#i won’t lie i chose the one of the options i thought would be coolest not the most likely

[libraribear]

2020 in Review

2020 is in the books. What a year. It seems a given that through life, some years will be good and some years will be bad, and for many 2020 was one of the bad ones. Globally, it feels like it was the worst year ever. Personally, I can’t go that far. So many people have it worse than I do, and I’m leery of writing this post because I don’t want to sound unsympathetic as I count my blessings (before going into the undeniably shitty, but FAR LESS shitty things than what some other people are going through).

Nonetheless, as part of a New Year’s Resolution to create more, I figured I’d polish up this blog and write more, so here’s my 2020: Good, Bad, and Ugly. This is a heckin’ long post so only read on... if you dare.

The Good

I never lost my job.

A lot of my academic colleagues did - basically everyone who had “temporary” or “adjunct” in their title was axed. By virtue of being temporary year-to-year faculty for five years, I was promoted to the tenure-track in 2019. I feel very badly for my colleagues, all who lost their job to circumstance, not merit. Six years ago I took a chance leaving a steady job with a newborn to pursue my goal of being an Academic Librarian.  The job was a one-year temporary position with no guarantee of continued employment, and I worked hard, interviewed for my job twice in five years, and managed to hang on. It’s crushing to imagine what it would have been like to survive all that and get axed because of a pandemic, and I feel very badly for my colleagues who suffered that fate.

I got to spend most of the year working from home with my kids.

Before I get into “The Bad”, namely that keeping a five and six year old on task while working a full-time job is incredibly stressful, the good was that I got to watch one-year-old girl grow and grow and grow every day whereas my two boys were in daycare at that age. I got to spend a ton more time with the boys and my wife too.

My kids live in a school district with resources.

We’ve made a lot of strides in Distance Education, but it still isn’t ideal. I feel like my kids’ school district is doing the best they can to make it work. I feel extremely fortunate to live in a district where that was an option from the start, with full distance, hybrid, and in-person options. Not wanting to expose my kids or their teachers to any risk, we’ve gone full distance the whole time. we chose this to keep our kids as safe as possible, so I hope you’ll forgive me when I go into detail under The Bad as why it sucks for everyone involved. ;)

Ms. Bear and I started Doctoral Programs

File this one under “things I’d have never done if I knew the pandemic was going to be this much of a problem in Fall”, but it’s still a good thing - and definitely not the kind of thing I would do if it wasn’t free through my university. With Ms. Bear it’s more of a life-fulfillment thing and I’m happy that I can help her realize her dream. 

The Bad

Distance Education Requires Training - Students Are Struggling

My college freshmen struggled to adapt to their first year seminar class and I attempted to make it as easy as possible for them to follow along, engage online, have second and third chances to turn in assignments... it didn’t matter. Elementary school students have it worse - my kids struggle to stay on task, and me and Ms. Bear do our best to keep them on task. I feel really bad for those kids whose parents can’t work from home or are too busy to stay on them and help them with distance education. I’m not anti-distance education by any stretch, but the pandemic forced a lot of people to switch to it relatively quickly and since distance education is by its nature very self-directed even with a good teacher/instructor, some people unused to this method really struggle.

I should note that none of this is meant as a criticism of the decision to go for distance education.  Health is most important, period, and those politicians that are like “But think of the children, send them to school” - well, hold them back a year if it’s that bad. I repeated the first grade. It’s better than dying. I worry less about the kids’ educational attainment and more for those kids from bad homes where school is a safe haven/source of food. If you’re that worried about it pass some laws to help. 

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is leaking water

When you find a tiny leak in your roof, if you can afford it, pay the money and fix it. Don’t wait “because it’s a pandemic and we may need that money”. The money sat in my bank account until the the bedroom ceiling started to drop a few months later. Definitely the decision of 2020 I’d most like back.

2020 Was Not The Year to Reduce Stress.

I think everyone is running on fumes by the time they got to the end of this year. For my wife and I as young parents (can’t help that), full-time workers (gotta eat to live), and grad students (like I said above, if I had a do-over I’d DEFINITELY have waited until 2021, the pandemic represented the steady erosion of all the gains I made the past year. Anxiety? Back up. Overall level of physical fitness and nutrition? I was exercising and eating and feeling really healthy in March, but I eat (and feel) like crap now. 

