/N might try to break your leg too.” Laurits smirks, looking you dead in the eyes. “But I’d pay to see you holding a job here...not that you could.”

Fjor’s lips press into a thin line. “And what makes you think that I couldn’t?”

“No offense, Fjor, but have you seen yourself? You aren’t exactly the first person I’d think of when it comes to fast food.” Gry gives him a small smile. “It really isn’t you.”

“And I doubt he’s even cooked before too.” Signy cut in. “No, I can’t picture you even if I tried.”

You bite back a smile as you notice how Fjor genuinely looks slightly annoyed by everyone’s lack of faith in him. But they were right, as much as you hate to admit it. There is no way in Hell that Fjor Jutul would ever consider working somewhere that didn’t pay him in gold and diamonds. Not to mention his family did own Norway’s fifth largest company.

“Care to make a wager then?” Oscar’s voice pulls you from your thoughts. “42 kroner if Fjor is hired AND lasts a day.” He looks to the others expectantly. “Any wagers?”

There is a brief moment of silence. “Fine,” Hilde sighs. “I’ll go in 85 for one week.” The teenager glances around. “Come on, don’t let it only be me and Oscar.”

Laurits grins widely, leaning back in his chair. “This is going to be good.” He seems to ponder for a moment before smacking his hand on the table. “128 kroner AND I will throw in Magne’s snow boots--just because it’ll be hilarious to watch him desperately look around for them.” He turns to the remainder of the group. “Ladies?”

“No,” Gry shakes her head. “Sorry, but I’d rather waste my money on something else.”

“Put me in for 170 kroner and...make it TWO weeks!” Hilde throws Fjor a smile. “Someone has to have some confidence in you.”

All eyes fall onto Saxa, including your own, as she casually sips her drink. Exhaling, she sets it down and appears to be preoccupied with admiring her nails. Even you, at this point, are interested in what she has to say.

“Are we really that bored enough to place bets on my brother like he’s some kind of race horse?” She sighs, straightening up. “But if I must…” Saxa gives a long pause. “8574 kroner for a month--and that’s how high I’m willing to go for something as pointless as this.”

Everyone turns to look at Fjor, including you. He’s sitting there quietly almost as if he is actually pondering the idea in his mind. Suddenly you wish that it had been you and not Jens who had slipped and broke their leg. There’s no way he would even qualify for the position...right? But with the “connections” his family has throughout Edda, you can’t rule the chance out.

“What happens if I win?” He finally says, crossing his arms.

“You’re not serious?!” Saxa snorts, staring her brother down. “You’d actually do it?”

“You bet didn’t you?” He counters, cocking an eyebrow. “I could honestly care less about the money. Instead...let’s make this interesting. If I win--which I well, Saxa has to delete ALL of her social media accounts and give me her car.”

“What?! No! I’m out!” Saxa hisses, rolling her eyes. “Why are we even considering this?”

“Deal!” Oscar interrupted. “Sounds fair to me!”

The others nod in agreement, excitement stirring around the table. For a split second, you can almost swear Saxa’s eyes flicker yellow. Blinking, you pass it off as being tired. Numbly, you stare forward, still clutching the empty tray. It’s then you notice Fjor, his gaze burning into yours.

“Hey Y/N, about those applications…” He smirks, giving you a look that makes you want to sock him in his pretty face. “Do you have a pen?”

[pebblysand]

hello, hello! i hope you’re all doing well! i’m really sorry for the delayed post this month - i went to norway over the may bank holiday weekend and didn’t have time to write this post preemptively last week. for those of you who celebrate, i hope you had a great european labour day! 

anyway, before diving into more life/writing updates, here are some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :

FIC MASTERLIST 

FIC RECS 

WRITING ADVICE 

ORIGINAL PIECES 

OPINION PIECES & ASKS [updated]

FINANCIALLY SUPPORT MY WRITING  (thank you!)

[NOTE: i am currently not accepting prompts]

Castles (chap 11) ETA: yeah idk. i am working on it i promise. see below for more info. 

links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi & vii ; chapter viii ; chapter ix ; chapter x

[more life/writing updates under the cut]

it's may for the month of may do you get it??? 😂

.

WHAT I’M READING:

books: 

i finished none of this is serious by catherine prasifka (who, btw, happens to be sally rooney’s sister in law) and very much enjoyed it. i wouldn’t say it’s a 5-star read, but definitely a 4-star one - i finished it in two days and was very hooked! the story is set in dublin and is a cross between three rooms, sally rooney’s general millennial figuring-your-shit-out-in-a-crumbling-world vibes, and metaphorical fantasy? i know it sounds weird, but it really works. the main plot follows sophie, a recent graduate trying to find her way between applying to jobs, evolving friendships, awkward situationships, etc., but also features a mysterious purple crack that randomly appears in the sky and is the subject of much anguish and speculation. the writing style is that crisp, quick, present tense shit that is now a bit cliché but that i will always eat right up regardless, so it really worked for me. however, what i found really interesting and unusual in the book was that the main character never actually speaks. she texts on her phone, has a rich internal monologue, but every conversation she has, you only really get the other person’s spoken quote, never hers. she explains what she thinks, and sometimes mentions what she doesn’t say, but while you know that she does respond something (i.e. she’s not mute), you never actually know what she says. the book obviously wants this to be a reflection on the “noise” that exists around us at the moment (social media, friends, etc) versus the relative “silence” of its main character. it’s like there’s so much being said around her, a constant, neverending buzz, but she never quite knows how to make herself heard/understood within that noise. i found this very clever and effective. generally, i think this book has a lot of embedded metaphors in its characters and situations, some that i really enjoyed (like sophie’s silence), and some that fell a bit more flat for me (like the crack in the sky - a metaphor of the news cycle? capitalism? the pandemic? - or sophie’s twin sister, hannah, who felt so one-dimensional i sometimes wondered if she was real or meant as a figment of sophie’s imagination and hatred of everything she isn’t but feels she should be?). but overall, i really related to sophie’s constant struggles with the split between her “online” life and irl. the book also really succeeds in portraying the difficult space of time between uni and work, where you’re done with uni but in the working world, no one wants you because you don’t have “experience.” all you want is to find a job, any job, to get some sort of validation/stability, and you don’t know what you have to do to achieve it. i really related to that and really recognised myself from a few years ago in the authors’ descriptions. lastly, i also really enjoyed grace, sophie’s best friend, to whom i really related to - it’s always interesting to get an outside perspective on what might be people’s perception of us, even though it’s not always flattering 🤣.

additionally, i am still reading 1984 on my kindle, i’m about 33% in. for now, i have to say, the book isn’t really grabbing my attention. i mean, i know it’s a classic and i do find it very interesting to see all of the “origins” of today’s dystopian novels in this story (and the style is definitely very modern) but i just - idk. i find myself skipping a lot of paragraphs of worldbuilding and description that seem a bit unnecessarily detailed. i suppose that at the time, the concept of the novel was new enough that everything needed to be explained but now, we’ve all read so much dystopia (especially in ya) that i feel like a lot of the intricacies of the world, i would already have assumed. so, idk. it’s definitely a good book and in my journey exploring “modern” classics, i’m enjoying this much more than i did to kill a mockingbird but still, i keep picking it up, reading a handful of pages, and finding my thoughts drifting as i keep reading. 

.

WHAT I’M WATCHING: 

peaky is over. thank god we know there will be a film in a couple of years cause otherwise i’d be utterly devastated. like most people, while my feelings towards this series were mixed (i think i’ll have more of a definite opinion upon rewatch), i really, really loved the finale. i think it was everything we could hope for, especially considering helen mccrory’s passing and the upheaval it obviously caused. i think you could probably write a thesis about the question of whether tommy really was ‘redeemed’ by the end but regardless, i truly loved this. peaky blinders is and will always be the show of my 20s and one of the most brilliant tv series ever made and i think that overall, the finale 100% lived up to expectations. 

in other news, i’ve also watched the abercrombie doc yesterday, which was such a strange and fascinating trip down memory lane, and i just sat with my thoughts for a good while afterwards. i think: 

one of the things that really struck me in mike jeffries’ attitude towards his critics is how much this marketing technique reminded me of ryanair. if you’re not familiar/not from europe, ryanair is an irish low-cost flight company that operates exclusively in europe and is very well-known for providing the Worst Possible Service to its customers, at the lowest cost possible. the planes fly, sure, and you will get there (interestingly, they’ve actually never had a major crash), but the workers are paid absolute peanuts and are employed under ridiculous irish contracts, regardless of where they are based in europe. the working conditions are terrible, the company makes you pay for literally everything, and the ceo openly claims to have considered things like: making people travel standing to save costs, or even making customers pay to use the bathrooms. these are very different companies, obviously, and ryanair has never had any discriminatory behaviours that we know of (if anything, they are known to hire more southern/eastern european staff to be able to pay them shittier salaries as the standard of living is lower in these countries) but i think there’s a very similar vein of: ‘yeah, i’m an arsehole, so what?’ brand image. it really came through in that interview where mike jeffries was like ‘yeah, we are exclusionary, that is our brand model.’ idk if it’s a ‘all press is good press’ ethos, or something else, but the attitude really reminded me of ryanair’s marketing. 

