#i plan to take some nicer photos in a few weeks once it's 100% finished. there are some small final details that i really want to add

[quarklynx]

Judging the cosplay competition for a local con made for a sick debut for this costume ✨

[ahoncc]

10 + 1 Grand Fondo Bike Rides in Seven Months

Hello people, my name is James. I am neither a pro cyclist nor a barista, so don’t take my opinions on either subject too seriously. I just love brewing/drinking coffee and riding my bike; I think the two are a match made in heaven. Not surprisingly, a lot of people think so too. 

To start things off, allow me to chronologically share 100-km bike routes I’ve taken within the past seven months of cycling. 

1. Lower Antipolo, Caloocan, North Caloocan. 101 km. 

This was my first metric century ride, a month into cycling. I had planned a coffee delivery route and a schedule and was fully expecting to make it to each stop in good time. On paper, it didn’t seem that hard. How naïve I was. What the map doesn’t tell you is how horrible the roads are, how hot the weather is, or how crowded with trucks some streets are. Add to that the fact that Komoot is not a good on-the-fly navigation tool, and I was on the fast lane to disaster. Getting lost in a totally janky area on the bumpiest roads was not fun at all.

I was dying, but I kept at it. I was a noob who refused to admit defeat. After getting out of the sticks known as North Caloocan, I hit the mythical wall and bonked. As I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, it rained. Thankfully I was close to a Jollibee so I refueled and let the rain pass. Later that day, I did laps close to home just to complete 100 km since I was just a couple of km short.

4/10. It was totally my fault for being unprepared, but this ride sucked. I’d give it a 3/10 but there’s a bonus point since it was my first long ride.

2. Tagaytay via Daang Hari and Paliparan. 140 km. 

Tagaytay seems to be a test of courage or rite of passage that every budding cyclist has to undertake. And it is quite an undertaking. However which way you slice the cake, you’ll have to climb. If gradients aren’t your thing, you’d quickly question why you’re doing this in the first place. 

Like every long ride (I know this now), it requires adequate preparation, i.e. time, weather conditions, road and traffic conditions, hydration and snacks, and physical fitness. I was more prepared than I was the first century ride, but we started late and therefore finished late. 

I had good company during this ride and being with them made the exhaustion bearable. It was hot on the way up and the traffic was dreadful on the way back, but we survived thanks to Pocari Sweat and Choco Mucho. 

7/10. This was a good “beta test” for me. Could’ve easily been an 8/10 but the Mang Inasal at the roundabout ran out of inasal. I got the last piece, but Jilson and Dan had to settle for something else. 

3. Pililia Windmills via Binangonan. 114 km.

This was my first time riding with a large group. There were seven of us. As this was in the same week as my ride to Tagaytay, I came into this fairly confident and with high morale (aside from the fact that I was the seventh wheel). It slowly got lower as mishap after mishap occurred; a flat tire, a broken chain, another flat tire... 

On this ride, I learned that it’s essential to have an idea of each person’s capabilities so you can set the right pace and adjust where and when necessary. We all had different types of bikes, different fitness levels, and different experiences biking on the road. It couldn’t be helped that some were dropped and others had to wait. In this regard, it was a tough and long day and toward the end of it, I was itching to be home.

6/10. At the time, climbing Pililia felt like treading through mud, but making it to the top was very rewarding. Good food and good conversation made up for aching legs.

4. San Jose Del Monte (Fake Eiffel Tower) via McArthur Highway. 111 km.

This started out as an easy ride on flats. We were all prepared and even the traffic and heat didn’t hamper our confidence. Once we were out of the highway and passing through barangays, the views became nicer. There was less pollution too. We saw the fake Eiffel Tower and met a couple of lolos who were still going strong. It was a good day that was only made better by a tasty, cheap, meal. 

By this time, my fitness level and technique were steadily improving, and I was starting to enjoy climbing more. The way back was hilly, but it was no trouble for me. The cause of stress was, as usual, the traffic on the way back. If you can help it, don’t ever pass through Caloocan! It’s the worst. Commonwealth is also a horrible place to ride a bike.

7/10. Good times with good friends! The stop-and-go, clip-and-unclip traffic was a bummer. AG cramped up, but proud of him for powering through it and clocking in his first 100-km ride.

5. Tagaytay via Nuvali and Cardiac Hill. 136 km.

Second time riding to Tagaytay. This time, we rode out early. Iver and I met up in Makati and rode straight to Nuvali where we were to meet the rest of the guys. All was going well and we were maintaining a steady pace, till we made a mistake and met an accident. 

Instead of making a right to Greenfield, we went straight to CALAX. We were none the wiser, so it felt strange when workers started screaming at us. While Iver was looking at them, one of the security personnel near the toll gate stepped in front of me. I had to stop and since Iver was still looking at the guys yelling at us, his front wheel hit my rear and he went over the bars. When I felt the impact, I looked back and I kid you not, I saw him go over in slow motion! He landed on his shoulder and he burst an eyebrow; thank God for helmets! 

As he sat with his blood dripping on the pavement, I was torn between taking a photo and making sure he was okay. I went with the latter, but later on, he told me that I should’ve snapped the photo.  What a guy! 

Cardiac Hill was a bit of a challenge. In fact, it was the hardest part of the way to Leslie’s. I stopped at the base of the hill for a moment just to steel myself and went up the hill without stopping. Slowly, but surely. 

8/10. As usual, the traffic was the worst. Sorelle was in so much pain that going all the way back to Manila on two wheels was out of the question. It was getting late too, so we decided to stop in Bacoor and take a Transportify back to manila. The first and only time (so far) I did the forbidden technique, but it was the smart thing to do.

6. Pisong Kape via Sumulong and Teresa. 103 km.

One of those rides where we didn’t have a fixed destination. We just wanted to go up Antipolo and down Teresa and back, and maybe climb to the windmills if we felt like it. 

A fairly easy ride up Sumulong Highway and a fun time descending to Teresa. It wasn’t all good vibes though, since one of the guys punctured a tire on a descent, which we think caused his crash. He was okay, but his brand new cycling jersey wasn’t.

We made it all the way to Tanay and had breakfast silog there, and decided to head to Pisong Kape at the base of Pililia. When it showed signs of rain, we decided to turn back. More mishaps. Someone got a flat, and another one dropped a chain and had FD issues on the way to the climb to Antipolo from Teresa. We got split up at some point too.

5/10. This is what’s referred to as a bad juju ride. Hot, traffic, and a ton of things we’d rather not experience on the road. I stopped and waited for a good half hour at Decathlon Masinag, but left and rushed home since I needed to poop, lol.

7. Nuvali via a straight and narrow road through barangays and National Highway. 102 km.

It was the day before heading to Baguio for the holidays and I made brunch plans in Alabang with Elle. I was really excited to bike to her but more so to see her. If I left the house late, it would be hot and traffic would be terrible, so I decided to leave at dawn and make a long ride out of it and go all the way to Nuvali. 

I didn’t want to take the service road like last time, so I followed the map through I don’t even know what road this is. All I know is that it was straight and narrow and clogged with tricycles. It spanned several barangays in Pasig, Taguig, Pateros, Sucat, Alabang, etc., and eventually led me to the National Highway. 

It was all flat and this was my first ride on carbon wheels. I was riding solo, so I could go as fast or as slow as I wanted. I made it to Nuvali in 2:20. After resting for half an hour, I took the same route to Alabang and was there in 1:30. On the way back, I took the service road.

ELLEven/10. The route sucked both ways but it was a good day with Elle. What else can I say?

8. Macabebe Beach via Obando. 175 km.

The flattest route I’ve taken, both literally and figuratively. Levi and I rode out from the Mandaluyong circle at 3:30 AM and cut through Manila to get to Monumento. From there, we opted to avoid McArthur Highway and instead took the more scenic, Obando way. I say scenic, but in reality, all we saw was black. We only stopped to buy pandesal and to navigate. As the sun rose, we found ourselves getting closer to the longest 24 km of my life. 

It was a hard left turn from the highway about a km from the arc of Pampanga. The streets were narrow, and we passed through about four barangays. There were a lot of cars on the road, which was quite irritating because we had to stop when they did. The straights never seemed to end; in fact, I went “Look Ma, no hands!” for about what seemed like a couple of km. As we neared the beach though, we were rewarded by breathtaking views on both sides. The beach itself was mediocre and we stayed only for half an hour to eat our pandesal.

The way back was more difficult. You guessed it, it was due to the heat and the traffic and the horrendous roads in Bulakan. We stopped for coffee and to shield ourselves from the burning sun a few times, but overall we kept a steady, okay let’s be honest, frantic pace. We got to Makati a little over 1:00 PM. Levi and I made it in less than 10 hours. With stops. I was spent.

9/10. This was quite an experience. I always wanted to try a purely flat ride, so I did. It was boring. I’m not saying it was easy -- far from it. Being on flats takes a certain type of mindset and discipline, not to mention you have to be strong. The effort it takes to get from point A to B in a specific time is the same back and forth. Unlike climbing, there’s no descending that comes after. You can’t freewheel down the mountain and recover. I learned a lot on this ride, one of the things being that I like gradients more than watts. 

9. Tagaytay via RevPal, Sungay, and Sampaloc. 110 km. 

Tagaytay take three, route three. This time, we drove to Alabang and started there. What we should have done is start in Nuvali. But Luz insisted on starting in Alabang. This was not a good idea, lol. I want to preface this with the statement that as it was, the planned route was a killer. It didn’t help that I had little sleep and had a hard workout the day before. Another bad idea.

Let me give you a TL;DR: We climbed up RevPal from Nuvali, went down to Taal via Sungay, and climbed back up to Tagaytay proper via Sampaloc. From there, we went back down to Nuvali via Cardiac Hill. 

Easy on paper, not so much in action. RevPal is steep, but not impossibly difficult. Part of the difficulty is avoiding all the other cyclists occupying the road, weaving their way up (known as nag tatahi) while staying out of the way of cars. At some point, my right knee started acting up, adding to the difficulty level of the ascent. 

What was unexpected though was how scary the descent on Sungay was. I won’t get into detail, but suffice it to say that we should have taken it as a sign when we saw that other riders were dismounting so they could walk down... That said, what an adrenaline rush!

The climb up Sampaloc was tough with an aching knee (which by the way has no ACL), but thankfully there were a lot of trees and cover. Not my best performance, but I still made it up without stopping. The descent from Tagaytay proper was meh. From Nuvali, we rode with our friends who had the brilliant idea to park there. I slept on the way home. 

9/10. I officially dubbed our group Mountain Goats after this ride. We have a lot of rides that are less than 100 km, but we often reach over 1000 meters of elevation gain. On this outing, we hit 1,640. I wonder how I’ll fair if I do this again in good condition.

10. Sierra Madre Loop via Teresa. 118 km. 

I think this is the most fun Grand Fondo I’ve done. It’s the highest I’ve climbed in the fastest time. 1740 m in 5:43:28. Arguably the most fun I’ve had on a bike. The climbs could kill you if you don’t pace yourself, but the descents were so rewarding. 

The only sucky part about this ride was motorcyclists who go up on their underbone bikes and bank the corners like they own the place. They don’t signal when they turn. They take sudden U-turns. They overtake you, swerve, and suddenly stop in front of you. They are a danger to themselves and others. In fact, Levi mentioned that when she was there, a guy on a Mio overshot a corner and he and his bike went under the guard rail onto the cliff. Thank God he was alive.

10/10. The chicsilog was made even more delicious by the view from the top of the mountain. 

10 + 1. Laguna Loop. 192 km.

Laguna Loop is fun they said. You should try it, they said.

Well, I did. And I hated it. THEY LIED. This is by far the worst Fondo I’ve done. It was fun climbing Antipolo via Cabrera Road. It was fun going down Teresa. It was fun going up Pililia (which was so much easier than the first time). It was fun going down Mabitac. And that’s where the fun ended.

From that point, it was flat. It was hot. It was traffic. And the drivers were so bad. By bad, I mean jempoy bad. By jempoy bad, I mean trying to ride you off the road and driving at your side with their window down to argue with you. It was not fun. Have I said that it wasn’t fun?

2/10. Not gonna lie, I don’t even consider this ride as a Grand Fondo (which is why it’s a +1 and not a solid 11); the only part of the ride that counts is the first part with the ascents and descents. The rest was just really getting it over with. One point for that first part and another for the good company. WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.

Okay, that’s it. It’s quite a long post but it should be okay since it’s the first one? I hope you enjoyed my unedited reviews of my 100-km rides. Again I’m not a pro so don’t take these scores seriously. Ride the routes yourself if you can and let me know what you think! 

[raybansandcoffee]

Adventure of a Lifetime: Chapter Nine

If you need to catch up you can find all of Adventure of a Lifetime HERE.

**********

I’m on my way.

I am ready. See you in a bit. :)

“Savannah!” I yelled. I heard her laughter drift through the house before I heard her hurrying up the stairs to my room.

“Yes,” she said as she came into the bathroom and sat in the chair at my vanity.

“Do I look okay?” I asked. I knew I looked nervous and panicked. I felt it too. Enough that I’d snuck a beer into the bathroom with me while I got ready. I took another drink as Savannah gave me a once over.

“You look great.” I had put on a pair of black leggings and an olive green top that was long enough it basically qualified as a dress but it had a high low hem where the high was TOO high and the fabric was so lightweight it would be see-through without layers. A little bit of lace from my black bralette peaked out of the v-neck when I moved. She sat trying to talk me through my anxiety as I finished getting ready. I didn’t have much time, over the last two weeks I’d learned the exact amount of time it took Jeremy to get to my house, which was about 3 minutes less than it took me to get to his house. “It’s gonna get chilly when the sun goes down. Do you have a jacket?”

“I was going to wear my denim jacket.” Her face contorted. She apparently didn’t like that idea.

“Nope. I’ve got the perfect one.” She stood up and left the bathroom. I put down the curling iron from the last loose curl I’d added to my hair to make it look like I tried but also not like I tried too hard. I shut it off before following her into the bedroom. She walked out and threw a jacket at me before throwing a pair of shoes.

“Why are you throwing things at me?”

“Because you don’t look like yourself. I’d tell you to wear the black version of that top but then you’d look like the angel of death so the green works, plus it makes your eyes pop. The black ankle booties are cute but halfway through the night you’ll regret them, you always do. Checkered Vans are who you are. They are part of your brand, your ethos, your…I don’t know what they are but you need to wear them.” She’d picked out a black and white pair that somehow didn’t look like I’d worn them for 10 years, they must be the new ones I ordered a few weeks ago. I pulled the jacket back and looked at it. “Tony told me what he said about the photo of you in that jacket in your studio. Wear it.” I smiled looking down at it.

