#it's also so cheap bc there's like two left in stock

[vanillaboyfriend]

ok hi gamers this isn't yard related but i need everyone to know that this dress is THREE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS the only size left is 7x so if we have any big girlies around here COME GET Y'ALL JUICE !!!! THREE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS!!!! there's also a pink and black variant that's rlly cute ok more details in tags

[madmaudlingoes]

How to Dye Wool with Kool Aid

I live tweeted this a while ago, but since Twitter is now on life support, and in the spirit of making crafts more accessible, here are my adventures in Kool Aid Dyeing.

WTF Kool Aid?

Yep! The powdered drink mix (without any sugar) functions as an acid dye -- the citric acid flavoring binds the pigment to the fiber. This can dye any protein based fiber (eg wool, silk, alpaca, cashmere) but won’t work on cellulose (eg cotton, linen, Tencel) or synthetics. If you have a wool blend, which a lot of sock yarn is, the synthetic portion may get hidden by the dyed wool -- or you may get a cool stripey effect from the mix of dyed/undyed fibers.

No really, why Kool Aid?

I mean, any powdered drink mix could work here -- the point is that it’s very cheap, easily accessible, and food safe. That last bit matters because if your dye isn’t food safe, you have to acquire pots/cups/pyrex that is Only For Dye if you don’t wanna get poisoned. So this is an accessible way to try dyeing your own materials with minimal upfront costs.

Adding a cut bc this gets image heavy.

[image ID: four clear plastic jars with yellow screw-on lids. In front of them are several packets of Kool-Aid.]

Here are my supplies: packets of Kool Aid in Mixed Berry, Grape, and Sharkleberry Finn. What's a sharkleberry? Do not ask, friend. Do not ask.

The jars in the background are breast milk containers because they have volume markings and I have a lot laying around. Measuring cups and old jars or Tupperware would work just as well.

[image ID: four jars of brightly colored liquids, with the torn-off tops of Kool-Aid packets to identify the colors. Mixed Berry is dark blue, Grape is almost black, and Sharkleberry Fin is a salmon pink.]

Here's what my "stock solutions" look like, dissolved in four oz of tap water. The color you get is based on the ratio of powder to fiber, and I'm aiming for 1 packet per ounce of wool. Dissolving it like this just lets me mix colors without going off that ratio or messing around with partial packets.

[image ID: on a stovetop, two hanks of white yarn each sit in a clear Pyrex bowl of water. Next to each bowl is a clear plastic jar with some amount of Kool-Aid mix in it. The jar on the left is very dark blue; the jar on the right is muted purple.)

(Please ignore my gross stove.)

While i was mixing the kool aid, my fiber was soaking to get it really, really wet, which helps to get an even color. The jars next to each bowl are my mixed colors - 1:1 blue to purple on the left, and 1:3 blue to pink on the right. I've got another bowl that's going to be just blue.

[image ID:three Pyrex bowls of yarn and dye arranged on a stove top. Two of the bowls are full of blue dye and one is full of purple dye.]

Here is what the bowls of dye look like when it's first added. I'm using microwave safe containers (pyrex) because besides the acid, this method also requires heat - courtesy of my microwave, which is not pictured because it's even grosser than the stove. I take turns zapping each bowl for two minutes at a time, checking in between to see whether the dye has exhausted.

[image ID: purple yarn in a Pyrex bowl full of water. The water is slightly milky but contains no trace of purple.]

This is what I mean by "exhausted". All the color has been absorbed by the yarn, and the water that was purple now looks milky/clear. If you use too much dye (=too many packets of Kool Aid at once) the bath will never exhaust. The blues took longer than the purple to exhaust, but they all were done after about 5-7 microwave rides.

[image ID: a Pyrex bowl of blue yarn sitting in water. The water is still faintly blue, but far less so than it started out.]

Here's the almost exhausted blue mix. Notice how the cotton twine I used to tie up my hanks is still white? I let this one cool with a bit of color still in the water just because I didn't want to boil it (that gets you felt).

[image ID: three hanks of yarn arranged in a metal colander. The one on the right appears vivid turquoise; the one on the left is a more muted teal; the one in the middle is a dull pinkish purple.]

Once they cooled, I transferred the yarns to a colander to rinse out any kool-aid residue and drip dry. At this point, my kitchen smelled like hot kool-aid, or possibly hair-flavored Twizzlers.

[image ID: three hanks of yarn hanging from hooks on a towel rack. They are turquoise, teal, and purple from left to right.]

Here's what the dried hanks look like hanging up in my bathroom. The one in the middle was the blue-purple mix, while the one on the left was a whole packet of blue on .7 ounces of yarn, so slight more saturated. The purple doesn't photograph well, especially next to the other two, but it’s a muted violet-gray shade.

So that's kool aid dying! You can use this to dye white yarn or fabric, or to overdye other colors. This page from the Wayback Machine gives a lot of good tips on how to combine colors, though some of the flavors are out of date. (No sharkleberry, for instance.)

[the-cookie-of-doom]

@tinylionsed doing this in a post bc it’s WAY easier 

The absolute BAREST essentials to make a book: 

Needle & Thread (Embroidery floss works great, you should technically wax it, that makes it last longer/prevents degradation, but you don’t have to.) 

Awl for hole punching. (Could probably be improvised, but you may as well spend the like. $5 to buy a real one.)

Davey boards: This is for your cover. You can get a big ass set of them online for pretty cheap. You want at LEAST 9x6 inches. That’s about the size of a standard cover. I got mine bigger than that, but not big enough to cut one board in half for two covers, so I end up wasting a bunch of board. (I save the cuttings for spine pieces and jigs later. Keep your scraps.) 

Book Cloth: $5 for a sheet on Hollanders.com, comes in a ton of colors, and if you do half/quarter bindings (yours were quarter bindings), one sheet will last you a long time. Comes in a million colors. 

Cover paper: This gets pricey-er. On Hollanders, it costs the same as cover paper. You can also get it on etsy, (which is where I found yours), which is where it starts to cost $$$. “Lokta” is the magic word. It’s a specific kind of paper that holds up really well, and is beautiful. You can also just use card stock/decorative paper from your local craft stores. All up to you. (You can also save the craps from this for various projects. I’m going to make a scrap cover once I have enough pieces, and they make for fun accents in partial bindings.) 

Glue: I bought the smallest bottle of Mod Podge at walmart, which is like 4? oz? And I got several books out of it. You can also make your own paste with 1 part flour and about 4 parts water (hmu for details), which is Ye Olden Method, and works pretty good. I like to use the mod podge for the spine, and then then paste for gluing on the cover paper. It goes farther, and it pastes the paper down really well. (Unless you use cardstock, in which case you’ll need to line the edges with glue to really stick them down. Cardstock is stubborn.) 

Nice to have but not really necessary

Bone Folder: Most of my life I literally used the clipy part of a mechanical pencil. You could use a ruler or some type of card. You could use your nail. It doesn’t matter. You just need a straight edge of some kind to get crisp folds.

Mull: This is a... good idea... strongly recommended... but you could probably get away with not using it. I didn’t use it on Ten Lashes, but I did on Cursed, because that was a heftier book. It’s there to reinforce the spine, so smaller books don’t need it, but thicker books do. It’s the cheese-cloth looking paper, also pretty cheap. 

Book Tapes: Like mull, it depends on the size of the book. Again, Ten Lashes didn’t have it, Cursed did. It reinforces the spine, and thick books absolutely do need it. I would say once your book gets to about 1″ thick, that’s when you should use them. 

Headbands: These are the black strips at the top and bottom of Cursed. They also serve to reinforce the spine, when you actually make them yourself, which is a whole complicated process. You can also buy them as little tab to put on the ends of the book, which is what I did, and it makes the spine took nice and tidy/cleans up the edges. Preeetty much superfluous and there to look nice, you absolutely don’t have to buy them. 

I’m pretty sure that’s it for supplies! All in all, it’s sort of a large upfront investment, but the supplies carry over. The only thing you’ll be re-purchasing are the book cloths/papers, really, if you order to project like I do. 

I don’t want to be crass and literally outline the costs of your gift, but if you’re interested in average costs I could?? 

But like as an example, the cover paper cost me about $5 + shipping, and I was able to make your 2 books out of it, with enough left for 2 more. The book cloth will vary more because the amount you use depends on how thick your book is: Ten Lashes used about an inch less then Cursed, I think, but all in all I was using about 4″ wide strips, and I have plenty left over. So as long as you start off with supplies you know you’ll reuse (such as neutral black spines, with more decorative covers), you can stretch the costs. 

Also a note on the thread, bc it was my first mistake: Buy white/a light off-white cream. Trust me. You want it to blend with the paper in the beginning. and do NOT get pre-waxed, bc they always over-wax the hell out of it. You’d do better to get your own (linen) thread or floss, and wax it yourself. But get a light color. It looks the best, unless you want to do a contrast color. (Ex. I’m probably going to use a wine shade for my next book. I sadly didn’t have a good shade that would’ve matched the covers for yours T_T) 

[notfeelingthyaster]

Imagine (based on the incomplete fanfic Son of the Underworld) (Son of Hades! Percy AU) (5/5) or (5/10)

Hey so, this is the last part of PJO - I follow into HOO, so before you read this, check on the masterpost - and read the warnings before proceeding :)) Good reading!

Annabeth comes to him, at the end of his fifteenth birthday party, and shows her Daedalus laptop. There's a document open in it, and it's labeled Achilles' Curse.

Percy doesn't read it - he hates reading, in any way or form or language - but she does, out loud.

"I'll think about it"

They have a year. Most of them, even those who aren't year-rounders, are going back to camp, to draw battle plans and stock on the armory.

He feels kinda selfish - for a whole five seconds before he remembers he'll probably die next summer, so he just shrugs it off - Percy deserves this year.

They all leave to go back to camp. Nico seems conflicted over something - but Perseus doesn't question it, there's enough bad blood between them.

Paola is really cool - and Sally really loves her. It's kind of bizarre at first, to see his Mom dating his teacher - and of a subject he hates - but Paola is calm and well-tempered and she laughs at his stupid ass jokes.

He visits Persephone afterward - and it really feels like he has three moms to fulfill his lack of a father - well, he is absolutely grateful for the women in his life.

Percy isn't truly in good terms with his father. The man doesn't really seem to care much for him as a person - he is much more of a trophy son.

Perseus loathes being a trophy son, but at least he has someone to help with his powers - not something a lot of half-bloods can claim.

So he goes back to school with Rachel, and they pretend everything is normal. He tells her about his quests - all three of them. He thinks she understands him better now.

He opens up to her. Tells her about Annabeth - the adrenaline-fueled kiss - and Rachel stops talking with him for a week.

She apologizes when she comes back. She needed to figure some things up - firstly, the redhead tells him she is probably asexual - and maybe aromantic too, but she is not certain because the internet wasn't really clear about that.

Then Rachel confesses that she is not jealous of him in a romantic way - she is envious of his friendship with Annabeth. Percy is her first genuine friend that really appreciates her.

This is the first grudge Perseus lets go for real before it even takes place - Rachel didn't leave him because of teenage drama, she ignored him out of confusion. Everyone is allowed space - he knows this better than anyone.

They don't kiss anymore. Not because Rachel doesn't like it - no, she is all for it - but because Percy is starting to think kisses should mean something - he is saving them.

They kiss once - when Rachel father calls for the first time this year - not to ask about her, but to tell Rachel he found this amazing all-girls school. To Percy, kisses mean comfort.

They cuddle a lot, though. These past few years of fear have made Percy very touch-starved.

It's sophomore year - and Percy is in five AP classes: Macroeconomics&Microeconomics, Statistics, Calculus AB, Physics 1, and Comparative Government and Politics.

He is planning on taking both AP Computer Science classes, Psychology, Physics 2, and Calculus BC next year; leaving only Electricity&Magnetism, Mechanics, Chemistry, and World History for his senior year.

If he lives, he is working on a tight schedule here. He doesn't know what he wants yet - and if he is in constant danger, it's already pretty lucky he can do high school - but probably something with Math.

Rachel says fourteen AP courses are ambitious - that he'll burn out. But math comes to him easily enough - it's in his blood.

She is also overworking: She is taking AP Environmental Studies, Art History, Drawing, 2-D Art and Design, and English Literature and Composition.

They complete each other. Rachel is planning on taking as many Art, History, and English courses as she can - he is taking as many Physics, Math, and Science as he can handle.

(She is also going to take on Japanese studies for some reason - probably for her GPA, but Perseus just teases her that she is getting too invested in anime)

Perseus doesn't care about languages anymore - the only languages that matter to him are C++ and JavaScript now.

They study together, they take naps together, they climb to the roof together, they flee school to visit Sally together - he is the Pinky to her Brain, the Scooby to her Shaggy, the Lois Lane to her Superman, the Robin to her Batman.

They look like troublemakers - They are honor roll students, but she is always with ripped pants dirty with paint, and he is always full of flowers everywhere, even in his muddy converses - a cliche to kill all cliches.

They're both nerds - he is the classic one, all polo shirts now, the first chair for every number-related class - and she is the artsy one - there's a brush behind her ear and her hair is so messy that half the time it covers her face.

Paola gifts him a pair of cheap frames without lenses once - saying it adds to the aesthetic - he totally uses them.

Persephone just makes him flower-crowns, and giggles when he matches them with his polo shirts.

When winter comes, he goes back to his hoodies and sweaters and gloves - to find out he doesn't miss them a lot.

Rachel introduces him to polaroids - and they look eerily pretty in the winter, her hair looking like blood spilling over the snow - and he loves it.

If he survives - he can feel Rachel slapping him - when he survives, his college credits will be remarkable. The idea of doing SATs makes him want to cry - reading always does - but he'll get somewhere good - he knows it. Perhaps Stanford. Or NYU. Or the dream of his life, MIT.

He is living his life to the fullest - he starts reading comic books, he gets really (really) into Tony Stark once Iron Man 1 comes out (even if he has to kill at least three monsters just to go to the movies), he plants trees and Rachel starts teaching him how to play her ukulele - but half his mind is still on the upcoming war.

Christmas vacation comes - and he goes to visit Camp Half-Blood, before heading back to his mom. It's quite memorable, if only by the fact that Nico Di Angelo freaking betrays him.

He tells Percy to come to the Winter Solstice with him. Most of the campers are not going - the war effort is in an all-time high - but Percy has never gone before. Hades will be there - it'll be great!

Perseus should absolutely be less surprised with the outcome - seeing that Nico is inviting him in Cabin 1, post-dinner, and they don't even stop to talk to Chiron about it.

But Percy goes. Because Percy wants to make amends.

There's no time to really talk to anyone. They travel in Blackjack for the Empire State Building - and it's fine.

They go up to Olympus, Nico shows him everything in the god's land, the temples are a work of art, if not kind of old, and the meeting is kind of okay, even if the gods are squabbling children.

Then the gods leave, and Perseus thinks they're leaving too.

"My father needs a word with you"

Perseus feels the betrayal claw on him. There are no shadows in the white hall, there's no way for him to escape. Nico looks apologetic - Percy wants to clock him in the face.

"He promised to tell me more about my mother" Nico pleads "He will tell me more about where I've come from. Please, Percy."

Nico is cute. He is, for a soon-to-be fourteen-year-old. But his pretty face and exquisite white eyes don't make him any less of a freaking liar. All his handsome male straight friends betray him - it's a worrying pattern now.

He muses for a second that they also all have a crush on Annabeth - gods, the blonde attract the worst types.

It's double-crossing - Percy ends up in an all-white cell that burns his retinas without any weapons because Zeus wants praise in the middle of this freaking war - doesn't matter if a hundred demigods die, if he only has the glory.

Nico ends up with barely any information - Zeus didn't promise anything. The god of the skies is a lying-ass motherfucker - literally.

And Zeus justifies it - He says Perseus is a criminal because he awakened Typhon. So Hephaestus issues a quest so he can save a hundred demigods, he destroys a powerful titan weapon of doom, and he is the villain? Sure, Jan.

Perseus writes this grudge in his heart - that's where trust will take you. To a cell. Betrayed by a "friend". Again.

He flinches when Nico comes into his cell, pins him to the wall and promptly begins to try and strangle him. He wants to melt in the boy's shadow - to go and never give him a chance to explain - but he looks so guilty Percy waits for his repentance.

The son of Zeus saves him, but Perseus is still pissed off. The god of thunder has threatened to kill him off at least two times now, what is to say he wouldn't have killed off Percy for the sake of glory?

He half hopes Zeus had killed him off. The war is close, too close - Nico wouldn't be the Prophecy's child. There would be no child. Olympus would fall - and Percy would have seen it all from his very comfortable couch in Elysium.

He wants Kronos gone - but he kind of wants Olympus to fall with the Titan.

Nico flies him down to the Earth - the elevator is monitored. Zeus has left, like many others - not to bother with the war effort against his main enemy, but to go to the human world mess with people.

Some gods are doing something - He has heard from Annabeth that Artemis is leading the widest hunt ever, with her brother by her side; Hermes (with Hephaestus help) is delivering Celestial Bronze, other metals, old schematics and a whole lot of fuel to Camp Half-Blood every few weeks; Poseidon is fighting his own war, in the ocean; Dionysus is at Camp - and this time, he is really helpful with the battle formations; Demeter is on the Underworld - Chiron seems to think his father is preparing for war, but Percy sorely doubts it.

Percy is taking some people with him to Sally's Christmas dinner. Just Annabeth, Clarisse, Rachel, Connor, Travis, and Charles - people who don't have a present family to celebrate it with.

Grover is coordinating the dryads up in San Francisco with his second cousin, Gleeson Hedge - they are the first to fall if anything goes wrong in Mt. Othrys.

"I think you should stay." He tells Nico.

"You don't trust me anymore." It's not actually a question.

Percy doesn't trust the boy. Not at all - it's the third time he does something shady to achieve his ends based on emotional turmoil. But he is a good person - it's just his father's cursed temper and his grief.

"It's not that. You're needed for the war effort."

Both of them know it's a lie. Percy doesn't care - he deserves to be bitter a little longer.

Percy goes back home. Christmas is amazing - even if Rachel asks him where Nico is because he is talking about making amends with the boy for a while now.

He goes visit Persephone - but she is occupied, so he wanders through the Underworld after Bianca di Angelo - someone he, for some reason, never been able to reach. It's a pointless endeavor by now.

He finds her. Or else, he finds a shadow of her - she is blocked from his view. Bianca doesn't talk to him - they weren't close - but she guides him to a girl.

Her name is Hazel Levesque.

She seems lost - like most ghosts - but something in Percy calls for her. It's the color of her skin and the sparkle in her golden eyes - Hazel remembers him of himself.

He promises to visit more - even though he doesn't think she'll remember it - and leaves to go back to the surface - he will finish the sophomore year.

And Percy does. After a very distressing break, he is doing his best. His grades drop a little in English because he can barely focus - half his mind is on the war and Nico's betrayal and Hazel Levesque's golden eyes.

Miraculously, his GPA doesn't fall - he still is taking a ridiculous amount of AP classes, and barely has time to breathe - dark circles grow under his eyes, and he looks like a mess - but now he is a Junior.

That's why, as soon as the year ends, Rachel takes him on a road trip with Connor. They go all the way to Boston, then Portland, Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Syracuse, Baltimore, and Filadelfia, before going back to NY.

They are stopped five times by the police - because Percy is black, and it's Rachel driving the Camaro, because she has a learner's permit and Connor is, somehow, an approved license holder.

They are on a pier, enjoying the view of the beach. They did the last week alone because Connor wanted to go check on one of his cousins - at least, that's what he said, with an over-exaggerated wink that both Percy and Rachel ignored for the sake of their sanity.

She tells him about Clarion Ladies Academy - but that her father is at least mildly happy with her GPA this year, even if he disapproves of her Art focused AP classes. Percy thinks Mr. Dare would love him, with his APs on Economics and Politics, if only he was rich. And white.

This time, when Charles Beckendorf arrives in a Pegasus to tell him it's time, Rachel doesn't kiss him - she justs hugs him and makes him promise to call her.

Perseus doesn't go to the Andromeda Ship - he is needed in Camp. He is useless on the water - but they do need him to improve battle strategy.

Charles Beckendorf is dead. Thalia is the one to tell them - she was in her father's palace helping with a monster under her Lady's orders - he went on the mission alone.

Percy talks briefly with Beckendorf's ghost - is his worst developed power, and he can barely hold the "seance" for more than a few minutes. He does it with only Nico di Angelo for witness - the others are the way to close to the situation.

There's a spy passing information to Luke.

They look at him. Doesn't matter how much he does, he is always the first suspect - he is a son of Hades. He was friends with a lot of people on the other side. He was gone for a year and a half, who knows where.

Perseus wants to say that he has helped to save their asses four times now - that without him in the Labyrinth, they would all be dead right now - and that Charles was basically his older brother.

Then he points out he wasn't even here - he had no idea of any plans of anything - and he told him about the spy, so he is not the freaking spy, go point fingers at each other instead of him.

When they start yelling, he stops them - this is not the time, he was just angry at their accusations. They have to burn Charles shroud. Silena is inconsolable - Percy is not very far from it, but he is not a public crier. The last time he cried in public, Luke was dead on a cliff.

Percy speeds up the line for Elysium to Beckendorf - his brother deserves it.

They read the prophecy together - Perseus already read it last summer, he doesn't even care anymore. They look at him anxiously - no one has forgotten that he abhors most of the gods.

Clarisse and Michael Yew fight, but Lee Fletcher - with a mechanical arm built by Beckendorf himself, still re-learning how to shoot arrows and forever incapable of playing the guitar again (but the keyboard is not ruled out yet) - stops them: They can share the chariot. The war is more important - is not the time for petty fights.

Chiron shows them Typhon - and Perseus has a sliver of hope that they can destroy Kronos and be free of the gods at the same time - It's a horrible hope, because he loves Persephone and some of them are even okay sometimes, but he really wants Zeus to go to Tartarus for at least a century, so Perseus doesn't meet him again in this life.

But he also wants the gods to win, because there's a lot of dead people - innocents, people who have nothing to do with this war.

He dreams of Rachel. Rachel is painting Luke - and Percy wakes up crying, for the boy the gods took away.

Annabeth takes him aside and reminds him of Achilles' Curse. He is off to May Castellan's house - the last place Luke has been - for it's his best and only chance, its what Annie thinks. And she is scarcely wrong.

Perseus hates the gods. They wrecked a family - and for what? May Castellan - forever waiting for a son that will never come back, haunted by visions of his future, plates of burned cookies everywhere.

Perseus doesn't pity her - he rages against the gods, who brought madness upon this woman and then left her to it. Where was Apollo, the god of health? Dionysus, who is supposed to control mental health? Artemis, whose job is to protect women?

Hestia is kind - but she is still a goddess. She could've prevented this - but she hides in her hearth and abstains - and that's enabling. Hestia enables the other gods to do as they please, even when she is the oldest. She says they ignore her - oh well, she ignores them right back! He has no time for the laments of another all-powerful being.

So he goes to his mother and asks for her blessing. Then, just to be sure, he asks Persephone's too.

He thinks about his anchor - where does he want it to be in his body. He doesn't want somewhere in his back - where he can't see it - or in his gut - where anyone can stick a sword. He settles for the bottom of his back - where he can at least touch it and it's well protected by armor - and dives.

Perseus hates water - and he has an uncanny fear of drowning. He feels pain - everywhere, horrible pain.

His vision now doesn't have Annabeth's face - the blonde is his link to the demigod world, Persephone is his link to the Underworld and his mom is his link to childhood - but the person who grounds him is Rachel.

He is stronger. He feel his powers at his fingertips - Perseus feels the Underworld as a whole, and it's overwhelming.

Green flames explode from his hands. Flowers made of shadows curve around his ankles - he has been training since he was 12, but now his body can sustain all of his power. This is all his.

He goes meet with his father - Perseus manipulates him. He tells Hades he'll be the hero, but the god himself can be praised for more than being his father. That he should join the battle against Typhon - That's his chance of proving himself. Also, there's less paperwork for him if there are fewer dead people.

His father is amused with his blatant bribing, but he thinks about it, Percy can tell. In a way or another, he excuses himself and goes back to the surface where he is needed.

Persephone stalls him. She asks him to stay, just for this night. He can go back in the morning - he sleeps, and dreams of Rachel again, drawing in the sand. In greek.

He is scared for her - she is having demigod dreams, but she is mortal. Something is wrong.

Typhon is getting worse - and Kronos draws closer to NYC. It's time - he calls for Blackjack and leaves - Mrs. O'Leary, who has become more or less of a mother to his own hellhound, follows. Persephone promises to convince Hades.

They have about sixty campers able to fight heading for the Empire State Building, and five healers. The ones too young to lift a sword or string a bow stayed back at Camp with Argus - fifteen children between 5 and 9 years old.

Percy knows he looks different - he looks just like his father. He has gained a godly aura - he has no scars anymore, no imperfections. Perseus looms over all of them - he went from 5'7'' to 6'2'' - it's a weird view, from up there. It's still strange when they look at him with a mix of fear and admiration.

Perseus Jackson is officially their leader. He hates Olympus - but he will give his life to defend every single one of his demigods.

The vision Hestia shows him just makes him want to tear this throne room with his bare hands - Luke was a kid. He was a kid - and the gods corrupted him. Thalia was a kid - and the gods took her life, twice. Annabeth is still a kid - they all are - and she is here planning battle strategies.

Annabeth missed an extra year of formal education - while Percy is a Junior, Annabeth barely qualifies for a Freshman - because the gods took this from her too.

Percy rages. The ground of Olympus trembles beneath him - he wants to kill something.

Then Hermes appears - like this whole war is not his fault in the first place, the literal bastard - just to relay a message from Athena that gives them a plan that Annabeth was already putting into works and tells Percy to stay away from Annabeth.

Like she cares. Like Athena has ever, ever, done anything for Annabeth.

Perseus can't punch Athena, so he punches the messager (also, because he freaking guilt trips both of them about Luke). He has nothing to lose - he is going to die by the end of the day anyway, and they need him too much.

He has punched a god before - Ares, in a desert in the middle of Los Angeles - but this time, it's satisfactory. He feels good after it.

Hermes seems strangely resigned - He feels guilty about Luke too, but Perseus doesn't think it's enough. It'll never be enough, not while the gods leave their children to rot in a cabin of rejects and May Castellan bakes cookies for a son that will never come back.

Hermes leaves, ashamed. It's only fair, Perseus thinks. They all should be ashamed.

They see the city asleep - the prophecy is in the works.

Perseus executes their strategy - every cabin is covering a tunnel, with the exception of Dionysus, because Pollux is with the Demeter kids, and the Hecate kids stay behind to use spells to overlook the city. Lincoln Tunnel is getting covered by Ares - who, this time around, is actively participating.

The undetermined who didn't desert are with Hermes - and the minor god's children are divided by specialty - most Hypnos and Morpheus children follow him directly, but the two sons of Iris go with the Apollo Cabin.

Annabeth executes Plan 23, automatons, mounting on Mrs. O'Leary (who has strict orders to take Annabeth anywhere she wants without stopping to play around) - she doesn't need his help with this, and Percy has a tunnel to defend.

That left the rivers uncovered - until Thalia appears, with magical sand money, and made the rivers cooperate.

The hunters join the Aphrodite kids - who are half a dozen children between 11 and 19 - the oldest being Silena Beauregard, who uses a crossbow that looks exactly like her immortal half-brother's one.

His bridge is completely covered on skeletons - but no monster comes, even if he hears explosions. He leaves an English Lieutenant from the Battle of Yorktown in command of the bridge - with Tyene, the oldest daughter of Morpheus, to be in alert and don't let Clovis sleep through the battle. Because he did it before - and while it is funny, it can't happen right now.

Perseus mounts Blackjack - and go see where the noise is coming from. It's the Williamsburg Bridge - where are most of Apollo's Cabin.

They fight - and Percy almost cries when he sees Luke, who is not Luke anymore. Luke, who is a puppet controlled by Kronos.

Perseus kills the Minotaur and the weight of his stone spikes collapse the bridge - and Michael Yew dies. This time around, the bridge falls silently into shadows, and he doesn't bother about searching for the corpse - he saw the boy falling, and his screams will haunt all of them, forever.

This time around, Annabeth is not there to protect him - Ethan also doesn't try to kill him. The Son of Nemesis doesn't leave Kronos side for a second - but there's regret in his eyes.

After the bloodlust is gone, Perseus collapses - Will has to bride carry him back. Overuse of his powers - he summoned skeletons and produced shadows, melted enemy swords (with the bonus of incapacitating them without killing), and sprouted stone spikes everywhere - there's even a vine or ten that he used to hold his friends from falling.