The Ugly

Misinformation, Misinformation Everywhere... and Politics

Misinformation is nothing new for a US Presidential Election year. But as a librarian whose job it is to promote information literacy, understanding which sources are indeed trustworthy and which are not, this election year was frankly, terrifying for me. I mean, if you know a source is trustworthy because of the standards and norms that are used to govern it, but people simply roll to disbelief it’s trustworthiness... I’m not sure how in the hell you get through to them. Lest this be construed as too political a post (I did get a little political above, hee), I’m going to stress that these information discernment skills that seem to be lacking are skills people on both Team Blue Donkey and Team Red Elephant lack. Add to that the psuedoscience, lack of fact-checking, and the whole “If it doesn’t agree with my worldview, I refuse to believe it” attitude illuminated by the pandemic and I’m not going to lie, this shit is terrifying to me. I’m hoping it’s just a phase we’re going through in America, but geez. I’m not a doom and gloomer, but this year was TOUGH in the whole “Faith in humanity’s ability to reason” department. I’ll listen to anyone’s political opinion if they back it up with well-researched sources and facts, but rather than driving closer to this goal, we’re heading in the wrong direction.

I should note that to me, it’s not just Team Red Elephant that has trouble discerning information, or is duplicitous. I need to make that clear. I definitely lean left and it’s not hard to see why - I mean, I’m a heckin’ librarian for crying out loud. But lying and misinformation or misconstruing facts? Some politicians may be more egregious offenders, but most politicians do that regardless of stripe. I feel politics are more like a teeter totter constantly switching up and down. We do ourselves a disservice when we believe everyone on our team is rational and level-headed and everyone on the other team is evil, stupid, irrational. There was a time when we could have discourse, and through disagreements we could at least learn from one another. I intensely understand the desire to make and justify political beliefs, but they’re not how we progress in a country that’s run the way the US is. Maybe it’s always been this way, but as I’ve aged I notice we have a lot more tendency to anoint a politician of our political stripe as a savior. Whatever happened to the old worldview that all politicians were lying dirtbags and though you might side with them, you could never fully trust them? It seems to have been turned on its head, I’m not sure how, to “Trust my side implicitly, DO NOT TRUST THE OTHER SIDE AT ALL.” That one side could be a bastion of truth and virtue and the other a bastion of evil and ugliness is, I’m not gonna lie, extremely unlikely.

Do as I say, not as I do. I got swept up in the political fervor myself with my D&D Friends - for a time we had a “Just Politics” channel to talk politics. That was a big mistake. Though no friendships were ended, that channel alone intensified my anxiety tenfold (MY FRIEND IS WRONG ON THE INTERNET! I HAVE TO SHOW THEM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS!) and... yeah. The BEST decision I made in 2020 was folding and walking away from the political discussion table - but it took me a few months of arguing and stressing to get there. I’ve reverted back to trying to do good for all people in my little corner of the world and the web by treating everyone respectfully and rationally unless they give me reason to do otherwise, at which point I’m far more likely to ignore you than engage with you. I hate that I have to do that, but it is what it is. If I talk politics, it’s privately with someone I know that is sane enough to safely distance from the chaos, or someone I trust implicitly. I won’t deny that it’s a very fascinating subject to me since politics is so ingrained into human nature, but good lord, what a minefield.

UGLY Bonus Edit (I always think of the coolest things to say right after I hit post, after all)

A last thought - whenever we’re confronted with a worldview we disagree with, whatever happened to asking the person why they feel that way or what they meant before immediately labeling them scum on Earth? We don’t even bother to fact check the people we loathe when honestly at worst you’re just confirming suspicions, at best you may even cause them to question why they believe what they believe? I can’t remember the last political or heated conversation I’ve seen where that happened. When I was fighting with my friends on “Just Politics” I don’t think I bothered to ask that often enough myself.   

Anyway, I’m looking forward to making 2021 a better year than 2020. Happy New Year, everyone. Love and hope to you all.

