#it feels very uhh. idk it makes me feel secure having it nearby

[orcelito]

ok SO i went and got out Most of my knives (i remembered I have a nonbinary knife only after i took the photos & also idk where it is currently. just imagine all these plus a nonbinary flag knife ok? ok)

HERE ^ is the most of them, minus that nonbinary knife. look at that fuckin mess. 32 shown here (i think) plus my nonbinary knife makes 33 blades (minus cooking knives, i dont count those for these purposes)(also counting the swiss army knife as only 1 bc lol)

& some explanations for them! gonna put these under a readmore bc it got Kinda long on accident whoops. Read Ahead if u wanna see me nerd out about my knife collection.

STARTING WITH my big ones.

my spear (gifted to me), my cane sword (from anime convention), my shitty $20 sword (also from anime convention. low quality but cool as hell), my teal mini sword + matching throwing knives (from online), my decorative axe (from a local store), my twin blades (my sharpest blades, theyre actually kinda scary how sharp they are, but i love them bc of it. from online), red saber (from online),

ANDDDDDDDDDDDD my favorite hefty bitch of a machete that i sleep with in my bed frame on the very right (inherited from my grandpa bc i was the first one who spotted it at Family Claiming Day)(this thing really is as long as my leg & much heavier than Any of the rest of the blades pictured here. i love it)

another view of the blades so u can better see how long they are. the big boys. they're lovely. 2nd heaviest blade is the cane sword when it's in its cane, mostly bc that handle has some Heft. tbh id feel safer using it as a bludgeoning weapon than a stabbing weapon, but having a cane sword is just plain cool

AND my smaller blades!

i have a lot of pocket knives. starting from the top left: golden pocket knife (from online), rainbow dragon (from online), rainbow HEFTY boy (heaviest pocket knife, from online), spider knife (from online), stiletto jade (from online), pathetic army boy (from local store, this knife has NO redeeming qualities, but it's mine <3), black stiletto (from local store), plain dagger man (from online), my damascus steel knife (was a gift, probably my singular most expensive knife. fancy boy), Dull Dagger Man (first blade i ever bought, from anime convention)

& for bottom row: teeny black knife (first pocket knife i owned, gift from my dad), lil rainbow knife (from local store), plain steel knife (from sketchy shop in gatlinburg + one of my Favorite knives), green dragon knife (from online, a real beaut), triple throwing knives (also from same sketchy shop in gatlinburg), the baby throwing knives again from the Big Boys pic but i included them again bc they r so teeny tiny, my keychain key blade (from online), swiss army knife (from online), & the pair of claw keychain baldes (from online)

many blades, many stories, so little time. theyre great tho.

SOME FOCUSES:

^ these are all my spring-assisted knives, sorted from worst feel to best feel to open. based on quickness, ease, & general satisfaction. leftmost is leftmost bc i didnt even Know it was spring assisted, bc it doesnt have a nice lil tab on the back to press. no u gotta press on one of the rungs. but once u do it Does spring open, so i included it. next 3 are just Average in feel (these 3 are sibling blades anyways, nice of them to be together). jade stiletto is smooth and quick, nice to open. Hefty Boy rainbow has some THUNK to it when i open it. like that babey's got PURPOSE to it. added to the general size of it & it's just pretty great. AND THEN MY TWO FAVS, green dragon is a perfect beautiful knife & feels very great to open. and then Steel Sketchy Knife aka my 2nd pocket knife & first i bought for myself. it looks plain in comparison to the others, but she's anything But. quick, light, Sharp. it has the Best feel to open, bc it's just a fast SHHK. probably my knife that's seen the most use (aside from my small black knife) just bc of how great it feels to open. i love that knife so much for Real.

& the final highlight, somewhat related, are the knives I actually use the most in my daily life!

on the left are the knives I keep in my bag by default, & thus the ones I carry with me Everywhere i go. small black pocket knife bc she's Ol' Faithful, & a pretty lowkey knife for basic tasks when I dont wanna raise any eyebrows lol. silver knife bc as previously stated i Love using it so much. i take it out when i gotta breakdown a lot of boxes at work, & it Never disappoints. small rainbow keychain key knife bc it's cute & i like to keep it on my keychain. & swiss army knife bc Obviously im gonna keep the swiss army knife in my bag for if i need an emergency tool.

on the right are the three knives I keep out in my apartment. black stiletto lives on my bathroom counter, for bathroom knife needs. green stiletto i keep on my table next to where I hang out in my bedroom, for any couch time needs. & then green dragon beaut camps out on top of some shelves by my front door bc it's Great for opening boxes, aka something I will do for packages I receive after pulling them in the front door. it works for me.

all the rest of my knives live either in a box (for small ones) or my closet (for big ones). i may have a lot of knives, but somehow I never feel like i have enough. i just love collecting them so much <3

[neerasrealm]

Breakfast and Thrift Stores

Part two to this story. Literally just Dad Tim and Toby doing some bonding idk what you want from me man

word count: 1954

Toby looked himself over in the bathroom mirror. His pale, thin frame was covered in thin, faded scars. Some were from as a kid, some were more recent. Some were given to him, some were self inflicted and others...the car crash. He gulped, his fingers tracing over scars where doctors had given him stitches, where he’d been cut open to remove shrapnel, where he was cut and hit. He sighed softly and dropped his hand, grabbing his shirt from where it sat on top of the toilet lid. He put it on, then slipped on his usual sweater. He stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. His eyes fell on the white door connecting his room to the one next door. Tim had told him he could come inside, spend the evening with them.