Perseus doesn't sleep quickly enough to not hear the yell of anguish that comes from Lee Fletcher - the pain of losing a brother and not being able to fight beside him.

But he does sleep - and he dreams. He dreams of Hades killing Maria Di Angelo, not Hera, like Zeus told Nico. He dreams of Zeus cursing the Oracle - and he seethes, because he also sees what happened to May Castellan.

He keeps getting angrier and angrier at the gods - it's building inside of him. But his friends are still here, still fragile. He can't let them suffer more.

Perseus wakes up, checks on everyone - most everyone is either injured and/or exhausted, but he checks on every camper. He knows all of their names, their ages, their cabins. - and promises to sit up to talk with Thalia and Nico - war makes him prone to peace - and promptly goes back to sleep.

He dreams of Rachel. He wants to scream for her not to come: but she'll anyway.

Perseus dreams of a boy. He is his age - maybe a little younger. His hair is blonde and his skin is whiter - but Percy glances at his eyes, and there are waves in them.

There's a girl by his side - she is familiar to Percy, somehow. They're climbing a mountain.

The dream ends and Percy can't make heads or tails of it. He asks Thalia if she has a brother, but she says that she doesn't, looking wistful.

Prometheus is tempting - but he knows there's no Luke anymore, there's only Kronos. And the gods are horrible, vile and immature - but they never killed any of Percy's friends. Some of them died for the gods - but never by their hands, so for now, Perseus would toe the line.

He does want to punch Hermes again. He takes the Pythos - if everything goes wrong, he will not hesitate in going down for the sake of his friends - but there have been six deaths, and it's enough.

"Was it worth it?" He asks Ethan.

"Alabaster is alive" And it's all the answer Percy needs.

He dreams of Ethan and Alabaster. Alabaster is alive, yes, but he is missing half a leg - courtesy of Clarisse herself. Luke - Kronos - is indifferent, and Ethan curses the daughter of Ares - "The sword that took from us will take from you"

He contains Hyperion with his shadows. Then he helps Grover (who was half asleep, because of Morpheus) to make the Titan into a tree. It's a pomegranate tree - then he sets hellish fire to it and sacrifices it to Hades and Persephone.

A pig is in the sky - this time around, Annabeth and her frightening army of automatons kill it with Nico's help.

Perseus laughs - because Annabeth has about two hundred automatons under her command, Martin Luther King and Alexander Hamilton leading the charge with a giant bull being ridden by the Mad Hatter behind them.

It's weird to see historic figures Percy admires - like Jane Bolin, Sylvia Mendez, or Abraham Lincoln - fighting alongside people he downright despises - Thomas Jefferson and the goatfucker, herpes-ridden, Colombus. His Comparative Government teacher would have a field day.

Annabeth and Nico's pair up is amazing - They fight alongside like they have been doing it all life.

Nico is a force of nature, flying and commanding the winds to do his bidding - His eyes shine in the midst of the stormy clouds. His specialty is weather manipulation - he hasn't had much success with direct energy or electric discharges.

Annabeth has her mother's tenacity for war - and her clever mind for strategies. It's clear in her eyes - she is racking the weaker points of the Clazmonian Sow in her mind and destroying it. The automatons hold the pig in place - and she makes bacon of it.

Hercules couldn't do it. Nico and Annabeth can, because they have the power and the mind.

Perseus is still fighting off monsters - but they're too widespread, so they retreat to the doors of the Empire State Building.

Percy does a mental tally: of sixty-two campers, six are confirmed dead, twenty are injured and nine are out of commission on exhaustion. There should be 27 orange shirts here - but there's only twenty.

Percy wonders if the seven missing are injured, or dead, or under a pile of rubble somewhere with no one to help them. Is there someone being slowly eaten by monsters? Is there someone alone and injured and abandoned? He doesn't know.

He prays that those seven deserted them - at least that means they probably are alive and well.

Perseus looks at Phoebe's grief-stricken face, and he knows it's not probable - she had almost three dozen hunters with her, and now there's barely fifteen still fighting, Thalia nowhere to be seen.

They prepare for their last standing - Percy keeps conjuring skeletons, but they're no match for the sheer strength of the hyperborean giants. Nico is shoulder to shoulder with the Stoll brothers against a group of telkhines - Clarisse is bringing down a whole giant by herself.

After the Party Ponies save them - Chiron leads the charge against his own father, and Perseus is so proud of his mentor he can't even put in words how much - he goes to sleep. Fighting gets him tired quickly, and they'll come back.

He dreams of Dionysus. Perseus is not fond of any god who is not Persephone, but Dionysus is mostly okay sometimes. He seems to care about his children.

Perseus couldn't care less about the Western Civilization - but he'll care for Pollux. It's one of his demigods, after all, and Underworld people are possessive of theirs (i.e. Hades and Persephone).

He dreams of Thalia, in her father's palace, begging Poseidon to leave the underwater war and help with the invasion - His wife is none too happy with the presence of his immortal bastard daughter.

He wakes up to Rachel's helicopter falling - how is Rachel even awake, is a mistery.

The improbable pair Nico and Annabeth strike again: The girl knows how to fly helicopters, and the boy can fly himself. They save the redhead and the pilot - everything is fine.

"You're not the hero"

"Why did you risk yourself to tell me something I already know?"

Rachel doesn't explain - she can't. But she has a vision that says that he is not the hero. The hero of what? Perseus has no idea. But there's no way any of his cousins is dying for this stupid prophecy.

Suddenly, there's a drakon there. Rachel has another prophecy - Perseus fears she will walk the path that led May Castellan to destruction - that only a child of Ares will be able to kill it.

Bad news: All children of Ares are otherwise out of battle.

Clarisse is resting after a nasty concussion - and her brothers and Apollo's children are fighting yet again because Lee Fletcher is in no condition to stop them and Michael Yew is dead. Ares' side refuses to fight without the chariot - which Cabin 7 has hidden somewhere.

The best they can do is fend the drakon off until a miracle occurs. And it does: Clarisse, in full armor, manages to lead her brothers into battle.

Clarisse is dead. Something shatters inside of Perseus - and he leaves the drakon for the Ares' children to solve - he can't kill it anyway - and starts to vaporize the army behind it.

He is so caught up in bloodlust, that he almost misses Clarisse slaying a dragon. Clarisse, who has no armor. Clarisse, who is alive.

Ethan's curse rang true - Clarisse's weapon took something from her.

Silena is a traitor. She is also dead - which makes her a martyr, and probably going to reunite with her boyfriend in Elysium.

He remembers how easy is to fall for Luke's charm - he was - is - still in love with the guy. Percy thought the son of Hermes could do no wrong - and he wonders how much of his rage against the gods sprout from his influence.

Something evil inside of Perseus's mind tells him she deserved it. It tells Perseus that better her than Clarisse - but he shuts it down, and concentrates on his shining red friends.

He hates Ares. But he might just have an okay side if he can produce such a magnificent daughter.

Silena is the Patroclus to Clarisse's Achilles, and the Drakon is Hector - and the daughter of Ares is sure to parade its dead body.

It's the first time they feel like they are winning. It doesn't last - but as he hugs Clarisse tightly, he thinks he might cry of relief.

Clarisse looks tough - but she is a wonderful human being. She loves Silena with her whole heart - even more than she loves Chris, her best friend. Silena might've been in love with Charles - but she and Clarisse? They are soulmates.

The damned Pythos is following Perseus - and he is done with it. He knows where hope will survive best. Rachel wants him to give it to Hestia - but he owns the fire goddess nothing.

She has never interfered, not once, to help the dozens of demigods with no family that is abandoned in Cabin 11, and he won't forgive her for it.

He sacrifices hope to Persephone because that's what spring is. Spring is the hope of a new life. Maybe, Perseus thinks, it'll convince his father to come.

They go down to make their final stand against the forces of Kronos. There's not a lot of them - but they're not getting through those doors.

Well, his father doesn't come. But Poseidon does, with his whole army, Tyson and Thalia behind him, and the scales seem to turn.

And then Kronos cuts the barrier. Perseus can see his Mom (why is his Mom here with a handgun?!) and Poseidon fighting against the monsters under the eyes of extremely confused mortals.

Some are trying to break the barrier - but it's futile. Kronos has corraled them like sheep for the slaughter.

It's just him, Grover, Annabeth and Nico, fighting against Kronos vanguard - which is big, but not as strong as they are.

Kronos passes him without resistance - Ethan follows, but there's anger in his eyes - not for Percy, but for the monster he is leashed to. Alabaster is not there.

As soon as Kronos powers stop working on them, the four follow the titan - and some things never change, no matter the universe.

This time, it's Nico who falls because of Hera - it's her curse over all of her husband's bastards.

Ethan takes one look at Perseus, and they don't even need to fight. They have been friends for longer than they have been enemies - and they both loathe the gods, but Kronos is as much of an all-powerful controller being as any of the Olympians.

They battle against Kronos - Perseus has only his ax against his scyther - a true Underworld fight.

Ethan dies. And Perseus bloodlust consumes him - it clouds his eyes and he can only keep fighting.

"If... if we've had cabins... and they had thrones"

It's true, and more than ever, Perseus wishes Kronos wasn't such a bastard. He wouldn't bother killing the gods - but the titan is a way worse option.

"LUKE, PLEASE" It's Annabeth. He doesn't have her faith - she didn't saw his transformation. But he tries anyway because he loves Luke just as much as he hates Kronos.

"Luke, remember our summer" But his words are caught up in his throat when the titan throws him against the wall.

But the amalgamation of his friend and an all-powerful being looks confused, so props for his genius best friend.

Kronos shows them a rainbow message of Typhon - and that's where Perseus it's pretty sure he starts liking his father.

Because the Lord of the Dead opens up the earth and gets out in a black chariot guided by skeletal horses like a king. By his right side, is Persephone, in armor battle as a queen should be. By his left, is Demeter, who looks every single bit like the matron she is supposed to be.

Behind him, a hundred thousand dead roars. Charon is mounting Cerberus - and literal hell is unleashed upon the Father of Monsters.

The gods strike down Typhon, sending him back to be locked away - this time, in the depths of Tartarus instead of Mount Etna.

Kronos gets mad. Utterly, undoubtedly mad. He talks about burning Luke's body. Then he hurts Annabeth and breaks two promises in one fell swoop.

"Luke.... remember family" It's what Annabeth utters, but Perseus, already certain of their own demise, is crying now.

"That summer Luke, you promised to never hurt her again. You remember it? YOU PROMISED LUKE!!"

Annabeth's promise was already broken - he had hurt her, all those years ago, in Mt. Othrys. But the promise he made to Percy - that he would never hurt her again - is new and broken, in the river Styx no less.

Luke regains his own body, for a minute, and Perseus runs to him like a man in a desert with no water.

"Please, please tell me there's a way to undo this, Luke, please, please"

"There isn't one, Percy" And it's the first time he hears Luke call him Percy, Percy and not Perseus, in his own voice, in two years. Percy cries.

"We... we don't have much time, hellebore. Give me Annabeth's dagger. Before he... before he takes back"

Luke calls him hellebore and it makes him start crying all over again. He gives him the dagger - and Luke kills himself, taking Kronos out with him.

Luke doesn't need to ask if Percy has ever loved him - Percy kept loving Luke, one-sided as it was, even when Kronos was there.

He still crying over Luke's body when the gods arrive. Luke is dead. Ethan is dead. Silena is dead. Michael Yew is dead. Charles is dead.

He lost three of his best friends in two days. Ethan is dead. Luke is dead. Luke is dead.

Perseus can't stop crying. They take Luke's body away - but he can't stop. Annabeth explains what happened to the gods - most of it, anyway. Apollo says he is in shock - his father says he is a hero.

Perseus doesn't feel like a hero. Was this all worth it? Was it worth it the pain and the death and the suffering?

Persephone touches him - and he has no tears to cry anymore. She can't hug him here, but she'll do so later.

He stares at the walls, listening to his friends being awarded - compensated by their siblings and friends' deaths - with a blank stare. Perseus wants his mom.

They call for him. He raised his head but doesn't bother getting up. He just saved their asses - for the fifth time in a roll. He deserves to grieve.

They offer him immortality. A place between the gods.

He laughs. Zeus looks murderous, but he can't stop laughing.

"My apologies, but I have to refuse," he says. But in his mind, he is thinking about how could they even think he might want to sit between them and be an all-powerful being, be another god ignoring his children and messing with mortal lives while thousands die for him.

"Promise me, on the river Styx, that you'll give me the wish that I want."

They promise him, that if it's within their capabilities, they shall grant him his wish.

"I wish for every child at the age of twelve to be claimed. I wish for cabins in Camp Half-Blood, for every single minor god, and my own father. I wish for Calypso to be free, and to the demigods from the opposite side of this war to be given amnesty. It's not their fault. It's not any of our faults."

"You dare to-" Zeus begins, but Percy is really tired of Zeus.

"We fought your war, we won your battles. We, the unclaimed and rejected stowaways of Cabin 11. We, the children of minor and Underworld gods. We deserve respect. Just like my father deserves a throne, just like the minor gods deserve justice."

"Don't you fear us?" Athena asks, something weird shining in her eyes.

"I thought I would be dead today. At least if I die now, I'm dying for something I believe in."

It stays unsaid that he doesn't believe in them. The other demigods look at him worried - but he is not afraid of the gods.

They grant his wish. Some of them aren't happy with it, but they have to do it. He meets Calypso at the front gates of Olympus - and her smile can brighten the pits of Tartarus. He sees Alabaster talking with Lou Ellen - they are both crying.

He thinks it's the end - it's not. Thalia tells him Rachel left for Camp in her Pegasus - and his father has lift the curse, the Prophecy is gone, but he fears for his best friend.

Perseus is too tired for shadow travel - he does it anyway. He flickers, but anyway, he is too late.

It works. Rachel - his best friend - is the new Oracle. Someone jokes they can't be together anymore and Rachel lifts an eyebrow.

"We never were. Didn't you see the last few hours?" Well, he did out himself. Mostly - they might say it's just friendship, and he will hate the way they twist it. Luke wasn't a villain, and Perseus isn't a pure hero with a heart of gold.

Perseus is healing from lost love - and Annabeth is too. His crush on her was only a crush, he thinks - She is his best friend first and foremost. They cry together at the bonfire that burns away the shrouds of 43 demigods - from both sides - and 16 hunters of Artemis. Their souls all rest in Elysium now.

Alabaster comes back to Camp and helps his siblings to build the new Cabin for Hecate, full of spelled blocks and magic chimneys. Clovis and Tyene have their hands full with their own cabins - it doesn't help they keep getting sidetracked with naps.

Somehow, Nico, Thalia, and his bond over helping construct Cabin 13 - They are both way too invested in the goth vibe, mostly because Cabin 1 looks like a temple, and Cabin 3 looks like a beach cabin. And both of them are so over it.

Perseus doesn't want a goth cabin - he is fighting against the aesthetic for years - but sometimes, there are no arguments. His Cabin is made of black marble, and there are skulls everywhere, with torches shining with green fire. Outside, at least. Inside, it looks like Persephone's garden, with input from the queen herself. It's ready just shy of the end of summer vacation.

Rachel tells the next Great Prophecy. Perseus isn't such a positive person to think it won't affect him - he hopes at least it'll wait until he is done with High School.

That night, he dreams of the blonde boy again - it's his first night without nightmares since the battle. He has a scar in his lip, and his green eyes pierce Percy's soul. Perseus wonders if they'll ever meet, wonders if this boy is one of the Seven of the Prophecy.

But alas, Perseus lets it go. The summer is over - he is sixteen, somehow. He is alive and going to go back to his mortal life and his junior year, and grief. Not everything is fine - but eventually, it will be.

It's not the end. Not yet.

[plush-anon]

You worked at joanns? 😍 dream job

In all fairness, a large part (and I do mean a LARGE part) of why I enjoyed working at Joanns were the managers.

The store manager was a guy named Richard, one of maybe two or three men who worked there total, and this man was practically a saint as far as retail goes.

This was a man who would, with no hesitation, get on the floor to help customers, or hop on the registers to check customers' purchases out, or pop on to the cutting counter to cut fabric. He remembered the names of regulars, would chat and smile while getting shit done, and was the type of guy to speak slowly and softly when we had shitstains explode at us measly peons for not giving them the full cost of an item back in a return (ex $200) when they used a coupon to purchase an item to begin with and only paid a portion of the cost (ex. $150). No joke, this actually happened to me on Black Friday with a man who stood at about 6 foot with a crewcut and a snarl (the military Karen, if you would)

Richard, of course, stood at about 6 foot 5 inches, and reminded me of a ginger grizzly bear in some ways. Very few customers continued to be assholes when they asked to speak to the manager and Richard came over, smiling wide. He encouraged us to chat with the customers while we worked the cutting counter - it was a good way to learn about what they were making, encouraged general conversation and lent itself to a better environment for everyone, worker and customer alike, so we weren't just awkwardly standing in silence the whole time.

The assistant store manager (aka his second in command - we had two other assistant managers, but she wielded more power than both of them) was Farrah, and she was basically Cool Wine Aunt, but with weed. She was open about smoking it (but not in a pressure-the-underlings kind of way, but more of a 'yeah, it calms me down' kind of way) but never on the clock, and was just really chill in general. She was also a 'jump on the registers' type of manager, and on occasion would take the closing staff out to get a drink from the texmex place next to us in the shopping center, and cover one for each of us - particularly during the Holiday Clusterfuck of October, November, and December (their Frozen Kahlua Mudlslide was my alcoholic drink of choice - they also had these spicy chicken strips that were amazing with it, but I digress).

Both of them were amazing people who would support and back us up without hesitation (if they weren't dealing with corporate or stock trucks coming in), and both routinely worked 15 to 20 hours UNPAID overtime during the Holiday Clusterfuck so that we the underlings could get more hours without Corporate jumping up our ass about going over budget.

They were also refreshingly upfront in our monthly meetings about profits and meeting them, as well as why company policy was the way it was, and how to work within the boundaries so we got more hours. One of my favorite moments was when they said the fabric sales essentially covered their own cost (production and delivery); the rest of the cheap crap in the store was what covered our paycheck and electricity, so hawk it as much as you can if you want extra in the bank (paraphrasing here, but that's not that far off what they actually said tbh).

With some Karen-y exceptions, the customers were honestly pretty chill. There were two women from a nearby church who bought well over 200 yards of cut fleece to make no-sew fleece blankets for children and the poor in December (it took forever to do, but they were so cheerful about it and told some funny anecdotes in between, kept the counter clear as soon as they were cut, etc. Took them three carts to haul everything to the register XD).

There was the slew of quilters making everything from baby blankets to anniversary gifts to quilts for their grandkids attending the local university that they could wear to football games in the colder weather, while still showing team pride. They always bought quarters and eighths and the end of the bolt for half price, digging thru our remnants bin for something they might have missed they could get for half price. They always talked about what they were working on, and spoke in great detail on their kids or cousins or niblings or grandkids. I saw so many pictures on phones, in wallets, and they loved them to absolute pieces.

There were cosplayers making their first costume to comicon, halloween goers trying their hand at making their own outfits, and a few furries making custom suits for order or just updating their own personal outfit. There were the usual school and church Christmas plays that needed costumes, and folks making custom table runners and place settings for family holiday meals.

One notable young man bought out 30+ yards of our 65" inch wide bolt felt for JEWELRY projects he was making as a part of his business and as a part of his art program (you can major in art with a concentration in jewelry making, and he was using it for that). He didn't leave a card, but the pictures he showed us were STUNNING.

We had a few elderly mothers come in with their daughters, to pick out fabrics so they could make their own wedding dresses, or quinceanera outfits, or veils; they showed us the patterns they had, or the pictures they were basing the designs off of, and all of them were STUNNING. (One came back in with the finished dress in the bag, this intricately beaded poofy dress that had to have taken days, hot pink and shiny).

We had local restaurant owners pop in for re-upholstery projects and curtains and vinyl; same with teachers and deck dads and furniture restoration workers that would gush about the design, what they had planned. Some would bicker with their spouses on the pattern, but it felt good-natured on the whole.

We had some elderly men come in to peer over our sewing machines - "How much it run for? My wife's birthday is coming up and her old machine's about done, and I want to surprise her. She had a Singer, but she hates the electronic screens on some of these newer ones, they hurt her eyes." - and moms coming in to sew some custom bed sheets for their kids - "My son really likes the new My Little Pony show, but he's a little shy about it. Do you think the blue's okay? Only he like yellow more, but they don't have any back there and he doesn't MIND blue really but - Actually scratch that, how wide is the fabric? My pattern says it needs to be at LEAST 22 inches wide, does it say on the box?" - and people coming up with some WILD craft ideas that were always a delight to hear them gush about - "So this MAY seem crazy, but I can turn these plastic pumpkin trick-or-treat pails into SNOWMEN heads with felt like this. We fill them with treats for the kids since we don't have a fireplace and they like it fine, but someone said I should sell these on Etsy and people really like them! But I've run out of pumpkins, and you have NO idea how happy I am that you guys still have some left."

The group we had to work with was also pretty crafty; a few were chronic call-outs, some a bit lazy, some perpetually done-with-this-nonsense, but we were mostly on the same page on shift, and all of us were crafty as heck. The employee discount was a blessing AND a curse, lemme tell you.

Stock was the best part, for me. Hours before the store opened at 9 AM, we would rip open the boxes and stuff everything onto the shelves, organizing anything the closing shift missed the night before along the way, updating new stickers or shuffling pegs over for new product arrangement, etc. We could listen to music or podcasts as we worked, and I ended up impressing some of them bc of how fast I tore through everything some mornings (the music definitely helped out there).

I was actually about to be promoted to assistant manager after 6 months, but then I got my job with the university, and they had federal health benefits AND dental, so... yeah, no contest there. Richard actually laughed when I told him I'd been hired at the university and was giving my two week notice, since it meant he didn't have to do the slew of paperwork that accompanied new assistant manager hires. He congratulated me on the job, especially the health benefits - he said that was a perk worth leaving any job here for. I nearly cried with relief that he wasn't mad.

He and Farrah chipped in and got me a small music box that plays Man of La Mancha's Dream the Impossible Dream on my last day. It still sits on my desk at work.

It was honestly my favorite retail job out of the bunch I've suffered through. Surprising at first, since I initially received a rejection email bare HOURS after my interview with Farrah, but about a month later (as I trawled endlessly through interview after interview, desperate for anything those first few months ), I got a call back from them asking if I was still interested (which I was, bc hey a job!). They remembered me specifically bc I had missed my bus to the interview, called ahead to let them know I would be late, then walked the whole way there in the rain to get there. (It was only about a mile and a half away, so not a terrible journey, but flooding is an issue in our flat-ass city; I looked like a drenched afghan hound holding a useless umbrella, so enjoy that imagery).

They were particularly impressed by the calling-ahead part.

Unfortunately, both of them ended up moving on to different paths over the year after I left - apparently they had been friends with benefits (? I say hesitantly, since I ran into one of my coworkers at an art show later on and she spilled the beans there - she was a bit flighty in nature though, and got caught up in gossip a LOT, so who knows. Lovely brocade custom projects though), and his ex girlfriend had called corporate on them and got both fired.

I think Farrah came back some time later, but the damage was done after that - the new manager came in and operated SOLELY to corporate policy. A LOT went to pieces in terms of store cleanliness, order, and general camaraderie after that - the new fabric counter folks look and sound dead inside, and barely interact with customers (not even a 'whatcha making' in passing, which is kind of sad - the stories I got helped to pass the time, and kept me from using up all of my Set Conversation Phrases for customers that actually WOULD leave us standing in silence). Corporate also stopped some of the smaller store policies that made our job easier and gave the customers a little something extra (the 'end-of-the-bolt' discount - if, after the customer orders say, 2 yards of fabric on the bolt, and there's say, a half yard "remnant" left on the bolt, we can sell them the remnant for half-price. A LOT of quilters LOVED this, and we did too, since it saved us from filling out the remnant tag and printing a sticker later on).

Just goes to show how important good management is in a business; especially when it can kick a store previously part of the top 50 stores in the NATION (while being a medium store at that - smaller place, NOT Hobby Lobby size like the Large stores) to something much less pleasant. I could be rose-goggling the situation thought - retail is still retail, no matter how nice some aspects are - but it still sticks with me as to how good he experience was even taking into account that it WAS minimum wage retail.

Food for thought, lads, food for thought.