[fullymechanized-consoomer]

40K factions and you

Space Marines:

Your favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla, but occasionally you might try some Neapolitan, if you’re feeling dangerous. You’re faction’s lore is designed from the ground up to accept your self-inserts, and the models are some of the easiest to paint in the entire range. None of this matters because no matter how unique you think your super-cool “realistic marines who use real tactics maaaaan” are they’ll always come out looking like a slight variation of the ones below

8th edition has finally allowed you to feel a tiny sliver of the unbalanced and over-costed hell other factions have been stuck in for years, but unlike them, daddy GW is more than willing to spend a little extra on his bulky good bois so they still get all the coolest gear and lore. Like vanilla, small children love them, but they grow out of both eventually. 

edit: it was only a matter of time before GW stamped its foot down and made the inevitable decision that its favorite kid needs to be busted again. Then again in all fairness they toned down their overpoweredness from “godlike” to merely “demi-godlike” 

Imperial Guard:

You’re a big “history fan”. You’ve seen Enemy at the Gates, watched some history channel shows about Nazi wonder weapons, and make 54 karma post on r/history_memes recycling debunked Eastern Front jokes. Only your intelligent eye is able to conflate this factions obvious Metal Slug levels of cartoonish design and tactics with realism, and you make sure to remind everyone else of said realism by comparing your tabletop exploits to your military experience in the reserves. Everyone used to like you back when the faction was actually made up of underdogs and under appreciated, but the Guant’s Ghosts references have gotten kinda stale, and no one appreciates the brass balls of these Starship Trooper knockoffs now that 8th edition supports and rewards the very same mindless horde tactics the Guard used to be mocked for in Lore. Despite having some of the most tried and true designs in the game, as well as an incredible amount of options, you will quickly find how limiting the only “realistic” army is in terms of customization and paint schemes, as anything but camo, grey, or tan looks goofy and reveals how silly this faction actually is. 

edit: If your army consists of wrapping 30 guardsmen around basilisks I recommend you take a short fall down a long flight of stairs. Fuck you, Evan.

Eldar:

You’re a real shooter. You know what you like and you stick with it, cause lets face it, it takes a lot of loyalty to stick with these arrogant pricks. Their designs are unique but dated, their lore is a uneven mishmash of 40k grimdark schmultz Tolkien telephone, and Oliver Twist-esque whipping bois for whenever GW writers need to remind us how cool Space Marines are. But none of that matters because you know the truth: Eldar can kick tons of ass on the board, and look good doing it, as their unique designs lends them to all sorts of brilliant color combinations

And unlike other armies their rare design updates improve on their aesthetic while keeping their 40k-ness, something that is becoming increasingly rare in this era of Tacticool marines and Fantasy-creep. Just don’t expect to be taken seriously by anyone but the old-heads.

Edit: Leave it to the whipping bois to be outshined in their own event and get a single model update. Thanks GW, very cool. 

Dark Eldar

You are one of two people: a meta hopping smooth brain who only jumped ship once these guys got one of the best updates in 40k history, or a true intellectual who understood their hidden merit all along. Other faction players like to make fun of you for being edgy, when in reality you know that the Dark Eldar are just a bunch of sociopathic theater kids. They, like you, know how fucked from top to bottom this universe is, and instead of getting depressed they exclaimed “how can we be the best cartoon villains we can be?”. Despite having a relatively bare army list, the fact that these d-bags come in 3 flavors of crazy in a single army offers a ton of variety: the mustache twirling villainy of the Kabals, the crazy bloodstained snuff-stars of the Wych cults, and the BDSM horror show of the Covens. All three offer substantial benefits and drawbacks and must be played carefully in order t- 

Who am I kidding? You’re just gonna stuff  a bunch of Kabal warriors into Venoms and zoom around the map, aren’t you? Enjoy that speed, because your abysmal save stats wont protect you anything more than a furiously thrown walnut. At least your corpses will look rad clad in some of the grimest armor and gear in the game. 

edit: no longer anywhere near as dominent as they were in the earlier years of 8th, but they still look slick as hell and play great. 

Orks

Your IQ randomly jumps from 20 to 200 throughout the day. There is no predicting this, no planning around this, no stopping this. You’re best bet is just to go along with it, and that’s why you play Orks. Orks are roudy good-time buddies who love slapstick slaughter, not having thoughts, and occasionally pulling of cunning plans that human savants would struggle to comprehend. Orks seem to be the only faction that know what joy is, which is why you as a player spread it to everyone else. Yes, the memes and screaming can be a bit much to others sometimes, but like with any other mentally handicapped child  everyone around just grits their teeth through your bad episodes if it means not upsetting your unique sensibilities. And considering that this army’s aesthetic revolves around cobbled together nonsense, you have a lot of uniqueness to give. Orks are easily the most creative faction in the game when it comes to conversions. Nothing is too goofy, too dumb, or too silly to scrap together. As for performance on the tabletop? Go ham. This is an army that rewards merry bullshit and randomness. Remember, you didn’t pick Orks to win, you picked them to have fun. 

edit: So are Orks actually getting anything or what? GW’s plans for this faction is as chaotic as the minds of the ADHD scrambled minds who play them

Necrons

You have a very specific taste in... funky weird-science space Egyptians. Seriously, these guys are practically a completely different army to what they were a decade ago. Gone are the terminator references and eldritch lore nonsense, and here to stay is senility and glyphs. You lie to yourself, saying that you’re not really sure why you chose Necrons, but I know the truth: you chose them because they used to be busted. They used to be unfair. They used to be able to take out top-tier tanks with their version of pea shooters and come back after every turn. So overwhelmed were you by their dazzeling stats and bullshit cheese your brain’s wiring fried and the erratic firing of billions of flayed neurons made you think Necrons had cool lore and interesting models. But now they’ve been nerfed to hell, and you’re no longer stuck in that lasting state of sensory overload. Like a drunk snapping awake with a hangover you come to the painful reality: Necrons are kind of dull. So like me, you put them away in a shoebox forever, leaving their fragile sculpts to slowly fall apart.

Edit: FUCK WHERE IS THE SHOEBOX WHERE DID I LEAVE IT OH GOD OH OH NO OH FUCK THEY’RE ALL BROKEN MAYBE I CAN PUT THEM BACK TOGETHER BEFORE 9th EDITION LAUNCHES I’M SO SORRY FOR WHAT I DID TO YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER I NEED YOU, I NEED MY BOOOOOOOOYS!!!

Tau

You will forever be hated by the community unfairly. You are accuse being anime - and this is true - yet the Eldar get away with being copied wholesale from 80′s space anime and no one seems to notice. You are made fun of for your bad melee, despite having one of the most comprehensively designed niches in an otherwise sloppy game and dominating with nearly every edition. You are made fun of for your lore, despite being largely separate from the cliches and story traps that everyone else has fallen into. You are hated because you are different; hated because you are Asian. 

Tau are an anomaly in 40k: a completely new faction that wasn’t directly ripped off of some other franchise and with an aesthetic that is wholly their own. I won’t be making fun of them because they get enough of that, and you don’t deserve it. Just know this dirty secret: Tau outsell almost every other xenos faction, and despite the supposedly unanimous hate are probably one of the strongest factions in terms of play-style and modelling in the franchise. 

Edit: The tau are grittier than ever, happy now? They still do the same thing they have always done anyways.

Chaos

Unlike the DE you actually are edgy. You worship satan, you throw rocks at homeless people, you start fires because your dad doesn’t spank you enough. Chaos are the closest things that this cluster fuck of a universe can get to being the main villains. Their lore is at once intricate and stupid, both childish and metal as hell. You play chaos because getting your fingers pricked by the models’ spikes is the closest you can come to feeling anything anymore. Just like the chaos lore you love to hype yourself up, to puff your chest and revel in the darkness inside, but when confronted you tend to fold like wet tissue paper. You’ve stopped playing public games with these guys, because the other players don’t understand you and abuse the meta and make fun of your painting skills and  everything is so unfair and don’t you think that chaos marines should get buffs for their points cost, fuck?

Edit: The new models are slick and more power-metal minivan than ever, though the rules are still abysmal despite GW desperately wanting everyone to takes these guys seriously for once. 

Sisters of Battle

GW writers and designers hates Catholics and they hate women, so naturally they hate Sister of Battl. They also hate you for playing them. Because of this SoB are a monument to neglected potential. They have one of the best female armor designs in fiction, great lore, and an interesting playstyle that relies on faith/determination based feats of strength and valor... but GW hate Catholics and women, so SoB get shafted everywhere all the time. More often than not you will be disappointed reading about their exploits as they continually get unfairly slaughtered, corrupted into the horny service of the pervert god, or used as receptacles for blood-based paint when the writer’s favorite faction needs to fight demons. With no plastic models in sight for over a decade everyone began to come to the slow and dreadful realization that GW was looking to Squat our favorite estrogen warriors, until a new revamp was announced. Unfortunately the beta rules look as lackluster as ever, but that’s fine, because as a SoB fan you have learned to expect that GW hates you, Catholics, and women. 

