#it's longer than i expected but that's what happens when you procrastinate arrow | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marveloussupernerd · 4 years ago

Note

Hey! I was wondering if you would match me with a character from Mystic Messenger and Marvel? I have no gender preference so go hog wild. My form is pinned to my blog so I hope it wont be too inconvenient for you. I just find that humans have a tendency to be more complicated than 500 characters so it is difficult to accurately represent myself within those limitations. Thank you in advance, dear!

No problem!! Sorry this took a while but I hope you like it!!!!

Mysme

I ship you with 707!

I just finally reached the clarity that his real name is a spoiler for ppl that like they get upset if they find out so uh, I’m correcting that now lmaoo

Well you’re about as tall as him

Until you wear your boots

Then you’re taller

I know sometimes that bruises men’s egos but it literally does not affect him at all

Except when you’re walking too fast he whines that you need to slow down because your legs are longer than his

The first time he saw your resting face it kinda freaked him out

What did he do wrong? The two of you were just watching tv. Did you not like the way he had his arm around you?

Now that he knows that’s just how you look he doesn’t worry about it

He teases Yoosung by using it to his advantage

“Yoosung I think you pissed her off. Oh my goodness! Didn’t you know!? She can’t stand the color purple. Gives her bad memories. You’ve probably scarred her for life”

And then Yoosung is apologizing to you and you have no idea why

It’s Seven’s way of messing with both of you

The first time he tried to make his move by putting his arm around you and you flinched, he almost cried

No literally

He just... he hadn’t realized it was a thing to dislike it like that

Respects it so much

But he wants hugs so bad :( someone needs to hug this poor boy

So when you eventually invite him over and cuddle up to him during a very late movie night?

His heart jumps in his chest

He tries to tell you that you don’t have to!! He understands how it makes you feel weird and it’s okay; he likes you so so much and respects you a lot

But secretly he looks forward to whenever you want to cuddle with him; the rarity of it makes it even more special

707 is the king of witty comebacks

The first time the RFA sees the two of you bantering with each other they think you’re fighting? Because you’re both so passionate about being better and wittier than the other

You laugh about their confused faces later that night

He’s an over the top flirt too

Tries to woo you with ridiculous romantic gestures

He’s literally a theater kid too you cannot convince me otherwise I was a theater kid as well so I know

Literally every romantic gesture in a romcom? He does it

Of course he expects a reaction out of you but. You. Never. Budge.

Not even after he stole the microphone during the latest RFA party to confess to you that he was carrying your child

Which made NO SENSE

He’s not allowed microphones anymore. Or stages.

When you tell him you’re asexual he’s so respectful (as always)

You literally don’t have to do anything like that if you don’t want to

He’s more than happy with your cute lil domesticated life together

Okay this is off topic but I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TRY AERIAL SILKS

When he first sees your bruises he FLIPS

did someone hurt you? Who? He’ll hack into their computer, give them hell

The first time he sees you perform... wow

YOU’RE SO COOL AND GRACEFUL AND ELEGANT

he wants to try it and literally begs on hands and knees for you to teach him

He’s bad at it. Learns he’s afraid of heights too

But he tries to watch you perform as often as possible

Noticed you don’t give out compliments often

So it’s his job to come up with a creative new compliment to give you every single day

It ranges anywhere from “I like your shirt” to “you’re so beautiful” to “I admire that you’re able to parallel park my babies.”

Please help him with procrastination

You literally will not hang out with him if he has work to do

He pouts and whines, but ultimately gets his work done

You’ve really helped out his work and his work schedule

He literally hates parties and clubs and bars

Much prefers taking you out at night to look at the stars

If you’ll let him, he’ll drive you to a secluded place in the mountains so that you can see them better

After reassuring you 800 times that he isn’t gonna murder you (you weren’t worried, but he was afraid you thought he would)

He likes to watch murder mystery movies with you

It’s really just a contest to find out who guesses it right first

But after he kept losing he changed it to how ridiculous of a motive he could describe and how close to correct it may be

“She said she has a twin right? Well her eye color is different from her photos. How do we know they didn’t grab the twin on accident? Or the twin isn’t pretending to be her or something”

HOW could he have guessed that

Sigh this is rlly inspired by me bc I did this exact thing and guessed the plot twist

Overall, he’s just really respectful of you. Drinks respect women juice 24/7. Loves complimenting you and spending time with you and never letting you forget how amazing you are.

Marvel

I ship you with Loki!

The Seven one was kinda easy

Prob because there aren’t that many mystic messenger characters

But BOY I struggled here

Until I thought of Loki, I hadn’t even considered him at first (my sister brought him up, as she helps me come up with who to match ppl with)

And YES

He was first drawn to you by how elegantly you carried yourself

Most Midgardians just kind of, slouched through the day

But you stood with impeccable posture, resting most of the weight on your toes. He thought you were some form of royalty at first

And then he saw you perform hoo boy

Okay first of all he definitely had no idea what was happening for a majority of the show

But he kinda liked you and so when you invited him to go he was THERE

Couldn’t stop complimenting you. He thought you were elegant before oh wow

He’s literally not intimidated by you at all, think of all the people he’s had to meet and BS he’s had to deal with

You’re touch-adverse? That’s fine by him

Honestly he doesn’t like cuddling or anything like that himself. Blame it on his childhood or something idc

He will throw insults right back at you. In fact, he usually doesn’t hold back

Okay they’re never inherently mean but I don’t know they may be kinda questionable

He wouldn’t insult you if he knew you couldn’t handle it

He is NOT very flirty

And by that I mean he will not flirt. Like he just cannot

He still gets lowkey pouty when you flirt with other people, but he can’t blame you. It’s not like he does a good job showering you with that sort of attention and compliments himself

But he does give you attention in other ways

He likes to sit with you, watching as you bake or write or something. He finds it very relaxing

In those moments, that’s when he lets the compliments run wild, talking about how you’re so talented and he likes how you look when you’re concentrated

These moments are the softest he gets. He doesn’t like showing this vulnerable side around anyone else

HAHA can you PLEASE go knife throwing together

You’re both very competitive about it

You know that scene from brave where she shoots her arrow THROUGH another arrow!?