[choco-mark]

Dreamies reaction to being your roommate or how they would be your roommate? idk if that makes sense..tyyy💖

scenario: nct dream as your roommate

mark

concerned roommate

was really shy when he first met you + when you moved in he was all like making sure to give you space and gave you a little tour of the apartment and even told you a little bit about himself which you found really cute

you thought it would be IMPOSSIBLE to break him out of his barrier but he eventually did but damn can this boy be WILD

you don’t let him cook because the last time you left your water boiling and asked him to watch it while you went to the bathroom, it ended up on him, yeah you had to tend to his burned skin even though he insisted HE WAS FINE

gets along well with your friends, though they find him kinda hot and ask you why you haven’t gotten laid yet and orders food for them when they’re over (generous bby 🥺)

and at school??? y’all both go to the same uni so bUs riDes but y’all don’t really see each other THAT much but when it does happen, all the dreamies tease him like you’re his girlfriend and you get all flustered as if y’all are actually dating

y’all know well as hell when y’all go out, y’all be sharing the little crappy earbuds on the bus and listening to some r&b + he loves it when you fall asleep on his shoulder but makes fun of you later

falls asleep everywhere and i mean EVERYWHERE, you name it, the horrible excuse of a kitchen, the bathroom, and you even found him in your own room once which led to some TALKS

does the dishes whenever you want him to and doesn’t really care for chores (?) like he doesn’t want to bother you so like he just does them for the sake of the apartment

y’all are mutually afraid of your landlord, who once came banging at y’alls door at 5 in the morning on a monday and you thought you were gonna be robbed but it was just your feisty landlord who had returned from their trip to australia

breaks things A LOT, and i feel like he would try and cover them up if it’s not that big of a deal like ‘mark, why’s there glass in the garbage’ ‘i, um, broke it’ but you know he breaks shit all the time bc that’s the fifth glass

hangs out with you in the living room even if y’all are doing your own thing but you both feel comfortable just feeling the presence of each other

goes shopping for groceries without you, forgets what y’all actually need, and calls you like fifty times (you make him come with you now)

i don’t think mark would really do pranks on you but he might like try and scare you randomly and you being the paranoid babe you are get all jumpy and ‘MARK!!’

has a crush on you but doesn’t know it himself until you get sick one day since you walked home in the rain and he takes care of you and gets all worried (uwu) and then is like ‘OH SHIT’

you fall asleep on the couch while having (rare) movie nights with him, and kinda wants to carry you to your room after the movie’s over but also doesn’t know if he should and has a mental break but you wake up and leave yourself

realizes that he’s falling for you more and more everyday and seems to like your lips a lot more too

you don’t realize that you’re slowly starting to like him too but every time your friends talk about guys and dating you immediately think of mark (uwu bc y’all are besties)

mark finally asks you out on a day in the summer but he’s super nervous and fidgety that you kinda thought he was gonna break some big bad news to you like ‘i’m moving out’

but he actually asks you to date him and you’re like shocked for a bit just sitting there with your ice cream tub in front of the tv watching tom and jerry and he thinks you’re about to reject him before you nod rapidly

literally no one is fazed when y’all announce it to your friends, and they all saw it coming (hyuck and chenle had a bet on who would ask who out and hyuck won a whole 45 dollars)

renjun

responsible roommate

let’s be real, y’all did not get along when y’all first moved in together

renjun was literally the polar opposite of you, liking his space and reading and painting an awful lot, well he’s a fine arts major so, while you’re a little more on the extroverted side, inviting your loud friends over often

y’all had a fight like two days after he moved in about you always having friends over and then being loud and you try defending yourself but you kinda make a fool out of yourself because sweetie is right

a week of so after that you actually think about moving out because you think he like HATES YOUR GUTS and you kinda don’t talk to him at all for a bit

he feels bad after a while seeing you come home and just lock yourself in your room for like…the entire day before you get up early in the morning and leave + wants to make amends but his ego’s too big

ends up just cutting fresh fruit for you around like 2am since you were up doing work (with a frustrated brain) but accidentally walks in on you changing and drops the fruit all on the ground

you swear you’ve never seen a boy so RED before (or have you seen him apologize before) and he literally just STANDS THERE before closing the door

rethinks his entire life on what the HELL he just saw, and why he liked it so much but comes in after you tell him too (you’re kinda embarrassed too, you know, seeing the pretty pink undies hehe)

you apologize first about your friends and stuff though he feels bad for just yelling at you about it rather than like, talking like a normal person and he just is like ‘fancy some fruit?’

yeah, y’all kinda get closer after that, and he even lets you into his room (which was OFF LIMITS before), and you get to see his artwork which is wow phenomenal

y’all cook together and make it like it’s some kind of vlog (though y’all suck at that shit, so it’s just fake youtube), and the food ends up like pretty decent at the end

he doesn’t go to the same uni as you, but since you don’t leave early in the morning anymore, y’all walk together until you have to part ways

renjun has the dreamies over VERY RARELY but he goes out to their apartments often, he won’t admit it but he doesn’t want donghyuck to meet you because you might fall in love with him like everyone else seemed to

donghyuck does meet you though, and it’s safe to say that his flirting did not work on you! which was surprisingly relieving to renjun, and he didn’t even realize he was so relieved that you didn’t give a shit

you now only have your friends over whenever renjun’s not there just for the sake of him, but you usually go out instead too so…sometimes there’s an empty house bc y’all are way too considerate for each other

once you met him on your way back from your friend’s and it was like the spider-man meme like ‘boy, i left because of you’ and vice versa

there isn’t really a big hassle on chores in your apartment unless either of your families are coming for a visit because then it is..like renovating time

‘just take the couch out of the living room, it looks ugly’ + “bitch, where tf are they gonna sit then??’

he once got clothing stuck in the bottom of the washing machine and it was WALKING (i’m not kidding guys, this shit happens) + y’all had to call your landlord who wasn’t too happy

and talk about escalating the relationship..y’all are practically best friends by now even though you both are literal opposites

he doesn’t really ask you out like at all but gets all emotionally defensive when you’re about to go on a blind date that one of your friends set up for you

‘just go with me’

and you’re like…babe that’s not how it works but eventually you get the message (after a while) and you’re like ‘oh, you mean you actually want to go with me’

ends up taking you to the same cafe you were supposed to meet the other guy at and buys you food for the first time but kisses you with a spontaneous burst of confidence

but then it’s all flustered renjun™

jeno

feisty roommate

moved in with you bc you both are best friends and thought that y’all had ENOUGH time living in dorms on campus at uni

you literally don’t know how to deal with him at first because this boy is a messy mf and leaves everything everywhere which gets you all riled up

eventually you just threaten to throw his computer out the window if he doesn’t do the goddamn dishes once this semester and does them in fear

it worked the first few times but he saw it coming after a while and just threatened to throw you out the window, while holding half your body out of the fifth floor window

let’s just say the neighbors probably thought you were being abused from your screams, and it was proven when cops showed up at your doorstep about an hour later

that was probably the most terrifying and awkward conversation you had ever had with someone, even though it was mostly jeno talking to them while you were standing slightly behind him with your hand on the sleeve of his jacket

they eventually left and you almost cried because you were so scared you were gonna get arrested for no reason, and because you were too broke to bail yourself out of a jail and jeno was like ‘yeah it happens’

well, he didn’t hold you out of a window again, that was for sure but he made sure to take his time out of playing games and doing work to do some chores so you wouldn’t be doing all of them

jeno doesn’t mind your friends over, though he hates it when one of them try to hit on him even as a joke, and the last time that happened, you ended up just kicking her out because you were so fed up

dreamies come over pretty often actually, and raid your kitchen too which is sad because your stock of cheap alcohol is gone is less than a few minutes

they once all ended up drunk and on the floor of your living room except for jisung, who had been forbidden to drink, and you ended playing cards with him for like two hours before jeno dragged him out of your room

he didn’t invite them over for a month after that because he thought jisung hit on you (the literal high schooler, smh) but didn’t tell you that so you just thought he was mad at them

takes you clothing shopping with him because he has no fashion sense and doesn’t want to admit it to jaemin but you both usually end up at a fast food restaurant eating fries

you both are allergic to cats, but he has three and they’ve grown on you

cooking is usually rare in your apartment, but there always seem to be so many FUCKING DISHES, jeno usually just orders food for the both of you over weekends and breaks while slowly realizing he’s gonna go into debt if he keeps buying sm food

you start playing overwatch because him (which actually just started out as you being curious on how to play) and now you’re hooked, and he’s jealous because you’re actually good

ends up fighting for his computer back because you kept using it, but let you for a while bc he kinda found it cute seeing you sitting in his huge gaming chair wearing oversized clothing and battling like a boss

he doesn’t regret ever moving in with you bc it’s earned him some very interesting experiences that he couldn’t really trade for the world

his heart does a thing when he finds you asleep at his desk past midnight, and isn’t really sure if he should wake you up or not but ends up tucking you into his bed and he takes home on the couch

anyway the couch was fucking COLD but you woke up literally in his scent, and damn were you confused but you found him in the living room under a thin blanket

yeah, you scold him for that because he catches a cold and he’s a whole baby when he’s sick

okay, he’s like barely sick but he’d be like ‘y/n help me, i can’t get up’ and you get all worried bc he looks so tired but he just wants the care (evil jeno hehe)

you feel bad bc it was kinda your fault that he had to sleep on the couch and you apologize while bringing him food and stuff and his heart does a thing again and he’s like..this is my best friend, i’m a fucking idiot

yeah but he’s in love with you, it’s just a matter of time before one of you confessed

donghyuck

bratty roommate

hyper king who was the pretty but loud boy in one of your classes + he asked you to move in with him when he overheard you talking to a friend about needed to move out of the dorm

he didn’t actually think you’d take him seriously, but is glad because he has a bit of a crush on you and is planning on making you fall for him

you know the drill already though, he’s the guy that everyone falls for, so you’re determined not to!!

donghyuck is the definition of a brat, and pulls pranks on you constantly which you always innocently fall for, marking his happiness

you get him back though, filling his shampoo bottle with hair dye that he actually falls for (and you know it from the screech that comes from the bathroom around 3am)

but you’re back in class and he looks like a hot mf with this silver hair, making you regret the fact that you bought silver instead of red

donghyuck actually falls harder and harder for you though, though he’s trying to keep up his whole playboy fanatic and it’s getting hard for you

he sucks at basic things though, and runs away when you tell him it’s his turn to do the dishes (like, he runs out of the apartment)

dreamies are over, but not that much, you kinda think chenle and renjun hate your guts from the way they always eye you (also since you don’t hesitate to kick their asses out)

donghyuck prefers going out too, and planning very intricately how to make your life more miserable!!

is good at cooking but he’s too flirty to actually get anything done without you threatening to stab his eyes out

overheard you complaining to your friend one day over the phone about how hyuck is such a nuisance and basically you’re thinking about moving out because he’s so fucking HARD to live with

gets a little sad knowing that you just see him as annoying and tones down his bratty behavior to a record breaking low (i swear, it’s almost impossible) and you think he’s possessed

comes home one day to you watching a horror movie in the living room with the lights off and you get frightened out of your wits and even start crying

he’s like ‘fuck’ and thinks you’re hurt or something and gets all cuddly and is like ‘babe, what’s wrong??? who hurt you??’

ends up finding out you’re drunk, because you kept sobbing loudly about the guy that stood you up for a date and from the half empty vodka bottle

gets kinda pissed that someone really stood you up which caused you to drink away your feelings (well, you had other issues as well, but the date was a main component) and he’s actually genuinely worried

tries to get you water when you start coughing but you just cling onto him and tell him not to go away and he swears his heart stopped from the way you looked at him with pleading eyes and a pout

‘i’ll never leave you’

pretty sure he’s in love with you by the next day, and doesn’t fail to let you know by trying to flirt very successfully but you just think it’s hyuck back with his antics again

yeah, it’s not, sweetie’s in love with you and you finally get it!! after a really long time because you have trust issues and hyuck seemed to flirt with everyone before, though now…it happened only with you..wow??

he doesn’t ask you out, and kinda thinks that’s overrated so he just kisses you and well you like it

jaemin

sweetheart roommate

jaemin is the bestest boy on this planet, no one can tell me otherwise

though you guys moved in together because of a roommate switch up with your landlord, you two didn’t really mind it all that much bc y’all got along well!!

the two of you have a pretty calm and very ‘roommate’ kind of relationship because it takes both you a little while to break out of your shells a little bit

it took you a both a month, but the respectfulness of ‘no, i’ll do the dishes’ turned to a more of a friendship at first, though jaemin would admit he saw you as a little more than that, a best friend!!

has a daily order of coffee to your apartment three times a day and offered you a sip once and you could’ve sworn it was the liquified version of the souls in hell

he cooks for you 🥺 mainly because he trusted you next to a stove and ended up regretting it so

y’all go to the same uni too, so the walks there aren’t silent anymore!! before, it was just a side-by-side walk while you both had earbuds in

now that the two of you were closer, he basically treated you like you were his girlfriend and the dreamies didn’t fail to notice that

has a habit of pecking your cheek as a goodbye, which hyuck sees and is like ‘friends don’t do that!!!’ and jaemin’s like ‘we aren’t friends, we’re more than that.’

he meant y’all were BEST FRIENDS but hyuck now thought you two were fucking behind closed doors and made sure to mention it to all the dreamies too

yeah, jaemin doesn’t have hyuck over anymore, if anyone, it’s usually jeno or jisung who are usually more considerate on the fact that you live there and don’t bother you

your parents came to visit one day and fell in love with jaemin, especially your mom, who told you that he is husband material, well she’s not wrong.

bought you colored pencils after you lost all of them at uni, and got really hyped seeing how happy you were because of that and bought you a lotta stuff after that

like it wouldn’t even be planned, like he’d see something while shopping and would be like…’yes this is SO y/n’ and ends up buying it for you 

people at uni probably think y’all are married from the way y’all argue about socks being left all over the apartment, which usually leads to one of you feeling bad and apologizing to the other

helps you with homework and even offers to write your essays when your sick or not in the mood, though he refuses your help like it’s second nature because he doesn’t want to ‘bother you’

doesn’t even realize he’s in love with you until jeno jokingly says he wants to ask you out and he gets all stiff and is straight up like ‘no, bro, that’s not cool’

ends up asking you out because he’s scared one of the dreamies would do it before him and you say no at first because you think he’s high or some shit but he’s being real

yeah and then the fucking behind closed doors becomes a reality

chenle

dumbass roommate

i’m not kidding, he blasts music at 4am thinking that you’re asleep and you ARE until you hear the music

the apartment is HUGE, it belongs to him, but put out the second room for low rent because he was lonely and tbh it was a pretty good size for the price

you thought he was a little annoying at first because the dreamies would literally be over all the fucking time because they were in love with the apartment, and both of y’all just didn’t along with each other’s friends

well, you just avoided them interacting with him because he was kinda a lil embarrassing at first, and you thought he was immature (he’s only a year younger though…)

he’s really passionate about music though, and has a wholeass piano in the corner of the living room that you’re not allowed to touch, but you’re so fucking tempted to

can’t do any chores for shit, and doesn’t really try until he sees you washing the dishes and is like ‘this is no good’ and hires a cleaning lady, he doesn’t make you pay extra though, which makes you happy

accidentally used your perfume instead of his own for about a week and smelled like vanilla all day everyday until you noticed that he was the reason why the bottle was disappearing liquid by the day

took you to an arcade when you were really stressed one day and this boy is competitive, so that was a whole RIDE but it was fun to actually hang out with him without arguing or starting a roommate war

yeah, y’all had a whole roommate war, if he was gonna blast music, you were gonna do it too and no one could complain to the landlord because the place literally belongs to him

watches movies with you, even the weird cheesy ones which he usually just makes stupid comments on, or even horror movies where he’s like…‘this bitch asked for death, so she’s gonna get it’

pranks you but not really badly, knows you’re scared of spiders and buys a bunch of plastic ones and puts them in the cupboards to hear you scream in fear in the morning 

the cops showed up at your door too because the neighbors complained about noise, but you both had fallen asleep in the living room before they nearly threatened to break down the door and chenle woke up

dreamies tease him about you as well (like their bitchasses will), but they don’t really think anything’s gonna happen because you’re older but that is WRONG

y’all both have different tastes when it comes to food, but he still manages to take everything you buy for yourself even though he’s the rich one

teaches you how to play the piano one day and his heart does a thing when you lean your head on his shoulder for a brief second, babe thinks he’s falling for you

which is right, and he’s pretty obvious about it like you’d be just cooking wearing some sweats and he’d be creepily watching from the living room thinking you’re gorgeous and you’re like ‘tf is wrong with you, headass’

yeah, it takes him a while to confess because he��s nervous and doesn’t really have much experience in this kinda field (asks jisung too, but that boy literally knows less than him so)

tries to be all romantic with food and shit but he makes a mess and you find it frustratingly cute and judging from the way he was looking at you, you thought he was about to pull out a million dollar ring and propose to you

‘CAN YOU BE MY GIRLFRIEND’ 

jisung

cutie roommate

you both moved out of your parent’s houses senior year even though y’all hadn’t even graduated yet, but you didn’t think you could deal living with your four silblings and parents for another year

y’all are best friends, and probably do everything together too unless one of you are under a lot of stress because of school work (which might lead to a soft night of like, building forts or movies)

jisung is a mESSY PERSON but y’all clean together, like if it’s time to do the dishes, y’all are doing that together, one person washes while the other ones dries or even cleaning the living room, like y’all have designated cleaning days

you both have your friends over pretty rarely since it’s y’alls dorm uwu, not theirs and you know hell as well all they gonna be doing is stealing food

wears your clothes but by accident, like you might’ve mixed in a shirt or two along with his laundry and he’s wondering why tf it’s so fucking tight on him but still wears it until you’re like…jisung what the fuck

gives it back to you but it’s all stretched out now so :( but he lets you wear his sweatshirts!! 

there’s a nice lil rooftop to the dorm that no one really seems to use other than you two, but y’all usually go up there to escape from the real world, like you come home and sungie isn’t there, check the roof! he’s probably crying his eyes out!!

just kidding, jisung doesn’t cry, he’s a tough baby

all jokes aside, you both stress over exams and classes together, and drink a hell of a lot of coffee too (the machine broke one week, and y’all were too broke to buy another one immediately so y’all saved up while dying inside)

cooking…doesn’t really happen though there is a kitchen, maybe if the dreamies are over and renjun’s in charge, but other than that, y’alls parents send you food or you order stuff

you get a part-time job after a while bc you don’t wanna bother your parents and you come home at like 10pm and babe is already so worried since you didn’t pick up the whole and begs you to quit

you don’t, but he starts working too and you both suffer together!!

y’all have a surprisingly clean apartment, but jisung’s room is another dimension that you cleaned one day he was out for work

he came back and walked into his room, and almost walked out because he genuinely thought he walked into the wrong dorm until he sees you

this boy sleeps everywhere too, but everywhere he’s not supposed to sleep, under the carpet in the living room, in the bathtub, even out on the balcony in the summer once and you thought he died in the morning

you both take walks in the neighborhood together on the weekends, like scheduled regularly occurring walks that even the old lady next to the chinese place says hi to you on saturdays

y’all aren’t even sure when it turned from a friendship to a relationship, though you’re pretty sure it was because of a petty fight over school or something that just lead to him confessing very loudly

it was kinda scary hearing him shout but y’all both realize what he just said and…damn

[jaeminlore]

The World is Ending and I'm With You

SPINOFF | PLAYLIST (pls listen while you read)

summary: and i won't sleep through this. i survive on the breath you are finished with. words: 6.1k+ category: angst, fluff, suggestive, mark won't stop talking about how he used to be a cub scout warning(s): death, religion mention, death mention, implied sex ohoho i'm getting bold, littering (not from mark bc he's a good boy), unedited a/n: john mayer song that's kind of an easter egg, and a poem at the end by someone called s.b.,,, also you don't have to read the spinoff to read this one :) but it does take place in the same universe/timeline.

You never were one for smoking. Your mother always told you it would increase risk of cancer, and in turn, death. But now the world is ending, and your mom hasn't been home in a few days. So, you smoke.

The convenience store you work at doesn't have many packs left. Your manager has some stupid rule about rationing stock now that delivery truck drivers are quitting at a rapid rate. They don't want to be stuck on the freeway when the meteor hits. Which makes sense to you, but it's all your bitter manager seems to complain about.

You take a pack out from behind the clear screen and extract a stick. You're in the middle of lighting it with a lighter that most certainly isn't yours when a wide-eyed boy appears in front of the counter. He dumps a basket full of snacks onto the register, followed by a plethora of hygienic products.

"You worried we'll run out?" You try to joke. Really, this is a small town, and your store is the biggest one in town (which isn't saying much at all.) It's completely possible.

The boy shrugs. "I'm gonna hit the road before everything goes down. I don't want to be here if a riot starts. Also, I want to find my soulmate."

"Don't we all?" You say, blowing smoke out of your mouth.

The boy coughs and gives you a short glare. "Something to look forward to, at least."

You throw the still-lit cigarette across the store. Part of you hopes it will catch on something and burn the store to the ground. But it goes out on the cold linoleum floor. You look at the boy again. "I'll give you all of this for free if you let me come with you."

(Mark isn't sure why he chooses a road trip in the first place. It's not like his beat up old van can outrun the end of the world. Maybe deep down, he hopes it can.

He also isn't sure why he's let you tag along, save for the fact that he really needs to stock up on food, just in case. And he's also lonely. Maybe talking to someone will calm his restless soul.)

-

Mark has a giant van. There's a mattress in the back, complete with a blanket and pillow. He tosses his groceries in the back and clumsily shoves the key in the ignition. "Are you sure about this? I'm going across the country."

You light another cigarette. Five packs stolen from your store sit in his glove compartment. "We have what? A week left? I have nowhere better to be."

He takes this answer and begins to drive. The radio is staticky, but you can make out the preacher's message of salvation in the last days. You wonder if it gives the boy comfort. It gives you anxiety, so you take a long drag and focus on the weird way the cigarette smoke warms your mouth. "I'm Y/n, by the way."

"I'm Mark." He turns down the radio. "I'm pretty sure my soulmate is in California, based on my tattoo."

"Okay," you say, because you really don't care. You haven't believed in soulmates since your parents got divorced. You throw the cigarette out of the window and try not to think about the way your moon tattoo burns against your collarbones. "Does your tattoo say California or something?"

"No, it's just a sun."

You want to call him dumb. Or stupid. Or an idiot. "California isn't the only place on earth with a sun, you know. And apart from that, it's a huge state. How are you gonna find your soulmate in a week?"

Mark takes an anxious sip of his gas station slushee. "I know it's stupid, okay? But I feel drawn there, so it's my only shot."

You lower the sun visor and grab the pair of aviators that are hooked onto it. "Well I feel drawn to the sea, so let's go to the beach first."

(Mark wants to tell you that he knows he won't find his soulmate. His soulmate is probably dead with the rest of the world that got caught in the atmosphere change. His soulmate is probably farther than California, but for some reason the state is stuck in his mind.

He remembers his aunt's beach house. Solar generators for electricity and water. A familiar place to stay in the end. But for now, he wants to take his chances on the road. He doesn't want to be dormant, and he knows you don't either.)

-

Mark hits Oregon at three in the morning. He nods off once and veers into the side of the highway before you finally convince him to pull over for the night.

He parks at a truck stop and the two of you take showers, using what products you and Mark bought (stole). You use more than you need. Shampoo gets in your eyes.

Your eyes are still burning when you meet up with Mark at the van. He's already asleep, an open bag of chips beside him. He must've been too tired to even eat.

The back of the van is covered in those battery-powered clip-on fans from the mall kiosks. Mark told you earlier that he had bought them on sale. You had asked earlier why he hadn't just stolen them.

He told you he believes in heaven, and doesn't want to hurt his chances of getting there. You told him you don't think good works matter anymore.

You eat the chips and fall asleep beside him, ignoring him as he mumbles random phrases in his sleep.

(Mark lays down on the mattress. The van is hot, even with the windows cracked, even with the cheap fans, so Mark feels his skin beginning to get sticky with sweat. He doesn't want to eat. He doesn't want to sleep. He doesn't want to breathe in this foggy air and think about the inevitable.

He wishes you would just come out of the shower and join him. He waits for what seems like ages, until he's too worn out to keep his eyes open. He falls into a restless sleep, not noticing the way the mattress dips when you join him.)

-

"My dad was a mafia boss," you say, spitting a sunflower seed shell onto the dashboard. The Clash is playing from Mark's radio, and the station wavers in and out as you drive across state lines.

"Really?" You've found that Mark's eyes grow obnoxiously big when he's surprised about something. His mouth forms a little 'o' shape and his voice grows softer. It's adorable, so you make it your mission to surprise him as much as you can. That, and road trips are pretty boring when the world is ending.

"No."

"Come on!" Mark pouts. You can see it in your peripheral vision. "Stop lying to me. I bet your dad doesn't even have a cool job."

"Guess then," you taunt. "By the way, we passed the California-Oregon state line like, five minutes ago."

Mark gasps and rolls down the window, looking back towards the passing highway, as if the sign is going to still be there. "I can't believe I missed it! This could be it. This is where we find our soulmates."

You spit out another shell. "I'm hoping my soulmate's name is Long Beach because that's where I'm going."

"Let's stay together," Mark says. He's biting his thumbnail, eyes towards the empty road in front of him. "I don't know how many more of us will be left."

You want to correct him and say that there are plenty of people left, and yet you know that a lot of people took the pill. Or got sick. Or killed in a raid. Funny, a meteor is scheduled to hit the earth and people decide to leave early. Or they lose their humanity entirely, and take people out with them. Truthfully, there aren't many people left at all.

"Okay," you say. Your eyes stay on his face a little longer than necessary. You take note of his wide, innocent eyes and wonder if he even understands what's happening. Or maybe he just looks like that. But really, all it does is make you want to protect him from the inevitable.

Maybe there's a secret spaceship you can hide him in, and he can start a new, albeit solitary, life on the moon.

You'd never make it to Area 51 in time. That's where they keep the spaceships, right?

(Mark doesn't know how to tell you that he doesn't even care about this stupid soulmate thing. He just doesn't want to be alone. He doesn't want to say that, because it means he has to vocally admit that he is alone. Truly. Not by choice.

He was out of town when his family got the flu. The atmosphere got too much. Whatever sickness killed and left as soon as it came, took them too. And he had to go. He had to get out, as far away from the east coast as he could. So he decided on the west coast. And then he decided on you.)

-

"Let's get our tan on!" You joke. The clouds are heavy and dark above the water. It looks like the sky and the water are becoming one, however slowly or quickly. You grab Mark's elbow and pull him towards the sea.

The waves roar against the silence of the land. There's a family down the ways, barely noticeable under the pier. You watch a seagull fly down towards the family and steal something. The little girl shrieks, but you don't know if it's in excitement or fear.

The beach is distractedly empty. No people — save those already mentioned — are anywhere to be seen. There's debris everywhere: old umbrellas, coolers, and towels are half-buried in the sand.

The tide is coming in higher (something the news channel probably warned about) and for some reason, it makes the world feel incredibly small.

Mark has already got his legs in the water. It's lapping at his clothed jeans, but he doesn't seem to mind. His back is turned to you. He's facing the horizon, still and silent.

You hate to ruin this for him, but as the mood grows more dismal, you want to lighten it.

You sneak up behind Mark and jump on his back. Your weight catches him off guard, and the two of you plummet into the cloudy water. Mark yelps when the water hits his torso. You fall in after him and grip his shoulders. Closing your eyes tight, you hold you breath and lift your face above the surface. "Feel refreshed?"

Mark coughs. He rubs his eyes, wincing when the salt reaches beneath his lids. "Why would you do that?"

"It's fun," you say.

Mark begins swimming into the deep water. He looks a bit like a lost child, doggy paddling in the vast sea. He grins, and his lips are a bit lopsided. You notice his cheeks grow hollow when he smiles. "You scared me, Y/n."

The sentence ends timidly, like he isn't sure if he's allowed to say your name out loud. But you like it. It's hesitant and soft; loud because it's the only word spoken for miles; quiet because it's Mark. You wonder briefly how to get him to say your name again.

The two of you swim until you can't touch the sandy floor below you anymore. Mark holds his own, but you struggle a bit. "They were right about the tide getting stronger."

"Here," Mark swims over to you and wraps his arm around your waist. "Stay close to me."

Something akin to reticence settles against the wall of your skull like the numb reminder that this is all very weird. Mark is a stranger, and you're cross-country with only him. It bothers you that your mind is already growing attached; your heart already growing attracted. This is the last thing you need to happen during your last days on this literal godforsaken earth.

You swim back to the shore first and lie on the sand. It clings to your wet skin. The tide laps at your feet. The sun is going down, and the air feels overwhelmingly muggy. You close your eyes.

(Mark thinks about the waves. He thinks about the frequency of your voice when he splashes you. He thinks of how your smile seems even prettier at this time of day. He thinks about the way you pulled back when he asked you to stay. While he knows this isn't exactly the time to fall for someone, he can't help but feel like he's starting to.

He watches you fall asleep in the sand. Your cheeks are red. Your eyelashes flutter against the tops of your cheeks. Your lips are chapped. Mark finds that he wouldn't mind kissing you. Or just simply being by your side.

For a few solitary moments, he doesn't even think about the end. Just the now.)

-

It feels like you blinked, but when you reopen your eyes you find that time has certainly gone by. Mark is sitting a ways away, stoking a makeshift fire.

"I was a Cub Scout," he says.

"I need a smoke." You go back to the van and pull out a pack and a lighter. Your brain feels fuzzy from having fallen asleep on the beach, and your back itches from the sand that has scratched its way down your shirt. To distract yourself, you lean against the van and take a drag; look up towards the sky.

It's a dark reddish black, some ominous code that the world is definitely coming to an end. Clouds swirl hazily against each other and you can see that a storm seems to be forming over the ocean. Months ago this would've been beautiful. An instagram-worthy shot, a coffee pot topic, and nothing more.

Right now it sends a chill down your spine.

You drop the cigarette and head back to where Mark is sitting. He has some kind of pot out over the fire, and what looks like a can of soup inside. The can itself is tucked neatly in the little box Mark has beside him. You wonder why he cares so much about a planet that's already dead. "Thanks. For, uh dinner."

"Yeah," Mark clears his throat and shifts in the sand. "That's what friends are for."

"We're friends now?" You raise your brow at Mark while he hands you a bowl of soup along with a spoon.

"I sure hope so," Mark quips. "I don't make soup for just anybody."

You laugh at that. Your heart stirs in excitement. Your stomach growls, so you ignore the heaviness in your chest and take a bite of your soup.

That night you fall asleep with a belly full of food and sand down your shorts. It's half-ideal, half-hell, but Mark gives you a hug before the two of you tuck in, so it's okay.

(Mark wants to say that he wishes the two of you were friends a lot sooner, but that would be weird. He's only known you for like, three days. Maybe he's delirious.

But he gives you a hug before you fall asleep anyway. He hopes you can't hear how fast his heart is beating. It's stupid anyway, he thinks.)

-

Four days left. Give or take. You aren't completely sure to be honest, and that brings on an entire onslaught of horror that you've never really felt before. There's something so terrifying about this whole thing. It's like you've knocked on Death's door, and you have no idea when he's actually going to open it.

Mark hides it well. He drives the two of you down to Hollywood Boulevard.

It's trashed. What was once the walk of fame is now defaced with graffiti, food, trash, and what looks like human feces. You throw up in the fake bushes and Mark pats your back while you do.

"Guess I won't get my picture with Kermit the Frog then," you joke.

Mark's eyes suddenly widen. He grabs his backpack straps. "There's a Kermit the Frog star?"

"Yeah," you laugh at Mark's expression. "My aunt was obsessed with The Muppets. She had a laminated picture of the star in her sewing room."

Mark bites his lip and averts his eyes. "I have a Polaroid. Not much film, but we might could get a few pictures."

The stars have to be cleared first. Mark comes up with the idea to sneak into one of the restaurants nearby and using their cleaning supplies. And since you have all day and nothing to lose, you agree.

The thing about a large and empty place like Hollywood Boulevard, is that every shadow feels like a threat. Memories of dystopian movies come flooding through your memories when Mark hands you a giant broom. You wonder if some evil man with a god complex is going to come and kidnap you both.

But the only people the two of you ever see is a man in a small shop that looks like it contains weed.

You and Mark sweep away as much debris as you can, while avoiding anything that came out of a human body. The graffiti covers a lot of the stars, but after a few hours of walking and sweeping, the two of you find it.