The three of them were...odd. Tim was nice. He was friendly, and understanding. Toby had answered his questions the best he could, telling Tim his age, where he came from, some of his disorders. Keyword being some. Tim hadn’t pried too much into the boy’s personal life, but somehow Toby felt like he somehow knew more than he let on. Still, he had made a vow to himself.

He would never, ever tell any of them about what he’d done. He refused to mention anything about his dad, or his mother and sister. And he definitely wasn’t going to talk about...the thing. If it was even real. Maybe he’d imagined the creature. He wasn’t sure but- it was nothing Tim needed to know about. 

Hesitantly, he walked over to the door. He held his fist up, hesitating on whether or not to knock. And then his arm jerked and slammed into the door, forcing him into knocking. Ah, thanks tourettes. 

‘’Come in.’’ he heard Brian call. Toby grabbed the doorknob, turning it and pulling it open. The other room was identical to his. The three of them were sitting on one of the two beds. Or rather, Tim and Jay were on the bed, and Brian was sitting on the floor in front of it, his back resting against it. Jay waved a bit in greeting.

‘’Hey Toby.’’ he chirped. Toby smiled a bit and raised a hand in greeting, waving a tiny bit.

‘’Uh- hey.’’ he greeted softly. He closed the door behind him and fiddled with his hands, unsure of where to go. Tim gestured to the other bed.

‘’Take a seat kid.’’ he said simply. Toby clicked his tongue, another tic, and shuffled over to the bed. He very carefully sat down on the edge of it and crossed his legs. He tilted his head at the three men. 

‘’So uh- why did you want me in here…?’’ he asked gently. Tim shrugged while Jay pulled a TV remote from- somewhere- and began flicking through channels on the small, cheap TV across the room.

‘’Just thought you’d get lonely.’’ he replied. Brian nodded.

‘’You’ve been travelling alone, right?’’ he asked. Toby nodded. ‘’For how long?’’

‘’I dunno...two weeks?’’ Toby shrugged. And then his head jerked abruptly to the side. Nobody seemed to notice it too much though, thankfully. 

‘’Well- now you have some company!’’ Jay looked at Toby and smiled. Tim pat him gently on the shoulder and smiled a bit. ‘’Not that we’re very exciting company to have- eheh- but it’s better than nothing, right?’’

‘’I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m the most exciting guy you’ll ever meet.’’ Brian replied. Tim rolled his eyes, though Brian didn’t see it. Toby laughed gently. He liked these guys...they were nice to him. Really nice. Nice enough to let him stay in their room till late into the night. The four of them really just talked, watched TV and exchanged stories until night. Toby fell asleep in his own room, feeling just a little bit more secure than he had in the days before. 

He was woken up the following morning by someone knocking on the door to his room. Toby groaned sleepily and dragged himself out of the bed, stumbling over to the door and opening it up. In front of the door stood Tim, dressed in a pale yellow bomber jacket and blue jeans. He looked up at Toby. ‘’Morning kid.’’

‘’Morning,’’ Toby murmured, rubbing sleep from his eye. ‘’Did you need something…?’’

‘’Yeah,’’ Tim replied. ‘’Can I come in?’’

‘’Sure, sure.’’ Toby stepped aside and watched Tim walk into the room. His shoulder jerked involuntarily and he closed the door. ‘’What is it…?’’

‘’I wanna know how much stuff you got. Spare clothes, food, stuff like that. If there’s anything you need, I wanna get it today, before we head out.’’ 

‘’Oh! Uh- okay well- hot’n’fresh!- all my stuff’s in here,’’ Toby walked over to his bed and grabbed the black gym bag sitting on the end of it. It contained everything he still had from home. He opened it and rummaged around. ‘’I got some spare clothes, my phone charger, hairbrush, a towel, uhh…’’ he frowned. There were a couple other things in the bag, including a pair of orange goggles, an old framed photo, and two sharp hatchets. Toby decided not to let Tim know about those. ‘’My wallet, though that’s mostly empty and- 50% off!- I think I might have some cereal bars??’’ he frowned and pulled out a bunch of plastic wrappers and two water bottles. One empty and one half empty. ‘’Aw man- must’ve ate em all…’’ 

‘’So you got basically nothing.’’ Tim said. Toby shrugged at him. ‘’I’ll take you downtown to the goodwill and get you some more clothes and some other stuff, okay? And we’ll take your stuff to the laundry. It’ll probably start stinking of sweat soon.’’

Toby shut himself up before he could tell Tim that he actually couldn’t physically sweat. He instead nodded. ‘’Oh uh- you sure…? I don’t wanna be a waste-’’ he paused for a second, his tongue clicking a few times. ‘’of money-’’

‘’You’re not.’’ Tim interrupted. He turned and headed for the door again. ‘’Get dressed, okay? We’ll get breakfast while we’re out.’’ he left the room before Toby could even protest, leaving the boy alone in the room. He rocked on his heels for a few moments before sighing and looking at his bag. 

Toby stepped out of his room with his bag slung over his shoulder. He looked at Tim, who was leaning against the wall beside the door, also holding a bag. Tim looked up at him and smiled a bit. ‘’Ready?’’

‘’Uh-huh.’’ Toby followed him down the hall and out of the hotel. As they reached the car he moved to open the backseat, only for Tim to call him.

‘’Kid, why don’t you ride up front?’’ 

Toby’s head snapped up. Up front...last time he’d been in the front of a car was- ‘’Mmm…’’ he hesitated. ‘’Sure…’’ Toby walked around to the side and sat in the passenger seat beside Tim. Sitting in the front, he could see everything in front of them. The road...oncoming cars...pedestrians...Toby swallowed his nerves. Thankfully for him, Tim didn’t drive fast. The car ride was calm, and not too long. Their first stop was the local laundromat. Toby followed Tim inside and to one of the machines in the back. He put money in two of them and gestured for Toby to take one while he loaded up the other. Toby felt a bit of relief at that. He definitely didn’t wanna risk Tim finding the hatchets in his bag, or anything else for that matter. 

With the laundry in the machine and an hour to kill, they left and walked down the street to the local goodwill. Toby stopped next to Tim and looked at him. The shorter man looked at the teen and gestured around. ‘’Pick out what you want, kid.’’ he said with a shrug. Oh. Okay- Toby actually felt a tiny bit of excitement. He hadn’t gotten to pick out new clothes in a long time. Timidly, he wandered over to the men’s section and began perusing the clothes. A lot of it was ugly trash, which Toby and Tim both quietly made fun of. Eventually, after making fun of a dozen or ugly sweaters and gingerly sifting through t-shirts of questionable cleanliness, Toby picked out an outfit. An faded navy hoodie that was a couple sizes too big on Toby but very comfy, a white button-down shirt with blue vines and flowers patterned over it that made Toby feel fancy, and denim jeans that had colourful paint splatters along the legs. Toby didn’t know if it was a fashion choice or if the pants previously belonged to an artist, but he loved them. 

‘’How do I look?’’ Toby asked excitedly as he stepped out of the dressing room. Tim looked at him for a moment, examining him up and down before he walked over. He reached up and tugged the collar of Toby’s shirt up over the collar of his hoodie. He stepped back and smiled. 

‘’Looks good.’’ he said with a nod. Toby beamed. ‘’I also got you this.’’ Tim presented four pairs of sunglasses. ‘’Figured I’d get some for all of us. Jay likes to complain about getting sun in his eyes.’’ 

Toby looked over all the sunglasses before grabbing a pair of cateye shaped glasses that had a single sparkly gem on each corner. He put them on and grinned at Tim. The shorter man broke into a smile, and then began laughing. ‘’Nice choice.’’ he chuckled. Toby shot him some finger guns and clicked his tongue. Tim shook his head, still grinning. ‘’Go take that stuff off so I can buy it.’’

Toby smiled to himself. ‘’Okayyy.’’ he said, wandering back into the changing room. After he had his regular clothes on, the two of them paid and left. They went back to the car, with twenty minutes still left to kill. 

‘’Any ideas for breakfast?’’ Tim asked as he backed the car out of the small parking lot. Toby frowned for a moment. 

‘’I haven’t had a breakfast burrito in like...two years.’’ Toby looked over at him. 

‘’Christ kid, who’s been starving you?’’ Tim asked jokingly. Toby laughed in the seat next to him. The two of them drove to a nearby taco bell and picked up breakfast for not only themselves but Jay and Brian too. The smell of hot, fresh burritos and cheese filled the car and made Toby bounce his legs, an excited tic of his. They picked up their laundry before heading back to the hotel. Tim was holding the bag of food. He would have given it to Toby but- well, one wrong tic and their perfectly good breakfast could probably hit the ground. Tim was not risking losing his breakfast. 

Tim and Toby walked into the hotel room where Jay and Brian were still fast asleep. Tim set down his bag of laundry, walked over to Brian’s bed, and flicked him on the forehead. Immediately, the sleeping man gave an agitated groan and swatted at him. Tim flinched away from Brian’s swats until he was still again, and gave him another flick. 

‘’Aghh!’’ Brian squirmed where he lay and opened his eyes, glaring up at Tim, who just smirked. ‘’Asshole.’’