That’s all I can picture but with knives

Homeboy is doing 0 archery with you 0 horseback riding he doesn’t trust those disgusting creatures and archery makes him think of dealing with Clint

He makes fun of you when you see a moth

Like does not let it go

“I thought you weren’t afraid of anything. You’re afraid of this little creature? It doesn’t even know up from down,” he chuckles, pointing at the moth flying around and hitting walls recklessly

Needless to say though he takes care of it for you

He throws an Asgardian party just so he can show you off

Thor’s girlfriend was very unimpressive but you!? You’re so charming to everyone

He really just wants to brag about it to his brother, and you know this full well and let him do so

Y’all like to read together before bed

By reading together I mean sitting on the same couch reading your own books

When you yelp when you’re surprised???

What happened to your poker face?

As much as he wants to find different opportunities to jump out at you and make you squeal, he refrains himself from doing so

It makes the moments when you do freak out much more entertaining

I’d say you’ve very on par with Loki; you have a lot of things in common and a similar approach to life in general

#marvel #mystic messenger #mysme #matchup

3 notes · View notes

coldphannie · 7 years ago

Text

been wishin for you

Summary: Phil might have a crush on Dan. He also might invite him to a concert by blocking everyone from his snapchat story apart from Dan and 'publicising' his spare ticket. It's sneaky, but it's also his last year of high school and his last shot at getting with Dan.

Or the one where Dan is popular and Phil just wants to see dodie with him.

Genre: AU, Fluff Warnings: None Words: 1880

ao3 link

It starts with Phil feeling nervous.

He’s about to post this to his Snapchat story:

He’s tempted.

He’s tempted because he wants to be sneaky, he wants to post it to his story for one reason and one reason only.

He’s going to make it public to nobody on his friends list but Dan.

(Of course, Dan won’t know this. Dan will never know this.

It’s a guaranteed way to hang out with Dan alone.)

Dan is in the same grade as him. They’ve never really been in the same classes, but he still remembers orientation week – their first week of high school – when he first saw Dan with flat-ironed hair and dimples too cute for his face and thought wow, he’s cute, which spurred on his journey of self-discovery and not-so-straightness.

They’ve never really talked since their classes never coincided. Although, there was this one time during the sports festival last year when Phil scraped his knee and had to go to the water fountain to clean the wound and, coincidently, Dan had been there taking a drink.

He remembers being a mix of shy and overbearing (at the same time) trying to reassure Dan it wasn’t as big of a deal as it probably was. He doesn’t remember the details. What he does remember is Dan’s bright eyes; he’s always had incredibly bright eyes.

See, when Dan is relaxed, his eyes are relatively squinted. He’s got squinty eyes, alright. It means that when he really wants to look at someone, pay attention to someone, he widens his eyes, and when it does that, his eyebrows go up and it crinkles his forehead a little.

It mightn’t mean much to the average person, but it’s something that Phil can never take his eyes away from. He never thought he could find someone’s eyebrows attractive but here he is. He’s really attracted to Dan’s eyebrows. And other parts of him, too.

It’s just that Dan has a really expressive face and on the odd occasions that they have made contact, Dan’s eyes go wide and welcoming and his eyebrows go up, and it probably doesn’t mean anything, but it makes Phil’s stomach churn all the while.

So, he posts it.

He posts it because there’s no harm in trying and his heart hurts a little too much every time he looks at Dan. And it’s their final year. He’s running out of chances to do something. And god, he’s never been one to take chances, but he wants something to happen. He wants to try .

He receives a message from Dan a little later into the night.

It’s not a snapchat, it’s just a message in the chat. Staring at the little blue arrow makes Phil’s head pound like never before. He quickly opens it and sucks in a breath.

Dan Howell | is it too late to ask about dodie??

Phil bites his lip because it took a lot longer than he expected for Dan to reply, if ever. He was too much of a nervous wreck to check if anyone (meaning Dan) had seen his story.

Me | No it isnt, so far everyones been busy

Which wasn’t too much of a lie, because ‘everyone’ that knew about his spare ticket so far was just his friend Sarah. And so far, Sarah had been busy.

Dan Howell | oh good!!

And then a second later:

| i mean it’s good for me because i want to go. is your offer still standing??

Me | Yeah. Are u sure ur ok with going with me?

Phil realises this may come across as insecure, but it’s too late as he’s already sent the message. He can’t help his doubt that Dan would ever want to hang out with him.

Dan Howell | umm heck yeah? i love dodie. i’m sure we’ll have a great time

Phil may have squealed into his pillow a bit that night. He may have kicked his legs in the air out of excitement. He couldn’t control his breathing because holy crap, I’m going to a concert with Dan.

They’re on the train together.

Phil’s aware he’s been shaking his leg for the past twenty minutes. He can’t help but feel nervous, sitting on the train next to Dan.

Dan decided to put his earphones in a few minutes into the trip. “I just want to get in the mood, you know?” he said, before blushing and realising himself and saying, “like, immerse myself in the music, I mean.”

Phil gave an encouraging nod despite the fact that he didn’t know anything in that moment besides how nervous he was.

He curls his fingers into his lap, trying to sneak looks at Dan every now and then without looking like a creep. Dan’s wearing a bright yellow sweater.

Earlier, he had said, “It’s not quite dodie yellow , but it’s the closest thing you’ll get to seeing me in something bright.”

“I’m honoured, then,” Phil replied, managing only one crack in his voice – which was impressive for him, all things considered.