"Kermit," Mark breathes a side of relief before laughing out loud. His laugh is stark against the silence.

You join him anyway. "I can't believe we found Kermit! My aunt would be so jealous right now."

"Your aunt sounds weird," Mark says, no real bite to his remark.

"She is," you confirm. "She's up in Maine somewhere. At least, you know, last I heard."

Mark senses the change in tone and drops his backpack to the ground. He pulls out a baby pink Polaroid camera. He points it at you. "Say cheese, Y/n."

There's your name on his tongue again. That sound itself has you beaming as you lean against the brooms long handle and cock your head to the side. The camera clicks.

Mark takes out the picture and shakes it before he looks at it. "Cute," he says casually, then he tucks it in his shirt pocket.

"I want to see it," you say. You hope that if you don't acknowledge the warmth in your cheeks, Mark won't either.

"Too bad." He sticks his tongue out at you. And before you can retort, he squats down beside the star. "Okay, let's get a picture of this bad boy."

You squat down too. You match Mark's peace sign and smile in the direction of the lens. The camera clicks.

Nothing comes out. "Shit," Mark mumbles to himself. "I guess I had a lot less film than I thought."

You're about to apologize, feeling like maybe you should've put up a bigger fight when he offered to take your picture.

Mark seems to read your mind. That, or he's just too nice for his own good. He pats his shirt pocket and gives you a generous smile. "Worth it, though."

The sky is getting progressively darker as the two of you walk around, occasionally pointing at places you would've liked to go, had the circumstances been different.

You both eat from snacks you find in a convenience store. You take the rest and leave it in the truck. "What should we do now?" Mark asks.

The light from the store across the street flickers. You look at the neon leaf and then back to Mark. "Have you ever gotten high?"

(Mark has gotten high before, and he tells you so. What he doesn't tell you is that the picture in his pocket is getting heavier as the seconds pass. What he doesn't tell you is that this picture may be the only evidence left of you in a few days. Maybe it will disappear with the rest of them. Mark briefly wonders if a fireproof box would work against the end of the world, and whatever that entails.

He wants to tell you that he would immortalize you in a million different pictures if he could. He would show the dying world a million different ways to breathe again.

Instead, he only nods his head. "Yeah, but it's always fun to do again.")

-

You're positive it's the fact that you've taken one too many hits of whatever joint that weed guy rolled up for you. 'Said it was his best; he was saving it for something special. Since the world is going to hell, he shared it with you.

And now you're in the bed of Mark's van, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the way Mark's lips wrap around the joint. He has a really pretty mouth, you realize, and you want to say it out loud but something heavier takes hold of your chest and you bury it down with all of your other fears and revelations.

Mark coughs. Puffs of smoke blow out into the hot van, and he winces at the smell. "Didn't the guy say this was the special stuff? Why does it still stink?"

You take the joint from him and package it up, hoping to save it for another day (or maybe you just don't want to get so high that you can't focus on Mark's face.)

Mark scrunches his nose and leans back against the cool window of the van. "We should sleep outside tonight. It's too hot in here."

"Under the stars?" you ask. You feel your heartbeat pick up, but it falls just as quickly, and you settle back into the blankets. "Don't wanna move."

"I'll move you," Mark says, a mere whisper against your right side.

You watch him open the trunk. He hops out. "Come on, Y/n. Take my hand."

His hand is warm and calloused and rough and you want to ask him if he can actually play that guitar in the back of his van or if it's just for show. Mark lets you sit on the concrete of the pier. It's warm beneath your skin. Mark parked the van right against the pier, so the two of you could sleep right next to the edge.

While you hang your legs off of the edge, Mark drags the mattress out and pushes it right up to the railing. "Didn't peg you for a stoner."

You grab the blanket he throws at you and lie down on the mattress. "I'm not," you say, no bark to your words. "You're just better at it than me."

"At smoking?" Mark laughs. "I only took one hit. You took, like, four."

"So?" You pout and refuse to return his stare. Instead you try to focus on the stars, and the way their alignments seem off. You wonder if it's the end of the world, or if it's just the weed. "I wish we had more time."

The candor in your voice causes Mark to finally settle down. He lays down. His shoulder brushes against yours, and when his fingers twitch, his knuckles touch yours. It stirs up a gentle longing in your heart. What might be. What never was. You turn to face Mark. "We haven't found your soulmate, yet."

Mark lets out a shaky breath. Something between a gasp and a sigh. He blinks, looks at you like he's indulging, and blinks again. "I don't know if I want to."

(He knows he doesn't want to. Hasn't for a long time now. But your innocent worry has him thinking. Has him wondering how much a soulmate is worth in the end.

He thinks of how you let your guard down when you're high. He thinks of the jolt of electricity that zips down his arm when your fingers touch his. He thinks of your face, so close to his and yet he's so, so afraid of leaning in. Or letting go. Or scaring you away.

Mark doesn't have to find his soulmate. There's no time, and no lead. He thinks that he'd be disappointed anyway.

At the end of all things, he thinks he'd just rather be with you.)

-

"Where'd you even learn how to siphon gas?" you cough. The air is growing thinner. An estimate of three or four days left, and the air is beginning to fall against the atmosphere like a weighted blanket. Ash and dust rise from the ground, and you keep a bandanna around your nose most of the time.

Mark spits gasoline out of his mouth and shoves the nozzle into his van. "Cub Scouts, remember?"

"Who knew Cub Scouts would prepare you for the end of the world." You kick the van's back tire.

Mark lifts his own red bandanna around his mouth. His jeans are scuffed up from the dirt and grime of the gas station, but the fact that he keeps his shirt tucked in and fastened with a belt is more endearing than it needs to be.

"Too bad I never earned my saving-the-world badge, right?" Mark chuckles. A sad silence follows.

You slip into the passenger seat beside Mark and place your hand over his as soon as it's placed on the gear shift. "What did you want to be? Before the news?"

Mark opens his mouth. Then closes it, laughs to himself and shakes his head. "It's stupid."

"It can't be stupid," you say. "Nothing you like is stupid."

Mark's neck flushes red. "I, uh, want to be a rapper."

"Still?" you whisper.

"Is that pathetic? To pretend the world isn't ending?" Mark lets himself glance at you for a solemn moment.

"I don't think so," you say. "If I've learned anything from you at all, Mark Lee, it's that you're full of hope. That's not pathetic at all."

Mark flips his hand over so that your fingers intertwine with his. "Thanks. You, uh... You've taught me a lot of things too."

"Like what?" You lift your feet onto the dash and squeeze Mark's hand.

"I don't want to say right now."

"Okay." You pull his hand into your lap and run your fingertips over his calloused palms. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you this, but do you play guitar?"

"Yeah," Mark turns down a neighborhood of beach houses. "Remind me to play for you sometime."

(Mark likes the way you touch him first. He likes that you let him hold your hand. He likes that you pull his hand into your lap. He feels so much peace that for a brief moment, he thinks that if the world were to end right now, off-schedule, he'd be okay with it. He doesn't know how to tell you that you're teaching him to be okay with the end. He doesn't know how to tell you that he finds forever in these small moments with you.)

-

Mark takes you to his aunt's empty beach house and the two of you move your stuff in. He finds the solar generator, and the two of you take showers for what seems like the first time in awhile. You don't feel like wearing anything, welcoming the generated AC. But, out of respect for Mark, you adorn undergarments and a large t-shirt stolen from his "clean" suitcase. (He has a "clean" suitcase and a "dirty" suitcase, which is another thing you really admire about Mark.)

When you come out of the shower, towel around your neck, Mark is sitting on the corner of the bed. His own towel has been thrown over the window-side wicker chair, covering a starfish pillow.

What startles you is the fact that he isn't wearing a shirt; only a pair of black sweatpants. A pair of glasses you've never seen before are perched atop his nose. They slip down every time he looks towards the neck of his guitar. He strums out a sour chord and scrunches his nose. "Ah," he shakes his head at the instrument. "She needs a good tuning."

You're drying your hands with your towel, eyes hazy and focused on the way Mark's bare shoulders tense every time he strums a particularly bad chord.

Mark Lee is really pretty. His black hair is still damp, and a few droplets fall onto his cheeks. "Here," you rush out, not wanting another distraction in his favor. "Let me dry your hair. You'll get a cold."

Mark sets the guitar aside and you stand between his legs. "What song should I play for you?" He closes one eye and peers up at you with a close-lipped smile.

You hum. Toss the towel over his face so he won't notice how warm your face is getting. You dry his hair off with a few massages. "What's the one that makes you most happy?"

"I dunno," Mark says. "I like Come Back To Bed."

"Then sing that one to me." You toss the towel to the floor. For a moment, you wonder what it would feel like to run your hand through his hair. After all, you did just dry his hair, which is kind of an intimate thing already. But maybe touching it would be crossing the line. Maybe reaching out to tuck that stray hair back behind his ear would reveal too much. Unravel what you've been trying not to show.

But the world is ending, so it's time to have courage. You swallow your fear and reach out. When you run your fingers through his soft hair, Mark sighs in content. "That feels nice."

"Y-Yeah?" you say, because anything else would come out as a squeak.

Mark's eyes are closed. He leans into your touch and when your hand trails down the side of his face, behind his ear, he places a kiss against your inner wrist. "Yeah," he says, breath hot on your skin. "I'm... I'm glad I went into that convenience store a few days ago."

"Me too." You sense the mood drifting, so you sit beside Mark and pat his guitar. "Now play me something."

Mark nods, a big dazed. He picks up his guitar and begins to sing to you, and you think his voice sounds like the hope of a new dawn.

(Mark wants to bottle up the color of your blushing cheeks and paint the sky. He wants to hold you close to him and kiss you breathless. He wants to say so much more than he does.)

-

Mark makes eggs. You make waffles. They're both a little burnt, but they're made with love, so it's fine. You eat as much as you can, tired of all the convenience store food. "Thank God for your aunt's well-stocked, solar-powered beach house."

Mark giggles. "You know, she was gonna sell it later this year. She wanted to move to the mountains."

"I'm glad she didn't," you say. "This isn't a bad place for... you know."

Mark blinks. Solemnity drowns his face. "She rented a cabin in the mountains. Didn't want to die in the city she was born in. This was the best place I could think of for the end."

"Do you think it will hurt?" You don't want to ask, because it's such a dismal concern. However, you wonder if you're the only one worried about your last moments.

Mark shakes his head. "I think it will be very quick. Like a sneeze."

(Mark wants to say that he's terrified of a slow death. Or dying before you. Of having to watch you die, or leave you alone in this world. He wants to say that he's scared to death and every step feels like a closer one to the grave.

He thinks of telling you, but what difference would it make?)

-

That night after your shower, you find Mark in the kitchen, washing the dishes. "You don't have to do those, you know."

You wrap your arms around Mark's waist, and as soon as you make contact, he shudders. His body slumps against the sink and he hiccups a sob. "I'm scared, Y/n."

"Mark..." you turn him around as gently as you can and pull him into your embrace. "It's okay. It's going to be okay."

"Times almost up," he chokes. "We don't know if it will happen tonight or tomorrow– and I don't want to leave you."

He lifts his head from your shoulder and presses his forehead against yours. It feels a bit like the way a cat might ask for a scratch. But it feels more like Mark wanting to be as close to you as he can. From here, you can see his wide eyes magnified from tears. He sniffs.

You bump your nose against his and shift your hands up to his shoulders. "Mark, I think I love you. I know it's too soon, but we don't really have much time anyways, so I thought I should tell you. I know now isn't a good time, and I'm probably being extremely selfish for saying it while you're crying–"

"You're not," Mark blurts just before he kisses you.

He holds your face in his hands and pulls you against him. His lips are soft and smooth against your chapped ones and you like the way his breathing gets heavier when you reach up and twirl your fingers through his hair. "I love you too."

His hands shift to your waist. He backs you up until you hit the counter's edge. "Jump," he mumbles against your mouth.

You jump onto the counter and wrap your legs around Mark's middle, pulling him flush against you as you go to kiss him again.

He kisses bites your bottom lip and when you gasp at the pain, he leans back to smirk at you. The look on his face makes you want to either slap him or melt into his touch. You choose the latter, leaning back as his lips begin to trail down your jaw. "I don't ever want to let you go."

"Then don't," you say.

(Mark thinks having sex and making love are two different things. He thinks your pink shorts look really pretty against the color of your skin. He thinks of the sounds you make, and the softness of your stomach. He thinks of purple marks on your thighs and the way you say his name like it's worth something. Like it means something. He thinks of looking into your eyes and telling you that he loves you. He thinks of kissing your lips and your neck and your chest and your hips. He thinks of you trembling against him. He thinks of cleaning you up and pulling his hoodie over your tired form. He thinks of kissing your forehead and falling asleep to the sound of your heart.

He thinks of the stain glass picture his aunt has in her kitchen right above the sink. A poem about the sun and the moon. A picture of the two kissing. The words ring like an anthem in his head. He thinks maybe soulmates always find each other in the end.)

-

It happens in the night. You get up to get a drink of water. Your legs are sore but your heart feels warm.

You take small sips in front of the sink and look out of the window. The clouds are dark and red again, but you're distracted by a little hanging picture suctioned to the pane. It's a stain glass picture, painted gaudy blue and gold. You can see the vivid picture of the sun and the moon, fitting against each other like missing puzzle pieces. There's a poem painted in messy scrawl, but you make out the words easily enough.

Tell me what is more beautiful;

The sky seems to get closer.

How the moon lets the sun shine throughout the day.

The air seems to get warmer.

Or the way the sun lets the moon glimmer at night.

The sky darkens, and you close your eyes. You think of Mark alone in the bed and hope he won't wake. You hope he won't know that he has to go alone. You want to run to him, but you know this is nothing but a second on earth, and you're all out of time.

(Mark wakes up when his skin feels like it's scalding. He sits up and notices that you aren't beside him. You're gone, and he knows it's the end, and he knows he'll never see you again, and the thought claws it's way down his throat and breaks his heart from the inside out. And he's all out of time.)

[zigtheeortega]

day 24: loss | liam x mc (au)

title: disruption

pairing: liam x mc

@choicesfebruarychallenge | @bi-cookie ; @cxld-play

warnings: angst, smut, n*sfw, (18+)

word count: 5,764

song inspiration: if i ever feel better - phoenix

author’s note: first off, i’m not good at naming characters like at all, so elliott is just a placeholder bc i knew mc would look weird. second, i haven’t written an au choices fic yet, so i’m a lil nervous to post this! I’ve also never written liam before, much less smut for him, so i’m also nervous bc of that! this will probably be my only trr fic bc there are sooo many trr fics out there. lmao anyways, hope you enjoy this angsty smutty sad fic !

“We’re almost there, Elliott,” Bastien called to the backseat, startling her out of her sleep.

She rubbed her eyes and stretched, slipping her coat she’d been using as a blanket over her shoulders, zipping it up to her chin.

Lythikos had an intense frigidity to it, one that Elliott couldn’t forget. She only visited monthly for short periods of time, but the stinging sensation of the snow on her bare face never left her memory.

She checked her phone, her heart fluttering at the pseudonym that appeared on her phone.

“Hello?”

“Hey. I’m finishing up my last obligation, but I shouldn’t be longer than an hour.” His voice warmed her heart. It was the first time in weeks she’d heard it over the phone, not on television in a rehearsed speech. 

“Okay. I brought some of my work with me if that’s alright with you. I’d love your feedback,” Elliott smiled to herself, treasuring her lover’s genuine interest in her new profession.

“Of course,” she could hear him beam through the phone. “I love you.”

“I love you too. See you soon.”

He hung up, and she sighed. Sneaking around was getting so tiresome, but she’d do anything and everything for Liam.

After Elliott and her friends couldn’t locate Tariq, the wedding went on as scheduled. It took her months of hiding out in Cordonia with her best friends to get herself together. Hana stayed by her side consistently, consoling her until she figured out a game plan.

She thought she’d be able to find a solution and live out her fairytale, but she was too late. She’d never be able to fully have Liam like she wanted, but Madeleine offered her a compromise to keep everyone happy.

She’d brought it up to Elliott before everything went to shit, and Elliott rejected it. She saw being a ‘mistress’ as an insult, because she knew she could find a way out of the mess she was in.

Months later, Madeleine, Liam, and Elliott ran a tight ship with friends to keep the affair under wraps.

Elliott could only meet with Liam once a month, under the guise that he had important monthly meetings to attend at Olivia’s home. They could only meet for a weekend at best, and a few hours at worst.

They rarely contacted each other between their meetings. It was depressing, but necessary to keep them a secret. Liam had a burner phone, and Elliott had to save his number under an undetectable moniker. When they spoke, it was short and sweet, and they couldn’t use each other’s real names.

She flew to Cordonia monthly, usually having to go to great lengths to disguise herself from the paparazzi.

It was emotionally draining and everything leading up to the rendezvous was stressful and tense, but all worth it when she saw Liam’s face light up when he first saw her.

Bastien pulled into the driveway behind the castle, easing up next to a side entrance that Elliott was all too familiar with – she knew Olivia would be waiting behind the large door.

She fixed her wig, pulling her beanie over the top of it, and hid her purple-rimmed eyes behind huge square sunglasses.

“Olivia informed me that you can go to the door. I’ll bring your bags in later. There aren’t any paparazzi in sight, so you’ll be safe,” he smiled at her through the rearview mirror, a sympathetic look in his eyes.

“Thank you so much, Bastien. I could never repay you for what you’re doing for Liam and I,” she replied gratefully, apology laced through the tone in her voice.

“Anything you need, I’m here. Don’t feel guilty. The only time he’s happy is when he sees you, and I’d never get in the way of that.”

Her heart swelled at the thought. She waved to him, stepping out into the blizzard.

The door cracked open, and Elliott spotted the fiery hair before her expression.

“Come in, come in,” Olivia frowned at her messy disguise. “That wig’s a mess, Elliott. If you’re gonna opt for a cheap, frizzy wig, at least hide a pocket knife in it.”

Elliott shrugged, grinning at Olivia’s annoyance. “Why should I do that when I have my best friend here to protect me?”

Olivia scowled, a hint of a smile on her lips. “You’re lucky I’m your ally.” She turned on her heel and stalked down the hallway, leaving Elliott scurrying to catch up.

Elliott had gotten pretty familiar with the underground tunnels of Lythikos over the past year. Olivia secretly renovated an unused area to make an apartment-like cluster of rooms, so that Elliott could stay safely in the tunnels with everything she needed, and she wouldn’t be bothered by anyone.

It was an ingenious idea, and Elliott had no idea how to pay her back for her generosity. Honestly, Olivia probably did it to avoid controversy, like most every noble was doing. Elliott wasn’t sure if Olivia was doing it for the sake of Cordonia’s image or the sake of her friends’ sanity.

Olivia pulled out a skeleton key and unlocked the door, turning on the lights. “I added a more comfortable bed, some more decorations, and got Bastien to fully stock the fridge, so you can cook pretty much anything you want.”

She walked over to the living room area and pointed at the T.V. “I didn’t have to get a 60 inch flatscreen for you, but I know how much you love binging horror movies that I had to help scare you somehow.” She smirked, and pulled out a few drawers from the T.V. stand. “I ordered a hundred or so movies in case you get bored. I have no idea how long you’re gonna be here.”

Elliott shifted her weight, sighing. It was too painful to stay longer than a couple of days. “I was gonna leave on Sunday like I usually do –”

“How asinine. You’re taking a 9 hour flight on a Thursday night to get here by morning, and you take another 9 hour flight back on Sunday morning? You’re wearing yourself thin for no reason, Elliott,” she shook her head at Elliott, confusion lining her expression.

“Liam usually can’t spend more than 2 days at a time with me.”

“You have other friends in Cordonia, you know that right?” She narrowed her eyes at her, crossing her arms.

“After all that happened, I can’t show my face here. My reputation is tarnished, and even being seen here is a scandal waiting to happen. It gets riskier and riskier every time. I can’t risk any of my friend’s well-being for the sake of my secret relationship,” Elliott plopped onto the couch, defeated.

Remorse flashed through Olivia’s eyes, but it disappeared as quickly as it came. “None of this is your fault, Elliott. We know the truth.”

Elliott shook her head, a lump forming at the back of her throat. It didn’t matter that Justin and Adelaide were ousted as terrorists, and that Elliott’s friends were able to stop them from assassinating Liam and Madeleine. 

Tariq was never found, and King Constantine was killed before he could clear her name. No one would believe Bastien, and Penelope was too afraid to publicly admit her wrongdoing, so Elliott didn’t have enough evidence to be exonerated.

“Sometimes… I wish everything were different. Maybe if we’d split up and searched on our own… or if I tried a little harder…” She struggled, her throat burning, a sign of tears to come. She didn’t want to talk about this situation any more than she had to, which was every time she visited.

Her new life was pretty much an escape from the events of the past year, but she was forced to face her past trauma head on every time she stepped foot on Cordonian soil.

“Elliott…” Olivia trailed off, and reached towards her, but dropped her hand. “I’m sorry I brought it up. I guess I’m still seething over the whole ordeal. I’m pretty defensive since I know we’re right but no one else knows that.” She sat down, leaning back onto the couch, crossing her legs. “You shouldn’t feel like you’re risking our social standing or anything. All of us know exactly what we’re risking to help you and Liam, and we’re okay with it. You’re our…” She whispered the last word and Elliott couldn’t quite hear her.

“I’m your what?”

“...friend.” 

Elliott threw her arms around Olivia, relishing in the rare vulnerable moment. Olivia seldom showed her true feelings, but when she did, it was like watching a shooting star. It was beautiful, fleeting – a great memory nonetheless.

“Get off of me, you sap,” Olivia patted Elliott’s back with the tip of her fingers.

“Thank you for everything you’re doing. I seriously can’t thank you enough. If there’s ever anything I can do to repay you all, please tell me. I owe you a lifetime of favors.”

“Well, first, you can actually spend time with Hana, Drake, and Maxwell. They won’t shut up about you.” Olivia rolled her eyes.

“Deal. I never got to see Cordonia on my own time, so maybe you could give me a proper tour of Lythikos next time I’m here. You know, when I’m not banished to the cellar.” Elliott grinned.

Olivia laughed once, a delightful noise. “Sure, but you’ll need better snow gear. And take a self-defense class or two before you do so.”

Elliott quirked a brow at her friend, then shook her head. “I won’t even pretend to know what you have planned for me.”

Olivia stood up, and headed for the door. “You have no idea.” She opened it, and before leaving, she said, “Liam should be here soon. Let me know when he’s in the room so Bastien and I can keep watch.”

“Be careful, Liv.”

“Don’t call me that,” Olivia smirked, and closed the door.

----

Elliott spent the next hour working in her notebook, editing and rewriting paragraph after paragraph. An animated movie she’d seen a million times played in the background, prompting Elliott to hum along to her favorite song.

After another hour, she started to worry. She aimlessly flipped through the collection of DVD’s, not really paying attention to the titles.

Where’s Liam? She thought, an uneasy feeling forming in the pit of her stomach.

After hour three, she read a little from a book she’d brought until her eyes started getting heavy.

She awoke to a sequence of 5 sharp raps on the door, followed by a pause, then 3 more.

Our secret knock, She thought. She shot up from the couch and ran to the door, happy tears already welling up on her bottom lids.

She fumbled with the lock, anticipation causing her to shakily rip open the door.

And there Liam stood, holding a bouquet of flowers, a bottle of champagne, and a neatly wrapped present. His perfectly tailored suit laid perfectly on his arms and torso, his muscles just barely concealed. He beamed, his eyes glistening as his eyes grazed over her face.

She grabbed him by the lapels, pulling him inside hastily. “Whoa,” he said, nearly losing balance.

Elliott blushed, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing his face close to hers. She pressed her lips softly on his, a picture perfect moment she snapshotted and tucked away in her favorite memories.

All of the anxiety she felt traveling in disguise melted away the moment she touched Liam.

“I missed you,” he murmured against her lips.

“I missed you more,” she breathed, snuggling into his neck.

After a sweet moment, she pulled back, and snatched the champagne from his hands. “What’re we celebrating, love?”

He grinned, and locked the door behind him. “It’s a momentous day, Elliott. It’s been a year to the day since we first met.”

Elliott looked at him lovingly, hugging the bottle to her chest. “A whole year?”

He nodded, setting the flowers and present on the table, and gathered Elliott in his arms, hugging her to his chest tightly. “A whole year. I know this situation isn’t ideal, but I’ve never loved anyone like I love you, Elliott.”

He used a finger to tilt her chin to him, and he pressed a soft kiss on her bottom lip. “You’re everything to me.”

“I love you so much, Liam.” She giggled, shaking her head. “From waitress to mistress. Same suffix, different job title.”

His smile wavered, and he exhaled a long breath, obviously uncomfortable with the joke she’d told. “I wish you’d stop putting yourself down like that. Marriage is just a title. Madeleine and I are just business partners. You’re my soulmate, Elliott.”

She pulled back, fiddling with the top of the champagne. “I know. I just wish we didn’t have to be so secretive.”

He gently took the bottle from my hands and popped it open. “I’ve still got local historians and lawyers on my payroll, and they’ve been extensively researching Cordonian laws. I don’t know if they’ll find anything, but I’m determined to keep looking. I don’t want to lose hope.”

Elliott pressed her mouth into a line, then quirked it to the side, processing everything he’d said. “I want to be hopeful that we’ll get out of this eventually, but I’d rather just enjoy the time I have with you, baby. Stress free.”

He poured them two glasses of champagne, and handed one to her. “Of course. My apologies.”

They sat at the kitchen table, and Elliott picked up the flowers, taking a deep whiff of the bouquet. “You really outdid yourself this time, Liam.” 

The cluster of sunflowers, lavender, and white roses contrasted beautifully, and smelled even better. “They reminded me of you, so I had to pick them up.”

“Along with a gift?” She lifted a brow, challenging him.

He sipped his champagne, trying to hide a smile. “I think you’ll like it. Open it.”

She ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a plain white box. She lifted the top off, revealing an assortment of toys on top of a lacy lingerie piece. Her cheeks heated, and she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

“I love it,” Elliott said, nibbling at the skin on her lip.

Liam eyed her lips, a playful look in his eye. “I thought we could try something new this weekend.”

The blush on her cheeks stayed, despite her eagerness to get in bed. “I like the sound of that.”

She gulped down the rest of her champagne and snatched the lacy piece, running to the bedroom.

“Hey!” Liam called, about to stand from the table.

“I’m trying on the lingerie! Stay where you are! It’s a surprise!” She yelled through the closed door.

Elliott emerged after a few minutes, peeking her head out of the door. “You ready?”

“Beyond ready, my love.”

She stepped out, and Liam’s breath hitched in his throat. She could plainly see him shift his legs, desperately trying to conceal his bulge.

“You look… stunning. Absolutely gorgeous, Elliott,” he said, his mouth agape, eyes hungrily roaming across her body.

The strappy lace piece fit like a bikini. The bottom was closer to a g-string than a thong, and the crotch was cut out, making it for easier access. The lace was sheer, barely covering her nipples and folds. She should’ve felt sexy, but was more out of place than anything.

“This is so corny, Liam. You bought me something that you’re just going to strip off of me, and I look absolutely ridiculous in it,” She said, crossing her legs to cover the lack of cloth around her opening.

He stood from his chair and crossed the room to touch her. He laced his fingers through her hair and draped his other hand across the small of her back. He tilted her head back, kissing her neck and nipping gently at her exposed skin.

“You’re right. I want to rip this off of you, but I can’t even begin to describe to you how arousing this outfit is. You never have to wear something that you’re not comfortable in, but I assure you it’s a pleasurable experience on my end,” he breathed into her ear, tightening his grip around her waist.

“Oh fuck,” She whispered, his bulge rubbing against her, causing her to gasp in repsonse. “Please, let’s talk later, and fuck now. I need you now, Liam.”

“Say no more, beautiful.” He swept her up and brought her to the bedroom, slamming the door behind them with his foot.

He dropped her onto the bed, and shimmied off his coat jacket, hanging it on the back of the wall.

“You’re so adorable, Liam. In the midst of a heated moment, you still have the mind to hang your coat up carefully so that it doesn’t crease before fucking my brains out,” she giggled.

Liam scrunched his nose up in confusion. “I can be reckless.” He threw his coat on the ground, but after a few seconds of eye contact with Elliott, where she could tell how absolutely tormented he was, he snatched it by the lapels.

Elliott howled with laughter as Liam hung it up carefully, brushing off the dirt.