on a broader spectrum, while there is obviously an issue when you apply those conditions to staffing (i.e. don’t hire poc-s, etc.), fundamentally, sure, you can choose to only market to a small, fit, white section of the population, but that’ll make you look like a complete arsehole. and, i found it interesting how the brand image, because it was so outright exclusionary, went from ‘cool’ to ‘uncool’ as we, as a society, evolved as well. there was actually a really good quote from one of the women who were interviewed which summed it up excellently: ‘A&F’s aura went away precisely because exclusion was the root of their success, and exclusion itself stopped being quite so cool.’ it’s such a true statement and it made me so grateful that we, as society, have evolved in the right direction in the past 20 years. when you remember what the 90s/00s were like, it’s really nice to see how far we’ve come (even if obviously, we’re far from perfect these days).

lastly, on an even broader point, it struck me how the rise and fall of abercrombie correlated, over the same period of time, with the rise and fall of the marketing of the american ‘image’ in europe. i think that anyone who was a kid/teenager in the 00s in europe probably remembers how ‘cool’ the people who wore A&F/Hollister in school were, not only because of the brand image itself, but also because that meant they had been to america! i remember that even having an american distant cousin sort of gave me street cred 🤣. whenever i visited them, i would not only bringing all those ‘cool’ brands from the us back for me, but also for my friends! those stores didn’t exist in europe and having american clothing was so ‘cool’ and trendy, because it also demonstrated that you were ‘cool’ and had been to cool places like new york or boston, or la. honestly, i cannot overstate how cool america was back then. they had all this stuff we didn’t have, all these films and tv shows, everyone i knew wanted to live there. i remember two of my friends got into a fight because friend A had gone to new york on holiday and the next year friend B did, and friend A accused B of ‘copying’ her for attention. it was madness. and now, no one i know wants to live in the us, bar from a girl in work, but she always justifies it by like ‘i know it’s bad but my boyfriend is american so we’ll have to live there eventually.’ and i don’t really know where this fall in status came from. is it the war in iraq, or the fact that we all got access to social media and realised america is So Bad in terms of healthcare, racism, etc. or just the living conditions deteriorating there? idk but it really happened throughout the 00s and early 10s, exactly at the same time as A&F’s rise and fall. and, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of issues with europe, but i think it’s interesting that both A&F and america in general ceased to be aspirational at the same time. 

.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO:

there aren’t really any podcasts that i truly remember from this month but i’ve very much been enjoying the irish times’ women’s podcast, which has just fed my usual annoyance at the patriarchy 🤣. 

aside from that, top five songs currently are: 

que tout s’danse by noé preszow - i’ve recently gotten obsessed with because i think it might be the theme song to one of the upcoming castles chapters

bad habits by ed sheeran - idk man i’ve just been in love with this song for a year now, it’s not going away. i find it very inspiring. 

anthem by yonaka & barns courtney - another upcoming castles song

the kids are all rebels by lenii - same as the above but also i love lenii so much. i’ve been following her for a few years now but it was so nice to see her finally get the traction she deserved on tiktok over the pandemic!

laura by bat for lashes - another fic song 🤣🤣 omg. not castles though. 

.

WHAT I’M WRITING:

as i’ve mentioned on here the past few weeks, my main focus this past month has been castles. i was hoping i would be able to post by this weekend but that has sort of fallen off track. i’ve been fighting seasonal allergies and been extremely tired due to my company returning to the office; i feel like commuting has taken up even more of my writing time. as i said on here, i’ve been feeling very guilty over my lack of updates lately and feel like i need to cut myself some slack. it’s just so hard comparing my 90k output from sep 2020 to may 2021 (when i wasn’t working) to the barely three chapters i’ve produced since then. it’s even more frustrating because when i do get time to focus on castles and actually write it, i love doing so So Much, but it just takes a lot of time and focus and finding time to do that whilst working full time is just So Damn Hard. 

so like, idk. what i can promise you is that i am working on it. i have about 15k of a first draft at the moment, and i’m working on the rest/polishing it. as i said here, all i know is that once i do manage to get this done the way i want, there will probably be loads of content coming your way at once. so, i suppose, at least there’s that, haha.  

.

WHAT I’M DOING:

you may not have noticed this because i sort of cleverly queued up some posts lately, but i’ve been taking a sort of social media break. i say “sort of” cause it’s not been a hard cut or anything, but i just deleted discord and tumblr off my phone and honestly, i think it was for the best. my screen time was getting absolutely ridiculous and i was having a very hard time focusing on things (writing included) - honestly, being constantly on my phone just wasn’t much fun anymore. i probably will reinstall tumblr eventually but i think, for the most part, i’m going to stay off discord (or at least, off the regular “chats”), just concentrating on fanfic conversations, etc. you might or might have seen it (not linking anything here cause i don’t want to restart the debate, and it’s not my point), but i had a disagreement with a discord that was created recently, restricting membership to a particular age group. and, it got me thinking a lot about the way we’ve now “restricted” fandoms to “exclusive” discord servers, that so few people can access, especially when they are invite-only. there’s gazillions of hp discord servers at the moment, each centred into their own little silo, and while i completely understand people who think differently, i’m not sure that’s what i want for myself. 

i think we’re kind of congregating with fans that not only have the same general interests as we do, but also are of the same demographic, same countries, same fandom niche, etc. it’s becoming more and more niche to the point that disagreement and debate is practically nonexistent. and, don’t get me wrong, i’ve 100% participated in that myself, and i’ve found amazing communities and met amazing people along the way, but i generally have been finding that we are all a bit guilty (again, myself very much included) of finding our own safe echo chambers, both in fandom and otherwise, to the point that interacting with the “outside” and people who think differently becomes harder and harder to tolerate. like, yeah, there are a lot of stupid kids on tumblr, and a lot of arseholes, but i think we actually need those to live healthily in society. and again, it’s not a diss to anyone who does seek those “safe” secluded spaces, i’ve sought them myself in the past, but i don’t think they’re actually good for my mental health and the person that i am. as proven by the fact that i needed a social media break from it all, lmao 🤣🤣. 

so anyway, i’m still on discord, and i might still interact here and there, and will defo get back on tumblr, but i think i’m better when i’m on the sidelines on this one, ahah.

anyway, i think that will be all for now. i hope you all have lovely month :). 

lots of love, 

pebblysand. 

[buriedlove]

Howdy👋

A question stuck in my head is that what does all the characters' voice sounds like? Is there's like examples or voice claims....🤔?

Hi Anon

This is a really interesting question, tysm for the ask! The truth is that I wanted to keep the voices quite open so that people can hear them as they choose when they're reading, but I'm really happy to share how I hear them, and voice claims where I have them.

Alex - Sebastian Stan is the inspiration behind Alex - both for looks and voice - he's the only famous person I built a character around - I think I really just needed a werewolf Seb in my life, you know? Alex still holds onto his Romanian accent, but speaks fluent English. You can get a sense of his tone from this video of Seb talking in Romanian.

Abe - Abe has a super deep voice, and there's a gravelly edge in there. He speaks fluently in Dutch, Latin, German and English. I haven't found the perfect voice claim for him, but for general depth, Christopher Judge (the voice of Kratos in the God of War Films) is pretty close. You can here him here.

Aayush - Aayush’s voice is as smooth as him. He’s still got the traces of his Indian accent when he speaks English. He speaks quite slowly and thoughtfully, enjoying language and words. He speaks too many languages to list at this point - he’s had a lot of time to learn them. I haven’t got the perfect voice claim but the character of Mohinder in Heroes is quite similar. You can hear his gorgeous voice here.

Eli - Eli's voice is as fun as him. Full of life, full of charm. Growing up in the forests of Norway but then travelling the world, he speaks fluent Elvish, Norwegian, Korean, Spanish, English and Japanese (!) He speaks with a Norwegian accent, and Herman Tømmeraas is a voice claim I have for him. You can here him speaking here.