The Rebel Girl Inside Me Will Never Die.

“You think?” I asked.

“Yes. Do it. The Rebel Girl inside you needs a night out or it’s highly possible she might die. Tony and I have the kids covered tonight. Stay out. Drink a little too much. Have fun. Relax. Be 36 and single for a night. The #MomLife you live will be waiting for you in the morning, or afternoon if you’d prefer it that way.”

“Oh shut it. I am not coming home tomorrow afternoon, I’ll be home at a reasonable time. I am so not staying at his house. We don’t even know if this is a date or not. It’s dinner.”

“It’s dinner together. At a restaurant. Without your kids. Without your brother. Without me. It’s a date.”

I’d kept pushing back the night together. Made excuses and reasons we needed to do stuff with the kids instead. Or that we should take Tony to this really great dive bar not far from my house for some live music or karaoke. I’d pushed back as far as I possibly could. It was Wednesday night. Tomorrow my family would arrive. They’d all be leaving in the morning and get here sometime in the afternoon or evening. Alex and her family would get her Friday mid-day. Sam’s family would be making the trip for Friday dinner and coming back on Saturday for the service since it was a short drive for them. I would have a full house for the next five days. I’d also run out of every logical reason we couldn’t be alone. Tonight was the night. It was all or nothing. To say I was incredibly anxious was an understatement, I was borderline terrified.

I wasn’t lying, I didn’t technically know if it was a date or not. But, all signs pointed towards date. We’d seen each other several times over the last two weeks. Lots of hanging out as a family, the girls really loved that they could still see each other even though school was on break. Then Sunday, Ava left to go stay with her Mom. She wouldn’t be home until Friday. Jeremy had still texted me every morning and found excuses to see me. I knew part of it was because he was lonely and processing the alone time without his kid. The weekends that Ellery and Axel would go stay with Sam’s Mom and Dad I usually sent Savannah home to see her parents. I’d wander around the house alone in sweatpants and go through a few too many bottles of wine or whiskey and probably too much weed in the timespan. As much as I hadn’t prepared myself to be so attached to them I was and when they weren’t in the house it felt unbelievably empty. I felt empty. I’d sit and stare at the house I called home now. The house that was so perfectly Sam and Michael and so not me. I felt the life drain from me when the kids were gone and they weren’t even my flesh and blood. It had to be exponentially harder for Jeremy. Ava was clearly his universe.

“So really? The vans and the leather jacket? It’s it too casual if it’s a date.”

“It’s borderline. It’s not too casual because you look fucking hot and that’s all he will focus on. The green makes your eyes stand out and show just how green they are. It’s also just casual enough that if this is another night of Jeremy trying to not be alone and not a date that you aren’t overdressed. If you’d worn the black dress you had picked out earlier you’d be overdressed if it wasn’t a date.” My phone beeped to signal that the gate had opened.

“Shit he’s here.” I grabbed my bag, threw on the jewelry I’d left laying on my dresser and hurried down the stairs behind Savannah. I ran to the kitchen and kissed the tops of the kids’ heads where they were seated at the island. “Be good for Savy and Tony tonight, promise.”

“Promise,” Ellery said. “Will you be home before I go to bed?”

“I don’t know. But Uncle Tony promised to sing songs with you tonight. That’s way better than me, right?” She smiled and nodded before shoving another spoonful of macaroni and cheese into her mouth. The front door opened and Jeremy walked in. I smiled and waved at him before giving Ellery one final kiss on her forehead. “Text or call if either of you needs anything.”

“We’ve got it covered, sis. Go be a grown-up.” He kissed my cheek. “Hey, Jer.”

“Hey T. Well hello Ellery Marie. Is that mac and cheese for dinner?” She nodded. “Nice choice.” He glanced at me. “ I talked to Ava before I came to pick up your Mom. She says hi and she can’t wait to see you on Friday.”

“I can’t wait for her to meet Papa and Nana and Aunt Frankie and Uncle Ryan and Aria and Harlow and Carter and and and everyone.” Ellie was excited about this weekend which made me happy and sad all at once. I’d told her that we were having a party to honor her Mom and Dad. She thought it would be like a birthday party, which honestly it probably would feel more like a birthday party than a funeral.

“You ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Our last goodbyes were said and we headed out of the house and towards his truck. He walked with me to the passenger side, opening the door and helping me in. Once we were on the road, he turned music on and we drifted in between conversation and singing along to the music. “So where are you taking me?” I looked over at him and smiled hoping that the thoughts going through my head about if tonight was a date or not didn’t show in my face.

“I thought that we could go to dinner at the restaurant down by the shore to start and then go from there.” The restaurant he’d picked was one of the nicer places near me. Basically all of the restaurants I frequented were kid-friendly and honestly, I hadn’t done a lot of eating out in the last year.

“Ooo. I’m excited now. I’ve been there twice. It was great both times.”

“Well, I’m hopeful that the third visit will be even better. When did you go before?” he asked.

“The first time was several years ago with Sam and Michael when I came to visit. The second was when Frankie and Alex came out for my birthday last year and took me out for dinner without any kids.”

“When was that?”

“Is this your way of asking me when my birthday is?”

“Maybe.” He laughed a little bit.

“It’s October 31st.”

“Halloween. Well, that explains a lot.” I reached over and punched him in the arm. “I meant that in a good way.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.” It wasn’t much longer before we got to the restaurant. Jeremy was opening doors, pulling out chairs and had his hand on the small of my back when we walked anywhere. The date-o-meter in my head kept ticking closer to ‘date’ and less away from ‘night as friends.’

“So are you ready for everyone to get here?” Jeremy asked as soon as our drinks had been delivered.

“Umm, yes and no.” I sighed before taking another drink of my wine. “I’m ready for a chance to see my family. I’m ready for a chance to see Sam’s family and for the kids to see their grandparents. Saturday is the actual thing, Celebration of Life or whatever we are calling it. Sam’s Aunt, Uncle, and their kids will be there too which will be nice. I’m not 100% sure I’m excited to have all of those people in my house. Alex really thought we should invite some friends from LA and I wasn’t really in the mood to argue with her about it so I let her do it. I think there’s a few who RSVPed for Saturday, not many though. I let my sister handle all of that stuff. Of the people who contacted me about it, most replied saying they couldn’t make it, a few had some comment about how the funeral was a year ago, or that I should’ve planned it in LA so that they could come. All of that was why I didn’t want to invite people. Well, that and I’m tired of the faces.”

“Faces?”

“The faces people make at me or the kids when they see us. You know because they all moved on shortly after the funeral. They expect that I’ve also moved on because you know it’s been a year, why on Earth should I still be grieving?”

“Grief is different for everyone. People shouldn’t judge you for how you need to process such a huge loss. You went through more than everyone else. You had to experience so much trauma that other people didn’t have to experience. I am proud of how well you’re doing.” He reached across the table to where my hand was resting and placed his on top of mine. His thumb caressing it softly. “Do you really have friends who judge that you’re still grieving.”

“Yes.” I didn’t really know how to talk about this. But I knew I needed to or at some point this weekend I’d have a breakdown and there would be screaming and throwing things and it would not be good. “Alex judges it. You know because she’s a ‘doctor’ she thinks she knows just how I should be doing at this point.”

“She’s a doctor of English Literature.”

“Yes, yes she is.”

“She sounds like she’s fun at parties.” I almost choked on the drink of wine that I had just taken as I laughed. He had heard a lot of the phone calls I’d had with her in the lead up to this weekend. Listened to me rant and rave about the text messages and emails she’d been sending me. She felt that she should always be in charge of things, she always had, and because this entire weekend was the work of myself and my sister it was making Alex ridiculously difficult to deal with. “I promise I’ll be on my best behavior all weekend around her.”

“You know you really don’t need to spend your whole weekend babysitting me through this.” He’d cleared the entire weekend to make sure that he could be there for me at any moment that I needed him. He’d even offered to sleep on a couch so he could be at my house. I’d admitted to him earlier this week after a few drinks that the closer the anniversary came the harder it was for me to sleep. I’d had a recurring nightmare over the last year that was happening frequently this week. I’d woken up screaming one night and was glad that the kids’ rooms weren’t close enough for them to hear me.

“I’m not babysitting you. I’m going to be there for you because I care about you and you may eventually need backup. Or maybe someone to sneak you out of there for a little while.”

“Or a lot of alcohol.”

“That too. I’ve got it all covered. It’s going to be a good weekend. From what you’ve told me about what you and Frankie planned it sounds like it’s going to be a wonderful time and a great way to celebrate two people you love.”

“It should be. Ellie is so excited about it and I feel so horrible. I told her it was a Celebration of Life, so she basically thinks it’s a huge birthday party. Except unlike a birthday party, she’ll get to watch me cry the whole time. Okay, I guess that’s basically like all of the birthday parties now. Turns out I’m the one who is a ton of fun at parties.” Jeremy laughed a little. He’d quickly figured out I used humor when processing all of this and that he was allowed to at it because I did.

“Birthdays are hard, aren’t they?”

“The worst. Ellie’s birthday is in three and a half weeks. We were still in LA for her 5th birthday. It was the week before we moved here. I was a mess through the entire thing because I was leaving LA, I’d lost my best friend, I was responsible for a 5-year-old and a 2-month-old. I was the fucking conductor on the Hot Mess Express. If Mandi hadn’t thrown the party together and somehow figured out everything that Sam had planned before she died it wouldn’t have happened. I was still so heavily in mourning that I couldn’t function. I put on a happy face the whole fucking day. I said I was so happy that everyone came and honestly I really was happy everyone had come. Ellie deserved a good birthday. But as soon as everyone was out the door it was like I had a psychotic break of some sort. I started sobbing uncontrollably. I was screaming at everyone and no one all at once. I threw the beer bottle in my hand against the side of my Dad’s house and crumbled to the ground. Eventually, after bawling on the ground for a good 15 minutes Ryan picked me up and carried me up to my bedroom. Frankie laid beside me for the next 10 hours while I cried out every tear I’d held inside.”

“What brought it on?”

“Someone told me the birthdays would get easier with time and used the dreaded phrase that I no longer allow.”

“They are in a better place?” I nodded before taking another drink of my wine. “Worst. Phrase. Ever. I’ve never lost someone the way you lost Sam but even I hate that phrase. Or ‘God has a plan’ I heard that one a lot after my divorce. I highly doubt God’s plan was for my wife to put my daughter and me through the hell we went through and if it was I’m not quite sure what his plan is.”

“Also a super shitty phrase. Or ‘God doesn’t give you more than you can handle.’ I literally couldn’t handle breathing most days. Those phrases always pissed me off. I know people intend for it to be comforting but they are the least comforting thing someone could say, especially when you consider that Sam and Michael weren’t religious at all. They got married by a judge that my Dad was friends with. The kids were never baptized, we just had a party for them after they were born where everyone promised to accept these kids and the lives they chose to lead. Whether they worship a Christian God, a Greek God, Buddha, Elmo, or Satan that we were required to love them, support them, and let them explore life the way they wanted to. It involved streamers and flower petals and looked like a fun party that everyone would want to go to. Essentially that’s what Frankie and I used for our inspiration for Saturday. Friday night is just family and the closest friends. We are doing a really nice dinner with Sam and Michael’s favorite foods and a chance for us to have a quieter event.”

“All of it sounds like it’s going to be a great weekend. You’re all still coming over Sunday to swim and have a barbecue at my house, right?” I nodded.

“Frankie thought it was great that Ellie’s best friend wanted everyone to come to her house.”

“Leaving out that it was someone that wanted to do it for you I see.”

“No. I just try not to go into detail with my sister because it will become a deposition about my social life, more specifically my love life. She’s almost done with law school, she’s scary good at interrogating me. It’s like the worst cross-examination you could imagine.” I was ready to not talk about me and the heavy weekend that was approaching me. “How have you been holding up this week?”

“As good as I can, I guess. Thanks for putting up with me being around a little more this week. It’s always hard the first time she leaves for a long summer visit.” I’d started to learn a little bit about Jeremy’s custody arrangement with his ex this week. Ava had left Sunday morning to go stay with her Mom for the week. She was supposed to be there for two full weeks but he’d explained to his ex that Ava wanted to be in town to support Ellery and somehow that worked. She’d be back in Tahoe for the weekend and next week before Jeremy left to go back to LA with her for a while so that she could have more time with her Mom. Evidently, in summer it was two weeks with her Mom, two weeks with him, off and on. He’d slowed on work because she’d started school but he’d be leaving to go work on another Marvel project eventually and he was worried about how it would disrupt her life. Her Mom was trying to convince him that she needed to spend the next school year in LA since he didn’t know how much of it he’d be gone for. He wasn’t ready to agree to that and I didn’t blame him. I also hoped it wouldn’t happen because Ellery would be lost without Ava at school.

“I’m not putting up with you. I…I maybe like being around you, a little bit.”

“I like being around you too.” His smile lit his face up. I liked seeing the real smile and not the forced one he’d been wearing a lot of this week. I also loved that he could see through my bullshit, my terrible jokes, and see me behind the facade. “You’ve made what is normally the worst week of the year for me a lot easier.”

“You’ve done the same for me. Saturday is going to be a hard day. The closer it gets the more anxious I feel about it. Thank you for the distraction tonight.”

“I’m always happy to be a distraction for you.” Dinner was unbelievable. The food was delicious. He’d reserved a table inside the restaurant right by the window so we could watch the sunset. We had a leisurely dinner and sat there for over two hours. He even insisted on having dessert even though I was fairly certain I couldn’t eat a bite more of food. It felt good to be out of the house for a little while and not worrying about needing to get home. I knew that my brother and Savy had control of the kids tonight. I had all day tomorrow to prepare before my family got there and I’d have almost a full 24 hours with them before Alex, Max, and the boys arrived. Jeremy was going to be there for dinner tomorrow night so that my family had a chance to meet him before Alex got there. I needed backup since I feared she’d be super judgmental like she usually was. I wasn’t 100% sure why I was afraid of her judgment. After all, Jeremy and I were just friends.

“Thank you so much for tonight,” I said as we walked towards the car after dinner.

“Who says tonight is over?” His smile gave him away. I could almost read the thoughts in his head like there was an ominous movie voiceover happening. Charlie was right. Tonight is definitely not over. Jeremy had more up his sleeve.