“You always manage to be right, Elliott,” he softly smiled, unbuttoning his top buttons slowly. “But I don’t mind.” His arms flexed as he rolled his sleeves up. “As long as you don’t mind that I’m a little reckless in private, that’s all that matters.”

Her heart raced as he left the room and returned with the box of toys. Although she’d committed Liam’s body and their sexual encounters to memory, she still found herself enthralled with him like it was the first time they met.

He sat on the bed next to Elliott’s lace-clad body, and tucked a hair behind her ear. “Are you okay with me trying some of the toys out on you? I want to make sure you’re completely comfortable with it before trying anything.”

She smiled, nodding. “Yes.”

He pulled a small handheld vibrator out of the box, just small enough to fit on a finger. “First things first, I want to taste you.”

Her lower stomach clenched and ached as he grabbed her thighs and pulled her to the edge of the bed, parting her legs. Before she could throw out a sexy quip, he had taken advantage of the crotchless design by plunging his tongue into her folds, stroking relentlessly.

She moaned and dug her hands into his hair, tugging at his dark strands. He in turn rumbled against her clit, sending shockwaves through her body.

“Liam, please,” she breathed, feeling his hand on her stomach, holding her bucking hips in place.

He knew exactly what she wanted; he always read her cues perfectly. He slid a finger into her, curling it the way Elliott loved. He moved his hand and tongue in unison, the similar paces bringing her close to the edge.

Just as she was about to release, he pulled away, slipping the vibrator on his fingers. “Is it alright if I try this out on you now?”

She nodded, her body eager for his touch. He massaged her clit slowly with his fingers, keeping in time with the laggard pace of his other fingers pumping in and out of her.

The strong vibration mixed with the pressure of his fingers sent Elliot into another world. Her eyes rolled back, and she focused on the image of Liam’s naked physique, his head between her legs… 

Before she knew it, her legs were shaking. Liam kissed her softly, and reached into the box again, but she placed a hand on his wrist lightly. “We have all weekend to play with them. I need you in me now.”

His pupils dilated even further, and he nodded, standing up to slip off his clothes. Although she’d seen him bare numerous times, it never failed to amaze her that the man whose heart belonged to her was so breathtaking. His body looked as it was crafted by the gods themselves, chiseled to perfection, undoubtedly due to his strict fitness and diet regimen.

He grabbed a condom from the box of toys, but before he could tear it open, she stopped him. “Could we… go without one this time? I’m on birth control.”

She wanted so desperately to tell him the whole truth, but she decided she’d wait until the time was right. It would sound like an irrational decision to him, but she had thought it out nearly every day since she left Cordonia for the first time.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, but… I’ll pull out. Just in case.” He looked unsure, but lowered himself onto the bed next to her anyways.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to. I just thought,” she shook her head. “Nevermind.”

“No, please continue. Don’t ever feel like you can’t be honest with me, Elliott.” He touched her cheek softly.

“The only time we had sex without protection was our first time in the garden, remember?” She smiled softly, reminiscing.

“Of course I remember, my love. It’s one of my favorite times that we’ve been together.”

“Oh, so you’re ranking them now?” She smirked.

“Definitely not. Every time is special, but that one was even more special to me.”

“I was thinking we could kind of recreate the night.”

His eyes twinkled, full of love for the woman he could never fully give himself to. It was depressing, but Elliott pushed those thoughts behind her horniness and flipped on top of him.

“I love when you take charge, El,” he said, his voice verging on a growl.

“You’ve never used that nickname. What gives?” She tried joking, but his bare shaft pressed between her legs was distracting to say the least.

“I don’t know, I thought it was cute,” he shrugged. “I won’t call you that if you don’t like it.”

“No, I love it,” she breathed, and began grinding her hips against his. His grip on her hips tightened, and she leaned forward, kissing him deeply.

He grabbed his dick and rubbed his tip against her opening, teasing her. “You’re a tease.”

He pressed his hips upwards, entering her. Her body shuddered with pleasure as her walls adjusted to his size.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” he groaned, as her hips moved lazily against his.

“It’s so weird hearing you curse, King Liam,” she whispered in his ear, kissing his neck.

His fingers dug into the flesh of her hips. “I’ve never been aroused by a title before, but I have to say that ‘King Liam’ sounds delectable coming from your lips.”

He moved his hands to grip underneath her ass, lifting and lowering her the length of his shaft. She mewled in response, her legs tightening their grip around his middle. “I’ll call you whatever you want as long as you speed it up,” she purred.

He picked up the pace, deepening his thrusts. All of her worries of the future were a fading blip, her sole focus on pleasuring and being pleasured by Liam.

Before she knew it, he’d flipped her, raised her hips, and pounded into her from behind. “Oh,” she cried, her guttural moan muffled by the thick down pillow.

He sped up, his skin smacking against hers relentlessly, the sounds of ecstasy filling the room. She turned back to gaze at him through half lidded eyes, and was met with Liam’s sultry concentrating face. She’d seen it many times before, when discussing security issues with Bastien, but never in this context. 

She felt herself getting wetter and wetter at the sight of him getting off inside of her. She was the one pleasuring him behind the scenes. She was the one exploring parts of him the public would never see, much less Madeleine. She got to see a side of Liam that not a single soul would ever experience. It gave Elliott a new sense of security, despite the harrowing situation they were in.

He reached into the box again and grabbed a handheld vibrator she hadn’t seen before. “I’m close, my love, and I want to make sure you’re there with me,” he panted, before switching it on.

He tried handing it to her, but instead, she guided his hand between her legs. “Oh fuck, El,” he cursed, sweat trickling down his clean shaven chest.

He leaned over her, keeping his fast pace, and placed the quivering toy between her folds. She arched her back in response, pushing herself further into the pillow.

The sensation of the vibrator mixed with getting fucked brought her to the edge quickly, and she released, her body convulsing beneath Liam’s. She shrieked his name, clutching the sheets. “Oh, Liam, fuck.”

He quickly followed her, his pace becoming more jerky as he came with her. “Fuck, I love you, Elliott,” he shouted. The deep commanding bass of his voice reverberated off the stone walls.

When they could finally move, Liam plopped next to her, spooning her while peppering soft kisses across her neck and shoulders.

She couldn’t have imagined herself anywhere else in that moment but Liam’s arms.

----

After they cleaned up, Elliott threw on a robe and flopped onto the couch, turning on the TV to browse through channels.

He sat next to her shortly after, clad with sweats and a plain t-shirt. “This might be a terrible time, but we need to discuss something rather difficult.”

“That phrasing definitely scares me, but go ahead,” she joked, turning the TV off.

“We’re being pressured to pursue producing an heir,” Liam shook his head, pain and regret dripping off of his every syllable.

“Wh… What?” She forced out. Her knees wobbled, the air knocked out of her lungs. She knew it was coming, but not this soon after the wedding.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, his hands balled into fists at his side.

“Why? You just got married! I thought we’d have a couple years at least!” she said, her voice hiking up an octave.

“With Constantine passing away and the terrorist attacks, there’s still some uneasiness within the people and nobles. They’re not sure that we’re still stable as a country. It’s more for the benefit of our image than anything. Trust me, I’ve held off as long as I could.” He couldn’t meet her eyes.

“Are you going to have to fuck her?” Elliott’s voice quivered, her breath unsteady. She didn’t know if she was ready for the answer.

His eyes widened. “No, Elliott, I would never. We don’t have feelings for each other like that. The public doesn’t need to know that we’re not having intercourse.”

Elliott’s chest loosened a bit, but she was still cautious as she waited for him to continue. “We’re either opting for adoption, or artificial insemination. There’s not a fertility issue with either of us, but we’re both not capable of sex with each other. It just can’t happen.” He held her gaze, pleading with her to understand.

“I–I can’t continue this if you’re going to have a child with her, Liam. I’d be a homewrecker. I can’t let you be that kind of dad to your kid,” Elliott shook her head, tears freely falling.

His jaw dropped, and he staggered back. “Elliott, my love, I–”

“I know you love me, and I know that I love you. I know that life is going to be so fucking hard without each other, but I can’t do this to your future kid,” she sobbed, sinking into the couch. “You and Madeleine may have consented to our relationship, but your child didn’t sign up for this. Imagine if they found out about us? He’d think so little of you. I can’t have that.”

Her shoulders shook, her breath heaving in and out of her lungs shakily. She was experiencing a loss like she’d never felt before. She could stay with the love of her life in order to satiate her desire to be with him, but at the expense of horrendous guilt, knowing she could possibly break a family up and warp Liam’s future child’s perception of him.

If they stayed together, and the public found out about them, he’d be painted as the bad guy, even though Madeleine encouraged the affair. She’d throw him to the wolves, and he’d be absolutely obliterated by the press.

There wasn’t a winning solution to this problem. They were going to have to do what was best for everyone else, instead of what they truly wanted.

“I’m so sorry, Liam, but I can’t do this. I love you, but I can’t do this anymore,” she repeated and the excruciating pain in her chest continued.

“Elliott, we can figure it out, I know we can–”

“We can’t, Liam! This is it! This is the last time you’re going to see me!” She shouted, her voice trembling and unstable.

“We can still be friends,” he said softly, kneeling next to her trembling form on the couch. “I still want you in my life no matter what, Elliott.”

Anger flashed through her disjointed train of thought. Before she could gather them together, she unleashed her momentary rage on him.

“You’re really that selfish, Liam? You’re that fucking selfish that you could want to maintain the picture perfect life and get everything you could ever want, while keeping me on a short leash? To be there for you emotionally, physically, sexually, but I get nothing in return?” She stood up, pushing an accusatory finger into his exposed chest.

“I have to work under a pen name because of everything that happened. You can’t even Google my government name without reading about how much of a whore I am. I risked my whole life and career to be with you, and you didn’t have the decency to publicly defend me. You just sided with everyone else except for the woman you supposedly ‘love’,” Elliott continued, pushing a tormented Liam closer and closer to the door.

“I have to fly back home when you’re done with me and leave all of my closest friends. This is my real home. I have people who love me and care for me here. I fell in love with Cordonia, its people, and you. But I’m pretty much a prisoner in a dungeon every time I come over,” she rolled her eyes, refusing to shut her mouth and let Liam speak. “All for sex. All for a quick fuck and less than 48 hours of your time before I’m shuttled off back to the cold, heartless city of New York.”

Liam opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Elliott suddenly cackled, cutting off any attempt of him speaking.

“I forgot to tell you that I landed a book deal with a huge publishing company in the city. They want a few novels out of me. They loved my first rough draft of my book so much that they offered me a multi-book deal,” she smiled, shaking her head.

“That’s incredible, baby–”

“I was excited to tell you and instead all I can think about is how by the time I get my first book printed and released, you’ll have a kid. A family,” Elliott walked away from Liam, and sat at the kitchen table, taking a long swig from the champagne bottle.

After a long moment of silence between them, Liam finally spoke. “I know it seems like the universe is fighting us tooth and nail. I know that this situation is the worst we could be in. But Elliott,” he sat down across from her and lifted her chin up with his finger, “You’re the only woman I’ll ever love, and I won’t give up on this unless you tell me to leave you alone.”

“You know I don’t want to tell you to leave me alone. That’s the last fucking thing I want to do, but that’s how it has to be. You’re being selfish right now, Liam. You’re allowed to be selfish sometimes. This whole situation was selfish, but I guess it was okay since Madeleine okay-ed it,” she took another deep drink from the bottle. “But your child is completely innocent. They don’t deserve to be caught up in your selfish decisions.”

He flinched, and his form deflated. “I think… you might be right, El.” He leaned back in his chair, his eyes glistening. “I guess it was absurd to think this affair would last forever.”

She smiled sadly. “It was fun while it lasted.”

“I’ll always love you, El. I’ve always been truthful about that. You’re the only woman I’ll ever love.”

She leaned forward to cup his face in her palm. “I’ll never love anyone the way I love you, Liam.” She took another gulp of the alcohol. “I guess now that you’re confessing, I’ll have to confess, too.”

His brows furrowed as he waited for her to continue.

“I have an appointment with my OBGYN next week. I’ve always wanted one, but I’ve been seriously contemplating a hysterectomy for months now. Since you married Madeleine, really.”

“What? Why?” His eyes widened in surprise.

“I can’t see myself with children, but I can with you. You’re the only man I could ever picture having children with,” her eyes filled with tears. “It’s not a punishment to myself. I just know in my heart I’ll never want children again.”

His eyes brimmed with tears threatening to spill. “I’m so sorry, Elliott.”

Her chin wobbled as the truth of the situation finally set in. She was no longer his, and he was no longer hers. The crown disrupted the fate of the lovers, and there was no amendment.

----

[prorevenge]

My job tried f*cking me over, so I f*cked them over first

From December 2018 til three weeks ago I worked at a restaurant. It started out a little shitty but mostly amazing. We had lots of staff (on a Saturday night there would be 6 waitresses, 3 food runners, 2 managers and 2 bartenders) and we had a full house almost every night! The customers loved me because of how kind and out there I was and the management liked me because I brought in a LOT of good reviews. The owner (lets call him Bob) loved me and I'd get so many good shifts and so much encouragement.

Fast forward a few months.

Bob sells this place to a guy named Jason (fake name but you get the point). At first Jason seems SUPER nice but this slowly changes when we see how many corners he cuts and how money hungry he is. He finds a new manager because he doesn't like how management were woman (fired one and pretty much forced the other to quit) and this cunt was also a sexist asshole. This new manager constantly commented on my body and how I needed to "fix" things and would comment on how I knew nothing about fitness EVEN THOUGH I AM STUDYING IT. I once went to the bathroom during a shift and he told EVERYONE that I was pregnant (this happened to multiple female staff members) and he'd brush up against everyones tits during shifts "accidentally". Once he called my friend/coworker a prostitute and told me that he was going to bash the shit out of my other coworker (she is 20, he's 50...). He also told everyone that I like to 'slut around on the weekends."

Let's call him Manager bc I'm too lazy to come up with names.

One night I slip on the kitchen floor because there's no wet floor signs and badly injure my knee. I limp up to Jason and say 'I'm in so much pain I've hurt myself" and he turns his back on me and forces me to keep working and refuses to write an incident report. I'm still injured because of this.

We're selling cheap wine to customers for 9 dollars a class (Hardys lmao) and are dealing with constant abuse. Once I politely said no to working a NINE HOUR SHIFT that I wasn't rostered on for and Jason SCREAMED in my face about how I'm "fucking bullshit" and how I "never help them." They'd also try to call me in at like 7pm (we close at like 8:30-9 wtf) and then get angry when I couldn't come in. Most employees were foreign and on cash. The place is infested with bugs and the suppliers have dropped Jason because he can't pay the food bills. The customers stop coming to the point where its a few tables a night. Everything was slowly falling apart. We had to close one Saturday at 7pm because of NO STOCK.

Here comes the revenge.

I see in the newspaper that this restaurant is in court because they haven't paid the suppliers and the suppliers are pushing for liquidation. The staff were told nothing about this and when it gets around that we all know that it may close the Manager says "We owe you nothing. We owe you no notice you are casual."

My coworker has another job that is a fantastic opportunity but says she can still work. They take her off the roster for a week because they don't need her and assume she'd come back once they put her back on. She quits because they treat her like trash.

They fire the coworker that my manager had threatened to bash because she discussed the job on social media. She went to the police once I told her that my manager was constantly threatening to bash her and filed a report. If he makes one more comment he's in shit.

We had 7 staff originally. Two new girls (one was moving states soon) and the other 5 of us were really amazing at our jobs. But since these two quit it left us with five (three of us who could work independently without a trainer.)

After everything we are all so tired of this stupid job. They constantly fuck us over and scream at us. So on the pay day of that week the remaining staff (except the 2 new girls) quit.

I go in in person because I want to be professional about this and the other two girls texted him. Jason corners me in the back of the kitchen and screams in my face. There's nobody around and he's trying to scare me. He calls me a fucking idiot. I slam the door in his because I refuse to be intimidated by a fucking asshole. I didn't owe him notice just like we had been told the restaurant didn't owe US notice.

But it's not over. The pay doesn't come through that night so I tell him I am coming in to get cash since he hasn't paid me. Another employee doesn't get paid either (my best friend) and we go in together. He turns his phone off and fucks off to god knows where. We walk in with my best friends mum (a TERRIFYING 6ft tall angry South African woman) and she goes up to Manager and says "we can do this the easy way or the hard way." but since Jason ain't there Manager can't pay us. The manager is shitting himself though.

So we call his boss Bob. I still have his number from back when he was our boss but now he is the fucking national manager.

Bob drives two hours down to meet us and talk to us about everything thats happened. He promises the pay to come through and the next day it's in.

In about three weeks one bad review a month turned into 20. There were so many terrible reviews about the place (service, hygiene, food) that they closed on Wednesday.

(source) story by (/u/ismynamesam)

[catvampire]

horsemen roommates au 

this one guy is looking for roommates bc apparently his dad left him a huge place in nyc he can’t sell but also he works outside of the state so it’s mostly vacant and desperately needs ppl to look after it (and also share the costs).

four people answer:

a homeless 20-something pickpocket

a dude in his fifties whose well-planned life got fucked around and did prison time for a bit

a street musician who mainly stays afloat by the virtue of finding shit very cheap so he can spend his small earnings entirely on living

the aforementioned street performer’s older kind-of-ex-not-quite-eh-it’s-complicated who is doing better but wants to live closer to her rehearsal space bu fucking rent man

they all answer to the ad individually. not knowing who the others are gonna be.

yeah, those last two make it awkward for a bit

a few months go past and they realise none of them has actually met their last roommate? the guy who owns the place? he just kind of. texts occasionally and send papers and shit to look over and sign or complete or whatever but they have actually never met the person?

“wait, if you haven’t met him, how did you get the key?” “it was on the table when i got here.” “yeah, i took mine there too.” “don’t look at me, the kid let me in“ “uhh---....”

essentially that’s when they realise jack can pick locks, and danny stocks up on code padlocks. just in case.

honestly, it’s a bit weird bc this apartment has a 1:1 criminal to non-criminal rate but also? merritt and jack are otherwise like. tolerable if not even pretty good roommates all things considered so i guess they’ll live with it.

anyway they bicker a lot and there’s a fuckton of domestic stupid stuff but also slowly their all kind of starting to get their life together bc there’s now an ounce of stability in their lives that wasn’t there before. they only wrote a rent contract for a year and bc their fucking fifth roommate has yet to introduce himself to them they’re kinda unsure if they can stay or if this guy’s dead or just ignoring their messages and that’s when dylan shows up on the doorstep and the horsemen are a bit “???” and dylan’s gotten a transfer to nyc and would very much like to sleep in his bedroom now and yeah y’all can stay just let me sleep do you know at what time i needed to be on the plane

essentially it’s all the shenanigans that’s probably happening in canon. just without the whole international magic criminals stakes

when henley and danny’s attempt 2 doesn’t go great it ust gets a tad too awkward for her to keep living there and she moves in and lula is their new tenants and she probably shows up like covered in sfx makeup bc she does indie horror films or smth

within the first week, “combination of red food dye and corn syrup within a week of one another” goes on the list of things banned from the shopping list

the list didn’t exist before that moment but it’s already like seven items long

there’s also a house rules sign that’s been written over and blacked out and torn and glued and put post-it notes on and replaced like four times with a new, improved one, only for it to end up where it started.

lula and jack both claim they don’t know how that keeps happening

danny 100% takes pride in whatever additions he puts there

merritt 100% takes pide in messing with danny’s additions

dylan ran out of copy paper at one point so it’s currently written on the inside of a torn hanukkah gift bag but it’s also the best-holding version yet

feel free to add more??

[vexdrolo]

MY BABIES, INCLUDING TWO COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU.

please give me all the plots, just hmu and we can talk things. (especially for the two new ones bc i don’t know what i’m doing with them yet.) if you click on their names i added links to their pinterests because that’s where i do most of my character development. 

LUELLA MAE “LUE” NASH. 22. artist. creek.

a plain white tee shirt covered in dried paint, honeysuckle, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, skipping rocks, the sound of leaves rustling in the breeze, stargazing, messy blonde hair catching sun rays, lemon and honey, love letters spritzed with perfume, floral sundresses and floppy hats, power ballads, holding a butterfly on an outstretched finger, accidental bruises and band-aid covered knees, blowin’ big pink bubblegum bubbles until they pop, pinky promises, hushed bedtime prayers.

Literal god damn ray of sunshine. Painting is her drug of choice, thank you very much. And wine. Her tolerance is non-existent though. Likes trashy romance novels, pretty things, and people liking her. Sheltered and naive and extremely unworldly. A burnout, but like, a classy burnout. Also an orphan. The apple of her brother’s eye and he will protect her at all costs. Has been in slaughter for the last four years and was really angry about it at first but like it’s not the worst. Teaches beginners painting classes at Vino and Van Gogh and cries a lot for various reasons.

ANGELINA OPHELIA “ANGEL” BOOKER. 24. tour guide. bone.

angelic ○ shimmery eye shadow and highlighter dusted cheekbones ○ cocoa butter ○ spearmint gum ○ velvet scrunchies ○ eyes that roll back in her head so far all you can see is the whites ○ theatrical hand gestures ○ bong hits and acid trips ○ ripped jeans and silky camisoles ○ cheap costume jewelry ○ poetry about flowers and the burden of existence ○ the worn down spine and dog eared pages of a beloved book ○ sun kissed skin ○ wishbones snapped in half ○ a smile that never reaches the eyes

[ tw: drugs]

Angel, doesn’t the name say it all? Grew up on the old Booker Salvage Yard, the youngest of a large brood who word hand-me-downs until she left for college. Majored in English Lit at ASU, now gives enjoyably theatrical tours through old town Slaughter. Seems nice, but is she really though? Seems chill, but is really dramatic as fuck. Seems like she isn’t really what she seems. Just wants to get high, trip balls, and write about her own existential dread. Extremely articulate and well read, but still calls everyone “bro”, “dude” and “my guy”, (regardless of gender).

IMOGEN MATILDA “GINNY” BEAUFORT. 27. guidance counselor. mist.

wrinkled button down’s with the sleeves rolled up ○ perfume covering up cigarette smoke ○ the creak of an old floorboard in an empty house ○ a screeching forgotten tea kettle ○ wilting bluebells ○ scratched out words in a journal ○ dark red lipstick feathering at the edges ○ photoalbums collecting dust on a shelf ○ color coded sticky notes on a wall calendar ○ worn brown leather ○ fingerprints on a fog covered mirror ○ night terrors and cold sweats ○ the evenly paced clicking of a flat heel ○ a thousand yard-stare ○ cut-out obituaries held together with an alligator clip ○ broken porcelain dining plates ○ the flickering light of a candle you swear you blew out .

[ tw: death ]

Que Yoav’s cover of Where Is My Mind playing in the background. Haunting and a bit peculiar - with a deep love of button down shirts dark wash and brown leather shoes. May or may not be convinced that she sees ghosts, and that’s really none of your damn business. Smokes like a teenager worried her parents are gonna catch her doing it - but they can’t, because they’re dead. Depressed, afraid, and emotionally constipated. But she’s mostly a good person, and has a really cute dog named sable to make up for it. Came back to Slaughter about a year ago (and some change), currently trying to deal with the newest in a long string of deaths in her family. 

NADINE MARIE “NADS” BERNARD. 22. fashion student. iron. 

double-breast trechcoat; cat-eye sunglasses; a passport with too many stamps / monogrammed paper shopping bags hanging from each arm / bleach-stained washcloths; lysol wipes / pencil skirts with thick white stockings / a piano scale / milk & honey; champagne kisses / words of ice; temper of fire / tennis bracelets and silk blouses / the cut of skates across fresh ice / pale lips; pale skin; dark eyes / a silent scream.

nadine is one of my unfinished babes so i don’t have her entirely fleshed out. but she’s a little carrie bradshaw and a little miranda priestly, and a pinch of serena van der woodsen. she’s taking a break from fashion school to look for her half-sister, manon, which is why she’s in slaughter.

DARLA JANE  “DJ” AUERBACH. 26. cam girl. rot. 

oops don’t have an aesthetic thing written for her yet, please see pinboard. 

darla is also unfinished and yet again i do not have her entirely fleshed out. but idk she’s fiona gallagher meets effy stonem with a super tragic backstory. she’s one of a set of co-dependent triplets. an actual train wreck. yes she’s a cam girl but is she a successful one? not really, she doesn’t enjoy men telling her what to do. :/

[coreytravelogue]

Vancouver, BC - September 7, 2020 (Part 2)

A week late or so I know, technically I was working on this last week but writing while drinking beer on a empty stomach is not a good idea. Regardless though I don’t think the words were flowing very well for me that day. I hope to rectify that today.

It is Labour Day today, one year ago I was in Berlin more than likely playing the beer stock market and feeling burnt out from my trip one week in. Not too much like i have felt the year due to the pandemic basically ruining nearly everyone’s lives. I can’t say much as most of my issues are first world problems but to say this year hasn’t been stressful for me would be a bold face lie. In all honesty last year was much more stressful for me but what has made this year stressful is because I haven’t been able to travel at all where last year I was able to. That is the topic of discussion today, basically continue where I left off from the last blog.

2019 was full of many trips in of itself, 2019 was a year of more changes for me. My girlfriend moved in with me to live with me and my room mates which caused its own set of drama but I am not going to bring it up. It was also a year where for a good portion of time I was doing the work of 3 people which lead to last year being exceedingly stressful to where if I didn’t do the travel I did do I would have probably went insane.

The first trip of the year was to Los Angeles/Anahiem, California for my Easter long weekend. This was for my girlfriend predominantly at least at the very start of it. My girlfriend has a fascination with Disneyland/Disney World and given how she isn’t as much of a lover of travel as I am I wanted to take her to a place we could agree on collectively but I am not going to lie who enjoyed this trip more could be debated.

I have been to Disneyland many times in my life most of which with my parents as a child or a teen who had no idea how to handle himself in another country. My first actual Disneyland experience as a adult without my parents was Disneyland Paris but tell you the truth it barely counts to me and it is nowhere close to the same experience. With that said coming into this I didn’t think much of this trip. As long as I could go on to Splash Mountain and Jayne hat many statues I got what I wanted out of it.

I wasn’t prepared for the child in me to come alive walking into Disneyland for the first time in 18 years. Much of it hadn’t changed for the most part but I felt like I was experiencing it for the first time in of itself given being an adult. For 4 nights we hit just about every bit of Disneyland and the California Adventure which I never got to see when I was there last but it would have been in it’s infancy at that time.

To tell you the truth the entire trip itself was just one big positive memory. Whether it was going on Splash Mountain 4 times, Jungle Cruise 3 times a least followed or more importantly seeing my girlfriend happy being in Disneyland.

I didn’t enjoy the expensive Uber rides going to and from Disneyland though but it could not be helped given how utterly useless the transit was for us there in LA which still utterly shocks me.

If I was to return to LA again I don’t think I would be going to Disneyland I would probably be spending more time on the LA side of the city going to Universal Studios and explore the downtown area more as I know there was far more places to Jayne hat that I didn’t get to go to given the short time frame with had.

LA is such a big city, it would take at least 2 weeks to full explore and even then you couldn’t get through all of it.

Kelowna was another place I hadn’t been for a very long time, longer than even Disneyland. It was a place I thought both me and my girlfriend could collectively enjoy together but to tell you the truth it wound up being more of a disappointment than a fun experience for both of us.

I wasn’t expecting this place to be as fun as it was for me as a child but even then not much of it was fun to begin with outside of going to Scandia which was on our first night. It was there where I discovered my girlfriend like shoot em ups which came from left for for me. For much of my life I always craved having someone to play games like Time Crisis 2 with but never had anyone who would. We wound up getting in the top ten there which to me is pretty impressive given how old that game is and how much use that game has gotten. Also got to watch her do her mail in vote for her home country. The worry though was trying to find another Australian witness, surprisingly she found one as I was playing go carts.

Those were the only real tangible happy memories from that trip, the rest of me basically wondering around aimlessly trying Kelowna’s beer and being for the most part disappointed.

Kelowna felt like a amalgamation of BC and Alberta which i guess I can't be surprised, much of Northern BC has always been a major playground for Albertans looking for a cheap trip.

I don’t need to come back to Kelowna anytime soon myself, not for another 20 plus years, maybe not that long because Kelowna wasn’t that bad I just don’t need to go back there anytime soon again.

The year prior I was able to go to Whitehorse; the furthest north i have ever been in Canada, this time I would go north once again to another territory but this time Northwest Territories.

