#if I’m not 100% energy up let’s go mode then I just stay quiet and it gets awkward I hate it

[skellytonsandstars]

Lmao I can’t hold a fucking conversation ever I hate it

[rottenwoodandwiltedsunflowers]

Waffle Recap 8/6 Late

Guys! Guys! This was 1000% the most BANANAS show I have ever seen in 9 years. I have seen a show or two but this was a delightful night of total fuckery. We all had no idea what we would be witnessing this show.

Started off as a standard show. Went to the ballroom and was delighted to see Ruth Howard as Sexy witch. She is, IMO, one of the best residents currently in the hotel. She is a great dancer and actor which is less common. All the residents that pass through the McKittrick are arguably talented but there are a lot who are great dancers but less great with the acting and vice versa. I feel like I catch her Agnes a lot but not so much her Sexy witch. I also haven't looped a sexy witch in awhile so I immediately honed in on it. 

I apparently honed in too far because I failed to notice that the ballroom was missing an important resident. I followed her and Boy witch (Nate) un the stairs and they were in full on fun mode. When they got to the lobby desk Boy witch leaned over the counter and whispered to Porter before taking the Banquo letter, turning to the audience, and tossing it over his shoulder in a blasé way. WHAT?!?! Let the games begin! Nate ran over after Sexy in a playful way and they proceeded to do the Banquo/Sexy couch dance. It was shocking and fun. A total departing from the normal tone of the scene with Sexy laughing at lifts and Boy flirting around area. I’m sure if it was your first show you wouldn't be the wiser. They then both joyfully darted over to the phone booths to torment Porter. 

Ruth peeled off and as we hit the 4th floor she did a sudden about face to stare at me and smirk before continuing on. She chose someone else for the 1:1 so I watched Agnes for a few minutes. I love the Sexy bar top solo in the rep bar. It is such a good example of the power of dance to convey emotional moments and a narrative that is open to interpretation. A verbal story gives you the narrative but a contemporary dance number can give the audience so much more. Sexy witch has just come off of the rave scene which is overwhelming, high energy, and loud. It’s intentionally designed to overstimulate. Then the character is immediately launched into this beautiful, intense in a quiet way, dance. Sexy witch switched from loud and bold to heartbreakingly venerable. The imagery that the show manages to invoke with drowning and Sexy witches struggle to literally stay afloat as Hecate isolates her from her fellow witches. Ruth pulled off one of the best hair flips I’ve seen in awhile splashing many audience members in the front. 

Sidenote: When I see that hair flip post-Covid (and frankly lots of other moments in the show) I can't help but think of things I’ve seen in previous years that are 100% not Covid safe. It was a running joke before the pandemic that the building was a zest pool of germs. Now I think back to how those things may never fly again in this new post-pandemic reality. The hair flip often makes me think of how Leslie Kraus would spit water across the audience instead of a hair flip. It was perfect (in an absolutely gross way)! 

When Ruth crawled over and grabbed my hand from the floor it was heartbreaking. Then, of course, Hecate swoops in to snatch her away and set her straight. Ugh.

We headed down to the banquet which I honestly tend to skip even if I’m looping nowadays. I was very interested to see if a Banquo would be appearing so I headed down. Once we got there I realized there was no chair for Banquo. I figured out at this point that there was probably no Banquo coming. I actually saw all three ballrooms that night and each was slightly different because it was clear that there was a lot of improving going on. During the third ballroom Lady Macbeth slowly rose up and toasted Macbeth at the moment where Banquo usually does. 

I watched the trees move. It was slightly smaller forrest. Then I followed the witched up for reset. I always and forever feel awkward as hell watching that scene. I try to be vigilant of blocking other people when watching scenes and there is no good place to stand to not block views for this scene. I stood past the doorway then awkwardly craned my neck to look in. Ruth made eye contact with me as she fixed her hair and reapplied her lipstick then stepped out of the room and grabbed my face to kiss my mask. 

To add to the absolute chaos of the show, Layne was on as Speakeasy. I was hoping to catch this. They were great but it meant that there were defiantly changes to the choreography. I loved the energy of the Sexy duet but much of the choreography was altered to adjust for the massive amount of lifts that are usually in the dance. I really liked the quiet confidence that Layne exuded during the back and forth though. Very hopeful and a bit cocky only to be disappointed. 

After being looked over for the first Sexy 1:1 I decided to keep following and see what happened the second time around. Most of the dances I love most are in the beginning of the loop any who.It came time for the 1:1 and there were a few super pushy audience members. When I’m really into following I try to keep up but I am far too old to be engaging in a game of push and shove. I ended up behind a petite girl and a big bro dude who were being overly aggressive. Ruth unlocked the door, turned around, and reached through to two to grab my hand and pull me between and into the room. I don’t take it too personally when I’m passed over for a 1:1 but there is a level of vindication when a resident chooses me (or anyone else for that matter) over pushy and poorly behaved jerks. I felt a bit smug. Don’t push people out of the way.

I made my way to the Banquo murder second time simply because I wanted to see what would happen. When I got there the card game was going to start. Layne surprisingly stepped in to replace Banquo. I was very impressed they knew the rules. (Yes, there are actual rules) It was another wild moment to watch. Jeff’s Macbeth arrived and I was still standing toward the end of the speakeasy bar near the wall. The space was packed with white masks as he arrived. No one had made any attempt to move the audience toward the ledges. I can only assume the black masks were also doing their best considering the circumstances. He ended up between the card table and the pool table and started having a total breakdown. I am talking throwing himself around, on the floor, blood everywhere, wood chips flying through the air, yelling breakdown. It was a real choice. At one point Layne started to try to move the audience toward the usual wall but it was a useless endeavor. Valiant effort given though. I started to move but most people didn’t and I actually ended up closer to Macbeth so I retreated back to my original spot for slight fear of bodily harm. Some girl (by no fault of her own) almost got horse kicked in the face when Macbeth started bending over and kicking his feet in the air. There was very little breathing room but everyone was making it work.

After that I wondered around a bit. I watched the second ballroom because no Banquo and went to the 5th floor for a bit. I am so happy they finally opened the padded cell again! If they aren’t going to keep the new and amazing material then at least give us the set space back. I did notice that they replaced the door so there is no peep hole anymore which is sad. I was delighted to find Camara in the hut. It was my first Matron 1:1 since re-open and it felt wonderful. I appreciate the nuanced details of her character and that she leaves the window and door open for much of the time. I like the new picture of a nurse on the cutout page beside the desk. Found it right away. I also like all the LMB’s carved into the papers hung up. The next day I realized it’s Joy’s nurse that brings them to her.

Other fun moments that happened include Joy’s bald witch basically giving up in the third ballroom. I can not blame her one bit. No Banquo means A LOT of improving for a bald witch. During one ballroom she saddled up to a white mask like they we attending the party and whispered something before pointing up at Macbeth on the mezzanine. Third ballroom she legit hopped up on the edge of the banquet table, crossed her legs, and just watched the scene play out. After the third ballroom, the Porter had laid out 3 shot glasses with the 3 Banquo letters and when Boy and Sexy arrived they all toasted and tossed the letters. Malcolm and Macduff carried Duncan down to the crypt without a third person. 

I finished the night with Kelly Todd’s Danvers. She handed me the weirdest thing I've ever been handed and I was so very confused until a friend filled me in on the backstory for the item. It will now forever reside in my trinket cabinet. It was a wild night complete with a Macbeth strangulation finale. What a sight watching Macduff and Malcom hold down Macbeth on the stage and choke him out. No Banquo=No hanging. I had a blast and super kudos to the cast for having a real make it work moment!

[stanknotstark]

Astral Pt. 10 (Loki x Reader)

So im out eating right now so ill add the link to the last part in an hour and stuff also I did not beta read this part and apologize if I need to change something later on but I want to try and keep up with posting at 5:30 so im releasing it 🤗

Alright we finally have some actions and many open ended questions that I’ve got to close up BUT we also experience one of our main villains warriors. If you read the comics you’ll immediately know who the main villain is (Or Google it but I suggest not doing that if you want to be surprised :p)

You knew having peace and hanging out with your team and Loki would only last for so long, but you were still saddened when it came time to finally work. 

You’re all on the top most floor of the Avenger’s tower, the War Room as Tony called it (sounds a bit over dramatic but it was Tony so...). Fury is there in hologram mode, sitting in the middle of a large custom made table that had the Avengers logo engraved into the middle of the dark oak. 

“What kind of readings are we talking about?” Stark asks Fury. 

Fury’s hand comes up and swipes at something invisible on his end and it translates to Stark’s theater size screens on the wall. It’s a bunch of graphs, statistics, and other jargon you can’t understand. You raise a brow when Tony and Bruce gasp and start talking in hushed tones to each other. 

“Tony, make this english so everyone can understand what’s going on, please?” Steve asks. 

Tony clears his throat and points to one of the graphs, “According to Fury’s collected data, Thor give Jane a big hug when you next see her, they’ve picked up on some form of energy spikes in the middle of Death Valley, Nevada. Like we’re talking colossal size spikes. ”

You look at Loki who sits up in his chair next to you and squints at the screens.

“I know what these ‘energy’,” Loki says energy like it’s disgusting, “readings are. It’s magic from another realm. Specifically, it’s time travel but...” Loki frowns and you watch as his eyes become almost fearful.

“Spit it out, Reindeer Games.” Tony says, sounding concerned at Loki’s fear.

“It’s time travel across an alternate timeline.” 

Tony blinks. Bruce frowns and pushes his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. The entire room is silent. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know who caused these readings would you?” Tony finally asks. 

Loki, who has a neutral face now and the fear is gone from his eyes, shakes his head. “I can’t know for sure unless I can inspect the magic in person.” 

Finally Fury speaks, you had almost forgot the director was even here. “Prepare a quin jet Stark, get Loki and whoever else you deem reliable to escort. We need to figure out who came for a visit and if they’re ally or enemy as soon as possible.”

Fury disappears from the table and Tony gets into worker mode immediately. He points to you, claiming you’re the close combat person, to Clint, who is your ranged fighter, and to Natasha who would be pilot and your extraction. 

Things become a blur after that. You remember going to your room and jumping into your Shield issued attire (Stark had yet to make you your own suit), and meeting Loki at the roof where a quin jet readied for take off. Before you walked into the quin jet Loki stopped you, his hands holding your shoulders making you face him. 

“I promise that I will let nothing harm you, you’re my first priority and if things get violent I will teleport us away to safety.” 

You nod but give him a small smile, “I can handle myself but it’s good to know I’ve got someone watching my back.” You then push onto your toes and give Loki a peck and make your way to the quin jet. 

The ride there is tense and quiet. Loki says he’s putting a spell on you that acts as a shield but doesn’t specify how it works.

Looking back you wish you would have asked how it worked. 

Landing around 100 meters from the destination Clint, Loki and you leave the ship and begin your trek to the site. 

“Holy fuck! If I could strip out of my skin I would.” You say to Loki and Clint. Death Valley’s temperature was a recorded 130 degrees today. 

At your displeasure Loki slows till he’s next to you and puts an arm around your shoulders. You look at him questionably but gasp as his arm generates a coolness that at least stops your sweating. You make sure not to say anything so Clint, in front of you, doesn’t become jealous. 

The trip to the site is very uneventful. Even reaching the site is uneventful. About 30 meters from the site you see nothing. Literally, it’s just desert, surrounded by high cliffs, for miles. 

So you snoop, you walk around the site as Clint and Loki argue about whether the coordinates are correct. 

“I swear, this is what Stark gave me so, if they’re wrong, blame him!” Clint says, exasperated.

“It can’t be wrong I can feel something pulling at my magic but-”

That’s when you run into an invisible wall and yelp as you fall backwards onto your butt. 

“Found it!” You cheer as a space ship slowly appears, the colors changing and shifting from the point you hit till the whole thing is uncovered. At first glance the ship looks futuristic but once you overlook the whole thing with Clint keeping his distance, and Loki exploring with you, you realize it’s shaped as a sphinx. 

Very fitting for the desert surrounding the ship. 

“Work you magic.” You tell Loki and he does. You both congregate at the head of the ship/sphinx and he waves his hands over it, his green magic trailing out here and there to touch the ship. Loki himself mutters under his breath. 

You keep your eyes on him but also keep vigilant about the area. You finally get an idea and close your eyes for a second, your magic leaving your body and passing through the ship. No life forms. When you open your eyes again Loki lifts a brow at you, still muttering. 

“No life I can detect.” You tell him and he nods and focuses back on the ship. 

You put a hand to your ear piece and tell Clint, “I don’t sense any life forms but I’d keep a close eye anyways.” 

Clint gives you an acknowledgment. 

Loki finally stops his magic and drops his hands to his sides, just as he looks at you and you hear Clint yell into your ear, you’re hit by a concussive blast. When you look up in shock you see one lone humanoid figure walking towards Loki, who although wasn’t in the way of the blast also got blasted back, curious you think. Loki had immediately gotten into a defensive stance after getting up from the blast, one hand on his back holds three daggers, the other hand put up in a manner meant to calm the figure. 

You quickly get on your feet and stand next to Loki, your magic congregating at your balled fists. 

“Listen, buddy, I don’t know who you think you are-” Loki hisses at you, trying to get you to stop antagonizing the being that is close enough to identify. He is tall, around 7 feet tall and is dressed in a skin tight tank and leggings that are a dark purple color, it looks like metal but it’s too flexible to actually be metal. His head is encased in a tight helmet that frames his face and covers his head from his forehead, up, in a way that makes you think he is bald underneath. You shiver as you look into his eyes, they glow white. 

“Identify yourself.” The being says. Standing casually as if he didn’t attack you. 

“I am Loki, Prince of Asgard, and you are?” 

The being stands there silently. You huff. “I’m y/n, of Earth.” 

The being stands still for a few seconds then gets into a fighting position.

“I am here to take y/n, anyone who stands in my way shall perish.” 

Loki immediately grabs you and teleports you to Clint, you yell out angrily as he teleports back to the being and they start fighting. Loki throwing magic and daggers at the being. You gasp, the first ball of magic Loki throws at it makes a purple light encase the being, in a rippling effect, who then grows a bit. Hawkeye lets loose some arrows that explode on impact. It does nothing but make the man grow even more. 

Loki also realizes what’s going on because he stops attacking the being. The being takes his chance and lunges at Loki. Loki isn’t fast enough and takes a blow to the head. You scream and begin running towards him as he lays in the dirt discombobulated. Clint tries to grab your arm but misses you just so. 

In your ear you hear Clint tell Natasha to ready the jet. Before the being can get to Loki you throw yourself over his body. When he’s a few feet away you look at him with furious eyes.

“Stop!” 

To your surprise the being stops mid step, considers your words, then stands in place. You frown but look at Loki who is watching with fascinated eyes, recovered from the hard hit he took. You watch as blood trails down the side of his face and out of his ear. He probably can’t hear out of his left ear. 

Looking back up at the being you ask it, “Who sent you? What are you?”

The being stares at the two of you but answers, “I am Subject 52103 Growing Man, and my master sent me.” 

You feel Loki tense under you and assume he knows who his master is. 

“Tell your master to leave Earth alone, that if you or him show your faces here again, the Avengers will take you out without hesitation.”

The Growing Man nods and leaves in a flash of purple and black. 

Letting out a tense breath you stand and help Loki up. Making your way back to the quin jet, you pick up Clint. 

“Why does he want you?” Clint asks, looking at you. 

You walk, holding Loki at your side, the hit from the Growing Man doing enough to leave him a bit disoriented and sluggish. 

“I don’t know and I’m not quite sure I want to know.” You say. Loki stays conveniently quiet the entire walk to the quin jet. Clint doesn’t ask anything else either. 

Pt. 9.1/Pt. 10/?

Tag list: @justfangirlthingies​ @emelieh99​ @high-functioning-lokipath​ @loveableasshole​ 

[reversecreek]

ziggy strutting up to me like this gif as i hold up a crucifix n say begone begone vile beast BEGONE from my vicinity i will NOT buy u a happy meal wretched little boy...... some live action rp to start this off..... and SCENE. takes my bow. his pinterest is here n his playlist is here.

* dylan minnette, cis male + he/him  | you know ziggy benson, right? they’re twenty-four, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, all of his life? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to hand crushed by a mallet by 100 gecs like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole glitching televisions impaled by remotes, nonchalantly texting the babes as a stove fire ravages your kitchen & cartoons turned up so loud it fries your eardrums thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is november 24th, so they’re a sagittarius, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( nai, 24, gmt she/her  )

HISTORY;

from the second ziggy ws born he didnt stop screaming. within the first hours of his life he gave his father an ear splitting headache tht prompted him to say “that uncooked chicken’s fucking demonic” n joke abt popping “it” in the oven to roast. when this understandably received disgusted glances frm the nursing staff he ws all like “jeez alright alright i’m kiddin i’m kiddin can’t a guy have a joke around here?” n i feel like that sets up their dynamic so nice n sweetly <3 (sarcasm) (lips pursed)

frm day one he ws just honestly a rly hyperactive child. when he laughed he’d shriek it out at the absolute top of his lungs bc he’d just get this huge giddy surge of energy all the way to the very tips of his toes n it’d hit him like a shock from a fork in a plug socket. their parenting style ws rly just lazy tbh.... they didn’t have much time for disciplining him. ziggy’s mum wld halfheartedly be like “ziggy quiet now....” n then go bk to nuking whatever vegetables she’d defrosted until they tasted like dinosaur bones..... this wld not make any difference in ziggy’s behaviour

his father rly just took the stance that it ws ziggy’s mum’s job to discipline him or raise him in general which is. 🔪 please enter the 20th century sir.... get ur noggin sorted..... needless to say he wsn’t much involved in ziggy’s life n honestly generally jst didn’t like him. ziggy was a responsibility he didn’t want (accidental prregnancy) n in his literal words once said (blatantly while ziggy ws watching cartoons on the sofa) tht ziggy just “harshes my fucking vibe a lil bit”. 

he wound up leaving when ziggy was six ish.... ziggy watched thru a crack in the blinds as his mum tried to grab at his jacket to make him stay as he lugged out his suitcase..... she even tried to physically cling onto him so he cldn’t get in his ride bt the door wound up slamming n she sat on her knees watching the lights pull out the drive n even long after they were gone. ziggy didn’t rly kno what to do abt this (emotions hd never been smthn he particularly understood, his own or how to handle other people’s) so after watching her fr 5 minutes he went out n gently shook her shoulder n was like. mom come inside u look weird out here. FKGHSFHGSFHKGFHKSGSFGHK. this was him trying to show love <3

ziggy’s mum is like.... rly relationship dependent. she gets all her self worth n validation frm whtever man she’s dating.... so she went on this like.... wild rampage of jst. dating a very large string of men. they ranged frm dreadfully boring to downright awful n were always below her standards. ziggy quite literally hated. all of them. every last one. even one that tried to b nice to him by offering to help him do his math homework when he ws 13 (bc ziggy was struggling a lot w this) n in response ziggy loudly barked until the man gt scared n stumbled backwards into a dining chair on his way out of the room. KGHFHKSJHFJGSHKFG

while him n his mum hv a kind of strained situation (there’s a great deal of resentment from her end n kind of. blaming him fr “driving his father away” n it’s never spoken abt bt it’s very much Present in their relationship n honestly ziggy kind of resents her too fr bringing some of the men into their lives tht she did) there is. love there...... sometimes she’ll like. reach out to cup the back of his head n he’ll duck his head away n be like wtf are u doing checking me for lice? n she’ll jst smile like :)...... knowing that’s how he loves. KHSFGKJGHKSFGFHKGSHF. ugh we love men who know how to process their emotions yesssss king give us nothing <3

(abuse n violence tw) idk i won’t go into it too much bt even tho ziggy’s constantly like 🙄 when his mum shows him affection he wld quite literally. kill fr her n almost did one time.......... narrowly avoided getting charged w assault when one of her bfs was drunk n evil n he went into protective mode.... idk he. has gone thru a lot n seen a lot n so has his mum. they look after each other the best they kno how despite the negatives in their relationship.... it’s complex <3

literally got in trouble so. often. at school. he ws always hyperactive (undiagnosed adhd n also probably not helped by the fact he ws jst allowed to eat sm junk food w 459729457952 sugar percentage all hours of the day) bt when his dad left n like. dealing w acting out so severely at home where his mum’s bfs were concerned it rly escalated..... i jst think he ws like. literally a terror. probably got suspended so many times. maybe even was permanently expelled before he cld get his diploma honestly. set off a firework in school hallway. smthn absolutely reckless n stupid.

hs hd a bunch of jobs mostly in the service industry...... usually ends up getting fired.... worked at mcdonald’s fr a while n then one day he went in rly high n ate three cheeseburgers in front of a weeping child who hd ordered one.... promptly gt fired bt he ws like yo fuck this place i’m quitting n threw off his apron n was like who’s with me??? who’s joining the union??????? to the rest of the staff n they were all mostly like >_> <_< before security approached to forcibly remove him n he grabbed a cookie n crammed it into his mouth in rebellion mid frantic n frankly possessed escape.....

in terms of wht’s going on to this day w his living situation i honestly think he still lives w his mum. i can just see this. KHGFSKGHSFGKSFGH. in like. a ramshackle bungalow in delphinus heights.... having said tht she probably isn’t. there tht often nw she’s dating her latest man (jonas, somehow always sweaty no matter the weather, wears too many gold rings n smells like shoe cleaner) who owns a car dealership n thinks he’s a kingpin for it. still home sometimes tho.