The worst part for Phil’s heart is that he finally gets a close up of Dan’s hair when it’s curly. He’d only recently decided to ditch the straighteners, which means so far, Phil’s only admired it from afar. He didn’t realise seeing it up close would give him actual heart palpitations.

Dan’s looking out the window, smiling occasionally, probably lost in thought. Phil scrolls through his phone to pass the time.

Later, they pick out snacks from an asian market near the venue. They buy biscuits they can’t understand the packaging of. They don’t need to understand it to decide what looks cool enough to try.

“I’m sensing a trend,” Dan points out when Phil picks up another animal-faced packet.

Phil puts the panda cookies back on the shelf, suddenly self-conscious about looking like a weirdo. “Oh, uh.”

“Were you going to get them?” Dan asks. “Don’t let me stop you.” His sheepish smile distracts Phil long enough to forget about feeling self-conscious and he picks them back up.

They munch on said snacks while waiting outside the venue. There’s a lot of young people trying to fit in line and it’s a bit squished trying to keep their place. Phil’s more than conscious of the space between him and Dan.

The concert is kind of crowded and Dan had told him earlier that he likes jumping into the mosh pit, but Phil doesn’t, and he decidedly didn’t tell Dan that. So, once they’re there, Phil worries that Dan will leave him to jump into the chaos. He wouldn’t blame him if he did.

He doesn’t. He sticks with Phil the whole time and even though Phil expected him to know the songs and stuff, he’s still surprised that Dan sings along to all the lyrics just like he does (despite the two of them being far from competent singers).

Dan keeps laughing and Phil’s heart keeps soaring. He’s having a genuinely good time and he can tell that Dan is too.

Dan’s talking to his friends in the hallway.

Phil’s at his locker. He can pick up Dan’s voice from a mile away.

“You get dodie tickets?” asks one of Dan’s friends. It’s Monday morning, everyone’s catching up on what they did on the weekend.

“No. I wasn’t fast enough.”

They laugh. “You probably procrastinated buying them.”

Dan does his little ‘hah’ laugh. “You’re right. I thought I had enough time but I didn’t.”

Phil’s buzzing in his spot, having a little fantasy about what could have been. In another time, another universe, he’d have spare tickets and the confidence to ask Dan to go with him.

Even if, by some miracle, he could articulate an invitation to Dan without permanently scaring him away, he already had Sarah going with him.

A day later, Sarah comes up to him, saying, “I can’t go anymore.”

Phil pauses putting books into his locker. “What?”

“The dodie concert. I can’t go. My work placement starts the next day and I can’t stay out late especially since it’s in the city.”

Phil deflates a little. “Oh.”

“I’m sorry, Phil.” She looks genuinely apologetic. “You can ask someone else to go.” She gasps, smacking him on the shoulder lightly. “Hey, you could even ask—”

Afterwards, Phil is feeling relatively relaxed and confident.

He’s in the kind of headspace you get when you leave the cinema after a three-hour movie, where your words leave your mouth before your brain can process them, and you feel like you could do anything.

Strangely enough, he doesn’t want to do anything. He’s content where he is. As they’re walking down the pavement to the closest fast food restaurant, Phil’s more than happy with everything.

Of course he’d love to hold Dan’s hand in his own, or tell him how much he likes him, but he doesn’t feel the need to.

He’s asking fast-paced questions about Dan’s life and hobbies and it’s the kind of thing he’d never do at school, or anywhere, but he feels like he can now.

Dan keeps smiling at him. He’s asking questions about Phil, too. Turns out they have a lot in common aside from their taste in music. They have a similar love for movies and videogames, and Phil feels himself falling even deeper into a crevice of infatuation whenever Dan suggests they’ll do something together again in the future.

They eat greasy fries and Dan has too many condiments for Phil’s liking, but it doesn’t matter because Dan goes on a passionate spiel about the joys of different flavours and he’s happy to sit and watch Dan’s eyes light up whenever he reassures Dan that he doesn’t mind listening to him ramble.

“My friends are always telling me to shut up,” Dan tells him. “You can too, if you want.”

Phil warms up at the implication that he’s Dan’s friend but also at the fact that he doesn’t mind, doesn’t ever want to tell Dan to stop talking to him or smiling at him or wiggling his expressive eyebrows all over the place. He simply laughs because he thinks it’d be weird if he told Dan he’d probably never tell him to shut up.

They take the train back and Dan’s stop is before Phil’s, so once he says farewell, Phil has a moment to himself before his own station just to sit and process everything that happened.

He’s got Dan’s number now – he got it at the start of the night in case they were separated or anything, but the truth was they never spent a moment apart (except for when they used the bathroom, but in that case, they waited outside for each other).

They’ll see each other at school the next day. Phil wonders if anything will change, if anything will be different. He spends an embarrassing amount of time fantasising about telling Dan how he feels and Dan feeling the same way that he doesn’t realise he’s at his station until the internal speakers announce they’re about to depart and he has to run to make it out in time.

Dan sends him a text later on asking if he made it home alright and it leaves a budding hope in Phil that maybe things will turn out well.

a/n: i wanted to finish this with dan figuring out how phil asked him... but i sorta lost the time and motivation and this has been done for like two weeks so i thought i might as well post it. i have it planned out so i could do a continuation but idk. let me know if thats something you’d be interested in. thanks for reading!

#phanfic #phan #phanfiction #phan fluff #my fics

62 notes · View notes

cherrycherrystudying · 7 years ago

Text

2017: A year in review

I've been thinking a lot on how-to write this.

To be honest, I would find it difficult to summarise this year. It feels like this year was so intense, and at the same time, like nothing at all. I remember last year's new year as if it was last week.

Time is a very odd concept, is it not?

January: the beginning of the red shirt revolution, a new year's sleepover with family and chaos and movies and jelly. The beginning of of my beloved art exam pieces, based on The Infernal Devices - I hated the work while I was doing them, of course. I should have probably focused on my gcse's and studying, but we are not here to regret.

