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minghaos-pet · 4 years ago

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unusual seventeen date ideas

zoolA/N: I’m posting these to fill in the space while I finish chapters for my fics. These ideas came from a ritalin-fueled afternoon so they are NOT intended to be serious. I definitely do not see any of the members engaging in these types of activities so, again, none of this is serious

Warnings: criminal activity, theft, “”borrowing””, mentions of drugs (no drug use), pyramid schemes, some softness and fluff, brief mentions of police (acab), mentions of trash, mentions of food, heights

stealing bikes with seungcheol

seungcheol would pick you up precisely at 5am from outside your house, he would drive you through some quiet suburban neighborhoods (so romantique) and you'd pick off any bikes, trikes, and (if you're really lucky) electric scooters you find sitting outside the pristine homes of the neighborhood. Then you both would spend the whole day at the local park having fun and trading the bikes you stole to kids for their drones, ice cream cones, lunch money, whatever you want! the options are limitless when you're stealing bikes with seungcheol.

dumpster diving with jeonghan

your dates with jeonghan usually consisted of going out to fancy restaurants and getting something to eat, most definitely in multiple courses. "let's try something different," jeonghan suggested when you popped the nightly question of what do you want to eat. Much to your surprise and delight, jeonghan drove you in his 2014 white honda civic to applebee's, one of your favorite establishments. "are we getting potato skins?" "haha," he chuckled with a light behind his eyes, "something like that." he parked behind the building and opened the door for you, leading you to the dumpsters. before you could process what was going on. jeonghan had whipped the dumpster lid open and was scaling the side of the structure. you spent the rest of the evening going from place to place, scoring new makeup palettes and other goodies. needless to say, it was amazing how many potato skins your local applebee's threw out everyday.

squatting in abandoned buildings with joshua

joshua was the sweetest, most thoughtful boyfriend you could ever ask for. he was constantly waiting on you hand and foot and taking you on lavish vacations. however, you were growing tired of trips to dubai and paris, and wanted to go on a more rugged, adventure vacation. you brought it up to him and he smiled at you, reading your mind. two weeks later, joshua surprised you with an uber ride to the nearest abandoned Kmart in your town, giddy with excitement, you found that he had already bolt-cut the padlock on the expansive automatic doors. You spent the night walking up and down the aisles before going up to the roof. unfortunately, the door to the roof locked automatically, trapping you on top of the kmart. you and joshua spent the rest of your stay pointing out constellations and falling asleep under the stars before crafting a makeshift rope out of your own clothes to get down the building.

climbing things with jun

jun was a man of many hobbies and recreations, and climbing was one of them. every thursday and sunday night junhui would shake you out of bed and drag you to the nearest climbable structure. ladders, fences, even flights of stairs that led to god-knows-where. one sunday night, jun with excitement and anticipation coursing through his veins, he woke you up and ran out of bed so fast he barely had time to put on his shoes, not even noticing that he was wearing his old gucci slides on the wrong feet. "i have a good feeling about this one," he assured you while you ran through the night, finally approaching a cellular tower. without warning, jun began to climb and climb and climb, leaving you scrambling to get your foothold on the tower. once at the top, jun held your hand while you shivered against the wind. "y/n, look!" he shouted and pointed frantically at the ocean before you. "what is it?" "let's find out." wading through the ocean together, you struggled to keep up with his freestyle swimming towards your next target. it was an oil rig. oh junhui, you thought and smiled, what a character. you came back to the rig every thursday and sunday night, that is, before you were arrested by the coast guard, of course. classic junhui.

zoological warfare with soonyoung

it was no secret that soonyoung loved (and you mean loved) tigers. tiger stuffed animals filled your couches, bed, and dining room chairs; tiger paintings custom commissioned and worth thousands adorned your walls, and tiger videos from animal planet and other sources played night and day on your 100 inch television. Soonyoung cultivated his appreciation for the big cat by playing Zoo Tycoon on his laptop, so much that you practically had to rip the mouse out of his hand and threatened to burn the fifteen year old cd-rom. "soonyoungie," you cooed one afternoon, "i have a better idea than playing zoo tycoon..." immediately his eyes darkened, he knew exactly what you were talking about. You'd been to the zoo so many times before, but this time was different. While Soonyoung oohed and awwed at the tigers in their habitat, you reminded him of the real reason why you were at the zoo that late afternoon. Wire cutters in hand you were quick to disable the motion sensors and electric fences surrounding the enclosure. His deliciously built muscles strained while he pulled open the large fence, "you're free now," he whispered to himself. you both ran out of the habitat and back into the more populated areas of the zoo. words can't describe the elation soonyoung felt while he watched his favorite animals prance into the crowd, finally able to be their true selves.

recreating fahrenheit 451 with wonwoo

wonwoo loved his books more than anything else in his life, except, of course, you. he was halfway through his favorite book when the thought hit him like a ton of bricks. i have to recreate this with y/n, he thought to himself. He read for a couple more hours--not wanting to lose the plot of his favorite dystopian novel--before seeking you out. "y/n," he patted the top of your head lightly, "have you ever read fahrenheit 451?" "of course," you replied, smiling at your silly boyfriend, "we all had to read it in high school." not twenty minutes later were you and wonwoo elbows deep in the pile of books you had stacked in the middle of the alley by your apartment.

scalping concert tickets with jihoon

jihoon was a master producer, everyone knew it. The only thing he loved more than producing was making money, and you and your determined boyfriend were constantly jumping from one side-hustle to another. One of jihoon’s favorite side-hustles was printing fake concert tickets and selling them at the same venues he performed at. It was a two-in-one package, he used to tell you when you were hesitant about the legalities of such a practice. He’d sell tickets for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars, a few hours before a performance and then he’d run inside, get ready, and perform himself! After a while, you stopped noticing the angry crowds that would gather outside the venues during shows and you let yourself enjoy the show from backstage surrounded by a heavy stack of cash. The best part was, you didn’t have to pay taxes on it!

Jihoon could do a number of jobs all at once, from starting etsy stores to mowing lawns for a couple extra dollars, but by far this was his favorite technique. With the money he made he could buy you the extravagances you deserved.

joining an MLM with seokmin

Seokmin was all about the newest, greatest thing. When Jihoon came by one day and told him all about his experience selling essential oils at house parties, seokmin was instantly hooked on the prospect. It took you a little bit of convincing, but after watching your boyfriend steal the show with suburban housewives at the parties he hosted, you knew you had to support him in every way you could. It took a second mortgage on your house and two paycheck advancements, but you were able to build up enough stock of essential oils from the headquarters to fill up your spare room. Party after party you and Seokmin gave out samples after samples, freebies galore, but you were never able to fully deplete the millions of bottles of clove oil and the blends seokmin swore would make you both rich. Even though you never broke even, you loved your new life with seokmin. You had to sell your house and live out of a mini-van you found abandoned on the highway, but it gave you and seokmin a great supply of #VanLife instagram posts.

grand theft auto with mingyu

Dating mingyu was always thrilling and there was always something exciting happening whenever you were together. Tonight was no different, as mingyu promised you that he was taking you out to get a new car. You were ecstatic, having only dated mingyu three and a half weeks, it was a little soon for such extravagant gifts like a whole car, but you weren’t one to complain and you certainly did not want to hurt his feelings.

The music blared loudly while you flew down the freeway in the new drop-top audi Mingyu got for you. You were a little worried when the car dealer insisted on coming with you for the test drive, but Mingyu’s charm and quick thinking, the dealer was nothing to worry about. Mingyu turned the radio up even higher when the sirens approached, adding to the thrill of the night.

“The lights make you look so pretty,” Mingyu fawned from the driver’s seat, “we should do this more often.”

You turned around to look behind you, the wind chapping your lips and whipping your hair, smiling.

you’ve always wanted a police escort.

borrowing from designer stores with minghao

minghao's sense of style was unparalleled, and being his significant other, you were privy to plenty of style and fashion advice. not that you minded, of course, because minghao would usually get so fed up with your disastrous outfits that he would let you wear his own clothes to save time and hassle. "y/n," minghao sighed after watching you put layer three jackets on top of each other, "we're going shopping. I'm going to teach you how to buy clothes." the places minghao shopped were unbelievable; while you usually bought your clothes off of Wish and Aliexpress, minghao was a well-known regular at versace, hermes, louis vuitton, and every other designer you could think of. your minimum wage paycheck could in no way sponsor these purchases, so you were completely reliant on minhao for these types of shopping trips. once in gucci, minghao pulled his bucket hat lower, covering his eyes and instructing you to do the same. he swung around the large umbrella he carried with him to the shops (confusing since it was not raining), and you watched him drop item after item into the half opened umbrella. astonished and amazed, you grabbed a wallet off of the shelf and attempted to pocket it discretely, but were caught by security. You watched as minghao left the store while you were being interrogated by the mall security. Lucky for you, you were able to get away safely and caught up with minghao to grab a pretzel before leaving the mall.

hitchhiking to jeju with seungkwan

there wasn't a day that went by when seungkwan didn't miss home: the tangerine groves, the crisp sea air, and Hallasan mountain. on one of his routine pining sessions, you had the brightest idea you'd had in a very long time, it was your chance to finally go on a much needed trip with Seungkwan to the place he loved most. You whipped out yours and his favorite and most reliable tennis shoes, grabbed a bottle of water to share, and set on your way. Despite the heat and exhaustion, seungkwan was overjoyed to be on his way to Jeju, especially to be able to go there with you and show you his old stomping grounds. As you both walked, thumbs out, you found refuge in a few nice strangers' cars. Seungkwan loved the economical nature of your trip and you loved the fact that you got to spend it with him.

cult-hopping with vernon

vernon had some...interesting hobbies and past-times, but being his significant other you loved to share these moments with him, even if they were a little strange at moments. something that vernon had always, and he meant a l w a y s wanted to do was something he called "cult-hopping" where the two of you would spend a few months to a year joining cult after cult just to understand and learn the ins-and-outs of each organization before leaving and moving onto the next one. For the first few weeks, the experience was painfully slow, but after you'd moved on to your fourth (or was it fifth?) cult, you began to develop the understand and appreciation for it that vernon always hoped you would. You drank kool-aid, had communal baths, and even shared in some unusual choices of meals. It warmed your heart t be able to spend this much needed time with vernon, and he was happy to learn more about cults.

drug trafficking with chan

airports were your absolute favorite place, something about them made you feel so comforted and at home. with chan there to hold your hand through security and sew up secret pockets in your luggage, it felt extra special. you weren't new to the drug trafficking scene, and found it as a lovely way to make some extra money when funds were tight; although chan was definitely not in need of money due to his idol career, he still loved to see what you did best. He watched a few youtube tutorials and already he was a pro at getting through security and past the drug dogs. You marveled at how chan even bent down to pet a few of the canine officers, amazed at his composure throughout the whole process. If things went well this trip, you knew that your boss would ask him to join the ranks, meaning you and chan could fly, take trains, and travel whenever and wherever you wanted.