PERSONALITY:

ziggy spends his days working shifts at an ice cream parlour (one he got fired from once bc he broke in high n ate sm ice cream he was lay on the floor in the bk pants unbuttoned stomach bulging sm calling himself garfield saying he had too much lasagna. they hired him bk tho bc he has a harem of middle aged women who lust after him n it brings customers....) or like. cruising parties...... setting off fireworks.... skateboarding...... breaking into abandoned buildings.... filming stupid jackass type tricks....... playing guitar hero...... getting drunk at the arcade..... sometimes busking fr cash in a tossed dwn hat (very badly) (thinks he’s sick at it however)........ or alternatively...... fucking chicks aha...... fuck.......... not exclusive to chicks tho just had to sound despicable bt :smirk: he’s bi Baby.... 

i won’t lie he’s kind of an asshole................ never rly was taught properly how to empathise with ppl so like he struggles w that....... sometimes he’ll say smthn tht’s genuinely just quite mean n doesn’t need to be said but he doesn’t rly realise it’s like bad. n he’s like. what’s the deal haha why are u mad...... 

fuckboy. genuinely jst. rly summarises it well. insatiable. sleeps around wildly. will say he’ll call u back n then will not call u back. lies like oh babe i’m moving to france tomorrow fuckkkkkkkkk sucks so bad that we can only have one night but let’s make it special yeah? tits? n then they’ll see him casually skating past them on the street a week later n be like well clearly he’s not in france. ziggy doesn’t care.

calls himself a “genius inventor” bc he once gutted a vintage analog television n made it into a fish tank. it literally leaked water a bit. still convinced he is a literal visionary never seen before never done again. he���s like i’m on the brink of greatness. i’m the next einstein.

has a bit of a god complex where he thinks he’s the sexiest person in any given room n it’s kind of funny bc like dylan minnette’s sexy to me bt tht isn’t a widespread opinion n ur being a bit bold ziggy...... regardless has confidence thru the roof tht isn’t rly deterred by anything or anyone.....

dyes his hair 49729572459752 colours every colour under the sun. sometimes all at once jst different patches. wears lots of tie dye tshirts n basketball shorts even tho he doesn’t play basketball. rly colourful sneakers. just lots of loud colours tbh. often wears a paper clip in his ear as an earring. pierced it himself. someone probably recorded him doing it fr his insta story. probably was drunk.

drives a vespa around tht is baby blue with pastel yellow polka dots. it has lots of tin cans attached to the back by string like on those cars when u just got married. he did not just get married. u can hear him arriving frm over a street away.

almost never pays fr anything bt is always like “yo it’s my treat” n then either dine n dashes or u have to pay

his idea of romance is nuking a hot pocket as breakfast in bed n then complaining he’s hungry n eating half

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

fuckboy antics: he’s insatiable. rabid. notorious. mayb they fkd n he didn’t call........ jst completely ghosted........ mayb they were genuinely into him n he honestly built up kind of false pretences abt them having a connection n then jst dipped..... cld  b good fr angst n drama <3 someone please egg his house he deserves it <3

high skl heathens: locals tht were equally chaotic in hs..... just picture him having this group of misfits tht were like so loud n always getting up to no good doing god knows what god knows where.... probably gt arrested together breaking into an old abandoned hospital one time........... rly just doing the absolute most at all times............. probably so loud........... drinking n smoking far too much.....

an attempted teenage relationship: i’m like. tentative to even put this one bc i just feel like ziggy wld be a shit bf. KJHGFSHGFHGSFHGFKGHFKSG. but. maybe it ended in drama.....i’d say this wld probably be a girl bc in hs he probably ws less open w his sexuality... maybe ziggy cheated on her or she cheated on him................ angst........ strife.... we love it we love it........ i crash my car into the bridge... i don’t care... i love it... sudden icona pop moment me stood on stage singing karaoke.... it’s just gone 7am as i write this so i apologise if this is losing any. coherency. smiles so sexy....

last adolescent plot i swear: i picture when ziggy was expelled he somehow amassed a large group to protest w signs outside the school fr him to be accepted back. it didn’t work. he threw a party when he received news he hadn’t got back in anyway. maybe ur muse was involved or helped organise this or was violently opposed.

enemies: ppl who just. don’t like ziggy bc like honestly that’s so fair n valid. KJHGFKGHKSFGHSGKHSFHG..... mayb he like. exploded their mailbox one time when they were younger. mayb he skated over their toes. mayb he fucked their bitch aha fuck................. (joking btw) (don’t condone misogyny) (hashtag feminism). cld be fun to play around w

fwb: probably hs a few of these......... mayb they’re cool w things being no strings attached n lax n at ease w ziggy being the mess tht he is in general..... mayb they want more bt ziggy cannot provide...... mayb they literally don’t get on at all n this is their only mutual ground n they keep coming bk to each other.... :smirk:..... whatever u Farncy....

maybe ziggy’s mum dated ur muse’s dad at one point???? we can discuss this if u think it fits..... cld be fun to play around w............

coworkers: past or present r fun..... mayb they were like WTFFF is this guy fking ONNN at a past job (he’s had a few in the food service industry so pretty open in tht area)... mayb they work w him at the ice cream parlour now..... cn discuss the dynamic probably wld be dependent on the muse involved fr like. how he’d act n stuff.... :yum:

[ohdearhiddles]

SUMMARY: Classes are stressful; life is stressful. Let’s be honest, what isn’t stressful? Loki knows how you get, and well, he tries his best to help.

TITLE: The Study Diaries: At Your Disposal

WORD COUNT: 1263

AUTHOR NOTES/WARNINGS: Unedited; This is probably going to end up being a thing I do. When I get super stressed I like to daydream scenarios that will offer me temporary relief, so this is 100% not the only “Study Diaries” you will see on my page, oops. (not my gif) -- (AO3 LINK)

You sat, elbows propped up on the desk before you. Your head was bowed, being held up by your hands as your eyes focused in on the wooden material of the desk.

It was overwhelming; everything was overwhelming. The tears of frustration were already welling up as you contemplated just dropping out, just walking away from the education you had spent far too much money on to begin with.

Maybe an eternity passed, or maybe it was just a few seconds. Who knew, honestly? All you were capable of thinking of was the stack of notebooks and textbooks greedily calling for your attention as your thoughts ate you alive.

Deep breaths, you reminded yourself. Everything would work out eventually, you just needed to calm down in order to see that. However, thinking that everything was going to be fine and actually believing it were two completely different things, and right now, you weren’t believing it at all. In fact, you were so far from believing it that you almost couldn’t fathom the thought.

Sighing deeply, you shut your eyes. If you shut them for long enough, maybe you would fall asleep and you’d be able to block out every bit of responsibility and stress. In other words, maybe if you fell asleep, you’d be able to escape from this reality filled with far too much responsibility. Of course, you were aware of the fact that the idea was horrible and would only cause you to wake up stressed beyond belief.

It was the chilled hands of Loki that seemed to pull you out of the stress-induced trance that you were under. His fingers were kneading at your shoulders, pressing just hard enough to mix pain with pleasure. You felt his chin rest on the crown of your head as you sat upright.

“Your sounds of distress did not go unnoticed, my dear,” he mumbled, pressing his lips to the top of your head.

“I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it,” you retorted. Loki laughed, stopping his momentary massage to move over. He soon stood by your side, hand resting on the desk while the other rested on his hip. His hair fell from behind his ear as he squinted at the papers messily arranged across the surface in front of you.

“Are these all for your studies?” You nodded meekly, feeling the energy drain from your body a second time. Loki watched your reaction carefully. You were certain he didn’t miss how your shoulders had slumped forward, accepting defeat before you had barely even begun.

It was then that you realized that the God of Mischief had probably been occupied doing something much more exciting than worrying over you and your stress. He didn’t need to witness this type of small breakdown. You muttered an apology as your hands reached out to grab a few of the stray papers.

“And what is it that you’re apologizing for?” He asked, reaching forward to pry your fingers from a particularly long article about some strange theory that you couldn’t even begin to understand. It didn’t take much for him to take the papers. There wasn’t much fight in you to even try to fend him off as he pulled it from your grasp.

“Weren’t you doing something?”

“Yes, but now I’m doing this,” he responded with a tone of certainty. You watched as he walked out of the room, returning seconds later with a second chair in his hands. He set it down beside you, sprawling himself against it as he sat. Loki’s eyes scanned the page, mouth moving elegantly as he followed along with his finger.

It was a sight to see. He was gorgeous while he read. In fact, you were almost certain that if he was from this planet, he would be considered the eighth wonder of the world. There was something so utterly beautiful about the way he read, and you began to wonder if anyone had ever taken the time to paint or sculpt a lovely depiction of such a sight. If someone did, you’d buy that masterpiece and hang it on the wall or set it in the center of your living room.

“Alright,” he said, snapping you out of it once again.

You hummed in a questioning tone, showing that you had absolutely no idea what he was saying ‘Alright’ to.

“I understand it,” he replied, scooting forward to place the paper in front of you. Your jaw dropped.

“What do you mean you understand it? I’ve been reading that thing for the past two hours and I have no idea what the author is saying.”

“It’s complex, but I understand it,” Loki said again. You narrowed your eyes, suddenly a bit annoyed that he had done something within minutes that you couldn’t in hours.

“That’s great and all,” you reached to grab the paper from the desk, narrowing your eyes as you began to skim over the words for what felt like the millionth time. “But that does absolutely nothing to help me.”

“I know.”

“Great,” you muttered, attempting to turn away from him. The god sitting beside you wasn’t fond of your reaction, though, as he pulled your arm from its space on the desk before scooting his chair even closer.

“Yes, it is great. Now, I can help you understand.” He narrowed his eyes back at you. The two of you sat, glaring, for who knows how long. Finally, you sighed and leaned back in your chair.

“Do you not want my help?” Loki asked, leaning forward to grab another article.

“I can do it myself,” you tried to sound convincing as you said it, but he did just catch you in the middle of a small mental breakdown. To say you had everything under control would have been the most obvious lie you had attempted to tell.

“Darling,” the god spoke, his voice dropping to a tone that you recognized as one reserved specifically for you. It was soft, gentle and something you desperately needed sometimes. When Loki chose to enter what you called “Lover Mode,” this was the tone he would use above all else, and it was for your ears only. “I am constantly at your disposal. Do you not think me capable of helping you in your daily struggles?”

You stared at him, not knowing entirely what to say, but you managed. “You already do so much for me. I’m practically useless if I can’t do at least my own damn homework.”

Loki laughed gently, reaching forward to grab your hand. He brushed his thumb against your knuckles before bringing it to his lips for a gentle kiss. “You will be doing it. Simply think of me as nothing more than a vessel of translation for you to use.”

You glanced at the piling papers and then back at your lover. His words were sincere, and you couldn’t find a reason to turn him down. So, you nodded and allowed him to help as he saw fit.

Loki sat beside you for hours, offering quiet reassurances every time you seemed to get stumped by a new concept. He used his velvety voice to explain things in simple detail, but he never gave you an answer, knowing that you would only be upset by the fact that you weren’t doing the work yourself. Loki’s fingers constantly drew gentle shapes against your thigh, the soft touches soothing your worries.

And when the sun’s rays began to dance vibrantly against the walls of your room, signifying the end of the day, he stayed.

[deathfrisbeeinthetardis]

The Sky Beast, New and Improved

Eeeek I wrote another Mothman Ryan fic!!! All inspired by @q-unsolved ‘s amazing art :D

Summary:

Ryan Bergara is 100% human until they shoot the Mothman episode. They didn't find anything but Ryan might have brought a piece of the investigation home with him.

Or: A bit of Mothman attaches to Ryan and he gets pretty cool perks. Shane is a fan.

Find it on Ao3 here or read below!

"Eeeeee, last chance!" Ryan pinched his voice two octaves higher, poking his head out the car window to squeak into the woods on the side of the dark road.

"I think you've offended the Mothman." Came Shane's reply from beside him, the words tinged with mirth. Despite the horrid noises that the older man had made earlier for his moth call, he still somehow found Ryan's imitation extremely hilarious.

"Shut up, Shane," Ryan grumbled with a grin, starting up the car again. It had been a long day of shooting, and they were all more than ready to get back home.

If he was being honest he didn't really believe in the whole Mothman concept, and it boggled his brain that Shane could trust these crazy 'enhanced' natural creatures more than he believes in ghosts and demons. His friend was leaning back in his seat, but not tilting it back so much as to be in Mark's way, a self-assured smile on his face.

The hunt hadn't been entirely fruitless, Ryan reminded himself, their calls had attracted something, at least, just many much smaller somethings with sharp canine teeth.

There is a dark shape that appears out of the corner of his eye at night. With his irregular nocturnal patterns demanded by the nature of his work and spontaneous late-night research sessions, Ryan had first chalked it up to sleep deprivation. It is an actual phenomenon proven by science, Shane would have said, when your eyes don't get enough rest they start to bail on their job and show you random shit. But is the phenomenon normally limited to the hours after sunset?

There were nightmares too, way more frequent than what usually follows an especially creepy investigation. The dark shadow was there too, and in the once or twice that Ryan had managed to take control of the dream long enough to look, there would be two bright red spots at the top of the shape, then the figure would shoot off to the corner of his vision again, wings hardly moving despite the swift movement.

And the migraines, so fucking many of them. He just feels a pressure building up in his ears, like they were picking up something high pitched that his brain cannot register, but some primal part of him recognized as wrong, abnormal, dangerous, run . Then the pain would explode through his eardrums and stay lodged in his head for hours. Ryan went to his doctor after the third time he had doubled over in pain, the hospital did all sorts of scans but could find nothing wrong.

It was all stupid, the Mothman trip wasn't even that scary, why the hell was the thing showing up in his head? Why can't it leave him alone?

(two weeks later)

Ryan's alarm goes off at 6:00, and he flings out a hand to swipe it off without opening his eyes. He shifts a little, relishing the feeling of down against his back, keeping away the slight November chill. Yes, this was LA and the temperature never dropped below freezing, but a guy needs some soft fluffy blankets come wintertime, sue him.

The alarm keeps blaring. He tries again. And again. But the damned screen isn't recognizing his fingers.

"Nnurgh." He grunts, lifting his head from the nest of pillows he had curled up with the night before. It was sort of unusual for Ryan to sleep face down, but it had just been the most logical choice at the time. He pushes himself up to his elbows and rubs at his face, while his hand tries futilely to shut his phone up. "Why do I wake up so early." He grumbles to his palms, maybe his phone was broken, yes that would explain why prodding at the screen has been doing nothing--

Ryan stares at his hands, both in front of him. Then he turns to look at his phone.

There is a dark thing hovering over the buzzing device, surface shimmering slightly from the dim light peeking through the curtains. He jerks away from it, letting out an entirely unmanly squeak as the thing moved with him, curling around and behind him faster than he could turn around in his still sleep-relaxed body. A soft warmth closes on his back on the right side, solid and fuzzy in a way that eerily mimics the softness on the other side. Oh god, the thing's on his back.

For a few moments, Ryan can't convince his body to move and just stays half crouched on his bed. The slight chill that glances his front only accentuates his panic. Slowly rising to sit back on his heels, Ryan whips a hand back as fast as he can manage in the attempt to grab at the thing. Do not be afraid, do not be afraid--

The weightlessness hits him hard when the thing suddenly soars up and away until the only points of contact are two spots between his shoulder blades. The rush of air and following pull from those points lifts him clean off the bed, plunging him into blind terror for a few seconds as oh god he is in the air , hovering above his bed with arms flailing. The twin spots on his back strains with the effort as the thing flaps with quiet, powerful whooshes. After a solid five seconds, the thing finally stills, dropping him on his ass onto the bed with an ‘oof’.

What, the fuck.

Ryan gives his weird job all the credit for his ability to maintain the state of calm--or shock, honestly, he wouldn't be able to tell-- enough to climb off the bed and walk to his closet. At least the thing isn't moving now, though he can feel the weight of it on his shoulders. And okay maybe he does miss the warmth on his back, just a little, monster produced or not.

Heart thumping in his chest, he peeks at himself in the mirror, terrified that he'll see the thing's eyes staring back at him. His own hair is disheveled, his eyes wide and beady in the way that would have made Shane laugh. And oh yes, the thing was there, arching off from his back with a terrifying eight-foot span, dark-colored and still shimmering slightly in the dim room. He quickly turns to look at his back, wide eyes not missing the way the tip of the thing curled in to avoid hitting the closet door.

It takes his brain a minute to catch up to what his eyes were seeing.

Wings. He has wings .

"The fuck?"

As if in answer, one of the black wings flips down to slap him upside the head, as if to say: took you long enough you doofus.

"Ow!" He complains, but however he tries, and god knows he did, his hands could come nowhere near the damn things as they moved in every which direction with fluid ease, putting his body off balance in the process when they flapped around.

If this is the result of Shane taunting some demon he is going to kill him.

“Eeeargh! Eeeargh! Eeeargh!” His phone screams from the bedside table. Right. He almost forgot about his damn alarm amidst all the crazy.

Snatching it up from and turning off the awful noise, it doesn't even quite register in his mind as his fingers move across the screen until it was showing Ryan that he is calling Shane. The man picks up on the 7th ring.

"Ry, wha?" His voice is gravelly and scratchy from sleep and Ryan's shoulders lose some of their tension at the familiar sound.

"Shane can, uh, can you come over? Now?" He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes, only jumping a little when the wings, his wings, settles against his back again in a warm blanket.

"Now?" A groan, Shane wasn’t a morning person, "Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"Just, come over. Please." Ryan adds, leaning his head against the cool glass of the mirror. His head feels too hot, even when his front is still cold.

"Okay, okay. Hang in there buddy, I'll be there in twenty."

Shane gets there in fifteen minutes. Ryan hears the sound of approaching footsteps from his curled up position on his bed and is wrenching the door open before Shane has the chance to knock.

"Thank fuck." he breathes, grabbing onto an arm and pulling the taller man into his apartment, shutting the door behind him. He keeps his back tucked against the door, the wings sparing his body from touching the icy surface.

Shane is studying his face with a perplexed expression and two thermoses of coffee in his hands, hair sticking out on one side in a horrendous cowlick. "Ryan, what happened?"

"You, um, might want to set those down and sit." He says, waving at the steaming cups of energy in Shane's hands, he's totally going to inhale one of those once his nerves are a little less shot.

Shane does so, expression tilting more and more towards worry as Ryan stays at his spot by the door.

"I'm going to show you something, and, and I'll need you to not freak out okay?" Ryan's voice shakes a little, and he holds his hands out in a placating gesture.

"For the record, if you just killed someone, first I will commend you for your productivity at six in the morning; second, I'll help you hide the body."

"Wha--no." Ryan huffs a laugh, the tension momentarily forgotten. They had known each other long enough that his big gangly friend knew how to get him out of panic mode. He gulps down a deep breath, and slowly steps away from the door, coaxing his wings to stretch out on either side of him. He has to admit, once he had stopped trying to grab the things they have been much more cooperative and responsive to his mind.

"Oh."

Ryan glues his eyes on his bare feet, cause he doesn't know what he would do if he looks and sees disgust or, or fear in Shane's face. "I woke up and just had these," the wings flap on their own volition, almost preening, Ryan realizes with mortification, "I-I don't know how it happened, they feel real Shane. What the fuck am I going to do? I don't know if its a demon thing or something to do with Mothman cause I've been having nightmares about it ever since we came back from Virginia--"

"Ryan, Ry calm down." Shane's out of his seat again, gripping onto Ryan's shoulders firmly to stop his rambling, "We'll figure this out, just, breathe."

Ryan let his head fall forward until his forehead’s pressed against Shane's rumpled hoodie, letting the steady beats of Shane's heart slow his own breathing. When he looks up again, Shane's staring at his wings with unabashed curiosity. Then he gets a light slap to the face to bring his attention back down to Ryan, courtesy of his right-wing. Huh, Ryan muses distantly, maybe having semiautomated wings does have some perks. The baffled expression on his friend's face right now is definitely worth it.

Chuckling in surprise, Shane once again pokes his head past Ryan's shoulder to get within an inch from the wings, his eyes crinkling into crescent-moon shapes. "They look less feathery and more, I dunno, maybe like deer velvet? They're quite fuzzy-looking." He pauses for a second deep in thought, and his hand on Ryan’s shoulder twitches like he wants to touch the wings. "The Mothman idea has more traction, I don't think if demons existed they would use their time to do this."

"I still can't believe you think Mothman is real but not demons." Ryan sighs, poking Shane in the chest with a finger. This has the unfortunate side effect of making him very aware that he does not currently have a shirt on. How had he not realized that? Will he have to cut holes in his shirts now? Fuck can he even go to work with wings sticking out of his back--

"Hey, stop that." Shane's hands on his shoulders give a light squeeze, and Ryan makes the effort to stop his brain from running away with his wits and hurling itself off a cliff, for both their sakes.

"Take your own advice and sit down." Shane's voice is gentle, and Ryan let himself be guided towards the couch and smiles gratefully when a warm cup is pressed into his hands. A few sips of the still too hot liquid goes a long way to ground him back into the normality of his morning routine. His wings find their own place to be, which turns out to be draped across the back of the sofa, their tips just peeking over the length of it.  

"I-I can fly." He blurts out, and a hysterical giggle bubbles out from his chest, and soon both of them were laughing and wheezing as the potentially fun part of the whole situation hit them suddenly.

"For real though, what are we going to do about this?" Ryan says in between giggles, gesturing at himself in general. "I mean it would be different if I can make them invisible or something but that's not--"

"Ryan," Shane's eyes are wide as he stares at the sofa, and his voice is full of wonder, "look."

Ryan cranes his head back to glance at where his friend was indicating and is, for the second time that day, shocked to hell and back. Seriously, if he is going to at least try to live a decent lengthed life, he's gotta get used to seeing strange shit. He can still feel his wings against the sofa, but they were not there. He reaches his hand back tentatively to where his limbs would have touched, and it's like his hand is passing through a dense, dry mist. His wings, but invisible.  

"They're still here." He murmurs in awe, moving his hand along the top of the sofa to stroke along the strange feeling of dense air. "They're invisible now."

"Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Ryan turns and with a flicker of darkness, his wings are back in physical form again, his hand resting gently against its fuzzy surface. Shane is full-on grinning, eyes alight with mischief, and he manages to say with complete seriousness, "Ryan, you're gonna be the new Mothman now."

And the strange thing is, Ryan doesn't feel repulsed by that idea. Far from that, the thought sends a thrill through him, awakening an almost primal part of him, the possibilities flitting through his mind faster than he can fully grasp each.  He grins back at his friend.

"Yeah. I guess I am."

[rhetoricalrogue]

OTP Question Meme

I was tagged by @bimollymauks thank you!

Answering with my new Zoe/Mason Wayhaven pairing and also my favorite OC OTP, mine and @alittlestarling‘s Roz/Vincent

Leaving this as an open tag, so whoever would like to join in, please do!  Fingers crossed that my Read More cut works, as this is LONG.

DISAGREEMENTS.

Who is more likely to raise their voice?

Z/M: both, tbh. Zoe yells when she’s angry

R/V: depending on the situation, both, though Vincent goes deathly quiet when he’s truly upset.

Who threatens to leave but never actually does?

Z/M: neither. Zoe’s abandonment issues kick in like woah and it’s a line that Mason never crosses.

R/V: Vincent, but it’s not leave-leave, it’s more “I need some air, I’ll be back later” to deescalate an argument before someone says something hurtful they don’t mean. 

Who actually keeps their word and leaves?

Z/M: N/A

R/V: Vincent, but he’s back in an hour or so after he’s cooled down.

Who trashes the house?

Z/M: not the house, but Zoe’s been known to vent her frustrations by throwing rocks into nearby bodies of water and scream if she’s at like Anger Level 11 on a 1-10 scale.

R/V: neither. Vincent would probably want to flip a table, but he doesn’t because he’d ultimately be the one to clean it up afterwards.

Do either of them get physical?

Z/M: Coming to blows? No. Shoving Mason out of her way (if he hasn’t already left yet) so she could storm out? Probably, but she retreats into her Touch Me Not mode, so that would only be if she felt cornered.

R/V: Absolutely not.

How often do they argue/disagree?

Z/M: rarely. They bicker and snark more than hold true arguments.

R/V: only when one feels the other is putting themselves in danger. They’ve grown up together for practically their entire lives, they’re pretty much of a same mind on many issues.

Who is the first to apologize?

Z/M: Zoe. “I’m sorry I was being an asshole” is a regular statement.

R/V: Vincent. He hates being at odds with Roz and is miserable if he can’t apologize and make things right between them.

SEX.

Who is on top?

Z/M: either/or with Zoe barely creeping in on top more.

R/V: Vincent, but he loves it when Roz takes initiative.

Who is on bottom?

Z/M: either/or, depending on the mood

R/V: Roz, but it’s a 50-50 split

Any kinks?

Z/M: Yep

R/V: Absolutely. You know, it’s the quiet ones that surprise you.

Who has the strangest desires?

There’s nothing too strange for either pairing. Both are open for experimentation and the “try it once to see if we like it” mindset, but it’s also not like “is the NSA agent looking at my search history blushing?” variety either. 

Who’s dominant in bed?

Equal opportunity for both pairings! 

Is head ever in the equation?

Z/M: Yes. Zoe texted Mason after not hearing from him for a few days with “Hey, I froze my ass off giving you a blowjob in the woods last week, answer your phone.”

R/V: Yes. It’s nice that it worked out that Vincent loves to give and Roz is enthusiastic about receiving.

If so, who is better at performing it?

Z/M: Mason, though he doesn’t complain at all when Zoe offers.

R/V: Vincent, since he’s had more practice during his “have casual sex with anyone with a pulse to get over Feelings” phase of pining over Roz.

Ever had sex in public?

Z/M: a few times

R/V: they’re Circle mages. It’s easier to name a place they haven’t had sex in, especially in the Sweethearts AU.

Who moans the most?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: They’re both quiet by default, but when they have the opportunity to be a couple out in the open? Vincent. 

Who leaves the most marks?

Z/M: Mason, purely because he heals up faster than either of them would like

R/V: Roz. It was a surprise to them both when they found out biting was a big turn-on for Vincent, so she uses it often. 

Who is the more experienced of the two?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: Vincent

Do they ‘fuck’ or ‘make love’?

Z/M: fuck, though they have some “oh shit, this got Emotional and I am NOT prepared to deal with this, WHAT DO I DO?” moments later on

R/V: make love

How long do they usually last?

Z/M: hot and heavy quickies to release all the pent up energy from the constant flirting banter they keep up, then a slower second round

R/V: quick and rushed during the day, but multiple slower sessions when they can be alone

Rough or soft?

Z/M: both

R/V: both, but more often soft

Is protection used?

Yes to both pairings

Does it ever get boring?

Yes and no to both. The whole intimacy thing where you can carry on a conversation or “oh hey, I remembered what I meant to tell you earlier” starts happening and sometimes sex is more scratching an itch than the whole soulful event. Then again, there’s those times when someone moves or does something different and “okay, so I didn’t know THAT was something we liked. Let’s do that again.” (idk, I have a lot of Feelings about couples and sex, see the sexlaughterhonesty posts @thesecondseal​ has)

Where is the strangest place they’d have sex?

Z/M: in an abandoned building Zoe used to go hang out in when she wanted to be alone as a teen

R/V: extremely late night rendezvous in Skyhold’s library. May or may not have happened in the same nook Dorian likes to frequent. Also may or may not have been 100% sure Solas was asleep downstairs.

FAMILY.

Do they plan on having children/or have children?

Z/M: no. Zoe’s afraid of becoming her mother and focusing more on her work than her child and she never wants anyone to have to experience that.

R/V: yes. It’s an option that was never available to them before, but once it’s an avenue that they can actually think about, they would love to become parents.

If so, how many children do they want/have?

Z/M: none

R/V: they wind up with five, all named after flowers

AFFECTION.

Who likes to cuddle?

Z/M: *bangs pots and pans together* TOUCH STARVED PAIRING TOUCH STARVED PAIRING TOUCH STARVED PAIRING

R/V: both. They’re both very touchy-feely by nature and always seem to gravitate towards the other when they’re doing something in the same room

Who gets naughty in the most inappropriate of places?

Z/M: Mason, but it’s not like Zoe’s arguing either

R/V: Roz

Who struggles to keep their hands to themself?

Z/M: both

R/V: Vincent

How long can they cuddle until one becomes uncomfortable?

Z/M: for a while before an arm falls asleep and they need to move positions/one of them gets too hot

R/V: for pretty much forever, except in the summertime. They’re both walking furnaces (Vincent says Roz is like a tiny space heater) so it makes for uncomfortable hot weather snuggles

What is their favourite non-sexual activity?

Z/M: Hanging out together outside and enjoying the quiet/scenery, especially at night

R/V: gardening

Where is their favourite place to cuddle?

Z/M: in bed or on the sofa

R/V: wherever, whenever

SLEEPING.

Who snores?

Z/M: neither

R/V: Vincent, but very lightly. more of a slight rumble ever so often

If both do, who snores the loudest?

Do they share a bed or sleep separately?

Z/M: separately. Bed sharing = commitment and this is supposed to be no strings fun

R/V: share a bed. Skyhold’s is the largest bed they’ve ever slept in, so there’s a lot of giggling and “I have crossed oceans of bedsheets to find you” jokes at first.

If they sleep together, do they cozy up together or lay far apart?

Z/M: N/A

R/V: starts cuddled together with Roz’s head on Vincent’s shoulder, but they move a lot during the night, sharing Big Spoon duties. Even if they wake up with both of them on their backs, they either have a foot touching a leg or holding hands.

What do they wear to bed?

Z/M: underwear & a t-shirt or nothing at all

R/V: dedicated PJs. Roz: nightgown/chemise or one of Vincent’s shirts, Vincent: sleep pants

Are either of them insomniacs?

Z/M: Zoe when something’s bothering her. Since Mason doesn’t technically need a lot of sleep, he doesn’t consider himself one.

R/V: Vincent, especially in the Sweethearts AU. Nightmares from his time conscripted into the Orlesian army keep him awake and afraid to sleep. 

Can sleeping pills be found by the bedside?

Z/M: no

R/V: yes, in both powdered and potion form, though Vincent rarely uses them since he hates how sluggish he feels the next day (and they rarely give him dreamless sleep anyway)

Do they wrap their limbs around each other or just lay side by side?

Z/M: both

R/V: tangle of limbs

Who wakes up with bed hair?

Z/M: both, though Zoe tends to sleep with her hair in a braid most nights, so it’s not as bad as Mason’s

R/V: both, and it’s a tie as to who has the worse bed head most mornings

Who wakes up first?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: Vincent. He’s an early bird up before dawn and she’s more of a later morning riser

Who prepares breakfast in bed for the other?

Z/M: breakfast is normally coffee at home with a croissant from the bakery for her, so Mason usually turns on the coffeemaker when he stays over or before he leaves in the morning

R/V: either, but usually Vincent since he’s awake before her

What is their favourite sleeping position?

Z/M: they claim they’re both knives, but Zoe is a Big Spoon who likes to wrap her leg over Mason’s hip

R/V: snuggled up with Roz’s head on Vincent’s shoulder/chest, but they wind up with Vincent curled around her (and with a mouthful of hair) or Roz doing the turtle backpack/jetpack when they do spoon.

Do they set an alarm each night?

Z/M: Zoe needs at least two alarms, but did away with one of them when Mason nearly threw her phone out of the room after it blared right in his ear.

R/V: both of them have pretty good internal alarm clocks and wake up at the same time every morning

Who has nightmares?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: both, but probably more on Vincent’s side

Can a television be found in their bedroom?

No for both

Who has ridiculous dreams?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: Roz, maybe

Who sprawls out and takes up most of the bed?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: Vincent, purely because he’s taller

Who makes the bed?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: either, whoever winds up doing it first

What time is bed time?

Z/M: 11 to midnight, but she’s usually asleep closer to one in the morning, even without Mason showing up

R/V: either anywhere between 8 and 11 or so late it’s considered early because they’re both working and one of them manages to drag the other into bed. There is no in-between.

Any routines/rituals before bed?

Z/M: usual tooth brushing, changing clothes, Zoe’s half-assed attempt at a nighttime skincare routine. Zoe usually spends some time brushing her hair out since it’s been in a ponytail during the day and brushing tends to soothe the all day pull on her scalp.

R/V: tea by the fireplace, changing clothes, putting aside work. Roz likes to braid her hair before going to bed and sometimes Vincent will ask if he can brush it and braid it for her since the act is calming for both of them

Who’s the grumpiest when they wake up?

Z/M: Zoe. Do not talk to her before her first cup of coffee.

R/V: Roz. Vincent is an automatic Ray of Sunshine first rattle out of the box and it’s a good thing she loves him as much as she does or else she may have killed him years ago.

WORK.

Who is the busiest?

Z/M: it’s a pretty equal amount

R/V: either, depending on which AU we’re talking about and who’s Inquisitor (*trips and a thousand AUs spill out of my pockets*)

Who rakes in the highest income?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: *insert “You people are getting paid?” meme here*

Are any of them unemployed?

No

Who takes the most sick days?

None of them are likely to take sick days, unless they’re truly sick, and they’re all pretty healthy people aside from one or two seasonal colds per year

What are their jobs?

Z/M: Zoe’s Wayhaven’s detective and human liaison to the Agency. Mason is with Unit Bravo

R/V: one of them is the Inquisitor and the other is a companion/former Circle mage, depending on the AU. Vincent was ranked higher than Roz as an Enchanter pre-Inquisition  

Who sucks up to their boss?

None of them

Who is more likely to turn up late to work?

Z/M: Zoe, but it’s rare

R/V: both are punctual 

Who stresses the most?

Z/M: both are cool as a cucumber on the outside, but internalize their stress, so who knows

R/V: Roz

Do they enjoy or despise their careers/occupations?

They all like their jobs!

Are they financially stable?

Z/M: yes, though Zoe really, really wishes she made enough to afford a new car

R/V: Yes.

HOME.

Who does the washing?

Z/M: the dishwasher. They take turns loading/unloading it

R/V: Roz does the washing, Vincent does the drying and putting away

Who takes out the trash?

Z/M: either

R/V: Vincent

Who does the ironing?

Z/M: Zoe, but only her clothes. Mason, but only his clothes.

R/V: Roz

Who does the cooking?

Z/M: is picking up or calling in for takeout considered “cooking”?

R/V: they like to cook together

Who is more likely to burn the house down just trying?

Z/M: “Mason, it was ONE. Fucking. Time.” Zoe set the fire alarm off while trying to be domestic and Mason won’t let her live it down.

R/V: neither, they’re both pretty decent cooks

Who is messier?

Z/M: Maybe Zoe, she’s neat but she leaves things out sometimes just to irk Mason

R/V: both are pretty neat and don’t really make messes without straightening things up

Who leaves the toilet roll empty?