February: the month I casually dragged my mother into the world that is Arrow.

When it really felt like I should have started studying properly. I was taking all the study sessions I could during the holidays, and I was taking a break from my extra curricular because it was causing me to stress.

March: by now I'm spending every week in ICT and geography, trying to catch up on work that I so blatantly ignored. It was always easy to just mess around in those lessons, to do whatever I wanted. This is also the month I was born in, and I especially love my birthday. I love getting presents and I love having get togethers and feeling like I'm the special one for once. I, for the first time, had can mercy which excited be beyond anything, of course. And my party was Spanish themedand all yellows and reds in colour. We had a sleepover that week too, we finally hit the gym and stuff. Art was already beginning to catch up with me, my pace has always been very slow and it's not a good way to work.

I also began at the end of the month to study with my cousin.

We never really got much done together.

April: This was the month I finally decided that I wanted to get my shit together. I organised my Bullet Journal, I went out for fresh air a lot, and I had more study classes outside of lesson. This was also the month I allowed myself to indulge in music, into the world that is BTS, courtesy of my friend. She knew exactly what she had done. I spent my time learning about them instead of learning about the things I really needed to learn, which was not a good decision on my part. However, when there in beauty just waiting to be discovered, it interests me much more than boring studying.

April is also the last month in which I am able to go out and do all sorts of things like going to parks and restaurants and birthday parties with my family. After this month I become housebound in an attempt to study harder.

Towards the end of this month, I am pulling more and more late nights, trying to complete all my exam work for my art course. I was slowly being driven mad by all of this.

May: I was starting to feel violent and restless. My gcse's were quickly approaching and everyone could not understand how I didn't seem to care about them at all. I was spending ,such more time in my I want shit to be over with jumper than I was in regular clothes. My obsession with BTS was getting bigger and exams were getting closer, and couldn't help but turn away from studying and more to procrastination.

When my exams finally started, it didn't really feel like I was existing anymore. I didn't want to do anything, I just turned up to my classes and my exams, waiting for them to finally be over.

As the ending came around, finally, it was the holidays, but these feelings of emptiness were only getting bigger.

June: the second half of the rest of my exams. We were also in the process of mentally preparing for departure from secondary school, only to have to turn up the next day for our last few exams. I didn't want secondary school to finish. That really threw me off. Once my exams were over, I had nothing to occupy my time the way school did. It was very odd, and I spent a lot of time binging and wasting away in my bedroom. I even was going o go so far as to pretend that I forgot about prom, only to go anyway and turn up fashionably an hour and a half late. I want to say it was an experience that I could not have missed, but unfortunately, I was bored to death.

July: I'm spending more time with my family, and I went back to my extra curricular. There's a wedding that we are spending time preparing for, which takes up time and brings more people together. I enjoyed July. I felt like I was really here. I also finally picked up my hobby of drawing, but only few doodles here and there.

August: Again, because all my family are also out for the summer, I spent more time with them. We took a trip to Scotland, and I loved it. It was like escaping everything, which is what I so desperately wanted. Lots of things happen, I have relatives that visit, we search for wedding venues, I eat tasty food. But results day is getting closer, and it speeds up times. Everyone gets restless, and there is one who worries so much that they called the night before to see if I was on the list of excelling students. I made a playlist for the day, a mash up of me feeling sad and me feeling happy. I was not particularly ready for how I would feel.

I get my results.

They are what I expect.

I still feel awful when I get home.

My mother makes us go to Wales. I didn't want to go. I didn't want to do anything. We still went. I spent time on the beach, with music and a pot in the rocks

It doesnt feel like people shpuld be proud of me, but they all congratulate me anyway.

I enroll for college with ease.

September: It is the beginning of change, as I had spent 5 years in secondary school, only for it to end and for me to go to college. I don't actually know what I expected, but it was better than what I thought It would be.

It feels good to be around right now. I make small documents of things I do, I enjoy doing it. I kept on top of my work, I told myself I was going to be the perfect student. I wanted to do well this time.

October: I'm still having fun dressing up for college. You can see by the collection of photos of my outfits in my gallery. The wedding datrs aree getting close and closer, and we finally have outfits. I'm trying to keep up with all the work I'm given, but I've never tried to keep up with my work. I spent more time planning a dance.

I also got an exchange partner.

November: Finally, the month of the wedding. It's hectic, and filled with lots of planning and executing the plans and parties and bridal showers and sleepovers and late nights and travelling, all for it to amount to a total if three days which were over in the blink of an eye. I went all the way to London twice, and I had award ceremonies for my results at GCSE.

December: and now here, the last month of the year, where I tell myself I will put all my effort in, only to Los E the whole month to my chronic procrastination. I now have an abundance of jumpers due to constant shopping, and Christmas was an entertaining dinner to say the least. My body I tired, and I'm glad this was over so quickly, but at the same time I wish it had all lasted longer.

Everything seemed to have gone by so quickly, and yet I had weeks where I would do ABSOLUTELY nothing. It was very confusing and sad to say the least.

So yes. That was 2017, a very detailed summary.

I hope 2018 is much brighter for me and my future.

💛 - Nemothechocolatebrownie

#december #bujo #studyblr #happy new year #2017 #2018 #bts #nemotcb #struggle #yep #writing #notes #a year in review

4 notes · View notes

exo-trashbean · 7 years ago

Text

Suho - Inked up (Tattoo artist au)

So, this was a little late, my bad. I was procrastinating all week and this turned out to be longer than expected. Enjoy!