‘’Dick.’’ was all Tim replied with before turning over to Jay’s bed. He leaned down and gently shook him awake. He smiled warmly at Jay as his eyes fluttered open. Brian glared at him. Jay sat up and rubbed at his eyes. ‘’Morning.’’ Tim murmured. He held up the bag of taco bell. ‘’We got you two breakfast. Toby’s choice.’’

Brian looked at Toby. ‘’...breakfast burritos?’’ he asked. Toby nodded. He smiled approvingly. ‘’Good choice.’’

[glowstickhaloboy]

i just spent an hour typing this klance sleeping beauty/witch AU in a text

one day lance wakes up in a forest with few memories and no idea how he got there. He stumbles upon a stone dias with a veiled, sleeping young man on it and figures he’s dreaming and that’s got to be the part of himself that’s going to wake up eventually. 

Then a bear comes crashing out of the trees, and Lance knows he can’t let the bear hurt himself or... himself?? Whatever. So he manages to draw it under a loose boulder and then topple the rock down on it. Then the bear transforms into a big brown man who says his name is hunk and thanks lance profusely for changing him back. 

“The wicked monarch lotor doesn’t mind using curses on anyone, no matter how insignificant,” he says. Then he sees the sleeping person on the dias and asks if he hurt the prince, and lance is like ??? 

So hunk explains that lotor cursed the rightful heir to the throne to sleep forever, then brought him into the middle of the woods so he would never be found, and hunk, the unfortunate stable boy who had been tasked with transporting him here, had been turned into a bear to attack anyone who got too close. 

At this point lance is like, “wait, im not dreaming?? And that dude is a real person?? Okay so uhh sounds like this monarch is totally evil and we should get this sleeping guy back on the throne??? Whys he asleep how do we wake him up??”

And hunks like “shrug.” 

So lance is like “WELL ive got quite a reputation for being a dashing hero” 

“oh really whats your name” 

“uh, the names LANCE” 

“GASP LANCELOT??” 

“Ye-! What, no, who is that wtf” 

“oh then ive never heard of you” 

“whatever shut up you’ll have heard of me after we pull this off together, lets get this guy to a town or something and tell the people whats going on, that way theyll know lotor is a fake” 

“oh its not going to be that easy,” says hunk, ever the man of exposition. “lotor has guards everywhere, at gates and bridges and checkpoints on the roads to every town, nobody can get in anywhere with anything secret, especially not so blatantly carrying a body”

but then they meet a group of smugglers!! Led by allura and pidge, the strategist and the genius, who agree to help lance because of lotor’s ridiculous taxes + security. 

“But” says pidge “theres no way we’ll help you when he’s like this. You gotta wake him up first. He’s practically dead, we’re not going to smuggle a corpse, its useless. Coma patients cant lead kingdoms.” 

And lance is like “idk?? How??” 

And hunk is like “drop a rock on him” 

and lance is like “NO HES A PRINCE” 

and pidge is like “no curse is foolproof, theres got to be a way to break it” but doesn’t offer any helpful solutions so lance sighs and goes to hang out with sleeping Keith to see if he cant come up with something.

The smugglers helpfully offered a tent to keep the prince in so it doesn’t cause much of a ruckus among their crew. Lance enjoys the privacy because he’s starting to doubt that he can pull this off, and he apologizes to Keith for that even though he knows Keith cant hear him, and lance explains that he doesn’t know a lot about himself but he feels like he has a history of letting people down and he’s sorry, he’s sorry, but he’s going to try his best, and maybe providence will smile upon Keith and everything will work out anyway, and if lance fails he is at least a necessary stepping stone to restore Keith to the throne. 

He falls asleep there, and when he dreams, he’s inside a beautiful palace watching a man with a prosthetic arm write a letter at a desk. 

“That’s my brother,” says a voice behind lance, and thats... Keith walking up into the room, talking to him?? so casually?? And the man writing the letter cant seem to see or hear them at all? And Keith continues, “his name is shiro. He’s feeling particularly frustrated lately because theres nothing he can do to stop lotor from screwing over our people. He was supposed to inherit the throne. After one year as king, he sent supplies to the kingdom of a sworn enemy while their people suffered from starvation, and lotor got the council to label him a traitor and revoke his right to the throne. I was the only heir left. And, well, you know what happened to me.” He smiles and lance is still like WHAT THE HELL?? And Keith says “you’ll figure it out. I trust you” and lance can feel himself waking up so he misses the next part and only gets the word “witch” before he’s back in the tent and Keith is still passed tf out and he has NO IDEA how to break this curse, so he asks hunk if there are any witches nearby. 

And hunks like “shrug” 

and lance wants to bash his head against a wall. 

But allura overhears and is like “im a witch lol” and lance is like “YOU CAN DO IT THEN YOU GOTTA FIX HIM” and allura is like “?? i’ll try but I have no idea how I would even begin” and lance is like “ANYWAY I CAN HELP I WILL” 

so he hangs at allura’s elbow all day while she stirs potion after potion, consults books, consults Pidge, attempts to cast spells, and nothing’s working, so the day passes and she gives up for now and says she has to rest, and lance reluctantly sees her out of the tent and falls asleep himself. 

This time he dreams he’s in a witch’s tower, and he knows this must be the witch he needs to find, but it’s empty. He doesn’t know who lives here or where they are, and yet it feels familiar, and then Keith appears again, and lance wastes no time in asking where they are this time. Keith shrugs and says this must be one of lance’s memories, Keith has never been here before. 

And lance looks around in confusion like, “one of... my... memories??” before it clicks why he knows this is a witch’s tower without even looking around, and he remembers the tree outside the window and the apples that could be magicked inside from the branches without even leaving the comfort of the couch, and thats because its HIS witch’s tower. He’s in his home! 

And as if to prove it, he spins around and sees himself perusing his own library with an apple in hand, humming, and Keith smiles at him and says, “Witch,” before lance wakes up again and this time he understands, he remembers, that he is the only person who can save Keith, and that is why lotor cursed him with memory loss in the first place!! 

He also remembers... a lot of embarrassing thoughts he’d had pretty much his entire life... lance had followed the prince’s progress from afar, had attended his coronation and offered his services consulting as a court sorcerer (which the royal representative lotor had always overlooked with disdain because they HAD a court sorcerer, thank you very much, and honerva had more life experience in her little finger than a little spell-monkey like lance) and when the prince went missing, lance toiled over a solution, and he came to the new regent, lotor, and proved that he’d crafted a spell with the power to locate one’s truly heartfelt desire, and then he proved that his desire was keith’s safety, was keith, and then everything went dull and fuzzy, and then he’d woken up in the forest. 

And all of this is to say-- lance does not know how to break a sleeping curse. 

He only knew how to find Keith. Why did Keith have such faith in him? He would try anyway. He would brew a remedy so powerful it HAD to work. 

when pidge comes to check on him next morning, lance informs her that he has a lead on the prince and is not to be disturbed, and he spends all day sending hunk and allura out for ingredients, tugging out his own hair, briefly crying, then scraping himself up to keep working, and just as he thinks he might be on the right track, theres a scream outside, and then more, and lance doesn’t want to leave the cauldron but he has to make sure the camp is safe-- and it isn’t. 

Lotor’s armed guards have raided the smuggler’s camp and lotor himself is there too. Lance knows he has only one chance. 

He dashes back into his tent to finish, knowing full well that lotor saw him and theres no time at all, and then half the tent spontaneously begins to fold in on itself, and the cauldron is knocked from its briar and the potion! Most of it spills out, and lance, without thinking, takes the rest into his mouth because he doesn’t have a flask, and if he has to feed it to the sleeping prince like a baby bird then he WILL.

but lotor rips open the front of the tent before lance can make it to the bedroll and raises lance by the throat off of the ground. By force, he squeezes every golden drop out of lance’s puffed cheeks then casts him aside, preparing to finish Keith once and for all now that his secret is found out, (and in his mind he is thinking how nicely this will all blow over, to pin it on the smugglers and an unfortunate accident in the raid) but lance is swept up in a force of protective rage and creates a gust of wind powerful enough to uproot the tent, catch up lotor, and drag him away and pin him down. 

While lotor struggles against the fabric, lance scrambles to keith’s bedroll and prays that this will work, that theres enough remaining to have any effect at all-- and he presses his potion-coated lips to keith’s and wishes as hard as he can. 

and keith’s lips press back. 

And keith’s hand catches at lance’s collar. 

and lotor bellows in rage and lance sits up in wonder and the prince is awake and alive. 

He does not move like someone who has been lying still for over a year. He leaps to his feet, summons a dagger from seemingly nowhere, and meets the regent monarch head-on in a duel so fearsome that, when lotor is eventually defeated, his armored guard immediately drop their weapons and bow to keith.

Keith orders the guards release this camp (on the grounds that the laws they bent were unjust in the first place, and they’d harbored him safely in his hour of need), and then he finds himself and lance a horse and finally gets a moment to thank this witch who saved him-- and perhaps, if lance can forgive him for being somewhat useless throughout all this, he would like to accompany Keith to the castle as his court sorcerer? Of course, the mother to a traitor cannot serve the crown. 

And lance can hardly believe he’s being offered this new lot in life, because hes-- hes-- HIM. He never wins! But he has this time. He has.

He all but yells “YES” and almost makes an ass out of himself but reigns it in at the last second. They ride back to the castle together and are married later that year and live happily ever after.

[vernon-luv]

Criminal Pt. 3

admin k: idk, it doesn’t feel like a lot happened in this part but stuff still happened?? lol what am I even saying? this is how you know I post at night bc my words never make sense. anyway, enjoy reading~

word count: 1,859

pairing: reader x vernon (criminal)

genre: au, fluff

He left you wondering if what just happened was a dream or not. You sat there on your bed, still trying to figure out who this guy was and if he was even real. Everything was so surreal, unreal to you. Never has anything like this ever has happened in your life and now, it’s all just strange.

He left so quickly and it made you wait and want him to come back faster. Why was it that you were so attached to him? You barely knew the guy yet you were there anticipating for his presence.

In your mind, you knew you shouldn’t be hanging out with someone like him. How could you trust him? Yet, through everything, your want to be with him overpowers reality.

There was something about him that drew you to want more of him. Days of past and Vernon hasn’t once shown up to your dorm since that night. Everywhere you were, everywhere you’d go, you looked thorough the crowd of people in hopes that he’d appear out of the blue.

You thought you were crazy for holding onto seeing some ‘criminal’ and always shook off the thought of seeing him again.

Was he a criminal? He told you he wasn’t but could you believe his words?

No matter how hard you tried to forget his name, his face, his..being, it was too difficult. The more days past, the more often you thought about him til it got unhealthy and to the point that you could not focus on anything or anyone else but him. Why were you going crazy over this person??

It bothered you greatly to the point that you decided to do more research on his past to see for yourself what type of person he truly was. Going on your laptop, you should’ve been studying your notes but instead, you typed in the search bar for Vernon Hansol Chwe and immediately, several news articles popped up.

You clicked on the first one and read each of them, one after another. All had a similar story line and information about his prisoning.

A few things did link to what Vernon had told you that night. Maybe what he said was true?

All this drew you in so much that you had forgotten your surroundings. What snapped you back into reality was the ringing of your phone that cut the silence.

You yelped and jumped a bit in your seat from the sudden noise that shocked you. You breathed out, seeing that it was only Mingyu calling.

You sighed as you picked up your phone, answering the call and putting your phone up against your ear. “Hello?”

“Hey” He said quite sly. “What you up to little princess?” He chirped. You smiled but was somewhat embarrassed of the nick name he calls you at times. MIngyu and you are strictly friends but there are times where the two of you joke around.

“I’m busy studying. Why?” You question in calm tone, curious as to why he was calling. “I wanted to see if you’d want to take a walk around campus or a nearby park. I don’t really know, I’m just bored and want some fresh air.” You laughed and you could practically hear him smile on the other end.

“Um…well…”

You were still so into reading about Vernon and you weren’t sure if you were up for a walk, especially at midnight.

And just like that, on cue, Vernon comes knocking on your window, making you jump again at the loud noise. You were very sensitive to noises around you today, especially being in daze and all.

You hitched and Mingyu heard. “Something wrong?” He asked out of concern. Vernon was waving for you to come quicker but you took your time to slowly get up and walk to open your window.

“Oh nothing, nothing. I just…” You started to make an excuse as Vernon let himself into your dorm room. “Saw a bug in my room. I’m sorry Mingyu but I’m not up for walking around right now, try your best to go to sleep, it late. I’ll see you tomorrow. I have to kill this bug before it runs off. Bye.” You quickly said and hung up on Mingyu.

Vernon huffed. “So now I’m a bug to you?” He teased but you didn’t say anything back. All you did was stare at him, now that he was here, you had no words to say to him. It was as if everything you wanted to say to him just flew out the window.

He makes himself comfortable, acting like this is his dorm when it really is yours. Vernon sat on your bed and checked your laptop. You went quickly to stop him and try to close it but he stops you, giving you a strange look, furrowing his eyebrows at you as he looks up. “Stop.”

“Let me see.” He argues and he forces it open. You don’t bother to fight back since you were scared you’d break your laptop.

You sighed as you waited for his reaction. Finally when he does he seems to be angered. “Do you not believe me and what I said to you?? What is all this?” Vernon looked at you in disgust.

All the comfortable and friends feelings were gone the minute he saw what you’ve search up. Now it was just a stranger yelling at another.

You backed off, scared of him and what he may do. You didn’t know him well but seeing him angry was not your favourite side of him. 
“I’m…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I just-“ You began to pout and mumble, holding your arm with your other hand, securing yourself from Vernon’s harsh and loud words.

“Then why did you search up these things then?? Huh?? Is my word not good enough for you?!”  You understood he was offended and you knew you shouldn’t have done what you did but curiosity took over you at the moment.

“I trust your words.-“ 

“You obviously don’t see all this! I’m leaving if all you see of me is some criminal.” He stormed off to the door, grabbing the doorknob and twisting it forcefully with so much power as he swings it open.

“No don’t! Don’t leave! I”m sorry I didn’t mean to! Vernon you’re not a criminal! I know that!” You pretty much yelled and plead for him to stay, not even caring that your door was open for everyone in the hall to hear.

You weren’t even sure if anyone was outside, but you didn’t care. All you wanted was for him to stay because he was the only person you’ve been thinking about for the past days, week.

Vernon sighed before turning back around and closing the door behind him. He leaned against the door with his arms crossed. “Prove it.”

Your brows knot up as you look at that boy in front of you. “What?” What did he mean by that?

“Prove it to me that you trust me.” He explains. 
“How?” You still questioned him. You wanted to show him you trusted him.

“Let’s do a trust fall test.” You laughed “Are you a child or something?”

He tilted his head slightly. “Fine, if you don’t want to do that. I might as well walk out this door just so everyone in this building knows that you have a relationship with a criminal~” He stresses the last word.

“I don’t mind doing it, it’s just weird.” You said, agreeing to do it. as he smirks.

He makes a circular motion with his finger, indicating that you should turn around. You huffed, not seeing how this proves your trust to him but still doing it anyway.

“Do you trust me?” 
“Sadly yes.”

“Fall back.” He told you. “You better catch me! I swear, if you drop me I’m going to kill you!”

“Watch your words. Kill is a strong word you know.” Right…were with a so called ‘criminal’.

You fell back, half scared but half not. The few seconds you were falling was a bit scary but the second you felt Vernon’s strong arms catch you and hold you up, made you feel secure and you felt hat you could breathe again.

“See? I’m a trustworthy guy.” He said as he lets you go sooner than you wanted. You had stood back on your own feet once again and was facing him.

“What are you doing here?” You questions finally started to come back to you as you look at him.

He had a smile as he fixed a few strand son your hair that were covering your face. HIs smile fades a little as you ask the question.

“Aren’t you happy I’m here?” You didn’t answer his question since he didn’t answer yours. Though you didn’t say an answer to him, you still answered his question in your mind. Yes, you were happy that he was here. Truly happy, you weren’t sure why you was overwhelmingly joyful to see his face again…but you were.

He leaned in closer, raising his eyebrows at he tries to get a good look at your face while you were looking down and avoiding eye contact. Vernon’s smile starts to appear again when he sees the flush of pink show on your cheeks. 
“Did you miss me?” HIs voice was softer now and his words were devilish but smooth as silk.

“I thought you’d come sooner…” You mumbled your confession.

Vernon tucked your hair behind your ear, having his hand make its way to cup your cheek as well as tilt your head up to see him and look at him in his eyes.

Why is it that his eyes get brighter the more you look at them? You could stare at him and get lost in his eyes forever and you wouldn’t care.

“I would’ve came sooner but you know, I’m a criminal on the run. It’s not as easy as you think it is.” As he spoke, your focus and eyes went to his lips. You were so fascinate day his features that you didn’t even listen to half of what he had just said.

You found yourself getting closer and almost leaning into him. You caught yourself and stopped before anything happened.

Snapping yourself out of daze, you tried processing his last words so you could say something back and break the silence between the two of you. You licked your lips from the dryness.

“Uhh..yeah, I forgot.” He chuckled seeing your flustered state. He takes his hand away and stands at a more comfortable distance.

“How are you dealing with everything?” You asked.

Vernon sighed, a deep breath before answering. “Actually kind of horribly…I need your help.” Vernon confesses.

You blinked at him surprised and wondering if what he had said was what you heard. “What? With what?”

“Solving my case. Taking this back to court. People need to know the truth and that I’m not a criminal. Y/N, I need justice. The only person who can help me is you so please, help me.”

[purposeofmymind]

That last post reminded me of the time I was kinda asked out, and made me remember a funny(?) story that happened to me at that job.

This is gonna be long because Backstory and Exposition. And actually smaller stories in between. I need to get my mind off things so let me ramble about nothing.

Okay so I don’t care anymore because I no longer work there and this is still vague, but my “retail/store” job that I had year before and last year... was in a museum gift shop. 

Pretty okay retail job. I got to walk around the museum exhibit halls for free during my break. I could take a nap in a hidden area of the Egyptian exhibit. It was cool.

Now there was the main/general gift store. And a separate, small store that sold items related to the specific exhibits, and it was located next to said specific exhibit halls. I worked in this small store a lot. 

Since I was working in that area by myself, at the end of the day, the security guards had to walk me to the “safe” room, where we turn in the money from the register and count to make sure it adds up. 

I also worked on slow days a lot, where there were like barely any visitors in the museum. As a result, I was bored to death behind my register, and the security guard at the nearby exhibit was bored to death at their post, so the guards usually came to my register so we could talk on these slow days.

The security guards were very awesome and nice. There was this one petite middle aged lady, who once asked me for help on which dinosaur toys were the best to give her grandsons for Christmas, and asked me to hide the last one for her until she got off her shift. There was an older guy who worked another security job at a concert venue, so he would tell me about the singers/bands he saw. 

Now there are two security guards important to this story.

The first security guard started a few months after I’d gotten there, and through our chatting, we realized that we went to the same college, though he was a few years older. He was really sweet and I highly suspect he may have been interested in me. He seemed really excited when he saw I was working. He also seemed almost nervous when he was talking to me, it was cute. idk maybe he was just nice and friendly and I’m overthinking these interactions, but I really enjoyed talking to him. We’ll call him Eric. 

The second guard, we’ll call Caleb. He started maybe a month before I left? idk but when he started, I was just... done and disillusioned with that job. I had already been accepted into the other job I applied for, and I was just trying to find the words to break the news to my boss and when to put in my 2 weeks.

Anyways, Caleb is the guy who kinda asked me out. As mentioned above, like most of the guards, he’d leave his post to come talk to me. I was hesitant to talk to him though because 1) dude, you’re brand new, why are you breaking the rules so soon and 2) I didn’t want to get in trouble for contributing to his rule-breaking. Like the other guards only talked to me and the other associates on slow days. This kid was talking to me on a busy day.

But anyways, he’d talk to me. I could tell he was very much a Gamer Dude, bragging to me about the computer he built and his Youtube channel. I was polite in listening to him, but didn’t want to seem interested and accidentally lead him on. Funny side-story, first time talking to him, he came up to me like “Meg right?” and I was like “uhh no? Meg’s my co-worker.” And he was like “oh I met her yesterday, y’all look the same.” Meg and I were both petite, short Hispanic girls with straight long black hair (only difference is I wear glasses and she doesn’t) so I could understand the mix-up. But still it was funny to me especially because I did have a set of actual twin co-workers too that he probably hadn’t met yet, so I was like “good luck with the real twins, dude.”

Maybe like my 2nd time talking to him (idk how many days he’d be working at that point, our schedules were different, but this was like a week after he started?), he said to me “you’re different from your co-workers.” Internally I was like “oh different, here we go.” I asked him what he meant by that, and he just said that my co-workers seemed really rude and unfriendly, and that I was nicer than them. (He also said “especially Meg is rude.” I almost laughed aloud because Meg is a no-nonsense girl with RBF who won’t put up with shit and I loved her for that, but that didn’t make her rude, she was actually very sweet.) I came to the defense of my co-workers and said “oh really? they’re always so nice usually. maybe they were just busy or having a bad day when you tried talking to them.”

Unfortunately the inevitable happened. Just like a week after that “you’re nicer than your co-workers” conversation, he dropped the “so do you have a boyfriend?” question. I remember thinking, “oh gawd no.” 

I contemplated lying. Saying I did have a bf, making up a fake long-distance bf, saying I was a lesbian, anything to get out of this. 

Issue was, I didn’t want to lie because 1) I didn’t want rumors to get out that I was a liar (because one of my nosy coworkers knew I was single and straight) and 2) I didn’t want to lie on the off chance someone at work who I actually was interested in (like security guard Eric, or that one cute Aladdin look-a-like who worked in guest services and smiled at me whenever he saw me) asked me out... that would’ve been scummy of me if I lied to Caleb and then said yes to a date from someone else.

So I told Caleb the truth. “Ahhh no, I- I don’t.” Praying for a customer to show up so I can be like “oops sorry gotta work!” Then he asked “do you wanna hang out sometime?” and I just... panicked. It was like my brain short-circuited. I had never been asked out before and I was not expecting it to happen now at work. So I panicked and stupidly said “sure!” Then I was like “oh Lord what have I done” and caught myself and added, “umm I mean... I’m not sure... I’m really busy and stuff.” And then like a godsend, his supervisor walked by, so he was like “oh gotta go, talk to you later.”

I had put in my 2 weeks like the week before this, and I was gone the next week, so I avoided that disaster. I think I briefly talked to Caleb before I left though, and he didn’t mention the “hanging out” thing so I think he got the hint from my excuses. I feel bad but I just... had zero interest in him. His personality (dogging out my co-workers, not having a good work ethic early into a new job, dominating the conversation like talking about his interests, rarely asking about mine) was a bit of a turn off, if I’m honest. He was just not my type, I’ll leave it at that.

BUT the main story I wanted to talk about. This happened before he asked me out. 

Like I said way earlier, the security guards had to walk me to the safe room at the end of the day. 

One day, both Eric and Caleb we working. 

They almost got into an argument on who was going to walk me. It was... hilarious and amazing and I still can’t believe it happened. 

Eric usually always walked with me when he worked, so we had like wordlessly agreed for him to walk me that day as well. All the security guards and I get into the elevator, and Caleb is like “oh you need someone to walk you to the safe room right? I’ll do it.” I was like “uhhh,” and before I could even respond, Eric jumped in “oh don’t worry, I’m gonna walk her.” Then Caleb was like “oh no it’s cool dude, I can do it.” And Eric said sternly “no really, I got it,” with a smile that could kill. 

It was... wow, I still feel like that was something my sub-conscious made up, but it really happened. Two guys almost got into an argument over who was going to walk with me. I could cut the tension between them in that elevator with a knife. When it was over, I almost started laughing in disbelief.

So yeah, that happened. 

Then I left that job a couple weeks later. I still hate myself for not keeping in touch with Eric, he was sweet. My last week working was hectic, so I never even got to say a proper goodbye to him because I don’t think we worked the same days/shift/area that week. And I hate myself for not talking more to the Aladdin-look-a-like either, he always smiled and waved at me every single time we made eye contact walking around the museum. It was just hard to talk to him because different departments. :\ Despite us never talking beyond a “hello,” he knew my name somehow, so I wish I’d gotten the chance to get to know him. 

I’m done rambling now