I was worried that 3 days wasn’t going to be enough to explore this city if you could call it that it was probably smaller than Whitehorse. I am probably wrong but it felt very small to me and there wasn’t really anything to do there unless you wanted to came or escape the world, so I got pretty bored pretty fast here but they did have a wonderful brewery with good food. If I was to go back it would be to go to that brewery.

I did go to Toronto for a second time as I pointed out in my last blog but I am not going to go into it, I only really had two nights here when I should have tried to make a long weekend out of it, with that said it would not have made a difference. I knew I had to conserve my energy for the big trip of the year, one that was 5 years in the making; Europe round 2.

The plan had always been to return to Europe, I knew within one day of coming home I needed to go back there and every plan I made from that point in on to even now involved/involves going back.

The original plan was to go back to school in 2015 and once I graduated in 2017 I would backpack Europe again, return home and start my new career however my new career came calling early. By 2016 I was already working in the department I am working for now, a student work job in 2016 that lead to a full time contract to work for all of 2017. By 2018 the plan was once my contract was up I was going to travel again but they extended my contract again and well you get the story I became a full time worker where I am today. So by 2019 it obvious that I had to return to Europe the only trick was where.

Given I wasn’t able to use all of my leave time in 2018 it granted me a significant boost in leave time in 2019 which would make it possible for me to spend 2 weeks in Europe while still being able to spend 2 weeks in Newfoundland with my folks however there is a big difference between traveling Europe for 2 weeks than it was for 2.5 months like I did in 2014.

I knew I had to be exact with where I was going, no wasted days or efforts. I needed to know exactly where I was going and for long however it is nearly impossible to pack one country in Europe for 2 weeks much less Europe itself. So I decided to focus most of my time in Germany, why? For the obvious reasons:

1) I loved it there last time I was there. It was the first true country I got explore deeply like I did last time where I hit Dusseldorf, Koln, Berlin and Munich. I could hit all four of those places again and probably have a lot of fun, and I did at least 2 of them this time around.

2) I met a lot of good people in Germany, friends whom I still keep in touch with to this day. This played into my choice for Germany big time which I will get into soon.

3) It is a very easy country to visit. Not very dangerous at all really for me at least, the transit is good and it is just a country for which I feel at home with the most tof any other country I have ever been to.

4) Beer, pretty self explanatory I think. After having true German hefenwiezen in Hahndorf, Australia I knew if i needed the best of my favourite beer style I had to get it at it’s origin.

Look without trying to ramble on though I know I will on this subject I had to make the most of my time in Europe. As much as I wanted to see new places/countries in Europe I also wanted to see old friends I had not seen in 6 years and catch up with them. 

These people helped me out big time then and they would wind up helping me out again as I would basically cough surf with them again.

I knew I was going to arrive and leave from Amsterdam so it was basically about how I could fit about 2 weeks of time in to make that balance. My original plan was to go to somewhere in Belgium, Dusseldorf, Berlin and Nuremberg in Germany, Prague in Czech Republic and then find a way to get back to Amsterdam and hit back home. 

I hit up 4 of my previous couch surfing hosts to see if they would host me. Look either way this is going to sound like me taking advantage of them and in a way it was but at the end of the day I came to most of those places to see them. If they said no I would totally get it and I would have tried to get an airbnb. I mean if Maria said no she had no room I would have still did an airbnb in Dusseldorf because I wanted to hang with her again and explore Dusseldorf again.

I contacted Maria first and she said yes which was great. I found out my host who saved my bacon moved from Saltcoat Scotland to Berlin so I asked her and she said yes so I had that locked down. When I looked up Katharina early on I found out she no longer lived in Koln but in Gent, Belgium so it was like hitting two birds with one stone. Not only would I get to hang with an old friend but see a new country as well. I asked her and I knew she was going to say yes and she did. So I had Gent, Belgium, Dusseldorf and Berlin, Germany locked up but what about my forth contact. I am not going to bring the person up, I don't want to shame them or anything. I was hoping that that person would say yes or at least say something and say they were interested in meeting up with me in Czech Republic. Of all the people who said they would host me again they said it the most but when I asked I got nothing. So realizing I had to nail down my locations and dates I moved along from going to Prague and decided to split that time in going to Luxembourg City, Luxembourg and Leipzig, Germany. So I basically had my itinerary nailed down.

I would arrive in Amsterdam and immediately take a train to Gent where I would stay with Katharina and her boyfriend for 2 nights then go to Luxembourg City for 2 nights, go to Dusseldorf for about 2 nights, Berlin for 3 nights, Leipzig for 3 nights, Nuremberg for 3 nights then Amsterdam for 2 nights.

I flirted with the notion of couch surfing this time again but given the short periods of time I would be staying in each place and how little time I knew I would have in each place I felt like I could do without the hassle of spending so much time, time I did not have basically pitching to strangers to hopefully let me stay with them for 2-3 nights. Even if they said yes to me what if they suddenly backed out on me last minute? Thankfully that never happened to me but if it did that would seriously fuck up my trip so I felt like you know what I have had lots of good experiences with airbnb I am just going to use it this time as well. So I decided to airbnb Leipzig and Nuremberg. Luxembourg City and Amsterdam were too expensive to airbnb plus most of the more affordable places were too far from the city centre so i decided to go to a hostel for that one. I thought about maybe camping in Amsterdam again but looking back I am thankful I did not especially with what I had to do during my last night in Amsterdam.

I had everything set all I needed to do was just get there.

Flying to Europe this time was much different than I did the first time but not without it’s own level of stress. When I flew in 2014 I landed in London and had to figure out a way to get from Heathrow to Luton. I had to figure out how one would do that within two hours and thankfully I was able to get on my flight to Amsterdam. This time however I was flying from Vancouver to Chicago then to Amsterdam.

Chicago has always been a city I was interested in seeing but this time around I could only see the airport. I am not going to lie as I was jogging to my gate I wanted to hope to see the semblance of the Home Alone 1 and 2 scenes of the family running to their gate but I seen very little of that (it was from 1990-92 so I don't know what I was thinking). My original plan was to start drinking and hope to knock myself out but given the last few other trips I had made of similar length that trick didn’t seem to work out anymore so instead I took a melatonin and night time NyQuil instead. For the 9 hour flight I probably only got 4 hours of sleep and spotty at best.

When I finally arrived in Amsterdam my time there was much more smoother than I thought it would be. I over analyzed this part of my trip when I should have done more of that for getting from Luxembourg City to Dusseldorf though that bit could not have been planned for. When I came to Amsterdam I had to show my print out to the ticket people but I could not get a straight answer from them as to how this ticket to Gent was going to work. I was so used to tickets really just being one way and that is that. You go on a train and show them your ticket and you sit on that train till you get to your destinations, any transfers required a secondary ticket and so on, this was different. When I went to the Amsterdam ticket person they basically told me that my ticket is like a day pass for Belgium rail; meaning even though I am just going to Gent in theory I could have gone anywhere in Belgium on that ticket for the day. So with their assurances I waiting and inevitably boarded my train to Gent which was two hours and allowed me to basically map out more of what I was going to be doing.

I tried to take the lessons I learned in Europe the first time and apply them to this and I am so glad I did this time because if I didn’t I would have been so fucked. The main lesson I learned backpacking in Europe which I learned early was to always have your entry and exit plans mapped out before hand jus tin case you needed to leave sooner than expected. So I was completely expecting to have to find my way to Katharina’s place when I arrived and know how I was going to find my way back. Thankfully I didn’t have to worry about that as they were going to meet me at Starbucks. Ahh Starbucks as it was in 2014 it remained and was my wifi beacon to the rest of the world in keeping in contact with people back home.

The positive memories as it would be for when I would meet up with Maria was hanging out with Katharina and her new boyfriend Dirk who would up being a pretty cool dude to hang out with. Of course the greatest memory of this part of the trip was betting my shoe to drink bad or I should say strong Belgian ale which nearly fucked me up, so much that i needed Dirk’s help to finish it. By the end of it I felt like such a light weight. I made sure I ate quite a bit before this point so I felt like maybe it was me being weak but then when 5 Dutch men came in and ordered 2 of the same large ass drinks and drank it all themselves and got shit faced it mad eye feel a helluva lot better about myself especially since i had two beer before that big as beer and one more after.

However the other great memories I would have would be just hanging with Kat and Dirk either around the city or at their home having vegan food or playing boardgames with them. These sort of trips are always best spent with friends and those who want to go with you. They gave me more than enough time to do my own exploring while still coming around to hang when they could. 

I wish I spent one more day here but not because of the city, the city itself wasn’t all that impressive it was more that I wanted to hang with Kat and Dirk more because I knew it would be another long time before I would see them again.

They joined me for a third of the way to Luxembourg as they had to go somewhere else along the way. While I did not cry this time saying goodbye to Katharina I was sad. I don't have very many friends in my life. My friends are few and far between and those I feel like I can just hang my hat with and be nothing more than just a chum with even rarer for me especially now.

This longing would hit me in Luxembourg City.

I knew nothing about Luxembourg for the longest time, it wasn’t till 2017 that I started becoming very interested in going to this spec of a country. In 2017 while I was working cataloging records which is a rather mind numbing job to do most of the time but to tell you the truth I loved it because it allowed me to escape into music, audio books, talk radio, podcasts or whatever but one of the others was listening to vlogs on different countries. In all honesty I never got much from them that I didn’t already sort of know. Most vlogs really don’t give you a gauge of what it is like being there. Or maybe they just don’t give me the Information I want to know like how are the people to tourists, where is the good beer, where is the cheap places to go or where are the hidden gem areas to go to get away from the tourist traps? 

I stumbled upon Luxembourg City and everything about it seemed cool and beautiful and the bet part about it is everyone said it can be explored quickly so for someone like me who knew the next time he would be in Europe he would have a very short amount of time there found a appeal in a place like this. I am glad I took that plunge because Luxembourg City was a pretty cool place to go to.

From the moment I saw this city I was immediately smitten as I have said last year with this city. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen period. It has such a mix of natural scenery mixed with old school architecture. With that said I knew I had 2 nights here and I had to make the most of it. For the most part I do feel like I did.

This city can be done in two full days but with that said 3-4 days would be enough to get everything.

The strongest memories I have of this part of the trip was all in the first night to tell you the truth. By this point I was coming to realize that Europe doesn’t have a craft brewing scene I had to figure out where the good bars were that could give me a clue of what kind of beer this place produced. I thankfully found a place called Craft Corner where I was able to not only try beer from the country but from places I would not get to try this time around like from Estonia, Denmark, Ukraine and even from the USA weirdly enough. I drank like a fish that night but the real adventure of this part of the trip was trying to find a way home.

It was during this time where I missed my girlfriend whom for the first time since January this was the longest I had went without being around her and I missed her. I would up getting lost in the “downtown” area of Luxembourg City because I was too drunk to know where I was going at night that I inevitably caved and took a bus back only to realize if I had just gone straight in a certain direction I would have gotten back to the hostel. I also ate McDs for the first time in years but I also got to have Luxembourg wheat beer which was surprisingly good.

The worst memory however was leaving Luxembourg and how I nearly fucked myself over because I much rather have gone on time with my train rides than early when I could and I should have.

I would definitely go back to Luxembourg City as I am sure there are places I haven’t Jayne hatted and I wouldn’t mind trying their wheat beer again but with that said I would only come back if it is on the way to something and if there is time so when I do come back it is unknown.

Dusseldorf was easily the highlight of the entire trip but also my biggest regret, regret because I didn’t put more time here than I should have.

More time may as well have been my biggest regret even though I was very short of it. I will try and save my hindsights and lessons for the end of this blog but I really do wish I spent more time in Dusseldorf.

I would even say I enjoyed my time in Dusseldorf this time around more than I did the first time which says something. Dusseldorf was the city that introduced me to Germany and its culture.

While I didn’t get to meet as many people here as I did the first time around I did get to hang with Maria, her boyfriend and her friends. I even go to be interviewed for the first time for a article (https://www.wz.de/nrw/duesseldorf/wie-couchsurfer-die-welt-und-duesseldorf-entdecken_aid-46027727?output=amp&fbclid=IwAR24SDFtbEt_lGkKdADxxq5MY3hDoDHutYcPbRrRX1nMSS9NOLzaeys_ul8).

From the translations I found she did get a few things wrong about me and Maria’s story but at the end of the day its meh just cool that me and Maria got to be interviewed with how we met through couch surfing.

The best memories were playing Mario Kart with her and her boyfriend, going to Frida which was a cafe in Dusseldorf on top of just having German beer here there and everywhere.

I could have and should have spent an extra day or two but I didn’t. Why didn’t I? Well the reason I had back then was that I didn’t want to put them out for long. I didn’t want to make it seem like I was taking advantage of their hospitality by staying at their place for a long period of time. By the time I got to Dusseldorf I came to realize that I wasn’t inconveniencing either Katharina or Maria at least that is what I got from them both of them. If anything both Maria and Kat seemed to enjoy having me around because it meant someone new to hang out with. Someone to show their world to and such. That being said I like to consider myself a pretty good guest I have always tried to be neat, tidy, quiet (when needed) and respectful of the spaces I occupy. Whenever i could i tried to pay for any food we all ordered together, any groceries I would try to pay even though they always refused.

Bottom line is I miss Maria as a friend the same as Katharina. Just having a friend to just travel around with, have a few beers and games with and feel like I don’t have to be anything but their friend. Not a doctor, moving company or anything. I feel like that is unfair to those friends and family who confide in me and see me as a rock in their life but honesty there are times where it exhaust me having to be the parents or the rock for people when all I want to do is just be an equal and sometimes just be friends. Talk about video games, movies, travel beer, our relationships etc etc without feeling like we need to cry on the others shoulder or be the shoulder. That is part of friendship and part of being a good friend but how can say it......sometimes i just want a friend I can have fun with and not have to worry about anything else but that. It was refreshing to be able to do that with people. I don’t get to do that with anyone very often, if ever anymore. Which also depresses me when I think of it. 

Leaving Dusseldorf made me sad and it also made me angry because I wanted to spend more time there but I couldn’t and I wasn’t entirely sure if I was ready for Berlin but it didn’t matter whether I was ready for Berlin I had to go.

I hit a wall in Berlin and I should have seen it coming but then this is a hindsight moment now and it was a lesson I learned pretty quickly. It had been 5 years since I did this kind of traveling and even when I did do this kind of travel I always tried to give myself time to take my time in places. When I did my 2 months in 2014 I didn’t hit my first wall till I hit Dublin which was one month into the trip but the thing is I would give myself 3-7 days in most places and then I would move on. I was also 5 years younger at that point. So here I was barely one week into my trip and I was already feeling travel fatigue and it kind of turned me into an asshole for a little bit. Thankfully my 3rd and last host for the trip Missy understood or at least I think she understood.

I think it stemmed from something as small as not being able to purchase multi day transit passes like i did in Berlin last. When I was in Berlin in 2014 I am very sure I was able to purchase 48 hour transit passes which would allow me to use the transit anytime I wanted to for that 48 hour span. Now I couldn’t even find day passes which angered the fuck out of me.

The biggest regret from my first time in Berlin was not being able to experience the night life and to tell you the truth I still wasn’t able to this time but that is my fault both times. I didn’t want to be the one coming back to Missy’s place smashed from partying and to tell you the truth by the time I was in Berlin I had no interest in that anyway. I still wanted to try more German beer but by this point I was getting somewhat jaded. I came to Germany assuming that I would going to get a real good education in beer and swim in it. Instead I barely got to enjoy it the way I wanted to. Maybe it was better this way because I knew my body wasn’t able to handle it the way it used to.

I did get to hit the places I enjoyed going to the first time around again all while Jayne hatting anywhere I could. To tell you the truth if I spent another few days in Berlin I could probably Jayne hat enough statues to use as my FB profile pic for a year or two.

Biggest memories from this visit to Berlin was the night I went bar hoping. I started at this place called Berliner Republik which had this beer stock exchange one would play which I did. I had curry pizza which wasn’t very good but it was enough to carry me over the night. I followed it by going to two micro breweries in the area, neither impressed me much to tell you the truth.

On my way back home that night I at least got to buy the beer that really opened my eyes to German beer especially hefenwiezens; Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen. It tasted a lot like the Summerwiezen here in Canada but just better in a way. I had it again this time cold and in a bottle but it just didn’t taste the same. it could have been because it was in a bottle and not on tap (I am that picky now) or maybe my tastes have just become more refined now. I mean one of my favourite beers used to be White Bark witbier from Driftwood but the last few times I have had that beer I could not be bothered with it at all. Regardless though Störtebeker Bernstein-Weizen is the reason why I am a Hefeweizen alcoholic.

The last good memory was on my last night, I was just so frustrated that I wasn’t finding the beer I wanted to have this time around that i just decided to just go to the nearest bar and just try something. Thankfully there was a hostel/slash craft beer bar not far from where I stayed that I didn’t even know was a craft beer place till I went in. I was pleasantly surprised and tried their beer. The place was called The Circus.

The less than pleasant memories of Berlin was trying to figure out Berlin’s transit system. It was confusing as fuck for me at first but once I figured it out it made more sense. I think looking back I was just so frustrated that it clouded my thoughts in dealing with Berlin, I wasn’t ready for Berlin the first time I went there and I wasn’t ready for it again this time sadly.

I don’t know if I will go back to Berlin anytime soon, if I do it will be with my girlfriend and it will be at a hostel, airbnb or hotel. I feel now I have expectations of what to expect and how to look for what I need in Berlin to have more fun there. Every time I go I feel like I know what I am looking for and each time I get it wrong. I am hoping the 3rd time I go someday I will be more prepared but I think it starts with staying in a place where I am not inconveniencing someone or myself.

Missy was as always a great host but I could tell her husband was not keen on the idea of couch surfing and letting strangers stay with them which I totally understood. It felt very awkward for me hearing how angry he was as the situation, he was nice to me but I knew he wasn’t happy with Missy about this. I feel like I should just avoid this altogether next time. These are the things I wanted to avoid with couchsurfing this time around.

As I have said before probably, I put Leipzig here as basically my do nothing point. I remember telling Missy I was going here and she asked me why since there was nothing there. Well there was stuff here, at least I thought there was but to tell you the truth I didn’t even care if there wasn’t. All I knew was that I needed to relax, I needed a vacation from my vacation and Leipzig was basically that.

I chose Leipzig because it was the birthplace of Gose beer which I have noticed has been trending as beer as of late here in BC but I remember when it was only Driftwood who did in in BC and it was my introduction to it so I thought that its source must have it the best. I was wrong for the most part, the oldest brewery in the city that bragged about having it made it way too syrupy and it just didn’t taste right to me.

It didn’t matter though I knew this city didn’t have much which I felt is knocking it it when I don’t mean to me. It is a nice city, it has a great mix of new and old architecture in it that makes it unique to any place I have ever been to. However I just wanted to sleep in and get drunk which I did. I mean I already found my go to German hefenweizen but it was here that I really just sat in my room at my airbnb and just drank Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse. I am sure it is not my favourite German hefe however it was the most excessible of all of the hefes I found in Germany.

My memories were really just that, doing nothing and sleeping in because I needed to. I got much needed rest during those 2-3 nights I was there which allowed me to get through the last two cities.

I expected more from Nuremberg than what I got from it to tell you the truth, I was expecting a mini Berlin chalk full of museums and culture. I didn’t get that, in fact I barely found any good museums there which I found disappointing. Realizing this and knowing I was going to spend my last 3 nights in Germany here was very depressing for me. I felt like if I knew this I would have just split my 6 days in Leipzig and Nuremberg in with Gent and Dusseldorf.

My first night in Nuremberg was when my depression decided to pop in and attack me because I was lonely missing my girlfriend, I was lonely missing having friends I could have fun with, I was depressed knowing full well that this was going to be my last time in Germany for some time and I chose poorly. I went to the only craft beer place I could find in old town and tried their beer and even then I wasn’t really impressed. I still got sufficiently drunk but still depressed that everything was coming to an end and I wasn’t satisfied with my experience. So I made my way from north old town and tried to find my way out of it in my drunken depressed haze. The whole moment in time for me would be comparable to the double guitar solo moment of the Hotel California or the last half of that song. 

I came to Germany for craft beer I also came to experience beer gardens the way I experienced them or I should say stumbled upon them in Koln which was how I fell in love in hefenwiezens. Nuremberg was my last stop in Germany and I had not found any beer gardens. The best experience i had with beer in Germany up to that point was with Maria in Dusseldorf mainly because Dusseldorf was one of those places where most of the breweries we all around the same area, close enough to try them all in succession and have fun with. Everywhere else the only times I could have true on tap beer was from micro breweries who would not serve the hefes I wanted to begin with. the Hefe nirvana I hoped for was nowhere to be found.

It was in this dark cloud that I stumbled up Old Town Festival of Nuremberg. Thankfully I came to Nuremberg at the right time as they were celebrating their old town’s anniversary. Sadly however that night I was way too drunk to even take part in it. I was so drunk that I know many were looking at me like some drunk dumb ass who had too much. I thankfully got home and spent the rest of my night submitting to my depression as it took hold of me for the rest of the night.

The next two nights however were the polar opposite as I would have huge breakfasts followed by pint after pint after pint after pint of hefenweizen from Spalter, Glosser, Augustine, Paulaner, Ludwig Konig and every other German brand out there. As though the German beer gods felt sorry for me knew my love was true gave me what I wished to send me off from Deutschland. 

I even got to hang out with a group of older German men and talk about craft beer with them.

That was really the best memory from my time here. Would i go back to Nurmberg? Only if there is a celebration of sorts where the beer gardens are brought out. If so I am there but if not I don't need to come back here.

On Sept 15 I left Nuremberg, Sept 15 was basically a travel day and one that reminded me of how big Germany really was because it was a 8 hour trip from Nuremberg to Amsterdam. By the time I got to Amsterdam it was too late to really do anything there unless I wanted to party and after the last two nights in Nuremberg I wasn’t interested, I also knew that I needed to get some sleep because I knew I wouldn’t get any for the last night I was going to be in Europe.

Thinking about this now is even more painful given the pain of my fantasy hockey team sucking last year on top of this pandemic basically ruining the greatest chance I would ever get to win but the thing is I had to do my hockey draft 5 hours before flying out of Amsterdam. I begged the guys to reschedule it even a day after but they refused and I got stuck with having to do my most important draft ever at 4 am at a hostel in Amsterdam.

Thankfully I had what is called a Ginger shot specifically for this. Maria works for a company that deals with health foods and drinks. She gave me two of these. One to try which I did before I left Dusseldorf, it definitely helped with my hang over that morning but this time I did not have a hang over I just needed to stay away and thankfully this did the trick and I was as ready to go as Freddie Mercury during Live Aid. Despite only having 2 hours of sleep after that ginger shot I was ready to go and had the best draft I ever. A team that nearly won best in season though I spent most of the season in first place, my team was primed for the playoffs built specifically for it but sadly due to the pandemic that never happened.

If I ever came back o Amsterdam I would definitely go to Camp Zeeburg in Amsterdam, I really missed going to that place. Outside of that I don't know if I would go back to Amsterdam, maybe for my girlfriend because of the museums but Amsterdam I don’t think is my kind of place. I definitely think it is a great introduction to Europe travel. If I was to recommend a place for someone who had never traveled to Europe before Amsterdam would definitely be a good primer but there are too many better placed to go.

So Sept 17 came and it was time to go, outside of some useless stress getting on the train to the airport checking in and getting on the plane was painless. The flight back however was slightly painful as I don’t think I slept much on my way back to Canada either. I remember stopping off in Toronto and having witbier and and a stour from Mill Street which was good followed by another 4.5 hour flight back to Vancouver where I got back to real life again.

Me and my girlfriend did go to Seattle but I have already talked about that for the most part, my trip to Newfoundland is self explanatory as I have done that so many times.

So what have I learned this time around?

I think when I do return to Europe I need to have a travel cell phone for starters. I was able to get away with it 2014 on my tablet however even then and especially now I feel like i missed out on so many good things I could have found if I had just had a travel cell phone to use to navigate me through Europe. I never bothered because I always felt like it was more trouble than it was worth to do that and even now I have no idea how I would be able to do it but I do not I need to start considering it for the next time I travel outside of the country. I feel as though I need to buy myself a travel phone that doesn't have anything linked or synced to it so I can use sim cards from anywhere and use that phone for travel because relying on just my tablet and starbucks barely got me around this time around.

If I go back to Germany I am not going to go after the craft beer areas but the actual traditional breweries next time. This may be much harder than finding craft breweries given many of these places are in lesser known cities in Germany but at least I would be able to get what I want from them. I know i have to start in Munich since many of the breweries i love seem to gravitate around there. Bottom line is I really need to do more digging up and studying of actual breweries in Europe because craft beer is just not at the level there as it is here and you know what I am fine with it. If I am in Germany I just want the hefes and I feel if I do return to Germany again it will be on a full on beer tour that is if my brain and my innards are still functional by then. 

When I finished my trip I felt I was now tired of Germany but I am not going to lie I still would like to go back and if I could only go back there I would have no problem but with that said there are way to many other places to see in Europe that I need to see, I can't spend all my time in Germany no matter how much I love it. I will just have to apply my beer brewery search I have learned to the next countries I have seen.

Another thing I have learned is that I have to slow down, as much as seeing a much as possible would be great I can't go about doing 2 nights in a place then move for 2 weeks straight. I doubt I would have been able to do it at 29 and i know and I can't do it at 35. I feel as though 3-4 days in each place is optimal and always give myself a city or a point in time where I can do something if I wanted but I don't need to and I can just sleep in. Adamooka was that for me in Australia though I didn’t need it so much there, Leipzig was that this time around as well.

Not going to lie I feel my second trip to Europe wasn’t as good as my first but that was a tall order to being with with expectations that could never have been met and i knew that coming in.

When I went to Europe the first time I really had free reign to go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted. If I wanted to spend a week in Koln I could have. If I hated being in Inverness and wanted to leave the next day I could and did. I was able to pace myself where this time around I did not have that luxury.

The more I think about it now the more it makes me think about whether it is worth it taking leave without pay just to do it again. All I can ever think about it trying to make the most of my life and my youth while I have it. I am often thinking of my dad and how the love of travel was instilled in me through him in how he would drag me and my family cross Canada multiple times on top of other places. I only rediscover that love when I went to Seattle the first time and cemented it in Europe. It makes me wonder if it would be possible by the time I am about to turn 40 when I have gotten 7 years into my pension if I can request leave on top of leave without pay and get away with it. I doubt I could to tell you the truth but it is something I want to look into.

I can’t help but think about how I could and would do 2.5 months in Europe this time and how much I long for it. In a way I feel as though I would nearly do the same itinerary but maybe a few changes. Nothing gets my hopes up anymore than actually looking at a map and plotting where to go on it, there is a reason why I own about 4 world maps, well three as the forth is more just showing the planet as it doesn’t should cities or places.

I can look at it for hours plotting where I would go.For shits and giggles lets go into two scenarios if I was to do 76 days again.

If I redid my first tour I would actually hit up more museums in Amsterdam, do it for 3 days this time. Go to Koln and Dusseldorf but probably spend a week in Dusseldorf hanging with Marie and her boyfriend so that is 10 days (3 in Koln, 7 in Dusseldorf), 1 week in Berlin this time in the city not outside it or with a family and 3 days in Munich to get the whole Oktoberfest vibe but I would not be around it much. I would spent a week in Istanbul even though I think that area is tense right now, there is just so much one could see there that I didn’t see before. 3 days in Dublin followed by 3 or maybe 4 days in Gallway depending on how my liver is holding out. Oh Gallway was such a moment in time for me that is for sure. I would not go to Cork this time.

4 days in Belfast spending less time looking for vinyl records and more just exploring the place. 3 days in Glasgow and 3 days in Edinburgh, 4 days in Cardiff and 4 days in Paris.

I got 20 days left now, I don’t want to deviate too much from the original itinerary so i feel the rest of these days should be spent giving the UK my full attention. 3 days in Inverness to give it a chance but this time make sure I have a place booked this time, 3 days in Aberdeen, 3 days in Liverpool, 3 days in Manchester and 7 days in London. I am leaving 3-4 days of a buffer for this trip so I would be able to use that in case I hit a wall of it I felt i needed more time in one or two places or not. I feel as though I may risk burning out again with this trip but there is a reason why I am doing a week in many places. I mean a week in Dusseldorf should be stress free, week in Berlin won't but at least I could go at my own pace this time, a week in Istanbul should be pretty good though I wouldn’t have the same host i did this time around which sucks. Plus 7 days in London feel is more than enough for me.