Genre: Scenario, tattoo artist au Word count: 3300

-----

Maybe it was the pain that you liked, or the way they looked on your skin, but you smiled as you stood in front of the mirror, admiring the small areas of ink that were just visible underneath your clothes. Tattoos were your personal form of self-expression, and you couldn’t wait for the new addition that would come this afternoon. You only had a couple, and you wanted to change that; the new one would be the branches of a cherry blossom tree starting at your waist and reaching all the way up to your left shoulder. You had talked to your artist over the phone, resulting in confidence that he would do a good job. He seemed nice, and he knew what he was doing. With years of experience under his belt, you were both excited to see what he could do, and to see his own tattoos.

Stepping into the parlor, you were greeted with the smell of cleaning products and sterile air. The fluorescent light fixtures above buzzed above you, as well as the tattoo guns currently in use on other customers.

“Hi, I’m y/n, and I talked to one of your artists over the phone for a tattoo,” you said to the lady at the front counter. She had her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail, and you could see numerous tattoos poking out of her work tee, including a whole sleeve on her right arm.

She smiled, flipping through a notebook until she found your name. “Ah, you’re right here! Could I have the name of the artist?”

“Kim Junmyeon.”

She looked up at you, doing a quick scan of your body before standing up. “Come with me, he’s in the back.” She stepped out from behind the counter and began walking, signaling for you to follow.

The back was about the same as the main area of the parlor; bright lights, several chairs set up and several examples of tattoos hung up for the customers to look at. There was a desk stuffed in the corner with numerous folders and binders stacked on it, and a man sat behind it, going through one of the drawers.

“Junmyeon?” The lady said, and he looked up. “This is y/n, the one scheduled for today.” She waited until he stood up, then wandered back to the front. Junmyeon pushed the drawer in and made his way over to you. You were taken aback by how strikingly handsome he was; his light brown hair was neatly parted, bringing out the features on his face that made it look like he was a chiseled statue. He wasn’t tall, but he made up for it in muscle. You could tell he worked out on a daily basis because of his strapping shoulders and slim physique. He was dressed in regular attire, and a denim apron was tied around his waist and neck.

“Hello, y/n, I’m the awkward guy on the other line,” he started, grinning as he stuck out his hand to shake. You took it, glancing down at his arm as you shook it. The sleeves of his black shirt were rolled up, revealing well, two more sleeves. You didn’t have enough time to look at his tattoos without staring for too long, so you looked back up to meet his eyes.

“Shall we?” He patted one of the cushioned benches, and took a stool next to it. You sat down, swinging your legs over it.

“So, I know we discussed a cherry blossom tree, correct?” He rolled over to a box of gloves and took two out, stuffing them into the pockets of his apron until he needed them.

You nodded. “Could you figure out a stencil that’s big enough?”

He smiled, his brown eyes twinkling, and plucked a large sheet off of the desk. “Child’s play, honey. I’ve done trees before.” He brought the sheet over to you, setting it on your lap. “I figured this part would start at your waist, and would wrap up to your shoulder, like you wanted,” He looked up at you for confirmation.

You picked up the stencil, hovering your hands over the design. “That’s perfect!” You admired the knotted texture of the tree and the delicacy of the flower petals before handing it back to him. “This obviously isn’t a one day tattoo, right?” You knew that after a couple hours both Junmyeon’s hand and your back would be tired.

“Yes, I’ll have you come back soon if I like you,” he laughed, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he tried breaking the ice. After all, the two of you would get to know each other well over the next couple days.

You chuckled, twiddling your thumbs in your lap. “Well, let’s make that happen then,” you started unbuttoning the front of your shirt and flipped it around, so the back part was on your chest and your back exposed. Junmyeon didn’t blink an eye as he set up the tattoo gun and gestured for you to get comfortable. You laid face-down on the bench and crossed your arms beneath your chin, so your head was tilted in his direction. From this angle, you could see his hands preparing the stencil, including the tattoos on his skin. They were mostly designs spiraling around the width of his arms, with the occasional flower here and there. One that caught your eye was outside of the base of his wrist, in the shape of a raindrop with an arrow and a few lines inscribed in it.

“That’s not a gang symbol, by the way,” he said as he flicked a switch that turned on the lamp next to the bench. You glanced up to find him gazing warmly down at you. You bounced your leg to keep from squirming.

“What is it?” You asked, in an attempt to break the lull in conversation.

He turned his wrist over, running a thumb over it and thinking back to when he got it. “I had a bunch of friends, and we all had different symbols for each other. We decided one day to get them tattooed.” He smirked, shaking his head. “Poor Yixing, he had to get a unicorn.”

The corners of your mouth tugged upwards. “A unicorn?”

He nodded. “He didn’t seem to mind it though; it’s on his pectoral, just below his collarbone.”

“Whatever works, I guess,” you said, shrugging as Junmyeon picked up the stencil. You stopped moving your leg and held still as he held it over your back. He quickly set it on the stool again before hovering over you, thinking of how to place it. A warm hand below your shoulder blade startled you, the fingertips gently tracing imaginary lines on your skin.

“You forgot something,” he added, the tone in his voice slightly amused as he hooked his index finger under your bra, which was still latched.

You faltered, sudden realization hitting you. “Oh! Sorry,” you tried reaching it with your hands, but it had ridden up too high. You struggled for a moment before he stopped you.

“I got it,” he said, and quickly unlatched it.

“Thanks,” you felt your cheeks turn pink for a second out of embarrassment.

He laughed. “Just consider it getting to know you,” he gave you a gentle pat on the shoulder and dug the gloves out of his pocket. He pulled them on, and crouched down so he was level with your face. He smiled. “Hold still.”

You did as he instructed, glancing behind you to make sure your clothes were out of the way. Junmyeon stood up and grabbed a bottle of green soap, squirting a bit onto his hands and rubbing it into your skin. Once the area was prepped, he picked up the stencil and did one last check before placing it on your back. “And now,” he hummed, smoothing out the paper, “we wait.” He sat down on the stool and rolled towards you.

“So, what makes you want a tattoo?” He asked, putting both elbows on his knees and resting his head on the palms of his hands.

