#like i wonder who my bus server friends main...

[cultjam]

ooooooo i wanna buy super smash bros so bad so i can try and play with my online buddiesss

[thebarefootcajun]

A Surprising Event at a High School Reunion

We hadn’t seen each since high school. It was our tenth year class reunion. Herman looked good. He had graduated with an MBA and was living in a large metro area. I, on the other hand, looked like I had aged ten years since graduation. I’d become a teacher and had not left my small town.

Herman and I bumped into each other at the bar at the reunion. I remembered him; however he had no clue who I was. Not a popular kid in high school, a rural kid who rode a school bus, I was the epitome of a nerd. Herman just the opposite, won honors and was recognized a lot, a very popular guy with an outgoing personality. And he drove a hot sports car.

“Sorry, dude,”Herman said as we collided.

“No problem,” I answered.

Herman introduced himself to me and I returned the favor. He had no clue who I was. I knew him. He asked if I might enjoy having a drink with him at a side table at the reunion. Of course I accepted. We sat at a table by ourselves away from the crowd, more my style.

With my adult ADHD I needed a quieter place to focus on our conversation.

I’d already come out of the closet. Herman was aware of my queerness; everyone was. I was proud of who I was, not something I had planned; it was who I was. I knew nothing about his sexual orientation and it didn’t

really matter to me. I was out of Herman’s league, even as a friend. I’d always been that way since a kid; I’d never felt good enough to stand up on my own.

We chatted for about an hour and then we moved on to chat up others. I left the reunion shortly after. The next day I got a phone call from Herman. He asked me to meet him in a town nearby at a bar for a drink. Surely I was curious and I accepted his invitation. Not nervous in the slightest I was going with the flow. Certainly, it never entered my mind that Herman might be any- thing but straight. Maybe he just wanted some insight into his home town that he had left ten years ago. I knew a lot and could fill him in.

I worked late preparing for my teaching lessons the following day and then headed out to meet Herman at the bar. He had gotten us a small table in a dimly lit corner of the room. I joined him. He was already drinking a draft beer. He signaled for the server to come over and asked what I wanted. He said he was buying.

I said, “I’ll have what you’re drinking.”

We made small talk and just as I imagined he wanted all the latest scoop about our little town.

Herman said, “I’m thinking of moving back home. My parents are aging and I feel an obligation to help.”

I responded, “I’m very sorry, Herman. That’s admirable of you.”

Herman asked, “Maybe we can hang out when I move home.”

“Sure,” I answered.

Both flattered and surprised at this turn of events by a guy who didn’t remember me from our high school days. I was feeling a bit happy that he wanted to hang out with me. Also wondering why he wanted to hang out with a guy who was an outed gay man.

We continued to chat about our high school years. Drank a couple more beers and then headed out the door. Herman stopped outside the door and said, “I’m staying at the Pelican Motel on the main drag in town. I’m in town for a couple more nights. Call me, please.”

Because my life consists of work only, I was interested in more chat with Herman. I found him quite an interesting character in that he had lived in a large metropolitan area unlike my life where I’d never known anything but life in a small town. And I was physically attracted to Herman. It had been a long time since I’d had sex. Make no mistake I had no fantasy that Herman and I would make love. In my wildest dreams that would be the ultimate sexual experience.

Herman was good eye candy so I called him, “Herman, this is Ignatius, you asked me to call.”

Herman said, “Ignatius, I’m happy to hear from you. Would you join me for supper tonight at The Grill at The Pelican Motel?”

“Sure, I’d love to continue taking about high school,” I said.

We met at The Grill that night for supper. It was a school night so I chose a sweet iced tea over a beer. Herman drank another draft with big head.

“I like big head,” he said.

He seemed to particularly like draft beer with big head; of course as a gay boy I had to chuckle to myself at that comment.

We had a couple of medium-well steaks and baked potatoes. For dessert we indulged in bread pudding with rum sauce.

Full, we pushed back from the table. Herman picked up the tab and I noticed he left Miss Melinda, the waitress, a very nice tip.

“Come back again soon,” Miss Melinda said.

Herman asked, “Ignatius, would you consider joining me in my room, please?”

I said, “Sure, I’d like to.”

We sat in a couple of blue paisley cloth, high back, wing chairs. The whole room was decorated in blue, a soothing color for me. It brought out the color of my blue eyes and a good background for my fair skin and blond hair. A comforter on an old four post antique bed matched the chairs. I imagined walking on the blue shag carpet barefoot. And two blue long skinny neck lamps added a gay flair to the landscape of the room.

Out of the blue Herman kissed me. I blushed. We made love.

[sickficsies-and-whumpsies]

Can you write all the shiratorizawa vball club (the main players especially) were sick like some have a fever, stomach bug, vertigo, and kind like that. At first, semi take care of them before he's sick too.

A good title for this fic would be “the puke fest”. I may have gone a bit overboard with it, but hey, you asked, I delivered. I tried to include as many characters as possible, but the more people I put in a fic, the harder it is to write well. I'm rusty. CW in tags.

一一一

“This can’t be happening.”

“Unfortun’tely, i-it ap-appears it i-is.” Shirabu stuttered, leaning over the guardrail. Tiny beads of sweat ran down his forehead, and his grip on the boiling metal was vice and tight to the point where his hands’ color resembled snow’s. 

Cars and trucks sprinted past them, coach Washijō still talking to the bus driver as most of his players were busy fighting against whatever nasty bug they’d caught. In the meantime, Saitō had warned the team they were supposed to play against that Shiratorizawa was definitely not going to make it. 

They were barely halfway through the ride when Goshiki had brought up a mouthful of bile on his knees without a warning, much to Ōhira’s horror. Now, the vice captain had never been prone to sympathy-vomiting, but truthfully, he had been feeling off since the previous night, so seeing his teammate empty his stomach like that triggered something that made him scream and belch almost simultaneously.

Panic overtook everyone's senses, as Semi, the only one who didn't look ill, scrambled to warn the coaches. Just as the bus pulled over, a minute later, not only Goshiki and Ōhira, but also Shirabu, Kawanishi and Tendō had thrown themselves onto the asphalt, breathing heavily. 

And that’s how Shiratorizawa had ended up stranded on the side of the road, with half the team on the brink of death一 according to their own words, anyway.

Semi clicked his tongue. “This is some kind of bad omen. Evil eye, maybe.” 

A scoff. “Do you rea-really b’lieve in th’t stuff, Semi? It’s g-got n’thing to do w… wi一 uehgh!” 

And just like that, Shirabu’s lunch spewed from his chapped lips and onto the unlucky grass beside the road. Semi patted his back and held his forehead to save him from a whiplash, but there was only so much he could do while his friend threw his whole soul up.

A couple of metres away, the pinch server could see Goshiki hunched over, hands plastered to his knees as he vomited, Tendō standing close behind him, not looking much better than his kōhai. 

“T-T-Tendō-san, I dun’ feel w-well.” Goshiki murmured, voice scratchy, “I w-wan’ go h-home.”

Uneasy silence followed, and Goshiki briefly wondered if his senpai had left to go help someone else. He didn’t have the strength to turn around and check, but it didn’t really matter when Tendō fell onto the rough pavement like a sack of wet cement, palms flat on the floor as he retched helplessly. The scent of foreign puke alone was enough to make Goshiki throw up for the umpteenth time.

Tendō vomited again. Refuse now stained his chin and hands, and the smell of his own puke was enough to make him moan in discomfort. He felt a strong hand rubbing at his back, warm but slightly too heavy at the moment. 

“W-Wakatoshi-kun, st’p…”

The captain stilled, raising a thick eyebrow. “Is this uncomfortable?”

“S’just, y’re scrambling my insides like eggs righ’ now, a-and they’re already mes-messed up.” 

Simultaneously, Soekawa was busy whispering words of comfort to Kawanishi, who was evidently spent, wheezing as he clutched at his shirt in a faint attempt to calm his racing heart. 

“Breathe, Kawanishi, come on.”

“M’tr-tryin’.” he coughed. “I jus’ feel awf-awful t’day.”

"I don't understand how this happened." Saitō hummed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "You said you guys never ate together in the past week, right?" 

A general noise of confirmation made the man sigh deeper. "So it can't be food poisoning, which means that this team just has the worst luck on Earth."

The older man glanced towards Ushijima, crouched above his best friend. Tendō looked awful, sprawled on his side on the pavement, shaking all over as the team's captain provided some shade with his bulky form. 

"Water, Satori?" 

A shake of the head, then a moan. 

From his position, Saitō cringed. "This is really bad."

"It is. We are all bound to catch the bug now." Washijō hummed solemnly as he walked towards his disciple, though a slight hint of concern edged in his voice. "The bus driver and I came to the conclusion that we should take them back to the school and have their parents pick them up. All of them." he explained, hands tied behind his back as usual, "I know for a fact that even those who aren't ill now, will have to deal with this soon. We'll have to suspend practice for at least ten days, for safe measure."

Saitō didn't look entirely convinced, but nodded nonetheless. "My fear is that the ride could make them feel even worse, but there's no other optionー"

"Uhm, c-coach?" 

The man turns, eyeing Semi's rapidly paling complexion. A sickly shade of grey tinged the boy's shink, and the reddish flush on his cheeks and ears was a telltale sign that everyone knew far too well.

"I th-think I'm sick too…?"

It sounded more like a question, but Saitō didn't waste a moment and immediately placed his palm on Semi's forehead, mumbling a quick apology. The coach hissed at the unnatural heat radiating from the pinch server's bleached skin, and rapidly let his hand fall down to his neck, then back to his forehead. Dark-grey eyes, dull and watery, looked at Saitō with rapidly fading focus. "Coach?"

"Yeah. Semi-kun, you're definitely sick. Shit."

The sun shining on them with vice insistence didn't quite help. The adults could clearly tell how their players were affected by the light and heat, sweating and squinting, and the boiling asphalt and cars' gas contributed to making the air smell funny, and that, combined with illness, was a lethal combo.

Tendō was still lying on his side, and Ushijima himself started to look off, massaging his friend's back with a hand, and his own belly with another. 

Kawanishi was yet to stop barfing, unconsciousness evidently pulling at his senses as he fought to stay awake, strong of Soekawa's insistentー borderline aggressive, at this pointー words of comfort. 

Goshiki's nausea had ceased, but vertigo overtook his senses rapidly, forcing Sagae to take his own jersey off and fold it under his friend's head, a makeshift pillow to allow Goshiki to rest, legs up in the air held by Sagae himself.

Shirabu managed to take a shy sip of water, but promptly threw it right up. The boy didn't even have the force to call for Semi, and resigned himself to trying to quell his stomach cramps alone.

Ōhira being eerily silent was, probably, the most worrying thing that the coaches had witnessed today. 

Overall, the team was in shambles. Washijō sighed, and stepped forward. He clapped his hands once, twice, and three times, to get everyone's attention. "Alright, team, try to stop barfing for a minute and get on the bus. We're going home. The heat's bad for you right now, and I'd rather know you're all safe in bed than abandoned to yourselves in some lay-by in the middle of June."

He then turned towards the members of the team that still looked like they could stand on their feet without toppling over. "Carry your teammates on the bus. We're leaving in three minutes. And if anyone has crackers or such, give them to your teammates as soon as you're in your seats." he hummed, "Saitō, help me find some paper or plastic bags."

The younger man immediately followed his senior, rapidly disappearing into the bus.

It took more than three minutes, admittedly, but somehow everyone was back on the bus on their way home, and the corridor of said bus was still clean, thanks to the coaches' quick thinking. 

Goshiki, Ōhira, Tendō and Kawanishi had passed out almost immediately once they were helped to their seats, spent and exhausted beyond imagination, while Ushijima, Shirabu and Semi had thrown up a handful of times before even making it on the bus. Once they were seated down, next to each other, they'd fallen into an uneasy slumber, groaning and moaning uncomfortably, guts twisting and knotting tight. 

"We'll be home soon." Washijō murmured to Saitō. "Did you manage to contact their parents yet?"

Saitō shook his head feebly. As he turned towards the other coach, a thin layer of sweat became visible on his forehead, eyes wide and foggy. "Actually… I think I'm going to have to call someone for myself too."

[twilightknight17]

We’re at the end of the road, folks.

And god damn, I feel so validated by my Sojiro characterization. Wow. Thanks for basically making me canon for ten more seconds, Atlus. XDDD

So when last we left our intrepid heroes, they were laying at the bottom of the Jail of the Abyss, because Ichinose is an asshole. So we had to fight our way back up, carrying Sophia’s unconscious body. Which wasn’t that bad; the Jail isn’t very big. We left Sophia at the door to keep her safe, and then charged back into the hall of the Ark to hack Ichinose’s exploding crystal box thing.

Ichinose doesn’t understand why we came back.

So, yeah. I guess like... bizarro-world Maruki? Maruki wanted to alleviate suffering by granting everyone’s wishes. EMMA’s going to make it so that people can’t wish for anything.