Z/M: neither

R/V: neither

Who leaves their dirty clothes on the floor?

Z/M: both, but it eventually gets picked up

R/V: both, if they’re really tired. Otherwise, there’s a hamper.

Who forgets to flush the toilet?

None of them

Who loses the car keys when it comes time to go somewhere?

Z/M: neither

R/V: (Modern AU) neither, but sometimes keys are misplaced even though they have a dish on a hall table right when you walk in. 

Who answers the telephone?

Z/M: depends on who’s calling. Bobby gets an automatic ignore and deleted voicemail.

R/V: (Modern AU) they answer their own phones, but will hand the other their cell to answer if the other person is away from where it’s at.

Who mows the lawn?

Z/M: Zoe lives in an apartment with landscaping management included in the rent. Mason doesn’t know who mows the Warehouse’s lawn, but it sure isn’t him.

R/V: (Modern AU) Vincent will go over to mow Roz’s rental house lawn (and probably sneak in a few plants from the nursery he owns into her flowerbeds)  

Who does the vacuuming?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: Roz

Who does the groceries?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: both

Who takes the longest to shower?

Z/M: Zoe, purely because she has thick, thick hair almost down to her waist that is a chore and a half to shampoo/condition

R/V: either, depending on who decided to sneak into the shower with the other

Who spends the most time in the bathroom?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: depends on the day. Shaving usually takes Vincent a longer time since he’s careful of his facial scars, but Roz has the same hair issues that Zoe has, so it’s pretty much a tie.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Is money a problem?

Z/M: No, but Zoe thinks that it would be nice to invest in her motorcycle or a new car

R/V: No. No matter the AU, Vincent’s technically a trust fund baby with wealthy parents willing to help out.

How many cars do they own?

Z/M: Zoe: beaten up silver hatchback that’s seen better days and is held together with spit and a mechanic’s prayer, WiP motorcycle she’s restoring. Mason: Agency SUV

R/V: two sensible, mid-priced cars, both pre-owned and paid for

What’s their song?

Z/M: Ghost - Au/Ra

R/V: Work Song - Hozier

Do they live in the city or in the country?

Z/M: they live in (Zoe)/on the outskirts of (Mason) Wayhaven

R/V: in the country, near Wycome post-Inquisition to be close to Vincent’s parents

Do they own their home or do they rent?

Z/M: Rents an apartment/lives in the Agency-owned Warehouse

R/V: (Modern AU) Vincent: rents out an apartment, Roz: rents a house

Do they enjoy their surroundings?

Yes for both

What do they do when they’re away from each other?

Z/M: work, hanging out with friends

R/V: work, friends, mentoring young mages

Where did they first meet?

Z/M: met when Zoe shot Adam (she was sorry about it later), but made a bad first impression on the other when Rebecca formally introduced them

R/V: Vincent was five, going on six years old when the Templars brought in a new girl his age. He was sad when he saw her crying and decided to be her friend. 

Who spends the most money when out shopping?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: Vincent

Who’s more likely to flash their assets?

Z/M: neither. Zoe would like to have nice things, but she’s not going to be a showoff with them if/when she gets them

R/V: neither

Any mental issues?

Z/M: Zoe’s abandonment feelings/anger with her mother

R/V: PTSD for both of them, Vincent’s insomnia 

Who finds it amusing when the other trips over?

Z/M: both, since they’re both light on their feet and agile. They do check to see if the other is okay, even if they’re smirking while they do it

R/V: neither, they help the other up and ask if they’re okay, but don’t overly worry about it unless it was a bad fall or there was an underlying reason they tripped in the first place, like being exhausted.

Who’s terrified of bugs?

Z/M: neither

R/V: neither, unless you count giant spiders and whatnot as bugs. Then both.

Who kills the spiders around the house?

Z/M: either, though Mason is more likely to find a cup in the middle of the room with a “DO NOT OPEN” sticky note on top if it’s a big spider

R/V: either, and they usually try to scoop them up and release outside. 

Do they have any fears for their future?

Z/M: Aside from the whole immortality vs. human lifespan thing, they try not to dwell on things. The future is uncertain and it’s better to enjoy the present.

R/V: so many, but they’re in it together and can deal with whatever gets thrown at them.

Their favourite place?

Z/M: the Warehouse’s rooftop

R/V: Skyhold’s gardens

Who’s more likely to surprise the other with a fancy dinner?

Z/M: Mason, maybe?

R/V: Vincent

Who pays the bills?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: Vincent

Who’s the tallest?

Z/M: Mason. He’s 6′0″ and Zoe’s 5′9″

R/V: Vincent. He’s 6′1″ and Roz’s 5′1″ (my favorite tol and smol, tbh)

Who’s more likely to just randomly hop into the shower with the other?

Z/M: Mason

R/V: Roz

Who wanders around in their underwear?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: Roz

Who sings the loudest when singing along to the radio?

Z/M: Zoe

R/V: both

What do they tease each other about?

Z/M: both of them being grumps with no filters. Mason about Zoe nearly burning her apartment down making a grilled cheese sandwich that one time. (”It wasn’t THAT bad!”)

R/V: I don’t really know! I mean, they do tease the other, but a lot of it is in-jokes and maybe Roz being a small ball of fury at times? *shrugs into the abyss*

Who is more likely to cringe at the other’s fashion sense at times?

Z/M: neither. They tend to wear mostly the same dark colored clothing and stuff that’s not likely to stand out and get them noticed

R/V: neither. Vincent thinks Roz is beautiful in anything she wears and Roz likes the fact that Vincent’s pants are snug around his butt and his shirts emphasize his broad shoulders.

Who crushed first?

Z/M: Zoe, in that “stupid hot Agent, he makes me SO MAD...oh no, I think he’s hot. FUCK.” way.

R/V: Vincent P I N E S over Roz for Y E A R S but doesn’t do anything because she’s his best and dearest friend and telling her how he feels would risk ruining that friendship since there’s just NO WAY AT ALL she would EVER feel the same for him...

Any alcohol or substance related problems?

Z/M: none. Both will drink socially, but nothing more serious than a few drinks and a minor buzz. They both have a smoking problem, but Mason tends to cut back because of Zoe and Zoe has a rule of never smoking at work. She eventually cuts back in her off hours because of Mason, but will light up when she’s stressed or upset, mostly with things centering on Rebecca.

R/V: none

Who is more likely to stumble home, drunk, at 3am?

Z/M: neither. Zoe doesn’t like to get more than a pleasant buzz where the edges are a little hazy but nothing past that

R/V: Vincent. He’s a horrible lightweight who can’t hold his liquor. Two drinks in and he’s all “WHOMST wants to see me naked???” Forget about tequila making his clothes come off, ANY booze and he’s stripping.

Who swears the most?

Z/M: both

R/V: Roz, though Vincent keeps a good internal swearing streak going every now and then.

[araliensmagica]

100 Day Project 1/100 - Pathfinder.

In the universe of The Human Endurance.

It would be an understatement to say that spirits were low aboard the Pathfinder. Kian had only been here for a few months, but he had been quick to fall in with the habits and moods of the crew. Something was wrong in every aspect - from the heavy wake-like silence in the commons to the near-darkness in everyone’s living quarters.

We’ve become a ghost ship, he thought. 

Despite the incredibly crowded quarters, it felt as though the ship was dead.

They’d been in this system for the better part of three months. Of it, they’d spent the last week in orbit around this world, letting their pulsar drives recharge. The devices, as the name implied, charged best on rapidly turning pulsar stars, but could do so from any other star with enough time – thus, they traveled on pulse engine alone, soaking up the energy with solar plating as they’d journeyed across the system.

He had checked the readouts just this morning, and they indicated the ship would be ready for a hyperspace jump in a little bit over two days, at the current charge rate. The world they orbited was in the planet’s “habitable zone” – close enough for the star’s energy to do something, but not so close that they had to expend precious power reserves on their magnetic shields.

It helped that this was a fairly tame star, too: a yellow, mid-sized star, about half (give or take) through its lifespan, not prone to any of the fussy flareups that rendered so many systems inhabitable and planets unexplorable.

It could have been an ideal place to call home.

Or, more accurately, had once been.

Spindly arms wrapped around his waist, and he pulled himself away from the window, leaning down to kiss the top of the newcomer’s head. “Luna,” he said softly.

“Nice to see you too, Kian,” she tried to tease him, her voice thick and breaking with emotion. She rose up on tiptoe to peer out the viewport, her breath audibly catching.

“Need a boost?” he offered, because she very much might. She shot him a Look (with a capital L) and shook her head.

After a long moment’s silence, she finally spoke again. “So. We’re here.”

Another pause.

“I never thought I’d see it.” She hugged him tighter. “Earth.”

No one aboard the ship had dared speak the name aloud. They all knew, but to verbalize it … made it real.

“It’s browner than the pictures,” Kian murmured, the closest to agreement she was going to get out of him. She didn’t respond.

“Why did we have to come out here? The mining station was the last viable colony, and even then only barely. There’s no point in being here, too-” She stretched up on her toes, pressing her face into his chest and wrapping her arms around him. “I’m so glad we made it there, don’t get me wrong –“

He cut her off with a light chuckle. “I know, Luna. I’m glad you did, too. But you know everyone had to see this. Had to see…” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say it.

“There aren’t any survivors down there. There can’t be.” It trailed off like a question, and he found himself lightly kissing her forehead again.

“I’m sure there aren’t. The readouts don’t lie – that atmosphere would kill anyone without a full vacsuit, and you know the vault projects weren’t made to last this long. There – there can’t be, no.” Luna sniffled, burying her face in his side, and he held her close. “It’s okay. They’re in a better place. They’re not hurting anymore. And they’re not alone anymore, either.”

He knew first-hand how crippling that loneliness could be. Alone, on an alien, uninhabited planet – and surely Earth counted as alien now, with how badly its ecosystem had collapsed.

His family – or more accurately, his great-great-grandparents – had been helium miners on a station in orbit around Neptune. But as the life support aged and failed and his family one by one succumbed to all manner of respiratory ailment, he had been abruptly confronted with the idea of either a slow death like theirs or else… the unknown. He’d done what any sane person would do, he’d loaded himself into the last functioning helium return pod and shot himself off towards the Martian collection station. He’d had no real plan for once he got there; surely there’d be a crew who could help him, help him figure out a plan.

But instead, he had found himself alone, using the hacked together pieces of a scavenged “pressure failure” kit to seal an emergency shelter inside the remnants of a completely uninhabited, ruined city complex, setting an emergency radio to blast every frequency with a cry for help.

He hadn’t really expected anyone to come, much less that same day; he was shaken out of an exhausted near-unconsciousness by a helmeted, vacsuit-clad soldier-looking sort, who’d brought him aboard the ship with no more questions or answers than his name.

Luna shook him out of his thoughts, softly poking him on the nose. “Boop,” she whispered, and he laughed lightly and leaned down to kiss her properly. In the last few weeks, once he’d recovered some of his strength, she’d been all but glued to his side, showing him all around the ship and teaching him how to do all the odd maintenance tasks that he didn’t know. He was good with the computers, at least; he’d had to be, to keep the station running.

There was a loud, electronic chiming sound, and Kian jumped. Luna laughed, steadying him. “It’s just the communications array, someone’s transmitting on one of the frequencies we’re...” She paused for a moment, a look of horror slowly crossing her face. “…wait.”

They were too far for there to be any transmissions from the ship’s home systems, Luna had been adamant about that. And there were no signals to be found here, either; every one of the mining satellites among the outer planets and even the Martian Viability Project (Or as some books had called it, The Real MVP) had returned nothing. No pinging, not even a basic radio interference to say that maybe there was something online there.

There shouldn’t be anything left in this system to ping with.

 All at once there was a clattering in the corridor beyond, muffled orders being shouted and heavy boots tramping on metal. A helmeted head

“OI! Lovebirds, let’s go! Something’s coming in!” The gruff voice of the commander echoed through the small space.

They exchanged a helpless look, squeezing their way out of the small viewport and into the corridor, which was abuzz with activity for the first time in nearly seven days.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” the commander said again, snapping her peculiar cross-shaped visor into place over her face. It was just for show, of course; there was no immediate threat, by any means.

Kian pulled Luna close against his side, earning a dirty look from the commander. But she said nothing, ushering them into the “command deck.” Perhaps poorly named, it was a half-dome-shaped room that likely had not been the original bridge, but had become it, having been filled nearly to the brim with all manner of extra controls for retrofitted auxiliary engines and weapons. There was certainly not enough room in here for the entire crew, but they all piled in regardless, crowding around and staring at the radio transmitter in the center of the pilots’ array.

“What’s happening?” Kian quietly whispered, craning his neck to see over the heads of the taller crew members. Luna shushed him.

“Datalog – oh, I’ve forgotten. Data- Datalog three thousand  - no…. This is – Datalog four – I mean, resident. That’s – still not right. Apologies. Resetting transmission. Stand by.” A quiet voice, reedy and full of the crackle of static and uncertainty, spilled from the speaker for several moments. As the sound cut out, an uneasy murmur began to fill the space around Kian and Luna. Everyone spoke at once, tossing around anxious questions. Who is it? What is it? Is it recent?

The commander barked an order and they quickly fell silent as the radio crackled back to life.

“Resident zero six zero five three eff, as in ‘forever.’ Given name: Endurance.” The voice was shakier this time, fighting to stay even, but far more coherent. “Vault two hundred seventy-six. Consecutive datalog entry four thousand three hundred and ninety-four. Condition report: Life support systems at a consistent four percent. Backup generator three reporting intermittent power failures. Air quality is poor. Water quality is marginal. Nutritional assay of sustenance is unsurvivable.” The speaker let out a shaky sob, a whimper that almost sounded inhuman from the radio distortion. Kian tried not to flinch.

“Psychological report: I – I… don’t know what to do anymore. I guess – unsurvivable. For formality’s sake.” Another whimpering breath. “If I leave the Vault it won’t let me back in, even if the power somehow stays on and the air stays clean, which it won’t, but – there’s. There’s nothing left for me here. Asha died – index reference, sorry, sorry, uh – the, the laboratory rat, see- datalog three thousand nine hundred ninety...one?” The speaker cleared their throat. “Asha died this morning. I haven’t seen another human in – in I don’t know how long. The databases are down, everything’s in power saving, and I – I… I think I’m going mad.”

“Please help me. If you’re – If you’re even out there. God, or future aliens, or – whoever you are. Please.“

“…This is my last datalog entry. I’m putting the systems in powersaving mode after this. I don’t… I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”

“If you’re receiving this too late, know that – know that you tried, and it’s okay, and – and I forgive you. I think – I think I speak for everyone on Earth, now.” A chuckle hollower than a mined-out asteroid. “We forgive you. We’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

[evien-stark]

✧I Need You✧ Chapter 48 [Begin: Avengers]

Not tempting fate became very hard to do. In some moments you felt paranoid. Anxious that if you enjoyed life a little too much, something would eventually come and bite you in the ass. That was always the way it worked, wasn’t it? But an extended vacation with Tony coupled with months of… normal, if you could call it that, had almost lulled you into a false sense of security. You stayed with him through the end of the holiday season. Spent dedicated time with him on New Year’s, even getting that cheesy midnight kiss. On Valentine’s Day he surprised you at Stark Industries with a literal armful of flowers (this time not pilfered from reception) and that ever charming, loving smile. It didn’t take much else more to convince you to leave that day.

Stark Tower was nearly complete. The world was abuzz with the news. May would be here soon, somehow, and you’d no doubt really take Tony up on what he’d said to that reporter a long while back- party in it. A private one, of course. That may or may not have consisted of copious amounts of champagne and a little planned-for naughtiness. It was only fair to see if the Agarwood desk Tony had insisted upon would be sturdy enough for… writing many letters. Yes, that was it… and while you were at it you had a mind to check out some of the sturdiness of the walls, too-

Oh and that private floor- yes, all the furniture would have to be inspected very closely there, too. You just couldn’t stand the thought of paying so much for shoddy work. His birthday seemed like a fine time to plan a party. Maybe you’d really do it up, good for press, and host a big one. And then a more intimate affair much later. Just the two of you.

Until then, you found yourself easily settling into a life of working woman of the world by day and SHIELD agent- Avenger?- in the other moments. Fury had continued on his promise of trusting you by letting you go a few missions with Natasha, a couple of which Agent Barton tagged along in. It made you feel bad, when he did, because they were clearly much closer, but you didn’t completely mind being a third wheel. You were really just training. And you were sure that Fury only sent you out on the babyish of baby missions. All intel gathering.

While you’d had objections at first- where could you go without being recognized these days- Natasha had started to train you on her expertise in blending in. More than anything it was important to throw off the shape of your face- especially your eyes, a pair of sunglasses did that, especially cat-eyed. And of course your hair had to be different, too, which wigs came quite in handy for. Then you had to dress outside your normal style. And for the missions you were on, you went just a touch dressed down in flannels and jeans. Rumpled without being obvious.

In cafes, on the street, and in one or two museums, you and Nat chatted idly with each other while also listening in on several conversations going on around you. Which led to your next problem- the tech they’d outfitted you with was annoying. The buds they’d developed were meant to sit in your ear with no problems, and maybe they did just that, but they became painful to wear after more than a few minutes.

One night after a particularly long and engaging mission, you’d come home to lament to Tony about it. Which was really the worst and best mistake to make.

The next day during briefing, after Fury had left (thank god), Tony dropped by, small briefcase in hand. Without waiting for a grand ceremony, he set it down on the desk and opened it. Inside were several teeny- teeny tiny, what looked to be stickers.

“Audio recording, radio transfer with encrypted channel, zero delay. Blends to the skin tone. Has a fifteen mile radius and target lock for specific voice frequencies. Team member sound resonates out into the ear canal, so talking it’ll sound like you’re standing right next to each other. Best of all. Painless.”

What did you do to deserve a man like this?

“If I’d known I’d be the Q of this operation, I’d have charged more.” But of course he had to take his victory laps, too.

“And how much are you charging for these?” Natasha was looking them over, seeming quite pleased.

“100 thousand.” He shut the lid on the briefcase.

“That’s not that bad.” She said with a grin.

He grinned back. “A week.”

At that her face fell, but you interjected. “We can discuss the bill later.”

Tony’s brow arched, lips still curved. “Oh, are you the purchaser for SHIELD now? In that case, I have a bridge I want to sell your fine organization.” He seemed to be in quite the sassy mood.

“Let’s talk about it over dinner, shall we?” Deciding this was the perfect way to start pulling this small team even closer together. You did your best to give your sweetest most winning smile at the both of them.

Natasha crossed her arms, but she was smiling back. “Does that always work?”

Tony finally turned away with one hand in a wave over his shoulder. “Every time. Quince at 8. Don’t make me wait.” As if he really were conducting a serious business deal.

You found the good sense to go just a little bit red as Nat directed quite the look your way. Yes. You had Tony Stark wrapped around your finger. What of it? A nice dinner came out of it, that’s what. No business to speak of. And, as usual, he found himself at home no matter who he was with.

Even so, Tony only seemed to want to meander out of the house for dinner when Nat was involved. Add any other agents to the mix and he became busy. But that was fine. More than once Nat and Clint both found time to sit down with you together, and even Coulson made time for a few again, eventually. And that was especially nice.

While you spent more extended time in New York, you made sure to check in on Steve. Walked around the city with him sometimes to keep up appearances. But the lunches you found yourself slipping into were anything but. While he seemed to enjoy your company, he didn’t really say a lot. You wanted to ask more than once if he’d gone to see Peggy yet, but that was really none of your business. And, aside that, you didn’t want to upset things between you.

Tony refused to see him. In less words- always with a good excuse. Too busy more often than not. Maybe he was, but… if you were all supposed to be on a team together, maybe it would have been better to make the time.

SHIELD relented near the middle of April. You’d been talking with Nat more often about how the Tower was nearly complete and that it was taking a lot of your attention- so you thought she must have put in a word with Fury and the rest of them. Suddenly you were off the hook, and you were very thankful. The completion of the Tower really needed you fully, so once you were free elsewhere, you devoted the rest of your time to it.

For the next couple of weeks you went on complete do not disturb mode while you and Tony squared the rest of the very important building aspects away. Really, it was the last things you had to do- hook up the building’s entire power source to go off the grid. To even begin you’d had to get about several thousand permits to keep the city off your backs (and the government, too), and then begin a serious plan of how best to cut the Tower off from the tracks that had originally been laid. While your research and marks on maps and blueprints had been valuable, you were… mostly sure, Tony had actually needed to do most of the bigger work.

The last piece of which he was concluding that very evening, two days into May. One that made you extremely nervous. You’d sort of wanted to go with him, considering he’d taken the suit down into the fucking ocean, but he’d told you yours was not water tight- or at least not tested for that environment- which then made you want to ask how he knew his was. But it was a talk for a later time. For now, your mind was more focused on the small scale replica sitting in holograph in front of you, from your visor, as the building was completely dark, listening intently to Tony work under literal heavy pressure.

It was when he went quiet for a few long moments that you started to get antsy. “Run into a snag?”

“You have my vitals on monitor, don’t be so anxious.” Knowing exactly why you were asking such a thing. And, while it was true, his heart rate and brain waves steady, it didn’t make you feel any better.

“I’ll stop being so anxious when you’re not literally at the bottom of the ocean cutting up pipes.”

“Yeah. Well. I appreciate it. But I kinda need to concentrate. Ask me again in five minutes if I’m alright.”

Waiting wasn’t really your favorite thing, especially not when he was in the middle of work like this, but you tried your best to do as he asked. Once your leg started bouncing you knew you were about to cut five minutes short. But, finally-

“You’re good on this end. The rest is up to you. Can you handle it?” His face appeared in a little box aside the tower visuals.

“We’re all disconnected, you’re sure?” It wasn’t like you were expecting the tower to explode if he wasn’t completely correct- most likely nothing at all would happen. But still better safe than sorry.

He grinned. “Stark Tower is about to become a beacon of self-sustaining clean energy. Just as soon as you light her up.”

Nodding to no one, “Alright. Here… we… go-” On the executive drive panels you lit the boxes up one by one, and you could feel the building jumping to life. Humming and bright until quieting down just a little. You let go of a breath you were holding as the lights on the top floor came on and stayed on. Mission success. “How does it look?” You could only imagine what she looked like from outside.

While you’d been paying attention to the levels now displaying on the holotop board on the desk, your eyes shifted when Tony smiled even wider. Practically glowing himself. “Like Christmas, but with more… me.” Ah, yes, those beautiful and huge letters must have been glowing a homing beacon. STARK.

Touching through a couple of graphs and trackers, you tried to keep your focus steady. Trying to see if there were any trouble areas that needed attention. But, thankfully, it seemed all stable. As expected. “I can’t wait to do that presser in a week- and the party. We really will have to start doing invitations. I think it’ll be a really good boost for the market-”

“Honey. You’re killing me. Enjoy the moment. Please?”

“Well, when you ask so nicely…” Smiling to yourself as you swiped away all the other documents, leaving the building render itself the only thing up. “Come home faster, would you? Easier to enjoy it if you were with me.”

A soft chuckle broke through. “I’m coming as fast as I can.”

True to form you saw the light of his thrusters approaching. Knowing he’d be only just another moment, you took what last you had of the evening (sure your attention was about to be thoroughly swallowed up in celebration…) to really go over each floor of the tower. Looking for problem spots or warnings. It eased you further to see nothing needed touching.

The sound of Tony coming down and in grew closer and closer, and it was an impossible task to keep your smile at bay as he entered. Free of the suit- courtesy of a device that cost way too much money, in your opinion, in a simple black long sleeve and slacks as he came closer. You briefly looked over the projection to him. “Seems like the levels are holding steady.” Giving him the very good news.

“Of course they are, I was directly involved.” Smug and self-satisfied grin still in place. “Which brings me to my next question, how does it feel to be a genius?” Swiping his hand across the holotop, he rid the room of the projection, coming instead to stand before you, hands on your shoulders.

Your brows raised. “Me? No. What are you talking about?”

His expression melted into a warmer smile. “What do you mean what am I talking about? This all came from you.”

Suddenly feeling very bashful, you shook your head, turning away a little. “No. Stop. It was an idea from an idea. ...from this idea.” Head lifting again to look at him fully, smiling back, your hands reached up to brush briefly over the Arc Reactor spilling out from the hole in his shirt. “From you.”

 Our new future started here.

 True now more than ever.

His hands slid up the sides of your neck and the feeling of that intimate celebration was becoming more imminent. “Stark Tower is your baby. Give yourself at least… thirty percent of the credit?” But then that playful, boyish grin reappeared with this tease.

“Oh. Thirty? For my baby?” Your hands dropped away from him, and you put on quite the dry look- even if the two of you were only playing.

He stepped away. “An argument could be made for thirty-five. If you ask nicely.”

Sliding off the desk, you were quick behind him. “How about fifty?”

“Hmn. Fifty. Fifty… see- but- now my thinking is, I did all the heavy lifting.” Going over to the lounge row of plush couches, he took a seat, removing a chilled bottle of champagne from an awaiting bucket. Popping the cork, “Literally. Literally all the heavy lifting of things.” Grinning, still, as he poured two glasses out.

You gratefully accepted the glass behind handed to you and took a seat next to him. “As if dealing with the press and the public isn’t tantamount to lifting heavy beams.” Tutting at him before taking a long sip of champagne.

It left the both of you smiling at each other. “I’ll tell you what. Next building’s gonna say Lady on the tower.”

“Please don’t.” Face falling immediately at that little hit.

“INY?”

“No.” And how quickly your smile returned as you leaned over to him. “Even though it’s still true.”

“Truer every day.” Words growing soft and hushed as you stole a much needed kiss.

Now, now more than ever, you knew the universe had stopped looking kindly on you. The moment finally came, just as you’d abandoned your champagne glass and settled on Tony’s lap, deep in kisses that were becoming heady and unstoppable- JARVIS’ voice thrummed over the intercom. “Sorry for the interruption- the telephone is for you- I’m afraid my protocols are being overwritten.”

You broke back immediately, as if JARVIS were a kid who had just entered the room- sometimes it was almost too easy to forget he was there. But the news he was bringing wasn’t any sort of good. So when Phil Coulson’s voice broke over next, you felt yourself go just a little cold. “We need to talk.”

Even though you’d been leaning away, about to get up, Tony put a hand on your hip to keep you right where you were, determined to not let the evening crash. With his other he picked up his phone, holding it at arm’s length. “You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark. Please leave a message.”

“This is urgent.”

“Then leave it urgently.”

You knew there was absolutely no way to salvage this. If Coulson was calling now, like this, it meant something terrible was happening. Just the sort of thing you needed. “Tony-” About to try and call his better sense.

But you didn’t need to do any convincing on your own as the elevator doors opened and in walked the man himself. Tony sat up a little bit straighter as you stumbled off his lap, embarrassed- and then just a touch angry. This was your Tower. Your house, for all intents and purposes. Why were people breaking in and ruining your private life? “Security breach.” Tony announced, head laying back on the couch to watch Coulson approach.

Evening effectively ruined, and your anxiety mounting, you moved away to meet him. “Hi- thanks for coming to the Stark Tower celebration.” Dryly, little purse of your lips at the corner. “What can we do for you?” It wasn’t his fault, most likely, that he was ruining your night.

Tony was finally on his feet, coming over. “Celebrating- didn’t you hear? Sorry you didn’t get invited. Which means… you know. You should leave. Less embarrassing for you.”

“We need you to look this over.” Offering you one of your most favorite things. A fucking folder. As usual.

Even though you took hold of it, Tony put his hand down over it, directing a look Coulson’s way. “Official consulting hours are between eight and five every other Thursday.” Taking the folder from you, he carelessly flipped it open, looking at the contents inside.

Coulson looked just as displeased as ever. “This isn’t a consultation. We need you to go to work.”

“Me?” Pointing a finger at yourself. Was he only here for you? It might have made sense, but… to do it this loudly-

“The both of you. Although I’m making an official note here, SHIELD doesn’t appreciate its agents having their phones turned off.” He crossed his arms.

“I was busy- and I’m not an agent-” Not technically, right? It was more an Avenger thing- which you didn’t even know if that existed anymore.

Tony put a hand to his chest. “I’m also not an agent, I thought. Apparently I’m volatile, self-obsessed, don’t play well with others...”

Coulson just eyed the both of you up. “This isn’t about personality profiles anymore.”

“Whatever.” Tony huffed out, turning away to walk back over to the desk. “Honey- private side bar, please.”

Despite your mounting frustrations (probably a cover up for your nervousness about what this could all be about) you gave Coulson an apologetic smile. “Just a second.” Excusing yourself to go over to Tony, who seemed to be inputting the files from the folder into the holotop. “It’s serious?”

“You know. We were having a nice little moment here��” Contemplative yet playful. Perhaps trying to help your mood.

“I was having fifty percent of a moment.”

“I could have gotten you to a hundred.” Turning his attention back up to you. The smile he was wearing wasn’t playful this time. Which worried you all the more.

Despite your present company, you reached up to cup his cheek in one hand, pressing a kiss to the other. “Maybe later.” Much later, by the feel of things. “What’s in the file?”

He took a breath in and then sighed it out dramatically. “This.” Swiping his hand up from the table, several video screens appeared in the air in front of you. Almost too much information to take in all at once.

A familiar face- Steve- Captain America- was the easiest to pick out. Old war footage of him leading troops into what looked to be heavy fire. All displays of his strength as he broke through front lines and took bullets- using his shield to deflect and then throwing it- recalling it-

The next window that got you was that monster. The one you’d been quietly looking for until Peggy had asked you to stop. Big, green- angry. Yelling. Fighting soldiers on the front lawn of what looked to be a university. They had tanks rolled up on him- sound cannons-

A blast of bright energy drew your eyes next, seeing a man dressed- sort of peculiarly- red billowing cape of note- fighting what looked to be a huge mech? Some sort of giant robot? In a small town- buildings being destroyed, people fleeing-

Reaching up you pulled aside the text dump of data, looking into the dates-

Too close to home. That small town had been destroyed- and that university had been stomped on and mashed into the ground- two years ago. Two years ago. Events running simultaneously to your own life. To Tony’s. And you’d never…

Turning back around you went over to Coulson. “What do you want us to do with all this?” “Study up. We need Stark to look at Doctor Erik Selvig’s research.” His attention turned over your shoulder so you moved to look.

Behind you Tony had a hologram of a blue cube in hand, turning it over, looking at it intensely. This was probably exactly what they wanted him to do. “What about me?”

“Do what you do best. We’ll contact you soon for next steps.” He gave a brisk wave and then turned away to leave.

Once the elevator doors were closed, you walked slowly back over to Tony, still chilled by the videos playing on loop. So much violence. So much destruction. Shifting aside him, you started wading through the other pieces of information attached. All labeled under Avengers Initiative. You wondered how much footage they had of you. And who they were showing it to.

You startled a little as Tony leaned in to the table, bringing up several keyboards, starting in on a furious session. Something about this must have been particularly interesting to him. “What is that? The cube thing?”

“They’re calling it the Tesseract. I’m already familiar. Courtesy of dad’s notes.”

Howard. How did things always come so full circle? “Is that why they want you to look into it?”

“They’re hoping I can track it. This thing is throwing out gamma radiation. Might be why they’re looking into this Banner guy.”

“Banner?”

Without looking up from what he was doing, he pulled the window with that monster forward. “Hulk- can’t tell if they called him that or if that’s what he calls himself. Unfortunate either way.” Huffing out a laugh. Your focus was completely on him as he worked, eyes bouncing from one screen of info to the next, washed over in a hypnotizing white-blue glow from the screens. Getting sucked in.

This was bad.

Tony continued, “Certified genius. Can’t wait to meet him. Interesting story. Turns out we have mutual enemies. Always fun.”

“You read all that already?”

“You walked away.”

“For like- two minutes.” Impressed as ever with his skills. Absorbing so much information. Taking in more still. And working it all to his advantage.

But suddenly his fingers stilled, you weren’t sure what he was looking at, as when you tipped your head up, he swiped a screen away. “Let me deal with this.” Looking at you, deeply so, “You- ...hang back. Do the presser. Do the party. I’ll be home in time.”

This had trouble written all over it. There was only one reason he’d ask you something like that. And it was the same reason SHIELD was asking you to come in. “We’re a team.”

The corner of his mouth quirked. “Seems like we’ve suddenly got a whole team. You can sit one out.”

“Not a chance.” No way in hell you’d let him talk you out of this. No matter how dangerous it was. And… if your intuition was to be trusted…? This was probably the most dangerous thing you’d seen. All the more reason you wouldn’t let him face it alone. Trying for some levity, you pushed a smile forward. “It’ll be over quicker with the two of us on the job, don’t you think?”

He mirrored your expression, but underneath he was hiding a deep well of pain. Terrified that if he let you walk into this… “Let me take a quick run through of your suit, then.”

Unzipping your hoodie, you detached the Heart Reactor and pressed it into his palm. “We’ll be okay, you know?” Trying to encourage him. And maybe fool yourself. “We’ll do this like we do everything.”

“Together?”

Now it was your turn to grin. “Here I thought you were going to say in style.”

Putting his arm around you, he pulled you into a crushing hug. “Of course that. But. The other thing is important, too.”

You knew you had a lot of reading to do. A lot of figuring out to do. A lot of everything to do. You really had no idea what all this was still, yet. But. For just a few more long minutes, you found it perfectly okay to indulge in a hug that you wanted to last the whole night.

Scared of what the morning might bring.

So much for a celebration.

[sugarmoonwitch]

SEPTEMBER 2019 TAROTSCOPES

hey there! it’s time for some t-t-t-t-t-tarotscoooopes! if you want to get these types of posts quicker, I highly suggest following me over on Instagram or Twitter!

now, check your sun sign & your mars sign! keep reading for 5-card pulls + pictures + breakdowns~

ARIES

Big change is coming your way. In your heart, you are welcoming it. However, your actions don't reflect this. You've been so down on yourself; questioning your abilities, your value. This is keeping you from taking the necessary steps to ignite this incoming transformation. If you pay close attention to what's going on around you, you'll see that you've been overlooking things in different areas of your life. If you address these, as well as work on being more appreciative toward yourself, the coming change will happen gracefully & bring you a fresh start.

TAURUS

You need to get a grip on your finances. For real. You may think an indulgence here & there won't hurt because you're typically frugal; but these little treats add up. Take control of this situation & you will reach a happy medium again. However, just because things are stable again doesn't mean they will remain that way. You owe it to yourself to keep your newfound stability. Once this is out of the way, you can hone in on your goals. The Knight of Swords gives you the speed & drive you need to pursue, and the Ace reveals your success. Stay diligent & everything will fall into place.

GEMINI

You've been on quite the journey lately. Lady Luck is *finally* looking your way. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed. Your strong will & studious state have proven to be fruitful. While you were busy working on yourself & your goals, however, you've become disconnected from others; this is indicated not only by the Three of Pentacles but the Three of Cups as well. If you've been in Hermit mode, it's time to pull yourself out of that cave & nourish your social self. Get out of the house! Spend time with friends! Reconnect with the social butterfly that you are.

CANCER

September might be a little rough for you. There's a looming sense of failure...but it can be avoided if the right actions are made. The Queen of Wands is here to encourage you to stay determined in your pursuit of happiness. Things to work on are: taking your time, thinking carefully before you speak or act, & allowing yourself to indulge in simple pleasures. You've been antsy to meet your goals, causing you to behave hastily, leading to mistakes or even failure. This has got you discouraged. Your routine has become rigid & flavorless to avoid another incident like this, but it's not benefiting you. While it's important to be responsible, you must allow yourself some fun, as well as some risk taking. Don't let past failure cause you to lose sight of what's important, because that is how you will fail again.

LEO

So, there's some issues here. You've lost your way--not for lack of passion, but it's sort of an "all talk, no action" sort of thing. You're not putting in 100% of your energy, so you're not seeing results. Because you aren't seeing results, you're turning your focus to other things (most likely material) in favor of instant gratification. Your luck hasn't been great lately so that isn't helping you either. There won't be a divine intervention to light a fire under your ass this month. You have to do it for yourself. Hone in on your vision. Accept that anything worth working for will require patience.

VIRGO

Things are finally moving along for you. It's taken a lot to get to the starting line, but you made it. Unfortunately, there's a fair share of hurdles coming your way. It's very possible they'll be so big & impactful that they'll throw you off course. There's issues of bad luck, heartache, depression, & getting ahead of yourself. However, being logic-driven can be your saving grace here. When you feel yourself spiraling, stop yourself just a moment to analyze your feelings. Be straight-forward with yourself about the reality of the situation; don't allow yourself to dramatize it. By looking at your problems through a lens of logic, you can maintain levelheadedness. This will give you the clear mind you need to get over these hurdles.

LIBRA

A refusal to change your ways. That's the message I'm getting here. You're not seeing results, which has you feeling hopeless & depressed. Something about what you're doing or how you're doing it needs to change. Open yourself up to the opportunities that present themselves to you this month, even if you don't think they're truly meant for you. Avoid conflict this month as well as a means to keep all avenues for opportunities open. You're stifling your own growth by being so stiff & set in your patterns and routines. Try something new.

SCORPIO

You've been at a crossroads for quite a while. You feel so unsure, like there is no right choice. It's a matter of leaving something behind or holding onto it, hoping it will get better. The way you must make this choice is by listening to your intuition. This requires quiet meditation & deep thought. Use your inner-knowing to make the right choice for *you.* In your career during the month of September, you might find yourself feeling stagnant or frustrated. This is because you've been working diligently toward success, but have yet to see any rewards. You must have more patience; with the process, with yourself. Good things take time. Adjust your expectations accordingly.

SAGITTARIUS

You've got BIG TIME AMBITIONS!! They've been taking a lot out of you. If they haven't already, they're going to require both sacrifice & self-reflection. Your passion for the grind is so commendable, but you are leaving yourself at the wayside. This month, take some time to nurture yourself & your relationships. I promise, this time you're taking away from working is not a waste--ensuring that you're happy & healthy is a surefire way to accomplish your goals quicker. If you take time to stop & smell the roses, new connections will find their way to you.

CAPRICORN

This pull is so thematically interesting. ANYWAY! So I can see you've recently recovered from a betrayal...*mentally*. And only partly. For the most part, you've restored order to your life. Gained some independence back. You're mentally prepared to do what it takes to bring that order & independence into reality. This month, you need to focus on *the doing.* You can't just expect it to fall into your lap--you've got to work for it. You're less than motivated to take action, but you still expect change. That's not how this works, dear. Light a fire under you. During September, make concrete goals & affirmations, declare them, and let them go as you go about your days doing your due diligence to make them into reality. You got this.

AQUARIUS

You're refusing to let go of something, but for once, this is a good thing!! This is the right choice for you & you know it. The combination of knowing what you want with the passion you have has you truly ready for anything. September will bring you love & success as you continue to live your truth & come closer to your greatest & highest good. It's smooth sailing this month.

PISCES

There's a broken relationship here, but desire to reconcile for both people involved. I think this relationship has a history of being rather bumpy, but this time is different. You both are willing to put in the hard work to heal old wounds & forge a new future together. It's not going to be easy, but you're ready for it. Motivated to make plans together, to stay together. Harmony will come, just give it time. Eventually, it will be effortless.

[kyotakumrau]

2018.08.07 CLUB CITTA KAWASAKI -aknot only-

00 video intro

01 詩踏み

02 Ash

03 蜷局

04 腐海

05 輪郭

06 new song / leather mask

07 new song / Omae

08 Phenomenon

09 THE BLOSSMING BEELZEBUB

10 Ranunculus

11 人間を被る

12 The inferno

13 THE IIID EMPIRE

14 Beautiful Dirt

ENCORE

en15 理由

en16 new song / Punk is not dead (Go MAD)

en17 THE FATAL BELIEVER

en18 Revelation of mankind

en19 羅刹国

They were distributing number tickets for goods line, I really hope it will become a thing for all venues. Yet, I don't think anything got sold out tonight, but recently it seems that fans buy more towards the end of the tour.

The tour name board was located outside just next to the merchandise stand, they relocated it inside after the show.

There wasn't anything very different about the stage for this tour, they had a screen in the back and Kyo has his 'BLESSING TO LOOSE HEARTS' stand with hands.

I think they started on time? I really enjoyed my spot today, was in 6~5th row and stood together with my friends despite all of us having different numbers ;3

The new video intro / SE started with some multicoloured pyramids that kept increasing and started to create something that looked like geometric condensed formulas, with an electronic sound in the background.

So Shinya... had something white on? Die had a scarf draped over his shoulders and sleeveless (or short sleeve) black top. His hair is top notch as usual. Toshiya looked like he came out of shojo manga (I hope his fans are not offended 😂) - he wore a black brocate jacket, it had a really sharp cut, very interesting collar and big bronze colour buttons. He kept it on for at least half of the main set (as my Toshiya toriko friend told me). Underneath he had a black button up no sleeve shirt. The prince that make you look around looking for a white horse 😂 From my spot I couldn't really get any good view of Kaoru, but he had some kind of black top with a... lace?

And then when other band members got a hold of their instruments and stood ready Kyo came on stage.

If his outfit is supposed to introduce the world of the new album I'm getting even more and more interested in it!

He had the white veil on (the one from the album photo shoot). Over a long white shirt he had a white harness that draped the shirt into folds. Over that he had a short cape looking thing that gave the whole outfit with the veil very 'nun-ish' look. The cuffs and collar had a black душа / soul printed on them. He also wore damaged skinny black pants and his tabi boots.

His make-up was done paired with black light paint. When he came on stage it looked like he had shining yellow eyes, but with a more normal light we could see that it was actually neon green. He drew huge oversized lashes top and bottom as well. Across his face and eyes he had a red/orangey line that was also done with the black light paint. He used black for his lips, making them much wider looking. And he had a quite white face, not super thick white base, but his face was a lot lighter compared to his neck.

And then there were his contact lences. I'm not the type to get envious of what other people have, but I'm totally envious of his full eye custom made snake eye lenses. They look SO good. SO GOOD.

(sorry, I just really like colour lenses)

Starting the set with Utafumi was quite powerful! Kyo had us join in as much as possible from the very start 😁 and we were asked to sing many parts of Ash as well. I remember Toshiya coming over to visit us in the middle during Ash.

I remember singing a lot during Fukai as well, and Kyo who came to the side of his stand to be able to point at fans and look at everyone.

The quiet at 'Minerva' moment and the following screams and shouting from fans are always quite an experience.

Another break and another excitement.

The new song (06) with a video including a man wearing a quite scary leather mask starts fast, I can already see a lot of headbanging at seated venues. Kyo mostly sang fast, but some parts had shouts/shrieks. The rythm/speed changed few times - like sprinting and then jumping high for a while to go sprinting again.

The new song (07) had a video with the images of several serial killers, there was also a line like お前、そして見下して (will try to confirm tomorrow) appearing several times; Kyo definitely sings 'omae' repeatedly and that's why the song had been code named 'omae' 😁 This song is apparently the one they played during the mode of DSS, but I'll be completely honest - I couldn't remember it so it felt like a new new song 😅 it's a fast one as well.

Let's see if I can remember more details after the second night!

Phenomenon had the same video they used before with 'impossible stairs' but there was a doll? parts floating in the space between stairs.

Beelzebub was definitely something else for Kyo's fans. He used the camera and the back screen set again, with his current look it was something to remain in one's memory for a long time! Kyo's silhouette showered in pink light with his back to the audience, and the madness ensuing on the screen... with the line 動く米粒にいつか羽が生える? and 僕は飛べない何故だろ? Kyo put his hands together (thumbs touching and palms spread) to make a shape of a butterfly to symbolize flying. With his snake eyes looking at the 'butterfly' it looked like he was going to devour it for a moment.

I think the breaks with the night creepy sounds are always coming before Ranunculus?

It was as beautiful as always, I like the video as well. I wrote before that we can read the lyrics appearing on the screen, but the video also shows a forest and we can see that some parts are burnt out, nature and devastation.

The following songs of the main set were just so full of energy! 'コイ！ / give me your all!' at the start of Ningen from Kyo got everyone properly fired up! I think he had us singing many more parts than during Shinsekai tour. The energy from the band and from the audience was great!

After usual calling for encore band came back. I think all of them wore tour t-shirts? Kaoru had the sleeves cut off. Kyo had sleeves rolled up a little bit and he came back without any make up. He kept the snake eye lense in his left eye though, but he replaced the snake eye with a light grey coloured lense in his right eye, the finish look was amazing 😁

And as I already wrote - Kyo most likely has a new tattoo on the back of his head (but in case it was just painted on, don't shoot me). It was all done with fine lines, in a ~10cm diameter circle there were many straight lines that create the main image of a star, but because there are so many lines there are more details there. It looks a bit like a magic sphere. If it is a tattoo then it's still very fresh, the black is very vibrant so it was done very recetnly.

Before Rasetsu Kyo was firing us up more. After the usual 'guys' 'girls' he actually started to call us without the microphone 'かかってこい！！ラーーーースートー!!!! / GO WIIIIIIILD!! LAST SONG!!!!!'. Precious, precious time.

In the end there was a typical goodies throwing - picks, towels, water bottles. Die and Kaoru were the ones who stayed on the stage the longest, Kaoru seemed to have a lot of fun in his area splashing fans with water etc.

I'm 100% ready for what tomorrow will bring!

(but maybe minus the typhoon that's approaching Kanto 😂)

[rivaltierno]

100 Ways to Say “I Love You” #3

Prompt: 17) “Watch your step.”

Ship: Herald/Raven

Word Count: 2,112

Raven felt like she was empty, and the only explanation she could come up with for why was boredom. Spending hours staring at the ceiling was not an engaging activity, and she needed something to keep her mind occupied. But she did not have the energy to actually do anything, so she knew that asking one of her teammates for suggestions was out of the question. 

So instead she opted to try and visit someplace new, or at least relatively unfamiliar. Somewhere that was visually stimulating, yet somewhere close enough that she could visit without using her physically overwhelming soul-self.  

She closed her eyes and considered where to go. As Raven mentally flipped through the places she had been before, one location kept returning to her mind. She couldn’t remember it’s name, but she recalled that it seemed peaceful from the short time she was there; it had a painted sky and a quiet, light atmosphere, both figuratively and literally. She even had memories of meeting-

Raven jolted upwards, now invigorated by those memories. They convinced her that visiting that particular dimension was what she needed, though she couldn’t name exactly why. She did know how she could get there, however.

A bit of hesitation ran through her as she picked up the communicator off her nightstand. After all, just because Jump City had been relatively free of villains recently did not mean wherever Herald spent most of their time was. But, Raven felt the need to risk the possibility.

When Raven actually made the call, the hesitation did not disappear, but merely evolved into nervousness. She pulled her hood on out of habit when she saw the signal being received. 

“What’s the situation Raven?” Herald answered immediately.

“There is no situation,” Raven corrected just as swiftly, “This is a friendly call.” She noted that the small bit of scenery she could see behind Herald contained the streaked skyline she remembered.

“Oh, cool.” Their tone and stance eased significantly. “What’s up then?”

“I was wondering if you would be able to take me to your ... home dimension?” 

Herald frowned. “I can’t, my home dimension is pretty secluded.” They then gave an eager smile and ushered behind themself. “But I could show you around here if you’d like.” 

“That’s what I meant.” Raven suddenly found her face heating up with embarrassment. She wasn’t sure where these conflicting emotions were coming from, but was glad that Herald didn’t seem to notice her reaction.

“Great! I love having company. Should I pick you up at the usual spot?”

“No!” Raven’s response was harsher than she intended, and she quickly corrected herself. “I mean, if you go to the usual location, some of the other Titans might notice and try to come along. I don’t want to inconvenience you by making you tour an entire group around.” She hoped that explanation sounded less selfish than her first answer, anyway.

Herald didn’t seem to mind either way. “I’ll just come to your exact location then.” And with that they abruptly hung up.

Raven took the few moments she still had alone to collect herself. She wanted those feelings of anxiety and embarrassment to go away before Herald arrived. 

She reasoned that finding a way to get to the dimension was the hardest part of this situation - and she had already done that - so all that was left was going there and letting its unfamiliar yet peaceful atmosphere rejuvenate her. She was going to relax, and there was no need for strong emotional reactions for that to happen.

A trumpet literally announcing Herald’s presence rang throughout her room, opening up a portal. Herald stepped through and offered their hand to her. “You ready?”

Raven nodded and stood up. She took a few steps towards the portal, but then paused when she noticed that Herald still had their hand stuck out towards her. Before she could ask about it, Herald noticed her confusion and pulled their hand back.

“Looks like I’m still in patrol mode, sorry about that.” They gave a sheepish laugh. “You probably don’t need my help entering portals, do you?” 

“Probably not,” Raven agreed, and took that statement as permission to enter the portal.

The dimension on the other side was exactly what Raven remembered it being. By all accounts it should have been a distressing dimension - it was vast and silent, with an empty skyline aside from splotches of red and black. But she found it breathtaking, and merely viewing it made her mood skyrocket. 

Raven put down her hood, let her body relax, and floated upward to get better visibility. As Raven continued gazing at her surroundings, she tried to pinpoint exactly what about being in this dimension reenergized her so effectively. Was it something psychological, how the lighter gravity and seemingly infinite space made her feel free of constrictions? The way the blend of audible stillness but visual movement seemed to spark the right amount of simulation for her? Or was it something else? 

“You need help getting down?” Herald called up to her, again offering out a hand.

She floated back down with ease. “No, I think I’ve gotten an understanding of this dimension’s gravity.”

Herald again pulled away their hand and laughed, trying to defuse the awkward situation they felt that they had created. “That’s good. I guess my training just makes me wary of bodies floating around in this dimension.”

Raven, perhaps because of her newly elevated mood, chose not to ask for an explanation for that statement. She instead focused on the reason she came here in the first place. “I see why you spend so much time here, Herald. This place is ... magnificent.”

“Yeah, I got lucky with my patrolling placement.” Herald rapidly returned to a jovial mood. “I can show you more of it, if you’d like. We might be able to see some of the rocks in their orbit.”

Raven accepted their offer and let them lead her away from the skyline. She had truthfully forgotten about the floating rocks, and they weren’t appealing enough on their own to make her stay. She just couldn’t convince herself to ask Herald to take her back home yet, however.

The two of them walked along, with Herald pointing out different aspects of the surroundings as they went. Raven didn’t give their bits of trivia her full attention until they came across something she was already familiar with.

“I bet you remember those creatures.” Herald told her, ushering towards a hunk of rock across from them. Nestled within its craters were the electric tentacle creatures that had attacked Raven when she first visited the dimension. “If it makes you feel better, they wouldn’t have eaten you.”

Raven gave a good-natured snort. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“Well, yeah.” Herald grinned sheepishly. “It made me feel better about staying around when I learned that.”

The conversation then promptly ended, like the rest of the small talk the two of them had made. But as the silence returned, Raven found that it no longer had a refreshing effect on her. She glanced around and noted that the streaks painting the sky no longer mesmerized her, either. 

Yet Raven still couldn’t convince herself to ask to leave. Something lingered in her mind, telling her that this dimension still had something to offer her. But what?

An idea flashed through Raven’s mind; the logic-driven part of her wanted to ignore it, but the emotion-driven part wanted to act upon it. She made a split-second decision to listen to the emotional part.

“Are those creatures native to this dimension, Herald?” Raven suddenly asked them, catching them off-guard. “I’d never heard of them before coming here.” Raven honestly did not care about the answer, she just wanted to test something.

“Ah, no, they’re not native.” Herald replied. “This dimension, like other similar dimensions, was devoid of life when first discovered, so it was turned into a conservation area-” 

They were rambling now, and for once Raven was glad her simple question was given such a lengthy response, as it made her remember that the dimension itself was not the only thing that held her attention when she first visited. She closed her eyes and let the emotional realization sink in.

She liked listening to Herald talk, the way their deep voice soothed her as it drifted through her ears. She liked how Herald seemed to perfectly walk the line between approachability and professionalism with their interactions. She liked Herald.

Raven wasn’t sure what to make of these newly-understood affections. Prior to meeting Herald she had developed only a handful of crushes, so it was still a relatively new experience for her. It certainly explained her more unusual actions, like the spurts of embarrassment she felt around them, but other than that...? There weren’t any butterflies in her stomach and she didn’t feel the desire to profess her love to them; all this crush seem to do to her was make Raven feel nice and warm and just plain good while around Herald.

The crush soon proved to have another impact on Raven, however, as it occupied her mind to a point where she became completely oblivious to her surroundings. She had to be called back into reality with a panicked-

“Watch your step!”

Raven shot her eyes open in time to feel her feet slipping off the rock’s edge and her body lurching towards the blank space below it. Before she could catch herself, Herald grabbed her hands and pulled her back up, leaning her against their body for support. 

“Are you all right?” They tried to steady their voice, but it still dripped with panic. “Are you feeling woozy? Are you able to stand on your own?” 

“Mm,” was Raven’s only response. She pulled one hand out of Herald’s hold and tugged her hood up to regain her senses. 

Physically she was fine - it was the shock that was getting to her. She closed her eyes and took a sharp breath in. As she exhaled, she steadied herself back into reality, standing up straight and slowly letting go of Herald’s other hand. She was going to have to put understanding this new emotional information on hold until she returned back to her room.

“I’m fine,” Raven finally clarified. “Just a little shaken, that’s all.” 

“That’s good.” Herald was visibly relieved and gave a reassuring smile. “Sorry about that, too. I should have been paying attention to the fact that the path was ending, I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

The mixture of their words and their warm expression made Raven realize that ‘postponing feelings’ was a lot easier to think than to implement, so she decided that now was the proper time to go. She just wanted to word her request to leave in a way that would avoid potentially insulting Herald.

“I suppose this marks the literal end of the tour then.”

“I’m afraid so. I’d offer to take you to a similar dimension, but it’s probably better to drop you back home, make sure there’s no residual effects of you staying here. Everyone reacts differently to varying dimensional frequencies and all that.”

Raven did not think that was going to be an issue, but appreciated Herald’s concern for her. Her lips curled into a very small smile. “Hopefully that offer will be available in the future, because if the other dimensions are this gorgeous, I’d like to visit them too.” She wouldn’t mind more guided tours, either.

Herald’s face lit up. “The offer is available whenever you have the time, I tend not to be super busy. Just call me and let me know when.” They then decided that that was a good end to the conversation, and readied their horn to open a portal to send Raven back home.

Raven watched the portal open, part of her still disappointed that she was leaving so soon. But the rest of her knew that she had to fully understand how this crush was going to impact her interactions with Herald before continuing them in any deep manner. 

So she stepped through, only pausing briefly to wave goodbye. She purposefully turned back around to avoid seeing if Herald waved back, though she hoped they did.

Once Raven was fully back in her room, the portal closed behind her and she was left alone. She took her hood down and laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.  She was back where she started. But, instead of feeling aimless, she now had a mission: to parse through how this crush was going to impact her.

[kateemmerson]

Musings of a Café Writer living #LocationFree

Living #LocationFree for the past 5 years is often met with wide eyes, scrunched up noses, and some weird questions. I know it might sound like nothing more than terrifyingly homeless mixed with exhilaratingly glamour-filled champagne parties on yachts, Instagram style.

It honestly falls somewhere smack between these two extremes.

While it may be very real that digital nomads (aka global nomads, remote workers, location free, etc.) might not have one permanent base to call “home,” we are certainly not “homeless.” We have a gazillion ways we each live into this lifestyle, and we can pretty much make it up as we go along – if we don’t like somewhere, we can move on to more suitable spaces, cities, countries (Covid and visa/passport reliant of course). Plus, folk living this lifestyle are not doing so because they have zero responsibilities, no partners, kids, animals, etc. – we are all working and contributing to society in some format. We have just figured out the best way to earn the required dollars en route – whether working remotely for a company, working in the digital online space, working in the country they are in, running global companies, have property investments, Bitcoin, or business investors – any type of work is possible, to be honest! The worklist is as varied as your creative brain allows … with the added benefit of freedom from a location. Of course, we sleep in beds too! Whether in fancy hotels, rented homes, snazzy apartments, Airbnb options, co-living, house-sitting, or any combo of the above. What binds us together as a tribe is that we are not bound to one location for work or life. There is a sense of freedom, mobility, choice, and possibility!