“Well,” you started, “I already have a few, and I thought this one would fit with the others.”

“I know that, but what made you want to get your first one?”

You thought of first tattoo you got, which was a small knot on your right wrist, in the area below your thumb that could easily be covered by a watch. You stuck your hand out, turning it over so Junmyeon could see it. “I wanted it as a reminder to relax my muscles, since I’m tense a lot.” even as you said it, your brain clicked and your shoulders instinctively slouched.

Junmyeon took your hand, studying the small tattoo. He gave a small smile, muttering “cute” before letting go.

“Why did you decide to be a tattoo artist?”

He thought for a minute, tapping his jaw until he found an answer. “I liked art, and seeing it take physical form seemed pretty cool. The responses that I got from people were gratifying too, so I decided to make the most out of it.” He nodded, as if agreeing with his answer.

The two of you made small talk for about the next 10 minutes until Junmyeon stood up and brushed himself off. “Alright, we can probably take this off now,” he pinched a corner of the stencil on your back and gently peeled it off, being careful to not smudge the ink. The sudden rush of cool air made you shudder, and you got goosebumps thinking of how it looked. You heard the crinkle of paper as he set it on the desk, and saw him turn around and approach you out of the corner of your eye. He stopped, admiring his handiwork and thought for a minute before speaking.

“Can I take a picture of this? You would be able to see it then.”

You nodded. “Sure, does it look alright?”

He took his phone out of his back pocket and grinned from ear to ear. “Better than alright.” You didn’t move as he held the phone above your body and snapped a picture, giving the camera a bird’s eye view. He brought it down to your level, and you gasped once you saw it.

The ink began around your waist, the knotted trunk of the tree creeping upwards as the branches fanned out across your shoulder blades, mainly your left. Several flowers had been caught in an imaginary breeze, softly falling from the tree. The detail that had gone into the texture of the tree was beautiful, and you couldn’t fathom how it would look with color.

“Junmyeon, it’s beautiful,” you breathed, looking up him. You could tell how excited he was to get started by the way a smile was stretched across his face and he enthusiastically nodded.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” He slid his phone into his back pocket and took his stool again. Grabbing the tattoo gun from the small stand next to the bench, he rolled over to your waist and gave you a warning pat. “Just so you know, it won’t hurt as much down here, but once I get up here,” his hand slid up the middle of your back and to your shoulders, “it’s probably going to hurt significantly more.”

You gave a quick “gotcha” in response, and heard the familiar buzz of the gun as Junmyeon brought his other hand to settle firmly on the small of your back.

Junmyeon wasn’t wrong. The first chunk of the tattoo felt like slight pin pricks, only a little uncomfortable. As he moved up your back, however, the pain almost flipped like a switch. When he grazed over your spine, you nearly cried out, gripping the bench to keep from moving. He sensed your discomfort and paused, lifting his hand off of you.

“How are you holding up?” He gently went over the sore area with a rag damp with antibacterial soap, making sure not to irritate the tender skin.

You let out a puff of air you didn’t realize you were holding. “I’m alright.”

“We can take a break if you want,” he set the tattoo gun back on the stand and stood up, stretching his limbs. “You can stand too.”

You slowly sat up, your back stiff from laying on the bench for over an hour. He was almost halfway done with the outline of the tree, and the two of you had settled for working on the color in two weeks.

You swung your legs off of the bench so they dangled for a moment before standing up. A sudden rush of blood made you sway, but only for a millisecond before you leaned on the bench for support. You paced, putting the feeling back into your legs and attempted lifting your arms above your shoulders. You only got midway before a burning sensation started at your lower back and quickly spread upwards.

“I wouldn’t do that quite yet,” Junmyeon said, grabbing a water bottle from the mini-fridge nearby and handing it to you. You took it, trying not to appear quenched as you hastily unscrewed the cap and gulped nearly half the bottle down. “How bad does it hurt?”

You made the stretching motion again, observing the pain before putting your arms back down. “It feels like a bad sunburn.”

He nodded, taking a sip from his own water bottle. “That’s good then. You must have a high pain tolerance.”

You smiled and shrugged. “Maybe so,” you responded. “Do you have a high pain tolerance?” You gestured to his sleeves, because well, you’d either have to have that or be a masochist to have that many tattoos.

“Not at first, but it developed over time.” He shyly ran a hand over one of his arms, as if feeling for texture from the ink.

The break lasted for another 15 minutes, before Junmyeon finally sat down again. Flexing his hand one last time, he picked up the tattoo gun. “Do you think you’re ready to keep going?” he motioned for you to turn around by lightly pushing one of your shoulders. He surveyed his progress, checking to see what he needed to finish doing. “The most painful part is going to be this whole area here,” he dragged his fingertips up the column of your spine until they rested on your shoulder blade, “and I’m not expecting you to hold anything in. If it hurts, feel free to yell.”

You nodded. “Oh, also,” he added, “I’ll give you a warning before I start in those places.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” you said, and climbed back onto the bench.

As the tattoo got further up, you could feel your eyes water. He did give you a warning, softly saying “I’m going to start here now,” and press a couple fingers to the next spot he would be working on. You appreciated the gesture, because had he not done that, you would have yelled several times already. Once he got up to your shoulder blades, he settled his entire hand on the last chunk of unfinished outline. “Home stretch!” he said, and you turned your head to see him smiling at you. You gave him a smile back with a thumbs up. “Just so you know, this will hurt the most.”

You clenched your fist in preparation. “I’m ready.”

Junmyeon raised his eyebrows, saying a small “Okay” before beginning.

The first part were borderline unbearable. It felt as if someone was taking a blowtorch and sliding it across your skin. You gritted your teeth, letting out occasional pained groans as your hands tightly gripped the bench. Junmyeon was seated near your head now, and he could see the tears pooling in your eyes as he worked.