“We just had the greatest dinner. What the hell else could we possibly do?”

“There’s a lot that we could do. Trust me.” He winked at me before opening the door to the truck and helping me in. My pulse started to race. I took a few deep breathes as he walked around the truck and climbed in. He drove through town stopping in front of the dive bar we’d taken my brother to earlier this week. I turned to look at him.

“Is your plan to get me drunk tonight?”

“Maybe.” His laughter filled the truck. “I’m not really. I know you have a lot to do tomorrow. But I thought you deserved one relaxing night where you didn’t have to think about what this week means, who you are supposed to be, and what you are supposed to be doing. Tonight you don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations, you just need to relax and have fun.”

“And you are in charge of this fun?”

“Yes, yes I am.” We both climbed down from the truck and as I got to the front he reached for my hand, grabbing it and dragging me inside. He pulled me closer to him, wrapping his arm around me as he opened the door of the bar. Music poured out into the street from the jukebox. The place had a small crowd but decent considering it was a Wednesday night. His arm didn’t move from around my waist while we walked through the bar. We found a high top table right next to an open pool table. “I declare a rematch from Sunday. You cheated.”

“I did not cheat. I hustled your ass.” I batted my eyelashes. “Oh Jeremy, teach me how to play pool.”

“Yeah, you conveniently forgot to tell me that you a pool shark.”

“No, I’m just a kid who grew up with a pool table and parents who worked all of the time. I tried to learn trick shots when I was 10.”

“Well, I am certain I can beat you. So, it’s time for a rematch. But first, drinks. What would you like my dear?” He had me so at ease tonight. I hadn’t felt this relaxed in so long.

“I’ll have a beer. That blonde craft beer I was drinking Sunday. Get me one of those.”

“The one that had the high alcohol content.” I nodded excitedly. I’d had two drinks Sunday night and had a buzz. By the end of the third, I was in fits of giggles and a bit of a happy drunk. “Oh, you’re going to be fun tonight. I’ll be right back.” Jeremy headed to the bar while I sat down on one of the barstools. I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and quickly checked it. There were no calls, no texts. It appeared the house hadn’t erupted into flames while I was gone. I’m sure I had emails I could read but there was no point in it. I didn’t want to sit and stare at my phone when I could be staring at Jeremy. Shit. That’s not what I meant. Nope, it actually was.

“Your beer, my dear.”

“Thank you.” I took a drink of it and relaxed into the familiar flavor. “So, rematch huh? I’ll be nice and even let you break.”

“How kind of you, smartass.” Jeremy set the table and started our game. We’d developed a playful banter in moments like this. A little smack talk mixed with a lot of flirtation. “I can’t believe you fucking beat me again.”

“What can I say? I’m unstoppable.” I’d sat back down at the table after the third game in a row where I’d beat him. Jeremy walked over and stood between my legs while he grabbed his beer and took a drink.

“You are amazing.” I crossed my legs allowing my knee to brush against him. He rested his hand on my thigh. “I know that technically this night was for you to relax. But I am really having a great time.”

“I am too.”

“So Cinderella does that mean I can keep you out past midnight.” He’d already paid our tab here but I sensed that he wanted to find another place for one more drink or maybe two.

“Oh hell no,” I replied laughing. “I have to be up early to prep for all of my visitors.” I glanced down at my watch, it almost 10:30. “In fact, this princess might turn into a pumpkin if we don’t get her home soon. She’s also perhaps a little bit buzzy from her beer.”

“I guess I can take you home then.” He leaned forward, burying his face in my hair beside my ear. “I’d much rather keep you all to myself a little while longer. I have to share you all weekend. I’ve never been all that great at sharing. Just ask my kindergarten teacher.” I giggled a bit. “I love that sound.” The feeling of his breath on my neck sent a shiver up my spine. “You have a beautiful laugh. It complements your beautiful eyes, they sparkle when you laugh.”

“You read a romance novel before you picked me up. Didn’t you?”

“Nope. You just inspire that in me.” He kissed my cheek right by my ear before leaning back and grabbing my hand. “Let’s get you home Cinderella. I can’t have you turning into a pumpkin.” I giggled again as I laced my fingers between his. He walked me to the passenger side of his truck, opening the door and helping me in as he had all evening. When he climbed into the driver's side and headed on the road towards my place he grabbed my hand, intertwining our fingers again. His hand didn’t leave mine until he needed to input the code on the gate.

Once at the house, we hopped out of the truck and he walked me towards the door, his hand in mine again. We stopped right before the steps that went up to the porch. The lights were still on in the main house so I didn’t want to take him up on the porch and risk that my little brother and nanny could see the end of what I was now almost certain was a date. As we stopped he grabbed my other hand.

“Thank you for tonight,” I said. “I had a great time.”

“I did too. I feel like I should be thanking you.”

“For what?”

“Finally deciding you’d run out of excuses as to why I couldn’t take you out tonight.” I looked down at the ground. I had made excuses. “It was well worth the wait though.”

“It definitely was.” He leaned towards me. My eyes closed as he got close enough to kiss me. I could feel his breath when I heard the door open and my eyes shot open. The door quickly shut and I turned to see Savannah hurrying outside barefoot. Jeremy backed away from me.

“I’ve been trying to call you all night,” Savannah said. I reached into my purse and found my phone. No missed calls or texts. “Shit. I accidentally flipped it into airplane mode when we got at the bar and I checked to see if you’d called me. Is everything okay? Are the kids okay?” I went from zero to full-blown panic in a millisecond.

“The kids are fine. Everything is okay." I finally sighed a huge sigh of relief. "But.” Savannah didn’t have a chance to even finish her sentence before the door flew open.

“Charlie, you’re home. FINALLY!” There in the open door stood my sister.

“Frankie, what are you doing here?”

“We decided to surprise you and come out early. Dad got the company plane for us so we didn’t have to drive.” She walked down the stairs and hugged me tightly. “Oh, I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you too, Frankie.” I looked and Jeremy and mouthed out ‘sorry’ he just smiled.

“Oh, I’m being rude. I’m Charlie’s older sister, Frankie. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi, I’m Jeremy. It’s nice to meet you.” He stuck his hand out expecting a handshake and got a hug instead.

“Sorry, we DeLucas are huggers. I’m so glad to finally put a face with a name. Charlie talks about you constantly.”

“Oh does she now?” I dropped my face into my hands. I can't believe she outted me like that, okay I actually can believe that she did. It was very typical. Filterless Frankie.

“Well, why don’t you two come inside. We’ve found our way into the wine cellar, the kids are all tucked in bed, and the adults are having a good time.”

“I should really get home,” Jeremy said. He knew that I was panicking. This was not how I’d planned for him to meet my family. This is also far from how I wanted tonight to end. I should’ve listened to him and let him take me out for a few more drinks.

“Nonsense. You are coming inside, at least for one drink. You need to meet everyone.” Frankie grabbed Jeremy’s hand and pulled him up the stairs. I looked at Savannah in a state of shock.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t warn Tony that they were coming even. They just appeared here. They flew in and had a car service pick them up at the airport. They got here right before the kids would’ve all gone to bed. Breathe deep. You’ll be okay.” I took one deep breath before sprinting up the front stairs into the house where I found my entire family surrounding the island in the kitchen.

“Chucky!” Ryan yelled before pulling me in for a hug. He hadn’t found the wine. He’d found my liquor cabinet and by the smell of his breath, he was drinking Jameson on the rocks.

“Hi, Ry.” I hugged him and whispered in his ear. “Really you couldn’t have warned me about all of you showing up? I thought you were my friend.”

“Your sister threatened me. She wanted to surprise you. Were you on a date?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

“Ugh.” I walked away from him and to my Dad. “Hi, Dad. I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too, Charlie.” I realized that as I was hugging my family Frankie was doing all of the introductions of my family to Jeremy.

“And that’s Charlie, who you clearly know,” she said as I walked over to Mandi.

“I do know Charlie.” I hugged Mandi from behind and whispered in her ear. “Am I allowed to smother Frankie in her sleep for this? I know it was her idea.”

“No smothering her in her sleep. She just missed you and thought an extra day would be nice. Then your Dad offered up the plane and it was done.”

“Jer, what do you want to drink?” Tony asked.

“Whatever is fine,” he answered.

“Chucky, what do you want?”

“Tequila. Now that I know I don’t have to wake up early to finish getting the house ready for all of you I’m going to allow myself to have a little more fun.” Tony ran downstairs and came up with a bottle of tequila. Jeremy took it from him and reached into the cabinet to get two glasses, filled them with ice and tequila before handing me one.

“He knows his way around your kitchen?” Mandi asked quietly.

“Shut it.”

“He’s really attractive.”

“Yes, yes he is.” I took a sip of my drink before jumping up onto the counter since all of the seats in my kitchen were taken.

“So where have you been all night, Charlie?” Frankie asked.

“Jeremy and I went out for dinner. And then I schooled him in pool.” I smiled proudly and took another drink.

“She beat me three times.”

“You’re a glutton for punishment,” Tony said. “You lost to her four times Sunday night.”

“I thought that I could take her. I don’t know why I thought that but I did.”

“Charlie made enough money to come visit us in Boston right after her freshman year of college in one weekend by hustling people at pool. She then hustled her way around Boston.” Ryan laughed recalling what I jokingly referred to as my part-time job my freshman year of college. “She said it was better than the alternative which was playing guitar on a street corner.”

“I wasn’t in the mood to be a busker.”

“The truth is she didn’t need to do any of that. She just liked trying to make me nervous constantly. I blame every single gray hair on my head on Charlie." My Dad shook his head and laughed. It didn't matter how old I was, I'd always be his little girl and a bit of a pain in his ass.

“That doesn’t surprise me in the least bit,” Jeremy said. He walked to where I was sitting and hopped up on the counter next to me.

“So Jeremy, what do you do for a living?” Ryan asked. I started to laugh really loudly as Jeremy answered.

“I’m an actor. I do some producing and music too.”

“Ryan, don’t lie. You were the one crying as we walked out of the theater in the middle of the night after a midnight showing of Infinity War and ranting about how they went a full two hours and forty minutes without a single mention of Hawkeye minus ‘he’s on house arrest.’ You absolutely know what Jeremy does for a living.” Jeremy laughed.

“It took you 10 minutes after the credits rolled to be able to speak!” Ryan retorted. “And you also cried. Tony is the only one that didn’t.”

“He totally did. I was in the middle of you two. You just didn’t hear him crying.”

“Spiderman didn’t want to go!” Tony defended himself and his tears causing the entire room to erupt into laughter.

“I like your family,” Jeremy said as he continued to laugh. “I also can see where you get a bit of your special brand of crazy.”

“It’s just those three,” Frankie interjected in an attempt to pretend that it was her husband and siblings that were weird, not her.

“Oh, I have a feeling you’re the wackiest of them all, Frankie.”

“What has she told you?” she asked.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I laughed and leaned toward Jeremy, my head resting on his shoulder for barely a second before I realized what I had done and I moved quickly.

“So how long have you two been friends? I was almost positive that Charlie lived here as a recluse minus Savannah until Tony ran away from home.” Ryan was always full of smartassed remarks and questions.

“The girls are best friends,” I answered.

“My daughter Ava and Ellery are in school together. We met on the last day of school when Ava begged me to have her friend over to celebrate the first day of summer. Charlie and Axel came with and that’s the day Tony called in a panic about running away from home so I somehow got roped into helping move him into his place.”

“You volunteered,” I scoffed before reaching for the tequila to pour myself another glass. Jeremy took the bottle from me and filled his up as well.

“You looked like a panicked sister. I imagined what my two look like when I do something stupid so I thought I’d help.”

“Hey! I wasn’t doing something stupid. I was moving in with my sister to help her with her kids,” Tony said.

“Umm, hi. My name is Savannah. I’m the nanny. You’re the dude who shows up in the house every morning and steals my coffee.”

“That’s not surprising. He’s done that for ages,” Mandi said. “I’m determined that I failed at motherhood because he can’t figure out how to work a simple coffee pot. There’s no way he’d know how to work the espresso machine in this house.”

“I’ve figured out the regular coffee pot here. But Savannah and Chuck make better coffee than I do.”

“It’s because I worked at a coffee shop in high school,” Savannah replied. She’d worked at my favorite coffee shop that I frequently used as an ‘office’ when I didn’t want to be in the studio. “And coffee is an entire food group to Charlie so she had to get good at it or she would’ve gone broke a decade ago.”

“True fucking story,” I replied. I scooted back on the counter resting my feet on the end so my knees were raised. “I went broke the first summer that Savannah worked at that coffee shop. The anxious non-mom in me stopped by every morning to check on her.”

“Was that the summer she got her first boyfriend?” Mandi asked.

“Yes. He worked with her and was 2 years older than her. I stalked her for an entire summer because I was terrified that he was going to hurt my little girl. That was when I decided I wasn’t capable of being a mother. The universe clearly laughed at my ideas for the future.” I threw back my glass and took a giant drink. Jeremy rested his hand on my thigh, it wasn’t flirty, it was meant to be comforting.

“The universe didn’t decide this for you, kiddo,” Dad said. “But you were obviously wrong about being incapable of being a mother. A year later and you’re one of the best mothers I know.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“I have to agree with that,” Jeremy added. “I didn’t know you before but honestly, you’re an incredible mom to those kids. You do everything you can to give them the best life they can have considering everything. You’ve survived a lot of trauma to come out on the other end as a really amazing person. A lot of people wouldn’t have come out on this side of the last year with the grace you have. It shows how strong you are and that you are capable of making it through just about anything life can throw at you.”

“Well said,” Ryan agreed.

“Thank you,” I replied before laying my head on Jeremy’s shoulder. This time I left it there, he moved his arm so it wrapped around my back. “It hasn’t been easy but it would’ve been a hell of a lot harder without you guys. I am lucky to have such a great family and awesome friends.” I took a deep breath trying to keep myself from crying. “So I clearly don’t have the house ready for all of you. I slacked off tonight.”

“For good reason,” Frankie said. “You had dinner plans with Jeremy. You don’t need to worry. I can help you out tomorrow. I thought getting here early might be beneficial because I could help you get everything ready. We can spend the day together.”

“Okay, I’m maybe now not pissed that you showed up unannounced.”

“You were pissed?” Frankie asked.

“You know your sister better than anyone,” Ryan said. “Do you think she is happy that she got home from a date and found her house full of people? She’s probably been sitting over there plotting some form of torture on you because you ruined her night.”

“I didn’t ruin her night. I didn’t ruin your night, did I?” I held my glass to my lips taking a sip while giggling and trying really hard not to look like my sister ruined my night, even though my sister kind of ruined my night. I was also trying not to react to Ryan calling it a date. Though judging by the fact that Jeremy’s arm was still draped around me and pulling me in close to him I would say that it was a date if he was comfortable touching me with my family in the room. “I ruined your night?”

“Not at all,” Jeremy interjected. “I think she was just surprised and I’ve learned in the short time I’ve known her that this woman does not like surprises.”

“No, she does not,” I answered. “I am so glad you’re here but a heads up that you’d be coming would’ve been nice. So that I don’t know, I could’ve made sure I changed the sheets in all of the beds.”

“You did do that,” Savannah said. We did the sheets yesterday. I flipped her off.

“You’re supposed to side with me.” The laughter and obnoxious storytelling between my family continued. It was getting close to 1:30 when I caught Jeremy yawn.

“You’re tired,” I whispered. “You don’t have to stay here with us. I’m going to try and move them towards bed soon. It's way past my bedtime and the kids will all be up at the crack of dawn."

“I’m okay.” He yawned again and I frowned at him. “Okay, I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well last night. Are you sure you don’t need me to stay here tonight?” I found it so sweet that because of my nightmares he was offering to stay with me. It had been a rough few nights but I’d be fine. I had a sneaking suspicion that I’d be sharing my bed with Frankie for part of the night.

“I’m sure. Thank you for offering though. You can just come over tomorrow for dinner.” He jumped down off the counter.

“I hate to be a buzzkill but I’m tired and need to get myself home.”

“Are you okay to drive?” Dad asked.

“Yeah, I quit drinking over an hour ago.”

“She has space just stay here,” Frankie said.

“I’m okay to get home, really.” He turned to me. “Walk out with me, Charlie?” I nodded so he helped me down from the counter. He said goodbyes and pleasantries to all of my family before we headed towards the door. I closed it behind me and he grabbed my hand. “Tonight was even better than I imagined. Your family is hilarious.”

“They are annoying but funny most of the time. They will probably be watching out the windows so we should not stand on the stairs.” Jeremy laughed as he pulled me closer to his truck. Where he’d parked wasn’t completely visible from the living room windows, especially if we positioned ourselves properly.

“Tonight really was wonderful. Thank you for letting me take you out.” He now had both of my hands in his. We were standing and looking into each other’s eyes just as we had before Savannah interrupted us earlier.

“It was exactly what I needed. Honestly, it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a really long time. I’m sorry about Ryan and Frankie. They are nosy. They like to pick on me when it comes to the men in my life.”

“I didn’t mind it. I mean it was a date.” I couldn’t tell if it was a feeling of relief or excitement that he confirmed that it was a date. “I was actually going to end our date with a kiss until Sav rudely interrupted us.”

“I was kind of hoping you were going to.” He unclasped his right hand from mine, pushing hair away from my face before cupping my cheek and bending down to kiss me. It started out slow, sweet and innocent. It didn’t take much for me to open my mouth and deepen the kiss. A kiss that I felt from tips of my toes to the ends of my hair, which were probably badly split. He briefly ended the kiss before I stood on my tiptoes to capture his lips in mine again. “You know you really can stay if you have had too much to drink. I’ve got lots of space.”

“I’m okay,” he said as he laughed, bending down to kiss me again. “I wouldn’t drive if I wasn’t okay.”

“Okay.”

“Was this more that you just wanted me to stay here tonight?” He slid an arm around my waist, his hand resting on the small of my back as he pulled me into him.

“I mean maybe. Like not because I think you should stay here and like have sex with me or something. Or not because of my nightmares, I’ll be okay. I just really like you and don’t really want tonight to end and like making out for a while would be really fun. But sadly our night is having to end because my family fucking blows. They’ve never been great with timing or throwing surprises.”

“It’ll be okay. If you want to sneak out tomorrow you can come spend some time at my house.”

“That sounds nice but I’m sure that Mandi and Frankie have my entire day planned. Probably setting up for guests and girl time.”

“You’ll have a lot of fun with them.”

“I’d probably have more fun with you.” I smiled.

“I won’t deny that.” He bent down to kiss me again. This time as he ended the kiss he rested his forehead against mine. “We need to say goodnight. We both need to sleep. We have a long weekend ahead of us. Tonight was only the beginning.” He bent down to kiss me once more. If this was just the beginning I couldn’t wait to see where the rest of the adventure took us.

*****AUTHOR'S NOTE*****

This chapter was so fun to write. I had a couple of different ideas for where to go with chapter nine and I'm REALLY glad I chose this option. Jeremy and Charlie going on a first date that she wasn't even sure was a date played nicely into where I want the story to head. I also felt that it was important to take a bit of a jump in the story to the anniversary and when Charlie's family and friends were in town. It shows the advancement of their friendship without making the story move too slowly.

The next few chapters will heavily revolve around the Celebration of Life and the influx of people at her home. By no means do I intend to have this section be incredibly heavy, however, death carries that weight no matter how it is approached. But as Charlie has said, she doesn't want this to seem like a sad and depressing funeral. She wants it to honestly be a celebration of two people who meant so much to so many people. Obviously, nothing in Charlie's life ever goes as planned so expect some speed bumps and a disturbance or two in the force.

I do want to say that I honestly have no idea what Jeremy's custody situation is like for his ex. For the premise of this story, I've made him the custodial parent and that his ex-wife has visitation rights. There will obviously be periods of time where Ava is with her mother and Jeremy is alone, much like this chapter. There will also be times where Ellery and Axel go to stay with members of their biological family leaving Charlie without the kids. Complicated families involve complicated custody arrangements. So please remember that this is 100% fictional and made up for the purpose of this story, I don't presume to know what anyone's custody arrangements are like.

I'd love to hear what you think of this chapter and the direction that I'm taking not just the story but the relationship between Charlie and Jeremy. I originally hadn't intended for them to rush into a relationship, if you've read anything else I've written my characters tend to move fast. These two felt like there was more history involved in their lives and baggage that might make them want to move slowly. I also felt that their natural chemistry might make them relax a little where they might not with just anyone else. Their families have naturally melded together so they've spent more time together than most people do as they are building a friendship and relationship.

I did feel like it was also appropriate to add a bit about her family laughing about Jeremy’s job. Only appropriate considering the faceclaims for almost the entire cast are MCU actors. I mean Tony crying about Spidey, come on that provides a laugh.

I'm super excited to get to work on the next chapter. I've come down with some sort of plague. I've got all the body aches, sniffles, coughs, sneezes, throat scratches and earaches you could ever dream of which means my Mom has confined me to my portion of the house so that she doesn't also get the plague. The benefits of being a grown-ass adult living with your Mom is when you feel sick she sometimes is willing to make you soup and let you sleep for a full day or two. As I'm being forced into my little basement studio I'll probably be writing until I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Feel free to keep me motivated. :)

xx. Annie

Also, let’s just all enjoy Chris scaring Lizzy. :) 

[momorabu]

04.11.2017

Viidog Code Event Story - J/Lからの招待状 / Invitation from J/K (Jack-o-Lantern)

Happy belated Halloween! Was actually planning to finish typing this last week in preparation for Halloween, but welp... I couldn’t make it ><” Though it’s a few days late, I hope everyone was still in the mood for some Halloween even stories? XD

The stars these time was Class 5, and also members from Class 7 and Class 2 would also make an appearance. Since I really like all 3 classes, this was a joy to read them ^////^ (Especially because I really like Halloween as well~!)

As always, the summary of the story can be found below. Translation may not be 100% accurate due to my poor Japanese skills~

Chapter 1: 待ちに待ったハロウイン / The long awaited Halloween

One day, “I” had taken something to Naoto to request him to analyze it for a case. However, Naoto rejected “my” request, saying that it was “over the business hours and that he had already closed the shop” XD He claimed that he was busy... waiting for Suzu-kun who was out for a shopping trip. Since Hinamori had also went out of the lab for his own reasons, Naoto felt that it would unfair for him to be the only one remaining and working. (I would have felt bad too if I were him ^^;)

Suddenly, Naoto told “me” to unbutton the top button of “my” shirt, saying that it would be nicer to see “my” beautiful collar bone that way. (Okay... seriously speaking this was kind of random and abit creepy.... ) He started to get impatient and worried for Suzu-kun when he realised that he had still yet to return. “I” guessed that him returning later might be related to the Halloween events being held at the streets, and that made Naoto pissed off, since he felt that such celebrations are redundant and in fact... their costumes were too half-done for Naoto’s taste. He remarked that usually people would dress up as a witch, dracula or a werewolve, which he was fine with it but hope that those people would put in more efforts in their outfits, since most of them just ended up looking really cheap that Naoto felt bothered by it. (But unfortunately he can’t do anything about it... =w=“)

Just then, Suzu-kun came back, and commented that he was surprised by the amount of people and “monsters” on the streets. It seems that alot of people had dressed up and roamed the streets at night even before the day of Halloween itself. This made Naoto’s mood dropped even further as he grumbled that he’s not going to step out onto the streets till Halloween is over. He rejected “my” request once again, and told Suzu-kun to prepare his meal quickly instead as Naoto’s stomach was already growling with hunger. 

Suzu-kun scolded Naoto for rejecting “me” and asked to take a look at what was being requested to do. Looking through the tasklist, Suzu-kun said that this was actually more suitable and easier for Hinamori to do it. Naoto said that it was best that they reject this work now since Hinamori had went out and had yet to return currently. Suzu-kun wondered perhaps Hinamori had went to  participate in the Halloween events, remarking that he had saw alot of zombies which Hinamori would really love to see just now, and guessed that Hinamori might even ended up acting as one of them actually. 

Luckily, Hinamori came back at this moment, and accepted the request, telling “me” that he would try to finish it today as the deadline was tomorrow. He was busy with the preparations for Halloween Party recently, and was really excited just thinking of what to prepare, for example... bloody neck cakes, eye balls soup OWO” He even asked us to request what we would like for the decorations and menu too. Even though Naoto doesn’t like gore stuff as he found it disgusting, he didn’t like the idea of a cheap looking party even more, and thus hope that Hinamori would make a great party in the end ^^; 

Hinamori requested Naoto and Suzu-kun to help him out, but Naoto rejected him saying that it’s too troublesome. However, when Hinamori said sadly that he was counting on Naoto’s sense for the decorations display, Naoto agreed to lend him a hand, stating a condition that if he had found something to be “ugly”, that object would not be allowed to be displayed at the venue. (How could you reject Hina’s sad face here~ T////T)

Suzu-kun told Hinamori that he could also asked for “my” help here now that “I’m” here, which Hinamori was hesistant about, since he want “me” to know nothing about the party since it would be more interesting to see “me” being scared by the traps and tricks he had put up at the venue. He agreed to letting “me” help in the end and had finished with analyzing the data in the midst of the conversation, which impressed Suzu-kun greatly since it was rare that he had seen Hinamori completed a task that quickly and guessed that he must have felt pretty pumped up now. Hinamori answered that he was looking forward to not just the food, but also the “events” which he had planned to carry out at the party. 

Hinamori gave a little hint to us that he had planned to get a “secret” guest for the party, but denied saying more about it even when Naoto threatened that he won’t help out until Hinamori said who was the secret guest. Naoto proposed that he would choose the outfits for everyone at the party, by referencing to how the decorations would look like at the venue to fit in overall. Hinamori agreed to it, since he wanted everyone’s outfit to match in the party too. Naoto said that it was a special case this time that he had volunteered to help, as he doesn’t want to be take advantage of for his skills in the future. Suzu-kun felt that Naoto should make full use of his good fashion sense though, and said that other than Halloween, Naoto should also helped out with the outfits co-ordination and decorations for winter as well. (Isn’t it too early? We’re still at Halloween ^^:)

Hinamori had some requests for Suzu-kun in regards to the food menu, as he wanted him to make some pumpkin pudding and gratin,and asked “me” if there’s anything which “I” wanted to request as well. “I” suggested pumpkin pie to Suzu-kun, and he agreed that it’s a great dish and started looking forward to making it in the end. Hinamori also started to look forward to the Halloween Party, wondering whether the secret guest would be able to make an appearance in the end~ 

Chapter 2: お菓子泥棒のウワサ / The Rumors About The Candy Thief

The next morning, “I” was carrying a large sack of items in the living room when “I” was surprised by the sudden appearance of Hijiri. He noticed that the sack which “I” was carrying seems to be very heavy, and offered to carry it for “me”. “I” told Hijiri that the sack had contained the decoration items and tiny props to be used for the Halloween Party, and he offered to carry it for “me” to the venue, as an apology from him for scaring “me” just now.

Hijiri said that it maybe unexpected for others, but he was actually really strong. “I” answered that it’s not that unexpected actually (seeing how large Hijiri is actually ^^;), which Hijiri was surprised by “my” answer since Yanagi had always asked him to be more independent and reliable. He asked “me” to feel free to approach him if “I” ever need his help to carry any heavy stuff in the future ^^ In return for his help. Hijiri asked “me” to accompany him in welcoming Yu back at the entrance of the agency, which “I” agreed to. 

We went outside of the agency to wait for Yu to return from school. Even though Hijiri was initially, he was glad when he sees that Yu finally appeared, and commented  that he looks cute while waving his hands and running over here that he even took a photo of Yu. When Yu came to us, he was angry at Hijiri for taking his photo without his permission again~ But, when he heard that “I” had found him to be very adorable, he decided to forgive Hijiri about it and said that this would be a special case that he let it off~ (Thank you Yu, I think Hijiri would appreciate it.)

Hijiri said that he was worried about Yu whether he would be able to get home by himself when there’s alot of passerbys in the streets dressing up as monsters for the Halloween Event. Yu was angry and rebutted that of course he could come back by himself since he wasn’t scared of the monsters at all. However, he was scared when he saw someone dressed up in a scary outfit and hid behind us, asking “me” whether the “monster” had gone away. After knowing that it’s alright now to come out, Yu admitted that he was shocked by their appearance, and wondered why do those passerbys like to put on such scary outfits, since he would prefer more adorable outfits instead. 

Yu told us that he had heard about an interesting rumour at school today, and asked us if we’re interested to hear about it. He started excitedly pulling “my” arm as we went indoors, with Hijiri smiling and telling Yu that “I” won’t run away even if he doesn’t pull on my arm XD

We went into Cyan to get some drinks, and Yu asked Hijiri to order for him an icecream soda. He was glad to get a really big scoop of icecream, and told Hijiri to thank the shop master on his behalf. Hijiri heed to it, though he gave a weak smile and told Yu that he should thank the master personally himself instead the next time. (Yu is just using Hijiri as his mouth piece to communicate with others here ^^;)

Yu excitedly shared with us the rumour which he had heard today at school - A robber had appeared at the shopping streets! The robber was someone who had dressed up as a jack-o-lantern, and would only snatch candies and sweet treats away from the passerbys. Yu found that to be weird and said that the rumour had spread that perhaps the robber was the real jack-o-lantern instead actually. Hijiri explained that the jack-o-lantern was someone who would be able to travel to the heaven and hell, and was someone who was always passing around in the two worlds and the human worlds. However, if the robber was indeed the real jack-o-lantern, Hijiri would find that to be scary to be honest. (I hope it isn’t true too ^^;)

Moving onto another topic, Yu asked us on what outfits we’re going to wear for the Halloween, and told us that his friends had recommended an outfit to him, saying that he would definitely looks good in it. Hijiri suggested that Yu sent this outfit design to Naoto as a request to him, since this year’s Halloween outfits would be prepared by him actually. Even though Yu wanted to dress up in an outfit that looks much more cooler (like a vampire or a werewolves), he knew that we wanted to see him in a cute outfit and decided to dress in that style in it. He suggested that perhaps Hijiri could dress up as a priest, since he was gentle like one and if he put on a black cloack, Yu could hide inside it.

“I” wanted to dress up as a sheet ghost and Yu said that it’s not allowed to suddenly scare him over there. He would get angry about it if it happens as he wanted to be a “good kid” in front of the others, and this might ended up ruining his image. Hijiri told Yu that he would protect him, but would also protect “me” either which makes Yu unhappy since Hijiri as a priest, isn’t supposed to help a monster (me). Hijiri smiled and said that it’s best that everyone gets along well together instead~

Chapter 3: 街はきなから百鬼夜行 / Hyakki Yagyō At The Streets 

At night, “I” accompanied Kuki for a trip to the candy store to buy some candies, and he remarked that it had been a long time since he had went to buy some candies, since the last time it happened was when he was in grade 5 in elementary school. He was glad that “I” had knew where to buy candies at a cheaper price, and thus we decided to buy some butter as requested by Suzu-kun at a cake shop before ending our shopping trip. 

Walking along the streets, Kuki was impressed by the cosplay of the passerbys who had dressed up for Halloween, and said that it seems that the citizens here were all looking forward to Halloween very much. 

Shiro had accompanied us as well on the shopping trip, but had a glum expression on his face since he was the one who was entrusted with carrying the large amount of candies which we had bought. He wondered why do we have to come out to do our shopping trip in the night time, and Kuki thought that perhaps Shiro was just being afraid of the “monsters” that he might even cry about it. Shiro denied that he’s scared (of course XD), and said that he just dislikes being treated as a slave to help out for the shopping trip, since he doesn’t understand why he had to be involved when Kuki was the one who had volunteered to go for the shopping trip. Kuki just smiled and told Shiro to treat it as a training for weight lifting instead since Shiro was quite free anyway.

Kuki wondered why Shiro seems to be more irritated than usual, and guessed that perhaps he was pissed by all these horror decorations that was being hung up. Shiro wanted to deny that he’s scared again, but he was shocked by someone wearing a horror outfit that he stopped mid-sentence instead. Kuki laughed at Shiro’s reaction, and suggested Shiro to dress up for Halloween instead, since he might not feel scared anymore and may even enjoy the event even more~

As there was a shop nearly which sells Halloween outfits, Kuki suggested that we take a look at it as well. Shiro told Kuki that he would fit well in a devil outfit (since he’s one XD), but Kuki said that he doesn’t feel that he’s much a devil, even though there was a time that he really admired black magic in the past. He was pissed when Shiro dissed him about his past, and threatened to reveal Shiro’s dark past too  (I wonder what dark past that Shiro has... +W+)

Kuki saw that there was more than one designs for the devil’s accessories, and suggested to “me” that the two of us get one of each design for a couple look together. But Shiro discouraged us from getting it, telling us that Naoto would be preparing the outfits for us. That made Kuki felt abit disappointed as he had found the accessories to be really adorable. (Did... Did Shiro just cockblocked Kuki or something...?)

Kuki looked around the shop, and suggested to Shiro that he’s suitable to dress up as a Frankenstein. Just then, a woman shouted that a pumpkin man had appeared and stole her cake! Shiro and Kuki quickly ran to chase after the robber, and told “me” to talk to the lady to understand what had happened.

The two of them chased the robber until they reached the dark alleys. Kuki told Shiro that the two of them would split up and try to trap the robber from both sides. Kuki was glad that their plan had worked but when they’re going to close in on the robber to capture him... he suddenly jumped up onto the wall and escaped from there. Kuki asked Shiro if he had managed to take a look at how the robber had looked like, but other than his body build seems to be of a man’s and was wearing a pumpkin head that covers his face, there wasn’t any clues that they could determine who the pumpkin man could be.

The two of them returned back to the shopping streets to inform the woman that they had failed to catch the pumpkin man. But rather than feeling sad and disappointed, the woman seems to be really happy to be robbed by the pumpkin man. Kuki and Shiro learned about the rumour regarding the pumpkin man possibly being the jack-o-lantern, and Kuki guessed that perhaps the woman was happy since it feels like a moment that she had actually met a popular person. Kuki wondered whether this was a promotion plan organised by a certain company, but it feels that the victims were Innocent passerbys who knew nothing about the plan. They had also guessed that perhaps the robber was just someone who robs for fun in Halloween, but even if so, Shiro doesn’t think that the thief would try that hard to escape when he was almost being caught by them. (Eh? So you’re suggested that the robber should just give up and get caught by you guys? ^^:)

In the end, Kuki proposed that we should take care that our candies doesn’t get stolen and buy some butter before heading back.

Chapter 4: カプ男に魅了された街 / The Street Which Was Captivated By The Pumpkin Man

By the next morning, the news of the pumpkin man had spread all over the town and a video had been uploaded and spread like wild fire in the internet. Kuki could be seen chasing after the pumpkin man on the video, but since the video was taken by someone using his/her phone, the video quality was quite bad that one can’t even see properly who was it on the video itself ^^; 

Hijiri, Kuki and “I” gathered around Naoto to watch the video together, and Kuki remarked that he had no idea that he actually look this good-looking while running. (Erm... you can’t even see it’s you on the video Kuki... ^^;)

Someone had watched the video and sent in a request at the detective agency, asking them to catch the pumpkin man, as this would helped in making the halloween event even much more livelier on the streets.

The few of us had gathered together to meet up with the event organiser who had sent in the request to catch the pumpkin man. Naoto grumbled that he had to head off soon to do some shopping for the special menu which Suzu-kun had requested for the halloween party, but before he even finished his sentence, another incident occurred where yet another victim was targeted by the pumpkin man. There was already news of the pumpkin man stealing from a victim 5 minutes and that news had became a hot topic quickly. Naoto checked his phone and said that it was reported that the incident had happened at the train station, but it would be too late by the time they rushed there now. Since the robber had the same features like what Kuki had described, Naoto deduced that all these robberies were committed by the same person.

When we reached the venue and met up with the event organiser, he was very excited and said that it was hard to look for Kuki after he had watched the video (since his face wasn’t even shown on the video ^^;), but was glad that he had managed to locate him in the end. The organiser thought that it would be interesting for the Halloween event if they’ve caught the pumpkin robber who had caused a commotion at the event. Since the detective agency agreed to take on this request, he immediately wanted to put up the news as a challenge to the pumpkin man - Detective VS  Pumpkin Man, making it seems like it was a event programme. 

The event organiser wanted to get the citizens to help out to take notice of the pumpkin man as well, and thus asked Kuki whether he had noticed any special features that he could put it on his posters. Such information were provided by Kuki: The pumpkin man is an adult skinny man, but other than there wasn’t anymore information which Kuki could provide. (Why did I feel that the event organiser seems more like the detective here demanding more information ^^;) Hijiri asked Naoto whether he could analyze the video, and thus Kuki took this chance to promote about Class 5′s analyzing skills to the event organiser. 

As the news of the pumpkin man appearing in the streets had became very popular, the event organiser guesed that there would be many people cosplaying as the pumpkin man now, and wanted more information about the real pumpkin man in case they captured the wrong guy. Since Naoto had brought along his laptop, Kuki urged him to start analyzing the video now. Naoto tried to analyze the video and extract the sound from it in order to identify the voice of the pumpkin man, however, he can’t due to the man’s voice being muffled by the pumpkin head he had worn, and alot of noise had been captured together with the video.

The good news was, on analyzing the video, Naoto realised that the man’s right arm was more muscular, and deduced that he was probably someone who had used his right arm regularly for extreme sports, for example, a tennis player who used his right arm.

Kuki assured the event organiser that them being the D.O.G detective agency would definitely capture the pumpkin man. 

Chapter 5: おとり搜查は甘い味 / Sweet Scent Of The Decoy Operation

The detective agency decided to act as decoy to lure the pumpkin man out. However, when we arrived on the streets, we noticed that there were alot of people carrying candies and sweet treats on the streets, and guessed that many of the passerby had done that on purpose in hope that the pumpkin man would steal from them. (What... =w=“)

Hijiri was worried about Yu, since he was the one acting as the main decoy carrying a cake box. Yu said that Hijiri was worrying too much and assured him that he would do his best in being a decoy, adding on that if he had let Hijiri hold onto the box instead, the pumpkin man might get scared and won’t steal from him instead. (And that would foil their plan ^^;) Yu mentioned that his classmates had their candies being stolen from the pumpkin man before and they weren’t hurt at all, and thus assured us that everything would be alright.

Yu asked Hijiri to hold onto his hand and also asked to hold onto “mine” too, saying that the three of us would act like we were going on a shopping trip happily together. We passed by a donut house, and Yu noticed that they had a pumpkin flavour available just for Halloween. Since both Hijiri and Yu noticed that “I” had worked really hard in juggling both “my” work and preparing for the Halloween party, Yu decided to reward “me” with a donut, saying that this was a special treat from him since “I’m” his junior~ (Aww~ Yu was so cute and sweet here >////<)

We walked till the square of the shopping streets, but there were still no sight of the pumpkin man. Yu hoped that the pumpkin man would show himself more easily, but Hijiri guessed that it would be hard since he was a robber afterall ^^; (I don’t think a robber would make an appearance that obvious to gain attention on himself ^^;) 

Just then, the pumpkin man appeared, and demanded Yu to hand over the cake box to him. However, instead of heeding to the pumpkin man’s words, Yu hid behind Hijiri instead (due to his shyness). Hijiri told him that he should not hide behind him, and decided to take over the cake box to pass them to the pumpkin man. There was actually a GPS being installed on the cake box in order for them to trace the robber, but the robber soon returned the cake box to them, saying that he doesn’t want a “fake” before escaping once again. Yu mentioned that he had noticed that the pumpkin man had peeked into the cake box and then made a u-turn to return the box. Turns out the pumpkin man would only steal candies and sweet treats and nothing else, that Yu wondered whether the person was really like a real jack-o-lantern. (I’m more curious in what they’ve put in the cake box if it’s not a cake though.... =w=“)

In the end, Hijiri proposed that we stopped our decoy operations for now and changed our plan before heading out again in the afternoon. Yu was interested in how the preparation for the Halloween Party were coming along, and suggested that we head to Cyan to take a look at it when we head back.

However, when we head to Cyan, there were no decorations being put up yet, and since Hinamori was there, Hijiri asked him about it. Hinamori answered that because he had wanted to make it a surprise for us, he planned to only put up the decorations on the day of the party itself. He was here at Cyan today to think about the layout for the decorations, and also offered Yu a coin to look at. But, he also mentioned that the coin was a cursed coin, which scared Yu really badly as he cried for “me” to help him and whining that Hinamori was being mean to him ^^;

Chapter 6: おとり搜查は苦い味 / Bitter Scent Of The Decoy Operation

In the evening, we carried out yet another round of decoy operation again to lure out the pumpkin man. This time the members were Kuki, Shiro and “me”. Shiro was in low spirits and unmotivated to carry out the operation, that Kuki had to threatened him that he would made him cosplay now if he doesn’t listen to his orders ^^; Kuki suggested that “I” stayed in the middle with Kuki and Shiro by “my” side as we made our rounds, since there’s alot of people in the streets now and he’s worried that “I” might get lost. 

Kuki remarked that the pumpkin man seems to be quite a gentleman, since he doesn’t steal anything at all other than the candies and sweet treats, and had not harm anyone at all. He deduced that maybe the pumpkin man was related to the event organiser (working in cahoots), since the event organiser really love Halloween and tricks like this. There’s a possibility that the event organiser would reveal that they were the ones who had planned this and gave away all the candies which they’ve stolen after the event, and the request sent by them to request the detective agency to catch the pumpkin man was also what they had wanted to make the event even more livelier. 

Just then, an announcement started playing on the streets, yelling out that the detective agency and the pumpkin man were going to play a game of hide and seek, informing the citizens that the detectives from D.O.G detective agency were going to capture the pumpkin man. Kuki was really pleased with the announcement, since it helped to promote their agency as well ^^ He wished that they would even promote it with a large photo of him, but since they didn’t... it was quite a disappointment for Kuki. 

Shiro sighed and grumbled that instead of him, we should have gotten Tsubasa to come for the decoy operation. But because Tsubasa was helping out Class 2 on a search for a missing pet, he can’t come with us unfortunately TWT Shiro said that he could always go and search for the missing pet actually, which Kuki found that to be ironic, since usually Shiro would be complaining that he doesn’t like to search for a pet and said that it was job meant for the kids.

A pumpkin man appeared in front of us suddenly and Shiro immediately got defensive and started guarding “me”. But it was only a child who had put on a pumpkin head actually, and thus Shiro quickly explained that rather than guarding “me” he was just moving “me” away because “I” was standing in the way. (Really? =w=“) Kuki just smiled and remarked that he wished that Shiro would at least be half as honest as Tsubasa actually~ 

Shiro noticed that we did not even have any sweet treats or candies with us even though we were supposed to act as decoy to lure the pumpkin man. Kuki told us not to worry as he led us to a shop which sells japanese confectionery, and complimented that their yokan were really delicious that it would make one jaws dropped while eating it. He wanted to look for the shop owner actually, but his daughter replied that he had went for a walk since the japanese confectioneries were not selling well recently. Kuki sighed and remarked that it seems that japanese confectioneries aren’t allowed to be used to celebrate Halloween, and thus it’s hard for their business during this period of time. He bought a yokan, and the daugher even gave him an extra one as a gift, which pleased Kuki greatly since it means that he could eat the extra one. (The one he had bought were to be used as our “lure” for the decoy operation.)