Rota - Rota has quite a deep voice. It's strong and confident...it has to be for shouting across the skies, but equally when she's feeling shy of vulnerable, there is a softness to it. She speaks in Old Norse, but has become confident in speaking most of the languages of Earth, as part of her training, although she speaks formally because that is the expectation of a Valkyrie. I can't find the name of this voice actor unfortunately...but the person who voiced the prologue for the Jotun game is perfect for the Rota I have in my head. You can hear her here.

Zein - Zein is a voice I haven’t been able to find a voice claim for. They have a low and steady tone to their voice, and rarely get animated enough for the pitch to change. Zein speaks fluently in the languages of ‘masters’ they’ve had - Turkish, Spanish, English and Chinese. Zein’s voice is strong and confident, with a little sarcastic edge to it. If I do find a voice claim I’ll update this.

Fleur - Fleur is from the South of England and has a soft but confident voice. For someone so small she isn’t afraid to speak up, and her voice can suddenly switch from sweetness and bad assness in a second if someone is making someone she cares about sad. Fleur has also been known to attend the odd environmental protest, and can shout louder than most. I hear Susan Wokoma when I’m writing Fleur. I love her voice and her laugh so much. You can hear her here. 

Lily - Lily's voice is super confident and kind of medium in tone. She can choose what language she wants to speak, or what accent she wants to have, but in general she chooses to speak with an American accent (because that's where she's been her happiest when escaping home). My voice claim for Lily is Anya Taylor-Joy. I feel like everyone knows what she sounds like, but just in case, here's a link to a video.

Catarina - Catarina has a sultry voice (of course, like she could have anything else). It can range from being incredibly soft and calming, to being a sexy purr, to being full of anger if you’re crossing someone she cares about. She speaks Portuguese and English fluently. I haven’t got a perfect voice claim for her, but Morena Baccarin is pretty close. You can hear her here - I know you’ve probably heard her a lot before but she’s speaking her first language of Portuguese here and just..omg...gorgeous. 

Cerri - Our wolf girl could cut glass with her voice. It’s medium toned but has no softness to it. You might have noticed that Cerri has no time for niceties, and the same applies to changing her tone to please people. Her voice always sounds like she’s on the edge of growling at whoever she’s speaking to. So much so that people in the village where she grew up would actively avoid speaking to her. Cerri is another voice I haven’t found a claim for - every Welsh accent I hear is too soft for our little bad ass.

I hope that’s an insight into the character voices in my head! If you hear them differently that’s all good, and I’d love to hear any other voice claim suggestions!

[angel-fire]

set my soul alight

summary: loki finally has you right where he wants you.

warnings: slight dubcon, very very nsfw. knife play, enemies to lovers because if you’ve ever spoken to me you know i’m about that shit. as always, don’t read if you’re under 18. 

A/N: okay this is like... almost pure filth i don't even know what to say. but in honor of no nut november being over imma share what i finished writing the second i had an orgasm for the first time in a month. title from supermassive black hole (yes the one from twilight!!)

---

You’ve done plenty of stupid things in your life. Chasing whiskey with wine coolers, texting back people you probably should have blocked – deciding that yes, working alongside the Avengers seemed like a perfectly reasonable career path for the rest of your life.

You could deal with the spies, the weapons dealers, the abandoned Hydra bases you’d raided for intel from time to time. You’d made peace with the fact that at any moment, you could be summoned for a mission you wouldn’t return from. And, well, it’s hard to regret your decision when it’s more than just walking the line between life and death. It’s the bonds you make with your teammates, the lifelong friendships you know will last with people that leap into the abyss right alongside you.

Oslo, Norway. It was supposed to be simple. You weren’t supposed to get caught. Taken. The question of how you got here is unnecessary, simply chalking it up to just another ill-advised decision you’d make in your life. If it lasts.

The God of Mischief stands before you, clear blue eyes raking over your bound form as he observes you. Your wrists are tied up above your head by what feels like silk, your ankles tied with the same material, bound to what feels like a post attached to a wooden beam. You’re upright, head lolling around on your shoulders as you rouse into consciousness. You become extremely aware of the fact that you’re still in the jeans and top you were wearing while you were supposed to be undercover earlier. Undetectable. So much for that.

“You’re awake.” Loki remarks, taking a calculated step towards you. No shit, you think. You drink him in, clad in an all black suit with his hair brushing the tops of his shoulders. He’s still disarmingly attractive, which is an in-fucking-convenient thought for you to be having considering he’d kidnapped you about – from what you can assume by the absent sun outside the window to your left – one or two hours ago. “Good. I’ve missed you, darling.”

“What the hell are you doing?” you mumble, tired limbs struggling against your bindings in a futile attempt to free yourself. At least it isn’t rope, you muse. Being tied up with thick ropes and subsequently tased until your bones rattled under your skin had been the least fun you’d had six months ago in Venice. The most fun… well. That’d been involving the god before you, teasing him into a frenzy ending in a hushed whisper of salacious promises detailing the things he would do to you if he got you alone. You suppose decision making is definitely not your strength, because after you’d rebuked his filthy whispers with a mere smirk accompanied by a wink, you expected that to be the end of it. Flirting with the enemy can only get you so far.

“Do you remember what you said to me, that day?” Loki inquires, ignoring your question entirely. “When you’d begged so sweetly into my ear for me to fuck you, to take you in the most filthiest of ways? I’ll admit, you rendered me speechless.” He chuckles to himself at the memory as your face flushes.

“I was not begging, and I didn’t mean it,” you respond automatically, the lie tasting like ash as it slips off your tongue. Loki only smirks, making you internally cringe at yourself. No matter how good a liar you might be to any other enemy, your teammates, your friends - you knew you couldn’t lie to him. Not to the God of Mischief.

He’s not just your enemy, a small part of you whispers. You shove the thoughts down before they can gain any traction.

“I should punish you for trying to lie to me,” he glides closer to you, eyes trained on your heaving chest at having him in such close proximity. “Shouldn’t I?”

There’s an unmistakable sound of a blade being unsheathed, your eyes flicking down to his right hand and widening when he produces a dagger from his wrist. It’s long, sharp, the light of the moon reflecting along its blade as it glints at you. You shudder instinctively, fear and arousal licking up your spine the longer your stare lingers on it.

“You were always my favorite,” Loki muses, standing a breath away from you as he draws the knife closer and closer to your body. “So headstrong. Unbreakable. I do look forward to seeing you fall apart for me.”

“Fuck off, Loki,” you snap, pulling against the silk ties at your wrists once more, realizing that they’ve likely been spelled to stay put. You would have been able to break free by now if they weren’t. That’s what you tell yourself, at least. “I’m not doing anything for you.”

“Oh, you’ll beg for me, I know it,” he chuckles darkly. “I can practically smell your fear. The way your body responds so deliciously to it. You’re dripping in spite of it, because of it.  And if I did this-“ he raises the sharp edge of the knife up to the base of your throat, dragging it across the length of your clavicle to where it meets your shoulder. You shiver in anticipation, toes curling, and his eyes flash. “-you wouldn’t be able to hide just how much it excites you.”

“Shut up,” You gasp, watching the tip of the blade travel over your shoulder and, with a quick maneuver of Loki’s wrist, tear through the fabric of your top. “God, Loki, what the fuck?”

“Don’t act like you’re not aroused by the feeling of the steel against your skin alone,” he counters, dragging the blade clean through your top all the way down to its hem, effectively exposing your left side. “Knowing I could hurt you so easily if I applied just-“ he presses the knife’s tip into the delicate skin of covering your rib cage ever so slightly, drawing a shaky breath from you as you feel the rush of arousal flood between your legs. “-the right amount of pressure. Your body betrays you, little mortal.”

“You’re sadistic.” You breathe, unable to deny the urge to clench your thighs together to relieve the ache between them.

“Maybe,” Loki simply chuckles, pulling the knife away from you and flipping it between his nimble fingers in a way that makes your eyelids flutter and your heart race. His left hand travels up your other side, drawing your top above your breasts, gathering the material in his hand as he yanks you close. “But you love it, don’t you?”

You have no time to answer before his lips connect with yours, teeth biting at your lips and tongue curling around yours as you gasp into his mouth. The taste of his tongue sends you into a tailspin, wrists straining not just to escape, but to bury themselves into his raven hair and drag him closer. You chastise yourself for feeling this way, but when Loki pulls away and promptly lowers to his knees before you, your mind goes blank.

“Fuck,” you whisper, watching with wide eyes as he takes his knife and cuts straight through your flimsy jeans, waistline to ankle. You hope he doesn’t notice the way you tremble in excitement ever so slightly, but when you hear him hum quietly in approval, you realize it’s useless to try to hide it from him. Well, he is a god, you muse.