“Do you want me to talk you through this?” He asked, glancing down to see your eyes squeezed shut.

“Please,” you said, opening your eyes to find him staring in concentration at his current area of work. The pain was reducing the skin on your back to feel like it was throbbing, and you were getting desperate to get your mind off of the constant sting in your shoulder.

With that, he broke into endless banter and praise. “You’re doing so well, just a little bit more and we’re all done.” His left hand softly rubbed at the skin that wasn’t getting marked, being careful not to move too much and unsteady his working hand. “You know, y/n, I haven’t gotten a lot of women that want something like this. It’s brave, I like your courage.” He asked several questions not relating to the tattoo, such as if you had any pets, where you work, if you were in a relationship--anything to get your mind off of the pain. You tried answering them as best you could, thinking hard and long before answering each one. Of course, you asked mostly the same questions back, creating conversation as he continued working.

Finally, the tattoo gun left your shoulder, and the buzzing suddenly cut off. “That’s it, y/n, the outline is done!” You let out a sigh of relief, pushing yourself up on your elbows, then hands. You felt a warm hand on your shoulder, beckoning you to lay down again. “Hang on a minute, we’re not entirely done yet.” You laid back down, and heard him squeeze a puddle of green soap onto his hand. He rubbed into your skin and massged the tattoo, making sure not to press too hard on the fresh areas.

Once he was done, he peeled off his gloves and grabbed a roll of bandage and medical tape. As he wrapped you up, he explained the healing process and scheduled a day to see him before the last session.

“Here’s my number, since the shop will be closed next week you’ll have to text me where we can meet up.” He handed you a slip of paper and you stuffed it in the pocket of your jeans. You carefully sat up, Junmyeon taking your elbow for support as you struggled to keep the bandage from coming undone. You conversed for a little while more, before you said you needed to get home. You thanked him, then grabbed your things and headed out.

Walking into the door of your house, you thought of the places you could meet up. Is this what a date would be like? You thought. Haven’t been on one of those in a while. You sighed to yourself, and set the bag of tattoo products on the counter and made supper.

Me: Do you like coffee?

Kim Junmyeon: y/n?

Me: That’s me

Kim Junmyeon: Oh, hey. Coffee’s fine with me. Did you see the one by the shop?

Me: Yep, I’ll meet you there at noon.

Kim Junmyeon: Perfect! It’s on the house, I did the barista’s bicep. He won’t mind if I have an addition with me.

Me: Awesome! Also, one more thing. Junmyeon?

Kim Junmyeon: Yeah?

Me: The parlor is open all week. I checked your hours online.

Kim Junmyeon: Heh, you caught me. A date, if you will(?)

Me: ...

Me: Sold

Kim Junmyeon: (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

You laughed at the message and set your phone down. Although Junmyeon wasn’t very subtle, that’s what you found nice about him. At least he was a gentleman about it. You found yourself excited for the coffee date, and a little further down, finishing up your tattoo. As you rolled over in bed, one last message buzzed your phone.

Kim Junmyeon: Just so you know, the price isn’t going to get reduced just because you were attractive enough to make me do this. <3

Thank you!

#suho #junmyeon #exo #exo scenario #suho scenario #junmyeon scenario #junmyeon oneshot #suho oneshot #exo oneshot #tattoo au

36 notes · View notes

andrewdburton · 6 years ago

Text

Saving regret — and how to avoid it

In November 2018, the National Bureau of Economic Research published a paper called “Saving Regret” [here's the full PDF version]. Once you wade through the study's academic language, there's some interesting stuff here about why people do and don't save for retirement.

Saving regret, the authors say, is “the wish in hindsight to have saved more earlier in life”.

Obviously, you can suffer from saving regret at any age. When I met 31-year-old Debbie for dinner last week, her issues boiled down to saving regret. She wishes she'd saved more when she was younger. But for the purposes of this paper, the authors turned their attention to folks aged 60 to 79, people of traditional retirement age.

The researchers found that two-thirds of those surveyed said they should have saved more when they were working: “66.6 percent said they would save more if they could re-do their earlier life.”

As you might expect, the authors found that high-wealth and high-income people experience less saving regret. (I'm pleased that the researchers recognize that there's a difference between income and wealth.)

But what causes saving regret in the first place? Why don't people save more? Let's take a look at what the study found.

Sources of Saving Regret

In their survey of 1590 people, the authors asked about education, personality, and what they term “positive and negative shocks”. (The latter is basically trying to to determine how unexpected events affect saving.)

After compiling the results, they reached these conclusions:

“We found only modest evidence for a relationship between our measures of procrastination and the desire to re-optimize saving.” Yes, procrastination is a factor in saving regret. But it's not as big as you might expect.

Failure to anticipate negative shocks — underestimating their probability and effects — has a greater effect on saving regret.

Overall, “a substantial percentage of respondents view their economic preparation to be adequate, yet they nonetheless express saving regret.” In other words, as many GRS have experienced, even when you think you have enough saved, you often wish you had more.

“Saving regret is high at the time of or shortly before retirement but is much lower at older ages,” the authors write. They believe there are two reasons for this.

First, when people stop working, they're faced with a lot of uncertainty. This uncertainty makes them long for a larger safety net, makes them wish that they'd saved more. In a sense, this is why I have been experiencing saving regret. When my life was settled, I was fine with my nest egg. But over the past couple of years, there's been a lot of unexpected, unplanned spending. Things seem uncertain. Because of this, I wish I had more saved.

Whether or not there's any actual increased risk to a person's savings, if she feels like there's increased risk, this leads to saving regret.

There's another reason saving regret declines with age: Consumption patterns change. The older people get, the less they spend. This decreased spending leads to greater relief. It lessens the stress.