Shiro scoffed at the yokan, wondering whether it could actually be used to lure out the pumpkin man. Kuki wanted to show Shiro how delicious the yokan is actually, and decided to open it and fed Shiro a mouthful XD 

Suddenly, there was a commotion as there was yet another sighting of the appearance of the pumpkin man. Kuki started to get really excited and told us to follow the crowd in chasing after the pumpkin man, (He even remarked that it seems like they’re chasing an idol XD) as he can’t wait to give him the yokan in his hands~ 

After chasing around, we finally saw the pumpkin man and Kuki proudly showed off the shopping bag with the yokan in it, claiming that he had bought this from a hundred years old shop and even asked him to try out the yokan in it. However, the pumpkin man was hesitant, and answered that he doesn’t want it. He laughed later on and claimed that because he was the jack-o-lantern, he’s not interested in japanese confectioneries at all, and asked Kuki to take it back and share it with the others instead. As the pumpkin man made his escape once again, Kuki grumbled that the jack-o-lantern was being to gentle to them at such a weird time. (I think he’s just disappointed that the pumpkin man doesn’t want his yokan though... ^^:)

Chapter 7: 洋菓子店の大騷ぎ / Commotion At The Western Candy Shop

The next day, “I” joined Suzu-kun and Hinamori for some investigation. Suzu-kun mentioned that there were even more people dressed up in halloween outfits compared to yesterday, and since most of the people seems to be really interested in Halloween, he guessed that perhaps we might be able to get more information from them regarding the pumpkin man. On the other hand, Hinamori was more interested to ask them about why they had chosen to dress up in a particular outfit, as he thought that he might be able to meet some new friends this way who were fans of the horror genre. 

Even though our main goal was to ask for more information about the pumpkin man, Suzu-kun suggested that we head to the candy store which was rumored that its candies were more easily to be stolen by the pumpkin man to purchase some candies too. He was surprised that the pumpkin man had decided not to steal Class 7′s sweet treats yesterday, and wondered whether the pumpkin man disliked japanese confectioneries. Suzu-kun found that the yokan sold at that shop was really delicious that he himself was a big fan of it. In the end, he just laughed it off and guessed that perhaps the pumpkin man just wanted to follow the legend or perhaps was really the real jack-o-lantern himself afterall~

However, Hinamori voiced out that the pumpkin man wasn’t the real jack-o-lantern. He remarked that the real jack-o-lantern would be someone who would even helped to guide someone if one had lost his way, and “I” quickly took out my notebook to note down what Hinamori had said, as it was something new for “me” to learn about.

As Hinamori would watch horror movies sometimes with Toki, Suzu-kun asked him whether the two of them would talk about such topics regarding the supernatural. However, Hinamori revealed that Toki didn’t talk at all when he watched the horror movies, that even when Hinamori tried to talk to him about horror movies, he gets no reactions at all. (Poor Hinamori TWT But kind of hard to imagine them sitting together to watch a movie OWO”)

Hinamori was excited about the Halloween Party, and remarked that he would be looking forward in making the happy smiling faces into faces full of fear. (That sound kind of mean Hina~) Suzu-kun frowned and told him that Naoto had instructed Hinamori not to go overboard with his plans, since it would be bad if they ended up making Yu cry instead.

We finally reached the candy shop, and the air was filled with not just the scent of pumpkin, but also a really sweet cent of the candies as well. We overheard a customer asking for to buy the candies that were to be stolen, and Suzu-kun was surprised to see that the wrapping of the candies had a picture of the pumpkin man on it. The shop assistant asked us whether we were here to buy the candies to be stolen by the pumpkin man as well, saying that there was alot of customers who were here and wanted to meet him very much recently. 

We decided to go with the flow and told the shop assistant that we’re indeed interested to meet the pumpkin man and thus came here to buy some candies, and thus the shop assistant introduced us their most popular item which was the one being stolen really frequently by the pumpkin man - Macaroons. 

After leaving the candy shop, Suzu-kun frowned and remarked that even though we’ve obtained more information about the pumpkin man incident, he felt that rather than it being a theft case, it feels more like an event instead ^^; He and Hinamori pondered whether the real jack-o-lantern would felt troubled by this or actually felt happy about his sudden increase in popularity ^^; One thing that puzzled Suzu-kun was, why did the pumpkin man would specifically wanted to steal the macaroons more frequently? Hinamori mentioned that the jack-o-lantern had lived a lavish live before he passed away, and guessed that perhaps that was why he targeted western candies, especially since the macaroons were really delicious. Suzu-kun gave a weak smile and remarked that the pumpkin man seems to be jack-o-lantern fan just like Hinamori if he decided to mimic the real jack-o-lantern so much to even such details. He laughed and said that if we had managed to capture the pumpkin man without trouble, perhaps we could also invite to the halloween party as well~ 

Even though Suzu-kun was helping to prepare the halloween party, he was not involved in the decorating or the outfits coordination for the party, and thus had no idea at all what they were look like and were really interested. Even though it was still a secret for now, Hinamori revealed that the outfits for Suzu-kun and “me” were all decided now~ Since “I” was also helping out with the preparations, Suzu-kun wished that “I” won’t push “myself” too much and would also be looking forward to seeing what “I’ve” been helping out with~ (Thanks Suzu-kun~)

Chapter 8: 犯人はこの中にいる? / The Culprit Is Inside Here?

In the evening, “I” accompanied Class 5 on a decoy operation. Naoto complained that “I” was getting too close to Suzu-kun, but after “I” stepped further away, he complained again that “I” was too far away now and would be easily targeted. This went on for awhile till Suzu-kun voiced out that he’s making “me” very troubled by his words. Naoto said that he doesn’t like the idea of the muffins made by Suzu-kun to be stolen easily (since they were carried by “me”), but he also didn’t like anyone getting close to Suzu-kun either, and continued that he shall protect both the muffins and Suzu-kun XD (I think Naoto should just take the muffins instead himself then... =w=“)

Suzu-kun replied that their aim was to get the muffins stolen by the pumpkin man, since they’ve specifically even put in a GPS tracker in the packaging. The muffins gave out a really nice scent as they were freshly baked, and Suzu-kun said that once they’re cooled, the scent would be gone so he hoped that the pumpkin man would show up soon. Naoto frowned and told “me” not to let go of the bag of muffins no matter what, and protect it even with “my” life ^^’ Naoto actually wanted to take the muffins actually (oh, so he could actually take it?), but he worried that the muffins would obstruct his freedom to use his hands when he had to protect Suzu-kun if anything would to happen ^^; (Suzu-kun > Muffin then... ^^;) Naoto was serious as he stated that he would definitely destroy the person who had stolen Suzu-kun’s muffins. (That’s scary for just a muffin thief OAO”)

However, the pumpkin man had not show up, and Naoto dissed whether the pumpkin man had decided to take a break today, adding on that he wished that he would not show up for the rest of his life ^^; Suzu-kun laughed and told Naoto that he better not say those words in front of Hinamori, since the latter had been looking forward to meeting him and making friends with him XD But he realised later on that perhaps the person who Hinamori wanted to make friends with was probably jack-o-lantern himself actually ^^; Naoto sighed and remarked it doesn’t matter to him who Hinamori wanted to befriend, since he would protect both Suzu-kun and the muffins no matter what. (I guess Naoto’s mindset just won’t change that easily ^^;)

Just then, we received the news that the pumpkin man had appeared near the train station, and thus quickly made our way there.

Upon arriving there, we were surprised to find that a large crowd had gathered over there, Suzu-kun wondered whether everyone had gathered here after seeing the news that were being spread around on the internet. Hinamori was there too, and was surprised to find us here. He was carrying a large amount of candies and answered that he had came to buy even more candies for the halloween party since it was still not enough. Hinamori made his exit soon after that, claiming that he had to leave. 

Naoto started to get suspicious of Hinamori after that, as he wondered whether Hinamori was actually the pumpkin man. He wondered whether the the candies in Hinamori’s hands were actually “given by the pumpkin man” and also guessed that Hinamori might be acting as the secret guest for the halloween party, who might turn out to be the pumpkin man, since he guessed that if Hinamori revealed his true identity (that he was the pumpkin man afterall), it might make the party even more livelier. 

However, Suzu-kun pointed out that the pumpkin man had his right arm much more larger and muscular than his left, and Hinamori’s arms were both at the same size, and thus felt that it couldn’t be him. But Naoto guessed that Hinamori could do that himself to show such an illusion since he was good at horror make up. Since the event organiser was also a fan of Halloween, Naoto guessed that the event organiser might even be Hinamori’s old friend, and they’ve worked together to create such an event. He also voiced out that Hinamori had a gentle manner, and thus was suitable in thief’s description that he was a gentleman and would not hurt the people he had stole from. 

Suzu-kun doesn’t want to suspect that Hinamori might be the pumpkin man though, and replied that he believed that Hinamori would not do such a bad thing. Naoto answered that in that case, we would just have to capture the pumpkin man to reveal his true identity. 

Chapter 9: 追跡,カプ男! / Let’s Chase, Pumpkin Man!

We decided to join the night parade on the night before Halloween. Even though it was very crowded full of people walking around, Naoto felt that our outfits were the best among all the cosplayers. He really like how Suzu-kun look with his werewolf outfit, and went on to take yet another photo of him again, even saving the photo into his “Suzu-kun’s Special Folder” on his phone. He complimented that Suzu-kun looks really suitable in this outfit, which Suzu-kun thanked him for the compliment~ 

However, Suzu-kun felt that our outfits seems to be on a different level than just cosplaying, as the outfits looks really expensive. He thanked Naoto for his efforts to make these outfits and complimented “my” outfit as well. Naoto remarked that he had made “me’ look even more fashionable, and added on that dressing “me” up as a devil was a request by Kuki actually. Suzu-kun wondered why Kuki had requested “me” to be a devil, asking Naoto whether Kuki likes devil actually. Naoto answered that he doesn’t know either and told Suzu-kun to not bother about it and instead... compliment his shinigami outfit soon XD Suzu-kun complimented him, saying that Naoto really looks suitable in it~

Suddenly, we heard Kuki’s order through the earphones and walkie talkies that were equipped on everyone. Kuki said that he would confirm with us the operations that we would carry out today, since we only have another two more days to capture the pumpkin man. He mentioned that the pumpkin man runs really fast, and told us that in the event if we’re unable to catch up with him, we should not give up, and should instead check on the pumpkin’s man escape route and how he escapes to use those information for tomorrow’s operations. 

Naoto revealed that he had actually secretly equipped a GPS tracker on Hinamori and got the master of Cyan to inform him when Hinamori had left the building. Using the GPS tracker, Naoto planned to tail him in order to check whether he was the pumpkin man. If Hinamori was still in Cyan when the pumpkin man appears, he would have an alibi that proves that he wasn’t the pumpkin man actually. 

“I” was knocked down by a passerby who seems to be drunk, but thankfully Suzu-kun held onto “me” before “I” fall and asked if “I’m” alright. (Suzu-kun is so gentle ^///^) Naoto wasn’t pleased and said that if Suzu-kun was the person who was being knocked down, he would let the other party see hell instead, to which Suzu-kun told Naoto not to say such scary stuff ><” He remarked that there seems to be more people who were drunk today compared to the usual, and was worried for “me” (since “I” might get knocked down again.) Naoto seems jealous as he asked Suzu-kun why wasn’t him worried for him XD Suzu-kun answered that Naoto might be dangerous instead for a different reason... XD (Dangerous as in he might ended up attacking other people instead? XD)

Hijiri and Yu were stationed at the train station instead, with Hijiri complimenting how cute Yu was that he might be even ended up getting more candies than the pumpkin man. As Yu was really shy and was humble, the other passerbys decided to sneakily put in candies in his bag instead XD Yu noticed it and still thanked them shyly though, before heading off XD (Ahh~ Yu is too adorable here in his pumpkin outfit ^////^)

He hurried back to Hijiri and told him to hide him. Hijiri smiled and told him that he doesn’t have to be so scared, but Yu found the cosplayers to be really scary that he can’t help but to want to hide afterall ^^; He wondered why does the passerbys in the streets had to dress up in such scary costumes, since he would rather if everyone dressed up in teddy bear costumes instead XD (That would be cute~ >///<)

Hijiri complimented that Yu was the cutest among all the cosplayers, and thus he could understand why everyone would want to give him candies actually~ Yu sighed and said that he understood that, since it had been countless times that the people around him had told him that he looks adorable and the outfit was suitable for him ^^; He wanted to be complimented by “me” actually, but unfortunately because of work, he was unable to meet “me”. He had not seen “my” outfit yet currently, and asked Hijiri what “I’m” dressing up at. Yu just wanted the work to end quickly for him so that he could meet “me” soon, but in order for that to happen, he would first had to capture the pumpkin man~! 

Chapter 10: 守れ! 清人の夢 / Protect! Hinamori’s Dream

As we walked around the streets, there were no sightings of the pumpkin man, Suzu-kun wondered whether the pumpkin man had decided to take a break at such a day (the day before Halloween). However, Naoto frowned and said that it would be hard to prove Hinamori’s alibi in that case, since he had just received news from the master that Hinamori had left Cyan, and was making his way to the shopping streets. 

We walked on, and saw a man dressed up as a zombie informing the public that there were candies giveaways happening at the shopping square. Naoto remarked that this event seems like it was planned to lure the pumpkin man to appear, and thus decided to head there to get ourselves some candies. We ended up getting alot of candies as they were giving out one large sack for per person, and it even had a strong scent as the candies were made with brandy, which was actually quite rare. Suzu-kun noticed that “I” had a coin chocolate in “my” sack and wanted to exchange something for it with “me” since he likes coin chocolate very much. Naoto was disappointed to find that his sack doesn’t have any coin chocolate, since he would definitely offered his to Suzu-kun~ He ended up making an order online for coin chocolate, and told Suzu-kun that 1kg of it would be delivered the next day OWO” Suzu-kun felt that 1kg of coin chocolate was too much for him, and guessed that perhaps he would just give it out at the halloween party tomorrow. 