After a kick-ass hacking battle set to the new version of Rivers in the Desert, Ichinose yells at us about our right to judge. Why should humanity keep this painful world, just because WE’RE strong? Just because we’ve never screwed up or suffered?

Which, clearly she has no idea who the fuck she’s talking to.

We’ve worked too hard to listen to that kind of bullshit.

Ichinose proclaims that “humans don’t need hearts” and charges up the laser crystal to blast us again, and Sophia steps in to block the attack. She’s still fighting Ichinose’s control even though Ichinose insists that she’s just a faulty prototype.

Apparently Ichinose created Sophia in the first place because she spent a lifetime being called a heartless doll, so she made an AI to help her learn about the heart.

I think you’re the problem, but not for the reasons everyone else is saying.

But she got angry when Sophia started asking questions of her own and basically tossed her aside, until EMMA found her and dropped her into the Shibuya Jail.

And Sophia, unlike her creator, has learned and grown, and is tired of being given orders. She’s ready to make her own choices.

That is certainly a persona.

I gotta admit, they got me. I was wondering why Sophia didn’t have her arcana yet, but for some reason, I also wasn’t expecting her to get a proper persona. I’m now wondering about the implications of someone being able to code an AI capable of developing a soul that can summon a persona. There’s a zero percent chance that Ichinose had any access to plumes of dusk, which are the reason that Aigis and Labrys gained enough consciousness to have personas. So Sophia is legitimately a miracle piece of technology.

Pandora is an interesting choice, but I dunno if I can articulate that beyond a surface-level, “Oh, because she’s Hope, and Hope was still in the box.”

I swear to god, every major villain in this game is trying to be Goro Akechi. For the last goddamn time, we don’t kill people. Get up, Ichinose. We’re leaving.

Ryuji literally grabs her by the arm and drags her out, because she’s trying to stay behind. Which just confirms for me that if Goro hadn’t put up that bulkhead door, we’d have dragged his stupid ass out of the Ship, too. XD

Back to the real world, and Tokyo is blacking out, and the Tower is losing its shit.

The metaverse is fusing with reality, the Tower is becoming the Tree of Knowledge, and hell yes we are climbing this tower after all!

Morgana points out that this is the same thing that happened last year, and Zenkichi freaks out a little bit.

You’re lucky you moved to Kyoto, sir. You missed quite a bit.

I love these kids, though. They’ve got so much black humor about this whole god thing.

The metaverse encroaching on reality means that everyone has to cram into the bus in their thief gear. Zenkichi, please. Your hat. Sir.

I love climbing this tower. I’ve been here, too! Also they have butter. XD

I was expecting the Mementos version of the lower observation deck, and instead I got some weird amalgam between Mementos and Azathoth’s boss chamber.

We had to fight Metatron as the guardian of the last elevator, which is another parallel to Yaldabaoth’s archangels. And then it’s up to what I guess used to be the high observation deck to fight the big box.

EMMA insists that all humanity wants is to let it give them all the answers, and it throws them into some sort of alternate fog world full of the voices of the public.

The Thieves are all separated, trapped in the fog. Each of them has to find their way out, and they realize that the fog of the Desires is protecting EMMA. EMMA knows exactly how calling cards work, so they won’t work on her. Instead, the Thieves decide that they need to send the calling card to the public, so that they’ll become aware of their desires again and the desires will crystalize.

...oh come on, Atlus. We’re right in the endgame.

One last hacker battle to break into EMMA’s server room in the tower, and Futaba and Ichinose manage to hack EMMA itself to deliver a calling card to everyone at once.

Love you, Zenkichi. We’ve taken out two gods already. We’re good.

Confronting the Ark again reveals a bunch of freaky tentacle arms grabbing the desires, and then the box turns into some sort of massive figure that looks sort of like Yaldabaoth, except less robot and more seraphim. It literally names itself the Demiurge, so I feel like EMMA may be drawing something from the lingering dregs of Yald’s influence? It’s cool.

Clearly no one told you what happened to the last false god that thought it knew what was best for humanity. ;) “Hope binds humanity to misery” is bullshit.

After a... not very difficult first phase, the Demiurge reveals its true form, and we split into three teams to take out its support orbs (modeled after the sephirot) and the main body.

I really liked the setup for the last boss. The teams were the first instance where it was really apparent that the whole team was fighting together. Each of the three battles was happening concurrently, and destroying the orbs has a concrete effect on the main fight. I wish we’d gotten to do things like this more often, especially during the Shadow Thieves fight.

That said, the main body was actually the easiest part of the fight? All the attacks were really telegraphed, and not particularly hard to avoid. Except for the spear jab.

But it finished off with a full-team all-out attack, and that was awesome.

The desires began to return to their owners, and we get to bask in a job well done once again.

Upon returning to the real world, it’s the next morning. Sophia’s happy that she got to be a hero, Zenkichi’s heading off to properly arrest Owada, and the rest of us need to head home, because we were supposed to be home last night. Zenkichi can’t figure out why we consider him a phantom thief, since he “only joined [us] to use [us]”. Which is silly. The Phantom Thieves are built on the bonds of friendship and stalking! It’s too late, Zenkichi. You and Akane have been adopted.

I’m a little disappointed we didn’t get to tell Akane the truth. That would have been great.

Atlus personally reaches out and pats me on the head, because Sojiro has the absolute perfect reaction to his kids coming home after a nationwide manhunt for them.

I feel so valid making him serve Lavenza coffee and be completely nonplussed about a guy marrying Death. I love him. We’re so lucky to have Sojiro. XDDDD

The next day, the kids have a celebration party for their victory, and learn that Akira is going home the next day. This kid needs to catch a break. He can’t even have a few days to relax with his friends. X’‘‘D

Everyone goes to see off Akira, though we detour to Shibuya to meet Ichinose. A news report shows that Owada was successfully arrested, and apparently Ichinose tried to turn herself in to the police, and they didn’t believe a word of it.

This is just highlighting my issues with Maruki. Even if he doesn’t think he did anything wrong to society as a whole, he never apologizes to them for what he put them through. Especially Akira. Ichinose turns around and helps them stop the final boss, and her last scene is her apologizing to the Thieves and trying to make amends for her actions. Maruki’s last scene is... “If things get bad, you can start over like me! Now we’re even!” We are not.

Sophia leaves to help Ichinose learn about the heart, Akira promises to come back for winter break, the Phantom Thieves go their separate ways once again, and the credits roll.

I’m gonna leave my final impressions in a different post, because this one is long enough already. So... look forward to that?

[cowboyjen68]

The Best Sandwich

I was talking to a friend this morning about hunkering down in the event of a flu pandemic or some such thing. (that part is not important) I was reminded of a story. 

It was many years ago at MichFest.  As it gets in August in Michigan, the temperatures were in the mid 90s and there was not a single cloud to cover the sun - just blue skies. It was the first load-in day of the week and we had been in line all night; we had our gear out of our vehicle and were waiting for a shuttle to take us down into the trees and to our campsite. There was a large shade tent with benches which we saved for our elders or for women who could not stand comfortably. I sat on my gear pile and dug for water. 

The heat had the potential to cause tempers to flare and women to get sick but you know what?  That didn’t happen. Contrary to what Disney says, MichFest was, in fact, the Happiest Place on Earth for those of us there. Those on work shift and the women on the crew were a sweaty mess. Twenty-five women smelling of sweat and dust and it was wonderful. It smelled like home -  cooperation, family. 

I started to help. My circle of friends agreed to handle our gear to get it to the main hub, the Triangle, so I could stay and relieve some of the tired crew. It was near 2pm; that is the hottest part of the day in Midwest America. There was no break in sight. Cars were still moving in the gate and the enthusiasm of the greeting “Welcome Home!” was as big as when they started. Women stopped their cars to jump out and run to a friend they had not seen since the August before. Joy and relief, like falling into the arms of a safe lover after a year of battle. And many of us do fight a battle, every day. MIchFest was the homecoming for a week of taking off the armor, shedding the stiff upper lip and wide legged stance. It was a week of calm and fun and laughter and crying into safe shoulders. 

I had been awake since around 5 am. Who can sleep once daylight breaks?  I was on the edge of my favorite place on Earth and my old friends were all around and new friends were waiting to be met. I had eaten a granola bar and drank coffee cooked by a stranger. She laid out her propane stove in the dust between the back bumper of her 1974 Prowler camper and our 2005 Dodge Pickup loaded with the gear of five lesbians, two bi women, and two teens (my daughter and her very excited friend). We had water, she had coffee, and we dug out enough cups. We shared with those walking seeking to find friends. I don’t remember her name, if she ever said it. I remember she had short messy hair and smelled like pot and pine. I remember she told me stories of fest from before I attended. 

So my stomach was empty and I was feeling tired. I kept going, unloading heavy gear. Some women came with a back pack and a smile. Other came with just a few arm loads of gear, a tent, and a cooler. Still others seemed to have a house’s worth of totes and beer and tarps. NO matter. We were all together. All of us. Many women, especially the elders who could not lift and move gear, reminded us constantly to drink. They dug out water from their coolers. Told us to sit and talk when our red faces and sweat-stained shirts indicated we were pushing too hard. Even youth and excitement can’t stop heat strokes.  

6pm came. The line was slowing and the shuttles were doing a great job of getting mountains of green totes, blue tarps and maroon tents moved from the dusty, weedy field to the shady wood chipped path within the trees.  The Shuttle driver, a funny, handsome butch with a light beard and wearing a prom dress, shut off the tractor and took a much-deserved bathroom break. It was quiet. About 50 women milled about - getting a drink, checking on those under the shade and quietly talking. A small bus pulled up and cut the engine. I watched from my perch on a tote. The woman next to me, Barb – she is still my friend to this day - was breathing a bit hard from the fatigue of the day. She shifted her cane from one hand to the other and told me how much she appreciated all the work. That she missed being able to help. 

My stomach was growling and one of my campmates sat down heavily on the ground nearby. A young woman, maybe early 20s, came towards us pulling a Radio Flyer red wagon. Not the new fancy ones but an old metal rusty one that squeaked and rattled behind her. She had snarled brown hair and her face was so clean compared to her dirty white under shirt and tan cargo shorts. I remember there was a big safety pin where the button used to be. She opened a cooler and handed me a sandwich. I don’t remember it being wrapped in anything. Perhaps it had wax paper or plastic wrap or was in a baggie. But I don’t remember any of that. Just a sandwich in my hands. My friend took one and handed it to Barb. Our server friend said, “Welcome Home Sisters. Enjoy.” and moved on. 

I looked at the sandwich. It was the typical Fest Bread. A brownish color speckled with undefinable chunks. Nuts? Spices? Dirt? No idea. We both peeled back the bread. It held one rough cut square of orange cheese. No spread. No lettuce. Just one slice of cheese. I took a bite and then we ate quickly and quietly without pausing for a drink until we clapped the final crumbs away. We both took a drink from the same bottle. We were smiling.

It was and will always be the best sandwich I have ever eaten. It was not the bread or the cheese. It was the care, the realization that even though they were busy in the midst of the festival preparing and serving food for thousands, the women remembered not all of us could share mealtimes in order to keep our temporary village alive. As a village does its people, though, the women took care of us. They fixed the quickest and easiest meal they could transport and sent someone to make sure it made it to us. 

A simple sandwich, made by women, delivered by a woman, in the moment I most needed it.

[diegoh4rgreeves]

Butter Peekin

Story Summary: Reader is a music director of the Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy. One day the main cast initiate a lunch break together only to have David Castañeda and reader unable to find them at their supposed meeting spot. Reader and David decide to spend their lunch break together with ice-cream and they start to feel a connection. They’re so into their time together that they run late back to work. Their coworkers tease them over it, including Gerard Way! The next day, David asks reader out on a date and gets their number. This prompts reader to try and kiss him until they get cock-blocked by Tom Hopper. The day after that, David kisses reader just days before their date.

Pairing: David Castañeda x Fan

Chapter: 1/1

Word Count: 3,263 words

Warning: Fluff

A/N: I referenced a podcast David was recently a guest on (x). I was originally going to make this a drabble that ends when the lunch break does. Then it just got so cute. I couldn’t stop typing! I hope you all get the same warm and fuzzy feelings I did when I wrote this. Also I made this gender-neutral hence the lack of details for the reader and referring to them in they/them pronouns. Enjoy!

The ice cream shop on Queen St. E is cramped, just as any other place in downtown Toronto is. The whole colour scheme is pale yellow and primary blue; some walls are painted one colour or the other. There’s a chalkboard with the specials written on it.

Out of all the places you could have been hanging out with your celebrity crush in, you never thought it would be Ed’s Real Scoop.

“A butter pecan on a cone, and whatever they’re having.” A tall and built man with a beard signals the ice cream shop server to you with his wallet. He is wearing cargo shorts, a grey sweatshirt, a cap, socks, and running shoes.

You never thought of David Castañeda wearing something like this. He’s Diego Hargreeves in the Netflix series, The Umbrella Academy! Diego wears leather clad and swings knives at targets. Then again, David is David. The actor must be different from the character. Also, he wore this same outfit in an hour-long podcast you so watched in the summer. The podcast happened when he was in Thailand.

Now, he’s filming for season 2 of The Umbrella Academy, which gets you out of your day job. You are a music director on the show and that pays your bills. David and you are acquaintances, or so you think.

You shyly smile at David and thank him for offering to pay for your ice-cream. Then you tell the server your order of choice.

As the server prepares both your ice-creams, you look the opposite direction of David. David and you get along in the studio. You’re just used to seeing him with the rest of the cast and crew. You only have this alone time with him because theoretically the rest of the main cast ditched you both. You all originally planned to have lunch together. David and you failed to find them once lunch started, so David decided to take you out for ice cream.

Just as you are accepting this silence between David and you, he lets out a laugh. You look up at him and can’t help but to laugh along. His smile and his laugh are so cute and contagious. You just love his teeth. “What, what is it?”

He takes a moment before laughing again. “Okay, I wanna tell you something and you have to promise not to laugh. You swear?”

You giggle. “No promises.”

He beams up at you. “Y/N, please. This is top-secret info, okay?”

You hold your hands up and let out some incoherent sound. You weren’t sure if to say Okay or Fine.

I promise probably would have cut it. You let it go. He’s still smiling so hard.

“Okay…” He begins. “So, you know that I was born in Mexico, right?”

“Uh huh.” Of course, you know that. You’ve only googled him a hundred times.

“And that I went to high school in LA.”

You nod again. God, you really hope that David doesn’t know about your big crush on him.

“Right, so I could speak English fluently then. I just couldn’t pronounce certain words. Like, butter pecan!” He shudders. “Why do people say it like pikahn? That sounds so bougie!”

You actually remember hearing him tell that fun fact in the podcast. You’re not sure how to react to something you’ve already heard before. You decide to tell him another fun fact. “You know that you can say pee-can.”

He looks at you in amazement. “Wait, really!? Why didn’t anyone tell me that?” He looks the opposite of your direction and mutters the other pronunciation for his favourite ice-cream flavour. Then he looks at you and laughs once again. “Pee… can. Can of pee.”

You choke out a laugh. Right now, he’s just as fun-loving and weird and gross as he is to you with the group. You wonder why you were so nervous and anxious just a few seconds ago. He’s such a lovely human being with good energy. You decide to confess something to him. “I actually listened to the podcast you told the butter pikhan story.”

He beams up. “Oh really? What did you think of it?”

You’re oddly relieved at his response. Come to think of it, why did you think that watching the podcast would be a bad thing? “Well, I mean… the butter peekin story was great.” You realise you didn’t let him finish his story. He used to pronounce butter pecan as butter peekin. He chuckles anyway. “Can I… be honest about the podcast guys though?” You ask.

David smirks. “What is the tea?” He makes a sizzling noise.

You roll your eyes and laugh. “Can you ever give a serious answer to anything?”

“Sorry,” he laughs.

“No no, it’s fine! It’s entertaining.”

He gives you one last smile before the server calls you both for your ice-creams. David walks to the end of the counter where the cashier is. He takes out a $20 bill for both your ice-creams and he puts some of his change in the tip jar.

“Do you wanna stay here or take a walk on Woodbine Beach?” He takes a lick of his butter pecan ice-cream.

You give him a puzzled look. “What about fans? They’re going to stop you and ask for your autograph!” You take a lick of your ice cream and accidentally get a big chunk of the frozen treat in your mouth. You let it melt inside. You like the numbness on your tongue.

He leads you both out the shop and you passively follow him. Then he rolls his eyes and chuckles. “Y/N, you flatter me. First you watch my podcast and now you believe I have fans.”

You spit out your ice cream from a burst of laughter. You didn’t even care he pointed out the podcast. His self-deprecating humour reminded you why you love him so much.

“You okay there?” He chuckles.

You scoff and roll your eyes. “Yeah, thanks, David.” It was your turn to be sarcastic.

“Here, I picked up some napkins.” He pulls some out of his shorts pockets. You let out a hand with the assumption that he’ll hand you the napkin. Instead, he stops you both on the sidewalk outside the shop and he wipes your ice-cream covered lips with it. This might be the closest you’ve ever gotten to him besides a hug. He’s touching your lips and it’s great, even though he’s not touching them with his lips.

He lets go. You clear your throat and thank him.

It feels like a movie moment. You think that you should let the tension last as the streets had their usual noise of honking cars and beeping bus stops. In that sound, he’d think of kissing you. Instead, he picks up your conversation from the ice-cream shop. “So, what didn’t you like about those interviewers from the podcast?”

“Hmm?” You look at him as you try and adjust to a new conversation topic. “Oh right.” You’ve processed what he said. “Well, call me a social justice warrior, but I thought they were so politically incorrect, you know? Like… after you said the butter peekin story and you called an old friend a coconut. They thought that was racist? Seriously?”

David rolls his eyes. “Yeah… I was confused by that.”

“You seemed it!”

“I wanted to ask them how was that racist, and they just said that we weren’t gonna get into it. I mean, I couldn’t really do anything after that, you know? I didn’t wanna cause a scene, especially in my big break!”

“I thought you didn’t have fans.”

He opens his mouth and leaves it hanging. “Touché.”

You chuckle. Gosh, does he have such a good sense of humour. You look at him with a serious look. “There is another thing I wanna point out about those guys.”

“More tea!?” He grins. “Damn Y/N, I never took you for a gossip girl!”

You guffaw. “Wow okay! So that’s how you see me now?”

He chuckles. “Maybe… I like it anyway. You’ve got spunk and don’t take shit from anybody.”

You blush. David paid you a compliment and you’re trying so hard to see it as a friendly comment. “Yeah, well…” You play off your bashfulness with an exaggerated hair flip. “You know you love me.”

He lets out a hearty laugh, and that only makes you feel overwhelmed. Have you always been this funny? Does anyone else laugh this hard at your jokes?

You’re having such a good time with him that you never mind the talk about the podcast anymore. Who wants to rant about two white guys when you’re with the most gorgeous man you’ve ever seen!?

David and you take a stroll on the beach. It isn’t until you’re walking on it and feel the cool air from the lake that you felt how hot it was outside earlier. The beach really soothes you. David and you are still on a sugar high from the ice-creams, and you rush finishing them so that the sand doesn’t rush up on your treats from the wind. You’re laughing so hard as he slurps his cone and tilts it up. It’s probably a disgusting view to the people around you, and that makes it more entertaining for you.

David turns around to see if anyone’s looking at him. There does appear to be an irritated family sitting on some lawn chairs. He looks at you. “And you thought I had fans.”

You hold your stomach from laughing. “Don’t kill me!”

He smiles along with your laugh. When he finishes his ice cream, he rubs his hands to get the crumbs off. He pulls out his smartphone and gasps. “Uhh… Y/N.” He shows you the time. “I think break was over looong ago.”

You gasp. “Oh fuck… You have some missed calls too!”

“It’s okay! We’ll get an uber.”

“Yeah?” You check with him. “Will it cost much?”

He slings his wrist and purses his lips. “It’s on me, it’s fine.”

“You already paid for ice-cream. Let me split this with you.”

He shrugs. “Okay. Whatever. We’ll figure it out. Let’s just get back now!” David opens the Uber app on his phone and starts ordering a ride. You both wait at the parking lot of the beach together until your ride’s here.

David and you come back to the studio in a panic. You only see the main cast and crew laugh at your dramatic entrance of running inside. David and you freeze as you look at them. You’re especially worried over what Gerard Way thinks.

“Why are you guys running!?” Emmy Raver-Lampman looks like she’s about to cry from how hard she’s laughing. You’re quite embarrassed by that. You’ve also had a bit of a crush on her. Now this woman with goddess-like features and long curly hair is seeing you all sweaty and covered in ice-cream stickiness and you’re heavily breathing.

“Yeah, you’re late, you’re late.” The 16-year-old actor with a page-boy haircut lets out a chuckle. Aidan Gallagher is like his character, Five, in real life. He’s stoic.

Robert Sheehan, the tall and scrawny man with the messy brown hair, green eyes, messy black eyeliner, and funky and colourful clothing chimes in. “David and Y/N sittin’ in a tree…”

“Honestly, where did you guys go?” The short girl with the brown hair and button-like eyes cuts in. Yes, this is your idol since tweenhood, Ellen Page. “We waited for you.”

“Where!?” David yells out.

This gets everyone to bicker over the original plans of where to meet up at lunch time. Before this can go on, a tall and burly man with long dyed-red hair and bright blue eyes cuts in. “Alright, guys. David is back. Now you can film again!” He looks over at you. “Well Y/N, you don’t have to work again for another while, unless there are scenes you can add music to right now.”

You nod your head. “Yes sir. I’m on it. Sorry we’re late!”

He rolls his eyes and laughs. “I don’t even wanna know what David and you got up to.”

This gets the cast to make scandalised faces at David and you. “As I said!” Robert calls out. “David and Y/N sittin’ in a tree!”

“Robert!” Gerard calls out. “Go back to filming.”

You lose David in the crowd of the main cast, so you don’t get to wave goodbye and thank him for a fun lunch break, which had a surprisingly pleasant and wholesome ending.

—–

It’s the day after. You enter the lounge room of the studio. You put down a box of doughnuts on a table there. On top of the box, you leave a sticky note. It reads, Sorry I was late yesterday. I got an assorted range. Hope you all enjoy these. -Y/N

You take one last look at the box and then turn around to see David. This makes you jump up. You didn’t expect to see him in. In fact, you didn’t even hear anyone come in! “Hey David.” You let out a breath.

He looks at you all confused. “Did I scare you?”

“Kind of. I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Oh, my bad.” He chuckles. He looks over you and takes notice of the box of pastries. “What’s this?”

“Hmm?” You turn around to see what he’s looking at. “Oh.” You turn around back to him. “Just an apology gift for yesterday.” You laugh nervously.

He nods. “Can I split the money with you since I wanna apologise too?”

“Are you mocking me?” You scoff.

He laughs. “I mean I do feel bad about yesterday actually and I don’t wanna be late again from getting a box of doughnuts. So…”

You shrug. “It’s on me. You did pay for the Uber.”

“Thanks.” He nods.

You nod back. You’re not sure what to say next. “I should probably head to my department.”

“Yeah, sure. But first…” He looks down at the ground and then back at you. “I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun yesterday.”

Your heart warms up and you open your mouth. You know that you should say something. “Yeah. Me too. I mean, I had a lot of fun too. With you.” You clear your throat.

He smiles. “If you… ever wanna do this again some time, I’d be down.”

You cannot believe what you’re hearing. You have been asked out by other people in the past year, and you were just irritated. You could sense the bad vibes from those people. David though, he reminds you of your crushes back in high school. You are purely excited. “Yeah. Yeah definitely.”

“Something longer than a lunch break.” He smirks.

You giggle. “Yeah, I hear that. Do you want my number by the way?”

“Oh.” He beams up. “Right, yeah. I was going to ask for that next.” He chuckles and takes his phone out of his jeans pocket.

You smile and accept the phone. He has the page for you to add your name and number on. You type everything in and hand the phone back to him. “Okay, text me at your own will.”

He laughs. “I will. I might call after work actually. Is that okay?”

You open your mouth and wanna exclaim something. You remember to play it cool though. You just love phone calls so much. They’re so intimate and they’re one of the few old-fashioned things you value. Instead of freaking him out, you simply nod your head.

He smiles one last time before saying bye and heading out the lounge room.

You know that you won’t see him in another while. He’ll be working the whole day, and so will you. You look back and forth to your side and then to his direction. You want to kiss him. But is it too soon? You don’t know, but you decide to go in for the kill. You head out the lounge room only to be stopped by Tom Hopper, the tall and muscular actor with the buzzed haircut. He shows you a photo of his babies that his wife just texted him. He’s British. It’s 1pm in England. You go along with his excitement and compliment his babies on how cute they are.

You’re in your apartment after a long day of work. You decided to stay in at the studio for your lunch break. You ate a sandwich you brought from home and watched a few finished scenes of The Umbrella Academy. You brainstormed which songs would be fitting for all of the scenes you watched today. There was a meeting for it afterwards.

You change into your comfy clothes at your apartment and get a sense of relief. You prepare some food and plop on the couch. You turn on Netflix and watch the TV show of your choice. You can’t really get into what you’re watching though. You’re too busy mindlessly munching on your food and zoning out. You wonder if Tom cockblocking you was a good idea. Chasing after David for a kiss would have definitely been a desperate move. You also try to justify your decision with the fact that you’ve known David for a while now. There are romantic implications. Maybe he wants to kiss you too.

Before you can ponder on this, you hear your phone quickly vibrate. You pick it up and see a text letting you know that it’s David. You beam up and immediately save his name and number on your phone. You text him “Hey!” He texts and asks if it’s okay to call you right now.

You text a thumbs up emoji. You anticipate the call as you look at the text thread. Your phone gives longer vibrations this time, which shows that you’re getting a call. You pick it up. “Hello?”

“Y/N.” There’s that sexy deep voice. “Hey. How’s it going?”

You can feel your heart fluttering. You’re relieved that you didn’t kiss him. It would have scared him off. Tom cockblocking you made all this worth it.

—–

You see David the next day at work. You’re both in the lounge room before your times to start. You’re the only ones in the room and smile at one another as you walk in. “So, I guess we just awkwardly look at each other before Friday?” You quip. Friday is your date with David. You’re getting dinner and plan to go back to the beach.

“Yeah, I guess so.” He smirks. “That or…” He looks away and sighs.

You furrow your brows. “Or what?”

He walks over to you from the coffee machine and holds your face. He rubs one of your cheeks with his thumb and leans in. He eyes the room before touching your lips with his.

You’re quite surprised over this. You still close your eyes and go along with it. He tastes like the black coffee he just made and sipped. He smells really good from his body spray and you get a whiff of his shampoo. He must have showered before coming here. Your lips are so relaxed on each other until he presses harder and holds your waist to lean you in. You wrap your arms around his neck. You both sigh in the kiss until he decides to let go.

He looks at you and rubs your cheek with his thumb one last time before pecking your nose and walking out the room.

You are stunned. Much to your luck, he also had an urge to kiss you.

[shidiand]

How do you imagine Tenco's Story ending in your head?

that is a GREAT but UNEXPECTED QUESTION freshlybaked "spider" bread and i'm really happy to have the opportunity to try and answer this ageless question that has burned within all of us in the tenco's story iv waiting room community since 2013. it is an incredible coincidence (or is it? 👀) that i was just talking to Risa about tenco's this (edit: yesterday) morning so i am extra double super in the mood to talk about Tenco's Story today. so excellent of a coincidence is this that i am tempted to refer you to them in case you wanted to hear their thoughts on the matter that would probably turn out super cool, but that is neither here nor there; let us talk Tenco's Story.

i of course must mention my unadvertised and modestly detailed commentary on tenco's i-iii at https://shidiand.tumblr.com/tencos, presenting slightly interesting facts in an unwieldy and difficult-to-use format, but as it dates back to june 2017, i want to take some time to understand my feelings about the series once more.

tenco's story is a series that has a lot of meaning to me.

i took on my current name of shidiand in november of 2013. i was still in 11th grade at the time, 4th year of high school, and a very socially isolated person. i should say i was introduced to touhou in 7th grade, 2010, so i was still working through a 3 years-strong phase of trying to simultaneously both find an outlet for and bottle up an endless wellspring of awkward weeaboo-gamer nerd energy at the time.

i had my first real foray onto the internet in 2010, tried out twitter, followed some RPers and other people who had Cool Touhou Usernames. didn't really go anywhere. i had maybe 50 followers, i dont really know the count but it was definitely a) double digits and b) pretty low. didn't know what to tweet about. didn't know how to hit it off with others. i think there was basically maybe only 3 other people i ever properly interacted with. oh shit i was playing league of legends at the time. oh my god. i really did play league of .. oh my god. let's move on.

aw shit im super digressing amn't i. well.

this is just how it goes when i write essays on tumblr.com.

i'm afraid you're just along for the ride at this point so please do your best to enjoy it.

i got kind of tired of twitter at the time because i didnt know what to do with it. didnt know how to interact with people and didnt find the people i was following interesting, so i ghosted on out of there by the end of 2012. didnt deactivate it until like 2015 but at that point that was just burning away my dark history. anyways. november 2013.

--im taking a lot of time here trawling through old files on my computer, my tumblr blog, notification emails still lying around in my gmail inbox from twitter, the dropbox i didn't actually use but it had several tenco's story pictures on it but i deleted them so this was useless, ... to trace the timeline of this story and im really seeing a lot of remnants of dark history here you know? did you know i wrote a letter to a girl i had a crush on valentine's day 2014, slipped it into her locker, and anxiously hung around nearby at lunchtime to see how she reacted at lunchtime? i certainly didn't, or at least i made darn ass sure to forget about this incredible virgin incident and not remember it, ever, until i came across the records of it that i thoughtfully preserved for the me of 5 years later today. ok well now i have to read the letter to see if it was as bad as it just sounded there brb

ok so the good news is that it was actually very focused on being positive and full of admiration for the cool things she did instead of being a confession letter so i am very glad i was able to be a respectful chad 5 years ago, but the bad news is that the jokes, the actual sentences i put together. oh my god. but i mean. well. at least i got the spirit. its certainly a step up from this other person in my grade, WEEABOO ANDREW, YOU MAY RECALL THIS STORY AND HIS NAME FROM PREVIOUS STORYTIMES, THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND who came to school on halloween once cosplaying kirito from sword art online and got very possessive about people asking if they could hold his black replica plastic sword, and probably worse, dropped a "will you be my girlfriend" letter into the locker of my homie and fellow trombonist samantha, who was a little bit nerdy, hung out with the anime-likers who were actually sociable and fun to be around so you can imagine why weeaboo andrew was into her, which had i) a direct quotation from SAO chapter 16.5 (origin of the famous "glopping noise" line), and ii) a condom. jesus christ. i dont want to talk about this any more. next topic.

i also put this drawing of iku nagae and her skarmory (actually an albinoss from 18 DRAGONS) on the other side of the letter because it was the coolest thing i could think of drawing at the time. and i completely agree with 2014 me because it IS super fucking cool. hell fuckin yeah

https://shidiand.tumblr.com/post/76301993387/iku-nagae-ft-that-thing-that-supposedly-is-a

alright that was a fun little trip down memory lane but lets get back on track. november 2013. i started anew as shidiand. still awkward, still learning how to express myself and looking for my place among others. i followed some touhou bloggers, hung around r/touhou a lot as well. in december i got my first tablet for christmas, a wacom bamboo splash. i still use this thing! the usb cable disconnects if you bump it so i have to find just the perfect position to sit in whenever i want to draw, but its served me well. anyways. i was just starting to play around with digital art but i remember, probably just before new years, for some reason i wanted to find out more about tenshi hinanawi (i don't remember why. tenshi wasn't even one of my favourite characters at the time) so i went googling and right there on zerochan i found this:

https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=23525572

this was during my dark souls phase so i just went BANANAS at the sight of this. this was literally the coolest image i had ever seen in my internet life. That image alone made me want to draw in hopes that I could make something as cool as that someday.

it wasn't immediately after but i soon discovered tenco's story, and it was love. kannnu was my very first artistic inspiration, and for a long time, my only one. i absolutely idolized them at the time. since then, ive found other artists to look up to, in a more healthy manner, but to this day i still look up to kannnu, still admire their work a lot.

i played around with drawing, followed the lives of people on tumblr, started reading touhou fanfiction, made a new twitter. i met a lot of new people along the way. some people i havent stuck with, some i cut ties with, and some people i still keep in contact with today. over those long 5 years of being shidiand, i found a name (i used to use shidian and then shid, but someone called me shidi once and i realized that was a lot better), how to reach out to others, how to express myself, places that i could feel included in. this is why i owe a blood debt to evelyn, who permitted me to kneel at her throne and was like "yea ok you can join my discord server u seem cool". evelyn, if you were confused by me ominously mentioning this blood debt/blood oath in a tumblr reply 1-2 years ago, this is the context. those 5 years were like a coming of age of sorts, that i never had when i was in high school.

and my love for tenco's story, that inspired me to draw that day, has been with me since almost the very beginning of my time as shidiand. from the beginning, i have always encouraged people to READ TENCO'S STORY, like the kin of those who cry PLAY MELTY or WATCH SYMPHOGEAR. i think my very first sidebar description was something akin to a prayer, written in very choral language, hoping for the day tenco's story iv was completed, ..., "meanwhile, furious shitposting". kannnu's work, finding delight in whatever they chose to draw, has been at my side, all along. my true mentor, my guiding moonlight...

so that's why i still to this day love tenco's story so much.

let's talk about tenco's story.

tenco's story is a story told through single pictures. the plot is vague, and details are sparse. dialogue is rare. we only know what has happened; we seldom know why. furthermore, there are many gaps between scenes that the reader is left to fill in for themselves; we see only snapshots that form an hazy outline of the events that occurred, and must imagine the rest. motivations and explanations fail me. but even with a barebones plot, tenco's story has themes, and if nothing else, those have to be carried through.

the main theme, of course, is journey and travel, but there are also other ideas, too. i actually think they start to change as the series goes on:

book i, where tenshi runs away from home, is about striking out on your own. it's a very fun and unpredictable journey, together with a friend.

book ii, where tenshi and iku are separated, forces tenshi to find and rely on companions of her own even more. but they do so, and they are able overcome hardships, and there is food and festival.

book iii marks a climax, reasserting tenshi's goal of finding the sword of hisou. i feel like the journey shifts from a travel (visiting) to a path forwards (making your way through). perhaps this is just something i get from knowing the locations from dark souls (Anor Londo, New Londo Ruins, the Great Hollow), but the locations start to give more of a sense of verticality, like they're emphasizing tenshi's climb to the summit. the hardships and enemies are the greatest they've been yet, and right when they near the top, tenshi and iku start to bleed. the book ends on an uncertain note.

if i had to describe the type of journey and travel that tenshi and iku undertake, there's this sense of wonder at discovering new places, wandering from vista to vista in delight, but also a sense of conquering, making it through a difficult patch. the sequence from pages 2-44 to 2-51, taken together, convey this sense of overcoming the best. it's one of my favourite parts. again, although the tone definitely starts to lean towards struggle in book iii, i think tenco's sense of wonder really is the heart of the series. there's no map of the world, no predicting where tenshi and iku will end up next. and through their travels, though they come across many enemies, they also find friends -- places of refuge, places full of life, people who will look after them for a few days, companions who will stay with them for the rest of the journey. at the end of book iii, we see a long haired tenshi with purple hair being impaled by the sword of hisou (3-33, see also this extra illustration that risa pointed out to me http://sinnnkai.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-195.html), and regular short haired tenshi continuing on her journey (3-42). if we ignore the out-of-story images where tenshi has the sword of hisou, tenshi has actually only ever used her sunlight blade (2-24, 3-26, etc), so i think that the long haired tenshi on 3-33 is a different person altogether. (if i had to guess, she might be the purple haired woman in the top left of https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=35443328 as we have never seen that woman appear anywhere.) she probably has something to do with the flashbacks at the end of book ii and she might somehow be short-haired tenshi at the same time, but this is just speculation.

however, in 3-43, tenshi's hair is rather blue, so i don't know if this is the purple haired woman or not. if it is, tenshi is probably still fine and closing in on the summit, but if it isn't, then it's very worrying to see a picture of tenshi without any of her companions. it's very ominous.

meanwhile, iku, while climbing the red carpeted corridor, is stabbed, and disappears for a few pages. there's a black page, a shot of a shrine that strongly resembles the hakurei shrine, and a picture of iku standing behind someone in a tux, with the line "In the past, I was saved by the lady I was serving, you see?". and then iku wakes up in a field of flowers.

i think what this scene makes clear is a theme that has continued to appear and reappear throughout every book of "being saved, being aided by someone's kindness".

i think another theme that is implied and has to be addressed by this story of running away from home is "return". something im imagining is that the reason tenshi makes finding the sword of hisou her goal is because she wants to have something to prove herself with, to vindicate her when she comes home. but i don't think she needs to prove anything, and i ultimately think that she would be happier spending the rest of her life exploring.

so i think this should be what happens in the ending.

open on iku's journey, and give her a long sequence of travel without seeing tenshi. underline her newfound resolve. she climbs to the summit with albinoss, and finds the rest of tenshi's companions fallen. and in the last room is sword of hisou tenshi, who has lost herself, and it comes down to iku to bring her back. after a difficult battle, when both of them are on their last legs, iku is unable to stand any longer. but at this moment tenshi sees her companions struggling to get back up and reach her, and that's what brings her to her senses. and iku gets to see how many friends tenshi's been able to make on her own, and they finally and properly reunite. together, tenshi and iku carry each other out of the last room.

i don't think it's necessary to return to heaven. as a conclusion, dedicate some time to tenshi and iku travelling together. they're on their way back, revisiting old friends who helped them along the way, enjoying the journey. their last stop is the house of the elderly nawis (1-42). tenshi shows off the sword of hisou; she decided to keep it not as a trophy to show her family but as proof of the bonds of her companions. surrounded by friends, tenshi and iku decide to part ways with each other, knowing that the other will be alright. iku drifts among the clouds once more, and tenshi sets off for the horizon.

that's the plot that i'd write/just wrote. i don't really expect tenco's story iv to ever come out, though. i mentioned my first sidebar description earlier in this essay, but of course, you can see that it's been changed. 2 years ago, i read my hopeful prayer once more and was struck with a terrible melancholy, so now it reads this: "having come to terms with the fact that tenco's story iv will never be released, i can still live, knowing that the spirit of the journey will live on through kannnu's original works [...] meanwhile, furious shitposting".

on one level, tenco's story is a story, but in the process of following it, i came to think of the work itself as a journey too. you can constantly see kannnu's improvement between and even within each book. they have always drawn whatever they liked; what plot matters in the face of "I wanted to draw a beautiful sky." "I wanted to draw a fantastic battle." "I wanted to draw Dark Souls and Monster Hunter and Pokemon and Brave Fencer Musashi and Bokura no Taiyou and Touhou."

its not really kannnu's style to go back and tie up old ends. they just draw whatever makes them happy. so as i watch them continue to draw beautiful places and fantastic creatures, new characters heading out on journeys of their own or just enjoying their everyday lives, it's as if tenco's story never ended. the limits and consistency of that world ignored, and a new one springs up; in a way, the world of tenco's, which had such thin boundaries, just gets bigger.

but even so, having said all that, i still see them draw that short-haired tenshi from time to time. it makes me happy to see them remember tenco's story with such fondness. often crossing over with orion or roar or elweiss, you can see tenshi on another journey.

[ramblingthoughtsofayoungadult]

Chemistry Part II-James Cook Imagine

Requested: Yes

Warnings: underage drinking, sensuality, swearing, and drug use

 The girl staring back at me was a stranger. Yes, we had the same y/h/l y/h/c locks and y/e/c eyes, but her hair was in tight curls with braids in various sections around her y/s/c face and her eyes were highlighted with thick black eyeliner, heavy mascara, and a jewel-toned eyeshadow that brought out different flecks in her eyes. There was also a deep toned lipstick on her lips that I never would have tried to pull off. Plus, I never would have worn the pink strapless mini dress or sparkly pumps she wore. 

   “C’mon, Y/N, don’t keep us waiting!” Katie called from the other side of the bathroom door.

  Then, I suddenly remembered that Katie and Emily Finch and Naomi Campbell had come over to my house a couple of hours ago. Immediately after that, I recalled that I had lost that stupid bet to Cook. He thought that I needed reinforcements to help me look and act appropriate at the rave we were all going to and, though I was upset about it at first, I knew he was right. All the girls were nice enough but Katie was the one in charge of the outfits and, fortunately, Emily, Naomi, and I convinced her that a million bangles on each of my wrists would not be a good look.

   “You can do this, Y/N,” I whispered to myself. “It’s just a couple of hours out.”

   I probably would have been more convincing to myself if my voice wasn’t shaking. In actuality, I was terrified of going out and the fact that I was going out with Cook and his mates only made me more nervous. 

   Why didn’t I just back out? Oh, right, because Cook would hold that over my head for the rest of college.

  I took a deep breath and walked outside, feeling wobbly in the pumps Katie gave me. They all glanced up and their mouths fell open.

  “Is it all right?” I asked quietly.

  “You look like a total bird, doesn’t she, Emily?” Katie asked.

   Emily nodded before taking another jello shot. “Yeah.” 

   “You will have all the boys over you. Our work here is done, outfit and makeup wise.” Katie handed me a half filled glass of rum. “Drink up.”

   Fortunately for me, my parents went to Paris for the weekend. Though they are okay with me having the occasional drink, they certainly wouldn’t approved of binge drinking. Mum would have been thrilled that I had friends over while Dad probably would have left us alone.

   I smiled thinly and grabbed the glass from Katie. The alcohol burned as it went down my throat but it was much better than the vodka shot Naomi made me take with her shortly after they all showed up at my house. Emily was blasting an Usher song from her phone and making Naomi dance with her to it while Katie kept feeding me drinks.

   “I didn’t know you could handle your liquor so well. Always thought you were a bit stuck up,” Katie said.

   “Katie!” Emily shouted.

   “It’s fine and I only drink sometimes, but it’s not a lot,” I said.

   If Katie thought I was stuck up, did that mean Cook thought I was stuck up too? No, that couldn’t possibly be it and why did I care what Cook thought about me?

   After I had two more drinks, we took a bus to what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse on the other side of Bristol. It looked as though it was about to fall apart any second yet there was a long line of people wearing sequined, shiny, or neon clothes. The ground shook underneath my feet due to the heavy bass music blasting inside. Katie dragged us to the front of the line, ignoring the angry yelling and curse words being spat at us from other people. The bouncer nodded when he saw us and let us in and it looked like organized chaos. Blinding strobe lights waved from the ceiling and neon paint was scattered over the concrete walls. People filled the entire building, dancing, grinding, and making out with each other. We all held hands as Katie led the way from the main floor up to the top floor, where Pandora, Effy, and Freddie were hanging out. They were sitting at one of the tables near the bar.

   Effy smiled thinly when she saw us while Pandora was outright about her shock of seeing me. 

   “I thought Cook was lying when he said you were comin out with us!” she shouted over the EDM music.

  I shrugged. “I’m not surprised!”

  “Freddie, doesn’t she look great?” Katie asked, hugging me into her side.

  “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

  “Thanks?” 

  Before I knew it, Katie had coerced Freddie into dancing with her, Pandora ran off to find more jello shots, and Naomi and Emily disappeared onto the main dancefloor. So, I sat next to Effy, immediately feeling intimidated.

  “You want a drink?” she asked.

  “Sure, I’ll have whatever you’re having.” 

  Effy nodded and a couple of neon drinks were set on our table by one of the servers who were walking throughout the club. 

  “These are from the two gentlemen over there,” the server said.

  Effy looked over at them, nodded, and the server walked away. “Don’t bother looking at them, it’ll only encourage them to try to chat us up.”

  “Oh, okay.” I grabbed the blue neon drink. “What is it?”

  Effy shrugged. “Let’s find out.” She raised her glass and clinked it with mine before guzzling hers down.

   I sipped mine and wrinkled my nose at the tart taste. It was still better than vodka, but I couldn’t tell what kind of drink it was; must’ve been mixed. “It’s not bad.”

  Effy shook her head and I slowly turned away from her, watching the people around us act wild, feeling myself calm down partially due to the alcohol. 

  “Looking for Cook?” Effy asked.

  I immediately turned to face her. “What? No!”

  “No need to get defensive, Y/N,” Effy teased. “He likes you.”

  “I doubt it. Why would you say that?”

  “Talks about you enough and he asked you out with us, didn’t he?”

  “So what? He likes me as a mate.”

  Effy grabbed a joint from her back pocket and lit it. She took a hit, keeping her dark, haunting eyes on me the entire time. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.” 

   Effy had to be messing with me since there was no way that Cook would ever like me or fancy me. He just liked messing with me since he was as mature as a five year old though he did have his moments of shocking maturity. Plus, he had always been fairly nice to me and we would talk often. However, don’t mates do all of those things?

    Then, a tall, dark-haired man appeared out of nowhere and slipped something into Effy’s hand. She set the baggy of small white pills on the table and took one out.

   “You want one?” 

   “What is it?” 

   Effy shot me a look that only ensured me that whatever those pills were, they weren’t legal. My heart beat picked up as I wondered if there were any undercover policemen in the club, waiting to catch me doing something bad. What if I ended up in jail? I’d seen enough documentaries about British prison to know that it wasn’t a place I would like to visit.

   “It enhances the atmosphere. If you don’t want to really join in on the fun, you don’t have to.”

   That was certainly a test and tests were always something that I was good at. Immediately, I knew what the right answer was and took one of the pills dry. Nothing happened at first, which only made me feel more anxious. Effy looked pretty normal, albeit a little dazed. 

   “Do you feel it yet?” Effy asked.

   I shook my head.

  She smirked and took another hit off of her cigarette. I envied how effortlessly cool she was.

  I don’t know how much time it took, all I remember is that I was overcome with the urge to dance. Everything was a blur of lights, colors, and people so much so that I had to focus on Effy. I stood, grabbed her hand, and made her go downstairs to dance with me. We burst through the crowd of people until we got to the middle. The music was loud and made the entire place shake as Effy and I danced. She twirled me around and I thought that she smiled once. For once, I didn’t care what people thought of me or if I looked good dancing. It was the first time I ever felt truly liberated.

   “LOOK WHO DECIDED TO SHOW UP!” Cook yelled.

   His white t-shirt was ripped and stained with pink and green neon paint----there was some in his hair and he wore a deep cocky smile on his mouth. The girl in his arms was barely the size of a toothpick and she looked out of it.

   “WHERE’VE YOU BEEN?” I yelled back over the music. 

   “AROUND!” Cook eyed me up and down. “BLOODY ‘ELL, YOU LOOK FIT!”    “I KNOW!”

   I closed my eyes and continued twirling around. Cook, the girl he was with, and Effy stuck around for a while. When I opened my eyes, Cook and the girl he was with were snogging hardcore. The twinge in the pit of my chest hit me in spite of the alcohol and drugs in my system. It felt as though someone had stabbed me in the chest and began to twist it. 

   Why am I so effected by Cook’s antics? I shouldn’t be so effected by Cook’s antics.  

    I couldn’t possibly....

   Then, someone grabbed my hand and spun me around. It was a tall guy with dark blonde hair that flopped into his dark eyes. He pressed his body against mine and we began rocking together. I wanted to shove him away and run, but I didn’t----the pill didn’t let me do it. After a few seconds, I got used to the dancing but I certainly wasn’t prepared for the tall blonde to shove his tongue in my mouth. It felt like he was trying to choke me with the wet, slippery appendage. I fought through the drug haze and put my hands against his chest to begin pushing away.

   “No,” I mumbled.

   “ ‘S all right, babe, just a bit ‘uh fun,” he muttered back, moving to kiss me again.

    “N...no, I...I don’t w...want to.” 

    The man’s fingers dug deeper into my lower waist, making me jump at the pain. He suddenly looked a lot more sinister than he had when we first started dancing. 

    “Relax, babe.”     I opened my mouth to object again but was interrupted by someone yanking me away. Effy quickly grabbed me and pulled me to her side. When I looked down, I saw Cook kneeling on top of the blonde man, beating his face in with his fists. He was screaming something as well, but I couldn’t understand what it was.

    “Let’s go, Y/N.”

    “What about Cook?”     “Cook can take care of himself.” 

    Effy dragged me out of the warehouse, past the people who were beginning to gather around the fight, and into the cool night air. There were only a couple of people outside----a young couple going at it against the wall and a group of skinny guys in leather jackets smoking. Effy let go of me and staggered forward as I trailed behind her.

   “Where are you going?” I asked.

   “To the corner.” Effy ran a hand through her hair and slumped forward a little. The drugs must have hit her as well.

   I tried to move faster, but it was as though my body wanted me to stay behind for Cook. However, it had to be because of the drugs, right?

    When we got to the corner, Effy practically fell onto the pavement and I sat down next to her. I tried to help her sit up but she waved me away.

    “Does Cook get kicked out of places often?”

    “What do you think?”

    “That he does.”

    Effy didn’t say anything after that. She stared ahead and laughed a little bit at nothing. I ran my hands over my legs, only realizing at that moment that I was cold.

    “Whatever, they can all piss off!”

    I smiled a little at the sound of the voice, stood, and turned to see Cook storming over to Effy and me with Freddie, Pandora, Katie, Emily, and Naomi trailing behind him. Katie was leaning on Freddie, Pandora seemed concerned, and Emily and Naomi both looked irritated. Cook looked upset yet arrogant at the same time. Suddenly, I was walking over to him and nearly slammed into him because I didn’t pause.

    “Oi, what’s the matter with you?” Cook teased. 

    “Are you alright?”

    “Yeah, I f-ckin won the fight, didn’t I?”

    I shrugged. “Wh...why did you fight him?”    “Because he shouldn’t have been touching you the way he did.” Cook looked down at me. “Did you have a good night?”

  In short, I was stunned that he was being so casual about getting into a fight over me. I wanted more an explanation but couldn’t articulate it, so, I decided to answer his follow up question.

   “I’ve never felt more free in my entire life! I get why you lot go out so much!” 

   “Maybe you’ll join us again?” Katie asked.

   I turned to the girl and nodded. “Maybe.”

   Cook grabbed my hand, spun me around, and pulled me into his side as we started walking. “Do you know exactly what pills Effy gave yeh?”

   I shrugged. “LSD, I think, or E.”

  “Look who knows their drugs,” Cook teased.

  “It’s common knowledge,” I whined.

  After we got Effy, we all started walking to the nearest bus stop. At some point, Freddie and Katie led with Naomi and Emily right behind them and Effy and Pandora right behind them. Cook and I trailed in the back. He kept talking about how badly he beat the blonde guy in the fight.

   “I swear to ya, he was crying as he was bleeding. Barely even touched me.”

   “Why did you get in the fight, Cook?”

   Cook hesitated as he lit a cigarette and took a long drag. “I told ya why I did it. He didn’t need to be touching you like that.”

   “So you were helping me because we’re mates?”    “No.”

   I frowned. “Are we not mates?”

   “Kind of. What’s up with all the questions? Thought drugs were supposed to make you thicker?”

   “Effy told me you fancied me but I told her that she was wrong. Isn’t she?”     Cook shook his head. “I thought out of everyone, she’d keep her mouth shut.” He took another long drag. “Besides, you’re the smartest person I know, I thought you would’ve figured it out. Do you fancy me or something?”

   “I suppose. You’re fun, unpredictable, and strong. You don’t think that you’re worth much but you’re worth a lot, a whole lot. You sell yourself short and you’re fit, real fit. I guess I do fancy you a bit.”

   All of a sudden, we stopped walking and Cook made me look at him. The look in his eyes seemed to drain all the alcohol and drugs out of me. His gaze was intense but non intimidating. It was then that the gravity of my words dawned on me and I wanted to catch up to Freddie and Katie but stay with Cook at the same time. One of his hands cupped the back of my head while the other stayed on my shoulder.

   “How’d you like me kissing you?”

   “I think I’d like it more if you hadn’t snogged that girl back there.”

   “She meant nothing.”

   “What do I mean to you?”

   “Everything.”

   “Are you sure?”

    “Yeah, now are you gonna let me kiss yeh?”

   “Yes.”

   It was the finest kiss a girl could’ve asked for. He was aggressive, passionate, gentle, and sweet all at once. I felt protected and safe in his arms. When he pulled away, he said: “I can’t believe I fell for the bloody nerd.”

   Without missing a beat, I responded, “I can’t believe I fell for the criminal.”

   We kissed one last time before catching up with the others. That night was without a doubt, the happiest night of my entire life. 

[ribbonism]

Okay, who said ‘I don’t want to download Love Nikki. I’ll just patiently playing in Miracle Nikki only and only since basically both are the same’ ? 

LOL

Love Nikki approximately has 1 year update ahead than 360mobi English version. When I type this, Love Nikki still in Chapter 11 but already has 1 Story Suit, while Miracle Nikki already in Chapter 12 but no Story Suit yet (the Chinese version already has 3-4 more features, lots Story Suit, and around 19 Chapters). The buildings in Love Nikki also a bit smaller.

I didn't find these happen when I played Miracle Nikki’s for the first time, but I got FOUR different items from set by login event in Love Nikki. I also got the unlocked secret costume set that have darker skin tone! What a surprise! In Miracle Nikki, I only got 1 set from monthly login; the Bright Galaxy set from special login; the Wonderful Holiday set will appear much later as login set and the Sheer Dance set only available for me in Store that time after some while.

Apart from the updates, both basically the same game, just different region block and different patch. However, I did find Love Nikki’s letter typesetting is... a bit mess, except the typesetting in Wardrobe which is better than Miracle Nikki (the item description is depend tho).

For Search Entry, I prefer Love Nikki.

The translation also a bit different, making the whole meaning change hahaha not that I complain, I play it for the dress up thing! (idk which one better) The ‘Server time’ text on the bottom also a bit bother, but it’s important since I’m in different time zone. But the plus point is, since I’m login using Facebook (Google for Miracle Nikki), I can get bonus diamond for Sharing! I should able to get special set from adding Friend, but I have no Friend (my sole Facebook account is for game) hahaha orz...

^ And even though one is have more updates than the latter, each publisher were given different set. For example, in Wasteland gallery, Love Nikki has Colorful Dreams and Miracle Nikki has Goddess of Fire. For unknown reason, I can’t find Halloween Fantasy set (assuming it’s last year Halloween set) and Joker & Diamond Mask set in Love Nikki, but Miracle Nikki has it. Love Nikki also has a lot of Japanese style costume sets in Cloud Country gallery, while Miracle Nikki only has 2 Chinese style and 1 Korean style costume set (apart from the same earlier set). 

Based on my experience in Tree of Savior, each game usually will follow update patch from the original developer, but its contain might depend on the publisher and also the main developer itself. 

However, currently Love Nikki is version 1.6.2, while Miracle Nikki already version 1.8.0. I guess Story Suit is just a matter of time in Miracle Nikki (the Story Suit might already patched, but not released yet).

I still find it weird why despite published earlier, elex did not use the official name (Nikki UP2U 3 ~Miracle Nikki) but ‘Love Nikki ~Dress Up Queen~’ instead. But then again, GameDreamer, the publisher of the now-shut-down ‘Hello Nikki ~Let’s Beauty Up~’, change it from ‘Nikki UP2U 2 ~World Traveler~... well the original title did not explain anything about the dress up tho so I guess it’s fine...

Elex even erase the franchise title on the bus, ‘cutting’ Love Nikki from Nikki UP2U series, while Miracle Nikki keep it intact. You can see ‘Nikki UP2U 3′ written on the bus. Luckily, they did not erase one on the hill, hahaha (it would be too troublesome anyway). Both retain the clock symbol in each official title, which I still can’t figure the meaning (well, Nikki go to another world, not another time??).

Here’s the original Chinese UI >

Source: https://imgur.com/gallery/kMyA3 

(Btw, judging by how the costume set works now, I’m pretty sure the developer NEED to working out the horizontal view for the apps.)

I think I’ll just playing Love Nikki super casual (I HOPE) since my focus will be Miracle Nikki. At least I did not download the Vietnam, the Chinese, and the Japanese version too..

Edit: Turns out have 2 same apps are too much for me. Too much space too. Generally, judging by the Events, it seems Love Nikki tend to loads its player more and more Events while Miracle Nikki tend to do it casually one by one. However I really like how Love Nikki mods introduce the new Suit (they’re using stories), complete with translated Suit illustration. Miracle Nikki mods never do that ;;w;; 

[domhovasse]

Last night I dreamt of San Pedro.

I am so so blessed to have friends who are willing to do whatever it takes to have me attend the annual girls’ New Years trip. When Gaby generously offered to help me pay for my flights using her air miles, I couldn’t refuse. A week with my best friends in the Caribbean, to ring in the new year - how could I say no!

Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Belize. The pictures of the beaches looked beautiful, but most people I had spoken to had only been to Belize City, and no one had anything particularly positive to say about it. From all the articles I had read, it was definitely a city to avoid at all costs. The fact that there are literally zero hostels there was an obvious hint that we should probably just fly in and head to the next destination as soon as possible. 

After a long travel day from Cancun (with a brief layover in El Salvador), we arrived in Belize City and caught a taxi directly to the ferry terminal. The first thing that caught me off-guard was the fact that everything was written in English, and only English and Creole were being spoken. I knew ahead of time that it was an English-speaking country due to the fact that it was a British colony for over 100 years before becoming independent, but I guess because of its geographical location, I was expecting the people to look Latino and be speaking some Spanish. 

We arrived to the island of Caye Caulker just after sunset, checked-in to our airbnb, and went for a little walk before finding a place to grab dinner. We found out that a lot of places on the island didn’t accept card, so we went to the only bank on the island, and to our surprise, it had ran out of cash. We ended up having to make due with Gaby’s USD she had brought until the next morning, when the ATM machines had been filled with cash. After dinner, we spent some time playing card games back at our airbnb (with some drinks, of course), before hopping from bar to bar, checking out some of the island’s nightlife.  

We spent the majority of the morning grabbing breakfast/lunch and then hanging out by our airbnb’s pool before heading back to the ferry terminal. From Caye Caulker we caught a ferry to San Pedro, where we met Lara, the last (and vital) piece of our crew. Our airbnb host picked us up from the ferry terminal, and we settled into our beautiful airbnb home. While some of us napped, Gaby and I went on a mission to pick up some beers and find a shop that wasn’t yet sold out of Golf Carts, which is the main mode of transportation on the island. It took us some time, but we finally found a shop that had 1 left! 

After a lovely dinner, we started our night off at our house with a classic game of Kings Cup, with the added bonus of playing while sitting in our jacuzzi. Once we were all dolled up and ready to go, we headed into the main square around 11pm, to join thousands of locals and tourist in ringing in the new year. Right after the countdown, we ended up running into a group of American guys that we had briefly met earlier at the ferry terminal, and then at the grocery store down the street from our place. We spent the rest of the evening bar hopping with them, singing karaoke and dancing the night away. It was honestly probably my favourite new years eve to date! 

After a much-needed New Years Day sleep-in, we motivated ourselves to get out of bed and spend an afternoon boating and snorkelling (with the group of American guys). We spent hours swimming around, looking at some incredible ocean wild-life, soaking up the sun, blasting music, and at the end of the day, enjoying the beautiful sunset with rum punches in our hands. We even got to swim with nurse sharks - it was so frightening, but one of the coolest experiences of my life! That night, we had a lovely ceviche dinner before having a “chill” night in with the guys. I had completely lost my voice, so I threw in the towel pretty early to get a good night sleep.

On our last morning in San Pedro, we made sure to wakeup at a decent hour, to drive over to Secret Beach, an isolated “not-so-secret” beach on the other side of the island. We spent a few hours there, wading in the water, eating lunch, and sipping on some piña coladas, before heading back to the airbnb to grab our things and catch a ferry back to Caye Caulker. I know it sounds like an awful lot of moving around, and I wasn’t in charge of the itinerary this time, but Caye Caulker is almost exactly halfway between the mainland and San Pedro, and it’s only a 45 minute boat ride between each.

After arriving back in Caye Caulker, we checked into our airbnb, which much to our surprise, was in the same building as our last one! We had a few hours left before sunset, so we wandered around the island, walking along the water, all the way down to “the Split”, which is a narrow channel caused by a Hurricane in 1961, which now splits the island into two. We sat down for a while on the docks and enjoyed some happy hour drinks, before our delicious, jerk chicken dinner. It was so so tasty, and the service was so wonderful. We ended up staying for a while, and our server even offered me a job (since I was the only unemployed one at the time). Not going to lie, it wasn’t an easy no! Our last night together was spent being carefree and having the time of our lives, dancing (and twerking) the night away.

The following morning, after packing up our things, Lara and I went on a walk/instagram photo shoot before sending her off on her ferry. (She had an earlier flight than the rest of the girls.) After checking out, the rest of us found a place to grab brunch before heading back to Belize City. Since my friends all had to go back to work, I had planned to go off on my own and visit the Belizian countryside for a few days. Once back on the mainland, we found a taxi driver who agreed to drop me off at the bus station first, on the way to the airport. He charged us all the same amount, even though my drop-off location was less than 1/10th of the distance, but I didn’t feel like being a cheapskate and trying to barter.   

When I got to the bus station there were no signs at all, or bus numbers, so I had to ask one of the workers to point out where my bus would be leaving from. Public busses in Belize are old school busses, with no seatbelts and horrible suspension. During the ride, the bus driver’s assistant makes his way down the aisle to collect payment, as the bus driver stops every 5 minutes to pickup passengers on the side of the road. I eventually arrived safely in the quiet town of San Ignacio and checked into my hostel just before grabbing dinner and going to bed early.

My alarm went off at 7am the following morning, I found somewhere to eat a hefty breakfast and then spent most of the day on an excursion to visit the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) cave, where I hiked through the rainforest, crossing several rivers, eventually arriving at the mouth of a cave. We then spent several hours in the cave, swimming, climbing, crawling through crevices, and eventually, got to the dry chambers of the cave where we saw some (calcified) remains of ceramics and pottery used in that very cave by the Mayans during rituals and ceremonies. We even got to see actual skeletal remains of victims that were brought to this cave to be sacrificed between 650-900 AD! It was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve ever experienced. Phones were forbidden, so I unfortunately have no pictures, but you can find some on google :) After getting myself all cleaned up at the hostel, and hanging out for a bit, I went for a late afternoon stroll through town, before meeting up with the American guys we had met in San Pedro, for dinner. Our schedules happened to overlap a day, which was nice! 

I started off my last day in Belize by treating myself to a lovely breakfast, before spending some time at an old Mayan site called Cahal Pech, which was once the home of an elite Maya family. On my way back into the main part of town, I popped into the San Ignacio Resort Hotel to visit their Iguana Rehabilitation Centre, where I spent some time learning about the reptiles and even got to feed some! After slowly making my way back to the hostel, I hung out for a bit, got some of the best friend chicken I’ve had in my life, from a hole in the wall Chinese take-out restaurant, before heading to the bus stop. 