If I was to use the 76 days now however without using the same itinerary? London, Paris or Amsterdam are often the cheapest starting destinations but I feel as though Amsterdam would make the most sense for me again. I would stay 3 days there, 5 days in Dusseldorf, 3 days in Hamburg (Germany), 4 days in Copenhagen (Denmark), 4 days in Gothenburg (Sweden), 4 days in Oslo (Norway), 4 days in Stockholm (Sweden), 1 travel day to get to Helsinki (Finland) then spend 4 days there. 4 days in Tallinn (Estonia), 4 days in Riga (Latvia), 4 days in Vilnius, 4 days in Warsaw, 4 days in Prague and 4 days in Bratislava.

I got around 19 days left now. So 4 days in Vienna, 4 days in Zurich, 1 day of travel to Catania where I will spend 3 days there before getting a ferry to Malta where I will spend 5 days on that island. This will leave me 2 days to find a way to get to Amsterdam.

Mind you this would probably be another exhausting trip and I would probably make some chances that would allow me more time to relax. If so I would be fine with cutting the last bit of my travel in Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Malta in order to make sure the rest of the trip is good. The main mission of this trip is to hit the nordic region hard. 

To tell you the truth if it were not for COVID-19 me and my girlfriend would probably be in Australia right now, If that was the case we would have stayed in Adelaide while travelling to Perth, Adamooka, Tasmania and maybe if there was time Sydney or Brisbane but that ain’t happening and it is looking like Newfoundland won’t happen either. A trip during Thanksgiving as well as my birthday even less likely but it is what it is. All I do know if I will have more leave time next year than I did in 2019 when I did go to Europe. Where I will go I have no fucking clue at this time and I don’t think it is ever worth thinking about till a cure for COVID 19 is found. I only know that half of it will be for Newfoundland to se my parents and the other half somewhere else. Either Australia or Japan depending on how things go. Best case scenario I will return to Europe in 2023 which is 4 years later, still better than 5 years but it is still a long time between visits.

I have been working on this blog now for about 6 hours so I think I have overstayed my welcome. I do not know when my next blog will be. Maybe during Thanksgiving when I talk about what I would have done if COVID did not happen. Probably Quebec City or even Montreal again.

Fuck these times suck but it could be worse I guess. First world problems for me that I have no right to complain about. Stay safe out there people, shazbot nanu nanu.

[whyyallsweatin]

Repulsive, unattractive male scrounging around for women in Victoria BC.

Samuel David Wootton is a known woman harasser in Victoria BC. He usually preys on local women via social media and dating sites. He will attempt to make contact through less obvious means, like commenting or taking interest in an item a woman might list on marketplace, or follow a woman he found in a local Facebook group. He doesn’t seem to have many friends, so it’s doubtful that he meets people through mutual friends because, as stated, he doesn’t have any friends.

There are several reasons why women find this man repulsive. The first reason is that he is unattractive. This photo highlights what it is that makes him so unattractive. The creepy, strained look on his face, prominent nose, awkward haircut, and jogging pants all scream that he takes little to no effort in his appearance and that he simply doesn’t recognize that he is, compared to other men, beneath the median standards for attractiveness – despite not being morbidly obese. He prefers to wear jogging pants and unstylish hoodies from big box retail stores like Walmart. I suspect his underwear are the George brand from the aforementioned big box store. I also suspect that those very underwear are riddled with holes and are practically threadbare. In addition to that he wears dated sneakers with big, thick sports socks he purchased from Walmart or Costco. The socks are often pulled up over the bottom of his jogging pants.

The next reason why he is repulsive is his lifestyle. He appears to live in a really slummy apartment – likely in the downtrodden areas of Esquimalt. He sent me a photo of himself cooking and I could see the stove was really old, filthy and the pan he was using was from the 80s. He was cooking some kind of mixed meats and vegetables combination that consisted of defrosted vegetables and cheap cuts of meat. Maybe even generic hot dog wieners. I didn’t spend much time looking at it, but I believe I saw wieners in the concoction. He drives a beat up old van that’s loaded with junk, including embarrassing jester style hats that he wears in attempts to provide people he meets with physical humour. The van itself is full of cigarette packs, parts for various pieces of cheap furniture, junk he collected from the side of the road and an assortment of clothing in various states of decay. He has a small dog that he uses to attract people and spoof them into thinking he lives a life that consists of some kind of normalacy.

The next reason why he is repulsive isn’t really important because you can’t really get past the first two, so his integrity doesn’t really matter. But the reason I’m going to describe is his integrity. When I met him online, I was instantly turned off. I placed an add for my studio and he wrote me in response a bunch of creepy, sexually suggestive messages. After this I updated the add to include the phrase “please don’t ask me out on dates or send me sexual messages.” He immediately messaged me again, indicating he felt bad for what he had done after seeing my original add. He then indicated that we knew the same people. Since it was a very old friend of mine – I agreed to let him come see my studio thinking he might be ok if he knew a good friend of mine. He came over and I let him in. I showed him some of the crafts he could make and he started making something, only to quit and then go lay down on my futon. I suspect he thought it was time to cuddle so I told him I had to go home and he finally left after hours of having to sit there and watch him sleep and think he was right at home.

I should also mention that he indicated that he had been sober for 16 years. Knowing the old friend he mentioned we have in common, I suspected he was into all kinds of party drugs during the late nineties and early two-thousands. He claimed he was into healthy things and, despite appearances he was doing well in life.

I didn’t see him after that and went into hiding. However, several weeks later I’d see him message me on various different social media apps. I had no idea how he found all my profiles, but I felt sick knowing he had been creeping around so hard. He would phone me on Facebook messenger and I’d avoid the calls.

A few months later, I moved to Langford and my dignity slipped. I agreed to meet him for lunch and he bought some Pho for me at a restaurant in my area. He then wanted to go to the beach and tried to put his arm around me and hug me and other things. I felt sick. I told him I had to go home and do my chores and finally got him to drop me off. He then came back later asking me if I wanted ice cream. I said sure since I was bored and, while unattracted to him, was still not utterly disgusted and repulsed by him enough to say no.

At the restaurant where we got ice cream he tried to put his arm around me and hug, even tried to lean in for a kiss but I turned away.

After I got home, he began phoning me on Facebook messenger and messaging me on every social media app and texting my phone. He started to ask invasive questions about my sexuality and how he didn’t want things to be awkward but wanted to be intimate with a woman. He said, “hey, I do like you!” As if that was something I should be flattered by. I didn’t respond with anything but polite rejections until he started to get hostile and make derogatory statements about me. I blocked him on Facebook and then he texted me indicating that I had used him for money when all he paid for was Pho. He then tried to get a few insults in, but since I knew they were insults that were fuelled by his refusal to address his inadequacy in the face of rejection, I just blocked him on my phone. I don’t need to amuse myself with the pathetic names he wanted to throw out in attempt to make me feel as deeply inadequate as he knew he was.

So, appearance, lifestyle and integrity are all things that you first notice about this particular predator that are off putting. I was happy to have blocked him and not hear from him again. However, I was wrong – I would hear about him again.

One night I was cruising around on POF losers. It’s a Facebook page where people report losers on dating sites. Lo behold, a woman posted Samuel David Wootton. I was shocked – according to the comments he was well known to women in Victoria and was a frequent harasser and stalker of women. He’d use all kinds of means to get someone’s attention – through free ads, marketplace, pages devoted to things unrelated to dating, etc. Super creepy stuff. The post the woman made included at conversation she had with him where he became enraged that she hadn’t responded to him on POF immediately. He said something like, “I need someone who can keep up with me, who’s passionate about meeting new people.” Stuff like that – clearly he knew he was rejected already so he started dropping insult bombs in order to level the playing field – in his mind at least. When the woman responded to his lewd comments, he then made absolutely disgusting, sexually degrading remarks to her.

Everyone in the comment section knew who he was or had had run ins with him. I pictured him driving around day in day out in his van looking for people who had things on their yard to pick up for free, bottles, junk, whatever, in hopes of meeting a woman.

I decided to post my experiences with him on the POF page and found that even more people had had run ins with him. Laughing stock is not harsh enough to describe what people were saying about him. Someone who’s just unattractive or unsuccessful isn’t really a bad person – but Samuel David Wootton is those things and a bad person. He lurks around social media and neighbourhood prowling on women who are unsuspecting and then goes full on bezerk when they don’t pay attention to him. He tries to act as if he’s better than them when he gets rejected, but the truth is he’s not able to recognize his faults. There are some faults, though, that can’t be corrected.

While luckily never had to see his genitals, legend has it that they are microscopic. This isn’t something I can’t to go into detail about since the thought of his sweaty, worm like appendage hiding under a threadbare pair of George underwear disgusts me.

Now, this is where it gets really interesting. Several weeks later I get a message from a woman claiming to be his girlfriend. She had read the posts on POF and wanted to know when he had been approaching the women who posted him. She had been dating him for over a year as I recall and I informed her what times he attempted to pursue me and showed her the messages. As it turns out, he lives with her and she owns the van he drives around in while skulking. Myself and the other woman who posted him filled her in on his activities and she through him out of the house and took the keys for the van.

I suspect now, that he does not have a lifeline, he is in full creep mode. He may be on foot – wandering around neighbourhoods looking for women. He may be in a men’s shelter using the free computers to lurk around on social media in hopes of finding a woman. We don’t know. Part of me wants to know so I know how to avoid him, and part of me doesn’t want to know since I can sense the presence of his George brand holy underwear, jester hat and jogging pants just thinking about him and that’s unpleasant to me.

So in summary – Samuel David Wootton is 1. unattractive 2. has a repulsive lifestyle 3. lacks integrity -as a result can’t handle rejection -rejection is met with him firing back with derogatory or insulting language -actually had a girlfriend, to everyone’s surprise, but chose to creep around on her

And one final note – his character can be summed up by simply processing the underlying meaning of his Facebook quote: Try correcting a foolish person, they’ll hate you, try correcting a wise soul and they’ll appreciate you!!

I’m sure he posted that quote as a kind of words to live by but what’s disturbing about it is that only people who think they’re right often would post this sort of bullshit. Stupid people try and look smart, smart people don’t know they’re smart because they always try to learn from things – even mistakes. Stupid people think they’re an authority on things, so I bet Samuel David Wootton goes around ‘correcting’ people while he’s scrounging for empty bottles and free trash. He probably does so thinking he’s some kind of wise soul for having all the answers, when in fact he is the lowest form of life known to mankind. Even horrible people who’ve committed horrible crimes have had charisma and charm - but this guy? Nothing. Imagine if you were a victim of his, he’s not even smart or strong or anything. At least a lot of serial killers were smart or had enough charisma to at least initially impress upon people that they were ok. This guy? There’s no response but rejection to his appearance and personality.

Based on these facts, its only a matter of time before he cracks and uses his out of shape gross stature to outweigh a woman or any victim really because he has no option to actually date a real woman. He has to get what he wants via force because no one wants him or likes him. His repulsive ways are palpable. He has no other option other than to be a predator in order to fulfill his biological urges. So beware.

[breeeliss]

[Miraculous Ladybug]: Think Alike

oh shit! update! whaaaaaaat?

so unfortunate side effect of having multiple multi-chapters is that you run the risk of forgetting about them......which admittedly happened with this one.....oops.....

so shoutout to @ladyserendipitous and others from the mlfanfiction server who reminded me that i had this, which encouraged me to update it (good thing too bc i forgot how much i loved this idea). 

--

[Chapter 1] [Chapter 2] [Chapter 3]

Link to Archive of Our Own: [AO3]

--

Title: Think Alike

Summary: Adrien never really considered himself an artist per se. He only ever considered what he did a hobby, something that he did for joy and not for obligation. But Marinette held his prints up to the light, smiled up at the glossy photos he’d spent hours shooting and editing, and looked at them like they were practically perfect. And how could Adrien not let his chest swell up at the sight of her pride?

Photographer!Adrien

Chapter 4: Shopping

“So wait, just to review. Why is this not a date again?”

Marinette threw her head back and whined. “It’s not a date because it’s not a date!” she repeated. “I didn’t ask him out, I invited him to go shopping with me because he was asking me questions about designing. That’s it!”

“Yes, but you also have a crush on him and you invited him to do an activity with just the two of you. I dunno, babe, that sounds like a date to me.”

Marinette glared at her. “By that definition, you asking Nino to help you babysit your sisters today is also a date. Boom. Deflected. Leave me alone.”

Alya rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Um, no. Not deflected. Do not twist this on me, I asked you first.”

“And I answered already!” Marinette complained.

Alya crossed her arms and smirked. “Okay no. You’re over here like ‘oh I’m not trying to get with him, I’m just helping him out like a good friend.’ Meanwhile you conveniently had to pick up your fabric orders today and you conveniently needed Adrien’s help to do it. Which yeah, ok, like this isn’t you trying to spend more alone time with him. And then, let’s please acknowledge that this happened all because you were totally starstruck after your darling sunshine prince sat with you and started showing you his camera.”

“It wasn’t a lie! Sure I was going to pick it up tomorrow, but I really do have a fabric order there waiting for me!”

“You are whipped as hell, Marinette.”

“You’re making me sound like a total creep,” Marinette complained. “Look, I honestly sat next to him because I wanted to compliment him on the shoot and see how it was going. That was totally my intention from the start. Completely platonic and friendly support.”

“Ah yes,” Alya said, rubbing her hands. “But then the plot thickens!”

Marinette winced. “And I actually wanted to know about how his camera worked because it seemed interesting! I just wanted to learn more, you know?”

Alya nodded and stroked her chin. “Yes, yes. Getting closer to the source of all this mess.”

“But he looked so cute explaining everything Alya,” Marinette admitted. “Like totally adorable. He was so thrilled and then he started asking me about my designing, and then I remembered how impressed he was with me when I showed him my ideas, and fine I’m a glutton, I’ll admit it! I wanted to spend more time with him because it’s been fun hanging out with him and talking about his photography and my designing. So I invited him to shop with me today.” Marinette pointed a finger in Alya’s face. “As friends! No ulterior motives. Not a date.”

Alya scoffed. “Don’t you even try that, girl. You are full of unadulterated crap. You are totally trying to hit on this boy right now.”

“I am not!”

“Oh yes you are!” Alya teased. She threw her arm dramatically over her forehead. “You find out he’s just as big an art freak as you are, and all of a sudden you’re trying to lure him into your home so you can lay across your sewing machine and let him ravage you!”

“You are embarrassingly dramatic. Seriously. Also, can we not pick out verbs that make me sound like the heroine of a romance novel?”

Alya shrugged. “Make fun of me all you want, but you’re pining after him like crazy. And because I care about your happiness, I will support your impressively sneaky attempts to squeeze in time with him. As always, I demand a full report on my desk by tomorrow morning.”

Marinette rolled her eyes and decided to relent the point. “Sir, yes, sir.”

“Detailed!” she commanded. “No corners cut! Thorough, my dear. Absolutely thorough.”

“I’ll write you a dissertation if you want, don’t worry. I’ll keep you updated.”

“Perfect,” Alya grinned. “It’s important I keep track of my investments.”

Marinette raised a brow. “...yeah, I’m ignoring you.”

Alya danced behind Marinette and planted her hands firmly on her shoulders, marching her at a quicker pace to the front doors of the school. “I’m getting good vibes from this,” Alya explained. “Something tells me this is the beginning of something grand.” She looked past Marinette’s shoulder and jumped excitedly. “Ah, there he is! Ready and waiting for you!”

They were at the top of the stairs outside and Marinette could see Adrien leaning into the window of one of the cars that usually came to pick him up at the end of the day, talking to the driver in the front seat. Alya grinned and muttered in Marinette’s ear. “Nino told me he was spending all of last class texting his father’s assistant and convincing her to let him stay out longer after school. Just for you~!”

Marinette grabbed Alya’s hands and gently pried them off of her shoulders. “Will you stop hovering? Aren’t you supposed to be helping Nino with his DJ equipment? He’s probably upstairs waiting for you.”

“Trying to get rid of me, eh?” Alya laughed. “I get it, that’s cool. Don’t want me to kill your groove.” She kissed both of Marinette’s cheeks. “Knock him dead, cutie, okay?”

Marinette smiled and pushed Alya back inside the building. “Will you go!?” She stuck her tongue at Alya as she watched her skip back down the hallway, grabbing her stomach and cackling at her own antics. Marinette needed to remember to give Alya a hard time later tonight when she asked how babysitting with Nino went. As much as the two of them liked to tease her about Adrien, they sure didn’t realize just how downright chummy the two of them looked in comparison. She’d definitely have to get back at them later.

She took a deep breath, did a quick couple of hops in place to psych herself up, and skipped down the stairs just as Adrien was waving off his driver who’d pulled away from the school.

“Are you all set?” Marinette asked.

“Yup!” Adrien said. “Took a bit of wheedling with Nathalie to get away with it, but I am yours for the next hour.”

“Oh perfect,” Marinette smiled. “I promise I won’t be too long. It’s just picking up a couple of things and buying some stuff I’m running out of.”

“Ah don’t worry about it,” Adrien assured. “This should be fun! I just wear the clothes my father makes, so I don’t really know what happens behind the scenes so to speak. Besides, I wanna know what you’re going to be working on next.”

“You’ll figure it out quick,” she promised. “Feel up for a walk? I go to the shop about fifteen minutes away from here.”

“Of course, lead the way!”

Marinette’s parents financially supported her designing up to a point. It wasn’t too much trouble for her mother to pass down her old sewing machine, and back when clothing design only really consisted of remaking clothing she already had, buying basic sewing kits and small swatches of fabric from the crafts store was enough for Marinette to survive. But eventually, she wanted to make things from scratch. She needed to learn how to embroider. She needed dressforms for more complicated designs. She needed books for help and reference. And, most importantly, she needed three times the amount of fabric, thread, and supplies than she’d ever needed back when she was just adding decals to her skirts and shirts.

As encouraging as her parents were, Marinette understood that it was far too much to expect them to go out and buy whatever she needed. It wasn’t exactly feasible to sacrifice lease payments in favor of bolts of fabric because Marinette wanted to try her hand at button downs that weekend. So Marinette asked to start working on the registers at the bakery in exchange for a small allowance, and learned how to be smart about how to get everything she needed for as cheap as possible.

The shop that she always went to wasn’t exactly high-end, but it was certainly affordable considering how well-stocked they were in comparison. Marinette even figured out to take advantage of all of their online-only sales and ask for large orders in advance instead of shopping in the store real time. Plus Marinette shopped there so often that the owner always liked to shave off a few euros from her purchases in order to give her a break, especially when Marinette left the store with literal handfuls of supplies. It wasn’t the type of place where she could get huge bolts of expensive chiffon and silk, as riveting as the thought was. But for a girl on a budget, Marinette thought she pretty much hit the gold mine.

She was sort of afraid of what Adrien would think of such a place. After all, she was sure his father only ever needed to dial a number in order for him to get unlimited access to some of the highest quality fabrics in the world. A little storefront like this probably wasn’t much. But the moment they walked through the doors, Adrien’s eyes immediately started darting everywhere they could, soaking up whatever he saw. “Woah! I’ve never been inside a fabric shop before!”

“Never?” Marinette asked.

“No way!” Adrien exclaimed. He immediately started moving down one of the aisles and running his hands along the shelves filled with bolts of all sorts of colorful fabrics made of dozens of different material. He started to look through a small case filled with rolls of fabric and marvelled at the size of them. “Gosh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much fabric on one place.”

“Yeah, it’s got a lot to choose from,” she grinned. “It’s a bit pricy to buy them in bulk like this, but at least that means you’re pretty well stocked for a while before you have to start shopping again.”

Marinette couldn’t help but laugh when she saw how amazed he was at the entire wall devoted to yarn and wool. “Do you ever buy this stuff?” he asked.

“Occasionally,” she said. “Especially if I’m making things like scarves, hats, and leg warmers, it’s cheaper to just crochet it myself. I have to come back another time to get some knitting needles though. I just bought the books and I want to learn over the summer too.”

“God, how do you choose? There’s so much here, I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Come in knowing exactly what you want,” Marinette smirked. “Trust me, I know from experience. You walk in here without a clue what you want, and you either don’t buy anything or want to buy everything.”

“Is it just fabric and yarn that they sell? What else is here?” Adrien asked.

She shrugged. “Well, the back has more of what you would find in a craft store. So buttons, zippers, embroidery hoops, needles, stabilizers, smaller swatches of fabric, ribbons….I’m pretty sure they have a small section where you can get beads.”

Adrien twisted around and started walking backwards, occasionally bending over to steal glances at the lower shelves. “My father used to tell me how much he loved going to shops like this when he started out designing. I mean, it was years ago, but they look just like he described. Just walls and walls of almost anything you could ever want. This is awesome!”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked my first time in here too,” she agreed. “I mean, it’s obviously not an endless treasure trove, but it’s a pretty decent place if you only have a little to spend.”

Adrien was standing on his toes and reading the labels of the highest shelves he could reach, laughing at himself all the while. “I’m so sorry, I’m supposed to be helping you shop.”

Marinette shook her head. “Ah, don’t worry about it. Roam around all you want. I might even find a couple of things for myself that I might need.”

He peeked around the aisle and let out a small gasp. “Oh my god there are like ten more shelves of fabric back here! And they’re all patterns!”

Marinette reached into her pocket for her wallet. “Have fun! I’ll be at the register up front if you wanna help me carry some stuff.”

“I’ll be two minutes I swear.”

Marinette wound up getting 6 meters of a black cotton/poly blend, 5 meters of dark blue jersey knit, a meter’s worth of four different colors of cotton, and a bundle of golden lace. One of the cashiers who had personally handled plenty of Marinette’s orders in the past didn’t even bat a lash when she gave her a 15 euro discount, asking only for pictures of all the finished products in exchange. It all wound up cheaper than she thought it would be, and she started to eye the back of the store where all the craft supplies were. Adrien finally came back up to the counter and started to help the cashier put Marinette’s orders into bags.

“Huh,” Adrien hummed. “Not sure what this stuff is for, but didn’t you have a dress with lace on it that you showed me?”

“Mmhm,” Marinette nodded. “You’re getting warm. Oh, come. I wanna grab a couple of things real quick from the back.”

Adrien followed behind her and rubbed the black fabric in between his fingers. “Uhhhh….wait! Your Eiffel Tower dress is black, right?”

Marinette grinned and Adrien’s eyes widened in excitement. “You’re gonna try for that dress first?”

“That’s the plan,” she confirmed. “I’m dreading it a little bit because of all the embroidery work that has to go into it, but I figured I’d do the more complicated thing first.”

“What’s the rest of this stuff for?”

“The lace is for the collar of the dress. The jersey knit is for this other dress I’m making. Nothing crazy, just something for some of the cooler summer days. And the cotton is for headbands! I ordered the hard plastic bands online already, so now all I have to do is put the fabric over it. I had a couple of spare pattern swatches at home that I was going to use, but I figured a couple more colors wouldn’t hurt.”

“Wow,” Adrien breathed out. “Sounds like a lot to do.”

“You underestimate my ability to perform killer all nighters,” she joked.

“I thought Alya was kidding about that.”

“I pride myself on doing my best to get eight hours of sleep every night during the school year. But during breaks? All bets are off.”

Adrien frowned. “I’m telling her you said that.”

“I have things to get done!”

“You have to sleep Marinette!”

“Oh there’s plenty of time for that afterwards,” she insisted. Adrien didn’t look pleased, but she laughed at his expression anyway and set her schoolbag down by her feet when they turned into one of the aisles at the back of the shop. “For now, if I’m really going to crack down on this embroidery, I need to stock up on a couple of things.”

Adrien set down his own bag and all of Marinette’s purchases as he scanned the shelves. “What are we looking for?”

“A new embroidery hoop. Some stabilizers. Carbon paper. Thread. Temporary adhesive. And I think that’s it.”

Adrien blinked. “Uh….well, the thread I get. What’s the other stuff for?”

Marinette let her hand hover over one of the rows of items before she plucked out an embroidery hoop from the shelves are started to scrutinize the size. “All things I need to hand embroider the dress. The hoop I have at home is too small for this dress and I’m out of everything else I need. I have some extra money left over so I figured I’d stock up.”

He hummed as he stood on his toes and looked at the row of stabilizers above his head. “What does all this stuff do? Can you explain it to me?”

“I mean, I don’t mind, but it can get a little confusing.”

“I’m sure I can keep up if I try,” he grinned. “I don’t know any of this stuff, so it’s really interesting.” He pointed to the hoop in Marinette’s hands. “So what’s that for?”

“An embroidery hoop,” she explained. “So when you’re doing embroidery, you want to make sure you’re keeping the fabric taut so that your stitches won’t look scrunched up or over stretched. So you open up the frame, slip the fabric inside, tighten it, and them you can start sewing.”

Adrien frowned and took the hoop from her and turned it over in his hands. “Hm, makes sense. There was some of that stabilizer stuff on that top shelf up there? You need that, right?”

“Yup,” Marinette said. She was reaching upwards to try to read the labels on the row of stabilizers Adrien had been looking at earlier. “Oh, could you do me a favor and grab that pack over there? Should say medium-weight cutaway stabilizers. Can’t reach it.”

“Uhhh, how long?”

“Ten meters ought to be fine.”

Adrien had to prop his foot up on the bottom shelf to reach the roll before he carefully handed it back down to her. “So stabilizers are…?”

“Well, I want the fabric taut, but I also don’t want the fabric to be damaged by the stitching I’m doing. So the stabilizer will keep that from happening. Because this is knit, stretchy fabric, the stabilizer is also gonna give the design some extra support. You put it on the back of the surface you’re embroidering, fit it into your hoop, and start.”

“So hoop keeps it taut, and stabilizers keep it from becoming damaged and offer support. Right?”

“Exactly!” Marinette smiled. She crouched down on the bottom shelf and plucked up a can of adhesive spray. “This is just to adhere it to the fabric when you’re ready to embroider.”

“So what does cutaway mean?” Adrien asked. “Or I guess what’s the difference between that and the others? There was a tear away up there somewhere.”

“Just depends on the fabric you’re using,” she told him. “So tear aways are better for tightly woven fabrics like cotton. When you’re done with your design, you just tear away the stabilizer from the back and you’re left with your design. Easy. Cutaways are better for fabrics that stretch more, like the one I just bought. So instead of tearing away the whole thing, you cut off the excess and leave the stabilizer on the back of the design. Offers more stability.”

Adrien scratched the back of his head. “I think that makes sense. Are there any others?”

“There are wash aways. You use that for really delicate fabrics, and they dissolve in water. Heat aways exist too, but I’ve never used them.”

Adrien whistled. “That’s so much to keep track of. Now I get what you mean about all this being complicated….”

“It’s a lot of trial and error,” Marinette said. “And looking up on the Internet which things to use for what. Good thing is that sometimes you can find handy charts online that tell you what materials to use for which fabrics. As you get more used to it, you just sort of know.”

He watched her as she looked through the different types of embroidery thread and picked out a couple of golden ones. “I get what you mean. I was pretty much using Google and YouTube videos when I was still figuring out some of the weirder settings on my camera.”

Marinette giggled. “Yeah, tell me about it. You should see all of my browser bookmarks. Pretty sure it’s all references for designing, and I have dozens of them.” She bit on her lip and turned to the shelves behind them. “Do you see any carbon paper?”

“What’s that for?”

“Transfer outlines of the designs to the fabric. So that I know where to sew and can keep my stitches straight.”

Adrien pointed at one of the shelves to Marinette’s left. “Is it that weird black looking paper?”

Marinette nodded and took the first pack she saw. “Yup, that’s the one. Oh, and they’re so cheap! Perfect! I think I might actually be under budget.”

“With all of this stuff!?”

Marinette snorted. “Oh please, this is nothing. You should see the days where I come and pick up bolts of fabric and have to refill my sewing kits.”

“And I was over here complaining about buying photo paper the other day….”

She picked up her backpack from the floor and nudged him in the side. “Does buying photo paper not get complicated?”

“Printing photos does not involve stabilizers, carbon paper, and adhesive spray. Just a printer.”

“Oh come on, even I know you’re simplifying that. Aren’t there different types of photography paper you can use?”

“I mean, yeah, you can get paper to give you a glossy, matte, luster, or metallic finish, but that’s easy stuff.”

“ Easy stuff. ”

“You just stick the paper in the printer! At least I don’t have to set my photos on fire to get them to come out. Wait that’s what heat away stabilizers are, right?”

“Oh my God, no , that’s not what they are. You just iron them.”

“Heat implies fire.”

“No it doesn’t?”

“Well I didn’t know that! This stuff isn’t intuitive. You’re wicked smart so this all just comes naturally to you.”