Edit: GW found God and got woke because now they love women and Jesus’ one true Church, but let it be known that reformation doesn’t occur overnight, as the SOB’s faces still betray GW’s lingering discomfort in the female form:

Their rules are fun, and if every codex was designed like it 40k might actually be a fun game

Tyranids

nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom nom no- and that’s it that’s the Tyranids. I don’t know anything about them besides that, and neither do you, cause that’s their lore. Yes they have cool models, but next to no reliable updates. I’ll pray for you.  

Edit: it really looks like GW has just completely forgotten about you poor souls huh? The Night King, a character who is closely associated with the totally-not-reconned-Tyranid-invasion, comes back and not one word about you guys. They don’t even actively hate you like, say, they hate the Eldar. It’s just... apathy. 

Grey Knights

HAHA AHAHAHAHA HA HA UHAHAHA HAHAAHAHAAHAH HAHA ha ha Ah......... he. hehahaaaAHAHAHAHA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

edit: I hope you all realize that Grey Knights are far too specialized in fighting the permanently under performing forces of chaos to be 40ks “elite among elite.”  You and your entire faction has been made completely obsolescent by the Custodes. The rough times will continue, say hi to the Squats in heaven will you?

Custodes

You are either insufferably full of yourself or a fine practitioner of the model making craft. Most likely though you are neither, and you picked them because you only need gold and red paint to make them look good. Custodes are the space marine’s space marines, and they’re better than you and everyone else. period. At least in lore. On the table their incredible individual stats and elite status are reflected in points cost, so for most large games you will be fielding what amounts to any other faction’s skirmishing army. Unfortunately, since 40k is a stat-sheet battler that favors raw bulk of rolls and stats over the quality of them, you’d be hard-pressed to do well in any serious game. However, for the luminous of mind, the small size is a blessing in disguise since you don’t need to buy and paint as many units as the other armies, and no matter how hard the guard player trashes you his 50 unpainted manlets will never look as good as your 15 gloriously crafted golden Chads. Stick to smaller games, and the individual strength of each model will make up for the glaring absence caused by their loss.

Ironically enough despite being an elite faction from a relatively obscure part of 40k lore, these attributes make Custodes the perfect casual player’s faction. It is my personal theory that if GW didn’t grossly inflate their prices to such a high degree everyone would have a Custodes army. 

Oh yeah, Henry Cavil plays these guys, because of course he does. 

[imagines-hoarder]

Witches & Wolves- Part 2 (T.W.)

*Okay, the story’s beginning to hopefully pick up a little bit. Input is always great though because I am known to put a lot of unnecessary text haha. Hope you enjoy! xoxox*

2,321 words (somewhat proofread)

Masterlist

It was odd, but settling in with Tilda was actually quite easy. Magie was attached to her hip within a week and Lori had started to go to her for help with her magic. It was unsaid yet well known that Lorelai had a difficult time controlling her powers and hiccups within spells were more than occasional. Mom and I had tried our best to help, but most of it ended with no such luck. I can’t understand how, but it did seem she was having an easier time controlling her gift.

“So I take it your mother didn’t hide...your heritage from you, correct?” That was the first question that Tilda asked after sitting us at her dining room table with a warm meal in front of us.

“Do you mean us being witches” Lori chimed in between bites of spaghetti. “Yeah, we’re all aware.” I was a common victim to her sarcasm, but that didn’t mean she should be so forward about it now.

“I’m sorry, Tilda. She has a sharper tongue than usual tonight.”

“Relax, Ophelia. She’s got your mom’s sharp tongue too.” She winked at Lori before going on. “Your parent were lucky to not only have three girls with the incomparable beauty each of you have, but because they raised three witches as well.”

“Boys can’t be witches, Grandma,” Magie chimed in, a mess of spaghetti sauce across her face. Magie had only started inheriting her powers, but she did know as much as I did about history of witchcraft. Both Tilda and Magie were right: our parents were considered lucky for having three girls because only women could exercise the supernatural capabilities in our blood, therefore having a better chance of carrying on our bloodline though I didn’t know much about our own family history.

“That’s right, Magdalena. You wanna know what’s so special about Beacon Hills?” She nodded her head in excitement. “There’s a whole coven of witches here. You wouldn’t be able to tell if you weren’t one, but I can tell you're one of the brightest little girls around.”

It wasn’t until the girls were sent to bed in the guest room that she was willing to tell the full story to me. We sat back across from each other with Chamomile Tea.

“We’ve never been part of a Coven before, Tilda. I know there’s more than just moving to Beacon Hills to become part of it.” I wasn’t sure of the requirements, but I knew that if we were going to stay we’d need to join the Coven. Tilda was right when she said that our strength was in numbers, and rogue witches weren’t liked or respected in close-knit communities.

She nodded her head before responding. “I’d call it a simple process, no sacrifices necessary.” She laughed at her own dry jokes, something mom did as well. “The next time we have a coven meeting, I’ll bring you and establish your intent. You most likely won’t be initiated on the spot, but if you and the girls keep showing up, I’m sure it won’t take too long. By the next blood moon.”

That was reassuring, just a couple months away. “Who’s the leader? Most covens have one, right?”

She waved her arms out as if present herself. “You’re looking at her.” I nearly choked on my tea. “I know, who would have guessed your kooky Grandma to be the leader of the coven? Let’s just I’ve got more up my sleeves than a mean spaghetti recipe.” We laughed together at the thought. “While I am arguably the strongest witch in the coven at the moment, the position requires the most compassionate. I know every one of those women, their stores, and there specialties. What’s yours?”

“I’m a healer,” I stated. “I know it’s not the grandest of wonders, but I enjoy helping people. Mom couldn’t take me anywhere without me wanting to heal a sick animal or person.”

She smiled warmly at the thought. “We need more of those in the coven. Not enough healers nowadays. Do the girls know theirs yet?”

“Not to my knowledge. Lori is already struggling as it is. She needs more training and I don’t know how much help I can be.”

“That’s why I’m here, Ophelia. I don’t know what happened to them. I’ve tried looking into it myself and even getting the coven involved. We can’t find anything. I can’t understand what you’re going through right now, but I want you to know that I am here for you and the girls.” Tilda reached over and rested her warm hand over mine. Something about it was soothing beyond belief, and I wondered if these were perks of being a coven leader. “Now, I know you have a million other questions in your mind right now, but it’s already been a long day for you and the girls. We’ve got all the time in the world, yeah?”

Not long after, we cleaned the dishes and departed for bed. I had my mom’s old room, but it felt foreign to me, more than just because the time that had past between her youth years and the last time I saw her.

I still had so many questions about Beacon Hills and my parents and the fallout between Tilda and Mom. My eyes became heavy the moment I made contact with the soft sheets, I knew all question would have to be saved for later.

Even though Tilda insisted she could run the shop by herself, both Lori and I offered taking shifts at the flower emporium. It felt like the least we could do in return for keeping us fed and housed, plus it’d hold me over until I could find a real job, something Beacon Hills didn’t have many openings for lately. Lori apparently wanted to help for similar reasons, though it was more because she had yet to find her niche. It was moment like these when I felt powerless because these were the problems I never learned to solve. I was never the coolest kid myself in middle school, and me getting involved in her life at school was more likely to embarrass her. She didn’t seem to be very worried about it, but it was always so hard to tell. She always had a somber look on her face. Mom used to joke she was born with that same signature pout.

Tilda had never had proper employees in the shop, and it was after our first walk through that we understood why.

“Now while we do sell many arrangements for anniversaries, birthdays, and such, we do have a select few who come for other organic needs,” she began as she showed us to the back, Magie tight by her side.

“What select few would that be,” I asked hesitantly.

“Better yet, organic needs? Are you selling pot from the back of your shop,” Lori questioned wittily. Tilda laughed at the joke as if it were her own.

“No just some rarer plants and herbs.” She stopped at a closed door and looked back at us. “And nothing to worry about. Just the occasional Druid and a few trustworthy hunters.”

“Hunters. As in the ones who torture and/or kill any supernatural beings in their path.” Lori waved her hands vigorously back and forth between the four of us.

“Yes, dear. That’s why I said only a few trustworthy ones.” Tilda and Lori were more alike that I think either of them saw. She finally pushed the door open to reveal a room completely different from the rest of the shop. The walls were wooden and held chestnut cabinets that touched the ceilings. “I’ve got my hands on most anything they could want. Wolfsbane, mistletoe, the works! And because everything is so hard to find, I get to name my price.”

“Even better than selling pot.” I roll my eyes at Lori’s remark. Like she would know anything about buying or selling pot.