A Shock to the Savings

Saving regret was greatest among people who always settle for mediocre results (85.8% of these folks experienced regret) and people who always put off difficult things (88.2%), but this is a very small sample of the whole. Plus, these are personality traits that, with effort, can be changed.

Another huge factor — one that could affect anyone — is what the authors term “economic shocks”. A positive economic shock might be receiving an inheritance. A negative economic shock might be losing your job.

From the paper itself, here's a table demonstrating the relationship between saving regret and economic shocks. (The number you want here is the “mean”. Convert this to a percentage to find out the relationship. For example, the 0.794 listed under mean for “Health limited work” indicates that 79.4% of those whose health affected their ability to work wish they had saved more.)

“Among those with saving regret,” the authors write, “66 percent reported experiencing a shock earlier in life leading to adverse economic consequences, compared with just 43 percent among those without saving regret.”

I found this tidbit interesting too: “Among those with regret, 38 percent reported that Social Security benefits were less than expected compared with just 26 percent among those without regret.” Perhaps it used to be difficult to anticipate Social Security benefits, but nowadays they should never come as a surprise. That info is easy to find.

In a lot of cases, it's not the shock itself that causes the problem. It's the failure to anticipate a possible shock. It's poor preparation.

The authors believe that people tend to be over-optimistic. They “[expect] future outcomes that are better than reasonably likely”. They think they're better than average and will achieve better than average results. Plus, they suffer from the “illusion of control”, an exaggerated belief in their ability to direct their destiny.

This last point is important for me (and many GRS readers).

I am a vocal advocate of becoming proactive. I believe strongly that, to the extent possible, we should all work to manage those parts of our life that fall within our “locus of control”. Some things — the weather, the economy, the actions of other people — are outside of our control, and it's foolish to spend our attention on them. But others — our attitudes, our relationships, our saving rates — are absolutely under our control, and it's foolish to ignore them.

When reading this article, I fretted at first that the authors were arguing that people like me believe we can control more our life than we actually do. I realized, however, that they're actually saying something different: Those who experience saving regret mistakenly believe that people and events in their Circle of Concern actually fall in their Circle of Control.

Money bosses like you and me may not have perfect perceptions of what we can and cannot control, but I believe we have a better understanding than those who express saving regret. We recognize that many things are beyond our control, so we prepare for possibilities. We expect the unexpected.

Avoid Saving Regret

The authors of “Saving Regret” don't delve deep into solutions. Their paper is informational, not prescriptive.

That said, I think the info provided in the paper suggests a handful of solutions to saving regret. If you want to save enough for retirement, do the following:

Forecast the future. I know it's tough to tell where you'll be in five or ten years. Sometimes, it's impossible. All the same, it's important to try. Having a plan reduces saving regret. The researchers found that “saving regret was highest among respondents who stated that they do not have a financial plan”. The longer a person's planning horizon, the lower their levels of regret.

Plan for problems. You cannot predict when bad things are going to happen. You don't know if (or when) you're going to get cancer, a drunk is going to crash into your car, or a typhoon will wash away your beach home. You can, however, be relatively certain that something bad will happen sometime. Your best bet is to be prepared — just like a Boy Scout. Maintain an adequate emergency fund.

Be proactive! There is never ever a reason that your Social Security benefits should come as a shock. The Social Security Administration issues periodic statements about estimated benefits. Plus, it's easy to look up projected benefits online. This is but one example of how you can take steps to prevent future surprises.

Master your money. “The relationship between saving regret and financial literacy is also strong,” the authors write. People with high levels of financial literacy experienced half as much regret as those at the lowest levels. To avoid disappointment later in life, learn everything you can about personal finance.

Save more. Yes, this is an obvious solution to saving regret. I get it. But let's make this explicit: Your saving rate — the difference between what you earn and what you spend — is the most important number in your financial life. Saving rate isn't just vital for money nerds who want to retire early. It's a key factor for achieving any financial goal.

Nothing can guarantee your financial future. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune can wreak havoc on even the best-prepared people. But you can maximize the odds of positive results by taking smart steps now. You can decrease the likelihood that you will experience saving regret by taking action today.

Final Thoughts

If we knew when we were going to die, financial decisions would be much easier.

If I knew, for instance, that I would be mauled by a bear on, say, 04 July 2029, then it would be a simple matter to make sure my retirement nest egg lasted another ten years.

On the other hand, if I knew that the fateful bear attack wouldn't come until I was 120, then I could take appropriate steps so that I had enough money to last me seventy years.

But I don't know when and how I'll die. Neither do you. As a result, the best we can do is guess how long we'll live and how much money we'll need.

Very few people regret saving money. In fact, these researchers found that only 1.7% of respondents would have saved less if they could re-do their earlier life.

While 66.6% of respondents wished they had saved more when they were younger, about 10% of these folks say they could not have done so. There wasn't any way they could have spent less. But that means 60.9% of those surveyed could have and should have increased their saving rate.

What do people wish they'd spent less on? Men wish they had spent less on cars. Women wish they had spent less on clothing. And as much as it pains me, everyone wishes they had spent less on vacation. I sure hope my own travel spending doesn't come back to haunt me later in life.

Poorer people have greater saving regret. The authors write: “Among those in the highest wealth quartile, 38.9 percent expressed saving regret; among those in the lowest wealth quartile, 71.9 percent did so.”

It's tough to trace cause and effect here, of course, but I don't think it matters. The message is clear. The poorer your personal economic situation, the more important it is for you to save!

Wading through the jargon, there's a lot of interesting stuff about aging and aging in this paper. I've touched only on the main points. Some of the background info and asides are equally fascinating. (How do researchers predict how people will make future decisions? How do they model saving habits? What do they think of self-determination?)

But the bottom line is obvious: To avoid regrets when you're older, save more now.

The post Saving regret — and how to avoid it appeared first on Get Rich Slowly.

from Finance https://www.getrichslowly.org/saving-regret/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes