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marauder-exe · 5 years ago

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AU list!

hi! These are a bunch of Au’s that i could write,and you could request! (reposting because it didnt work the first time)

General

Fake dating (My personal favourite)

Soulmates

Coffee shop

Modern Royalty

Rockstar

Running From The Police

Rebel Against The Goverment

High School

University

Law school

Delayed-Flights-And-Were-Stuck-In-The-Airport-And-Its-Like-2Am

Roommates

Road Trip

Arranged Marriage

Im-Arranged-To-Marry-Your-Brother-But-Were-In-Love

Amnesia

Tattoo-Artist-And-Coffee-Shop-Worker

Loved-Since-Childhood

Professor-Student (of age)

Met-On-Holiday

More detailed

21.You were singing/playing guitar/etc. in the park to protest the war and a policeman tried to dismiss you for 'disturbing the peace' but you argued that you were promoting peace and things got heated and next thing you know you're being arrested for assaulting an officer. You intrigue me, so I'm here to bail you out and maybe take you on a date?

22.the nice one who everybody loves with the grumpy and strict one that the students hate and the students wonder?????????how what the fuck

23.we just had a one-night stand but a massive storm hit so now we’re snowed in, hello awkward

24. i sit at the rental booth at our local ice rink and watch you teach children how to skate

25. alternatively, i watch kids teach you how to skate because you’re a terrible skater

26. i’m running late to an important interview/meeting and you accidentally spill your hot cocoa all over my outfit

27. you’re my hot ski instructor and i’m failing the bunny hill

28. i slip on some ice and you’re the stranger who catches me

29. i gave my winter coat to a homeless person and come into your store to warm up

30. our friends rent a cabin to go skiing and we’re the only ones who stay inside

31. you’re the asshole of our group and we don’t get along, but then i find out you make soup for the local shelter

32.we’re waiting in line for the club when you complain that your roommate stole your gloves so let me warm your hands up with mine

33.my family invites you to join our holiday meal as an obvious setup and i’m so sorry

34.the power goes out in our apartment building, but i’m not prepared for this, and you come to check on me

35.i’m having a snowball fight with my friend in the park and i hit you instead

36.a storm is delaying our flight home and i’m afraid of thunder, please talk to me while we wait

37. we’re both in small claims court and i got into a huge fight with the person suing me but you stepped in to hold me back before security got there

38. i drove two hours to the closest video rental store that’s still operating and you were checking out the only copy of the movie i was after

39. i hit you with my car but luckily you’re okay, but we should still exchange information i guess

40. i was worried about buying something off of someone creepy from craigslist but oh no you’re hot

41. my friend talked me into playing a drunken game of spin the bottle even though we’re all adults and now we have to make out

42. we both decided to take a [yoga/fencing/cooking etc] class and we’re the only two assholes not taking it seriously and everyone else is giving us dirty looks but we keep grinning over at each other

43. my date just made a scene in public and got arrested and now i’m stranded in a city without a ride home

44. sharing a cab together

45. you’re trying to get me to sign a petition and i have no idea what you’re talking about

46. you’re drunk at this festival and dancing on the table and when you eventually fell i caught you

47. we both play this stupid game online and you keep beating me every single goddamn time so i called you out and you are pretty cute but can you not

48. im a bartender and you just came in here without shoes sat down and ordered a chocolate volcano and idk what the fuck that is and im scared to ask

49. we are neighbours and every night at 3:14 am you start yodeling for no fucking reason??? why???? is that you yodeling??? its been 2 months???

50.im a pizza delivery person and i just delivered a pizza to someone in the middle of a satanic ritual and they gave me their number???

51. i woke up this morning to find you sitting in my living room with a goat in a poncho??? who are you??? why is the goat wearing a poncho??? how did you get the goat in here i live on the 12th floor???

52. we work out at the same gym and you always look super legit but i know you sing hannah montana in the shower and you know i know

53. im a cashier and i saw you stuffing you pants full of potatoes and i would stop you but you already have 27 and i want to see how many you can fit

54. its 4 am and im drunk as fuck in a mcdonalds and you have been watching my trying to eat this burger for 30 minutes

55. i was playing beer pong with a coin and i accidentally threw it right into your eye at a party

56. i’m at the beach and some kids thought it was funny to bury me in the sand when i dozed off can you please dig me out

57. it’s unbearably hot and we’re both fighting over the last handheld electrical fan at the shop at the amusement park

58. hey i just met you, and this is crazy, but i get sunburned really easily so can you please help me put sunscreen on my back?

59. thunderstorm after a menacing heatwave and we’re both getting weird looks for dancing in the rain

60.i have no idea who you are but you just fainted right in front of me holy shit dude you need to drink more in this heat

61. we both chased after the leaving ice cream van like ten-year-olds and now we’re both out of breath and a bit embarrassed

62.i clearly reserved this deck chair by putting a towel on it why on earth are you lying on it who the fuck do you think you are

63. My friends bet I wouldn’t buy these three weird and questionable items and you’re my cashier.

64.Once a week I go visit the pet store just to stare at the cute kittens and puppies and you’re the nice employee who always lets me hold them and wait I think I’m going to cry hold on.

65.You’re the DJ of the University’s radio station and every time you give an opinion on a current event I have to call and argue with you because could you seriously be anymore wrong?

66.We both wait tables at the same restaurant and you’re always mad at me by the end of the night because I make more in tips

67.We have the same class and once a week you wear this graphic shirt I don’t understand and I really want to ask you about it.

68.We both work at the same craft store that literally has no customers so we have nothing to do and I’m always reading at the register but you always have to criticize my book choice what the hell?

69.I’m working the concession stand for this week’s home game and this is the fifth time you’ve come back for snacks wait are you flirting with me?

70. we’re at a bookstore and you and I seem to have similar taste in books have you read this one? How about this one?

71. you look like you need help and I’m a professional roller/ice skater but I don’t want you to feel bad about how much you suck but wow you suck

72. You ordered your food before me and they gave you a drink you didn’t want so you gave it to me

73. We’re sitting at adjacent computers in the library and I’m taking extra care not to look at your screen out of respect but what the fuck do you keep laughing at

74. as a joke I yelled out “happy birthday to someone!” in this store and you called back “thank you!” who are you

75. You heard me talking about a TV show in class the other day and now you’re passionately yelling at me about how good it is we’ve never actually spoken before

76. It’s 10:30 at night and I left my glasses at home so I can’t read any of these labels and you’re one of the only people in the grocery store and GODDAMMIT DO YOU HAVE ANY TOMATO SAUCE WITHOUT CHUNKS

77. We go to the same support group; I have social anxiety and you’re a kleptomaniac who sorta stole my heart

78. You thought you were alone at the bus stop so early in the morning so you started passionately singing Fall Out Boy but your Patrick Stump impression could use some work and I’m not really afraid to point that out

79. I’m an artist and you have a really nice face so would you mind if I drew you?

80. We’re rival up-and-coming singers and every time one of us releases a new single the other does a cover to try to make it better; we’re always trying to top each other and out-cute each other, but half our fans aggressively ship us; our agents use this to their advantage and decide we should do a duet because it’ll be popular; unfortunately now that we’re in the same studio and I’ve seen what you’re like I really wanna know what your lips feel like

81.PLEASE I REALLY CANNOT FIND MY CAT AND I KNOW IT’S THREE A.M. BUT NEIL CATRICK HARRIS AND I WOULD BOTH APPRECIATE THE HELP

82. We were both stood up for dates at the same nice restaurant so we decide to eat together and split the check but I dunno you’re pretty interesting aside from your distractingly enormous eyebrows

83. We met at a mutual friend’s cheesy masquerade party and we agree that the only good thing about this party is the masks so you can’t judge a book by its cover only now that we’ve been talking I want to see your face but I don’t know how to ask

84. You used to date my friend who absolutely hates your guts after a messy breakup and now you’re flirting with me and I really shouldn’t be so interested in you but I am

85.We pass each other every day while we’re biking on the same path so we’ve started smiling at each other and one day you’re stopped because you’re having an asthma attack so I offer you my extra water bottle and now we’re talking and now I’M the one who’s breathless

86.I lost my little sibling in IKEA and I need your help finding them

87.I'm a private detective hired to follow you, but you're endearingly boring and mostly I just like watching you and oops, I sort of find you adorable.

88. You've been sketching me for half an hour now, and just shuffled up to hand me the finished product and it's TERRIBLE but you just wanted an excuse to talk to me.

89. I'm at an art exhibit and I just badmouthed the art, because I don't get it, okay? And it turns out you're the artist. I'm so sorry, maybe I could get you coffee and you could explain what it was supposed to be?

90. We're the only two people who turned up to an underground gig and it should be awkward, but the band is amazing and you asked me to dance and hey, there's nobody watching but us.

91. You live in the apartment next to me. We're not supposed to have pets, but I KNOW you have a cat. I'll make you a deal, I won't tell, if you let me pet it.

92. I punched you because I thought you were insulting my friend, but it turns out you know each other and it was an inside joke and I'm so sorry, let me drive you to the hospital?

93. We both wanted to rent a bike for an hour but the only one they have is a tandem bike

94. I’m on a terrible date and you’re my waitor please help me

95.Our dick landlord just evicted us both

96.I’m your neighbor and I can hear you fucking someone who shares my name

97. You’re sort of famous and we vaguely know each other through bumping into each other all the time but the media thinks we’re dating

98. Your roommate cheated on me and I just threw your laptop out the window thinking it was his

99. It’s 2am on the night of my 21st birthday and we gotta fix this fucking mess by morning or else we’re fucked

100.Fuck you and your bee farm I’ve had enough

Feel free to use any of these as your own! If you wanna request you could drop an inbox saying ‘ could you do ____ AU with this character’!

#remus lupin x reader #sirius black x reader #james potter x reader #lily evans x reader #cedric diggory x reader #regulus black x reader #fred weasley x reader #george weasley x reader #hermione granger x reader

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carriagelamp · 4 years ago

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September Book Roundup, back-to-school edition aka The Season Of Red apparently?

Here is a selection of the books I’ve read this month. Summer is over, so the little bit of brain power I had managed to scrape together is quickly disintegrating, so enjoying the hodge podge of stories.

Binti

This was probably my favourite book that I read this month. It’s a novella I first heard about hear on tumblr and went to find a copy in my library. I have since bought the collected trilogy so I can read book two and three at my leisure because it was honestly just that friggin cool. This is exactly my flavour of scifi and I tend to be very very picky about the scifi I consume. It’s about a girl named Binti, a member of the Himba people (a real group of indigenous people from Namibia). They are a people well known for their mathematical and technical prowess, but due to their strong connection to their homeland and the earth they choose not to travel through space like so many other humans do. However, when Binti secures a position at Oomza University, the greatest university in the galaxy, she chooses to go against her family’s wishes and traditions in order to set out into space to attend. Everything is ruined though when her spaceship is attacked by a hostile alien race and everyone is killed but Binti, who must rely on all her intellect and abilities if she wants any chance at survival.

A seriously cool book with great world building – it really successfully introduces readers not only to the fictional scifi world and races of the novel but also to the culture and traditions of the Himba people. It’s a quick read, and feels like a cross between Dead Space and Tamora Pierce. Would totally recommend a read.

Fake Blood

A Canadian graphic novel. It was a goofy cute read. It’s about an awkward group of friends in middle school, and one boy with a crush on one of the girls in his class. Knowing her love for vampire stories, AJ decides, like any self-respecting middle schooler, to try to pretend he’s a vampire. Naturally nothing goes right and some things go wrong in unexpected ways. It’s funny and cute. Nothing amazing but it was a cozy evening read.

The Last Book On The Left

I’ve been listening to this podcast a lot since my friend recommended it to me and finally decided to read their book. For those that don’t know, The Last Podcast On The Left is a immaculately researched comedy podcast that’s hosted by Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, and Henry Zebrowski, and explores the darker realms of human nature. Ghosts, paranormal, aliens, cults, and of course serial killers. In this book they collected several of their biggest name serial killer series, did some renewed research, and put together a book that is both informative, irreverent, gross, and very funny, complete with some really amazing illustrations by Tom Neely. A very cool read (and listen, if you decide to check out the podcast instead), I really love how they tell these stories without idolizing or romanticizing the people they talk about. Their humour always makes sure you know exactly how much of a pathetic loser these people are. Fantastic true crime, from someone who has never really felt the need to read about true crime before.

Midnight Sun

I won’t harp on this one, everyone is already going to firmly have their opinions here. I grew up on Twilight, I was reading them as they came out, and I still love them. Were they dumb? Oh my god yes. Did they have problems? Sure, they came out in 2005 it was part and parcel. Were they also a really fun for a thirteen year old to read? Absolutely, I don’t regret it. Sometimes teenage girls should just to get like things without being mocked.

Anyway, I am off my soapbox now (can you tell this is still a raw spot for me?) I unironically loved this book! Getting to see Edward’s perspective was really cool, and since he can read minds it essentially let you get the perspective of everyone else around him too. The Cullens family is a great set of characters so it was really cool to see more of them, and I was very impressed by how Stephenie Meyers took a YA romance she wrote in 2005 and was able to make it feel updated and more appropriate for a 2020 audience even though she couldn’t actually change any of the events themselves. So fans of Twilight, don’t be ashamed, go read Midnight Sun and have the shameless fun you deserve. Is there anymore appropriate book for the bizarre ass year that was 2020 than a return to this goofy nonsense?

The Paperbag Princess

(and Up, Up, Down, and Robert Munsch in general)

I’m back in schools so I’m back to reading children’s book! And honestly, and of you that don’t occasionally sit down and read a kids book out loud don’t know what you’re missing. Anyway, Robert Munsch is a Canadian author, and one of my all-time favourite children’s authors. It surprised me to learn he isn’t as well known in the States apparently? I don’t know if that’s changed or not, but he is a Canadian staple for a good reason, his books have ridiculous premises, are specifically written to be fun to read out loud, and have beautiful, involved, and hilarious illustrations. The Paperbag Princess is one of my absolute favourites, and as a kid it was one of the first stories I had ever read where a princess is the one saving the prince… and then telling the prince to piss off when it turns out he’s a jerk. Up, Up, Down is another favourite I reread this month, because it’s just hilarious funny and makes a fantastic read aloud with kids. Some other Robert Munsch I reread this month include: Mmm, Cookies, More Pies, Ribbon Rescue, Just One Goal, and Andrew’s Loose Tooth. You just cannot go wrong, for kids or adults.

Pit Pony

Another Canadian staple while I was growing up. If you’re a young adult know who went through the Canadian elementary school system, you probably had your entire heart ripped out and stepped on by this chapter book. It’s a historical fiction that looks at the economic hardship, debt slavery, child labour, and animal abuse that was tied to coal mining in the Maritimes. Finding a copy was harder than I would have expected give how pervasive it was a decade or so back, but reading it again was a pure shot of nostalgia.

Seeking Refuge

A graphic novel written by a German-born Canadian about a Jewish girl who flees Nazi-occupied Austria by way of Kindertransport to become a child refuge in England. It follows her as she is moved from host family to host family as the war continues to pick up and gradually makes it’s way to the United Kingdom as well. It’s very poignant and the pencil-sketch illustrations are an interesting change to a lot of the graphic novels that are out right now. This story is still aimed at a younger audience, so it never gets too brutal but it still is a hard hitting story, especially with everything else going on right now.

Silver Spoon #9/10

I know I’ve talked about these books before, but my library got some more since I last read them, so I’m continuing my way through the series. It’s about a teenaged boy who, after having a breakdown from the pressure he was feeling to study and succeeded, decided not to attend an academic, urban high school, but rather to apply for an agricultural high school so he could live in the dorms, far away from his parents. The series just gets more and more heartwarming as it continues. It’s all about failure and overcoming and how worth can be measured in different ways, and about family and understanding each other and coming together… but also about the realities of farming which aren’t always very nice, especially when it comes to finances and survival. It’s written by the mangaka behind Fullmetal Alchemist but I’ll be honest… I think I like this series more. It is honestly one of my all time favourite manga series, it just has so much heart.

Ruby Finds A Worry

aka Ruby’s Worry apparently? I can’t figure out why this has more than one title. I actually read it in French not English, so for me it was Le Souci de Calie. Regardless, this was a nice little picture book for talking about worries and anxieties with children… especially with the amount of Covid stress a lot of kids are dealing with. It explains in a really nice way how talking about anxieties are often the best way to make them more manageable, and how pretending nothing is wrong can just let it grow bigger and bigger. A good explanation for kids and possible a good reminder for adults.

War of the Realms: Journey Into Mystery

I read this because the Mcelroy family wrote it so I figured Hey! Why not give it a go! And I’m glad I did. Their brand of humour was all over it, and it made the story a delight to read. I don’t follow all of Marvel’s weirdness, so I didn’t actually know most of the characters (Miles and Kate were actually the only two I was familiar with) but they do a great job of introducing the characters and making them all feel distinct and interesting. I absolutely adore the Dog of Gods (God of Dogs) who is a very very good boy. And Miles is absolutely always a delight so you can’t really lose. It’s a single book that I think is a part of a larger plotline that I have zero interest in. This book is a fine one to read though if you don’t mind jumping into the middle of the action and just getting swept along for the ride. Also Mcelroys!

Witcher Omnibus

Bleh. Absolutely not worth it. All the misogyny and Dumb Bullshit that I hate in the original books and from video games in general. Honestly, Witcher III did way better by its characters than most of these short stories. The only one worth reading in it is Curse Of Crows – that one was actually really enjoyable, probably because it was about Ciri and had an actual fucking woman on the writing team. (Seriously guys what were you thinking with Fox Children that’s literally just a story from Season of Storms but done worse. Fuck off.) If you like The Witcher, go read Curse of Crows and skip every other story in this book.

Billy Stuart: Les Zintrépides #1

Another French (Quebecois) book I read, though I believe you can get it in English as well (Billy Stuart and the Zintrepids). It’s a chapter book / graphic novel hybrid, and was honestly a fairly fun little read. It’s in a similar vein to Geronimo Stilton but done much better in my opinion. The humour was funnier, the characters felt less like caricatures, and while it still used stylized fonts it was also less intrusive and eye-strainy than the Stilton books. Also when the story suddenly pivots into the main adventure and mystery of the series? Fantastic. Was not expecting a hell-beast to appear part way through the story. Very interested in reading more.

Over all, it was cute and funny, and I can see it being a good next step when children have read their fill of the Stilton series and want something similar but possibly a bit more involved and coherent.

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pandawritesthings210 · 6 years ago

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Branded

My name is Michael Dunn. I’m 23 years old. I’m about 6’2” tall, and I have blond hair and blue eyes. I, like many people, still haven’t met my soulmate yet. My necklace is still firmly in place between my collar bones. When I touch my soulmate’s skin, my necklace will fall off, and a brand of my soulmate’s name will take its place. I’ve heard from my parents that the process of their name branding your skin doesn’t hurt- it’s just a warm tingly sensation in your chest.

You’re supposed to meet your soulmate at 25, and my 24th birthday is next month. I’m almost worried that I won’t find mine- or if I manage to find them, they’ll reject me. It’s rare- rejection from one’s soulmate- but it has happened.

I’m sitting in my university’s library and attempting to work on my project for computer sciences while I keep zoning out about the whole soulmate thing. So many people are really particular about their soulmate. ‘I want mine to be a guy.’ ‘I want mine to be a girl.’ ‘They better like Harry Potter.’ ‘If they don’t like Doctor Who, I’m rejecting them.’ are some of the phrases I’ve heard. I don’t care if they’re a guy or girl. I don’t care if they like Harry Potter or Doctor Who. I just want them to accept me, and I’ll accept them.

I finally focus long enough to get a few slides done and then notice the time- 6:49PM is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Shit. I’m late. I was supposed to be at Gabe’s by 6:30. I think to myself. I look at my phone and see a bunch of texts and missed calls from him. I log out of the computer quickly, and I head to Gabe’s dorm. I try to text him as I walk, and that’s when I bump into a shorter girl with red hair and kind grey eyes. She bumps off of my chest and falls to the floor with a dull thud. Her stuff falls out of her hands.

I look up quickly with wide eyes and begin to apologize.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m so clumsy that I run into everything- everyone apparently.” she giggles.

I kneel down and help her pick up her fallen items- noticing as I do so that her necklace is still in place. She’s super pretty. I think as I gather up her things. I place her things on the table next to me and stand up. I then reach my hand out to help her up.

“Here. I’ll help you up. It’s the least I can do since I kind of knocked you down.” I chuckle at the last part.

“Alright. My name’s Amelia, by the way.” she says with a smile as I pull her up.

“Michael.” I respond, smiling.

I notice a warm tingly sensation radiating from my chest, but dismiss it as butterflies from touching this incredibly beautiful girl. I gasp as I watch her necklace fall off, and I feel mine do the same.

“Holy shit.” we both whisper at the same time. I look at the space between her collar bones, and there stands the word Michael. I cautiously reach out to brush by fingers across the brand of my name, and she does the same. We both shiver involuntarily at the contact.

“I can’t believe that I found you.” she breathes.

“I can’t either. I would absolutely love to stay and talk with you for hours, but I’m already super late to meet my friend. Can I give you my number and -I don’t know- pick you up at 7:00 tomorrow night?” I ask her.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” she says excitedly.

I take out a pen and write down my number on a piece of paper in her stuff, kiss her on the cheek with a quick ‘bye, text me later’, and go to Gabe’s dorm. The walk there was short, and I knock on the door once I get there.

“Dude! Where the hell have you been?” he demands. His hands are placed on his hips, now I’ve never met his mom, but I’d bet $100 he’s the spitting image of her right now.

“Okay, so you’ll never believe what just happened.” I say, laughing as he raises one eyebrow.

“Okay, I’ll bite. What happened?” he says skeptically. His green eyes alight with uncertainty.

“So, I was working on my computer sciences project when I realized I was late to meet you. I got up and was trying to text you when I ran into this girl, so I helped her pick up her stuff and helped her off the ground; a warm tingly sensation went throughout my chest after I touched her. Look at my chest- no necklace. I met my soulmate and literally knocked her off of her feet.” I laugh at the last bit.

“Well, I suppose that’s a valid excuse for being late for video game night. You know I’m gonna have to meet her at some point, right?” he responds.

“Well, obviously. You’re my best friend, Gabe. I’m obviously going to introduce you two at some point.” I tell him.

“Okay, good.” he says as we finally go inside to play video games for a little while.

As I make it back to my dorm after a few hours of video games and pizza, I look at my phone and notice a text from an unknown number.

‘Hey, it’s Amelia. What do I need to wear tomorrow?’

‘Well, I was thinking we could go to dinner and then a movie, so whatever you feel cute and comfy in.’

‘Okay. Goodnight, Michael. I can’t wait until tomorrow night. :)’

‘Goodnight, Amelia. I can’t wait either :)’

I fall asleep with a smile on my face and butterflies in my stomach.

I wake up in the morning with a wide smile already plastered on my face. I’m ridiculously excited for tonight already. I get dressed and heat up a quick breakfast before quickly going to class. I sit in my programming class a bit more distracted than usual, and apparently it shows, because after class my professor holds me back.

“Michael, is everything okay? You’re usually one of my most attentive students, but today you were hardly paying attention.” he says.

“Yeah, I’m just really anxious. I finally met my soulmate yesterday, and we have a date tonight. I’m so excited and nervous at the same time. I just- I’ve always been scared of rejection. I know it’s rare, but it has happened.” I tell him.

“Michael, you’re a great kid. I’m sure that they won’t reject you.” he responds reassuringly.

“I really hope not. She’s so pretty, and she seems super nice.” I say with a small smile.

“What’s her name, if you don’t mind my asking.” he asks.

“Amelia. What’s your soulmate’s name?” I smile.

“Steven.” he replies, his voice full of love.

“You really love him, don’t you?” I ask, already sure of the answer.

“I do. We’ve been together since we were 16.” he responds, fiddling with his wedding ring.

“Well, anyway. Good luck Michael.” he says.

“Thank you, Professor Spencer.” I say, smiling as I walk out of the classroom.

I get home after going to the rest of my classes, and it’s 4:30PM I take a shower, and then I call Gabe before changing into some sweats and a t-shirt.

Gabe comes over after my panicked phone call begging him to help me figure out what to wear and how to do my hair. He fixes my hair in a way that looks really good and intentionally messy.

I wear a blue, long-sleeved button-down that make my eyes stand out, and my nicest pair of blue jeans. I just wear my black and white converse for shoes. I bring my blue zip-up hoodie as well just in case I need it. I notice that it’s about 6:30PM and decide to go ahead and leave, so I won’t be late. I thank Gabe for helping me as I leave, and he makes me promise to text him later about how it goes.

I find Amelia’s little off-campus apartment quite easily, and make my way up the steps to her door with a rose in my hand. I’m so nervous and excited. I knock lightly on the door.

“Just a second!” she calls from behind the door. When her smiling face opens the door, my breath is taken away for a second. She looks so beautiful. I think. She has on a grey and black striped shirt tucked into a high-waisted skirt, tights, and some ankle length boots. I hand her the rose with a shaky hand.

“This- this is for y-you.” I say with a deep blush staining my cheeks.

“Aww, Michael! It’s beautiful! I’m going to go put this in water really quick. You can come inside if you’d like.” she smiles.

“Okay.” I say while stepping inside her apartment and shutting the door with my foot. There’s a fluffy corgi on the small couch in the living room that watches me with curiosity. I go over and pet the space between his ears on the top of his head lightly.

“Oh, I see you’ve found Twinkie. He seems to like you.” she says as she fills a vase with water.

“Oh my gosh. His name is amazing. I love it.” I laugh.

‘He looked like a tiny Twinkie when I got him so… yeah. You ready to go?” she asks.

“Yeah!” I smile. Having been around her for even a short amount of time has calmed me down a bit.

We walk out to the car, and I open her door for her to get inside then shut it. I walk back around to my side and get in.

“So I never got to actually ask you this, but is Italian food okay?” I ask her.

“Yeah, that sounds great.” she says happily.

We talk on and off as we drive to a cute little Italian restaurant that I love in town. We pull up to the restaurant, and I get out, go around to her side, and open her door.

“And they say chivalry is dead.” she smiles.

“It’s not dead, but it sure as hell is dying.” I smile in return.

“Yeah, you’re not wrong there, Michael.” she says as we walk inside. I place a gentle hand protectively on her lower back, feeling the soft material of her shirt under my fingertips.

We sit down, and our waitress takes our drink orders soon after. We talk about ourselves and get to know one another as we eat, and I can definitely see how she’s my soulmate. She loves Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who, she plays video games, and she loves animals. She’s exactly like me, and I absolutely love it. I love her. I realize all at once. She’s laughing at something I said, and the realization hits me like a freight train.

After dinner is over, I pay quickly, and we walk out to my car. I still open and close her door for her. I get inside and buckled up, and then I look at her curiously.

“So… there’s a showing of episode VIII in about an hour. Do you wanna go?” I ask hopefully.

“Oh my gosh, yes! I haven’t been able to see it yet, and I really want to.” She squeals in excitement.

*tiny timeskip to after movie*

“So was it as good as you thought it would be?” I ask her as we walk back to my car, our fingers intertwined between us and swinging as we walk.

“Yes! Oh my gosh, it was so good! I want my own Porg now!” she squeals happily.

“Yeah, they were really cute.” I agree.

“I know~ their little eyes! My heart like exploded.” she gushes.

“Aww don’t let it explode. I can’t steal it if it’s exploded.” I say with a smirk.

“Michael, you already have it. I am yours just as you are mine.” she pulls the collar of her shirt down to reveal the brand of my name as she stops and turns to face me.

“And this proves it.” she smiles.

I run my fingers lightly over the brand, and her eyes flutter shut at my touch. I move my hand from my side to her waist, and I move my other hand from her collar bones to cup her cheek in my palm. I lightly pull her into my body and look down at her face. Her grey eyes are wide as they look into my blue ones, and her painted-red lips are slightly parted in a gasp of surprise.

“Amelia?” I ask, not a hair above a whisper.

“Yes, Michael?” she replies in the same tone.

“May I- May I kiss you?” I ask hopefully and still in a whisper.

She nods with a smile and -using her arms wrapped around my neck for support- goes up on her tiptoes to connect our lips. My heart rate speeds up, my hands grip her tighter, and we kiss each other as if this kiss is the only thing we have been waiting for in life- and it kind of is. She tastes like cinnamon and lemon- an unusual combination that I’m sure I’ll never become tired of. Our lips move perfectly in sync, and an overwhelming feeling of home envelopes me.

When we break apart and look at each other, I find that her eyes are wide, her breathing is heavy, and her lipstick is completely smudged all around her mouth. I feel a smug satisfaction set in as I realize that I am the one who did that.

She starts giggling, and then she doubles over in laughter.

“What?” I ask with a smile.

“My lipstick is all around your mouth!” she manages to say through all of the giggles.

“I don’t really care. It’s just proof that I got to make out with a really pretty girl, and that pretty girl just happens to be my soulmate.” I say before leaning down and pecking her lips softly once more.

“You are amazing. You’re so kind, and you have such a big heart. I know we’ve only just met, but… I love you, Michael.” she says, smiling into the kiss.

“I love you, too, Amelia. I’ll forever be yours… if you’ll have me.” I breathe between kisses. She breaks away after my last sentence, and I make a small noise of protest.

“Michael, what do you mean by if I’ll have you? Of course I’ll have you, Michael. Why would you ever think otherwise?” she asks with wide and skeptical grey eyes.

“I- I’ve always been afraid of rejection- always. I just never thought that anyone would actually be willing to stay with me for the rest of our lives. I’ve just never thought I was good enough. I mean come on- my hair is a disaster, I have scars all over my-” I don’t get to continue my self-loathing rant as I’m pulled down by the collar of my shirt and a pair of warm, soft lips crash into mine. I kiss back immediately, reveling in the feel of her lips against mine and her hands in my hair.

“Michael James Dunn! I never want to hear you talk about yourself that way ever again, okay? I love you. I completely accept you as my soulmate, and I will gladly stay with you for the rest of our lives.” she says comfortingly, but with an undertone of fierce determination.

I crash my lips into hers once more, and she lets out a small squeak of surprise.

“Thank you. I really, really needed to hear you say that.” I say sincerely after we break away.

After this we get into the car, and I start the engine. I then hear Amelia pipe up.

“Would… Would it be possible for you to stay at mine tonight? Just- after that, I really feel the need to be close to you.” she says nervously.

“That’s the best idea I’ve heard in a very long time. I feel the same way, honestly.” I smile and start driving back to her apartment.

“Then let’s go to mine, and we can wipe all this makeup off, yeah?” she says.

“Gosh yes, it’s so sticky. How do you willingly put this on?” I ask her.

“It’s not that bad when it’s where it’s supposed to be.” she giggles.

“Yeah, I guess that’d help, wouldn’t it?” I chuckle lightly.

We get to her apartment fairly quickly, and then we get inside and lock the door. Twinkie is staring at us from his spot on the couch. Amelia turns on the light and guides me to the bathroom.

“Let me see your face.” she requests then gently cups my chin in one of her hands while wiping some sort of wet cloth across my mouth and chin.

“There. All of the the lipstick is gone.” she declares. I smile and thank her quietly. I watch as she removes the makeup from her face and smile when it’s all off.

“You’re beautiful with and without makeup, My love.” I say, lifting her up and placing her on the counter, standing between her legs in an attempt to get closer. I kiss her softly, cupping her face in both of my hands.

“We’ve both had a long day. How about we get changed then go to bed, yeah?” she asks.

“Sounds great. Are you okay with me sleeping in just my boxers?” I respond.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’m just gonna sleep in a t-shirt and my underwear if that’s alright.” she says.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll stay here and get changed. Then I’m gonna go pet Twinkie some more. Let me know when I can come to bed.” I tell her.

“Okay, Micha.” she says before pecking my lips quickly and hopping down from the counter. I quickly strip down to just my boxers then go out in the living room to pet Twinkie. He wags his tail excitedly when I walk in the room. I sit on the couch and pet him for a few minutes until a soft,“Micha, you can come to bed now.” moves me from my spot.

I walk in her room and slide under the covers on the side of that she’s not on. She’s on her side facing the wall, and I wrap my arms around her waist. I bury my face in her neck and inhale the scent that can only be described as home and Amelia. We fall asleep soon after hushed ‘goodnight’s are exchanged, and it’s the best night’s sleep I’ve ever gotten.

#cute #fluffy #light angst #very smol amount #language #adorable #doggo #corgi #soulmates #soulmate au #au #kisses #movies #nerds #porgs #this fic was written before ep VIII was out

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gayghosttt · 7 years ago

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I wanna hear your answers to your questions thingie ☺️

Thank you I am avoiding studying for 3 finals rn lmao

1: when you have cereal, do you have more milk than cereal or more cereal than milk? More cereal, I do not like milk at all it makes me feel sick Every time lmao

2: do you like the feeling of cold air on your cheeks on a wintery day? Y e s I love being cold

3: what random objects do you use to bookmark your books? mm usually a sticky note

4: how do you take your coffee/tea? I don’t really like tea but I usually have some kind of cold coffee or with cream and 2 sugar if its hot

5: are you self-conscious of your smile? mmm kind of yes

6: do you keep plants? I don’t currently have any but I love having them

7: do you name your plants? yes!!

8: what artistic medium do you use to express your feelings? currently more words than visual art

9: do you like singing/humming to yourself? sometimes, I mostly do it in my head though

10: do you sleep on your back, side, or stomach? I almost always sleep on my left side but I sometimes sleep on my right side or back

11: what's an inner joke you have with your friends? long boy, CRACKS PANTS, What if i was Straight

12: what's your favorite planet? mm I actually don’t know a whole lot about any of them but I think neptune is Very pretty

13: what's something that made you smile today? my friend paige and I sent each other christmas cards and I got hers in the mail today!!

14: if you were to live with your best friend in an old flat in a big city, what would it look like? there would be his nerdy video game stuff Everywhere and my books and movies everywhere and a little bit of glitter on everything lmao

15: go google a weird space fact and tell us what it is! it is quiet Everywhere in space

16: what's your favorite pasta dish? lasagna is the actual love of my life

17: what color do you really want to dye your hair? BLUE OR DARK PURPLE

18: tell us about something dumb/funny you did that has since gone down in history between you and your friends and is always brought up. I do alot of dumb things lmao but last semester when I lived in a residence hall with my friends i was always shouting IM GAY down the hallway or kicking my leg up high to put it on the window ledge

19: do you keep a journal? what do you write/draw/ in it? I am very forgetful so I never keep a journal or sketchbook consistently

20: what's your favorite eye color? brown

21: talk about your favorite bag, the one that's been to hell and back with you and that you love to pieces. I don’t really have a bag that’s lasted a super long time but my little blue makeup bag used to be my sister’s and I’ve been using it since high school

22: are you a morning person? If I’ve slept enough then yes but when I have classes at 8 am,, no

23: what's your favorite thing to do on lazy days where you have 0 obligations? sleep in and watch movies

24: is there someone out there you would trust with every single one of your secrets? mmm probably Steven? He knows most of them already

25: what's the weirdest place you've ever broken into? THE CHURCH PARKING LOT WE GOT LOCKED INTO TOGETHER AT NIGHT

26: what are the shoes you've had for forever and wear with every single outfit? I rotate between like 3 pairs but I have some beat up black high tops I’ve had since high school that I love

27: what's your favorite bubblegum flavor? usually just minty gum

28: sunrise or sunset? sunset

29: what's something really cute that one of your friends does and is totally endearing? steven calls me everytime he’s driving home from school and we always say I love you before hanging up its gay and i love him v much

30: think of it: have you ever been truly scared? yes a few times

31: what is your opinion of socks? do you like wearing weird socks? do you sleep with socks? do you confine yourself to white sock hell? really, just talk about socks. okay I get judged for it alot but I wear socks 24/7 I have Too many socks and theyre all cute and yes I wear socks to bed and I wear them all the fricking time I am uncomfy being barefoot

32: tell us a story of something that happened to you after 3AM when you were with friends. Nothing recently but last semester I used to stay up until like 4 am with alot of my friends watching movies and one time like 10 of us watched star wars and had snacks and had a big cuddle pile sleepover on the floor

33: what's your fave pastry? chocolate croissants

34: tell us about the stuffed animal you kept as a kid. what is it called? what does it look like? do you still keep it? mm I have a bunch still bc alot of them were given to me by someone sepcial/ for special reasons and one of my favorites is a pink bear with a dodgers hat that was from my dad when I was a kid

35: do you like stationary and pretty pens and so on? do you use them often? I do! If I have stationary I’ll use it to send people mail

36: which band's sound would fit your mood right now? currently I’m listening to lana del rey and its fitting

37: do you like keeping your room messy or clean? I am an organized messy person so I am like half and half

38: tell us about your pet peeves! when people invite themselves over/ just show up without asking, opening doors without knocking, chewing with your mouth open

39: what color do you wear the most? black

40: think of a piece of jewelry you own: what's it's story? does it have any meaning to you? I have a black ring I wear everyday that was from my sister and it makes me think of her since we don’t currently live in the same house while im at college

41: what's the last book you remember really, really loving? How to remodel a man by w. bruce cameron, I found it at the library and got it just bc it sounded like a funny title and it was genuinely the funniest book I’ve ever read I loved it

42: do you have a favorite coffee shop? describe it! Either 85 degrees down the street from me bc its really cute and the chocolate bread there is Amazing or coffee bean in my city cause it has a v nice atmosphere and the baristas all know my sister so they’re really friendly

43: who was the last person you gazed at the stars with? I have no idea actually

44: when was the last time you remember feeling completely serene and at peace with everything? ???????????

45: do you trust your instincts a lot? I try to

46: tell us the worst pun you can think of. earlier Aaron and I were roasting Morrissey and I said that when moz cancels shows/doesnt show up bc he’s sick its like he just sneezes once and then he’s like,,, oh my god am I,,, Still Ill

47: what food do you think should be banned from the universe? tuna

48: what was your biggest fear as a kid? is it the same today? I don’t really remember tbh

49: do you like buying CDs and records? what was the last one you bought? yes!! last record was the Uni single release and its clear and v cool and the last cd was a paul mccartney one i think

50: what's an odd thing you collect? pins mostly

51: think of a person. what song do you associate with them? I associate alot of music with a lot of people but one song that reminds me of you is little queenie by sad girl

52: what are your favorite memes of the year so far? the one of the white guy making a confused face is maybe my fav

53: have you ever watched the rocky horror picture show? heathers? beetlejuice? pulp fiction? what do you think of them? rocky and heathers and beetlejuice yes and I love them all v much, I watched pulp fiction once at like 3 am and i slept through alot of it by accident so I cannot give an accurate opinion

54: who's the last person you saw with a true look of sadness on their face? my sister

55: what's the most dramatic thing you've ever done to prove a point? im not sure but my middle name is dramatic So

56: what are some things you find endearing in people? when they genuinely want to know about how your day was, when they remember something you said a long time ago, when they bring you something out of the blue because they know you like it

57: go listen to bohemian rhapsody. how did it make you feel? did you dramatically reenact the lyrics? yes alsways it is one of the best songs ever

58: who's the wine mom and who's the vodka aunt in your group of friends? why? I don’t currently have a solid Group of friends but between us I would say you are probably wine mom and i am vodka aunt lmao

59: what's your favorite myth? I love a lot but rn I love the loch ness monster

60: do you like poetry? what are some of your faves? yes but currently none are coming to mind lmao

61: what's the stupidest gift you've ever given? the stupidest one you've ever received? sometimes I give steven glitter bc i love it and he Hates it lmao but I’m not sure if I’ve ever really gotten a stupid gift?

62: do you drink juice in the morning? which kind? nope, usually just water

63: are you fussy about your books and music? do you keep them meticulously organized or kinda leave them be? organized, not necessarily alphabetical or anything but I like things by the same author or artist to be together

64: what color is the sky where you are right now? black

65: is there anyone you haven't seen in a long time who you'd love to hang out with? alot of my high school and college pals

66: what would your ideal flower crown look like? mmm probably a lot of dark red roses and little white flowers

67: how do gloomy days where the sky is dark and the world is misty make you feel? kinda depends but usually I like them

68: what's winter like where you live? usually cold and kinda rainy but lately its still in the 80s and hot

69: what are your favorite board games? bingo always

70: have you ever used a ouija board? no and I Maybe would??

71: what's your favorite kind of tea? not super into tea but i don’t mind green tea

72: are you a person who needs to note everything down or else you'll forget it? v much so

73: what are some of your worst habits? procrastinating, leaving water bottles on the floor, ignoring instructions

74: describe a good friend of yours without using their name or gendered pronouns. they have brown hair and glasses and really pretty eyes and live in another country and are so sweet and remind me of a little fox

75: tell us about your pets! I don’t have any but my siblings both have fish and barry is my fav little guppy even though he’s a rude drama queen

76: is there anything you should be doing right now but aren't? studying for my finals

77: pink or yellow lemonade? both but I like pink alot

78: are you in the minion hateclub or fanclub? h a t e

79: what's one of the cutest things someone has ever done for you? one of my friends used to make me mixtape cds alot

80: what color are your bedroom walls? did you choose that color? if so, why? at college they’re just white bc its a dorm but at home they’re blue and my dad and I painted them secretly one summer lmao

81: describe one of your friend's eyes using the most abstract imagery you can think of. looks like the inside of a blue gelpen

82: are/were you good in school? I try to be, I’ve always had a hard time in math and science classes but I’m good with artsy and english classes

83: what's some of your favorite album art? I have,,, to many to pick from

84: are you planning on getting tattoos? which ones? currently no? I’m very indecisive so I’m not sure what I would get bc I would want it to have a special meaning

85: do you read comics? what are your faves? not really but I wouldn’t mind

86: do you like concept albums? which ones? probably alot but ziggy stardust and sgt pepper come to mind first

87: what are some movies you think everyone should watch at least once in their lives? eraserhead, big fish, and casablanca

88: are there any artistic movements you particularly enjoy? mmm yes probably alot but rn I really like zines

89: are you close to your parents? my dad yes my mom is very up and down

90: talk about your one of you favorite cities. I really love the Manhattan Beach area it’s always made me really happy since I was a kid something about it just always feels welcoming and familiar to me

91: where do you plan on traveling this year? not sure

92: are you a person who drowns their pasta in cheese or a person who barely sprinkles a pinch? depends on the pasta but generally I like alot of cheese

93: what's the hairstyle you wear the most? It’s always the same fluffy messy curly besides when I put it up in a little ponytail sometimes

94: who was the last person you know to have a birthday? my friend tori from high school

95: what are your plans for this weekend? going back home and Finally sleeping alot

96: do you install your computer updates really quickly or do you procrastinate on them a lot? it usually takes me about a week to finally stop being lazy and do them

97: myer briggs type, zodiac sign, and hogwarts house? I think I was ensj or insj or something like that last time i checked, I’m a gemini and I have no idea about my hogwarts house lmao

98: when's the last time you went hiking? did you enjoy it? probably a few years ago and it was pretty okay

99: list some songs that resonate to your soul whenever you hear them. there are a Lot but lust for life by the band girls always reminds me of myself and i’m listening to flatsound rn and alot of his music hits me hard bc I feel like that alot

100: if you were presented with two buttons, one that allows you to go 5 years into the past, the other 5 years into the future, which one would you press? why? as much as I would like to have things back from my past I would probably say future, I’d like to skip ahead a bit to when some things have changed and are hopefully better

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herbalzee · 7 years ago

Text

Get to know me tag!!!

Five Things You’ll Find In My Bag

1. headphones (always!) 2. at least 50 hair ties 3. a full bottle of perfume 4. free pens from like everywhere 5. lots of tissues lmao

Five Things In My Bedroom:

a fish tank! i love my lil fishies

shoe cabinet

a Moriarty (from Sherlock BBC) calendar of him saying “Miss me?”. I love it

a small yellow chair!

a color-coordinated bookshelf!!!

Five Things I’ve Always Wanted To Do In My Life:

learn sign language!

travel all over europe

write my own book

become a therapist

have kids!! and pets!!!

Five Things That Make Me Happy:

hanging with friends!!

listening to music, podcasts and ASMR

watching movies

doing artistic things?? idek what that means but like i love going to operas and theaters and taking aesthetic pictures and being creative, shit like that

talking, ranting, expressing my opinions comfortably, theorizing, brainstorming

Five Things On My To-Do List:

read books

hang with friends

write short stories- or write in general lmao

travel!!!

prepare for uni... i need to seriously do that

Five Things People May Not Know About Me:

i am passionate about psychology

i had an obsession with piercings and tattoos when i was younger

i had the yellow belt in karate when i was in practice

im very old school about silly things yet quite liberal about the serious stuff

im basically in love with malmo, sweden

Name?: zaina

Nicknames?: zee

Zodiac?: sagittarius

Sexual Orientation?: straight

Ethnicity?: middle eastern/ north african

Favorite Fruit?: mango!!!!

Favorite Season?: winter

Favorite Flower?: after a quick flower research, i found the soft pink spray roses and the blue hydrangea the most appealing to me

Favorite Scent?: vanilla! cocoa! banana-scented stuff (or generally fruit-scented stuff). old books!!!

Favorite Animal?: bees!! or just any domesticated animals honestly (that can be kept at homes or farms)

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate?: tea

Cat or dog?: dogs

Dream Trip?: a boat travelling all around western europe!!!

Number of Followers?: i dont really care about this stuff

What do I post about?: any posts containing message worth-spreading, funny content or aesthetically-pleasing stuff..

Do I get asks on a regular basis?: nope! so famous that i had to close my ask box

Favorite Band?: twentyone pilots, little mix, imagine dragons, coldplay, hey violet, abba (almost forgot them omg)

Aesthetic?: cinematography, animals and nature, books and libraries, literally anything vintage, multicultures, feminism and femininity. i cant think of other stuff but im majorly into art

Fictional Character I’d Date?: john bender from the breakfast club!!!!

Hogwarts House?: ravenclaw

Rules: BOLD the statements that are true for you!

APPEARANCE:

I am 5'7" or taller

I wear glasses

I have at least one tattoo

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair

I have brown eyes

I have short hair

My abs are at least somewhat defined

I have or have had braces

PERSONALITY:

I love meeting new people

People tell me that I’m funny

Helping others with their problems is a big priority for me

I enjoy physical challenges

I enjoy mental challenges

I’m playfully rude with people I know well

I started saying something ironically and now I can’t stop saying it

There is something I would change about my personality

ABILITY:

I can sing well

I can play an instrument

I can do over 30 pushups without stopping

I’m a fast runner

I can draw well

I have a good memory

I’m good at doing math in my head

I can hold my breath underwater for under a minute

I have beaten at least 2 people in arm wrestling

I know how to cook at least 3 meals from scratch

I know how to throw a proper punch

HOBBIES:

I enjoy playing sports

I’m on a sports team at my school or somewhere else

I’m in an orchestra or choir at my school or somewhere else

I have learned a new song in the past week

I work out at least once a week

I’ve gone for runs at least once a week in the warmer months

I have drawn something in the past month

I enjoy writing

FANDOMS ARE MY #1 PASSION

I do or have done martial arts

EXPERIENCES:

I have had my first kiss

I have had alcohol

I have scored the winning goal in a sports game

I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting

I have been at an overnight event

I have been in a taxi

I have been in the hospital or ER in the past year

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country

I have been to one of my favorite band’s concerts

RELATIONSHIPS:

I’m in a relationship

I have a crush on a celebrity

I have a crush on someone I know

I have been in at least 3 relationships

I have never been in a relationship

I have asked someone out or admitted my feelings to them

I get crushes easily

I have had a crush on someone for over a year

I have been in a relationship for at least a year

I have had feelings for a friend

MY LIFE:

I have at least one person I consider a “best friend”

I live close at my school

My parents are still together

I have at least one sibling

I live in the united states

There is snow right now where I live

I have hung out with a friend in the past month

I have a smartphone

I have at least 15 CD’s

I share my room with someone

RANDOM SHIT:

I have breakdanced

I know a person named Jamie

I have had a teacher with a last name that’s hard to pronounce

I have dyed my hair

I’m listening to one song on repeat right now

I have punched someone in the past week

I know someone who has gone to jail

I have broken a bone

I have eaten a waffle today

I know what I want to do with my life

I speak at least 2 languages

I have made a new friend in the past year

Relationship status: single

Favorite color: purple, blue, green

Lipstick or Chapstick: lipstick!!

Last song I listened to: hard times by paramore

Last movie I watched: The Boss Baby

Top three TV shows:

(btw these three tv shows are the only shows ive ever watched and actually finished lmao)

BBC Sherlock

Clique

Yuri! on ice

Top three characters:

These are the ones that came to mind first, not top favorites

Sherlock (Sherlock BBC)

Todd Anderson (Dead poets society)

Savannah Karlsen (Girl, interrupted)

rules: copy/paste and replace my answers with yours and tag people :^)

a - age: 17  b - biggest fear: my actual biggest fear is too personal so im gonna say my second biggest fear: not achieving anything valuable in my life  c - current time: 3 am lmao  d - drink you last had: a peach detox lmao  e - every day starts with: checking phone f - favorite song: of all time or currently? ive never had an all time favorite but right now my favorite song is hard times by paramore (mainly the chorus bc its awesome)  g - ghosts, are they real: only the ones in our heads  h - hometown: a.d.  i - in love with: psychology  j - jealous of: productive people  k - killed someone: ...  l - last time you cried: literally yesterday.. m - middle name: dont have one  n - number of siblings: eins (one)  o - one wish: to be satisfied with who i am and what i have p - person you last called/texted: im talking to my friend on the phone right now as im doing this.. shes the one who so kindly guided me to these fun questions q - questions you’re always asked: “why are you so quiet?” “what major are you getting into and at which university?”  r - reasons to smile: youre very much well and alive!!

s - song last sang: i was having a fetus 1d songs marathon at like 2 am the other day so... definitely the entire up all night album

t - time you woke up: these days.. 12 pm, bc im tired and its my holiday  u - underwear color: ohhhh boi v - vacation destination: anywhere cold filled with warm people  w - worst habit: procrastination  x - x-rays you’ve had: the most recent one i remember is a chest x ray y - your favorite food: pasta  z - zodiac sign: sagittarius

post a screenshot of my lock screen, home screen, and last song played

RULES: Choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions. Then tag some friends.

I choose:

bbc sherlock

clique

yuri! on ice

The first character you loved:

ohhh, first was sherlock! then john almost 0.001 secs later

im pretty sure it was elizabeth. shes the cutest and i relate to her the most

probably Minako Okukawa, because shes so charming and funny

The character you never expected to love so much:

mrs hudson!!!!

louise!!! shes so smart and gorgeous and the least involved in the drama

yurio!!! i used to dislike him lmao but now hes my son

The character you relate to most:

molly hooper

like i said above, elizabeth!

ohh definitely yuri

The character you’d slap

john because sherlock suffered sooo much for him and opened his heart only to be abandoned because john is a naive idiot who still cant tell sherlock’s NOT a sociopath

SO MANY bc almost all of them did shitty things.. but the ones id slap right on sight are Alistair and the Steiner dude

ohmygod no, theyre all pure!! probably yurio bc that kid needs to love himself (but id immediately hug him right after)

Three favorite characters (these are in order of preference):

sherlock & john (one answer), mrs hudson, WIGGINS

holly, rachel, and fay (elizabeth and jude too)

the obvious trio: yuri, victor and yurio

A character you liked at first but not so much anymore:

mary lmao

alistair. i was a little suspicious of him but i liked him at the beginning bc he was cute and innocent. i HATE him now obviously

i love them all.. theres not a single one i dislike

A character you did not like at first, but they’ve grown on you:

ahahah mycroft

uh georgia

christopher and JJ (but now i love them both so much)

#about me

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marvelandponder · 8 years ago

Photo

Look How Far We’ve Come

Welcome to Year of the Pony’s second regular series (aside from the editorials), The Elements of MLP! Every month, we’ll be looking at one aspect of Friendship is Magic in some degree of depth to explore all the different parts that go together to make MLP what it is.

Part of the reason I started this year-long event was to get to the bottom of why I love this show so much, so maybe looking it piece by piece will help me appreciate the whole better.

This month, we’ve got the Element of Design and Animation, one of my personal favourites.

And, I’m not alone! So let’s go through the whole gosh darn process (or at least as many stages as I’ve got something to say on)!

Design

In the beginning, there was Lauren Faust.

If you only know one name from behind-the-scenes, it’s Lauren Faust. As MLP:FIM’s creator, she lead a lot of the development that made the show what it is visually (and in other areas, too, of course).

So, yes, Faust had an immeasurable influence on the design choices. And, because of her genuine love for My Little Pony as a kid, so did previous generations of MLP.

Figures that AJ would be the one to change the least during development (never change, AJ), but here they are: The old school Mane 6! As you probably know, all based on characters from the franchise’s history!

You’ll notice that even though the colours themselves varied, the pastel colour-scheme overall was there from the start, and it’s largely because of the franchise's roots in the 80s.

*Correction: Silver Rain on EQD pointed out to me that the cartoon commonly thought of as G2, My Little Pony Tales, is actually still G1. There is no G2 cartoon (generations are defined by new sets of the toys, not the cartoons or feature films, so even though Pony Tales is very distinct from the first two movies, it’s still G1)

The closest thing to a G2 anything besides the toys is a video game, but for this analysis I decided to keep it strictly to television and movies. So, enjoy knowing G2 is a lie!

See how the first two generations looked a bit washed out? And the next two are sort of over-saturated? In addition to looking cleaner because digital animation v.s. traditional (neither is better), G4 strikes a balance between the different colour-palettes of the franchise in a really comforting, visually satisfying way.

Soothing is probably the best word, which expertly matches the breezy, light-hearted, and loving tone of the show.

So, anyway, even after development went on, as changes were made, notes were taken, and the world we’ve come to know took shape, the show’s roots still have a surprisingly big influence on its visuals.

And my god, can we all take a second to appreciate these designs?

Every element---from characters, to creatures, to backgrounds, to that storybook thing they keep doing---make this show a visual treat. For several reasons:

Cute - the ponies are round; there are very few sharp points in their designs and that combined with the classic big eyes + cute tum + small nose and mouth = cute, makes them even freaking cuter

Instantly Recognizable - there’s a rule popularized by Simpsons creator Matt Groening that if you can recognize a character in silhouette, that’s a good design; even besides the fact that they’re ponies and you could tell them apart from human characters, there’s absolutely no doubt who’s who---I could even name the side characters if you tested me

Conveying Personality - You can tell most character’s personalities from the minute they walk on screen---take Starlight Glimmer, for instance; the first shot we see of her, she’s got kind of a 60s hairstyle, so before she even opens her mouth, you can guess she’s either got some old-fashioned ideas, or more accurately, she’s in charge of this weirdly cheery village (ever watch, well, pretty much anything from the 60s? Those fake smiles in Starlight’s village would fit right at home); her false-belief of what will make ponies truly happy is reflected in her design, and not only that, she used to have straight bangs to instantly cue to the viewer that this is a character who’s going to parallel Twilight (especially when she’s screaming about ‘creating Harmony’...)

Simplistic - Most of these designs use thick outlines and soft colours to emphasize just how cute the horses are; in relation to the backgrounds and other creatures, they easily draw the eye because the other elements are more detailed but very rarely have outlines.

Asymmetry - You’d think it would be more satisfying to an audience to see characters with symmetrical designs, but not so, and this is reflected in every single character design in the show (as well as most building designs: the Golden Oaks Library, Canterlot Castle, Cloudsdale, etc.); even Twilight, who’s bangs are cut straight across (according to the EQG universe), has a curve to her mane, highlights to the left, and a small part on one side

All of these aspects and probably more give all the designs a strong visual impact, while also making them cute as heck.

I don’t think I can say it better than this: these designs are so sweet, distinctive, and inviting that the fandom latched onto and created entire backstories and personas out of background characters. It’s like Bobba-Fett from the Star Wars franchise---in reality, he’s barely in the films, but because he managed to grab so many people’s attention with his surprisingly memorable design, he’s one of the most popular characters!

And, you know, I’m not going to lie to you. Part of the reason this show is so comforting to watch is just the soft colours and incredibly cute characters. It really is just soothing to look at. But there’s more to the visuals than just cute, pretty ponies.

Movement

One of the things I remember hearing back when I first came into the fandom in early season 2 was that some fans were downright shocked that MLP was animated in Flash--- a program so cheap and hard to animate in fluidly that most shows and projects that come out of it tend to look ... shoddy.

Which isn’t always the case, of course, good shows have been animated there, but I would say that, on the whole, shows animated in Flash seem to have great designs but less focus on fluid movement.

Like, even if you’re not an animation nerd, if I list a bunch of shows you animated with Flash, you might notice a kind of a pattern in how they move (of the ones you know):

Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

Johnny Test

Total Drama Island

Hi! Hi! Puffy Ami Yumi

Yin Yang Yo!

Kappa Mickey

Dan V.s.

Archer

The Gravity Falls pilot (the rest of the show was animated in ToonBoom Harmony, the same animation program My Little Pony: The Movie is being animated in!)

It’s a hard quality to describe for me, but the absolute best example probably is the Gravity Falls pilot:

youtube

See how everything looks exceedingly flat (even for 2D animation)? And how each movement tends to have this weird, unnecessary (for lack of a better word) pop to it?

That’s what Flash is known for.

I’d like to take a second to say it of course doesn’t make all of those shows bad at all; and in fact, there are a number of shows besides MLP that actually use Flash well (to the point that you wouldn’t know it’s animated in Flash).

Bob’s Burgers, Archer, Sym-Bionic Titan, The Amazing World of Gumball, even Fairly Odd Parents as of the 10th season.

I think it’s mostly just the fact that at the time we didn’t know many shows that could look this good and still use Flash.

The exciting thing is that MLP doesn’t move like that. Season 1 had its moments of animation flubs, sure, but I’ve re-watched it recently and it is animated pretty well.

A lot of moments will have a snap for emphasis (like, the manes will move how they’re supposed to), but it’s handled in a natural way that doesn’t distract from the movements we’re actually supposed to focus on.

And, no, it’s not the most sophisticated, beautiful animation out there, but it can run the gambit from snappy comedic timing to slower, dramatic scenes.

I think the only problem I’ve really noticed with G4 animation is whenever characters run in Equestria Girls.

I know, that’s really specific. I don’t even have a problem when they walk, it’s just when they’re running that it looks the most like the cheap Flash animation. It’s a hard quality for me to describe, but rewatch a scene where they have to run at all, I’m serious. It’s almost a pet peeve at this point.

It’s a hazard of the genre, I suppose. Like most Western animation, MLP focuses most of its time and energy on expression and the smaller movements as opposed to big, involved battle sequences or choreographed action (the only big battle sequence is the Dragon Ball Z Tirek fight, which was done super well, but is still a rarity in this show).

Meaning, some of the most unique bits of animation come in the form of expressions and reactions.

I always love these. Not for the meme potential (although... ), but because I know every time I see a face like that the animators went out of their way to make something distinct and insanely expressive.

And that’s not the only way they bring the visuals together. I could probably go on and on about things like the shading and lighting, the staging, the intelligent use of background to hide gags or references or just add that much more depth to a scene...

But, seriously, I’ve already eaten up so much of your dash.

I will say this, though. Friendship is Magic’s style is more gorgeous, fitting, and creative than you might think at first. It’s why the artistic side of the community exploded, and still hasn’t stopped growing. And the continual improvement in this element alone is enough to get me excited for the next season. I’ll admit it, it’s one of the biggest reasons I always look forward to seeing more.

Woo! That’s a wrap for this Elements of MLP, but I’ll have a new one for you every month this year! In the meantime, you can always check out the editorials, or, you know, whatever. I’m not gonna tell you how to live.

Year of the Pony

Header Image Only Possible Thanks to...

Elements by SpiritoftheWolf Elements by TechRainbow

Two really talented vector artists that were awesome enough to make this stuff! You’ll be seeing their names at least 12 times this year, so might as well check ‘em out now!

Pretty Pastel Ponies Practically Prancing ... Politely? Parallel? Perfectly?

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cronagorgon · 7 years ago

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Identity asks...oh shit. Do all 30!!!

damn damn ok

1. if someone wanted to really understand you, what would they read, watch, and listen to?damn lemme think….. i mean i guess just reading keter scp pages would be a start.. there’s a few i LOVE though like 093 and 2264.. then just, LOTS of mcelroy content and scary game squad videos (on jesse cox’s youtube channel)

2. have you ever found a writer who thinks just like you? if so, who?have i ever found a what…. no… not really

3. list your fandoms and one character from each that you identify with.http://drakenlong.tumblr.com/shipsi identify at least a little bit with anyone from the “partners” list really, but i especially identify with crona gorgon from soul eater + lapis lazuli from steven universe

4. do you like your name? is there another name you think would fit you better?yeah i mean.. no i guess i don’t like my ““real”““ name but the name i have now, drake, i picked because it fits me (though i wouldn’t mind being called any variation of “dragon” in any language. its all the same)

5. do you think of yourself as a human being or a human doing? do you identify yourself by the things you do?oh doing for sure. i don’t feel real like.. even a little bit. just a meat machine accidentally affecting others’ lives

6. are you religious/spiritual?i guess. i don’t worship any…..thing, but i believe in a natural energy that flows within everything, that’s higher than us + even this one dimension

7. do you care about your ethnicity?i’m white, so no, not really. if i knew where i came from though, (which i suspect may have been in or near italy) yeah i’d be more into it

8. what musical artists have you most felt connected to over your lifetime?ehhhh not a lot? imogen heap is one just by her song “hide and seek” (i know nothing of the actual artist). i don’t know what it means really or if it has a concrete meaning but it’s been a favorite of mine for years. more recently though i heard “self” by ANIMA! and it too is relatable, though i can’t really speak for their other music

9. are you an artist?i like to think so. i draw stuff sometimes so thats like, a start. is it good though, or meaningful? i can’t really say

10. do you have a creed?i don’t really know what a creed is so i googled it, and going by the definition that it’s a set of steadfast beliefs then… hell no

11. describe your ideal day.going somewhere new to eat, miraculously liking the food (therefore discovering something new i like), going shopping in antique + gem/new age stores & finding something unique, old, haunted, or just the sort of thing i never knew i wanted, then coming home & making a favorite meal that turns out perfect, then eating it while watching a video or new episode i’ve been wanting to see

12. dog person or cat person?dogs.. cats are really cute but i’m allergic ):

13. inside or outdoors?inside but there are times and places outdoors that i adore, like quiet gardens in early morning.. just a little warm, with the sound of a bubbling stream

14. are you a musician?absolutely not. i can play instruments and i guess i can make shit up but i never really found any real interest in making music

15. five most influential books over your lifetime.(trying + failing to even come up with 5 books ive read in my whole life) haha yeah totally. anyway books ive loved: here there be dragons (james a. owen); the last dragon (silvana de mari); half world (hiromi goto); moribito, guardian of the spirit (nahoko uehashi); how to train your dragon (cressida cowell); the dragonet prophecy (tui t. sutherland); deltora quest series..es (jennifer rowe); and guardians of ga’hoole series (kathryn lasky). i know thats more than 5 but these are pretty much the only books ive ever read other than some school assigned stuff.. some short stories by ray bradbury (all very good).. i remember reading the guardians of ga'hoole, deltora quest, + how to train your dragon serieses? series? when i was really young + i loved every book. they were fantastic. could not tell you if they were any good today but u know what? thats ok. im keepin the nostalgia as it is. the other books i read more recently.. half world + moribito were VERY good bc they were.. unique. stories i didn’t often see in my school library. i remember feeling incredibly sad having to return moribito specifically, and i remember it went on the bottom shelf of the library, and that it was not a month after id graduated that the school flooded with about a foot of water and i thought that it must’ve ruined it ):

16. if you’d grown up in a different environment, do you think you’d have turned out the same?absolutely. i grew up one of the most deadly environments for someone like me and yet here i am. perhaps id be more successful, id be flourishing, id be doing the things ive always wanted to do, but i think i’d still be the way i am now personality-wise

17. would you say your tumblr is a fair representation of the “real you”?uhhhh random shit that dont make sense? maybe so

18. what’s your patronus?i think there’s like a test for this but i’m not gonna take it. if i had to pick an animal as my patronus i figure it’d be a dragon. i’ve always been really close to dragons and more recently discovered that i’m dragon kin, so i don’t see why not

19. which Harry Potter house would you be in? or are you a muggle?i don’t know. sometimes i think i’d be in ravenclaw, but other times i figure i might fit better in slytherin or maybe ….. none? they’re all a little bit relatable but none are really “me” you know

20. would you rather be in Middle Earth, Narnia, Hogwarts, or somewhere else?literally anywhere other than here would be fantastic and of course my hyperfixation is always fluctuating and i could just name what i’m into right now but honestly? it’d be great to live in beach city. nobody has to pay for anything or do anything particularly difficult, everyone’s friends, nobody gets mad when you come out as gay. its good stuff all around

21. do you love easily?yes and no? i get attached to stuff easily but i feel like i can just as easily get over anything at the drop of a hat. there are only a few things that really make me tear up and many of them are things i never personally interacted with.. and one is a toy i used to have?

22. list the top five things you spend the most time doing, in order.uhh fuckin sleeping, eating?, sitting, watchin videos, fuckin drawing, typing. thats 6? whatever

23. how often would you want to see your family every year?never. 0 times. fuckin absolutely not

24. have you ever felt like you had a “mind-meld” with someone?a what. no. i’ve never connected with another human person in my entire life

25. could you live as a hermit?Hell Yeah babey

26. how would you describe your gender/sexuality?its unbelievable how badly i wanted to just post a meme or like, a picture of my favorite character + thats it but also that would break my theme of text only and no pictures so i guess i gotta describe it for real. i’m agender but masc presenting (whether that’s to distance myself from being a girl as quickly as possible or just because of trauma + fear of being a cis girl, i’ll never know) + my sexuality is complicated but im polyamorous and at least grey-asexual + panromantic with a strong preference for boys (with this combination i sometimes refer to myself as mlm)

27. do you feel like your outside appearance is a fair representation of the “real you”?yeah i think so. id like to be taller but beggars cant be choosers ig. i’m a good mixture of “kinda ok, pretty sharp, weird but in a way i cant describe (its because my face is VERY asymmetrical but you cant tell unless you edit a picture of me lmao)” so thats like, a good aesthetic i guess

28. on a scale from 1 to 10, how hard is it for someone to get under your skin?uhhh about a 1. maybe a 0.5. but i don’t usually express this, because then i’d be picking fights withhhh everybody. does that technically put it at a 10 then? who knows

29. three songs that you connect with right now.i guess i already said this but right NOW…. self, the bleeding of mercy, and down down? or maybe grace kelly (down down is very feminine even if it is a Mood)

30. pick one of your favorite quotes.well i have a few but the first one that popped into my head was: “All Alone!Whether you like it or not,Alone will be somethingyou’ll be quite a lot.” -Dr. Seuss, Oh the Places You’ll Go

#x #replies #anonymous #about me

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theadventuresofharryandlaura · 8 years ago

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Break of Reality Asia Tour 2017

I’ve just returned from an epic tour of Asia with Break of Reality, through American Music Abroad, a program of the US State Department. As musical ambassadors, we performed 40 concerts and outreach activities across 5 countries. It is not lost on me that I was abroad on a government-sponsored program engaging in beautiful, human-to-human cultural exchange at the precise time that my home country was taking a very dark turn, but that’s all I’m going to say about that. I never want to forget the experiences I had on this trip, and I figure that a surefire way to make sure something doesn’t disappear is to publish it on the internet. PART 1: Japan Our first stop was the Japanese island of Okinawa, a few hours on a plane from Tokyo. Having only been to Osaka and Kyoto before, I was struck by the comparative calm of Okinawa. We stayed on a quiet street with a beautiful view of the sea. Directly across the street was a humble, traditional izakaya where we took many of our meals. I loved the rustic, wooden aesthetic and the display at the front of fresh fish. We performed four outreach concerts and one big public concert over three days. The first outreach was extremely touching: we played at a school for special-needs children. We didn't talk too much about the music, we just played. The kids loved to clap along to the more rhythmic tunes, some of them jumping up and dancing along. The principal of the school had spent the evening before personally handpainting a banner with our names, faces and instruments on it that hung behind us in the auditorium/gym as we played. It was at this school that we first realized the seriousness of the "shoes-off" policy in Japan. We entered one part of the school, to visit with the principal in his office, and we took off our shoes and put on a pair of provided slippers. Patrick, at 6'7", was only able to get his toes into the slippers and the other teachers at the school found this hilarious. Once we'd had our visit, we went back outside, changed out of the slippers and back into shoes, and then walked to the gym where it was shoes off again. All of our workshops were performed either in slippers or socked feet! We also played for and with a young orchestra, an orphanage full of sweet and affectionate children, and a college music conservatory. The cool thing is that, when we do these workshops, no matter where in the world we are, the questions are similar everywhere. People want to know about our carbon fiber cellos, how old we were when we started playing, how the band got together, etc. Our fearless leader, Shina, was organizing such a visit for the very first time, and she did an incredible job. The success of these visits is very much contingent upon the organizers, and she really stepped up. Our first big concert took place in a grand concert hall in a modest suburb. It was very well-attended, and having performed already in Japan was prepared for the fact that audiences there are not extremely effusive. The applause is generally polite, but this crowd did get excited when we played the Game of Thrones Theme! We also collaborated with a lovely shamisen player named Yui, in a traditional Japanese song. The shamisen is a plucked, 3-string instrument with a round body a bit smaller than a banjo. We felt bad, because she had to tune her strings up a fourth to match our key, and accidentally broke a string as she was tuning! But she was a wonderful musician, and the collaboration was very natural. Food-wise, Okinawa is very different from mainland Japan, and one night we went to a traditional Okinawan restaurant to sample the local cuisine. We removed our shoes and sat at a low table on tatami mats, but Patrick’s long legs did not fit and his feet went out the other side of the table! The boys had a vast array of colorful dishes, most of them pork-based. I had a piece of paper with me explaining in Japanese that I am a gluten-free vegetarian, and when I gave it to our waitress she laughed at me! A pity laugh, I’m sure. It was hilarious. She was kind enough to have the chef prepare a bowl of a unique vegetable to Okinawa—bitter melon. It was way too bitter for me, but I’m glad I tried it anyway. My favorite dining experience was actually kaiten-sushi, or conveyer-belt sushi. This has made it to the US, but in Japan it is so unbelievably efficient. You just order whatever you want from a touch screen at your table, and your freshly-prepared dish comes round the belt in 5 minutes. At the end of the meal someone comes over with a ruler to measure how high your stack of empty plates is, and you pay per plate. Simple and delicious! On our last night there, we visited “American Village,” a complex of restaurants, shopping and entertainment that is popular with the American troops stationed at the military base there. While wandering around deciding where to have dinner, we happened into an arcade. We stopped dead in our tracks when we saw a man playing an interactive dancing game similar to Dance Dance Revolution. This guy was serious—he was dressed in gym clothes and had special shoes and gloves, as well as his own personal fan for cooling off. And his feet were moving faster and with more precision than any human I’ve ever seen! We stared at him for a while, until we thought, of course, to film him. We put a video of him, as well as our amazed faces, on Facebook, and it got 17 million views, more than any music video we’ve ever put up! We also visited the US Conculate in Naha, the biggest city in Okinawa, to meet with the people who organized our residency. It was a small team, but everyone was so warm and welcoming. Most importantly, at the consulate we met Washin-Tan, official mascot of the Naha Consulate, who was giving the mascot of the US Embassy in Tokyo, a run for its money. Washin-tan exemplifies Japanese “kawaii” (cute) culture. Dolores, the wonderful woman responsible for our visit and also responsible for the creation of Washin-tan, explained that the Japanese were the first to figure out that round things are cute. So, everything is round: Pikachu, Hello Kitty, etc etc. Washin-tan is an eagle with a round face and big eyes. He’s adorable! I even got a stuffed Washin-Tan to take with me on my travels. Thanks so much to Shina, Dolores, and everyone else who made our first stop on tour such a delight. PART 2: Malaysia After an extremely long travel day from Japan, including a 7-hour layover in Taipei, we checked into our hotel in Kuala Lumpur around 2am. The next morning, we had a live performance and interview at a local radio station at 8am. We were exhausted but so excited to be in a new country! Also, the radio host was so energetic that it brought up our energy levels vicariously. After the radio, we headed straight to soundcheck and rehearsal for our concert that night. We knew we were to be collaborating with a local musician, Alena Murang, but we didn’t know much else about her other than that she played the sape (a traditional Malaysian instrument). It turns out that Alena not only plays the sape beautifully, she also sings, and is committed to preserving the traditional pagan music from her home state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. She taught us two beautiful songs by ear, and we filled in Break of Reality-style accompaniments around the tunes, and she also improvised beautifully with one of our songs, Star. The collaboration was smooth, natural, and fun! We were able to prepare all 3 songs together in about an hour. The concert that evening, which was preceded by a press conference, was a lovely welcome to Malaysia. It was packed with a few hundred enthusiastic people, and in greeting the crowd afterwards for signatures and selfies, we realized that many of them were young people. I’m always thrilled to perform for a younger audience—must nurture future supporters of live music! After the concert, we headed to a breathtaking spot: Helipad Lounge. It’s a real former helipad on top of an extremely tall building, that has been turned into a bar/lounge. There is not a railing around the top, only a ribbon and a few feet of space (this would of course NEVER exist in the US), so the 360 views are uncompromised. We took a LOT of pictures. The highlight of our second and final day in KL was performing at the residence of the US Ambassador to Malaysia, Kamala Lakhdir. She had moved into her home and begun work there exactly one week prior to our concert. But she was extremely gracious, and seemed settled and comfortable as far as we could tell. We played an acoustic mini-concert, and since things had gone so well with Alena the previous night, she joined us again for two songs. It was a beautiful evening, and they set up food trucks (a true American tradition) outside. There were about 120 guests; I’m not sure who they all were but most were connected to the Embassy in some way. We had another early departure the next morning (6am) to catch a flight to Kota Kinabalu. KK is the biggest city in Sabah, a state on the island of Borneo. Borneo is a huge island, partly occupied by Malaysia and partly by Indonesia. It’s a couple of hours by plane from KL. We touched down, grabbed lunch, and headed to a University to give a class/workshop to music students. They were extremely shy to ask questions (sometimes it’s like pulling teeth), but after the class they all came up on stage and wanted selfies and to talk with us individually and ask questions. Maybe they were all afraid to ask in front of each other! We then headed to the library for another mini-concert/ Q&A session. By the time that ended, we were thoroughly exhausted and happy to get back to the hotel. One thing I know about myself, that was reinforced on this trip, was that early morning call times, and especially early morning flights, do not agree with my body, and tend to make me suffer throughout the day. But, playing music and interacting with new people is such an energizing thing that I was always able to get through it. Though it’s a big city, KK feels much more like a beach town than KL. We were staying right on the water, and every night walked along the waterfront through a massive market selling fish, produce, and countless other things day and night. We ended up eating delicious Thai food overlooking the ocean, followed by a visit to a bar that serves drinks and foot massages (really!). We frequented both these establishments more than once during our time in KK. Our day off in KK was one of the most memorable on the tour. We started by taking a boat out to Sapi island (about 20 minutes away), through a bright blue, sunny bay. There, we all strapped on some gear and ziplined between it and another island. I had ziplined once before, probably 25 years ago at summer camp, before I was old enough to fear anything. I was a bit nervous to jump off the platform, but once I did, it was a thrilling one-minute ride above the water. We were with our whole Malaysian “team”: Spencer from American Music Abroad who accompanied us to Japan and Malaysia and then headed home, and Mike, Shannon and Hisham from the embassy. Everyone went through with the ride and loved it! In the afternoon, we got special permission to visit some animals in a wildlife reserve on the edge of the city. We met Joe, an adorable baby elephant, and played some cello for him. Joe was much more interested in eating carrots, consuming about 15 during the course of our 3-minute performance. We also played for some orangutans, and fared slightly better, at least drawing them to the front of their area where they sat and listened and regarded us quizzically. Borneo does have a lot of amazing wildlife. I’d love to explore it more if I ever get a chance to return. The next day began with an interview at KupiKupiFM radio, a name I will remember forever because it was so fun to say., then a soundcheck and rehearsal for our big concert that night. Our collaborations in KK were wonderful: we did “Yesterday” with a guitarist named Roger Wang, which came together really quickly because he’s so amazing, and two songs with a group called Bamboo Woods. They are just incredible! It’s a group of students who play traditional bamboo instruments: flutes, percussion instruments, etc. Their energy and passion for the music is infectious. When we played with them, we didn’t add much to what they were doing because they didn’t need it. There were another couple hundred people in this audience, also young! Thn something bad happened. After the concert, it was pretty late so we went to the only restaurant that was open, a diner style place that was still bustling at 11pm. We were starving, so we were all bent over our menus for a few minutes. After we ordered, I realized my bag was missing. It was hung over the back of my chair, and must have been swiped by someone very quickly. The people at the restaurant said they saw someone running down the stairs, but couldn’t identify him on the surveillance camera. I still have no idea what happened, and was surprised at the brazenness of it. But, much to my relief, my passport was in my hotel room at the time and my phone was in my hand, so I didn’t lose either of these things, and I only lost about $70 in cash. The rest of the night was spent cancelling my credit cards and doing all the other fun things you do when you get robbed. The embassy people, Mike and Shannon, were amazing and helped me every step of the way. I did feel very light for the next few days, only carrying my phone and hotel key wherever I went! Our last day was really special; we started it with an outreach/workshop at an art institute, and then visited a hospital, where we passed out gift bags to sick children and their families, and then performed in the atrium where people could sit and listen to us or look out the window from any floor. I know it sounds cliché, but seeing what those families are going through really put my own problems, such as losing some material possessions, in perspective. It was nice to be able to brighten their days a little with music. Our final evening was spent watching the sunset and toasting a beautiful week in Malaysia. PART 3: Korea The travel to Seoul, South Korea, was another long slog: we left Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia on a 4am flight (we’d all gotten a few hours of confused sleep in the hotel prior to our departure at 1:45am), and we had a 3-hour layover in Guangzhou, China, before reaching Seoul in the late afternoon. The drive to the hotel was also very long, but it was lovely to see a good amount of the city at the magic hour just before sunset. Seoul felt the most like New York, which was comforting to me at this point in the tour, feeling like we’d been gone for a long time but also knowing we were still to be traveling for several more weeks. Though Seoul is a huge, bustling metropolis, it has an austere elegance. Large, streamlined buildings dominate the city, or at least where we went. The first night we just wandered around groggily, and looked up a lot. The next day our first stop was the US Embassy, where we had a jam session with two musicians who play traditional Korean instruments. Kyungso played the gayageum, a visually stunning plucked string instrument, with 12 strings over 12 different bridges attached to a board like a zither. She performed a piece for us—in addition to her masterful playing, we were struck by the fact that we couldn’t totally tell how much was improvised and how much was pre-composed (we learned it was much more of the latter), but the whole thing had a dream-like, improvisatory feel. The Yeo-Joo played on a traditional Korean double-headed drum, and he sang a bit as well. His performance was incredibly visceral, but also complicated rhythmically! He taught Ivan one of the rhythms—they do not fit into Western organizations of duple, triple, etc. The one he taught Ivan had 36 small beats that had to be played before the pattern repeated. Ivan taught it to all the rest of us later, but it took us 3 times as long to learn. Once we learned it, though, we all got obsessed with it, tapping it on our laps in the car rides and trying to play it on our cellos. Anyway, after we heard them play individually and they heard us play a tune or two, we jammed out, and then went for bibimbap (YUM) and artisanal coffee all together. One thing that became apparent on this tour is that Break of Reality’s sound meshes well with almost any plucked instrument! Maybe we should tour with a sape, a shamisen, and a gayageum in the future. That evening was our first concert in Korea, in an art gallery. The venue wins for best backdrop of the tour: they actually painted our logo onto the back wall of the space. The sound guys were amazing as well. We had a great time performing for the enthusiastic audience of around 200 people. There weren’t as many young people in the audience as there had been in Malaysia, but I assume that’s just a function of how the concert was advertised. It’s cool that all of the Embassy-organized concerts we gave (that’s all the concerts on this tour) were totally free and open to the public! The idea is to reach as many people from all walks of life as possible, and I think every country really stepped up to this challenge and brought in healthy, diverse audiences. After the concert, on Kyungso’s recommendation, we headed out to the Hongdae area to get some dinner. We had a lot of fun walking around there, but unfortunately Patrick’s 6’7” body was defeated by some steps and he ended up with a broken foot! We traveled to Busan, Korea’s second largest city, the next day by high-speed train. Train travel is so pleasant compared to air travel, especially considering that an Embassy vehicle picked up our luggage and our cellos and drove them to Busan, so we weren’t schlepping the huge cases on the train. This was a HUGE help for Patrick in particular. Mark from the Embassy got him crutches so he could move around, but carrying things was out of the question. Busan is a large port city, with beautiful beaches and lots of water views. Our hotel was right on the beach, and though it was fairly cold, there was an outdoor spa with a series of hottubs of different temperatures. Korea is spa heaven, I realized. No complaints. We had a wonderful, full program day in Busan. In the morning we worked with a truly inspiring organization: the Dreaming Tree Orchestra. The director explained to us that the orchestra is designed as a welcoming community for the children of immigrants to Korea (many from China and central Asia) who unfortunately face discrimination. The orchestra performed for us in a masterclass setting, and then we played for them. When we got to the improv portion of our presentation, where we improvise a song and then break it down for discussion, one little girl’s hand shot up, and her friend explained that she wanted to come up on stage and improvise with us. She was fearless, and had no problem making up a solo. Her bravery inspired several other kids to join us as well. In the afternoon, we did a pop-up concert at a very cool shared workspace for tech entrepreneurs, and a local radio interview/performance. That evening we headed out to explore Busan a bit. We wandered around the fish market for a bit, but my vegetarian self got freaked out by the many tanks full of eels, so we got a drink at a speakeasy-type bar and some ice cream at an artisanal ice cream place that served their cones with chunks of honeycomb. On our way back into the hotel, we heard what sounded like a Beyonce song being played loudly in the bar in the basement. Now, I love all things Beyonce, so we all headed down to check it out. Turns out it was a live band with a lead singer who sounded EXACTLY like Beyonce! She was so amazing that we stayed listening for hours, through 3 sets, until after 1 in the morning. This singer sang with mind-blowing intensity and passion, even at the end of the night when there were no more than 10 people in the bar. We learned that the band is from the Philippines, and we got great recommendations from them for our upcoming trip there! We said goodbye to Busan the next morning, and headed back in the direction of Seoul, stopping for one day in Daegu (Korea’s third-largest city) for a concert at a beautiful new hall there. We collaborated with a well-known opera singer on two songs, including the well-known “Arirang.” She sounded amazing, and wore the most incredible dress. Somehow I managed not to get a picture of it—oops. Our last day, we ended up back near Seoul, in a suburb called Pangyo, where we played a concert in a HUGE mall. The show was in a real auditorium, and there were tons of kids there. We even had time to do a little shopping beforehand! Outside the hall was a station where they were serving huge globes of cotton candy with cute bear faces on them, apparently free with a certain purchase amount anywhere in the mall. This is the type of adorable and wonderful thing that we saw all over Korea. Back at the hotel, we said goodbye to our team. Mark and Maria from the Embassy, their intern Jay, and Mark’s son Alex who joined us in Busan, all went above and beyond to make us comfortable and happy the whole time. We are so grateful to them for organizing and facilitating a packed week in Korea so seamlessly. PART 4: Mongolia Of all the countries we visited on the tour, I was most curious about Mongolia. I didn’t know anyone who was from there, or had even been there, so I had no firsthand information going into the experience. All I knew was to prepare for extreme cold and extreme pollution. So, leaving Korea, I bundled up into my warmest jacket, hat, scarf, ski gloves, and air filtering mask. When we arrived at the airport in Ulaanbaatar, we were greeted not so kindly by the guys at customs as we tried to get into an expedited line for the sake of Patrick’s injury, and then we waited an extremely long time for our bags. And yes, when we stepped out of the airport, it was FREEZING cold and the air smelled strongly of smoke. By the time we started off toward the hotel, it was already dark out so we didn’t get to see too much of the city driving in. So it was a little intense at the beginning, but once we checked in and met up with Erika from the Embassy who would be our host for the week, everything brightened up. Erika was so sweet and helpful, explaining to us the plan for the week. They had organized our visit to coincide with the 30th anniversary of US-Mongolia relations, and it would culminate in a big concert featuring us and the cultural pride of Mongolia, the Morin-Khuur ensemble. More on this astounding group a little later. The first day was a day off, and though Andrew powered through with some sightseeing outside the city, the rest of us stayed behind to rest. We hadn’t had a full day off in Korea, and had gone to 4 cities in 6 days, so we were exhausted! Ivan and I ventured out on a walk to get lunch, about a half-mile walk away. He was a good sport and agreed to let me drag him to a vegan restaurant, where we were rewarded for our efforts with delicious, warming soups and stews. By the time we got back to the hotel, my extremities were going numb even with all the outerwear, tights under my jeans, and double socks! Even in the sunniest part of the day, the temperature hovered around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, got down to -20 at night. Our first program day started with a big press conference with media. We felt bad when they asked us questions about our experience in Mongolia, or what had surprised us about the country, because we really hadn’t seen or done much by that point! We had to just keep saying that we were excited about the upcoming events, which we really were! That afternoon we performed a concert for about 700 children at the Children’s Palace. It’s an amazing place—kind of an extracurricular one-stop shop, where kids can do all sorts of activities after school. Many of the children were brought in from the ger districts around the periphery of the city. Ger is the Mongolian term for what we know as a yurt, and many people live in them, not just out in the more remote areas but right in the city. Apparently they are very warm and cozy during the winter. Anyway, the audience of children was extremely spirited, but they were also very attentive. They had great questions, especially one little kid in the front row whose hand shot up every time we asked for questions. The next morning was our first rehearsal for the collaboration with the Morin Khuur Ensemble. MKE is an orchestra made up of 12 Morin Khuur (“horsehead fiddle”) players, two horsehead bass players, two western cello players, a pianist, and about 10-15 wind, brass and percussion players. The Morin Khuur is an astoundingly beautiful instrument, and every single person in the ensemble is a virtuoso (we didn’t ask but I imagine its extremely competitive to win a spot in the group). It has two strings, tuned to B-flat and F, a scroll carved like a horse’s head, and is placed in the lap and bowed underhanded like a Chinese erhu. The strings are made of tiny silk fibers, and the sound is dark, mournful, and expressive. The intonation and precision of the group on par with, say, the violin sections in top orchestras in the US. As part of the concert, their concertmaster was to play a mini-concerto with the orchestra, and they performed it for us in the rehearsal as a special treat. I’m not exaggerating when I say we just stared, jaws agape, while they played. It was such sweeping, beautifully music, played with absolute mastery. Altogether we collaborated with them on four pieces: the American and Mongolian national anthems; a piece of theirs, and a piece of ours (Solid Ground.). The piece of theirs is a musical depiction of two white horses of Chinggis Kahn, and it is fast and furious. We were nervous about what we played fitting in with what they were already doing, but it came together very smoothly. The rehearsal was over within 30 minutes, mostly because the group and conductor are so good and everything sounded polished right away. That evening, we played for a Game of Thrones themed happy hour event at Ulaanbaatar’s only jazz bad, which was hilarious. They even had an iron throne set up in the entry so people could take pictures. Before we performed, we got to hear a throat singing performance, which blew me away. I have no idea how they can control the pitch of the overtones, but it’s astounding. After that a contortionist gave a performance. She was standing on one hand, atop a precarious-looking thin silver pipe she had placed on the floor minutes before. It was terrifying. Apparently a huge amount of all the contortionists in companies like Cirque du Soleil originally come from Mongolia. Who knew? Later on, Erika told us that those opening acts were scheduled mostly for our benefit, so we could see these traditional Mongolian things when we had so much to pack into a short visit. That’s how caring and thoughtful everyone who planned our visit was! The following day consisted of another rehearsal with MKE, another media interview and one more outreach at a public library, and the day after that came the big concert. It took place at the stunning, grand state opera house and ballet theatre. One of the things that had made scheduling the event so complicated was that we had to share the space with a production of “Swan Lake” that was being put up the same weekend. When we went to drop off our cellos before the soundcheck we had to be careful not to run into the ballerinas. We knew the US Ambassador to Mongolia was going to be there, but we didn’t know that it would be a totally full house or that the former president of the country would be there! We had a meet and greet with both of them just before the concert, and they were so nice and appreciative that we were there. Some of the concert organizers expressed concern our casual concert attire, given how formal and important this event was, and also given that the MKE members were absolutely decked out in gorgeous white robes and fancy turreted hats, but we stayed on brand, mostly out of necessity (our suitcases were overflowing as it was) but a little out of principle as well: we try not to alter our dress too much based on venue. It keeps things consistent! Plus, there was no way we could begin to compete with those amazing white outfits. The concert went seamlessly, and afterwards we took lots of pictures with the ensemble and audience members. We were so proud of Erika, who handled the many cooks in the kitchen putting this event together with such elegance and grace, and didn’t let the stress get to her. After the concert was over, at the request of the Ambassador, we agreed to go perform a few songs at a big reception she was throwing, also for the 30th Anniversary. Some of the several hundred guests had been at the concert, but some hadn’t, and she wanted everyone to hear us. She did a great job of getting everyone’s attention for us to begin playing, but once one person started talking to their neighbor during our performance, the room became an echo chamber and suddenly there was a huge din. We weren’t amplified, so we didn’t have a chance of being heard, but we shredded a couple of songs for fun anyway. We made a quick exit after that so we could grab some dinner at a restaurant called Veranda, which had become our favorite and which we visited three times in 6 days, and get some sleep before our 5:15am departure the next day. Our week in Mongolia was probably the biggest surprise of the tour—I am a person who hates being cold more than almost anything, and can now admit that I was nervous about being uncomfortable and therefore cranky the whole time. But the minute we began engaging with its kind, welcoming, and strong people all those apprehensions fell away. Certainly the close engagement with the MKE and the beautiful instrument they play is something I’ll never forget, and indeed hope to experience again someday. Maybe…in the summer. PART 5: Philippines We left Mongolia, once again, on a painfully early flight, and returned to Korea on the way for a 7-hour layover in Seoul. We finally arrived at the hotel in Manila around 11:30am and went straight to bed. The next day was a rest day which we used for some much-needed rest. We did make a mid-day excursion and discovered the most delicious dessert in all the land: mango sticky rice. Fresh mangoes in the Philippines are out of this world! I went to bed early that night because our schedule in the Philippines included very early mornings every single day, necessitating an early bedtime every single day! Our first program day included visits to two schools. Both visits included a masterclass component as well as a performance/workshop. In the morning, at University of the Philippines, we heard a young cellist playing “Julie-O” and a cello quartet doing a Beatles medley. In the afternoon, at University Santo Tomas, we heard two cellists playing solo Bach. It was actually the only time on the whole tour that we really got to work with solo cellists, and we all really enjoyed it (even Ivan, who had excellent comments!). The other thing that I loved about these visits was seeing how supportive the students all were of each other. They cheered for each other when they played, and both sessions were packed. The next day, we checked out of the hotel and headed for Zambales, a coastal city about 3 hours from Manila. Our excellent team from the Embassy: Liz, Pong, and Sheila, all came with us. Our destination was Casa San Miguel, which turned out to be a truly special place. Upon arrival, we met Casa’s founder and director, Coke Bolipita. He explained to us that he started it 20 years ago as a place to teach music to the children of fisherman and other working people in the surrounding areas, who otherwise would not have access to this type of education. Since he started the program, he has taught five generations of young musicians (mostly violin but some also play viola and cello). He has it structured so that he personally teaches the 15 most advanced students, who in turn teach more children, so that at any given time there are over 60 young musicians receiving instruction. The Casa has a small recital hall, many guest rooms and dorms, a café and an art gallery on the premises. In addition to music instruction, it hosts other creative people like artists and videographers, some of whom live and work there full time. It’s a beautiful, green, idyllic place. We didn’t leave it for the whole two days we were in Zambales. We conducted many classes and workshops: we worked with the students there, as well as a group from a nearby primary school and the members of the Philippine Navy Band. We were so impressed with the level of musicianship we saw in all of these groups. There was so much joy and enthusiasm in their playing. The second night was the big outdoor concert—they had set up a large stage in the garden, and the Navy band and advanced student ensemble would be opening for us. We soundchecked in the late afternoon and headed back to our rooms to rest and get ready. I walked out of my room an hour later, and it was pouring rain. Hundreds of people had already arrived for the concert, some traveling from as far away as Manila. We waited about 45 minutes, and the rain slowed, so the children went onstage to begin their set. Unfortunately it started raining again during their performance, but they were champs and finished their very impressive rendition of Vivaldi’s Summer. Even with the carbon fiber cellos, we couldn’t risk ruining our mics in the rain, so we decided to move our performance into the gallery space, and do it without amplification since there was no sound system in there. We set up right in the middle of the room, and several hundred people crowded in around us. It ended up being my favorite concert of the tour: no mics, no stage, just our instruments, the music, and the beautiful supportive energy of the audience around us. Of course, the rain ended as we played, so we were able to go ahead with the planned floating lantern ceremony in the field after the show. Everyone was given a large paper lantern, into which was inserted a burning candle, and we held onto the lantern until it filled with enough hot air to float away into the sky. The effect was absolutely beautiful, even though I’m sure it was a massive fire hazard! The next morning, we said goodbye to Casa San Miguel and all our new friends there, and traveled back to Manila. I was more awake for that car ride than I was on the way there, so I was able to enjoy some of the absolutely breathtaking countryside. We checked back into our hotel in Manila, and went out to join the Ambassador in a visit to Philippines General Hospital. There, together with the Ambassador, we visited several wards and the on-site school, handing out gift bags to the children and their families. It was hearbreaking to see the suffering that many of them were going through, but the staff were so comforting and loving to them. We played a brief concert in the courtyard, and some of the children from the school were able to attend. Seeing their smiling faces enjoying the music despite their pain brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. After we left the hospital, we visited the Mall of Asia, a mall so huge it has its own tram system to carry people around. It was so overwhelming that we didn’t last long, buying some gifts for our loved ones and pushing Patrick around in a wheelchair for a few minutes before embarking on a one hour Uber ride to go 2 miles (Manila traffic is no joke). On our very last day, we got picked up at 5:15am to film a live TV performance and interview on the Philippines version of “Good Morning America.” As you can probably guess, I was cranky and tired, but by the time we actually got onto the bustling set for our segment, it was 7:30 and the buzzing energy in the room enlivened me. Like everything on TV, the interview was very quick and we of course played Game of Thrones. The TV spot was intended to promote our final concert in the Philippines (and of the tour), and it must have worked because we had a large crowd that afternoon at Glorietta Mall. There was a designated seating area in front of the stage, filled mostly with invited guests and student groups that had been brought specifically for the concert. The stage was set up in an atrium, with 3 or 4 levels above us that were lined with spectators. It felt like a really large version of the in-the-round concert we had done at Casa San Miguel. Even though the sound system was pretty loud and boomy and we couldn’t hear each other all that well, we had a great time playing this show. I’m sure we all gave it an extra energy boost because it was our last. We always, we spent a good amount of time after the show signing autographs and taking selfies. I loved this about the whole tour—that we got a chance to connect with our audiences after almost every show, even if my cheeks did start to hurt after a while! We spent our last evening enjoying a meal with the wonderful Liz, and packing our suitcases to head home after a memorable week in the glorious warmth of the Philippines. During the long journey home, I felt a huge amount of gratitude for this opportunity. I think intolerance between differing cultures of the world is largely born from fear and skepticism of the unknown. I've found that becoming immersed in another culture, even for a short time, replaces that potential fear with an empathy and curiosity. Everywhere we went, no matter the language or outward cultural traditions, we met other human beings, seeking and giving kindness, truth, and love.

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