We wanted to get more news about the pumpkin man, but when Naoto checked his phone, he mentioned that he’s getting a weak signal for his connection since it seems that everyone on the streets had been actively posting about the pumpkin man and it ended up affecting the overall connection.

Suddenly, the pumpkin man appeared before us and had stole the candies before we realised it. We tried to catch up to him but he was fast and was already far away from us. Suzu-kun told us to leave it to him as the candies he had stolen had a strong scent of brandy and thus he could trace him using his scent of smell~ (Way to go Suzu-kun~! ^^)

We traced the pumpkin man until we reached the dark alley, and Naoto remarked that the pumpkin man must have know his way around the town very well. We were near the japanese confectionery shop that sells really good yokan and Suzu-kun suspected that the pumpkin man had actually went into the shop...

But suddenly Hinamori appeared in front of us, which surprised us. Suzu-kun decided to be blunt and asked Hinamori whether he was the pumpkin man actually, with Naoto adding on asking Hinamori whether he had decided to act as the pumpkin man as a collaboration with the event organiser to make the event even more livelier. Hinamori denied it was him, and he doesn’t know about it, to which Naoto continued asking him why was he behaving weirdly recently. Suzu-kun said that he doesn’t want to suspect Hinamori actually, and hoped that he would come clean with everything to them. 

Hinamori revealed that he had actually called jack-o-lantern to make an appearance at the halloween party tomorrow, and said that rather than the pumpkin man, it was the real jack-o-lantern who he had invited. He knew that the jack-o-lantern had lived in this japanese confectionery shop, and thus had been coming here everyday to plead him to make an appearance at the party. But no matter how many times he had pleaded to him, he was still rejected... TWT (Aww... poor Hinamori~)

Naoto comforted Hinamori and told him to return for today and come back tomorrow, saying that the jack-o-lantern might have changed his mind tomorrow instead. He asked Hinamori whether he had noticed that the jack-o-lantern had the scent of brandy on him, to which Hinamori answered that he did noticed that.

After Hinamori had left, Naoto said that Hinamori must have mistaken the pumpkin man to be the real jack-o-lantern actually, since Hinamori himself had not seen the pumpkin man stealing candies at all, and thus had been thinking that the pumpkin man who the others are talking about was a different person from the jack-o-lantern which he had seen. 

Chapter 11: カプ男の正体 / The True Identity Of The Pumpkin Man

But, what’s important for us was to find out who exactly was the pumpkin man. However, there doesn’t seems to be anywhere the pumpkin man could escape to or hide in at the dark alley other than the japanese confectionery shop, and thus Suzu-kun suspected that perhaps the old grandpa who was the owner of the shop could actually be the real identity behind the pumpkin man...? Suddenly, the shop owner appeared and admitted that he was indeed the pumpkin man. He also mentioned that Hinamori had mistaken him to be the real jack-o-lantern, and he had decided to continue with this act pretending to be the real jack-o-lantern before him, since he knew that if he’s known as the pumpkin man instead, he would be captured for sure. The shop owner had heard the conversation between Hinamori and us just now, and now felt embarrassed about his actions and him lying to Hinamori.

As the shop owner had been making candies for many years, he had used his right arm extensively till it had became muscular, just like how a pro sportsman would. Suzu-kun asked the shop owner why he wanted to steal the candies and the owner explained that due to Halloween, his japanese confectioneries had not sold at all, and thus he thought if he had stolen the western candies from his rivals’ shops, perhaps more customers would come to buy candies from his shop instead. He now realised what he had done was a stupid act since somehow he helped to increase the sales of his rivals’ shops instead ^^; 

Initially, rather than planning to disrupt the business of his competitors, the shop owner had wanted to make it a fair competition between him and others shops in terms of taste actually. He had made some japanese confectioneries that were suitable to be sold in the halloween period. (Like bloody sweets or Dracula theme candies ^^;) However, he was too focused on making these scary sweets that in the end his wife and daughter had said that these candies were too scary to be sold and thus the shop owner had no idea what he should do next (other than disrupting his rivals’ business). 

Suzu-kun suggested that he actually had an idea for the shop owner. Suzu-kun had actually attempted to make some japanese confectioneries that’s suitable for Halloween himself. He thought of making pumpkin yokan, and said that with the help and skills of the shop owner, they might be able to make it taste even better. The shop owner started to get excited and showed Suzu-kun the scary sweets he had done, and Naoto started dissing that the shop owner was Hinamori’s type of person .(People who really like horror stuff ^^;) Suzu-kun gave a weak smile and asked “me” to please take Naoto away from here XD (Since he was just causing a disturbance XD) 

Suzu-kun told the shop owner that people would like candies usually even without those scary decorations, and thus suggested him to make some new flavours that were delicious, and gave it out to everyone on the streets as an apology for his actions instead. The shop owner wondered whether he would be forgiven just like that since he had seen himself to be a really bad guy who had stolen everyone’s candies. Naoto came back to join in the conversation, and said no one would mind and instead this would make the event more livelier. Suzu-kun told the shop owner that we had accepted the event organiser’s request to capture the pumpkin man (even though it just sounded like a game instead) and thus suggested that the shop owner would continue to be the pumpkin man and let us get captured on the streets instead tomorrow. The shop owner thought that he would get punished like this in public, but Suzu-kun said that the shop owner would just apologise to the crowd who had gathered and gave out the new flavoured candies which he had made to the crowd, saying that the public would definitely forgive him this way. Since now that hey’ve decided on the new candies and places to distribute them, Suzu-kun urged the shop owner to join him to make some pumpkin yokan~

Naoto told the shop owner to come to the halloween party after distributing the candies tomorrow, since Hinamori had invited him to come to the party countless times. The shop owner replied that what Hinamori wanted to invite was the real jack-o-lantern... but Naoto cut him off by saying that to Hinamori, the pumpkin man which the shop owner had acted as was the real jack-o-lantern, and told him that he should just fulfill Hinamori’s wish like how a santa claus would showed up during Christmas. (Naoto sound so cool saying this >///<) In the end, the shop owner agreed to come to the party, but warned them that he would be late since he would have alot of candies to be given out, and thus would need us to make some time for him to make his appearance.

We started smiling at Naoto, and he confessed that he’s just doing this favour for Hinamori since he would feel troublesome if the main organiser of the halloween party was in low spirits XD 

Chapter 12: ハロウインの夜は更けて / The Halloween Night Continues On

It was finally the night of the Halloween party~ “I” entered the place and was surprised by Suzu-kun who had casted some spider webs at “me”. The spider webs was part of Hinamori’s collection, and told “me” not to worry since these spider webs are fake ^^; He remarked that “I” was late but upon noticing that “I” was wearing makeup that Ran had helped “me” to put it, he complimented “me”, saying that it suits “me” and “I” looked really adorable~ ^/////^ 

Even Naoto complimented that make up, saying that Ran had did it just like what he had requested, and said that he had requested it because it won’t make sense for him if the make up doesn’t match with the outfits which he had made ^^; (Naoto is indeed a perfectionist  ^^;)

(When questioned about the decorations of the venue, Naoto was glad that it came out really good and said that “I” must have worked hard at it. Even though usually he dislikes these disgusting decorations, he felt that overall the decorations actually looks quite good and thus alright with it.)

Hinamori noticed that “I’ve” came to the party, and told “me” to enjoy “myself” here~ He was sorry that he had not managed to invite the “secret” guest (jack-o-lantern), and said that even though he had wanted to invite him to the party again today, he was disappointed to find that the jack-o-lantern wasn’t at the japanese confectionery shop, wondering whether he won’t be able to see him after that for the rest of his life TWT He said that he had wanted to let us meet up with him, since he had felt that the jack-o-lantern was a wonderful person. Hinamori continued on by explaining that the lantern that was jack-o-lantern’s head was a symbol of him being alone. Jack-o-lantern was unable to reside in the heaven or in hell, and thus was always floating around, and that lantern was his only hope. Hinamori explained that because he used to be alone in the past as well, he could understand really well about this feeling. (Aww Hinamori~~ T////T *pats) 

Naoto and Suzu-kun joined us, and told us that we should get started with the game time at the party, since if Kuki had gotten impatient with the waiting, he would get started on singing nostalgic songs on the karaoke XD Hinamori thanked the two of them and said because of the two of them as well as the rest of the detective agency, Hinamori doesn’t feel lonely anymore ^^ 

We started playing with a bingo game, which Kuki had won after getting a triple bingo. Turns out that the present was a replica version of a certain someone’s heart, which Kuki gave a weak smile but still accepted with a thanks to Hinamori, saying that he would treasure it even more than his own heart~ 

(I just want to show Kuki’s devilish halloween outfit here ^^)

Just then, Yu arrived, with Kuki mentioned that someone cute had came to join us~ However, Yu was scared of the decorations and started panicking, making Kuki flustered as well as he called Hijiri for help instead ^^: Hinamori guessed that the decorations must be too hard for Yu’s heart, and said that in order to make Yu enjoy the party in the future, he should change the decorations used for the next party~

“I” went on to help out with Suzu-kun, and he told “me” that he had helped “me” to keep some pumpkin candies for “me” in the fridge. Even though Suzu-kun had make some yokan as taught by the shop owner, he felt that making pudding and pies were easier for him since he was used to making these instead. “I” couldn’t decide on whether “I” should eat the pudding or the pie made by Suzu-kun, so he recommended that “I” ate both instead, even suggesting we eat together later on~ (That was a sweet moment with Suzu-kun ^////^)

At this moment, Naoto appeared and told Suzu-kun to help him in moving away a doll which was put up as a decoration at the party, since Yu might ended up fainting if he had seen these ^^; Suzu-kun asked Naoto whether he would feel sad if the scary decorations were taken down, but Naoto answered that he had already enjoyed them and it was more important that they try to fit to Yu’s taste as well to make him felt at ease at the party. (Awww~ Naoto was actually being really nice here ^^) Naoto said that he’s always a really nice and gentle person, especially to Suzu-kun~ ^^ 

The bingo game which the other members in the agency were playing had ended as well at this time, and thus Hinamori told everyone to help themselves to the food and enjoyed himself. Kuki had eaten alot of coin chocolates, and ended up getting a nosebleed ^^; Suzu-kun was glad that Kuki was a fan of coin chocolates as well, while Naoto worried that Kuki might ended up eating Suzu-kun’s share but guessed that he won’t eat so much since he ordered 1 kg of them ^^; 

And... that was the end of the Halloween event story~ Sad that it ended halfway through the party and never really showed us the part where the pumpkin man appears... I wanted to see Hinamori’s face lit up when he saw his jack-o-lantern made an appearance though... =3=“

As I’ve stated above, this was mainly a Class 5′s event story so as a fan of Class 5, I was glad to see them shine in this event~! ^^ (Since there was so much moments of them ^^) Kuki and Shiro made quite alot of appearance too, which I enjoyed, and together with Hijiri and Yu, it seems that the cast this time round was full of characters that I really like ^^

The halloween outfits wore by the various members were really nice as well~ ^^ Suzu-kun especially looks really adorable as an ookami prince here~ >////< Yu as well in his little pumpkin witch outfit XD Even though they showed Kuki’s Halloween outfit, I hoped that they showed an outfit for Shiro... and many others too, too bad we don’t get to see them~ (I bet Shiro would definitely looks good as an ookami as well! +W+)

[christinloewe-blog]

Things know before you hire a Maler München

very decade more or less, most homes want a brand new paint of coat. Painting your home helps defend it from the weather, keeps it moneyed, and permits you to merely fancy it additional. The factor is- painting a home by yourself will take a protracted time. and if you don’t sleep in a husbandman, you’ll want tall ladders to succeed in the second or third stories. This leads many of us towards hiring an expert, that brings its own challenges. They’ll have to be compelled to do analysis into house Maler, realize one that’s really reasonable, created many interviews, etc.

Sounds like a problem, right?

Well it doesn’t need to be. this text can assist you decide the simplest company for the job- amount. You’ll be ready to sleep higher at midnight in your nice, freshly- painted home. oh yeah- and you wouldn’t have paid together with your first-born kid. to begin this off, let’s verify the foremost common question that individuals ask- could be a professional extremely necessary?

1. do you have to screw Yourself or rent a Pro? Most people contemplate painting to be a reasonably easy task. You dip a roller or brush into the paint, so apply it equally to walls. Simple, right? Well for the foremost part- yea that’s all there's thereto. most of the people will paint their own residence if they really need to. It’s an honest approach for them to save lots of many greenbacks, get outside, and pride oneself in their own work. however there’s a unique aspect of the coin to think about, as a result of hiring an expert includes a few benefits.

Here area unit many of the large ones to consider:

Time Savings Even though you would possibly save many greenbacks by doing it yourself, don’t chuck all of these hours you’ll be payment on this project. If you’re all by yourself, it will take you many weeks to color the entire house! That’s operating many hours each day. clearly it depends on however massive your home is, however you’d be shocked however long it will fancy properly paint a range in your spare time.

You’re busy enough because it is- does one really need to pay your touch of spare time painting?

Safety Maler area unit perpetually standing on tall ladders. they need to jump on roofs, lean out windows, and sometimes do another crazy stuff to induce the work done. although ninetieth of painting is comparatively safe, it’s that last 100 percent that keeps mothers up at midnight. Why would you are doing this yourself after you will simply rent somebody to try and do these items for you? skilled Maler apprehend what they’re doing- they are doing this each day. They savvy to properly use a ladder and the way to live their level of fatigue. They won’t push their own limits as a result of they realize what’s at stake.

Do you? Quality It’s not rocket science to brush paint onto a wall…But will simply anyone create paint look good? Even additional significantly, does one savvy to invariably create the paint look sensible, the way to get those hard-to-reach places, and also the most important elements of your home to paint? most likely not as a result of most of the people don’t. Professionals apprehend that sure areas of the house, like the little gaps beneath aspect panel or on top of a door, area unit very necessary. If you don’t paint those important areas, your house is additional prone to mould, critters or different varieties of injury.

So a professional won't solely facilitate the paint look higher, they’ll additionally defend your home higher.

Speed A professional can most likely have a minimum of 3-4 individuals engaged on your house at any given time. typically it should be simply 1-2 for the finishing touches, however usually expect a full crew. Don’t you're thinking that they'll be ready to end the work quicker than you doing it all by yourself? after all they will. therefore rather than the work taking a full month, you’ll be sitting pretty in your freshly-painted home within 1-2 weeks. this offers you peace of mind. You’ll apprehend that this project is complete, therefore you'll be able to specialize in different tasks- either round the house or at work.