Bussing in Belize was quite the experience. You can find a very loose schedule of bus departure and arrival times online, but locals don’t even follow it because “busses come and go about every 30 minutes; you just need to wait.” Since it was a Sunday, I gave myself ample time to be able to make my connection in Belize City, and for once in my life, I got lucky, as the bus was just starting to pull away as I arrived. After the driver confirmed to me that they were heading to the City, I boarded the chock-a-block full bus. I stayed standing for a while before I was able to find a seat, and when I eventually did, I wasn’t able to take a nap because the driver was blasting some Belizian rap music through the speakers. I arrived in Belize City with a few hours to kill before my overnight bus to Cancun, so I sat there and waited patiently. I had read that the bus station in Belize City was in a bit of a seedy area, so at first I was a little worried about having to wait there alone at night, but it was actually quite safe, and there were several other tourists also waiting. 

[mmutchler2-blog]

Blog 1, 1.3.20

Today’s post is about identifying cultural differences between Rome and America! Our class was in Rome between the dates of 1/3/20 and 1/6/20.

The three main cultural impressions I observed in Rome that differed from American culture were interpersonal interactions, traffic laws, and food/dining. Within the first hour of landing at the airport, I noticed individuals greeting one another with a kiss on each cheek. Although this is a very stereotypical Italian interaction, I had not considered the idea that I would actually see it happening frequently. I saw this greeting not only in the airport, but on the bus when Anthony was greeting our guide who picked us up, in restaurants, and on the street. It was clear that this interaction was between people who knew each other (such as friends or family), though I do not think I have ever witnessed this type of greeting in America. In the US, a kiss on the cheek is sometimes for close, older relatives, though hugs are much more common. It was certainly a reflection of differences in general personal space boundaries.

Another difference I observed in Rome was in traffic laws/norms. When we got on the bus from the airport, our tour guide warned us to be extra careful when crossing the street. Not only did we have to make sure the pedestrian walking light was green, but she advised that we make eye contact with drivers and commit to walking – any hesitation (even from a pedestrian with a green light) could lead to an accident. This is very different from the US as pedestrians are typically thought of as having the ‘right of way,’ and a driver that cuts off a pedestrian in a crosswalk is violating a major traffic rule. Coming from Elon, where students (myself included) tend to cross streets freely with the confidence that drivers will notice, this was a bit of an adjustment! Cars were also crammed in streets or parked in odd locations, and drivers typically made what I thought were bold decisions – cutting off other cars, driving in both directions down extremely narrow streets, and speeding or stopping suddenly while driving. While some of these tendencies can also found in American cities, I came to the realization that these driving behaviors may be heightened due to a lack of urban planning and how the city has developed across time. In my opinion, Rome is not an organized city meant for cars, bikes, or trains. The roads are winding and there are tons of narrow cobblestone streets. The lack of urban planning for transit has led to what I believe is an ‘everyone for themselves’ mentality when traveling.

The last cultural difference I will discuss is the overall dining experience. Stereotypical Italian foods and beverages – such as pasta, bread, and wine – were abundant in Rome and presented at virtually every meal I had. However, I was a bit surprised to find leafy greens and ripe tomatoes at every meal too! I think I had three caprese salads within my first 24 hours in the city. While Americans also love their carbs, I am not sure that salads are an essential part of our meals like they are in Rome. Something I really loved about the dining culture in Rome was how much fun our waiters and waitresses were! I found that they were all very personable and wanted to make sure that we had a pleasant dining experience (from joking around to singing and even calling the women on the trip senorita or bella as they served our food). Wrapped into this idea was the tendency to need to ask for the check, rather than the server bringing it over when they thought you were done.

A main overall theme I noticed from all of these examples was that individuals in Rome treated strangers less politely than they do in America (in my opinion), but Romans were more polite/caring/personable to their clients or loved ones than Americans tend to be. I thought this difference was very interesting! As a tourist, it made general travel a bit uncomfortable, but the dining and shopping experiences were wonderful.

[selfiecharmedlife]

RE: Process posting vol 1: Why did this bum me out so much

               I don’t have a goal in mind for this post, but I have a starting point and I want to see where I end up. Recently, I saw a movie and anyone in the same discord servers as me is likely aware that I felt a pretty strong reaction to it. I just can’t quite figure out why. Maybe a writing exercise will help me unpack what’s going on in my broken brain.

                Background stuff: Hibike Euphonium is a show about a high school band that follows a freshman euphonium player as she goes through high school. Egos clash, characters grow, and they play music together as the main set of characters get older and transition from being mentees to leaders. As a former 1st chair, band was a huge part of my high school experience. Euphonium’s accuracy to what it’s like being in a high school concert band is almost frightening at times. One of the seasons of the TV anime had the main character grilled in front of the band for continuing to fail a part. I’ve been in that position and the tone the band director’s voice actor took sent me back to my high school band days. When the scene was over, I realized I had been holding my breath. As the band performs, you can hear the kinds of mistakes a high school band makes and even minor things like the sound of a tuning slide moving are put front and center. Those little touches mean so much to me. The animation is also stunning. Basically, I highly recommend it and could gush for multiple posts. 

               As per most of the shows I write about, it’s also got some gay. The protagonist, Kumiko, and the band’s star trumpet player, Reina, are middle school classmates entering high school with distance between them that gradually closes. Kumiko admires Reina unabashed desire to stand out and express her talent. When a trombone player makes it obvious that he’s interested in Kumiko, she doesn’t return his affection and instead keeps developing an increasingly intimate relationship with Reina. Several scenes across the two seasons of the anime suggest their interest is more than platonic so much that other characters comment how comfortable they are with each other. 

               It’s one of my favorite series so when the movie came to American theaters last week, I got my gay ass together and went to see the gay band girl movie. The first scene has the trombone boy Kumiko had previously shown romantic disinterest toward confessing to her. She has a surprised reaction and the opening credits play. We don’t see her response, but throughout the movie there is a running sub-plot where we find out she agreed to date him after the concert season is over before further ultimately postponing it further at the end of the movie after he tries to kiss her. This was contrasted against other scenes more typical of the series where Kumiko and Reina seem extremely comfortable with each other. Apparently, a third season of the anime is in production so whomst can tell what’ll happen with these characters. As I walked back to my car, I felt myself getting more upset. This was the first time I felt like I had been queer baited. A previous side character jumped in front of two seasons of wlw momentum during the very first scene of the movie and the previously disinterested protagonist is now jealous when he shows attention to someone else.

That’s the crux of what I wanted to process via writing. Why is it that I was having that reaction to this pretty mundane movie? Even now, it still bugs me. Like I said earlier, I was the 1st chair trombone of my own concert band and a lot of the story, characters and sets of this show feel nostalgic for me. The hot summers at marching band camp, the small problems that felt world ending at the time, learning from older students and then finding out you have younger students looking up to you. I grew a lot as part of being in band and I consider it the defining part of my high school career. It was also the only co-ed activity in my all boys high school. The girls from out sister school would take the bus every morning to practice and as they would pack up and leave after morning practice, I’d often wish I could go with them. It’s how I met my first girlfriend who deserved much better than an insecure, dysphoric and jealous adolescent.

               Outside of band, high school is where I best learned to hate myself. In the four hallways (and science wing!) of my tiny high school, I transitioned from an awkward and bullied kid that loved anime to basically the same person but more depressed, better at faking manhood and ashamed of liking things. That shame would take years of therapy to start to unwind. One of my classmates would years later describe it as going to school in a locker room.

               I didn’t want to go to that school. In middle school, I was savagely bullied by my public school classmates. In grade school, I was the member of my grade that kept being friends with a flamboyant kid in our class through his own terrible homophobic bulling. Eventually, he would transfer to a different school and the I was the new “fa**ot.” In middle school, I would regularly get insulted, shoved into lockers or jumped and beaten up. One time a group of kids even followed me home from school where I waited home alone while they knocked on all the doors and windows trying to get me to come outside. My parents tried to pull me out of the school, but I stuck it out and graduated. Even though I wanted to continue in public school, my parents put me in a private high school to get me away from that bullying.

               Maybe those bullies were onto something though, throughout middle school and grade school I would have dreams where I relived my day as a girl. It felt nice. It felt so nice that I felt guilty about it and developed an anxiety disorder. Sometimes I wonder what could have been if I had been able to express myself during those meetings with a therapist. What if I could have trusted that my parents could be supportive? What if my mom hadn’t been in the room for some of those visits? What if the therapist that might have suspected what was up pushed me just a little bit into really admitting what I wanted? Sometimes I feel that there is a near timeline where I was able to express my feelings. Maybe I would have been able to start puberty blockers. I could have started them in middle school and still graduated. Maybe I’d start HRT near the end of middle school and get a few months under my belt before high school. My parents could still have put me in a different school and I would have had a chance to have the high school life of a girl. Maybe they would have put me in the sister school we did band with and I’d still have had that experience. 

               In my head, I know that timeline isn’t as close as it feels. My parents wouldn’t have supported me then that just like how they don’t support me now. In my heart though, it feels good. It’s when you make a pizza for dinner after skipping lunch and pull it right out of the oven. It’s hot and burns your mouth, but it’s meeting some other need. As much as I used to think I didn’t want to relitigate my history, these fantasies are fulfilling while also extremely painful. 

As my old high school world religions teacher used to say, back to the point of departure. I’ve written before about how people connect to media to work out their own issues. People are really good at it and sometimes do it without realizing it. Euphoniums attention to detail on the experience of high school band, the significance of band in my own high school life, the hints of gay and the reality that I can’t have the experience I wanted to all sort of mush together into a ball of pain and feelings that I didn’t perfectly realize was there. An emotional knot rooted from my past that I need to work on untangling in the present. I guess that rounds out why I was having that reaction and gives me some things to work on. 

****

I wrote this out Wednesday night and woke up this morning to find out KyoAni, the production studio was the subject of a deadly arson attack. I’ve been thinking about it all day. The works they put out were beautiful, evocative and series I’ve treasured many years after viewing them. They are a standout in the animation industry for treating employees well. As of right now, there is a gofundme up for donations but it isn’t clear when or how that money will get to KyoAni (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kyoani-heal/). A more direct way of supporting is purchasing from their online store. There is a guide here: here  pic.twitter.com/N8pPN6uo72

[awindowamirror]

Feeling more and more at home.

9/19/17

It’s been a lovely week. I am a very happy study abroad-er right now. So many things have started clicking for me, and though it took a lot longer than I expected, I am very thankful that I feel this way. There are several reasons for this shift, or perhaps it’s better to say progress, and a lot of these reasons are from this past week.

1.      A group of friends and I took a little road trip on Friday to the Volta Region, which is the region just to the east of the Accra region (where I live). It usually only takes about an hour to drive, but there was a lot of traffic on Friday evening, so it took closer to 2.5 hours.

 We also got a very late start-- I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about this in the past, but almost everything starts late here, so consistently that people say Ghana has their own time system, GMT (Ghana Main Time). This usually does not bother me at all because I’m chronically late myself, but on this particular occasion, we planned on leaving at about 3 pm and ended up leaving our hostel at 7 pm, running some errands, and then actually leaving Accra at 8 pm. Wild.

 The drive was lovely, though—some of our Ghanaian friends have cars, so we didn’t have to take a bus, which was nice. About an hour outside of Accra, I looked out the window and saw stars. I hadn’t seen the stars in 5 weeks. It was beautiful. There is a bridge going over the Volta River that connects the main part of Ghana to the Volta region, and then you are surrounded by mountains and green and clear skies. Magical.

 The Volta region is full of natural beauty—I know I mentioned in my last entry that it’s been difficult adjusting from the easy peace of Minnesota to the city life here, but this weekend made me so excited to explore the rest of Ghana. We didn’t have time this weekend to go hiking at all, but I definitely will need to track down some trails. The mountains are calling, as they say.

 Because we got such a late start, the hotels we stopped at were already full, or didn’t have enough rooms for all of us. One offered us their conference room for free, so we hauled spare mattresses and sheets up the stairs (actually, the guys did, because god forbid any of the women show they have physical ability), and set up camp in the big open space. Not what any of us were expecting, but hey, it worked and it was FREE. (Normally, hotels are only about 100 cedis per room, which is about $25, but free is even better, right?)

 On Saturday morning, we got breakfast/lunch, which consisted of coconuts in the car and then rice and chicken 5 minutes later. But no one can say we skipped a meal. This was actually my first coconut experience here!!! We pulled up to a coconut cart (they are literally everywhere in Ghana), and then waited for the men running it to come to the car so we could order. Then, they use the biggest knife in the world to cut a little opening in the top, with one a piece of the hull hanging on like a lid. You drink the water/juice (delicious), and then hold your hand out the window with your drained coconut, and someone comes back to cut it open for you so you can eat the meat, using the aforementioned lid as a spoon. It was like a drive-through, only nothing I ordered was cancerous or just preservatives disguised as food.