Possibility of options, countries, cultures, environments, lifestyle, etc

Right now, I’m chilling in a quaint café on the prom of Portobello (see pic taken at Miros <<<) with the quieter than usual buzz and banter as “we-are-in-weird-lockdown-life-but-still-allowed-out” vibe. I’ll soon be self-isolating again before I make my way to my mum in the UK for Christmas, so I am making the most of a little thrill of being outdoors at Edinburgh’s Seaside. There is a delicious light shimmering off the sea and bouncing off the clouds, reflecting the changes in the sun as we edge towards winter solstice. After 7 years of spending most of my time in summer or what travel agents refer to as shoulder seasons, I am fondly referring to my current city of choice as Edinburrrrrrr.

Remember my cold water swimming escapades on Iona that I shared earlier this year? I will manage one more cold dip this month, which means I will have been cold water immersing for 6 whole months! I didn’t even know that I wanted to try it before starting my significant retreat and detox process on Iona. I’m still in a bikini with no warm booties, gloves, or wetsuits like many swimmers – just keeping it real and semi mad. Even if my swims are super short -they still count as a cold water blitz of energy and immune-boosting habit!

  This week, I launched my fifth book, and I feel like a kid in a Christmas Santa store, to be honest. It’s some insights, sharing, and tips from living the last 5 years #LocationFree. I also interviewed 16 other souls (between 40 and 60 years of age) living in similar ways to me. It’s a super exciting collection of tips snd stories for anyone who is intrigued about the possibility of downsizing, packing up, and living and working globally.

One of my all-time favourite things to do when I travel is sitting in a café or restaurant on a beach somewhere – from Malaga to San Fran, Cape Town to Skala Eressos. I simply need my laptop and a strong coffee or a fab glass of vino, depending on the time of day. And always water – and usually a kitty somewhere close by. I seem to attract them and consider myself a bit of a cat-whisperer. Did you spot the content kitty on my book cover?

There is an element of pure delight that is elicited when I can look up from my computer and see water – waves, sand, pebbles, sheep munching seaweed (yes 100% on Iona!), people laughing, kids playing, folk squealing in the waves and that heady aroma of sun, sand, sea, and sun-lotion. Or the smell of rain mixed into it more often than not, here in Edinburrrrr.

I find myself in this glorious city for most of winter 2020, exploring somewhere North. I am still officially #LocationFree and will be for the foreseeable future. I was only planning to be location free for one year, to figure out what country I wanted to live in, but it turns out it’s been too much fun, and here I am five years later.

Ooooh, the cafes you will find when not in your hometown. From dingy and downright skanky, to glamorous, elegant, and exotic; to simple family-run salt of the earth to trendy hipster vibes with a gazillion delicious choices; or the simple paired back local café that only serves one type of coffee and eggs – just the way you like them: the smells, the chalkboards, the conversations, and the locals. The cakes and the decadent treats made with love – from the latest LA trend to grandma’s secret pistachio and rose water recipe. A café is always filled with possibility – and is still the first place I seek out to feel like a “local” in a new spot. It’s one of my “settling-in” hacks I share in my book “10 Lessons for Living #locationFree

So I find myself with a big grin on my chops as I own the fact that I am a café writer. It can be a table on a busy cobbled street, a hotel lobby with glorious views of the pool, a tiny spot perched precariously on a hill, or my all-time favourite, seaside café!. Anywhere in the world, this will put always put a smile on my face.

If there is some Latin Salsa or Bachata music drifting out of the speakers even better, offering the quiet promise of a party as day turns to night….that will always make me type faster and get through my workload ready to pop on my salsa shoes and have a whirl on the floor.

I don’t even need earphones, really –in fact, my ears always get sore trying to wear earphones, no matter the brand or style! I usually welcome the buzz around me and find ways to switch off when I need to focus.

I have amassed a few “offices’ around the world that I have stamped my name on. To this day, there is one table at Gialos on Skala Eressos where we run writing retreats, which is known as Kate’s office. Although I didn’t get to work there in 2020, I know it is waiting patiently for me 2021. I am usually sitting at my “desk” by 6 am before the rest of the sleeping Greek village stirs. While the restaurant is still being cleaned and set up for the day – George will even stop his daily prep to bring me a double greek Coffee. Or as we order there – ena diplo hellenico para kalor!

PIC: This one below taken at my “office” Gialos in Skala Eressos when the world cup was on (and my Argentinean partner at the time was in Russia supporting his team) 

It’s always about the views, to be honest. I find vistas open up my creativity and thinking. Sea trumps everything for me – being able to sit outside and feel the sunshine and breeze is high on my list of needs. When not working, I also love to be a fly on the wall, simply watching people. I can make up stories in my head ad Infinitum. Travelling a lot on my own, I also love to smile and then connect, laugh, and chat with total strangers. It’s bizarrely natural for me to make random comments and speak to people I walk past or sit next to. I will always talk to cats and dogs and stop owners for a cuddle of their four-paws if allowed. I guess that’s why I have found it relatively easy to be location free. What’s the point in staying separate and cut off from others– even when communicating from behind a mask nowadays, we can still connect energetically and with a twinkle in our eyes.

  PIC – The awesome Malaga crew where I pulled together a writing group and started my book 10 Lessons for Living #locationFree exactly one year ago!! Note the lovely views right on the sea! 

Wi-Fi is surprisingly not always high on my agenda, as I prefer working offline with fewer distractions when in writing/blogging mode. In fact, I will often choose cafes that do NOT have Wi-Fi – especially if I am running a writing group – as that just distracts everyone.

My challenge to you today is to visit a local café and watch the world unfold around you! Make it an adventure if you haven’t done it for a while. Take your laptop, a great book, or your journal to pen some thoughts. Let me know what you find on your café outing – I’d love to hear what great conversations you engage in or inspired ideas you come up with when sitting with a different view.

A dear friend just sent me this on Whatsapp this morning – so I will do my level best to simply keep on writing from my heart wherever I am. I just have to. What about you?

“Advice? I don’t have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you’re writing, you’re a writer. Write like you’re a goddamn death row inmate, and the governor is out of the country, and there’s no chance for a pardon. Write like you’re clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you’ve got just one last thing to say, like you’re a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God’s sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we’re not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don’t. Who knows, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have to.” Alan W Watts

WANT SOME INSPIRATION ABOUT POSSIBILITY? GRAB MY BRAND NEW BOOK  10 Lessons for Living #LocationFree 

Do you wish you had the courage to follow your dream, to quench your wanderlust? To downsize, pack light and explore the world while still working? Do you honestly think others are able do it because they’re younger, richer, are single and have fewer responsibilities, with no kids to tag along?

Wrong. That’s simply not true. This book will show you that it’s possible no matter what your age! Do you really want to play it safe just because you’re no longer in your twenties, waiting on tables as you backpack around the world?

Musings of a Café Writer living #LocationFree was originally published on Kate Emmerson - The Quick Shift Deva

[aircoil50]

Guidelines on How to Take the Perfect Photographs with the Android Smart phone

If perhaps you are working with any of the top of the line Android mobile phones, like the Galaxy S9 or Google Pixel 3, well then one of the recommended photo cameras available is currently inside your pocket or purse. You are prepared to start capturing all those friends and family images at special events that will go on endlessly. But whatever the expertise of the sophisticated smartphone, merely pointing and taking shots at the backdrop is not the best way to capture long lasting experiences. The same concepts apply to cell phones digital photography as they do studio photography: a little staging will go quite a distance. Have a beat before hitting the shutter key and employ one or more of the following tips to help to make your phone-snapped pics look their best. You’ve been told this before, however it requires repeating because it makes an mind-blowing impact: make sure the camera continues to be when you’re shooting a photograph. I can’t let you know how many times I have snapped and strolled to stay with an organization or something of the type, only to be dismayed down the road by fuzzy final results. Your Android cellphone may be fast at setting up the camera app (double-press the energy button of all to instantly fire it up), but it can’t constitute the photo if you aren’t quiet while taking it. It’s typically smart to get into the tradition of looking into what you just snapped before moving forward. You would not really need a tripod in this day and age to take a still photo, though it really allows elicit the most desirable outcomes. There are also smart phone surveillance camera mounts for common-sized tripods if you’re currently tricked out in camcorder gear. Alternately, unique items are impressive for capturing group photographs. Angling the phone against a wall or an object can be another technique of the trade in cases where you’re in a hole. Android Cellphone's Recommended Photography Programs Android application programs are in fact impressive enough to take care of processing raw photography files generated by DSLRs, so most of them may surely deal with editing a picture taken by a smart phone. Free software like Snapseed, Polarr Photo Editing, and Lightroom will charm to tinkerers and those who are the “friends and family photographer.” For individuals who like the appearance of filtered pictures, applications like VSCO offer over 100 kinds of millennial-colored flair, as well as a Color Story, which has some of the best filters for delivering to an Instagram market. Both apps are absolve to use, though they offer in-app buys to unlock a few of the popular aesthetics. If you’d rather not pay very much to create your photos looked aged, KujiCam is shamelessly fun to make use of, as well as your digital photographs will look like these were used another decade. In the event that you do screw up a snapshot and the moment in time has elapsed, use an application like TouchRetouch to move in and remove an out-of-place fingertip in the top side. Don’t ignore the touch-ups specs your phone does natively. Google Photos comes pre-installed on almost every recent Android unit and will be offering quick editing tools, including a handful of colored picture filters, a crop choice, and the ability to alter common components just like the color hue and exposure. (Google Photos offers automatic backup for your photos and movies, so make sure to take benefit of that, however you lose all of your cherished stories next time your cell phone drowns in a children's pool.) Samsung and LG’s particular gallery applications likewise have light editing and enhancing choices along the same lines. In the event you are being cheeky, you might even like some of the digital “stickers” bundled on Samsung’s Galaxy and Note cellphones. I prefer just a little sexy light. A dozen candle lights and some dimmed light bulbs will be the perfect way to signal to your friends that the house is certainly a warm one. This sort of lighting is usually undesirable for photographs, nevertheless, and even though your mobile phone’s manufacturer assured you among the best low-light photos, wonderful parties are not the place to test out this statement. Don’t be scared to incorporate a small amount of lighting in cases where the mood demands it. You don’t have to get anything extra; simply remove the top on a nearby lamp fixture or other equivalent and place it in front of your subjects, beside you if you’re the shooter. Additionally, avoid overhead lamps and lights. Just as much as recessed light looks great in person, it’s not good on photo camera. (There is a justification why actresses wear sunglasses each time they are inside, where there is often above the head light.) This same lightning tip helps diffuse these sorts of lighting situations and will make everybody in the picture look warm and alive. Your mobile phone’s flash can perform the very same thing in a pinch, though stay away from it as most of your light source, as it could make your get-together appear washed out. Alternately, you can use a friend’s mobile phone flashlight as a directional light beam of kind by pointing it at the position you want people’s faces to end up being lit. It can donate to some actually professional lighting effects. Do you believe you're among the lucky ones to have the Pixel 3’s Night time Sight enhancement? Be sure you’re applying it when the conditions needs it, like inside museums or poorly-lit historic buildings. This capability is coming soon to outdated Pixel cellphones and is available in the standard Android camera application, from the same display screen where you can transition between panorama setting and the like. On Samsung and LG smart phones, a similar functionality is hidden in the Professional or Manual settings. In this case, you’ll want to do a little of tweaking to the camera configurations to get the kind of picture you want. You don’t have to be a camera professional to access this, as most companies give live previews so that you can observe what the result can look like after a bit of adjusting. For ideal outcomes, leave everything on Auto except for the shutter speed, that is where you will see the actual difference in how much light camera can take in. And of course, don’t forget to lean it up against something while the shutter is open or you will finish up with a fuzzy photo. Face setting is among those defacto standard capabilities that now comes offered with every flagship mobile phone. It is like panoramic mode, except that you are required to use it often since it gives photos a little of a high-tech appearance. You don’t need to utilize it to take photos of people, either. This works just as well for pets, plants, or any other curious object. My favorite thing to accomplish with Portrait mode, whether I’m having a selfie or snapping a photo with friends I have not seen in more than 10 years, is to use it next to a simplified backdrop. A bare wall is wonderful for headshots, while a patterned wall structure adds a bit of flair. I really like the imitation “studio appearance” of the sorts of images, and you could get creative utilizing the lamp-light technique in a room. If carried out right, the result of your Portrait mode could appear as preened and polished as if taken on college picture day, plus they can also be photographs deserving enough to put onto a pack of holiday greeting cards in the next year. simplemente haga clic en el sitio web hasta que viene Finally and in fact the most plain and simple bit of advice on the list here, don’t forget to clean your camera lens prior to capturing a shot. The android is totally able at this time in the process to capture a high-resolution picture of the persons you care for, but it will not mean much if the lens is smudged up with finger grease and several other assorted dust. Even if you possess a case on with a camera covering, wipe that section clean on the inside and out to make sure that your photographs stay fantastic. If your smart phone is your only camera, you should always keep either a microfiber towel or a pack of camera lens-cleaning wipes. Buy them in large amounts and place them everywhere: in every single container you use and every single car you ride in. Photos are only just worth a million words if they are crystal-clear, and assuming you paid out in excess of this good deal on a brand new phone, then it needs to develop photo frame-worthy portraits.

[bb-bigbang-org]

EPISODE 2 -  “I feel like there was no drama caused this week” - CODY

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MANDI

well pretty sure i just ruined my relationship with drew. i think he is pissed at me for not evicting cody. but my true alliance is with joe and frosby. they wanted to keep cody and i was doing what they wanted and joe kept saying we had the votes. and thankfully we did! but the house is definitely going to be split now. drew really wanted cody out because someone told him joe, brooke, frosby, and cody were in an alliance and he wanted to break that alliance up. but sorry drew! had to do what i had to do!

CODY

Oh my lord

I had a good feeling that if I survived it was gonna be close. Holy shit I was one vote away from first boot!!! 

But I survived, and I’m humbled a lot by it. I’m not going to carry on. I’m basically only talking strategy at this point with the couple of people who have reached out to me via DM’s in Joe and Mandi

The big piece of info that I found out late after my trust rankings were done is that Kayla is after me. Which came as a tad surprise initially but in retrospect it’s not at all because she hardly spoke to me after I gave up the character. My impression of her is that she was incredibly put off by me in character mode and therefore she did not wanna be guilty by association. Which is certainly a fair point. However it might cost her the game if she’s too vocal about this

FROSBY

So Episode 1 is in the books and now is time for the good ol Frosby recap. Wow I learned bits and pieces about everyone and learned what I want to do for this season. First off I need to establish the most important factor for this season hinges on 1 thing, Katrina. We have a final 2 pact and our goal is to work our way into the finale by working different ends of the game without drawing to much attention to ourselves. To do this I had to find myself some quiet players to get myself sitting nice and pretty with and I found that in both Andrew and Desiree who both are going for the same strategy as me. Along with that I have a really tight alliance with Both Joe and Mandi. I am totally cool with using this alliance because I know joe is a good player that is excellent at working a social game but I also know that due to him taking third last season I know that he will have a big target on his back and that means less of a target on mine which is good. Finally the last element to my game is completely tanking every challenge to hopefully get people to forget about the fact that I am a challenge beast. The main reason I was voted out last time was due to the fact that I won every other challenge I was in, this caused everyone to see me as one of the biggest players in the game when in reality I was just a good cover piece for Bob and Ferg. This time I'm choosing my fate and im choosing to play on the outside but to be a good outside player I need to avoid the limelight and to do that I need to tank challenges (While still doing a partial good job that it looks like im not tanking them) As for Katrina she is running the same strategy as me with trying to stick on the outside but she is working with players like Kayla and Brooke which is a great because like myself with Joe, sticking around Kayla and Brooke will keep the heat off of Katrina and she can use them to hopefully do a good push in the later half of the game. 

Now to talk about the first vote. I for one had zero care about either player, but I figured keeping Cody in the game would create more chaos that I can hide on along with the outsider players im teamed up with. All 3 of us voted for cody so not only did we keep him in the game we also don't have to worry about cody getting mad at us for not voting for him plus we are in the majority of the aftermath vote. Now we are at the next HoH challenge and im going to tank this one and just see who wins this bad boy. Watch Cody win it, that would be hilarious and Kayla would be in big trouble. 

PS:  Im still fully new to Big Brother in general  so I'm crafting these ideas and strats on the go so don't judge me for pulling any stupid plays in the future. Here is your warning I will in fact do stupid plays. 

JOE

I’m going hard for this HoH and I’m pretty sure the only reason I want it is so Joe can’t have it.. who would I nominate? Probably the people who don’t reach out to me. Kayla, Joe, Mandi, Ash, Sammy and Cody are 100% safe with me but everyone else is fair game. 

CODY

Ok so my number 1 objective of this week is to avoid going on the block at all costs. I will consider that an absolute win because after receiving 6 votes against me I’m in a super odd spot. And the person who is HOH this week in Austin was one of the 6 who voted to evict me last week. However he told me that his vote was kind of up in the air and he could have gone either way. So I feel better about him being in power over someone who was vocal in wanting me out such as Kayla or Sammy

I have decided to throw out Kayla as a target to Austin with the main reason being that she is after me, and I feel like she genuinely is playing a smart game and playing both sides. I think she has great adaptability in the game and could easily slide under the radar despite voting incorrectly at the first eviction

Hopefully this works and Kayla and another person go up

CODY

So I have spoken with Desiree and it turns out Austin was leading the charge to take me out from her perspective so that is a bad idea lol. I’ve asked her to suggest the other person and she chose Frosby which is great because he is someone who definitely had my back

Unfortunately the objective of that alliance idea hasn’t quite been fulfilled as i was hoping we could include Austin to try and throw ideas into his head and show some loyalty. But it sounds as though I am his number 1 target so there’s no point forcing such a big thing onto him

So I have spoken with Desiree and it turns out Austin was leading the charge to take me out from her perspective so that is a bad idea lol. I’ve asked her to suggest the other person and she chose Frosby which is great because he is someone who definitely had my back

Unfortunately the objective of that alliance idea hasn’t quite been fulfilled as i was hoping we could include Austin to try and throw ideas into his head and show some loyalty. But it sounds as though I am his number 1 target so there’s no point forcing such a big thing onto him

DESIREE

Daily Thoughts for Day 5:

Collecting Votes:

The house seems pretty split on the vote. It's interesting to see two groups forming for votes and I'm wondering if that's indicative of any alliances that are lurking. Austin & Sammy are leading the campaign to vote out Cody. They have both messaged me with a very similar list of people that they say are voting Cody out, so I'm guessing they are a duo. Despite their efforts, I do believe Pennino is going this week, and that's where my vote is going. But, it is going to be a close call and nothing is certain. To be honest, I'm not super gungho on either one going. On one hand, Cody doesn't seem trustworthy. But, he is a big target that we can worry about later, and it's always good to have a target bigger than you in the house. Pennino has been putting in very little effort in this game, which I don't want to see rewarded. Ultimately, I'm going with Pennino because that's what Frosby is doing, and he's my biggest ally. That being said, I want to keep an eye on Cody because I am worried he may be making deals to stay here. He's definitely still on my radar.