2. What you would like to try and do to arrange for skilled Painting Even though some professionals may do these items for you, keep in mind that you’re primarily paying them to paint- not move stuff around and time is money! If you would like to save lots of a touch, we tend to advocate doing these items yourself- you get additional “bang for the buck”.

Move piece of furniture Your Maler can most likely cover the piece of furniture with plastic sheets, however you continue to have to be compelled to confirm it’s not in their approach. They don’t wish to be lurching around on your furniture- particularly if they need a full paint bucket in their hand! If you'll be able to, move the piece of furniture out of the space being painted. If you don’t have the accessible area, move it all to the middle of the space. Oh yeah, and “Move Furniture” additionally includes wall hangings! Paintings, pictures, quotes, clocks, mirrors, and anything that you simply have hanging on the wall. It isn’t specifically straightforward to color a wall that’s lined in photos and clocks, is it?

Remove Outlet Covers and Switch Plates A lot of individuals chuck this tiny step. although it’s not extremely a giant deal if most switch plates or outlet covers get paint on them it’s easier to merely avoid it by removing them. as a result of these items area unit sometimes plastic, removing dried paint isn’t invariably straightforward. This step is very necessary if you've got pretty nice covers and switch plates. most of the people have a budget $1 ones from Home Depot, however you certainly don’t wish to induce paint everywhere your nicer, vintage ones.

Allocate a minimum of One area as a “Staging Area” Professional Maler don’t simply carry their gallon bucket with them everyplace. They created look in one or a pair of areas that permits them lots of area to store their ladders, plastic sheets, paint, etc. although Maler can usher in all of their own stuff, you'll wish to form space for them to stay all of these items. this can be particularly necessary if you've got a great deal of belongings in your home, as this could result in a great deal of litter (no offense, however you recognize UN agency you are!)

Clean the Walls You might assume “these walls area unit on the brink of get painted- why ought to I clean them?” It really makes additional sense to wash them as a result of they’re on the brink of get painted. Paint tends to bring out any physical variations during a wall. Things like mud or dirt area unit particularly additional visible once painting, because the paint essentially sticks these substances to the wall for good. to wash the walls, you don’t want something fancy. simply create a mixed answer of water and a gentle detergent, so apply it to the wall with a sponge. Don’t soak the walls- you’re simply making an attempt to induce most of the surface stains and mud off. confirm that you simply leave lots of time for the walls to dry before paint day! think about employing fans to assist speed up the method if you’re running short on time.

Shore Up Those Pets Every skilled Maler has had this happen a minimum of once… most likely dozens of times. The family doesn’t wish to cover Fi-Fi, that the dog or cat will return or go as they please. the matter with this- particularly once painting doors or the corners of walls- is that typically the animal rubs up against the recent coat of paint. we tend to perceive that your pet doesn’t like being within the crate or laundry room- however they ought to be okay for many hours. If you actually don’t wish to try and do that, either board them up, have a dearest take them for many days, or take the danger of getting a painted animal to clean!

4. stuff you ought to Expect from a painter When you rent an expert painter, there area unit many customary things to expect. Here’s an inventory of a number of the basics:

Timely A professional ought to arrive on time, not take extended lunch breaks, and shut up look before it gets too late at midnight. This lets them complete the work quickly and cut back inconvenience to you, their consumer.

Walk-through Do you assume an expert would simply “take a guess” at what quantity your project can value, what quantity paint is needed, {and how|and the approach} long it'll take? No way. Instead, they’ll do a whole walk-through to visualize what's being painted. They’ll take measurements, raise a great deal of queries, and can possible take photos or notes.

Colors, Finishes, and finish Goal A professional painter needs to form certain that you’re happy. They’ll raise concerning what colours you’d like, any specific finishes, etc. If you haven’t elite a selected whole nonetheless, they will additionally provides a sensible recommendation concerning their favorite paint brands. this can be nice as a result of most customers haven't any plan what’s thought of a top quality paint. though you see ads on the TV or hear them on the radio, that doesn’t mean it’s a top quality brand!

Insurance & Licenses A professional Maler ought to have insurance and correct licenses. this can assist you feel secure concerning hiring this company, because it adds a layer of protection for each yourself Associate in Nursingd them just in case of an accident. The painter ought to offer this info to you for your records.

Thorough Estimates If you see variety simply scribbled onto a napkin- run! If the proposal is poorly written, lacks clarity and throws a red flag for lack of skilled, additionally run! an expert painter can have a whole breakdown of their prices and schedule. It offers you a peace of mind as a result of it permits you to apprehend that they didn’t simply create everything up.

6. Understanding the Estimate and valuation Maler have 2 main varieties of costs- direct and indirect. Knowing the distinction is that the beginning in understanding a worth estimate.

Indirect prices These area unit the prices that aren’t directly tied to your painting project. as an example, indirect prices embody the monthly payment on the instrumentality, work truck, overhead and advantages for the crew. Indirect prices additionally embody things just like the utilities and rent of the contractor’s headquarters (if they need one). a part of the wage for support employees, like a secretary, is additionally enclosed. Customers typically chuck these varieties of prices till they initial receive the estimate. once it seems over they'll have expected, it’s actually because of the indirect prices.

Direct prices Direct prices area unit usually simply paint, labor and gas (especially if you reside out of city from the painter’s main region). These area unit the prices that individuals sometimes consider once developing with their own budget. These prices will vary wide betting on wherever you reside and what quite paint you would like. as an example, areas with the next value of living will expect to pay additional parturient prices. Besides simply ending prices by direct/indirect, let’s take a glance at what you must expect to visualize on the estimate.

What to Expect on the Estimate Labor, Time Frame, Materials, Paint, Travel (if any charged). a number of these items is also lumped along. See if the Maler will break the numbers out, simply because it offers you an improved plan of wherever your cash goes. confirm that the ultimate estimate is crystal-clear. you would like it to mention specifically what you’re paying for and the way long it’s expected to require.  Don’t let the project get halfway done so understand that one thing is missing on the estimate, or that it’s unclear. It’s invariably easier to mend the estimate direct than to form changes to your agreement later.

Other necessary inquiries to raise a painter There area unit a great deal of specific queries you must raise your Maler. These won't solely assist you get to understand their temperament, however additionally their experience.

Even though this isn’t a whole list, it'll definitely facilitate get you started:

How Long have you ever Been Painting Houses?

How practiced is Most of Your Crew?

How Long can the Project fancy Complete?

What does one want Pine Tree State to try and do Before you'll Start?

Do You advocate Multiple Coats?

What quite schoolwork Work is enclosed in Your Quotes?

Do You seal and Fill Cracks?

Do You obtain All of Your Trash at the End?

Do You Pressure Wash the outside Walls?

Are There any Homes near  You’ve Recently Finished that I might See?

Do You Have a guaranty or Guarantee?

Do You Spray, Roll or surface Outside Walls? What concerning the Inside?

Which Paints does one advocate for this Job?

Do i want Any Major Repairs Before you'll be able to Start?

Do You Apply Primer Before the Paint?

What Happens if Paint Gets within the Carpet or on the Concrete or Roof Tiles? Again, this can be simply to assist get you started. If you're thinking that of different queries you’d prefer to apprehend before moving forward, ask away!

[xdoublev]

Adventures in Ireland! Part Three

Part One can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166020676405/adventures-in-ireland-part-one

Part Two can be found here:

http://xdoublev.tumblr.com/post/166055989300/adventures-in-ireland-part-two

Friday, 9/29

Well the plan had been initially to sleep in, for once, but since we had decided to leave our rental car sitting in the alley until our trip back to Dublin the next day we had another early wake up call. No sleep in Ireland, indeed. I want to say I got up at some horrendous hour, 6am or something, to shower. I had mapped out how far the bus station was that would be taking us on our tour and it was just over a mile, about a half hour walk away. Our bus was to depart at 9:30, and it was suggested we arrive 10 minutes early. So we had plans to leave our hotel no later than 8:40. I went out on a quest for coffee and walked in to the first shop I saw, a Nordic coffee place? They had iced coffee on the menu so I ordered two of those. What I got.. was not what I expected. They gave me two 8 or so oz cups only slightly full with something that resembled a smoothie. It tasted coffee-ish? But definitely not my thing. But hey, new experiences amirite? I ran those back to our hotel room where mom was finishing up getting ready.

We left our hotel room on schedule and made the trek down the main road. It was simple getting there: Go quite a ways down the main road, turn left, and continue to go straight. I had somewhat mastered roads at this point, or at least I knew where to look for the road signs. And it was immensely easier to spot road signs when walking. However, we walked a good bit longer down that first road than I thought we would have to. As 9:20 crept over so closer I first started to get nervous we were going to miss our tour. I don’t think I’ve ever power walked so fast, and my poor mom was hustling behind me trying to keep up. We eventually found our turn and I’m anxiously watching the numbers on the buildings go down as we slowly get closer. About 9:20, we are about a block away when a major intersection comes up and it’s unclear which way to continue walking. Just as I was about to panic, I saw the LED “ALLEN’S TOURS” on the front of a bus in the distance. I sigh out of relief, and we are the last to check in and we get on the bus safely. Crisis averted!

Our first stop was at Carrickfergus Castle, a 12th century castle off the ocean dedicated to King William III. It was a quick stop so we didn’t have time to explore inside the castle, but we got some great shots of the outside. And there was a café nearby where we able to fill up on more sufficient caffeine! Next our bus made its way up a gorgeous coastal highway, with farms to the left of the bus and the beautiful Irish sea to the right. We had another great driver and tour guide who told us all about the towns and some history that we passed along the way. We stopped at the site of the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, but first it was a 20 minute walk up and down some gorgeous cliffs with an amazing view of the Irish Sea. I absolutely fell in love with Northern Ireland. From what I had seen of Belfast I was not super impressed with the city (Especially after such an amazing few days in Galway) but I would 100% go back just to make my way back up north where everything looks like a scene straight out of Broadchurch. The rope bridge had a pretty amazing history dating back centuries to fishers bringing in their catch. The bridge was now reinforced and maintained by their historical society. My Mom and I, both terribly afraid of heights, actually crossed the bridge, not once, BUT TWICE! And it was so worth the views.

Next stop was lunch, a cute café very close to our last stop. Everything on their menu looked excellent. Mom had an Irish stew and I had the absolute best smoked salmon I’ve ever had in my life. The salmon had been caught locally just a few towns over, and I imagine that had a lot to do with it. Next we headed up to Giant’s Causeway, which was really just another amazing view of the Irish Sea from cliffs, but you will never hear me complain about such things! We walked down to the bottom of cliffs where the waves were crashing down on rocks that you could walk out on. After about a hundred more photos (I took more photos on this excursion than I did our whole trip in Ireland) we had a little time left to kill so we killed time in a nearby pub where our driver would be back to get us soon.

Our last stop of the tour was at a spot called the Dark Hedges, which was apparently used in Game of Thrones. I wasn’t particularly interested and it was a very short stop, so we stayed on the bus and appreciated it from afar. Sadly, the way back to Belfast was not along the gorgeous coastal route, but on the normal motorway. But we headed back and got back in to Belfast with just a bit of daylight left. We started to walk back to our hotel and we got rained on. Although I suppose we can’t complain since the rain had waited until after our amazing excursion up north had ended. We were still full from our lunch from before and decided to drink at hotel pub again this evening. I got the idea that we should do post cards while we had our pints, and we had a lot of fun coming up with short stories to tell people on the backs of the post cards. I had my last two Hop House 13’s night. I’ve since checked a couple grocery stores back here in the US and they don’t appear to sell it here. So I’m happy I had as many as I did in Belfast!

Saturday, 9/30

Last full day in Ireland! We woke up early and packed up the room. I made my usual trek to go get coffee, going to a spot further up the road this time and sticking to americanos and even got a tasty blueberry muffin. We checked out of our hotel and the receptionist gave us some tips to easily make our way to the motorway and get to Dublin. We put our suitcases in the trunk of the car and went to kill what few hours we had left in Belfast. First, we located the post office and mailed off our post cards from the evening before. Then we wandered around a park and walked back to the bridge we had crossed several times at this point, but finally had time to appreciate and snap some photos of the water. The rowing team from Queens University was passing under the bridge and it really was a sight to see. We decided before we got on the road to Dublin we needed more fish and chips! So we stopped at one of the many little shops and had lunch. It was a little too greasy for me so early in the day, but delicious nonetheless and had some of the best chips I had our whole time in Ireland. As the afternoon slowly crept by, we needed to make the trek back to Dublin to return our rental car by 5pm.

Rather than saying we got lost, I prefer to say we “unintentionally saw a lot more of the Irish countryside than initially planned on.” What should have been a 2 hour trip turned in to a lot more than that and while it was still a bit stressful, we made it to Dublin to return our car just after 5pm. This all after turning down multiple wrong exits and going on a mad dash for a petrol station when we almost ran out. I blame their signs for not being very clear, hah. We got checked in to our last stay of the trip, the Maldrin, just after 6pm. This was not like our other two hotels and was more like a traditional hotel than a pub, although it was among the nicer hotels I’ve ever stayed in. We were there specifically because it was so close to the airport and we had an early flight the next day. We briefly considered staying in and resting up for our flight. But fuck that! One night in Dublin. Sleep be damned, we were gonna go have a good time.

We took our courtesy airport shuttle bus over to a bus that would take us to the oldest pub in Ireland – The Brazen Head. I figured if we were just gonna go to a pub, might as well go to a landmark pub, right? It took about a thirty minute ride on the top of the double decker bus, the same route we had ridden a few days before, before we got dropped off and found our way to the very packed and decked out pub. We enjoyed a few more pints sitting outside on a lovely last evening. We got to chat with someone visiting from San Francisco on business.

After an hour or so we headed back to our bus stop.. where we learned the hard way that you have to hail the bus if you actually want them to stop (Thanks to our random friend we made from Spain for teaching us how to hail the buses). We got back to our hotel tired but happy.

Sunday, 10/1

The alarm went off.. I don’t know. 4am? I didn’t sleep at all. Was so nervous about oversleeping. Anyways, we shuttled over to the airport. Where we had to go through security twice and then customs. A little jarring so early and with no sleep, but bearable. Upon getting through security I realized that the entire week got away from me and I didn’t buy any souvenirs. So I did some last minute shopping at the airport. And, yeah. That’s it.

This was such an incredible trip. I can’t wait to go on the next adventure <3