 We spent Saturday at a hotel pool, lounging and swimming and reading. I fell asleep in the sun for a while, BUT did not burn at all, so I consider that a big win! Then, we headed home, stopping for snacks at one of the intersections, which was crazy—you pull up to an intersection, and your car gets SWARMED. 10 hands might be reaching in through one window—that’s 40 hands in one tiny car (plus our own hands!!!). It was a little overwhelming, but a very good way to run a business. The way back was much shorter, and it was nice to have the feeling of returning home.

2.      We went to the beach!!! I’ve been wanting to go ever since I saw the Google images of the beaches here, but for some reason it hadn’t worked out before now. Most mornings are cloudy here before the sun burns off the moisture, so we left at 2 pm for the trotro station. We took two trotros to get to the beach, which really was not that bad (probably about 45 minutes total). You pay 20 cedis to get into the beach on weekends, BUT you also get a free chocolate milk drink which was absolutely fabulous (I understand it was not really free, but I also understand that I really enjoyed it).

 As soon as you walk in, there are hosts waiting to usher you to various outdoor restaurants/ bars, men with horses offering beach rides, and various other business people who are on it—like they are good. One woman came up to me and started poking around my neck and found a knot in my back in about 3 seconds, and then said, “Sister, you need this” and continued to massage me and tell me about her collection of oils and butters and lotions. I am a sucker for massages, but I’m so used to saying no to people at this point that I politely brushed her off me. As soon as I did this, I thought, what have I done!!! That felt amazing!!! Come back!!! But alas, she was already gone, so I was left to live with my decision.

 Soon my spirits were back up—I drank all of my chocolate milk and I was ready to explore the beach. Ceci and I went straight for the ocean, jumping in and out of the waves, body surfing when possible, and feeling the current pull our feet out and then let go again. It was amazing. We were both grinning ear to ear—playing in the water is one of the most simple joys, and I hadn’t swam in natural water since camp, so I was over the moon.

 Then, we tossed a Frisbee around for a bit. I think some of you have played with me before, so you can probably imagine how it went on my end, especially playing with actual Frisbee players. They were kind to me, but I could feel my ego shrinking (I always claim I can at least throw, though I never can catch, but that didn’t even seem to be true on Sunday), so I bailed and walked back to our table to sit with the rest of the group.

 I was sitting there for a few moments, chatting, and then I heard a voice behind me say, “Hello again, my sister.” Oh my gosh. There she was. The masseuse! I was so excited. So I paid 10 cedis for 10 wonderful minutes, and she worked it. It felt amazing, even though the sand and salt acted as extra-intense exfoliators.

 On the way out, we grabbed Fan Ice, which is perhaps my favorite thing in the whole wide world, besides my cat, and a lot of other things, but it’s really good ice cream. The trotro rides home were damp but happy, and the shower to get all the sand off was even happier. It was a good day.

3.      I finally got to go to Tot-to-Teen, the school I’ll be working with for the rest of the semester. I met the head of the English department and the head of the upper school, and they both made me feel so welcome. I talked to them a little about expectations, and it sounds like because the age group I’d like to work with are preparing for an important test, I won’t be able to actually lead a class, but I can act as a teaching assistant, which I am more than happy to do.

It felt SO nice to be back around kids. I think working at the school will really help me feel more at home here. I’ve been missing camp so much, mostly because of the wonderful kids I got to work with every day. There is not much else that makes me feel as whole as working with youth, and I’m so glad that I had this summer to show me that. Now, I get to spend the rest of my life with youth, and that thought makes me so excited.

I start tomorrow officially (finally!), and I’m not really nervous, but maybe I should be. I’m not sure how different classrooms are here from the U.S., and I’ve never worked in a formal classroom before, so I only know my own experience as a student and all the skills I learned as a counselor this summer. I’m sure it’ll be enough, mostly because it has to be enough. Classic.

4.      The weather. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s actually been reminding me of fall weather at home, though of course it’s much hotter here. I just mean that when I get out of class in the afternoon, the sun is shining full on, it’s super warm, I have my backpack on, I get to go home and eat…It just feels familiar. I can’t really explain it, but I’m loving it, and I know it is never necessary to explain the things you love, so I’ll take it.

5.      It was a friend’s birthday last night, so we went out to a pretty fancy place in Accra called Coco Lounge. I don’t think any of us realized just how fancy it was—there was a dress code, and one of the guys in our group almost wasn’t let in. It was wild. There were mostly foreigners there, and it seemed like a lot of business deals were going on in dark corners.

 We had our own little area, sort of a round room that extended from the main dining room. It was beautiful. I’m glad I had already eaten, because the prices were definitely higher than I’m used to. Fortunately, beer prices are pretty much the same anywhere you go, so I sipped my Guinness and enjoyed the good company.

 The servers deliver a special cake if there’s a birthday, so out the cake came with an conga line of servers dancing to Danza Kuduro (apparently the birthday song the restaurant has chosen). It was pretty wonderful. Noah, the birthday boy, even got up to dance with the servers before sitting down to enjoy the cake. 

 It was just such a pleasant, normal, evening, you know? It made me very thankful for the people I’ve met here.

So there you have it—my first week feeling more at home, 5 weeks in. I know this has been quite long, so thank you for taking the time to read! Sending you all good vibes this week.

[matthewzfgf8669-blog]

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[naturecoaster]

Discover Broad Street Market Restaurant: Fresh, Friendly and Satisfying

An unassuming storefront at 4 Broad Street in Brooksville had been catching my eye for a few months when I decided to finally stop in to check it out. Broad Street Market is a “new” restaurant that moved into the historic Jennings building in June of 2017. The menu, and the sign on the door read “Casual Urban Dining.” I simply wanted a burger, although their menu offered several fresh fish options, as well as salads, pasta and a steak. “Market Angus Burger 8 – Fire grilled ½ pound certified angus beef on a split top bun with your choice of lettuce, tomato, onion and pickle. Served with rosemary fries. Add bacon for $2 • american, cheddar, swiss, blue cheese - $1 •” Sounded good. Certified angus beef with rosemary fries for $8? Sounded almost too good to be true. And the rosemary fries intrigued me. Unusual, but they sounded good. I like rosemary. And, of course, my customary water with lemon. So I ordered. Ann, my server that day, smiled a wide, warm smile and went behind the bar to retrieve a quart-sized bottle of chilled water with a swing top. She put several slices of lemon in a tall glass and graciously poured my first round.

Caribbean mahi tacos were my second lunch at Broad Street. So delicious with fresh mahi, fresh salsa, lots of cheese and the requisite rosemary fries. I love how my chilled water is served in a quart sized bottle with a stopper. I like it. The burger was delivered in the right amount of time. It was hot, juicy and the bun was toasted. I bit into it and was rewarded with a resounding “delicious!” The rosemary fries smelled divine and they tasted great! At this point, I was feeling pretty good about the Broad Street Market Restaurant and I went home to convince my husband to try it for dinner.

About the Broad Street Market’s Owners

Eric Gallery is the restaurant’s owner and chef. Although not classically trained, Eric is a gourmand who spent years in customer service management and after some life-changing experiences, he came to Brooksville in 2014. He began cooking at age 7 and has a natural gift for pairing spices and foods.

Todd behind the bar, discussing Broad Street Market with Eric, co-owner. Isn't the bar spectacular? “I love the small town vibe, and the people that come into the restaurant. I love to hear Brooksville stories and feel like I’m living in a movie,” Eric shared with me when I came to interview him. “Fresh ingredients are really important to me. I like to know where the food is coming from, so I try to tour the facilities that provide our ingredients.” Todd Smith is co-owner of Broad Street Market. He is a quiet, unassuming person who has several years of experience managing McDonald’s restaurants. Todd is very hands on and is often bussing and cleaning tables, backing up everyone because he knows all the positions so well.

Commitment to the Staff

Eric and Todd are strong believers in employee commitment. It is their goal to provide a fine dining experience with a casual environment at fair prices. To do this, they believe, they must hire and grow the best employees. “We have really good people on our team,” Eric boasts, “Ann Bloxsom was a server at the Fireside Inn and Susie’s. She began with us in June of 2017 and now runs the day shift as our front of the house manager.”

The spicy Cajun Chicken Pasta is a great choice for landlubbers in your group. John Lew started as a dishwasher. Within an hour, Eric saw him as a server. He is gracious and charming, with a smile that welcomes each guest. Mark Fahnestock is the Kitchen Manager. Mark also began as a dishwasher and worked really hard. “His work ethic caught my eye,” Eric said, “and so we began working together to teach him how I want this kitchen run. He does a great job.” On the day I came to meet Eric for the interview, Amanda Raymond was waiting to turn in an application. She came back to clean, bus and train, and is now in the kitchen as a prep cook.

Caribbean Mahi Mahi filet with mango salsa, fresh vegetables and jasmine rice. Yummmmmm. “Cleanliness is imperative. We want each guest greeted immediately so they feel welcome in ‘our home’. I love being in the kitchen and interacting with the employees and the restaurant’s guests. This is what I have always wanted to do,” Eric shares with me.

Casual Urban Dining in Brooksville

When friends told Eric and Todd how wonderful Brooksville is, they visited several times. They wanted to find a small town to call home. In 2014, they moved up here and began laying out the plan. Originally they planned to have a steak house in the current location, but the owner of the building chose Kaz’s Sports Bar instead. After Kaz’s left, that gentleman contacted the Broad Street Boys and suggested they take the place over.

Fish Tacos started on the Specials menu, but have become part of the daily lunch offerings. By this time, construction had begun on Chop Block Steak House, just south of town on Broad Street in a small shopping center. But the construction was slow, so Eric and Todd agreed to start their business at the location at 4 S. Broad Street and specialize in seafood. June of 2018, Broad Street Market celebrated its one-year anniversary at the current location.

The Menu is Varied and the Food is Fresh

With seafood as the focus, I have tried the Lobster Roll, the shrimp feast, the rainbow trout, the Caribbean Mahi Mahi with this amazing pina colada rice, the fried shrimp and the fish tacos and Mahi tacos so far. My husband has also tried the Cajun chicken pasta. They are all excellent. Now I am hooked on the lunchtime all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks (sound familiar?).

Clam chowder, made fresh daily, fresh house salad with balsamic vinaigrette and my requisite water with lemon. The salad at this restaurant is so fresh. The lettuce is crunchy and the croutons are not too hard. There is the house salad, with medium thick cucumber slices, a couple of fresh cherry tomatoes, a few rings of red onion and fresh croutons – with shaved parmesan on top. This added touch defines the goals of Broad Street Market to me. The Caesar salad is just as fresh, with lettuce, croutons and shaved parmesan – but the dressing is already mixed on the salad, although all the dressings are made in-house. Now to the soup. I am simply hooked on the clam chowder here. Creamy, smooth, full of clams and very buttery. It is simply delicious. Eric admits this soup is a lot of work. “It can’t get to a boil or the consistency is lost.” It can be ordered with bacon bits on top or not. Just tell your server which you would prefer. The vegetable beef soup is also delicious. Big, but not too big, hunks of tender beef with nicely sized carrots, potatoes and veggies to warm anyone on a cold day, as well as satisfy the appetite.

Did I mention Beer & Wine Selections?

Broad Street Market's Bar is a focal point of the restaurant's warm interior. Beer and wine selections are plentiful, including craft beers on tap, by the bottle, and LOTS of wine choices. Standards such as Heineken and Yeungling are available too. With several choices on tap, including standards like Bud Light and Stella Artois and craft brews like Elysian Space Dust from Seattle Washington and Red Right Return from Marker 48 in Brooksville, Broad Street Market's beautiful wooden bar and high back chairs make a great place to stop for a cold one and an appetizer or sandwich. Bottled beers from Corona to Heineken to Yeungling are available. Wine selections are also wonderful and varied, with complimentary suggestions from the skilled wait staff.

Why I keep coming back for more

I have been eating at Broad Street Market regularly for months now. They have become a partner with NatureCoaster and I couldn’t be more pleased. I have brought friends, family, and business associates to Broad Street Market to enjoy the fresh and varied food, the gracious service and the inviting atmosphere.

Argentinian shrimp are always large, fresh and cooked properly, whether on salad, fried or in the Shrimp Feast, which I ate so fast I forgot to take a picture of it. Eric comes out of the kitchen to check on nearly every table, and I have had him pick up my check if things weren’t to my satisfaction. This is due to his and Todd’s 100% commitment to customer satisfaction that is throughout this wonderful organization, and it shows. The business is growing and I expect that when they open their Chop Block restaurant the same thing will happen.

Broad Street Market’s Location and Hours

The Broad Street Market Restaurant is located at 4 Broad Street in downtown Brooksville, right across the street from the Confederate statue in front of the historic courthouse. It is one door off of the corner of Main and Broad and parking is available on the street or within two city parking lots less than a block away. Hours are Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. They do take reservations. You can call 352-678-6767. Their website is https://broad-street-market.com Then post your favorites in the comments!     Read the full article