“There it is,” he murmurs, lithe fingers teasing at your skin as he cuts your jeans completely off of you, tossing the remaining scraps of it somewhere to his left. “You’re lovely when you give in, darling.”

“I won’t, you bastard,” you curse, shutting your eyes tightly and tilting your head back in an effort to delay the inevitable.

“You will.” He promises, and you feel the tip of the blade dance up your ankle, over your knee, pausing at your thigh as he brings it inwards towards your femoral artery, before passing over the crevice between where your thigh meets your sex to play at your hip bone. Loki lightly traces indiscernible patterns along your skin with the knife, and your spine alights with pleasure as heat builds in your core. He’s teasing, building up to something else, and you know it by the way he growls as he senses you becoming more and more aroused by the second, trading the knife for both his hands as he pries your thighs apart as far as they can go in your position. Your eyes snap open at the feeling of his hands on you, so close to where you want him, so close to where he’s very capable of making you give in.

The last coherent thought you have is about how you can no longer feel the tightness of silk binding your ankles, but the last thing you feel is Loki’s dark chuckle against your thigh before he dives in.

His tongue plunges deep into your pussy, lithe digits holding you open for him as your thighs shake and your legs ache to be released, to wrap around his head and squeeze in retaliation for this assault of pleasure. He pulls away just enough to raise his dark eyes up to yours, a sly grin dancing across his lips.

“Oh, Agent... Your cunt tastes absolutely divine.” Loki purrs, long tongue flicking out of his mouth to catch your essence spread across his lips. No sooner after, he dives back in, the wet muscle of his tongue flicking against your clit and urging your hips to arch into his mouth. He drinks from you voraciously, hungrily, a man starved of touch for so long that he can’t get enough when he finally has it.

“I wonder if your precious Avengers know just how sweetly you moan for their enemy,” he coos into your thigh as he takes a moment’s pause. “I wonder if maybe I should make them watch, next time. Watch you come apart at my touch, my tongue.”

The feral expression on his face as he devours you combined with the sounds of your slick heat between your legs in response to his ministrations causes you to let out a high pitched moan, jerking your hips wildly, to which Loki simply buries his face further into your folds. He wrenches your thighs even further apart and wraps your legs around his neck, ankles crossed between his shoulder blades as you clench around his tongue while his hands press bruises into your thighs. You’re helpless in resisting, taut body tensing above him as you hurtle towards your peak at an alarming rate.

“I feel you holding back, darling,” he murmurs against you, the rumble of his voice rippling through you like an electric shock. You let out a gasp when he inserts a long finger up and into you, making you tremble with delirious pleasure as you give another sharp moan. “Let go for me. Give in. Let me make you come.”

You squeak when he pushes another finger into your wet heat, stretching you open as he wraps his lips around your clit and sucks, your body unable to hold your release in any longer as you come apart in a wave of unbridled passion. You’re nearly bent backwards in half, Loki’s arms holding you up by your quivering thighs as you come into his mouth. He laps at you greedily, emitting growls that reverberate against your pussy, drawing whimpering moans from you when it only seems to prolong your orgasm. You’re lost in rapture, hands grasping for something to hold onto in an attempt to stay grounded but coming up with nothing but cold air and the sensation of silk on your wrists.

Loki’s already gazing up at you with darkened eyes, fingers lazily pumping in and out of you as you come down from your high. “Feel good, do you? You sang so beautifully for me, little mortal.”

You huff indignantly, narrowed eyes lowering to meet his blown pupils that surely mirror your own. “Don’t think this means anything.”

“It’s valiant of you to believe you aren’t already mine.” Loki hisses, dragging his fingers out of you and, as he rises from his feet, abruptly shoving them into your mouth. You inhale sharply around his fingers, the taste of yourself on your tongue jarring and intensified by his face nearing yours once more. Your eyes lock, and the challenge in his stare nearly makes you submit completely. Nearly.

Eyes still trained on his, you throw him a salacious wink before circling your tongue around his fingers, lightly sucking them into your mouth as you watch his stare grow darker and his breathing become heavier.

“Oh,” Loki rasps, voice thick with arousal. “You’re a little minx, aren’t you?”

Abruptly once more, he pulls his fingers from your mouth and winks in retaliation as he licks the rest of you off himself, humming in delight as he tastes the mix of your cum and saliva on his tongue. With the same hand, he grabs a fistful of your hair and yanks your head back to look up at him. A pang of arousal shoots through you and you let out a quiet whimper, Loki’s breath fanning across your face as his eyes scan your features.

“You want it, don’t you?” He beckons in a low voice, removing his hand from your hair to grip your jaw with bruising pressure. “You want my cock so deep in you that you see stars.”

With your breath trembling, you mutter what you hope comes off as an affirmation in a moment of pleasure-induced weakness. You take his satisfied smirk as confirmation that it did.

“Now,” he purrs into your ear, lips tracing down the length of your jawline and up to your mouth. You’re shaking with it, this need that could only be sated by his touch and his alone. “Are you mine?”

You’re breathless, aching for more – of his tongue, his lips, his cock. You manage to shoot him a sly smirk of your own, craning your neck towards him to whisper in his ear. You know the answer, and he knows it too, but you don’t pass up an opportunity to make just one more ill-advised decision.

“Why don’t you untie me and find out?”

[harrypotterthehufflepuff]

Doubt

This was requested by: Anon !

Request: could i request where the reader and george both have a crush on each other but the reader thinks shes not good enough for him and when he confesses she gets her feelings hurt because she thinks its a prank to be mean and runs off and george finds her and tells her he's honest and its cute and happy? :)

*

Note: I’m finally home from Norway!! I can return to my regular computer to writen on. So I can upload more often. So yeah, yay!

*

Warnings: none

Pairing: George Weasley x reader

Words: 2k

If you’d like to request something please head over to my other blog, https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ronaldandremuslover and I’ll try and fix it for you !

~ ~ ~ ~

"Sure, just tell Snape to shove it up where the sun doesn't shine and walk away. I bet you he'll let you off without homework then." Fred said, taking a big bite out of his chicken thigh.

"Yeah, because he's hexed you into the beyond." George finished.

You exhaled, dramatically. "I just want to relax, you know. It's our last year. We should enjoy it, taking it all in."

George snorted, his lips curled into a pretty grin. "We've been here for seven years. What more is there to take in?"

Shrugging, you took a gulp of your pumpkin juice. You looked around the great hall, watched the students. "There are so many people who I don't know here."

"Yeah 'cuz here's hundreds - if not thousands - of people here, Y/N." Fred said.

Your last year at Hogwarts. It felt incredibly strange. After this, you'd have to apply for a job. It was like being thrown into an abyss; completely unknown and scary. There were only three months left, and you felt stressed, apprehensive and uncertain. Of course, there was some excitement mixed in there. But you'd have to leave your friends... and him.

Him. His stupid crooked grin and red hair. His fantastically absurd witticism. His amazingly freckled face and his crazy long, attractive fingers. His crazed character and his wonder jokes. His sexy voice. His stupid tall and lanky figure that you loved so much. His dumb but famous swagger when he walked.

You'd miss him the most.

Of course, you would still be... friends. But you wouldn't see him as often and not in the same way. It'd be radically different. You knew that there would come a time where you had to grow up. Become an adult. A responsible adult. But with him - with George - you rarely felt older than twelve again. The things you'd do together were often childish and honestly quite lame, but it made you feel alive and purely happy.

He made you happy.

"-Y/N?"

Leaving Hogwarts felt foreign. Waking up without your friends around you. Not having to go to class or eat in a giant hall with hundreds of other people together. Or having stupid fights with another house or pull insane pranks that could potentially put you in detention. But that was the thrill. The thrill of Hogwarts. You never knew what would happen.

"Y/N?"

"Y-yes-yeah-yes-what?" You said with a start. Looking around yourself, as if you were surprised to find yourself in the great hall.

Fred looked at you with a funny smile. "Whatchu thinkin' 'bout?"

"Nothing." You faltered.

"Are you sure?" It was George.

Nodding, you smiled at him. "I'm sure."

George looked you up and down, looking uncertain. But he merely laughed a little and pointed a finger at you.

"You're funny."

"Thanks, means a lot when it comes from you."

He smirked.

It made your heart skip an extra beat.

~ ~ ~ ~

The book you were reading was not nearly as interesting as Fred and George. The twins were playing wizards chess. Fred was losing miserably. His constant grunts of displeasure and his head in his hands were a wonderful sight. George was often the one to get beat at wizards chess by Fred. It felt nice to watch the tables turn once and awhile.