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joon-ipersgirl · 4 years ago

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O2 - the bloody build-up

genre: mafia!au, angst, fluff, slow burn, mystery-thriller

pairing: namjoon x reader

summary: charismatic. beautiful. fearless without question. the ambitious team of seven young men in charge of spiral, downtown district’s hottest new club, go above and beyond to provide 100% satisfaction to their clients.

after an eventful night out, you have no choice but to join the team for property damages greater than your intern salary. challenging a series of events that can no longer be left to coincidence, secrets threaten to burst at the seams as your professional and private life collide, and another - more sinister - debt is added to your total.

how far are you willing to go to pay back your pound of flesh? remember, nothing is ever as it seems...

word count: 4.6k

warnings: cursing, some mentions of blood, mentions of guns (someone does get shot, but nothing super crazy), some violence, mentions of alcohol consumption

a/n: thank you guys so much for the love on the first part! i really appreciate it. i hope y’all aren’t confused about their nicknames and stuff, like which member is which, but let me know and i’ll clarify 😭 this part might be a little far-fetched towards the end, but stay with me lol. i’m still working on my masterlist, but please check out my updates page which includes my works-in-progress. i’m actually pretty excited about what’s coming up next. as always, feedback is always appreciated and encouraged. thank you again to @alversia for reading this and supporting my writing. pls enjoy!

full masterlist // series masterlist // previous // next

“You expect me to head to Spiral tonight? Dressed like this?” You look down at your white button-up and black pencil skirt. Laura was out of her damn mind.

“Oh come on! It’ll be fun. Just some coworkers getting together after a hard week’s work. You haven’t been out with us in forever!” she exclaims, standing up from her desk.

“You know Amani doesn’t like us like that, Laura.” Paul does have a point. It wasn’t that you didn’t like them as people - well, that would be a lie. You didn’t. It’s just, who would want to spend their Friday night drinking with their coworkers when you could be at home, curled up with your cat, and tucking into whatever delicious dinner your roommate had prepared?

“I never said that I didn’t like you guys -”

“Out loud,” Paul says, interrupting you.

“- I just wasn’t planning on going out tonight. I’m not even dressed for the occasion,” you continue.

“It doesn’t matter. It’ll be dark anyway,” Laura tries again. “You said you had a good time the last time you went,” she reminds you.

You remember your brief run-in with Suga and the sleazy man at the bar. It’s been three weeks since then and the bruises on your arm have faded. Aside from that minor incident, you did have fun. The music was good, the bartender was attractive, and the drinks weren’t too pricey. In fact, Suga did say that the next time you came, drinks were on the house.

“Plus, you missed James’ birthday celebration 2 weeks ago.” You resist the urge to roll your eyes.

“Alright, alright. Fine, I’ll come,” You tell them.

“Great! Let’s go!” Laura squeals and grabs your coats.

It was going to be a long night.

The small group of you huddle together in front of the door to Spiral like penguins in the dead of winter. The wind is harsh but expected on a cold December night. You pull up the collar of your wool coat to shield your face as you wait in line and wish you had remembered to bring your scarf. Spiral was fairly new and you assume that more and more people were coming to experience the place with its modern goth vibe. Your feet hurt from the 4-inch heels that your manager, Mrs. Kim, insisted on young women wearing to “keep the spirit of professionalism going”. Honestly, you just thought she wanted to see you suffer the way she did all those eons ago. A rite of passage, if you will. After fifteen minutes, you’re finally at the door where the bouncer and two other men stand talking.

“Is everyone here ridiculously attractive?” Laura whispers to you. You glance up to look at her.

“Who are you talking about?” She points at the three men by the door.

“Ah,” you say, acknowledging them. It was on second glance that you realize Min is one of the men in the group. You groan as you remember your brief conversation the last time you were here.

“You okay there?” Paul turns to ask you over his shoulder. You nod. “Just making sure you weren’t thinking about bailing on us,” he says with a grin. You roll your eyes and punch his shoulder as you wait to get your IDs checked. It seemed as though security had increased.

“Well if it isn’t my little snack?” You groan again as Min grins at you. His silver hair stands out among his dark-haired companions, though he’s shorter than the other two.

“Your who?” the man next to him asks, confused.

“My snack,” Min emphasizes. “Suga wouldn’t let me have her though,” he says with a pout as he turns to you again.

“I wouldn’t let you have me,” you mumble and shift closer to Laura who’s watching the scene unfold with wide eyes.

“What was that?” Min asks, his grin growing again as he steps closer to you.

“Min, leave her alone,” the bouncer says as he waves through the first half of your coworkers after checking their IDs.

“You guys really never let me have any fun.” Min’s laugh rings through the air as he steps back next to his friends.

“Do you know him?” Laura asks you. You shake your head. She doesn’t need to know that story.

“I’ve only seen him once and very briefly at that. Come on,” you say nodding towards the entrance after taking back your ID.

You brush past her and the three men and head down the stairs ignoring the eyes that follow you. The heat from the club hits you like a brick wall and you immediately pull off your coat. You follow Paul’s tall figure through the mass of people on the edge of the dance floor. The music is just as loud as you remember and you welcome the thumping bass music as it pounds through your veins and echoes in your chest. You slide into the booth next to Paul and Laura follows closely behind you.

“This place is so cool! We have to come back!” Laura yells over the music into your ear. You wince at the sound.

“Laura, we just got here,” you tell her while putting some distance between you though there isn’t much room as seven of you have squished into a booth probably meant to seat five.

“I know, but this place is awesome!” she yells back with more enthusiasm. This was going to be a very long night and you could not do it sober.

“I’m going to get a drink from the bar,” you say, excusing yourself and squeezing past Laura to exit the semi-circle shaped booth.

“Why don’t you just wait for the server?” Paul asks while holding up a menu from the stack placed on the table.

“Because I need something strong before I can sit down and socialize with you guys,” you reply with a sourly sweet smile.

Paul shakes his head and you head off to the bar ignoring his judgemental stares. You take the long way, bypassing the dancefloor to avoid any prolonged standing on your already aching feet trying to shuffle through the thick crowd. Though there are more people here tonight than the first time you came, you’re able to squeeze through relatively unscathed. Sometimes being small did have its perks. You find an empty barstool close to the spiral stairs that led to the second level and sit down.

“What can I get for you?” the bartender asks. You narrow your eyes at him. This was not Jin.

“Where’s Jin?” you ask him.

“He’ll be here later. Do you -”

“And Suga?” you ask, cutting him off. How were you supposed to get your free drinks when this guy didn’t know who you were?

“Who’s asking for him?” he retorts, his eyes narrowing at you. His tall frame takes up most of the room in front of you as he leans across the bar, inches away from your face.

You try your best not to cower as you stare each other down, but his presence is powerful. His platinum blonde hair shines purple under the fluorescent colored lighting and his brown eyes are dark. His lean muscles sprawl taut under his skin and his black t-shirt stretches across his broad shoulders. Your hypothesis was right: everyone who works here is fucking beautiful.

“A valued customer,” you tell him. “He told me the next time I came in, drinks were on the house.”

“Suga said that?” the blonde asks incredulously. He lets out a boisterous laugh. “Now I know you bumped into me pretty hard a few weeks ago, but I didn’t think my chest was that hard,” he says while slapping it.

“Bumping into you? I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you ask him?” You cross your arms. “While you’re at it, you can make me an Old Fashioned.”

“Bossy, aren’t we? Honcho!” He waves his arm to someone. You turn and see the other man from outside walk over with a tray in his hand. Of course, he works here too. The all-black uniform should have given it away. Apparently, all the attractive men who live in this city did.

“What’s up?” he asks while passing him a ticket most likely filled with drink orders. He isn’t as tall, but his build is athletic and you can tell he works out.

“This young woman says that Suga told her next time she came in, drinks were on the house,” the bartender tells him, a teasing tone in his voice. The second man turns to look you up and down.

“Suga told her that? Babe, I think you’re thinking about the wrong man. Maybe it was Min? I know we all kind of look alike in the dark,” he suggests.

“That’ll be $10.50, sweetheart. Definitely seems more like Min’s type,” the bartender agrees, giving you a once over. He sets the Old Fashioned down in front of you. You scowl at both of them.

“Are you fucking kidding me right now? You think I’m making this up? Fine,” you say, hopping off the stool. “I’ll prove it to you. I’ll go get him myself.”