“The thing is that because everything is so rare, I take very strict precautions that I guess I’ll need to teach you now.” As we exited the room, she locked the door behind her. “Rule number one: If they don’t have an order ready, don’t sell them anything from that room. I always ask around about my clients before I sell them anything.” She hung the key on a nearly invisibly hook under the front counter. “Rule number two: never take anyone behind the counter if I haven’t approved it. I believe the two of you already have the capabilities to protect yourselves, but the closer they are, the harder it is to set up a defense. I need you two and that room safe at all time.” After giving us a wink, she reached for her large handbag. “And lastly, if you’re threatened, don’t ever be afraid to send them packing.”

“What does that mean?” I was beginning to think we were digging ourselves into a deep, supernatural whole.

“I won’t lie to you two. We do get the occasional vampire, werewolf, and miscellaneous around here, but never in my years have I faced a customer I couldn’t handle.” Tilda turned to exit the sho,p and all I could hope was we wouldn’t run into any other supernaturals, especially miscellaneous.

THIRD PERSON

Loralai picked at her nailpolish behind the counter, bored out of her mind while waiting for the shop to close. O had to go pick up Maggie and Grandma (it still felt odd on her tongue) was off for witchy business, whatever that entailed. She still had to ask herself why she chose to take on shifts at the emporium, but was reminded everyday when she didn’t have a spot at lunch. It wasn’t necessarily the idea of not having a seat that bothered her. She was satisfied with taking advantage of the nice weather and eating her sandwich with a good book outside. It was the notion that she couldn’t find her ‘own coven.’ No one to text about homework and no friends to hang out with after class. It wasn’t like she had many options back home, but some were better than nothing.

Lori was pulled from her dull and hazy state when the welcome tone at the front door went off. “Ordering or Pick Up,” she asked as she brushed the nail polish chips off her lap.

“I was told to come here for a pickup,” a man replied. Holy Smokes, this guy was was built, although it didn't take much in comparison to her small stature.

“Uhh, name?” Maybe he was here to pick up the apology arrangement she’d put together earlier. He had a raging case of resting bitch face at the moment, and Grandma said no guy was ever happy to pick up the ‘I’m sorry’ bouquet.

“It should be under Deaton.” Lori looked into the order crate and instead of finding flowers, she found a brown bag with the name Deaton scribbled on it. Curiosity got the best of her and she looked in it to find a jar labeled Sorbus Scopulina in the same chicken scratch. This one of Grandma’s obscure herbs for select customers.

“I’m going to need to see some I.D. before I can give this to you, Mr. Deaton.” It wasn’t something she usually asked for, but the last thing she would want is to put an order of mountain ash into the wrong hands.

“I’m picking it up for a family friend.” Lori felt a lump form in her throat. She wasn't supposed to sell anything in the back room if the order wasn’t ready. Strike One.

“Then I’m sorry. I can’t give you this order,” she stated firmly, trying to regain her calm and confident demeanor.

He let out an irritated grunt before walking closer to the counter. While Lori did notice his bright green eyes, she was more cautious of the fact he was coming so close in an almost threatening way while she was in the shop alone. ‘but the closer they are, the harder it is to set up a defense,’ her grandmother’s words replayed in the back of her head. “Look, I’m just here to pick up an order for a family friend, alright?”

When Lori heard the news of her parents death (Ophelia would never call it that, but she knew better), her feeling of security hit an all time low. She had become more afraid of the unknown than ever, and this guy wasn’t giving her good vibes.

“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.” Her voice failed to hide her panic as he leaned down on the counter. Strike two.

It was when she looked into his eyes again that her blood ran cold. No longer were they a their pale green, but they were an unnatural, fiery red. It all happened so fast after that. Before she knew if, Loralai felt a sharp current prick from her fingertips and into his chest as she tried to push him away. Within seconds he hit the oak floor with a loud thud, as if he were dead weight. Lori stayed behind the counter for a full three minutes paralyzed before she went to see if he was still breathing.

When she kneeled down and saw his eyes shut yet chest moved, she was happy to know he was only (hopefully) comatose. Her panic arose once more when she thought about how she was going to explain this to Grandma. It wasn’t like she wanted to kill him or anything, just...well, she wasn’t really sure what. She hadn’t really thought that far ahead.  Those eyes would put the fear into any mortal man. Was this the Miscellaneous Grandma spoke of?

Before Lorelai could get her thoughts straight or think of a way to make the man disappear, the welcome tone played again. Shit.

Tagged:  @lillimay99 @coldanddead @beestigo @acc3ssdenied @stilestrashh @yvng-kate