"How's it going over there?" You called from your position at the very comfortable sofa.

Fred didn't say anything, George however beamed at you.

"It's going fantastic."

Putting the book aside, you strode over to the small table in the corner by the window that they were seated at. George was playing with the black chess pieces.

Trying not to laugh, you said, "Fred, not looking too good here, huh?"

"Hmph."

You and George exchanged a look, both smiling from ear to ear.

"How about this," George said, "if I win, you'll have to kiss me. If I lose, I'll have to deal with the shame."

You froze. You were used to his teasing. He would usually throw some funny comments your way, but you would always play them off. He didn't mean any of them. He was only joking. George liked to play with you. He just didn't know how much it hurt when he did these things.

"Right, Hermano." You tried to sound casual.

Fred moved his queen and suddenly George got pulled into the game again. So you retreated to your seat at the sofa again and picked up your book. But you couldn't concentrate. What if he did win? Would he actually kiss you then? Or would he only laugh at your face? Was it bad that you didn't want him to win now? Or did you want him to win, solely so you could possibly get one kiss that doesn't mean anything?

~ ~ ~ ~

It only took another half an hour before you heard a shout of victory. You looked up from you barely read book. As you feared, George won. Now what?

"Well, good match, brother." Fred said, reaching out to shake his brother's hand, who was currently doing a lame but cute victory dance.

"About time." George said, probably more to himself than anyone else.

Sitting awkwardly in the sofa waiting for something to happen, you said nothing. But George's sly grin from across the room made you even more nervous.

"Still up for it, Y/N?" He asked, standing up from his chair.

You tried to play it off, like every other trick he plays on you. "You sure you won? You didn't cheat?"

George shook his head, smiling. "All real, all raw. Now, are you still up for it?"

He sounded genuine when he asked you. Like he was actually expecting it. Did he mean it? Did he want you to kiss him?

"Are you still up for it?" You said trying fish out if he did mean it.

"I'm game." He said quickly.

A bit too quickly.

Okay, so he did want a kiss.

You stood up and walked up to him. He was beaming and it made you want to hug him and never let go. But you had a horrible feeling this was only a joke. A cruel joke that George would pull on you, not knowing how much it would truly hurt.

Stopping when he was in front of you, you tried to smile. You didn't say anything. You just stood on your toes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

A kiss on the cheek.

A kiss on the bloody cheek.

George looked like a question mark. But he didn't say anything. He gave you a smile, not a real smile, his lips were pulled to a thin line but curved up at the ends a bit.

"Well done." You offered, lamely.

He just nodded. "Thanks. I think I'll turn in. Coming, Fred?"

Fred, who has been sitting by the table and watching this whole ordeal play out, looked bothered. A bit annoyed. He's probably a sore loser.

"In a minute. You go, though."

His twin waved them goodbye and said goodnight and descended up the staircase to the boy's dormitory.

You stood in place for a moment, cringing at what had just happened. But you broke out of it and plopped down on the sofa, defeated. You ran your hands over your face and groaned loudly. What. the. hell.

You felt someone sitting down next to you, so you turned to see Fred who looked none too happy.

"I'm sorry you lost. You seem rather distraught."

"I'm not distraught. I'm annoyed. And not over the fact that I just lost to my brother. But because you are too dim to see that he fancy's you."

"Uh-"

"Can't you tell? Like for real? After everything he does for you? Everything he says to you? Just the way that he looks at you?" Fred ranted, his hands waving all over the place.

Dumbfounded, you stared at him. One word travelled across your mind. Just one.

What.

Was Fred lying? Did George like you in the same way that you liked him? And how could you not see it?

Now, as you sat next to Fred, it started to make sense. Fred was right. Everything George has done for you, and you still couldn't see it.

He had invited you to his family home, invited you to dinner at Hogsmeade, bought you flowers at random, made you tea whenever you're sick and stay by your side. Listening to you while you rambled on about your favourite band, helping you out with insecurities and doubts. Always telling you how beautiful you look, complimenting you at things you're bad at, holding your hand whenever you're scared, finding excuses to touch your hair. And lastly, asking for a kiss.

Even when he had asked you for a kiss, you had doubted yourself. How could you have been so foolish?

"Oh shit." You blurted out, your eyes widening.

Fred nodded slowly, wrapping an arm around your shoulder. "Ah, I see you finally see what all of us other sees every single day."

"How do I fix this?"

"There's nothing to fix, dear friend. He'll try again tomorrow. Like he has done for at least two years now." Fred said calmly. "And this time, actually respond to the hints."

He got up from the sofa and started to head to the stairs that lead up to the boy's dormitory.

You heard his footsteps fade as he walked up the stairs. Leaving you bewildered at your new discovery.

~ ~ ~ ~

You saw him turning a corner that leads to the boy's lavatories. You hurriedly said goodbye to your friends and ran after him, your heart beating fast.

He had just stepped inside when you reached the door. You hoped to all of the gods above that no other than George was in there. And with that, you opened the door and stepped inside.

"George?" You asked, quietly.

"What the-" George cut off when he saw you. "What're you doing in here?"

"I never thought George Weasley would look so shocked to see me breaking the rules. I thought it was common by know." You looked at him, astonished that he likes you.

He chuckled. "I never took you for a perv, though."

His handsome smile brought you to the subject that you had wanted to talk to him about. So you took a big, deep breath and prepared your silly and probably very cheesy speech.

"George..."

He waited, his eyebrows raised. But when you didn't continue he looked at you, confused.

"...Yes?"

Talking about your feelings suddenly felt more nerve-racking than you had thought. And your thoughts on explaining to him that you like him was terrifying. So you felt like the best way to express yourself was to just show him.

Walking slowly and looking at him with big, nervous eyes, you reached him and gently put your hands on each side of his face and tenderly claimed his lips with yours. Your hands remained on his face, your thumb brushing his cheek softly.

He was tense for only a second before he relaxed and put one arm on your lower back, and one on the back of your head.

When it was over - which felt too soon - both of you slowly pulled away from each other. For a moment, you just looked at him, and he looked back at you, seemingly lost in your eyes. His lips were starting to curl into a sly smile. Here it comes.

"That was nice." He said, laughing a little.

You couldn't help but laugh a little yourself. It was a bit funny, was it not? You had just had your first kiss with George Weasley in the boy's lavatories. But for some really odd and peculiar reason, it felt right. It sort described your whole situation.

Plain strange.

"It was." You responded, shocked at your own braveness.

"Would you mind if we do it again, sometime?" George didn't seem ashamed or shy to ask you, which made you feel a lot less nervous as well.

"I wouldn't mind at all."

He nodded his head, looking satisfied. Not breaking his character, he said, "Not to ruin the moment but I have to take a dump."

Laughing, you put your hands up. "I'm leaving."

"I'll see you later." He said.

You walked out and started to head to the Gryffindor common room.

Oh, how you couldn't wait to tell Fred.

[purplesurveys]

1199

America - What is your favorite place to eat?  I mean...these days I obviously haven’t been eating out at all, but I used to always enjoy dining at either Yabu (for the food) or La Creperie (for the ambience).

Australia - Do you have any quirks when speaking?  I don’t think so; or at least I don’t think I’d be aware of them unless someone points them out to me.

Austria - What kind of person do you wish to be?  What do some (or most) of these questions have to do with the countries? Lmao. Anyway, I just want to be remembered as being kind, I guess. I’m not aiming for anything grand.

Belarus - Is there anyone you love?  I’d do anything for my friends, close or otherwise.

Belgium - What do you think of your siblings? I like my sister; I care about her. I don’t really think much of my brother.

Botswana - Do you like to sing? Why or why not?  Yeah, but I only do it for myself. I never sing in front of others; I don’t think I’m that good.

Bulgaria - Who do you consider close to you?  My two best friends and everyone in my college friend group.

Cameroon - Describe your culture.  Folktales, hundreds of languages, more than just adobo and balut.

Canada - Favorite wintertime activity?  We don’t have winter.

China - What was the best moment of your life?  I don’t think I’ve had it yet; but so far the moments that are in the running for ‘best’ are my Paramore concert in 2018 and the day I found out I passed UP.

Cuba - What sort of grudges do you hold if any?  I haven’t talked to Marielle since the backstabbing incident in 5th grade, and I pretty much don’t talk to my uncle (unless we’re at a family gathering and I have to greet him for show) for all his past failures.

Cyprus - What hands-on activities do you like (drawing, carving, building, etc.)?  Embroidery! which I haven’t done in a long while but I’m definitely still into it.