Pennino's Eviction: The votes went exactly as I'd predicted (7-6 with Pennino being evicted). Of course, I can't know for sure who voted where, but the numbers lined up with what I thought would happen. I do feel bad about Pennino going because he seemed like a sweet kid, but I am just glad to be on the right side of the vote today and I feel good knowing that, even though I don't have a single alliance chat, I still kind of know what's going on in the house. But, now that the first eviction is up, it is time to start solidifying alliances. Let's go!!!

DESIREE

Daily Thoughts for Day 6:

HOH: So, I abstained from the HOH competition this week. I feel bad about having to do that, but I just have a lot going on on my end with these protests and I didn't have the social energy to ask for selfies. I'm not sure I would've wanted the responsibility yet, anyway. One Step At A Time, just like my pre-season song pick.😉 Austin won HOH and I feel okay with that. Not super excited or scared. I've chatted with Austin and he campaigned against Cody last week for votes but I ultimately did not end up voting that way. He probably knows that, but still I don't think I'm at the top of his radar.

Alliance Formed: I might have done something bad for my game... I voice chatted with a few people, including Cody, and he seemed fairly cool. Then, he privately messaged me asking about forming an alliance. He picked one person and I picked one person. He picked Andy (which is great because I love Andy) and I picked Frosby. It might be a dumb idea to join an alliance with the person at the very bottom of my trust rankings, but for some reason I believe he has good intentions? It was definitely a show of good faith for us each to pick a person to join. So Cody is definitely growing in my favor this week. I plan to stay true to that alliance.

Strategy: Originally, Cody suggested Austin for the alliance along with Andy. I told him that Austin was the one spearheading the campaign against him and that adding him to an alliance probably wasn't the best idea. I think offering this information to Cody allowed him to trust me a bit more, while also potentially making two more people in the house who are bigger threats than me. Cody said that Austin is playing both sides and he also is worried about Kayla as a threat to his game. I definitely agree that Kayla is a threat, she seems well-connected and well-versed in BB ORGs. But at the moment, I don't have any personal targets.

CODY

Ok so I’m on the block again. No surprise there. I’ve been told by Austin that he has some sort of backdoor plan in place for if he wins the veto where he saves me and someone else goes up. However I genuinely know nothing else. He could be flat out lying 

I’m really sad that it’s me and Joe. He is my number 1. But I’m confident that we can work together with our alliances to keep us both safe and eliminate whoever gets backdoored...

I have come up with a move tho. So basically, one of the things I did when Austin was HOH was I sold out Kayla. Told him she’s not to be trusted, can’t keep her around. Turns out they’re working together so I couldn’t win there

Instead I’ve gone down the reverse psychology route with a move I’ve never personally tried before but hopefully it works

I reached out to Austin and said to him that I’m really close with Brooke, and if the backdoor plans work I do not want her gone. But I’m actually saying that because he might see what I’m saying, take advantage of it and put her up to “weaken” me. When in reality if Brooke goes up, the person it weakens the most is Kayla.

While myself, Brooke, Joe have been aligned throughout the whole game. I have realised that Brooke plays too loyal of a game to her people. And her number one person no questions asked is Kayla. I think it’s not good if both of them are kept in the game together. So that’s why I’ve made this move because I’ll happily take out Brooke if it means her Kayla doesn’t have a lot of power and can take out me. Because if it’s me and Kayla on the block next to each other I have lost Brooke’s vote. So I wanna prepare for the possibility of me and Kayla on the block later down the line by taking out someone who would not vote to save me in that hypothetical in Brook

DESIREE

Daily Thoughts for Day 7:

Key Order: Austin nominated Cody & Joe. That doesn't surprise me. He told me that Cody was his target and Joe is a pawn because he is well-liked in the house. He also assured me that I would be safe this week. What was most revealing, though, is the key order. I referenced the key order back to my predictions for votes on the first eviction. All of the people that I suspect voted for Cody to go were given their keys first, except for one. I was given my key in the middle, and then all of the people that voted for Pennino to go. However, Katrina was in the the latter group, despite her voting to evict Cody. This leads me to believe that Austin still thinks I voted to evict Cody and that Katrina is the one who flipped her vote. Katrina was the last person he convinced to swap, so it would make sense that he would assume she was the one to flip her vote. ......Am I playing both sides of the house? Am I the villain? Oh man... I'm just glad Austin put me in the middle instead of towards the beginning, which would make this way more obvious.

Alliance Chat: Based on the key order, Andy has surmised that Katrina and Ashley are floating atm. I don't know why he didn't include Brooke or Mandi, because they were also in the bottom half of the list and they are not in our alliance. He is suggesting we form an alliance with those two as well to catch the floaters, but I think it's a bit too soon to make that call based entirely on key order. I suggested we wait a bit and see what happens this week.

BROOKE

Austin nominating Joe and Cody irritates me so much. I guess he wants an enemy in me.. Austin better watch his f*cking back because if Joe leaves, I’m out for blood

ANDREW

Austin made it quite clear, the alliance he is in, with they key placement. It looks like the house is divided in the ones that wanted Cody out(Austin, Kayla, Drew, Lukas and Sammi) and the ones that wanted to keep Cody (Frosby, Mandi, Brooke, Andrew, Desiree) Katrina, Ashley and Chloe seem Wild cards. Idk this game is long, I’m later on showing you guys, my alliances chart. 

That’s how the house is divided. FROSBY

Well this is the worst, like the actual worst thing that could have happened at this point in the game. Cody and Joe are both key allies for the 2 alliances i'm in and basically one of these alliances is going to lose a player. The player I would like to go home would be Cody. The alliance I have with Cody is with Andrew and Desiree and honestly I was already working with both of them before cody came into the picture so if cody got voted out not much would change between our trio alliance. As for Joe, I really need joe to stay in. He is a future vote shield plus him and his sister give me great intel and safety in the game that can push me into the game. The only thing is they will both be extremely strong in the late game so we will have to be careful about that. As for working with Katrina, she is good allies with Austin in the background of the game so that helps knowing which way he may be going in the future now knowing that he can be a challenge threat. As for the Power of Veto competition this is really hard for me. Like I want to save Joe so he won't go home but its WAY to early to show who my true allies are. Also if I choose 1 over the other I am hurting my connections with either alliance so the best course of action is throw the game and pray Cody gets a massive amount of votes.  

CODY

Holy fuck

I’m so sad I lost the veto. However I’m glad Austin won because he has told me that he has a crazy plan. Which I’m being super tight lipped about and I’m pretending that I’m gone. In which I think legit everyone thinks is gonna happen

I actually have no idea what Austin’s plan really entails. It might end up being really bad for an ally of mine however it will save myself and could save Joe which I’m all for! Joe is my boy in this game. Being put on the block next to him is horrible. Hopefully we both survive and one of us wins the next HOH

AUSTIN

i kinda forgot about these so lets just go back and start at day 1 . i was happy to see a few familiar faces like sammy lukas and chloe . didnt know any of the rest but happy to meet new ppl. kayla and drew seems great so bounded with them pretty good at the start. after the first hoh and veto i could kinda tell they was a lil goup in the house like brook, joe,frosby,and ash all seemed close but they also talked about being in othe games together. to my fucking surprise i WON the second hoh comp . i put up cody ( becuase no one trusted him) and joe ( bc i secretly wanted him gone ) . it was simple cody would probs go but if they was the chance i won veto i had a backdoor plan. THEN  i fucking won veto as well. so i talked with my alliance ( lukas,drew,sammy,chloe,and me) they wanted ash to go up so i thought it was perfect timing for me to take cody down and put up ashley so that foursome loses a number. fist time ever im good at challenges so wish me luck bc i feel i have a target now and will need it 

DREW

YOU SEE THAT?! YOU SEE THAT EXCELLENCE? THAT'S HOW YOU PLAY BIG BROTHER! 

Cody's bitch ass thinks that I'm playing a piss poor game, but I don't care about that little catfish. I care about taking out the bigger guns, and right now- miss conniving, scheming, manipulative, fake ass lips, nails and extensions Ashley... is going HOME! 

I know that Chloe is a little mad that Cody is being taken down and what not, yeah I understand that. But that fake attitude that Ashley has over some of these houseguests, myself included, that isn't apart of this "premade" of her, Joe, Frosby and Brooke... UGH WE WON... and I HAD A BIG PART IN THAT ROLE... GOURMET MEAL HERE I COMMMMMEEEE

DESIREE

Daily Thoughts for Day 9:

House Drama: In the morning, Cody got upset with Drew for not responding to his DM's and decided to air his dirty laundry in the house chat. I think this was a stupid idea because Cody already has a big target on his back for the whole "house meeting" on Day 2. Once I woke up and saw what he did, I told him he really needs to lay low if he doesn't want the whole house against him. Hopefully he will listen to that advice... I understand it's frustrating that Drew doesn't like him and doesn't respond to his DM's, but Cody made an enemy out of him by accusing him of leaking the Unde9able alliance. He can't expect Drew to all of the sudden be fine with him just because he dropped his "character".

Contingency Plans: Before the POV winner was even announced, Ashley was in my DM's asking me if I'd vote Cody out. (For the record, I'm pretty sure she voted to keep Cody last week...) Austin won POV which seemed like the final nail in the coffin for Cody. In DM's, Frosby & I were already agreeing that if we needed to vote Cody out to save ourselves, we would. If Cody was going to be eliminated anyway, it would be better if the house didn't know we were with him. 

POV Ceremony Fallout: In a shocking turn of events, Austin took Cody off the block and replaced him with Ashley. Nobody was expecting this and we were all very confused. As far as we were concerned, Cody was Austin's number 1 target. Before the POV ceremony, Austin DMed me, intending to tell me the plan. I didn't log on until immediately after the POV ceremony, so I didn't see it. After the ceremony, I messaged him and he told me that Ashley, Frosby, Brooke, & Joe all had pre-game relationships, so he wanted to take one of them out. I immediately messaged Frosby about this, and he said that they have played together before but he barely talks to Ashley and Brooke hates him. Him and Joe seem to be close, though, which is fine by me because I like Joe too.

Voting: I spoke with all of the alliance members separately about which way we should vote. I guess we're all still a little nervous because it seemed we didn't say anything about the vote in the group chat until we had all decided in DM's. Andy was the only one considering voting out Joe, because he believes that we could get Ashley on our side. He didn't seem that pressed, though, and ultimately the group decided to vote to evict Ashley.

CODY

This round was a lot more telling as I was able to get some legs within the game and I tried super hard to diffuse my target. With the exception of when I called out Drew for his lack of social play I feel like there was no drama caused this week. And even that I think more people were on my side with that than other people have been and understood that it was a game move. Because legitimately I do feel like Drew is setting himself up for failure. He’s made it too obvious that he’s not willing to work with anyone who I seem to be close with and hasn’t talked to majority of them. And even though we are only up to week 3, it’s the day 1 bonds that are maintained throughout the game that matter most. If someone only starts talking to me properly later in the game and unapologetically does not care about the lack of bond they will not get my vote

WEEK 2 CAST ASSESSMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36ScH-fNJ-k

[missheardmedia]

6 Ways To Stay Committed To Your Dreams  by Carly Benson, Miracles are Brewing

In the pursuit of dream chasing, we always start out giving it 100%. We are fully committed. We create habits that allow us to further our goals. We make plans and timelines. We tell people about our vision and grand plans. We are feverishly committed and dedicated to seeing it through. We are ready to kick some ass.

And then it happens.

Things evolve.

We get complacent and maybe even bored.

Our dreams and goals tend to take the back burner to life when things get stressful or demand our attention.

Before we know it we have lost sight. We’ve gotten off track. We might even begin to make excuses or procrastinate as a holding pattern starts to form. Bad habits replace the good ones and all of a sudden our dreams and goals can start to fizzle along with our follow through and motivation.

It happens to everyone. In fact, it happened to me just recently as I celebrated 7 years of sobriety. During a time that I should have felt so accomplished and happy, I couldn’t help but feel confused and puzzled a bit. I began to question so many things including my dreams and visions for the future.

As you all know, I even took a step back from the blog as I sorted through a lot of what was coming up for me. I plan to write a lot more on the challenges I’ve been facing, but what struck me this week was sharing in how I learned how to stay committed to my dreams. I’ve talked to so many people lately and I feel we can all relate to this at some point in our lives.

6 Ways To Stay Committed To Your Dreams

1. Sometimes commitment is a process of recommitting.

What I’ve been realizing, especially with sobriety and recovery, is that my commitment to this lifestyle and my dreams around it is a constant recommitment. Every single day I have to make the decision to stay connected to my decision to live the sober life. Some days that proves easy and others it takes everything I’ve got.

As I celebrated 7 years to that commitment, I questioned if it’s something I want to do forever. I battled with this, but at the end of the day, this lifestyle is the best one for me and it has become the backbone to helping others with my coaching and writing practice. I ended up nailing down what I would call a recommitment to it and in that moment I understood that commitment is a continual process of recommitting, over and over, and staying true to the dream you once envisioned. Hard work and steady commitment are the cornerstones to making your dreams a reality.

2. Remembering why you started.

Part of recommitting entails a thorough reflection of why you started. At one point in time your dream and your commitment to it lit a fire inside you. It is your duty to keep fanning the flames and to constantly allow your initial motivation to pull you forward. Never lose sight of why you began the journey you’re on. Remind yourself of all the amazing things you saw for your future when you set out to make your dreams and goals come true.

By reconnecting to the infancy stages of your dreams, you put your imagination back into the mode it started in. By reminiscing in this space, you put your mind back into the state it started in and usually it is here that you can find inspiration and motivation to resurrect your commitment.

3. Envisioning what it would feel like to quit.

This exercise was so incredibly powerful for me. I imagined what would happen if I gave up. I played out scenarios with a very good friend of mine and this helped me to see that I was being foolish at even the thought of quitting.

Run through how you would feel, what you would turn your focus to, how you would explain it to people, the pros, the cons and give it a full, detailed inspection. Try quitting on for size. See how it makes you feel.

This was a huge turning point for me. I was filled with a sense of “hell no,” as I played it out in my head. This reignited my drive and made me hungry all over again. It delivered me to a definitive answer and that was that there was no way I would not keep going. If you try to imagine yourself quitting and you are met with resistance, therein lies a very commanding truth that will reinstate your commitment on it’s own.

4. Harnessing your power and not forgetting your magic.

I realized had been doubting myself: my dreams, vision and goals while allowing negativity to creep it’s way in and make me forget who I am as a person and the incredible gifts I have been given.

I was in a yoga class and I nailed handstand. I held it solid. As I was upside down and I felt the pose stick, something came over me. I felt my power again. I felt my magic. I felt my inner bad assery. Right then and there I became empowered as if a light switch came on inside of me. I stepped into the light and harnessed my power again.

When you tap back into the magnitude of the life force inside of you and remember you are a magical miracle in action, you are instantly filled with energy, creativity and confidence that will carry you and your dreams forward. A shift occurs when you take a hold of your power and it is then that the path you once saw becomes so much clearer again.

5. Understanding the vision you once had.

Just like the process of envisioning quitting and what it would feel like, it’s also important to bring yourself back into the vision you once had. Get intimate with it again. Feel around in the vision and try to see what it looks like to accomplish your goals and to meet your dreams in reality. What will it feel like when you reach them? What will it look like? Where did you lose sight of it? Are there people in your life that are not supporting your vision that maybe you need to distance yourself from? How can you make your dreams high definition again?

If you can still see it and feel it, then you must fight for it. You’re never given a vision without the corresponding abilities to see it through. No matter how much life, your mind or other people try to get in the way or convince you that you don’t have what it takes. Remember the vision alone is strong enough to give you everything you need. God doesn’t plant seeds of dreams in people without also giving them the seeds of greatness to fulfill them.

6. Pause and be still to allow your dreams to speak to you again.

This step is crucial. When you get still and quiet, your dreams have a chance to speak to you again. Your spirit moves in stillness and can communicate the best with you when you slow down, press pause and allow the voice to come through to you. In my own pause, I returned to a place where I could allow my intuition to unfold very naturally. I prayed. A lot. I let my mind wander down all these avenues. I let my dreams become reacquainted with me and fell in love with them all over again.

In these moments of pausing and being still, things may shift around. Your dreams may take different shape, you may hear that pursuing them isn’t a fit for what you truly desire deep down anymore or maybe a new dream is born. And this is all ok. The purpose of taking a time out is to allow yourself to get clarity on what it is that you truly want. Dreams and goals can evolve. You can realize that it’s time to start a new journey or move in a new direction.

Giving yourself time to hear what is trying to come through is what counts. You may just find that all you had to do is reconnect with yourself to let your dreams and motivation resurface to take the lead again.

We all have hopes, dreams and a purpose for this life. It’s so important to stay committed to what makes you come alive. Your needs and passions may change over time and that may mean your dreams do too, but at the end of the day being committed to yourself, your happiness and what lights you up is ultimately the space you will flourish in.

Take time to check in with yourself once in a while, especially if you are feeling disconnected, to understand how to stay committed to your dreams. And then commit to them (again if you must) and throw yourself into what matters most to you.

Be a boss, give it all you’ve got and get back to being unstoppable. This world needs more people riding hard for their dreams and spreading their light, inspiration and gifts to others.

“This life is so short. And there is much to be done. Don’t fool around.” -Osho

This post is originally from Miracles Are Brewing on Sept 2, 2015. Reposted with permission.

About the author, Carly Benson:  Hi – I’m Carly Benson – And I’m a recovered addict…turned Christian, writer, believer of miracles and habit-busting, life change activist aspiring to motivate others as a Sobriety & Life Coach.

Carly Benson is the impactful author behind the delightfully, budding blog, Miracles Are Brewing. She writes about her experiences in reaching sobriety, becoming a Christian and leading a life vested in both. As a Certified Christian Life coach who works as a Faith Coach & Sobriety Mentor, her mission with this work is to inspire and breathe hope into the lives of others.

As a motivational writer and speaker, she aspires to publish a book and earn her spot as a thought leader of the next generation. By trade she is the owner of an Internet consultancy and plans to use this solid foundation to build and grow Miracles Are Brewing into a trusted staple for those seeking advice on creating and sustaining life change through positivity, faith and spirituality.

Carly Benson is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors and Coaches. She is a Certified Christian Life Coach through Light University.