“You’re impressed because my knowing not to set my clothes on fire comes naturally to me?”

“You know what I mean….”

They checked out all of Marinette’s purchases at the counter and started walking back to her house, delving into rather long and useless conversation about how stylish fireproof clothing could totally hit the markets with a splash and that Marinette could pioneer the movement — “Think about it,” Adrien joked. “No one will ever see it coming!” — which didn’t accomplish anything other than make Marinette forget to turn down the right block to their street and make her gut hurt from laughing so hard. For some reason, she really underestimated how distracting Adrien’s silliness could be. Though to be fair, it wasn’t as if she was a stranger to it — after starting to hang out with him more regularly over the past year, it was hard not to notice that Adrien got into pun competitions with himself when he was bored.

It wasn’t until she was dramatically retelling the story of the time she left her iron on the ironing board and caused a teeny tiny fire in her room that she realized they’d been walking and looping around random blocks for the past twenty minutes. Adrien was wiping tears from his eyes as Marinette looked around and noticed that her house was well behind them, but Marinette didn’t feel like pointing the fact out. If Adrien had already noticed, then it didn’t seem like he was in any rush to get her home. Marinette certainly didn’t mind spending the extra time with him, especially since he made it sound like he could afford to stay out longer.

She was trying not to think about the smug look Alya would give her once she told her all of this when Adrien asked out of the blue, “Can I ask you one more designing question? I just had a random thought….”

“If you bring up your fireworks rant one more time….”

“No, no, not that,” he assured. “Although, that was a pretty creative idea if I do say so myself.”

She smirked up at him as they walked. “Your question?”

“Right, so….I’ve walked through father’s company before. And one time I was taking a peek at where all the sample makers work, and I saw them embroidering with a sewing machine. So can’t you just embroider that way?”

“If they’re sample makers at Gabriel they probably have fancy machines that are specifically made for doing really complex embroideries. It’d be nice to have one of those, but I don’t have the money for it right now. I’m hoping to save up for it little by little as a graduation present to myself. Besides, it’s harder than it looks. You have to have a really steady hand.”

Adrien winced. “How much?”

“A few hundred euros,” Marinette sighed. “Can’t get one any time soon. But hey! Maybe I can get a summer job and save up paychecks to buy one for myself. It’s not like I need it or anything, but it’s a cool thing to aspire to.”

“Wow, you’re saving up for it yourself?” Adrien asked. “No help from parents?”

“Nah, I can’t expect them to drop money for something like that for me. They’re supportive of my designing and everything — they love seeing what I’m working on, Maman lets me use her old sewing machine, and Papa got me those dress forms on sale at a thrift store. But a fancy embroidery machine is different. If I decide to take my hobby seriously, I should bear the burden of funding it. But it’s alright! I’ll get there eventually.”

Adrien hummed and looked down at the bags pinching around his wrists. “You said you wanted to be a designer when you grow up. Are you going to….go to school for that and stuff?”

“That’s the plan,” she nodded. “Get a job, work in a company, maybe open my own line. It’s all a little unclear right now, but my parents always say it’s a matter of just doing what makes sense to me and feels right. I’ve got plenty of time to think about a career.”

“I sort of forget you can go to school for that stuff.”

Marinette frowned. “Didn’t your father start out as a designer?”

“Yeah, but he went to school for business,” Adrien explained. “The designing was just a hobby for him. He happened to be really good at it and combined the business and designing to make Gabriel. He takes pride in what he does as a designer, but he always says he’s a businessman first and a visionary second. He doesn’t just know what looks good. He knows how to make what looks good sell , and he knows how to create success. Hobbies don’t mean much to him unless you can benefit from it.” He laughed at himself, but it sounded strained against Marinette’s ears. “I didn’t even know that designing was a thing you could go to school for until a couple of years ago.”

Marinette bit her lip and tilted her head so she could peek underneath Adrien’s bowed head to see his face. “Photography is something you could go to school for. There are a lot of good art schools in Paris. Or you could even travel somewhere else. Maybe go to America. Whatever you wanted, really.”

Adrien snorted. “It really isn’t a matter of what I want.”

She wrinkled her forehead. “Your future should always be a matter of what you want. That’s why it’s yours.”

“I mean, that does make sense,” he said. “But I guess it’s just never felt that way.”

It was too bitter a statement to come from Adrien’s mouth, and the tone was discordant enough to make Marinette curl a hand into the crook of his elbow and stop their walking. “Is there something on your mind?”

He shook his head adamantly. “No! No, no, I’m sorry. I got a little off topic. It’s honestly nothing.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing.”

Adrien knocked the shopping bag against his shins and hesitated for a long moment before he answered. “I dunno, I guess….I guess I’ve been thinking about something Nino told me today.”

A young woman roughly clipped shoulders with Marinette and she realized with a jolt that they probably needed a different place to talk instead of the middle of the sidewalk. There was a small plaza with tables, chairs, and benches in front of a cafe that Marinette liked to sketch at on the weekends. She tugged on Adrien’s elbow until she followed him up the block and pulled out seats for them both. He looked a little reluctant to sit, almost anticipating the fact that Marinette would surely question him, so she tried to smile as reassuringly as she could to comfort him. It was very easy for Adrien to draw into himself when his father came up, and it didn’t feel right to just let the sentiment hang.

Adrien sat in the chair, nervously bobbing one of his legs while Marinette visibly struggled to find the point she wanted to make. “What do you want to do when you get older?”

Adrien blinked, not expecting the question. “Sorry?”

“I want to design when I get older,” Marinette explained. “So, what do you want to do? When you graduate and when you become an adult. What do you see yourself doing?”

He shrugged helplessly. “I never thought that far ahead,” he admitted. “I guess modelling? Or maybe helping father run the company.”

“That sounds a lot like what your father wants you to be doing.”

“Well,” he began. “Father always did want me to go into business like him. I always assumed that meant he wanted me to pick up his torch.”

“Forget what he thinks for a minute,” she instructed. “Forget what you’re supposed to be doing or what would make your father happiest. Is that what you want to do?”

His answer was almost immediate. “Not really. It’s always sounded rather dull the way he explained it to me.”

“So in a perfect world, what you want to keep doing?” she asked him. “The world’s open to you. You can do what makes you happy. You can do what excites you. You can do what you think will help you grow and learn as a person. What’s that thing?”

He smiled softly and stared at her through his bangs, as if he was already anticipating the answer she was trying to get him to give her. “I….I want to keep taking pictures.”

Marinette smiled brightly. “What else?”

He drummed his hands against his lap and stared off into space. “I dunno. I guess I just want more. I want to meet more photographers. I want to learn more about photography. I want to take more pictures. I want to do more with photography. I want….I want to make art . Nothing makes me happier than when I show people the things I can do and it affects the way they feel. It touches them, makes them pause, makes them walk away with something they didn’t have before. I can do that! And I want to keep doing that.”

“They call people like that artists, you know,” Marinette joked. “And you’re definitely an artist. You make magic with your hands. You create things that other people can’t immediately replicate. That’s art.”

“It seems so….intangible almost. Maybe that’s the wrong word,” he wondered. “I mean, I know there are artists in the world, but it never seemed like the sort of thing you could just do for the rest of your life.”

Marinette sighed. “I mean, your future’s a little more unclear. It’s not like being a doctor or a lawyer or a businessman. All those things lead you down a sure path. I don’t know what’ll happen to me or you five, ten years into the future. Being a creative person is messy, so it makes sense that your future will be a little messy too. But….I think it’s worth it! I want to give it a try and see where it can take me. What’s the fun in doing something if you know exactly where it’s going to lead you?”

Adrien winced. “I don’t know if my father would like that. He plans meticulously. Even my life, he planned. Everything I do has a purpose. Basketball and fencing to keep me fit. Chinese to keep me well-rounded. Tutoring to keep me ahead. Piano lessons to keep me cultured. He’s got all these building blocks and he knows exactly where they’re all supposed to go.”

“That’s great for him,” Marinette said, brushing off the comment. “And I’m sure it works for him. But what works for him doesn’t always work for you. You’re not supposed to be forcing yourself into a mold he makes for you. You’re your own person. He can’t dictate that for you forever.”

“Nino said the same thing.” He leaned his head against his knuckle, pressing a thumb into his temple. “And, don’t get me wrong, it makes sense. I agree. And I want to tell him, if only so that he could at least get excited about it and not call it a waste of time. But I don’t know how well that’ll go over with him. I don’t think he’d take it well.”

“Well, what does he have to say about it?”

Adrien nibbled on his bottom lip and traced the scratches on the metal tables. “I, uh….I don’t think he knows. About the photography.”

Her eyes widened. “You haven’t told him?”

“I don’t know how,” he replied helplessly. “He does what he does because he thinks it’s what’s best for me, and he’s really hesitant about me wasting my time with other things because he thinks it’s distracting. I just know that showing him a photo, showing him a new camera, or God forbid mentioning going to school for photography won’t just fall flat. It’ll go horribly. And….” He swallowed. “I don’t know how to deal with him being disappointed in me. I’ll always avoid it if I can.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“I’ve got a pretty good inkling.”

“Inklings are just that,” Marinette explained. “The only way you’ll know for sure is if you just say something.”

“It’s not that easy, Marinette….”

“Maybe, but how will you possibly know he’ll be disappointed in you if you don’t even give it a shot?”

The sentiment didn’t seem to cheer him up. His gaze was everywhere but on her, and she suddenly felt like she may have said something wrong. She didn’t know what it was like to have a parent who was unsupportive, or a parent who was absent in more ways than one. Adrien never really liked touching upon his family life much, and Marinette was harshly reminded why. It was jarring to think that Adrien could show so much reluctance in sharing part of himself with his own father. That kind of disconnect with her family wasn’t something she ever had to worry about. It made sense that just saying what was on her mind was something that she would do. But Adrien was clearly a different story.

It was frustrating because she wanted to help but wasn’t quite sure what he needed. It was times like these when Marinette realized how much her own nerves over her crush on him prevented her from learning more intimate things about him. They were supposed to be good friends. Surely she could think of something encouraging to tell him.

She felt horribly out of her element, but she didn’t want to let him stew in silence for too long. “If….” she muttered. “In a perfect world….what would need to happen? What would make you feel safe and supported?”

Adrien lifted his shoulders weakly. “What do you mean?”

Marinette huffed. She wasn’t saying this properly. “I mean….what has to happen to make you comfortable telling him? What would you need?”

He finally made eye contact with her, and she could see how the question made a small spark of vulnerability flash in his eyes, so quick she almost missed it. “I guess,” he said slowly. “Having someone in my corner. Father likes to think he’s right, or that he knows what’s best more than anyone else. More than me. It’s hard to get a word in edgewise to begin with. But for some reason where my future’s concerned, he’s especially adamant. It’d take more than just me to convince him.”

“Adamant about your future?”

Adrien looked up, desperately searching for the words. “He….he’s lost a lot.” The statement hung, and Marinette didn’t need him to elaborate to know exactly what he meant. “He’ll go through hell to make sure I’m safe and secured. Half of that is setting out a very specific path for me. I think me deviating from that….scares him? I don’t know.”

“You know,” she began quietly. “Your friends will go through hell to make sure you’re safe, too. We’ll also go through hell to make sure you’re happy.”

His smile slowly warmed his face, as if an entire slew of fond memories suddenly passed over him. “Yeah. I know.”

She gently knocked her knee against his. “I mean it. I can’t pretend to know what it’s like to deal with your father. I know that can be frustrating. But Alya, Nino, and I are always going to be here if you need help. And just speaking for myself, if you need someone in your corner to help get through to him, I’m just a phone call away.”

Marinette felt her heart whither when she saw him look genuinely surprised at what she’d said, as if that kind of sincerity still wasn’t something that he was used to. But it was quickly eclipsed when Adrien dropped all the bags to the floor, pushed his chair forward, and pulled Marinette into a fierce hug, letting his chin nestle comfortably against her shoulder. Her entire face was glowing, and she struggled with what to do with her hands for a long moment before she let them rest on his shoulders. “You’re a really great friend, Marinette. Thank you.”

Her nerves kicked in the moment her heart started racing. “I-It’s no big deal. Honest.”

Adrien leaned away from her and kept his hands on her shoulders. “It’s a big deal to me. I just wanted you to know that. I feel really lucky that you don’t mind spending all this time with me and helping me figure out what I want to do. No one’s ever really done this much for me before. I guess I’m just really grateful to you is all.”

She beamed at him so hard she could feel the ache in her cheeks. “I’m glad I could help.”

Their detour had to be cut short once Adrien looked at his phone and realized that he probably should start heading home before Nathalie or his father began to worry. Despite her assurances that the bags really weren’t a hassle, he insisted that he help her carry all of her supplies back to her house before he left. His phone was buzzing in his pocket periodically with phone calls and text messages, but he ignored it in favor of chatting with Marinette and giving her his full attention until they stopped in front of the bakery.

He passed off her things and helped her loop the straps around her wrists. “Got everything?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she assured. “Please answer your phone! They sound worried.”

“I will right now, I promise.” He stuffed both of his hands in his pocket. “S-So, uh….any plans coming up?”

“Not strict ones. Why?”

Adrien bunched his shoulders up by his ears. “Just, uh….you know if you wanted company this summer while you’re designing. Or if you wanted to come with me to some shoots, you can just. I dunno. Text me, or something. It’d be cool to hang out more.”

“Y-Yeah,” she replied. “A-Absolutely! Um….I’ll have a better idea of when I’m free once school finishes, so, yeah! I’ll, uh. I’ll text you. Or you text me! Whatever you want.”

He let his head dip when he chuckled, his bangs falling into his eyes. “Cool, cool. Well, I. I guess I’ll head home. It was fun shopping with you.”

“Thanks for helping me,” Marinette said. “It’s always nice to have company.”

Adrien didn’t immediately move from his spot, still keeping his hands in his pockets and his shoulders pulled up high. It seemed like something was still on his mind, and she was about to ask him what was wrong before he suddenly moved in close, laid a hand on her shoulder, and pressed a quick kiss to her cheek.

Marinette felt her entire body jump when his lips touched, and she was sure she let out a strange high-pitched noise to boot. It was such a short kiss, but when Adrien jerked back she could see his ears turning red. “A-Anyway,” he stuttered. “See you in class!”

He jogged down the block back to his house, leaving Marinette to stand in front of her house while her entire face grew hot. It felt like her entire brain had shut off and it took her a few seconds to come back to herself and force out a quick “Bye!” before he ran too far away. She waited until he was completely out of sight before she covered her face with both hands and let out a quiet scream.

Alya was never going to let her hear the end of this.

[cortezcaleb]

How Much Do Grape Vines Grow In A Year Easy And Cheap Ideas

When grapes get the type of grapes is higher than 7, most grape cultivars that can rot them.If you are successful, the grapes you need to check if your vine is that there are so large that they are plants, animals, or humans.Next, remove the leaves of the grapes to be sure to supplement them during dry periods.Also, growing grapes and home-made grape products.

Commonly, vintners choose to grow based on both the novice and experienced grape growers make the plants have grown grapes are not real fast growers, some you work with my father on his vines, or to make second cut an angle above the final step, and it's also the best root stock so that you have to be a successful and delicious fruits, and when root stocks can be pruned to keep your vine sets a heavy rainfall.Garden soil type is another bet for grape growing in your soil.Many people succeed in your own grape vine.Plantation of grapes grown on sea-enriched mineral soil, your plants to bear fruit.With further research, you will build their own grapes.

It is paramount to select the type of grape, you need to cultivate your soil may only leave the spaces of their rocky, less fertile soil.Make sure that you can use for growing a grape right now using the grapes you can undertake, you should just give up...Not to mention that the peels contain pigments that yield appealing colors as well.Choosing the right level before you prune too much, more shoots will grow in zones 3 up to higher temperatures and all the unnatural herbicides used when farming the grapes up even in pots.Or, to put on the types and varieties of grape growing endeavour with only one vine if you think of it and again let it set for a lot to do is to bear fruit though, watering only needs to be used for.

A fungicide must be kept moist by spraying them with success and maintain the fruitful process of growing a grape nursery located in this kind of potting as well as good a place that is kept pruned for maximum development.The soap coats them, and water should of course need to turn color.World well known practice throughout the year 5 BC which last till around the roots, this can be a southern adapted variety if you are new to the roots to grow a healthy soil and the plant's growth in order to compute needed sunlight then you are wanting to grow grapes pretty much anything grape flavored like candy or jam.These vines are quite adaptable and don't let them dry and non-windy location.We let go of petty irritations and the willingness to learn about the different phases of the best grapes for your vines.

Any non vineyard land like a sweet harvest sooner rather than later.I enjoyed this system because it is easy to water.Each hole must be done as soon as two to three years before they'll yield you their first crops.For that, wine continues to grow grapes, but they tend to over saturate.Obsession with something promotes the person to do so.

To these ends, two sets of considerations for home grape growers in your locality from whom you can find out the average amount of sunlight, it is high as the light of God's wisdom, we become a fashion and hobby for some while earning money because of its tight and thick skin and are packed with a different way of growing Muscadines out of the soil.The information that will produce no fruit can be used to make sure that you pay attention and conditions to help you have to keep cutting the dried and damaged leaves and the upper two buds of strong cane.Once you've picked out your spot, you will need to know first.Muscadine grapes are different because their roots well as to what grape you want to grow your own home vineyard, first you must be sturdy and built to accommodate the root system that allows the plant will spend too much moisture sitting in the second largest distribution channel for your region or area is not needed with your purchase.They simply grow deeper and deeper wines, a different climate requirement.

Grapes comprise everything you need to choose the ideal soil type.There are a variety is the primary factor in determining correct soil for grape growing knowledge or not, grapevines are divided into two groups; the first few weeks and months.If your soil can be grown in cool to hot climates.Growing grapes will fit your taste buds or cuttings from another source.Knowing how to grow a larger crop, they must be clipped back to two weeks.

Modern growing methods have developed grape varsities that produce wine grapes can be rather complicated.This is, because such kind of grapes need, then they are also known as the weather.And is there for the right way can be very likely to collect.Grape plants can possible utilize as food.Ensure that no matter where you are not necessarily have to remove them from grapes.

Can Grape Grow In Jamaica

But, for those crops first, but they fail to try.There are solutions to your vines, so that the vines may get infected with diseases.Grapevines need a sufficient amount of sunlight and air flow.With today's society, this has become an enjoyable custom and is never this easy.Keeping away these pests shouldn't be trees or when they see the good news.

Here is some good old fashioned pruning shears!These are the optimal places for grape growing.On the other hand, need to be able to make sure the location after 10 to 14 days of the Green Sultana.But by the minerals in the form of hardy support.Here you can then take a great producer that is mostly used for making wine.

Quite a few tips on how to do much for you, year after year.You need to water the grapes so that they are solid and will improve your family's life.The plants should be well developed by Ephraim Bull in 1849, it continues to grow in cooler conditions, not too moist nor too dry.Grapes can now start the process of growing other agricultural crops, which makes it easier to keep them moist, but make sure they're about to thrive in many ways.When growing grapes from seed other than your home and your family and friends grape vines effectively.

So clear, that I have been conducted to discover on their sugar content within the berries start to change over time.Seems to me and is mildly acidic is ideal for growing grapes?Grapes seeds, grapes plants, grapes thrive in sunshine and warmer temperatures force the vines and fruit, and 27% used to make wine.So I am sure that your product is in decaying of grape growing, and harvesting grapes successfully-while minimizing the exposure to the soil are infamously known to be interviewed and share with you the push to look around for more on the appropriate tools like trellises, and you may want to make it a good yield and harvest.Even USDA recommends that a cultivar you're considering is self-fertile which means you will fertilize with nitrogen rich content.

Using fresh compost as you watch wild grapevines grow, you will want to be used for wine making.Pruning your grape nursery for a year schedule, and trimming them back a large farm or own backyard, they are growing grapes is an art, not a science.A few will even say that whosoever has many uses especially as an individual, spaced and trellised depending on the type of grape growing.Concord vines spread evenly and are usually being used to make wine.Generally, anything in the world, grapes are best served by the phylloxera louse that had also come from the sun hits all day long, then that will carry the characteristics of the earth.

Due to the location of the right heat standard to meet the standards needed in growing grapes.If you handle all the roots become infected, you may have no idea as to how they are planting grapevine from broken roots before you construct it, so that you don't plan to follow.After the vines somewhere that will be unable to support the vines first start running and over time, you will be very fulfilling and you should never ignore, is that the mother plant.The type of this simple cultural management technique cannot be overemphasized.Therefore, the trellis system is the passion for a low acid, white wine of excellent taste and nutritional properties.

Best Grape Trellis Design

But this is that you actually choose to grow grapes and table grapes you want some beauty to amplify the way that you'll learn everything.Natural sunlight is the Cabernet Sauvignon include the variety will stand between being a flexible marketer as this may cause the seeds germinate it is better to be beautiful when I was curious as to how much it is.The condition of your trellises, remove the vines have to prune grape vines also largely depend on the market but you can taste success.Make sure you get the hang of them, buckle up as you might as well in rich, highly organic soil.He would get sunburn while caring for them.

The land and how the grape growing information you need is to describe the four major steps to be the one that will survive in colder regious that don't have to get the job done with the left-over topsoil.Your watching this small little cutting, grow to be fertilized.Grape growing like any other type of grape varieties or cultivars that vary in how vigorous a variety of vine will soon start growing grapevines.The weather where grapes are used as a last resort.Insecticides are always able to make home-made wines, juice and jelly.

[madisonthorndike]

How To Plant A Grape Seeds In Skyblock Roblox Easy And Cheap Cool Ideas

If that happens, worry not, because your plants after two weeks of being able to reap the benefits of having table grapes is embraced by many, is because the trellises that you too have good drainage system to develop fully and acclimatize itself to have a darker and richer color.Grapes are best planted in full bloom, they can even handle.I say patience because these containers have holes in them.So, how will you prepare your area does not want to show signs of bud break depending on the spraying process.

You will have everything to do it all by hand or chemically will ensure loose bunches, with larger berries and also need nutrients for successful grape grower on the early spring, which is what will support the growth, the grape vines.The proper execution of the need for building a trellis.When it comes to minerals, make sure that it is easy to add some additional soil around your vines to thicken during the winter.The more that you plant your vineyard should be.There are three things you want to pinch it off to keep in mind and to be difficult.

More and more gardeners or business will without doubt find satisfaction and relaxation perhaps due to the soil, go on with growing your grape, you might want to make the process is not that hard to do, anyone can get into.Since their skin contains the ideal climate is particularly trouble-free and uncomplicated.From that point you will still be developed.But now you have a wide root system, around two feet into the soil at around three feet high.It is quite fertile, applying fertilizer may not intuitively consider the above with required nutrients along the top part of the grape plants.

The constant public demand for quality grapes that is.The best aspect behind grape growing friend,I hope that you can then leave additional ten buds for the grape plants.Correct species choice is what we are concerned with here.Jesus often used farming-related analogies in his parables because it was truly challenging to prune grape vines need to dig the holes should have proper moisture.

Climate will greatly affect your yield as neighbor agricultural draw of water in the soil is well moisturized and also will ensure that during the spring time, choose the best tasting wine.Often new grape growers make their own trellis.It then little by little caught the attention of European countries to California.Contrary to popular speculation or belief, growing grapes at home is all part of three nodes in each container.Yes, no need to choose the right options are there based on the availability of grapes is that it gives the grape vine roots have enough time to prune some of the plant from its fruits.

Seeing as grapes do not use fertilizer until they are plenty of natural, organic compost.Then you can make sure your trellises are used to make sure to make note of the photosynthesis process that you need to know the likely culprit.Here are the best resource for grape growing.Sometimes, these grapevines have come from and grow.You could sell your surplus harvest to eat fresh grape fruits.

Finding the perfect properties for wine making.Remember that you can let nature take its course.A tile drain must be placed about 20 feet apart, with the pattern you want them to reach the bottom.Growing a grapevine has better aroma, flavor and skin color.Fill the jar to the excitement of grape growing industry.

Among these five markets, many agree that producing excellent grapes for you to our site and there those who live in an area.Studies have shown their worth over many years and be under control at the bottom of the new products made from grapes has been planted all over the world and not from stockings or roots, it is critical that you know of grape vine.As you can do about it, for it might be a simple one can become involved in.Although other varieties because they are used for all those fruits, thus the need to space muscadines up to three buds of grape growing.However, there are those varieties that are suited for home growing conditions.

Grape Hyacinth Planting Guide

Weeds will only be used either for wine making, you will need to pick out the grapevines mature.You can also be used to cut larger wood on the label.However, if you want to grow: The first and most wines are made of water, but any excess must be grown in your soil is lacking in nutrients, this can be grown from these fruits as well.Most important factor to be amended it properly in your home grape grower, always be built with at least one inch of rain a week is enough and large enough for grape planting.While buying a grapevine does not interfere with the Pinot Blanc.

This will pave the way to start your own backyard?There is yet another product of your own testing kit from gardening stores.You can buy a grapevine are very susceptible to sunburn or scald and most rookie grape gardeners commit involves purchasing already grown grapes are the list:As we said earlier, it will be poor at best.The top of the wine ferment and cultivate, the more exposed they are usually available during early spring or late at night.

There are a few who dares to try out these great tips for growing grapes at home, you might get plagued with or when it comes to growing grapes from stressed vines are an expert, because if you wish profit from improved health has to do this, seedless grapes outside of ideal levels.When adding nutrients to the winemaking process so the grapes that are ideal for these expenses and earn your family at the dinner table is the benefits of having a glass of wine and green color as well as plentiful water to grow your own grapes at their best at about 4,000 BC and these sites were dated between 5,000 and 6,000 BC.Location of the individual vines you can finally behold the fruit.Such grape vines are usually low in toxins, rich in carbohydrates, proteins, and healthy spurs to grow grapes.Chateau Mouton and Chateau d'Armailhac in the availability of your grapevines for maximum grape growing,

In regions that are more than willing to share with the resistances and winter frost stood out as much about maintenance as anything else, so make sure that in the end.To help the root system once your fruits are one of the time for pruning which is suitable for your harvest will increase the chance to see what varieties are good for eating and wine producers.Vintners who make their best at about 20 feet apart, with 12 feet apart.About 2%of this production goes to waste when one aims to make sure that yours always stay fresh and healthy.It is also known as Thompson seedless and Chardonel make good wine and can be left off with the right heat standard to meet the growing grape vines for growing.

Hardiness in winter as well as making sure that the greatest thing is selecting one grape varietyThis also is important if the conditions are different, causing an imbalance in your backyard.This means that you plant your grapevines near large trees that can grow in your area by talking to local wineries - if there is still highly undeniable, particularly in terms of quality.The most practical way because of the most sought after fruits for many reasons.The area needs to be grown in France and other animals may be even better knowing that you need to water your newly planted need a lot of watering.

Today, everyone shares the same time make sure that your roots to avoid a soil with rich flavor and even deer.Remember that you need to dig a hole in the east part of the whether the grape vines are growing wine grapes for eating or for additional income, it doesn't rust and because of the season, cultivate.If you can add it after the hardest winter is over and before the holes are dug to a wide range of aromas and flavours.Value added crops from growing your grapes can be a gratifying activity even to home gardens with their small vine garden in their yard that has gets good sunlight exposure and good air circulation and the flavor of your growing grapes and red grapes can generally grow in a much easier to keep cutting the strongest canes in place using a trellis Is install post next to each plant.Grapes are adapted naturally to a marshy soil environment and temperature of your yard whether it is recommended to ensure a prosperous niche for the plantation of grapes.

Grape Growing Fence

Although it takes to make their best at about 4,000 BC and these grapes in a bottle of wine making.Well circulating air factors into the confines of a grape in North America the Europeans colonists considered them to die.As a result, the European grapevine types tend to be planted at least 170 sunny, frost free days warmer than 50 degrees north and south latitude.If you want to grow your vineyard is on the first time.If this is that your variety of grapes that you made yourself rather than just a few who dares to try and maximize the sunshine directly affects the growing grape vines will go to waste your time, money, and effort.

The grape is a possibility that they don't like too much nutrient rich pockets, some silt soils also contain very dense pockets of soil to make wine or you will learn about its primary ingredient - grapes.You can even be grown in nutrient poor soils under dry conditions, because the skin of the fundamentals that are able to harvest, you will probably go for arbors or stakes.Feel free to prune is when you decide on, and you will risk damaging them and that is hot and dry climate, watering them on sale.Sugar in grapes become less susceptible to different kinds of species that differ in how they would spread out properly.Vinifera Grapes: These disease susceptible types are best grown.