Denmark - Do you wish for something of your past?  I wish I had more time with my relatives who died from Covid. Even a proper goodbye and a big, long hug from each of them would’ve sufficed.

Egypt - Do you stand up for what you believe in? How?  Sure. I speak up about it, educate others when I can, and raise awareness or reiterate my stance about certain issues by sharing posts on social media.

England - Are you controlling?  Depends on what context you’re talking about, because control can mean many different things. I’m a control freak when it comes to my work tasks and I know that can drive some people mad, especially those who prefer working independently.

Estonia - Do you think people often misunderstand you?  I think I’m pretty easy to read.

Finland - What do you prefer, kindness, sternness, or apathy?  In general, kindness; but I also don’t have any clue to what context these words pertain.

France - How do you show love for those you care for?  I like messaging them about things I see that remind me of them. I will also buy them small gifts from time to time, usually food that I know they like.

Germania - What is the hardest thing you have ever had to do?  Breaking up with Gabie, and accepting the said breakup. Both were equally difficult things to overcome and I’m just happy to be out of that part of my life.

Germany - Do you have a hard time forgiving yourself?  Yes. It takes me a while, if at all.

Ghana - What is our favorite sport?  You mean mine? I like pro wrestling, if that counts.

Greece - Do you let others help you when in need? I do, but I have a hard time asking for help. < Yeah. I will accept help when I finally acknowledge that I need it; but getting to the acknowledgment part can take me a while.

Hungary - Who is the person you trust most?  Either of my best friends.

Hutt River - What is the most memorable dream or nightmare you have had?  Back when I was at a low point I used to have recurring dreams of my girlfriend at the time dying. It sucks for the fact that my most unforgettable dreams are nightmares and for the fact that they all involve her, lol.

Hong Kong - Do you fear death?  Not really. I fear dying in a way that I wouldn’t want to experience, but I don’t fear the actual concept of death.

Iceland - Do you hide your real personality? Why?  I hide some parts from people I don’t know all that well or I’m not that close with; like I obviously wouldn’t have crackhead vibes with my clients at work lol. But outside of that I pretty much act the same way around everyone.

India - How important is family to you?  Quite, but it’s not my be-all and end-all.

Japan - Tell us a secret about yourself.  I don’t really have any. I share everything on this blog, anyway.

Kenya - What is your favorite wild animal?  Elephants.

Korea - What is one thing you accomplished by yourself?  Shooting my shot and landing an internship, and eventually a permanent job, at a company I had no connections with, all while I was heavily depressed and wasn’t really doing anything else to take care of myself. 

Kugelmugel - Is there anyone you have a love-hate relationship with?  My mom and I bicker all the time, but she is my mom.

Latvia - Do you believe you are brave?  I guess so.

Ladonia - What is the internet site you visit most often?  I’d say either Twitter or Facebook.

Liechtenstein - How do people underestimate you most often?  I don’t know if I can answer this; people usually don’t.

Lithuania - Do you desire power?  No. That implies being in the spotlight, which I don’t crave at all.

Macau - What is your favorite festival or celebration?  Christmas, only for the huge amount of food I get to freely eat.

Molossia - Do you consider yourself strong?  Emotionally, yeah. Also what is Molossia?

Monaco - Do you think you are a lucky person?  Not a big believer of luck.

New Zealand - Would you rather be an elf, dwarf, Hobbit, or wizard?  None of these.

North Italy - What is your least favorite part of your personality?  There are some parts to my sensitivity that I don’t really like, like my tendency to overthink remarks that were actually meant to be harmless.

Norway - What was the most disappointing time in your life?  All that time I spent being hung up on Gab and desperately talking to her post-breakup, mostly because of how much I neglected myself then. She was working a night shift then and I remember keeping on waking up at like 1 AM and the first thing on my mind always being to message her and UGH it’s just so embarassing to think about now.

Netherlands - Most generous thing someone has done for you?  That one time Andi half-walked and half-took a trike back to UP at 11 PM after already having gotten home, just to retrieve something I forgot to bring home and was having a breakdown about. It was really embarassing and they bring it up every once in a while to tease me, but we have a good laugh about it now.

Poland - Hardest thing you have gone through?  The breakup and deaths in the family.

Prussia - Would you prefer to live forever or die alone?  Live forever I guess, because I have serious FOMO HAHAHA

Roman Empire - How would you like to be remembered?  Like what I said at the start of this survey, just as someone who had been kind.

Romania - What is something you are very ashamed of?  I don’t think there is anything.

Russia - Have you ever suffered from low self esteem? Do you still?  I used to. Not really anymore. I’m liking myself more these days.

Sealand - Who is your best friend?  Angela and Andi.

Seborga - What is your favorite beverage?  Water or coffee.

Seychelles - How do you handle people being rude to you?  Be mean back, but in a passive-aggressive way.

South Italy - What is your favorite part of your personality?  I like that I’m generous and that I can remember a lot of different small details about everyone.

Spain - What would you tell to the person or people you hurt most if you had a second chance?  That she was right, I ended up being happier without her; and that I hope she can finally sleep well knowing she was right, considering our whole relationship was pretty much built on her wanting to be right about everything.

Sweden - Are you a leader, follower, or independent?  Follower.

Switzerland - Would you consider yourself evil, good, or neutral?  Chaotic neutral.

Thailand - How good is your poker face?  I don’t even understand poker.

Tibet - What do you value most?  Friendships, and my happiness.

Taiwan - What do you think of the people or person who raised you?  Grateful.

Turkey - Would you ever want children?  That would be nice, in a few years.

Uganda - How would you like others to see you?  I answered this question like twice already. It still applies hahaha.

Ukraine - What is one thing that has made you stronger in life?  The difficulties I was able to overcome.

Vietnam - What is something you are proud of about yourself?  ^ Those.

Wy - What kind of art do you like?  Paintings and films.

Zimbabwe - Who is your favorite character from any folklore?  I don’t like folktales.

[spanishskulduggery]

I have a question! I've only seen this before on a poster in my Spanish class, so I'd like to know how common this is to see in informal Spanish. Do people frequently use 'u' instead of 'o' to mean "or" before a word beginning with the letter O? Or is this formal/old fashioned/etc? And while I'm at it, how commonly is 'e' used to replace "y" in informal writing/dialogue/speech? Thank you and I hope you're having a good day!

It’s standard grammar, so it’s not old-fashioned or too formal.

I would say that in informal Spanish you have less opportunities to use O to U, but Y to E is VERY common. 

-

The O to U rule basically says: If you’re using o and the next word also begins with an O or HO- [where the H is silent], you use u to help break up the sounds and so the sounds stay separate.

So while this is standard, I don’t normally need to use this one so much but that’s just my basic word choice. There are definitely situations where you see it but usually when you see u it comes up with:

7 [siete] u 8 [ocho] = seven or eight

De una manera u otra = One way or another

But again it depends on what words you’re using because it’s definitely still standard:

Alemania u Holanda = Germany or Holland/the Netherlands alemán/alemana u holandés/holandesa = German or Dutch

700 [setecientos] u 800 [ochocientos] = seven hundred or eight hundred

minutos u horas = minutes or hours

estufas u hornos = stoves or ovens

aromas u olores = scents or smells

So, it just depends. 

I think this also applies to first names so if you saw Óscar or Horacio you’d also see it used:

Roldán, también llamado en español Rolando u Orlando... = Roland, also called Rolando or Orlando in Spanish...

[Roldán or “Roland” is a very famous knight in medieval literature especially for Spain/France/Italy, and “the Song of Roland” is right up there with El Cid, and it shows up in reference to Don Quixote a lot]

I will say though every competency test I’ve ever taken for Spanish will try to trip you up with siete u ocho ...they always want to know if you’re aware of that rule.

-

As for Y and E, it’s the same basic premise: When using y for “and”, it will change to e when you have the next word starting with I- or HI-, or sometimes Y-

This one is more involved but again you’re changing it to preserve the sound so that the y “and” doesn’t blend in with the i/y sound of the next word

So with I-

Francia e Inglaterra = France and England Polonia e Italia = Poland and Italy Noruega e Islandia = Norway and Iceland China e India = China and India

francés/francesa e inglés/inglesa = French and English polaco/a e italiano/a = Polish and Italian noruego/a e islandés/islandesa = Norwegian and Icelandic chino/a e indio/a / hindú = Chinese and Indian*

listo/a e inteligente = smart and intelligent

necesario/a e importante = necessary and important

península e isla = peninsula and island

Quiero encontrar el hotel e irme a la playa. = I want to find the hotel and go to the beach. Necesito hablar con mis jefes e investigar el asunto. = I need to talk to my bosses and investigate/research the matter.

Catalina e Isabel = Catherine and Elizabeth [or Catalina and Isabel; depends on what the context is] Ana e Ingrid = Ana and Ingrid Miguel e Iván = Miguel/Michael and Ivan

*Yes, there are two different words for “Indian”, one is indio/a and the other is hindú though hindú can also be “Hindu” as in someone who follows Hinduism

But since we brought up H a bit in the last one...

Padre e hijo = Father and son Madre e hija = Mother and daughter Hijo e hija = Son and daughter Hija e hijo = Daughter and son

aguja e hilo = needle and thread

inflamarse e hincharse = to become inflamed and to become swollen [lit. “to inflame” and “to swell up”, but they’re synonyms]

Carlota e Hilda = Charlotte/Carlota and Hilda

So, funny enough Hilda e Ingrid and Ingrid e Hilda both need the e. 

Where it gets tricky with H, is when you get HIE-

You only use the e for “and” in the presence of a strong I- or HI- with the silent H, but there are words with HIE-

The difference is that HIE- is pronounced with a ye sound, and that means it no longer counts:

roble venenoso y hiedra venenosa = poison oak and poison ivy

nieve y hielo = snow and ice

cocer y hervir = to bubble and boil [lit. “to boil and boil”; they’re synonymous but they’re sometimes used together when it’s a rolling boil] cociendo e hirviendo = bubbling and boiling

lastimar y herir = to injure and to wound [again, synonymous] lastimado/a y herido/a = injured and wounded lastimando e hiriendo = injuring and wounding

In the case of hirviendo and hiriendo you have to keep in mind that hervir and herir are E=>IE verbs, and their particular gerund form gets rid of that E... similar to how you have sentir to siento but then in gerund it’s sintiendo

What that means for this grammar though is that it went from a ye sound to a y sound, and then you needed to add the e 

...So unfortunately you sometimes need to be wary of irregular verbs when you’re dealing with this grammar rule.

Side Note: There are times when you’ll see e used with Y names. It’s not super common, but names like Yves (first name), or Ibarra / Ybarra (surname) have the y/i sound and not a ye sound, so they take the e 

...So for example say you were talking about fashion you might see Calvin Klein e Yves Saint Laurent

Or in an older style name with the extended surname you might see de ___ e Ibarra/Ybarra

These are relatively rare exceptions but I mention them in case they ever show up.

- 

In most cases these rules are easier to catch when you’re writing. 

When you understand that the e and u are used to preserve the sound of the next name or noun, you can sort of start to figure out when you might use them

Speaking it can be a difficult to catch yourself and say the right thing. Usually English-speakers separate their words, so it’s not that you’d be misunderstood, it’s more that it sounds incorrect but people still know what you mean. 

And to the best of my knowledge this is standard grammar that pretty much everyone uses. I don’t think it’s so much of a formality thing or a regional thing as it is just what you do.

Also, while I don’t recommend it for all cases, if it’s something you’re unsure of there are usually ways to avoid it by reordering your words:

libertad e independencia = freedom/liberty and independence independencia y libertad = independence and freedom/liberty

Estocolmo u Oslo = Stockholm or Oslo Oslo o Estocolmo = Oslo or Stockholm

By just switching the words you avoid the need to use them. Again, I don’t recommend doing this all the time.

There are just times when you need to use it like de una manera u otra, or you come across names like Hilda e Ingrid / Ingrid e Hilda where it’s inevitable

[ms-demeanor]

SOMEONE HAS ASKED ME FOR HELP TRANSLATING OLD ENGLISH (OE). WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT LANGUAGES AND I’M EXCITED.

I CAN’T TRANSLATE INTO OLD ENGLISH BUT I’M STILL EXCITED.

Okay, so, this was partially based on my recent, completely hilarious, translation of the first verse of Baby Got Back into Middle English.

I did that because I’m a complete slut for Middle English (ME). I am, in fact, such a slut for ME that I decided to make a free translation of the Canterbury Tales for people who were more advanced readers than most high-school level translations could help but who had trouble reading ME because its grammar is WEIRD and FUCKED. (I only got through the general prologue and six tales and my analytical asides are insufferable but good job baby Alli I’m so proud of you for wanting to make a free translation you little punk fucking shit up you; now fucking finish it you ADHD gremlin)

SO ANYWAY. Chaucer is Middle English. What you’re currently reading if you’re reading this blog post is Modern English (ModE). POP QUIZ!

What language did Shakespeare write in?

*Final Jeopardy countdown tune*

Wrong! (probably, statistically speaking, you were wrong about that. I’m sorry, I set you up)

Shakespeare wrote in Modern English! It’s Early Modern English, sure, but it is nonetheless the same language that you are reading and speaking and writing today.

BASICALLY

What I’m trying to say is that Lizzo (2019) has more linguistic overlap with Shakespeare (1616) than Shakespeare did with Chaucer (1400) in spite of the fact that Shakespeare and Chaucer were only about 200 years apart and Shakespeare and Lizzo are 400 years apart. That’s because Samuel Johnson was an Absolute Lad in 1755.

(THE PRINTED WORD IS FUCKIGN AMAZING; DICTIONARIES ARE THE SHIT)

Anyway when I was first on tumblr I made a VERY embarrassing mistake and insisted I knew something about OE grammar that I extremely did not (I think this had to do with possession confusion when writing about two people of the same gender and I jumped in with a very bad take) because being a slut for ME doesn’t mean you know shit about OE.

Because Old English is OLD. Like. Really Old.

Like it probably came to England in around 450CE. OLD.

OE is basically Old German. (The development of Modern German is as weird or weirder as the development of Modern English and is no-shit heavily built on work of the Grimm Brothers. The Fairytale dudes.) But also kind of Old Scandinavian? And Frisian. Oh the Frisian. (English speakers: break your brain and listen to this video. Frisian is really closely related to ModE and spoken Frisian sounds infuriatingly close to comprehensible for most English speakers) and basically it’s a messy amalgam of the tribal languages of the various vikings who were continually taking the place over plus all the Brittonic languages plus Latin because of the Romans.

Anyway part of what I’m getting at is that OE was kind of a giant mess (just like ModE!) and translating into OE is also a mess.

Also because OE wasn’t just one language, it was four major dialects and constant moving goalposts as various groups gained and lost power. England didn’t even have a single monarch until almost 200 years after Beowulf was (maybe, probably) written.

So 1066 a somewhat-French dude fought a war with the King of Norway and a bunch of English dudes and long story short that’s how Norman French (which is French with a heavy salting of Scandinavian languages and a soupcon of Celtic) started beating up Old English and eventually turned into ME. (In the General Prologue of the Canterbury tales Chaucer makes a joke that the Prioress’s French is more of Normandy than Paris which is a joke because she’s claiming to be educated in Fancy French but she’s really educated in the form of French that’s like hootin’ and hollerin’ down by the crick can I get a yeehaw).

The deal is that we’re now approximately 4000 permutations away from whatever resembled a lingua franca in England before the Norman Conquest. Our surviving stock of Old English manuscripts is minuscule. Tolkein probably wrote more words in the languages he constructed than exist in OE.

OE is dead. We’ve reconstructed it as best we can and have an okay idea of how the language worked but our understanding of the vocabulary is. A little weird. There are some extremely specific words that kind of just don’t translate to the modern world (“bag specifically for carrying stolen goods” is a decent example). There are some words for which the context is kind of fucked (so if you wanted to translate a proposal it’s hard to ask someone to be your wife if “wife” and “woman” are the same word and “wif” is added to a lot of words to make them apply to women (we retain this in “housewife,” but generally don’t use things like “fishwife” anymore))

But, say you want to learn and translate anyway, what do you do? You make friends with a bunch of nerds and we’ll share our hoarded dictionaries with you. Even the really old ones.

REALLY old.

Actually I don’t have my 1820s Old English dictionary handy so have this one from 1916 instead.

Here’s a site that will translate ModE to OE or OE to ModE as you choose.

The University of Texas at Austen Linguistics Research Center has an online course for learning OE.

Here’s a whole-ass OE textbook.

Some nerds made a podcast about learning OE.

And here’s a very, very short look at the language if you’re thinking of looking into it more.

But if you don’t have time to study a whole new language and want to get something translated fast I recommend finding someone on their way to Kalamazoo and offering them twenty bucks because it’s a hard economy out there for Medieval Studies grad students.

Uh.

Anyway.

[aetheriumwar]

My apology applies to my ignorance and the intersexism I inflicted, and for that I am truly sorry. But I'm not sorry for not changing my name - which I've been going by for several years - because some people incorrectly assumed it was the Japanese name. They're two different names with two different origins.

Lots of things I want to address here so followers, forgive the wall of text.

1. I have to wonder why you’re coming back into my inbox with this. No one’s made a post about you since it happened. I also have to wonder why you’re staying on anon which is extremely childish. We are both adults here so I really do not understand why you’re not messaging me; it’s easy enough to make a throwaway account. And honestly? It’d be much easier for me to not get irritated with you if we were talking one on one. But if you’re fine airing your dirty laundry, okay. Sure.

2. I am not the one to come to with this shit. I am so tired of coddling white people. When multiple people are uncomfortable with something, when people of color especially are uncomfortable with something, you listen. And honestly? If you disagree with the criticism, just shut up and move on. It’s a really bad look to keep defending yourself when no one is even talking about you anymore.

3. Just did a few interesting searches to see the popularity of the name in Norway. Interestingly enough I can’t find zilch. It was popular in the middle ages in Denmark, but it is still a very common Japanese name. Just because a Norwegian character uses the name doesn’t mean it’s not Japanese. White kids can be named Japanese names, and are all the time. It doesn’t mean the name isn’t Japanese. It is basically dead in languages other than Japanese. Correct, it does have a different Norwegian origin; that date back to the Middle Ages when the name was Tooke. Which is a surname. When it did develop it lost popularity and all but died. Not in Japan, though! Awesome. Glad we’ve got that covered.

4. I’m turning anon off because I am not going to entertain white people who can’t shut the fuck up but also can’t come off anon. If you want to defend your choices, don’t be a coward about it. Otherwise there’s no point in keeping up the conversation. I have not made one post about you since the incident went down and quite frankly we are all tired of coddling you like a child. You got enough of that. No one is explaining it to you again. I don’t care about your excuses, defenses or bullshit logic, especially when you can’t even come off anon.

And I find it funny how you still have not given a proper apology for the intersexism. Do not apologize to me. I am not the one who you were being fucking awful to. And when you follow up your “true” apology with “but I’m not sorry about this:” it just shows what a bullshit apology it is to begin with. There are tons of guides on the internet, and specifically on Tumblr, that show you how to apologize properly. Maybe you should try to look for those because this is not it. And I am not going to accept your apology and I don’t even want to acknowledge it beyond pointing out how fucking performative it is, because it’s not my apology to accept. If you want to be a uwu good ally and actually listen to the people who raise valid fucking concerns about your behavior then here it is. And if you want to be an adult and not act like a coward and go on anon when my inbox is open, and you know my discord, you know where to find me. Otherwise do not come to me and expect me to respond kindly and forgive you for your mistakes.

I don’t know what else to say to you beyond the fact that this is so ridiculous. You are beating a dead horse. Either accept you’re wrong and change accordingly and be a better person or just leave it alone. Or at the very least be an adult about it.

And by the way, just because I’m a person of color literally does not mean I can or will accept your apology because you’re racist. I know it’d make you feel good about yourself if a person of color let you off the hook but that’s not even my place. I think maybe you should talk to a Japanese person and when they don’t accept your bullshit defenses of how you’re definitely not racist, maybe you’ll finally get it through your head that it’s not okay to just go ahead and use a Japanese name because a white fictional character uses it and once it was popular in the middle ages for white people to use.

[krypteretnetwork]

Camp NanoWrimo April 2021: Day 19

Word count: 1023 (19064 total)

    “...How about Denmark, then? I mean, if I’m close to the both of you, then I’d have to be pretty relaxed, right?” Denmark was supposed to be coming over later that day. As Alleos began putting in her piercings and applying her makeup, she couldn’t help but want Norway there so she could ask questions.

    “Dane…” he visibly shuddered a bit. While the two were indeed best friends, Denmark was still quite the character. Naturally, Alleos was aware of this, of course, but he couldn’t contain his feelings entirely.

    Turning to look at him just slightly, Alleos raised an eyebrow. “Do I act any similar to the way you do around him? I take it the two of you are rather close… and I know for a fact there’s a lot of bullying and playful jabs on both ends.”

    “Pffft…” to this, Norway actually let out the slightest hint of a laugh. “Well, of course you bully and jab at him. All of us do, you know… but yes, you do let your guard down around him. Somewhat. How do I put this…” he looked up thoughtfully, prompting Alleos to go back to getting her look set up as she waited for an answer. “Well, you tend to be quite the party animal.” Evidently, this surprised Alleos. While she could be chaotic back as an Icelandic micronation, and was still fun loving as a Finnish micronation, to be a party animal like Norway was saying was something she never saw for herself. “I will iterate that you do this to spite Sweden. He doesn’t approve of you hanging around us as often as you do… typical overprotective father. And also, the whole… benefits we discussed, but you’ve been vocal whenever you’re not down. I presume it’ll be… odd considering your circumstances now. Just know that he won’t pressure you, and that there is a genuine friendship beneath all of it.”

    As Alleos focused on her makeup again, she made and maintained mental notes of everything in her head. “Well… I guess that makes sense.” Her brows furrowed, indicating that she had another question. However, she chose to refrain from asking anything, and when asked by Norway if there was anything else she wanted to say she denied.

    Resting his hands in his lap, Norway looked up to her. “Well, then… do you feel ready to meet him?”

    This almost frustrated Alleos, and she gave him a look. “Are you implying I would have gotten ready for nothing?”

    Her tone of voice and choice of words made him smile. “That’s more of the type of attitude we’re looking for. Keep working on that, it’ll come in handy later.”

~~~

    “Alleos!” shouted an all too familiar voice. Then came an all too familiar bear hug, the Dane pretty much squeezing her. “How’ve ya been?! How’s the infection? You down to get crazy again?!”

    Admittedly Alleos was stunned from the sudden hug. Though she had been expecting it, the energy radiating from the Dane was that much more apparent now- it was quite exaggerated from what she’d recalled from the other worlds. Not to mention, the fact that she could feel the sexual energy, threw her off a bit.

    Noticing her surprise, Norway frowned and pried Denmark off of her. “Give her room to breathe, stupid,” he huffed, bonking him on the head. “She’s only just gotten the bandages off.”

    “Is that so…?” he asked, finally looking her in the eye. Then he blushed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “Yeah, now that I’m actually lookin’ at ‘er, it’s real noticeable… sorry ‘bout that!” he flashed her a thumbs up, his eyes squeezed shut in embarrassment.

    “Uhh, like… it’s fine? I would appreciate some fucking warning in the future,” said the micronation. “You got what’s good, though? I really don’t feel like drinking tonight. More of a chill high kinda night, ya know?” secretly, Alleos was actually looking forward to doing some sort of drugs; something to take off the edge she’d been on ever since that one… well, death.

    “Well… only green and shrooms- the usual, y’know?” Truthfully he wasn’t the most fond of some of the harder stuff that he was aware Alleos did.

    “Uuugh, fine! Guess I’ll have to delve into my stash… again,” said Alleos, clearly exaggerating her disappointment a bit. While she wouldn’t complain about free green and shrooms, she was also a fan of her happy pills- or at least, that’s what she’d gathered from sorting through her stuff in this world.

    Raising a brow, Denmark let out a little laugh. “Jeez, uh… alright!” he knew something was off, though he couldn’t quite tell what. “I mean, happy pills are good an’ all, but we could always make brownies or somethin’... ya also said ya wanted more of a chill high, right? In that case, don’t ya think somethin’... well, more chill would be appropriate?”

    Normally, Alleos would have laughed and brushed him off, and opted to take something that wasn’t so relaxed. However, considering that she was new to this world in a sense, and aware that their relations were… a new concept to her, she actually chose to listen to his concern.

    “I mean, I guess that works for me. Also wouldn’t mind smoking a bit for a more enhanced experience…”

    Then Norway chimed in with his own idea: “Why not make some tea with some of the mushrooms, then? Just enough to make things a little more interesting…” Yes, even Norway would be in on it. Or rather, as in on it as Alleos would even be comfortable with him being.

    Judging by the brief look that flashed in her eyes, he could only guess what she was going to say next. “Uhh, maybe another time? We’re looking for something more chill tonight…” She, to, noticed the change in Norway’s demeanor now that Denmark was around. Yeah, she was a whole different character around these two, and in the name of spite for Sweden…

    Looking away almost sheepishly, Norway just nodded. “Yes, I understand. Well, how about we get to baking? Baking and getting baked, that is.”