You hate most people and you hate most clubs, but one of the things you despise the most is being called a liar. You pride yourself on being a woman of integrity and you would not let these assholes paint you to be something you’re not. As you turn to head up the stairs, you feel someone grab your wrist and you whip your head around.

“Where are you going?” Honcho asks, his dark eyes sizing you up.

“Let go of me,” you tell him and yank your arm from his grip. You weren’t doing this again, not tonight.

“It’s okay, Honcho. Let her go,” you hear the bartender say as you walk away.

You climb the stairs and strut across the walkway. Below you, the blonde bartender and Honcho, arms crossed, watch you as you make your way to the office. Motivated by their doubt, you walk a little more confidently towards the office door. You stop short, take a deep breath, and then bang on the door. There’s no answer. You knock again. Nothing. Just as you go to knock for the third time, the door flies open.

“Who the fuck is -?! Kid? What are you doing here? You can’t just walk up here!” Suga yells at you.

“Your employees are being assholes and don’t believe that you said I could have free drinks for some reason,” you tell him, ignoring his outburst.

“You came all the way up here to tell me that?” he asks, eyes wide. “Do you even know - You know what? It doesn’t matter,” he finishes.

“I don’t like being called a liar,” you state.

“You’re bold, kid. I’ll give you that.” He shakes his head and shuts the door behind him, locking it.

He walks past you and heads down the stairs. You turn and follow him back to the bar. Though Suga is short and you are in heels, he moves much quicker than you expect. By the time you make it downstairs, he’s already leaning against the bar and signaling for the bartender to come over. Your Old Fashioned is sitting right where you’d left it. The bartender walks over and grins at you.

“I see you found him,” he says with a smile.

“Moon, why are you patronizing our customers?” Suga sighs. The bartender laughs.

“Always gotta check orders, boss,” Moon chuckles. Suga narrows his eyes at him.

“Look, just give her what she wants okay? You know I have other things to look at right now and I can’t have you fucking around.” You grin smugly behind Suga’s back, your short stature barely visible over his mint-green head. You didn’t like to think of yourself as cocky, but most times, when you were right, you were right. You saunter towards the bar and climb back onto the barstool you’d previously vacated. Moon’s eyes narrow and he glances over at you.

“Alright, Suga. I’ll stop fucking around and get the job done like you asked,” Moon spits. You survey Suga’s face as it falls and you feel the mood shift drastically as unspoken words pass between the two men.

“Can I have a new one? You never know what crazy people will do around here, you know?” You ask and add the please at the end, smiling sweetly at Moon, drawing the attention back to you.

“Y/N!” You barely hear Laura yelling your name over the music. “Y/N, are you okay?!” she screams over the music. You watch her hobble over to the bar with her drink in her hand. You know her feet hurt just as much as yours do and it shows in the way she walks.

“Paul and I saw you go up the stairs and I wanted to make sure everything was okay,” she continues when she gets closer.

“Everything’s great. Hey, do you want another one of those? Moon was it? Could you make her a strawberry daiquiri along with that Old Fashioned?” You ask. You shouldn’t enjoy this as much as you are.

“She’s real bold,” Moon says, turning to Suga, the mood seeming to return to its previous vibe though you can sense the tension between the two of them.

“That’s what I said.” You grin at Suga.

Moon sets your drinks down and you take a small sip, savoring the taste of the brown liquor. Observing Moon and Suga over the rim of your glass, the two of them have hushed words in a corner. Though Suga supposedly owns the club, it seems as though Moon is calling the shots based on their body language. Laura sits next to you and interrupts your examination as she starts talking about work-related issues. Laura is a sweet girl and as much as you want to be an active listener, paying attention to her drone on and on about Paul asking Melissa to lunch every day instead of her can only be so interesting after 20 minutes of the same story.

“Look Laura, I’m gonna go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back, okay?” She nods and you leave her at the bar after finishing the last bit of your drink.

It wasn’t a surprise to see the line to the ladies’ room outside the door, soft chatter filling the hallway as you wait. This was one of those times when being a woman wasn’t fun. At the rate this line was going, you would have permanent blisters on your feet. The heat isn’t as stifling and you’re grateful you remembered a hair tie as you scrape your curls into a low messy bun. You shuffle forward with the rest of the women as the line advances and you thank the sweet gods when you can finally see the stalls. A few more minutes pass and then it‘s finally your turn. You practically run into the stall, slamming it behind you. Once you’ve finished and flushed, you exit the stall and hear screaming.

You rinse your hands quickly and peer around the propped open door. The line had disappeared and the small hallway and rest of the restroom was empty. This was not regular partygoer screams of fun. No, this is something much more gruesome. You peek quickly down the hallway again from your hiding spot. The music is still blaring, but now it sounds eerily quiet for a Friday night at one of the most talked about clubs in the city. Something is wrong.

You slip off your heels and tuck them under your arms. You sigh softly as the blood rushes back to your toes. If it came down to it, they could be used as a weapon, but only if you had the element of surprise. Sneaking a look around the corner, you immediately draw back. A gun. Fuck. You turn back and quickly hide in one of the stalls on the left hand side of the restroom and crouch over the toilet, holding onto your heels with one hand and using the other to stay in place. You shut your eyes and try to even out your breathing. How the fuck were you supposed to get out of this?

The sound of a walkie talkie alerts you to the second presence in the room. Their steps are even as the person systematically checks the stalls. There are five stalls between yourself and the first door and you need to figure out something fast. The person had checked the second door and was moving onto the third. Taking a chance, you balance your shoes on your lap and shift your weight gently so you’re holding one foot in your dominant hand. Just as whoever is pushing open the third stall, you throw your shoe diagonally across the room under the stall next to you and hear it skid across the floor.

“What the fuck?” A man. Fuck. You pray that he hadn’t been looking too closely to see the initial direction the shoe had come from and was only focused on its destination.

Peeping through the small crack between the stall wall and the door, you see that his back is towards you. You take your second shoe and slide it in the direction of the main door of the bathroom. Through the small crack, you watch as he turns toward it again.

“Where the fuck are these shoes coming from?” You knew you only had a few seconds before he would forget about the shoes and resume his search. You take your chance.

As quietly as you can, you hop off the toilet seat and bolt out of the stall. Before he could fully turn after hearing the banging of the stall door against the wall, you jump on his back and wrap your arms around his throat as tight as you possibly can. He lets out a strangled cry as he drops his gun where it clatters to the floor. You press on his throat harder using the muscles in your forearm to apply more pressure. His hands are desperately clawing at your own as he stumbles around the room. Your grip around his waist falters when he slams you back into the glass mirror mounted on the wall. You hope the music is still blaring as the shattered pieces fall to the floor. The force of the blow has you slipping to the ground and you feel lightheaded. You know you can’t give up if you want to live.

“You fucking bitch!” he yells out hoarsely while clutching his throat. He turns to retrieve his gun from across the room and you grab the longest shard of glass from the ground that you can find before you launch yourself at him again.

You stab him in between the joint of his right shoulder, praying you’ve shoved it deep enough to sever the muscles and ligaments holding it together, leaving him unable to use his arm. Blood pools in your palm and you bite my lip to stop yourself from crying out. His shout is loud and you dive past him to grab the gun while he tries to remove the glass. You flip over onto your back and aim at his left knee as he charges towards you, right arm hanging down at his side, limp. Missing, you hit him in the thigh as he falls on top of you, groaning in pain. You scramble from beneath him and stand as he clutches his bleeding leg wound. Your breathing is heavy as you realize you had just shot a man, the cut on the back of your hand evidence as the gun had kicked back and cut you. Granted you have every right as he was trying to kill you first, but you’ve never fired a gun before yet here you were standing over the body of a potentially dead man.

“Don’t move,” you tell him as he writhes around on the floor. “And shut the fuck up before I give you something else to scream about.”

You look down at your stained clothing and ripped stockings. Blood is splattered around the room and the stinging in your palm intensifies. You can’t have him calling for help. Tucking the gun into the back of your skirt, you remove your stockings and shove them into his mouth, creating a makeshift gag. His breathing is shallow and you roll him onto his side so the glass is no longer pressing into his shoulder. You grab the walkie talkie and realize your hands are shaking as drops of blood hit the floor. Your skirt is ripped and your hair has fallen out of its bun. Your adrenaline rush is starting to fade and you can feel the pain radiate from the back of your skull outward. The faint splattering of blood against your fingers makes your stomach churns slightly at the sight. Fuck. You were probably concussed.

Glancing back down at the man who now seemed to be unconscious, you walk quietly back to the main door of the bathroom and poke your head around. No one is in the hallway. You realize that the music is off but the strobe lights are still going. You assume that you shot the man while the music was still playing and that’s why no one had come running. Both hands on the gun and held at your side, you inch your way closer to the end of the short hallway. You’re trying to stay alert and keep your breathing even, but it’s becoming more difficult as time passes.

Crouching down by the entryway to the main floor, you try to scout the location of everyone. You can no longer see Laura, but Paul is across the room hiding under the table with some of your other coworkers. The rest of the partygoers are all laying down on the floor as the lights continue to pulse and flash. Min is by the door leading to the stairs to exit with the bouncer, a man pointing a gun to both of their heads. Honcho and the DJ are on their knees in front of the small stage below the DJ booth with another man holding guns to their heads too. The strange thing is neither Min, the bouncer, Honcho or the DJ look scared. In fact, they were staring at Jin, Moon, and Suga behind the bar, as if they were waiting for something.

“You guys mean to tell me that you know nothing about our loss of business?” the man in the center of the room asks. “Nothing at all?” You count three men pointing guns at the three men behind the bar, but know there are probably more upstairs.

“Nothing man. We’ve never seen you guys before,” Moon answers.

“Bullshit! That’s not what they told me,” he replies. He waves his pistol around aimlessly.

“Whoever gave you that information was wrong. We have no idea what you’re talking about. Just let the people leave and we can talk this out,” Moon says again.

The man in the center looks like he’s growing visibly agitated as he paces in the small open area of the dance floor. You can hear the soft whimpers from some of the people on the ground. You breathe out softly and try to keep your eyes focused on the man in the center. He’s tall and skinny with deep lines etched into his forehead as if he’s never experienced peace. His coat is thick and looks just as expensive as the suit he wears underneath it. You know there’s no point in taking any aim anywhere the coat covers because it would never make it past the first layer of fur.

“You little shits think you’re so smart, huh? As if I could let any of these people go after they’ve seen my face.” He chuckles. A horrified shriek echoes in the room.

“Shut up!” he screams and points his gun in the direction he thinks the sound comes from. Though he’s fairly young, you can tell he can’t hear very well as the shriek comes from the left side of the room and he was facing right.

“You fuckers moved to a big city and think no one would think to check you out and figure out what you’re really up to, huh?” You also realize he can’t see very well. Anyone looking at him would think he’s glowering at the three men behind the bar, but you can tell he’s squinting to try and see them better through the bright lighting; he’s nearsighted.

“Listen you crazy fuck, if you wanted to talk business, you could have walked in here nicely and asked about us instead of terrorizing our customers,” Suga spits. This was not going to end well.

“And who the fuck do you think you are?” The man roars, walking closer to the bar.

You watch as Moon’s jaw visibly clenches and unclenches as he tries to deescalate the situation almost in rhythm to the strobe lights. You know you’re running out of time before things potentially become bloody. There’s no way in hell you’d be able to hit a moving target; you’d figured that much out when the gunman charged at you and you shot him in his thigh instead of his knee. You try to stay calm and think of the best possible solution, but the lights are bothering your eyes. The fucking lights! If he could barely see with all the bright flashing lights, his range of vision should reduce with less light in the room. You have to shoot out the lights.

“Suga, shut the fuck up,” Moon grits out through clenched teeth. You squint and try to count the number of lights hanging from the ceiling.

“You gonna let him talk to you like that, sweetheart?” The well-dressed man cackles while holding his belly, his head thrown back. “Are you his bitch?” He sneers. Suga lunges forward and you hear guns cock. It didn’t matter how many lights there were, you just need to hit as many as you can.

“You think you’re tough kid? We’ll see how tough you are with a bullet in your brain,” the man says coldly, taking another step forward.

Just as he’s taking aim at Suga, you fire the first shot and miss the lights closest to Min. Your coordination is off. You feel seven pairs of eyes snap towards you and you make eye contact with Min from across the room.

“Fucking shoot her!” someone yells. You duck down as a rain of bullets fired toward your direction.

Screams echo around you as people try their best to get away from the danger. You ignore the guns pointing at you, firing, and stand up to take better aim at your target. You pray there are enough bullets in the chamber to get the job done as you squeeze the trigger repeatedly, aiming as best as you can. Your ears are ringing from the shots which are wild and you’re surprised as you manage to hit three sets of lights before you run out of bullets.

“Get down!” You focused back on the scene in front of me. You hear the shots fire and start to duck, but you weren't fast enough. With your arms still outstretched holding the gun, a bullet grazes across your upper arm. The skin burns and you cry out in pain. You drop the gun as Jin grabs you and pushes you closer towards the restroom, shielding you with his large body. Fuck, it was going to be a really long night.

full masterlist // series masterlist // previous // next

#bts fanfic #bts fanfction #bts namjoon #kim namjoon #namjoon #namjoon x reader #namjoon fanfic #namjoon angst #slow burn #fic: double entendre

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murasaki-murasame · 4 years ago

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Since I am extremely dumb and stupid [and don’t feel that strongly about Persona 5], I decided to chase after Kimono Luca even though he’s non-limited since I like him. So let’s see how that went.

TL;DR: badly :’)

Let’s just get into the pulls right away since I have a lot I want to say about Kimono Luca as a unit, lol.

The only new units I got were Forager Mitsuba and Kimono Elly [who I got twice :/], and let’s just say I had to spark for Kimono Luca.

In terms of adventurer dupes, I got Ilia [as literally my first single ticket. If it had have been Lapis or F-Joachim I might have just quit while I was ahead and stopped summoning], S-Maribelle, Yurius, and G-Mym. Which also made me remember that I have every non-limited wand unit in the game, plus Gala Cleo, so basically if I ever see a 5-star wand in a regular banner or a gala it’s guaranteed to be a dupe, so that sucks.

I don’t think I remember all the dragons I got, but from what I remember, I got Simurgh, Prometheus, Epimetheus, Garland, Cupid, Freyja, Kamuy, and Hastur. So nothing particularly interesting. I don’t remember how many of each of them I already had, but I do know that I already have two MUB copies of Freyja, and that this is now my second random copy of her I’ve gotten after that.

It probably wasn’t worth it, but at least I had the resources to spark Kimono Luca, lol.

Anyway, after the P5 collab got officially announced, it made me more tempted to save for Joker, but honestly at this point I don’t think I actually care about him or P5 in general enough to skip a unit I really like, even if Kimono Luca’s permanent. There’s always future dream summons to consider, but there’s still other characters on my list of dream summon targets, and with how slowly we get them in the first place that list is only going to expand as I skip future banners, and I think DL is going to start following GBF’s pattern of giving special dream summons for anniversary events that include limited units.

So in general I don’t really like the idea of skipping a character I really want just to put them on the dream summon target pile, so here we are, lol.

It also helps that Kimono Luca seems to be a really good unit in general. His kit is awkward against Ciella because of her frequent attacks that interrupt you, but it doesn’t make him completely useless or anything. It just means there’s more of a learning curve with figuring out the timing of when to use his skills. And funnily enough, because of how that whole aspect of the fight works, it sounds like Hunter Sarisse’s shared skill isn’t actually very efficient on him since he can’t maintain his force-strike very long without getting interrupted or using a skill, which is kinda nice for me since I don’t have her and it kinda bugs me how many characters with unique force strikes benefit so much from having her shared skill.

In general he feels like an alternative/upgrade to OG Ranzal, which also works out nicely for me. He doesn’t inflict poison, but that’s not really a huge deal, and even though he doesn’t have defense buffs, Ranzal’s one is really slow anyway, and his life shield is pretty weak. But K-Luca gets a health regen and a water damage reduction buff with more or less full uptime, so that’s cool.

And for some bizarre reason his first skill has one of the highest damage mods in the game, lol. I think at it’s full effect it’s like 4700% mods, which is kinda insane. It’s kinda balanced out by the fact that the animation lasts like 6-7 seconds and can easily be interrupted, but it’s still super high, and it also doesn’t take much time to charge at all. I think it takes about five hits of his force strike to charge, and his force strike lands once per second, so it basically charges up every five seconds. His force strike itself also does a fair bit of damage, but since it’s one hit per second it probably isn’t much higher than normal in the long run. But it feels really satisfying to do really big individual hits of damage.

It’s also kinda nice that he doesn’t benefit much from buff time or skill haste because of how fast his skills charge and how his buffs don’t stack, since it frees up wyrmprints lots to use on stuff like force strike damage. I think he might benefit a lot from using striking haste prints, though, at least for his shared skills, since he uses his force strike so often.

He can also now go on a team with Sylas, which is like half of the reason I summoned for him, lol. They also work nicely together, since they both have defensive co-abilities, Sylas inflicts poison, and they both do various types of enemy strength debuffs and team defensive buffs.

I also just really like his design, and how his unique force-strike and his skills look. There’s something really funny about them just reusing the mochi-pounding animation from the New Years events.

Anyway, even after fully sparking for him, I have like 50 summons left over, so by the time the P5 banner actually happens I’ll probably have around 100-150 summons saved up, so even though I wouldn’t be able to spark, I might still just throw my summons at Joker to see if I can still get him. But I don’t mind too much at this point if I don’t, and even if I spend all my resources there, I should still be able to spark at the end of March if that’s when we get Gala Notte.

Also, even though I got Kimono Elly, I dunno how much I’ll use her. I really like her design, but her kit just feels extremely underwhelming. It’s kinda funny to me that she and Kimono Luca feel so similar in how their kits work, and yet Kimono Luca works much better. He has his downsides, but they feel less harsh than how Kimono Elly’s strength buff is just flat out worse than something like Emma’s, how her S2 only has a 40% chance of even inflicting scorchrend and only 600%-ish damage mods, and how her co-ability may as well not exist. I think she might still have her niches, but she seems much less useful or noteworthy than Kimono Luca.

I guess I also got Forager Mitsuba as another new unit, but I also dunno if I’ll use her much. I already have Tobias and Victor, and lots of good wind units in general, so I won’t get much use out of her, but I do also like her design as well.

In the end, I suppose I now have to hope that I don’t mind missing out on Joker, since that’s probably what’s gonna happen, lol.

Honestly part of why I went all out with this was because I ended up more or less skipping the New Years banners since I got lucky with my pulls there, which made me feel kinda weird since I spent so much time saving for them, so it made me want to use up my stash.

#murasaki rambles #dragalia lost #I don't actually feel that bad about this though lol

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minah-delacroix · 4 years ago

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At any price (Part VIII)

Universe: Dynasty AU

Characters: Minah, Sungjae, Daniel, Tara, Tyler, Suho

Word count: 3,1 k

Evolving

“The Delacroix’s really keep you around the clock” Daniel said as he went out of Tyler’s car —parked just in front of the entrance of Delacroix Manor—, and Sungjae appeared from out of nowhere carrying a stack of papers.

Against his own will, Daniel was paying a visit to Delacroix Manor for the fifth time that week. With Tyler still busy playing COO to his grandparents' company their lunch appointment had been canceled very last minute. Instead, Tyler had insisted Daniel joined Tara for lunch at the Delacroix’s. Daniel could think of very few things that he would’ve detested more than spending time with that M person, but being invited to the Delacroix Manor —he’d heard— was as nearly as exclusive as being invited for tea with the Queen. Not to mention that over the past few days, Daniel had learned that whatever involved the Delacroix, by default, included Sungjae as well. Daniel thought to himself that he was willing to make a few sacrifices on his behalf.

Yet, he was surprised to find out luck was smiling on him so early on.

“Well, yeah, the end of the year bonus is worth it” Sungjae shrugged, the tiniest hint of a smile made its way onto his lips. From his observations, Daniel concluded that was the closest he’d ever get to an actual smile and grinned with satisfaction.

“So, is Minah taking you and Tara somewhere?” Sungjae asked casually making conversation as the two of them climbed the marble stairs leading to the Manor “Tara just got here, but Minah hasn’t told me anything about it. You see, we’re supposed to have a meeting after lunch” He added as if justifying why he was even posing the question. Daniel found the way Sungjae attempted to explain himself, simply adorable.

“Well, that makes two of us” Though Daniel tried not to, his eyes naturally diverted to the ridiculously expensive Christmas flower decorations lining the parapet. That goddamned family really knew how to spend money in the most unnecessary of the ways “I’m here only because Tyler never takes no for an answer” He shrugged innocently, but his comment was deliberately laced with spite. He was still angry with Tyler for practically begging him to spend some time with him in London, but still ditching every single plan they’d made upon his arrival. “Oh, by the way, I heard about you and Ashleigh” Daniel added nonchalantly once pair reached the entrance door of the manor.

Just the day before, he’d overheard Jane and Tara talk about the couple’s dramatic breakup after the Tree Lighting event, and he’d thought he’d bring it up just to enjoy’s Sungjae’s signature embarrassed reaction. For a man who enjoyed sex in public places, Sungjae was a bit too coy for Daniel’s liking, but he was sure he could work on it. “I’m sorry to hear about it” He lied.

Sungjae shrugged in an attempt to appear unaffected but if Daniel had learned one or two things about body language, his sudden blinking suggested otherwise. “Well, yeah, it was my fault”

“I thought it was Minah’s” If Daniel had gotten the story straight, Ashleigh had dumped Sungjae because Minah locked them in the rooftop of the manor after catching them having sex. She’d even thrown their clothes and sent her angry brother to get them out two hours later.

“No” Sungjae shook his head “I make my own choices”

“Does Minah know that?” Surely by this time in his life, Daniel should have known better than to pronounce the devil’s name so freely, but he was still startled when the door was pushed open by a maid and Minah emerged from the building followed by Tara. Speak of the devil and she doth appear.

“Great, you’re here,” Minah said looking at Daniel from head to toe with nothing that suggested she was truly pleased with his presence. “Now we can get going” she dug for the keys in her purse “Suho will be taking my place for this afternoon’s meeting, that way you won’t be stuck with me if it takes too long” she added, looking to no one in particularly, but making it obvious she was talking to Sungjae

“You’re too kind,” Sungjae said sarcastically.

Minah didn’t spare a single glance in Sungjae’s way before continue walking. Tara followed her, not without giving a sympathetic smile to the assistant and muttering a goodbye. Meanwhile, Daniel sent a wink in his direction and waved his hand, already disappointed the fun didn’t even last that long before Minah and Co. nterrupted.

“I don’t know where his holiday spirit is” Minah grumbled when the three of them reached the parking lot and a row of luxury cars materialized in front of them “It’s not like he’s lonely” She rolled eyes, approaching the silver Audi A8 and opening the driver’s door distractedly.

Behind her, Tara and Daniel exchanged confused looks. Did that mean Minah was unaware Sungjae was single again?

“Are you?” Daniel ventured, thinking that he might as well stop wondering and ask the source directly.

For a second or so, Minah floundered at a loss for words, then she gulped and shrugged, shaking her head lightly “I’m fine” she said climbing into the car “I’m evolving” she said before closing the door with a loud thud.

“Well,” Tara started unconvinced “That’s mature”

Minah rolled the window down and stared at the other two as she put a pair of oversized sunglasses on. “It’s a pain in the ass”

The Arts Club’s

The 100 square meter Penthouse Suite of The Art's Club was known to be the jewel of the crown of the exclusive club. For years it had been rumored that the Penthouse had become the home of an ultra-secretive celebrity who was past her glory days and had made that place her home so she could go under the radar. The rumors had spread through the highest circles of Europe and speculation ran deep about whoever was rich enough to book the suite for so long.

That Christmas Eve, the truth was finally disclosed to Tara Lee and Daniel Choi who stood each at each side of Minah Delacroix as the elevator doors finally slid open into a spacious entrance hall that was supposed to lead to a separate foyer and into the suite. The revelation had been brief, almost rushed, and now, as Tara let the full gravity of it sink, she turned to Minah, glowering at her.

“No, I can’t do it.” Tara said looking so dumbfounded that even Daniel felt a brief tug of sympathy for the girl. She had quickly lost the color of her skin and looked so pale, she almost appeared ill. “I can’t believe you lied to me, Minah”

“Yeah, no one should ever lie about shopping” Daniel offered, also glaring at the Delacroix heiress.

“I just knew if you’d give it too much thought you wouldn’t have come,” Minah said, running her hands down her skirt to smooth the fabric. She looked so nonchalant that Daniel wondered if she was fully aware of the repercussions her stupid little plan would have. He thought to himself that he’d like a first-row ticket to see Tyler’s reaction.

“I’m barely here now,” Tara said, her voice cracking.

“No, you have to stay,” Minah said putting an arm around Tara’s shoulder. “I even had to pretend we were from Tom Ford and came for his New Year’s Party suit fitting so he’d tell his concierge to let us in”

“Minah!” Tara raised her voice in frustration.

“It’s just-“ Minah pressed the button to keep the elevator open “Tara, I saw Gabriel and my family looking as taken straight from a Ralph Lauren catalog and my grandparents just seemed so happy to have us all reunited” Daniel scoffed at that but managed to make it look as though he was coughing when the two women glanced at him. Then Minah went on “Not to mention Tyler seemed so crushed when he heard you were leaving him on Christmas”

“I can’t believe Tyler told you that” Tara winced, pulling away from Minah’s embrace “That’s not something I’m comfortable sharing”

“T, please don’t be mad at him” Minah placed a hand on Tara’s forearm and patted it gently “I just know my family shoved me out for a few weeks, and come to think of it, I couldn’t stand it. I can’t imagine what it'd be to go through that for more than ten years-”

“Yes, that’s right, you can’t imagine” Tara interrupted, her voice ice cold.

Before any of them could add a word, an elegantly dressed butler stepped in front of them from the other side of the elevator “Sir Lee is ready to receive you all” he said with a thick Geordie accent.

“Look, this was your idea” Tara gritted her teeth, her expression grave “So now, you go see the best for yourself. We’re out”

Before Minah could even react, Tara pushed her out of the elevator with a force Daniel had no idea where it came from for someone with such a petite frame, and closed the elevator doors, pressing the button insistently.

Lowkey

“You told Minah!” Tara stormed into Tyler’s study room practically seething. Tyler had been scrolling through his phone, so he jumped out of his chair in shock.

“T, you’ll need to be more specific, I tell Minah lots of things” Tyler tried to brush his sister off with one of his charming smiles and “good” humor, but when he looked up to her, she was scowling at him in a way he couldn’t remember seeing before. That was already saying something considering Tara always scowled at him. “Ok, what are you talking about?” He asked putting his phone away and straightening in his seat.

“Your beloved business partner just took me on a field trip to The Art’s Club” Tara deadpanned.

There weren’t many moments in Tyler’s life where he wholeheartedly agreed with his sister or he could find a justification for her wrath being directed at him. Yet, even Tyler Lee with his utter disregard for other people’s feelings, and cluelessness, knew this one was definitely one of those moments.

He closed his eyes and waited for a few seconds for Tara to go on.

“You know how messed up things are between me and dad.” She finally said after a brief moment of silence, the deep scowl still on her face “And you know I don’t want that out in the world.”

“T, I didn’t tell the world and I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Tyler said, voice lowering an octave in an attempt to appease her anger “It’s just that Minah kept asking me about it. Apparently, she was convinced I was with some girl-“

Instead of achieving his purpose, Tara’s face contorted into a scarier grimace “And who cares?” She screeched.

Tyler didn’t pronounce a word, but realization immediately dawned on his sister when he looked at his feet, gulping quietly. “Oh my God, you’re sleeping with her!” Tara gaped utterly bewildered.

At that exact moment, as if summoned by some supernatural force, Minah Delacroix burst into the room, the heels of her Debbie Wingham high knee boots clicking loudly on the marble floor. “So I have bad new-“ she cut herself and stopped walking in further upon registering the tense ambiance and the fact Tara was clenching her jaw. Minah’s eyes jumped between her and Tyler. “Ok, looks like you already know,” She said, looking the tiniest bit embarrassed if the way her cheeks tinted was anything to go by. “T, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in an awkward position or hurt-“

“By bringing me to see the man that’s supposed to be my father but I don’t even have a relation with, or by screwing my brother?” Tara retaliated sternly.

Minah turned to look at Tyler with a mixture of accusation and helplessness.

“T, please, it’s not that big of a deal” he tried to reason.

“Tyler, we agreed to keep it low-key to avoid the drama” Minah protested after she somewhat recovered from Tara’s words.

“And we agreed not to tell anyone about dad” Tara added, her voice hardening in indignation. “I guess being low-key is not your strongest point,” she said sarcastically.

“Tara, I understand you’re upset, but I am a grown-ass man” Tyler countered back, raising his voice for the first time. “I don’t need your seal of approval to sleep with someone”

“It’s not like you listen anyhow!” Tara said loud enough for Daniel to hear from the room next door, then she let out a sigh, running a hand through her hair in frustration. “You know what? Do whatever you want. Anyway, she’ll soon be back with her boy toy assistant now that he’s single again”

“Sungjae broke up with Ashleigh?” Minah blurted before she could stop herself, earning matching glares from the Lee siblings.

“See, obviously the only reason she even spares you a look is because she didn’t know”

The gift

“Ty, in my defense I didn’t know your dad had a problem with her” Minah’s attempts to apologize were rather deceiving, but Tyler wasn’t paying enough attention to care, all he could think of was that his sister was absolutely furious at him and it would take at least a couple of weeks getting her to talk to him again. She had just packed two bags and left with Mark Yang of all people, without a goodbye or at least a “Merry Christmas”. “You kinda left out that critical information,” Minah continued, sitting across Tyler’s desk.

The man massaged his temples. “If I had known you were going to do that, I would’ve let you keep believing in my imaginary girlfriend,” Tyler said through gritted teeth.

“What? Is it so hard to believe I wanted to do something nice for you and Tara?” Minah sagged a bit in her seat. Tyler’s expression softened at that, but he still shook his head disapprovingly. “But mostly you. Look, seriously I just thought it’d be a good Christmas gift to have your family reunited for the holidays, but when Tara left, I had to explain to your dad what happened-” Minah was about to tell Tyler the story of how his dad had her kicked out of the Art's Club and literally told her to “stay the hell away from his children”, but she purposely omitted that part because Tyler already seemed troubled enough. The conversation on why his father reacted as though she was the devil incarnate upon finding out her identity could as well wait.

“Oh, so now both my sister and my father are pissed at me” Tyler concluded, very much resigned to spend Christmas on his own.

“I’m sorry, Ty. I really am. I will fix it, I promise-” Minah’s eyes wandered around the office in an attempt to avoid Tyler’s gaze, but they naturally diverted to a little gift wrapped in pink paper and topped with a golden bow resting on the desk. The box had a letter ‘M’ marked on the side. “That isn’t for me, is it?”

Tyler forced himself not to smile. “Not that you deserve it” he reached the box and fidgeted with it as though meditating on what to do with it.

Minah pouted and inhaled deeply, looking away. “No, you’re right, I don’t” Tyler suddenly became interested in the small, almost invisible ink spot on the cuff of his shirt, but without even looking at her he knew Minah had a devilish smirk plastered on her face. After a moment’s worth of hesitation, Tyler pushed the box across the table and Minah eagerly moved forward, ready to open it.

“Oh, no!” Tyler quickly moved the box back. “You can have it only under one condition”

Minah looked at him owlishly.

“You can’t open it until Christmas”

Of course, Minah didn’t wait. That night while her family gathered around the tree to hear aunt Aurelie play the piano before their Christmas Eve dinner, Suho caught her playing with the golden ribbon bow distractedly.

“Are you nostalgic for your high school days?” He inquired, sliding next to her and examining the assortment of objects in the pink box. There was a Chanel hairpin he remembered Minah wore all the time before discovering her loyalty toward Dior, a pair of leather gloves Aunt Valerie had given her before she started her senior year, suggesting they could be useful in case she needed to hide a body. There was also a single pearl earring Minah kept for sentimental reasons and she’d thought she’d lost long ago, several ridiculous objects like a tennis ball, that she was pretty sure she had once thrown at Tyler’s head and a Swarovski USB key in the shape of a heart.

“No” Minah shook her head “Actually, Tyler gave it to me”

Suho’s brow automatically went up “Well, that’s personal for a co-worker”

“Oh, don’t be weird about it” Minah said, trying to distract him by picking imaginary fuzz from his Armani suit.

“What’s on the USB key, anyway?” Suho asked, trying to move on and avoid the topic of Tyler Lee’s eternal crush on Minah and her equally eternal reluctance to accept them.

“I don’t know, I left my computer in my office” Minah shrugged.

“Maybe you could ask Sungjae to lend you his” Suho said far too casually for Minah not to roll eyes at him.

Real

“You think you know a person-“ Minah said when Tyler answered the door, looking just the slightest bit appalled in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt Minah found offensively informal for fashion icon Tyler Lee. It was barely 8 am, a cold Christmas morning that had Minah wearing a thick wool coat and a cashmere scarf tied around her neck. “And then you receive the crappiest mix ever” she added, holding up the USB key in front of Tyler’s face.

Tyler shrugged, “I didn’t choose the songs. Some teacher slash DJ did at the Beau Soleil Winter Dance” He said, smiling fondly at her.

“Oh, my god, 2016, the night we-“ Minah’s eyes widened at the recollection of that particular memory from her high school days.

“Don’t talk about” Tyler cut in. “We all make mistakes”

“But I think this is one we can fix,” Minah said with resolve, pushing past Tyler and closing the door behind her. “Listen Tyler, I can’t do this anymore”

Tyler blinked as though his vision had suddenly gone blurry and he wanted the clear it up. He opened his mouth to inquire what she meant, but Minah leaped forward and hugged him tightly, wrapping her arms around his neck and catching him completely off guard. “I can’t use you anymore, Tyler” She looked up and offered an almost imperceptible smile “I want this to be real”

...

#oc #story #dynasty au #minah #sungjae #tara #tyler #daniel

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starkrogerrs · 5 years ago

Text

you don’t have to say you love me [chapter 1]

pairing: stevetony- modern/college/fake-dating au

word count: 1.3k

warnings: fluff, profanity, angst, 20 year old being 20 year olds, cheesy cliches that make you smile

updates: fridays

summary: to stop his annoying sister from setting him up with random strangers, tony blurts out that he does have a boyfriend. only, he doesn’t. and worse, the first name that comes to his mind is steve. tall, gorgeous steve. steve, who he’s currently crushing on. will this prove to be something fruitful or is tony about to make the worst mistake ever?

a/n: thanks to @rogers-stark45 for the wonderful request that gave birth to this whole thing i swear i will finish this series if it gets 100+ notes

"This is absurd, Tony," Steve said, wringing his hands together.

Tony sighed. He continued to pace in front of Steve, who was seated on his bed.

"Why would you even lie about something like that?" Steve asked, looking up at him, mouth twisted in a frown. The teal flannel he had on, Tony noticed, brought out his eyes wonderfully.

That was a good question. To be fair, Tony was the last person enjoying this. He'd dug his own grave and now he had to lay in it. Or whatever the saying was.

"Because my sister wouldn't quit nagging me. I've explained this already, catch up old man,” Tony whined.

"You could've asked her to shut up."

"Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

Steve shot him a glare.

"You could just say you're not well and ask her not to come."

"Steve. She’s booked her tickets."

"You can say your 'boyfriend' is not well."

“For an entire month? Yeah, real smart,’ Tony said, throwing him an exasperated look.

“Okay then, tell her you broke up.”

Tony stared at him for a long moment.

"Look, I know I'm fucked but there's literally no other option."

Steve sighed, running a hand over his face.

"But.. this is so weird!"

"I know. I know it is but I'd rather pretend to be with a close friend of mine rather than some whacko stranger who later turns out to be a serial killer."

Steve didn't reply, only gazed into the distance, thinking.

"Never mind goody-two-shoes, I'll just ask Rhodey," Tony said after a while, bringing up his phone from his pocket.

"No!" Steve almost yelled, causing Tony to jump.

"What the f-"

"I mean, no, I'll do it. I don't.. want to be a bad friend," Steve said, clearing his throat. He didn't look Tony in the eye when he said this and Tony didn't quite know what to make of it.

"Besides, I owe you one for the last time," Steve added, finally looking up at him.

God, those eyes were beautiful.

Tony wasn't in love with Steve or anything. It was a crush, that's all it was. A stupid teenage crush he’d developed from spending way too much time with him. Could you really blame Tony? He hung out with Steve on weekends, sometimes on college nights and in between classes. Steve had rubbed off on him and Tony just happened to find himself looking forward to spending time with him. And fantasizing about holding his hand. And sleeping with his head on his chest. And kissing him.

So when opportunity presented itself in the form of an annoying sister, Tony thought it was a sign from heaven's above. Was it selfish? Possibly. Was he about to make an ass of himself and regret it forever? Definitely.

But no, he wasn't in love.

"When is she coming?" Steve asked, standing up and running a hand through his hair.

"God, I wish that were me," Tony muttered under his breath, momentarily distracted.

"What was that?" Steve asked, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"I said, never, if it were up to me," he answered hastily, looking away. "But I think she’s arriving on Saturday. I’ll text you."

Steve hummed, picking up his bag from the floor.

“Where are you going?” Tony asked, frowning. They’d barely spent an hour together. The moment Steve had entered, Tony had popped the question because it had been freaking him out.

“To Buck’s,” Steve answered nonchalantly, walking to the door. “See you later.”

Tony felt his heart grow heavier.

“See you,” he muttered, more to himself as the door shut behind Steve with a soft click. Steve’s best friend was James B. Barnes a.k.a Bucky, a lanky dude who reminded him of Luke Skywalker and was every first and second year’s dream. Although Steve hung out with Tony more, Bucky had been with Steve since they were children. People had told him they were dating but every time Tony had accompanied the two, it never seemed like he was third-wheeling. Besides, if Steve was in a relationship, he’d mention it.

Right?

He texted Steve later that night, as he lay in bed, AC/DC’s “T.N.T” blasting in the background.

She’s coming on Sunday. 28th.

He waited for two minutes, the dim glow of the screen illuminating his face in the darkness. He refreshed the chat twice but Steve didn’t seem to be online. With a pang he realised that perhaps, he was still with Bucky. He clicked his phone off.

He sat up in bed then, switching on the lampshade beside him. He switched his speaker off, and from the stack of textbooks that lay on his desk, picked a random one— "Theoretical Physics” by Leonard Lightman. Tony was studying to be a physics major and he wasn't the nerdy kind but he did adore science. He'd just read up on things and they'd make sense to him without him having to go through them twice.

In Steve's own words, he was a fucking Genius. With a capital G.

Just as he turned the page to String theory, his phone chimed. He leapt to it with unnecessary eagerness. He was disappointed to find that it was only his cousin, Sofia. The very Sofia who was the cause of his current predicament.

What does your boyfriend like? I'm bringing gifts for everyone 👀

Tony groaned. Why the fuck did she have to be so extra? Sofia wasn't half as annoying as his other cousins but she could be obnoxious on occasion.

I honestly don't know, he keyed into the textbox but then decided against it. He knew she'd pester him till she got the answer she wanted.

He's not choosy at all but he's studying Art.

Just as he hit send on this text, Steve's name flashed on his screen. He switched to his chat immediately, sitting up right on the bed.

it's not like I have to meet her on Sunday right???

Of course not, Stevens

bucky says hi 👋

Tony smiled, laying down on the bed again. But the smile vanished as soon as he realised it was half past eleven. Wait. Why was he upset by this? They were still together— God, get a fucking life.

Heyyy.

you should go to bed, haven't you got like 4 tests tomorrow??

Tony grinned, quickly typing in a response. It wasn't a surprise that Steve remembered the littlest of things. That was Steve. When he cared for someone, he did it with all his heart.

I do

And then, You sure you wanna do this?

Tony bit his lip as he hit send.

He had no impulse control whatsoever and the moment he'd blurted to his sister that he did have a boyfriend, he'd texted Steve. Steve, bless his soul, had come rushing to his bijou apartment and the rest was history. But that was Steve, again, selfless to a fault.

don't overthink it tony. I'd do anything for u

Tony's heart leapt a little at that and he had to breathe for a few seconds before typing in a response.

Thank you, Rogers

What would I ever do without you?

Everybody knew Tony was a huge flirt but when it came to people he actually wanted to flirt with, he pulled shit like this.

shut up and go to sleep, stark. night

Tony smiled in spite of himself, wishing him a good night as well. He clicked off his phone, sighing, only for it to ring a split second later.

Sofia again.

Ooooooooooh art major?

That's hottttt

Tony's face burned as he read the text. Why? He didn't know. He wasn't actually dating Steve but the thought made him blush anyway.

Hey, back off he's taken, he keyed in, tonguing his cheek and— What the fuck was he doing? Wasn't this situation, as a whole, morally wrong? But was it if Steve had agreed to it? He did say it was alright.

He glanced at the time on the upper left corner of his screen. It was too late for a full blown existential crisis. He hit send on what he'd typed, trying to ignore the little flip his stomach did.

He wasn't— couldn't be possessive of Steve; they were nothing more than close friends, even if they were going to pretend they were much more than just that.

He shuddered suddenly realising that he might have to behave.. affectionately with Steve, to convince his sister. Oh boy. Would he have to kiss him some day?

His phone chimed just then.

Wooow, possessive much? Can't wait to meet him eeekk 😍

What had he gotten himself into?

___

[please, please let me know what you think. it would mean a lot!

#stevetony #steve rogers x tony stark #stony #stevetony fanficiton #stevetony au #stevetony fluff #stevetony angst #stevedanvrs #userrsonia #(let me know if you wanna be tagged/ have a tag)

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boilingheart · 5 years ago

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How long does it take to get a Vulpera?

MMMMMMMMMMM it takes a while and a lot of dedication. I HATED the grind all the way, but back when the expansion launched I had finished Vol’dun’s story within a contained month or so which was great. I really liked the zone and that made it easier to complete, so by the time I actually began the Real Grind to do this i already had a headstart

(actually, i’ve completed the quests on TWO characters and first time took maybe a month, the second a week? This is JUST for completing the storymode)

Then, there’s the rep grind.

The world quests.

Oh god the world quests

Your grind will be forever. It varies on how much time you are willing to spend at the computer persistently to unlock them. I have ADHD and I struggle to do basic things, so getting myself to do quests on the DAILY was AWFUL, until suddenly earlier this month I was hit with a crazed, feverish obsession with unlocking them for literally no reason and i power leveled fen to 61 in three days (for context, it takes me months to get to 40 on average, and i RARELY ever cross that threshold)

ok so basically what u need to do(disclaimer, this is all advice from a VERY VERY casual gamer to WoW. i’ve done the bare minimum for everything. i only RP. i do basically nothing else)

Daily WQs - EVERY DAY check for them always check for them

Voldunai Contracts - Last 7 days, give u additional 10 rep for every WQ you do regardless of zone. Equip the shit outta this!!! Have it on while you’re doing WQs

Mission Tables - Check these suns of britches out as often as you can. Doing WQs constantly will keep a steady flow of war resources to fund the missions that occasionally pop up for Voldunai rep. If you can push it to give you a bonus reward, do it do it do it. Get the WoW Companion App if you can, I was doing that shit from work and getting rep

Emissaries - CATCH THESE MFs!!!!!! The WoW Companion App will also show you when these are up. Catch the Voldunai Emissary, and do them with buffs on, TRUST!!!!

Assaults - yanno back in the day, demons would attack us but now it’s just like, humans and shit rofl. ANyways, when the Alliance attack Vol’dun, DO THIS SHIT!!!!!! MAD rep esp if you have buffs!!

Darkmoon Faire - DO THIS WHEN APPLICABLE!!! Get the buff. Get the hats! Hats and carousel/rollercoaster buff do not stack. If you have patience to do the tickets to get the hats, do that cause it’s super helpful to just have hats in ur bags to refresh it while you’re out and about and it wears out. Hat will expire when you log out tho. Carousel/Rollercoaster buff will stay the same when you log out. Hat is for if you’re sitting there. Carousel can last when u need a break

Normal Vol’dun Quests - Hunt for quests. Even if you’ve already done the main Vol’dun storyline, chances are you’re not done. Not at all. There are random NPCs all around the dunes that give you quests that have no bearing on any story or any real impact. Vulpera snake charmer, vulpera missing her ferrets near the hideaway, the skeleton pirates in zem’lan, vulpera trying to restore water, the goblins fracking azerite, the goldtusk inn (PLEASE DO THIS QUESTLINE IT’S SO GOOD) – the more you run around vol’dun the more you’ll realize you’ve skipped A LOT of quests. Do these with as many rep bonus buffs as you have.

War Mode - OK THIS IS ONLY IF YOU’RE HARDFUCKINGCORE!!! I have NOT gone into WM since ilvls surpassed 400s cause i can’t cope with it!!! lol! that’s too high, my clothie ass will get demolished!!! BUT, if you’re powerful enough and you don’t mind PVP, WM gives you a 10% bonus Horde side. Stack that if you’re cool with it! But this is, again, HARDCORE desperate mode. that said about hardcore desperate mode…..

Island Expeditions - ok this is… desperate. But if you find yourself like me, stuck at revered, obsessed with this pursuit of a fursuit, where you’ve done every single quest, every single WQ and there’s no missions left and you’ve basically done everything you can do and you can’t possibly wait or pry yourself off the computer, run expeditions. Grind dubloons. Grind SO many dubloons. You will need 100 to buy a shell that you can turn in to the Vulpera Hideaway for about 250 rep. 275 if you have buffs on iirc, and +10 with a contract. Grinding dubloons is NOT EASY!!!! and i HATE expeditions!!!!! but if you REALLY REALLY NEED IT, look for Shimmering Shells at the vendor. Hell, go to the boat and talk to Eitrigg and get the dubloon bonus research too for help

When I started the Grind™, I was Honored and near Revered (bout halfway), I thiiiink somewhere in very late February, and then finally hit Exalted by March 7 and ran to work. Before then, I had quietly done some rep grinding here and there, pretending like I wanted to go get Pathfinder but lmao i wish. Sitting at the computer for 8 hours straight doing these things for a week or more.

So it depends. You can take a few months to get it, a month, or a few dedicated weeks. It depends on how much time and energy you want to spend on it! If you have work, school, or a functioning sleeping schedule, but a healthy dose of dedication, we’re looking at maybe 2 months.

If you’re me? a month or a few weeks. i do not do things a normal amount. but i will bet you ANYTHING there is still some hardcore person who did this three times faster than me and will flex on me for it, but again, this is coming from a CASUAL player.

But I hope this word dump helps???? i feel like i went on tangents and solved nothing BUT that is what my world looked like getting vulpera. I think I did just about everything I possibly could, not counting WM

#bheart talks #answered #vulpera #vol'dun #Anonymous #long post

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random-french-girl · 6 years ago

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can you do yang? love ur blog!

aww thank you! and yes absolutely

What they smell like:

yang smells faintly of motor oil - she’s always tinkering with her bike when she’s at her dad’s, and the smell has kind of permeated most of her clothes. she always smells like coffee in the morning, which ruby loves because she associates it with home, and she also smells like jasmine because of her conditioner, which blake loves because she also associates it with home now.

How they sleep (sleeping position, schedule, etc):

yang sleeps sprawled on her back, sometimes with her head resting on one arm. she snores a little, but gets grumpy when people point it out to her… she runs hot so she only sleeps in like, the tiniest shorts and tank top, and always kicks off the sheets during the night. yang is pretty disciplined - she goes to bed before midnight on school nights, keeps a regular sleep schedule, is an early riser - one of her favorite things is watching the sun rise. also she has a hard time admitting it, but she secretly loves being held while she sleeps….

What music they enjoy:

she enjoys good old pop/dance tunes for dancing and exercising - she needs something with a good rhythm. when she’s in charge of the music for team training, weiss and blake are Suffering, cause its nothing but disco for five hours (ruby loves it….).

yang also loves classic rock, especially for live music! she’s been to a few shows, and she really likes the vibe of a rock concert. oh and she takes after her dad, much to qrow’s despair, and actually kind of enjoys country rip… her and tai have been known to sing along to old country singers for entire road trips. qrow and ruby are still traumatized to this day, but the thought always makes blake laugh ;’)

How much time they spend getting ready every morning:

nothing unusual. yang has a lot of hair, and cares about what she looks like, but she’s efficient - she used to have to make sure ruby was ready for school as well as herself, so she doesn’t usually waste time. she sometimes indulges in a long hot shower though, especially if she went on a very early morning run.

Their favorite thing to collect:

not sure yang is much of a collector. she has a stack of old biking magazines in her childhood bedroom in patch, but she stopped collecting those when she actually got her bike… she does however keep a shoebox filled with souvenirs from travels and various good times, and it’s strangely sentimental stuff: dried up flowers and old movie tickets and menus from restaurants, that kind of stuff. she has a few that remind her of summer, and a couple for things she did with ruby and tai. that’s where she keeps her picture of team rwby too.

Left or right-handed:

YIKES

Religion (if any):

yang doesn’t really strike me as the type to be religious, tbh.

Favorite sport:

BOXING. she loves doing it AND watching it. she’s been boxing with tai since she was very young - i actually like to think that even when tai was deep into his depression after summer died, the one thing he never stopped doing was training yang. so she kinda cherish boxing because it reminds her of him, and not giving up.

but she also loooves the thrill of going to a boxing match - the crowd, the energy, and the display of skill… she loves it all.

Favorite touristy thing to do when traveling (museums, local food, sightseeing, etc):

sightseeing, 100%. listen, yang is a NERD and also the MOM FRIEND. which means she’s the person who buys a travel guide, makes a list of top monuments to see, has a MAP where she’s highlighted the sights where she HAS to take cool pictures… ruby’s embarrassed forever. blake is endeared against her will. weiss is impressed with this degree of organizational skills.

Favorite kind of weather:

sunny, dry and warm, but not too hot, with a breeze…. the ideal weather to ride her bike.

A weird/obscure fear they have:

she doesnt like snakes. her dad’s house in patch is in the middle of the woods, so she’s used to seeing a lot of critters, but for some reason snakes really freak her out.

The carnival/arcade game they always win without fail:

the strength tester… every time she sees one, she HAS to try it out… and you know she’ll make a big show out of it, taking off her jacket, flexing and rolling her shoulders like this is Serious Business…. yang sweetie… and then she strikes the hammer down and gets the bell to ring and people around are usually like legit impressed. whereas her friends are groaning and rolling their eyes. weiss always grumbles about her semblance and cheating, but yang tunes her out. blake pretends she doesn’t know her, but she always blushes a little when yang starts flexing, so really, yang has no other choice but to keep doing it

#Anonymous #yang xiao long #rwby #random meta

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rikkisixx · 6 years ago

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rant ahead

so heres where im at

im still looking for work. thankfully im still getting unemployment but after rent for the month, it only leaves me about $100 a month in gas, non-food groceries, meds, bills, etc. which obvs is not enough.

my car didnt pass deq so i have to get an estimate to find out what it will take to get it to pass.

i had received a check just prior to being let go for my migraine study that was initially meant to pay for my plane ticket to Massachusetts where i am to be maid of honour for my best friend in july. that money all had to go toward bills. my hope was to get enough back in taxes to just cover the plane ticket and i could worry about the rest over time.

my refund is not great but would probably cover MOST of my travel.

however, my BELOVED parents keep telling me that if i pay for this plane ticket instead of paying them back for the money they’ve loaned me during this, that, in no certain terms, ill be cut off. i respectfully informed them that i understand that my circumstances may prevent me from going, that i have time to pay them back but only one opportunity to see my best friend marry (and be the maid of fucking honour), but these words fall on deaf ears.

i even went so far as to tell them how i am in a very dark and bad place and that wedding is giving me hope. something i desperately need. so i dont kill myself.

pretty serious statement, even surprised me but in that moment, as it happened, i knew it was true, not just an attempt to sway their opinions.

the next day my mother spend time with my sister. the day after that, i visited my sister, my great niece, and the puppers. i found out that my mother was still going on about being angry about the wedding, in spite of having spent NOTHING on it so far. and in spite of my sister agreeing that this is a once in a lifetime event vs paying them back is going to take quite a bit of time anyway. and the choice to go to the wedding isnt IN LIEU of paying them back altogether, its a delay for a chunk to be repaid.

but here’s the best part guys... after everything I said... the first thing she said to my sister about my visit...

it looks like ive gained weight.

thats right folks, step aside for parents of the year. I heard my daughter cry and tell me shes in a bad place and assure me for the 654123rd time that she hasn’t spent money on this wedding yet, but you know what i heard? or saw? FAT.

oh and it gets better! prior to the joys of tax day, my mother and other sister had spent a considerate amount of time discussing how i probably wont fit into an airline seat. My mother apparently even googled the fucking measurements for first, business and coach class seats.

so if i dont get to go, is this how they propose to console me? well, you wouldn’t have fit anyway! no harm no foul!

but they dont get it. for one, not going would not only be DEVASTATING to me, it would be horrible for my best friend who is COUNTING ON ME. I already did my research on airlines seats and big person policies IN CASE i dont fit. cos we dont actually know if i do or not. my chub tends to stack in the front and back of me more than spilling out the sides so its possible that all ill need is a fucking seatbelt extender.

and im sorry, when your CHILD says theyre not in a good place and even mentions suicide in passing.. .MAYBE THE FOCUS SHOULDNT BE THE WEIGHT. its certainly not out of concern for my health, ive shown them repeatedly that my lab results are excellent. and apart from some back and knee pain, my weight doesnt really have much effect on my health. MY MENTAL HEALTH ON THE OTHER HAND HAS A GREAT DEAL OF EFFECT.

my own parents cant see past my appearance and one sister would rather join in on the gossip than lose their approval. at least thats what i suspect.

so yea. i tried to drink away the thoughts in my head last night but it didnt work. i was just sad all night long. i slept like ten hours last night. i havent been able to afford my meds in over a month either, so im sure im feeling things 465231 times greater than i need to be.

and even tho IM okay with me, just knowing how my family sees me is like... so harmful to me. i just dont even know what to do anymore. im giving up.

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southeastasianists · 7 years ago

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A GIANT, CHICKEN-SHAPED CHURCH, KNOWN as Gereja Ayam, is perched on a hill in a forest on the Indonesian island of Java. It’s less than a 20-minute drive from Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist monument. On clear mornings, if you climb onto the platform inside the chicken’s gleaming white crown and face southeast, you can watch the sunrise illuminate the topmost candi (stupa) of the ancient temple.

The church’s farcical avian design has inspired many debates and fan theories over the years, each one attempting to solve the mystery of why someone would spend money to build a hollow chicken in the middle of the jungle. “It was left behind by the Dutch colonists,” one person wrote on Kaskus, a popular Internet forum. “No,” someone replied. “It’s haunted. I’ve seen kuntilanak [vampiric female demons from Indonesian lore] there.”

But the chicken church isn’t a Dutch remnant, and it’s not haunted by ghosts, either. It was built by a man named Daniel Alamsjah, who’s now 75.

Alamsjah, a Christian, says that in 1988, after his nightly prayers, he received a vision of a dove with snow-white wings, resting at the top of a hill. (An interview with Alamsjah was conducted in a mix of Indonesian, Javanese, and English.) A disembodied voice asked him to build a house of worship for all people. When he awoke, he tried to dismiss the vision as a mere hallucination.

In his telling, Alamsjah started taking the dream more seriously when one of his employees failed to show up in Jakarta after Ramadan, the mid-year fasting season. Then a manager for the German chemical company BASF, he was in charge of making sure his team ran smoothly. He went to Magelang, the man’s hometown, to track him down. Alamsjah found his employee, who asked for one more day at home and invited his boss to Bukit Rhema (Rhema Hill) to see the sunrise, before returning to Jakarta.

“I was amazed!” Alamsjah says. “It was the same hill and the same view that I saw in my vision.” He prayed all night and read his Bible for guidance. One verse kept popping up. The verse in question, Isaiah 2:2, reads: “In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.”

In the morning, a passerby mentioned that Bukit Rhema, situated between the small Indonesian villages of Kembang Limus and Karangrejo, was surrounded by nine different Javanese mountains, which Alamsjah understood to be a reference to the verse and thus a confirmation of his dream.

Before returning home to the city, Alamsjah left his contact information in Magelang with the local head of Karangrejo. Two weeks later, someone who owned part of the land on Bukit Rhema came to Jakarta to offer Alamsjah his share. After several negotiations, Alamsjah paid Rp. 3,500,000 (around $2,000 at the time) for 5,000 square meters (a little over an acre) of land.

Despite his lack of architectural experience, Alamsjah says he designed the church himself, trying to stay faithful to the dove he’d seen in his vision. Wasno, the head of the nearby village of Gombong and a member of Alamsjah’s 30-person construction crew, says, “Actually, it did look like a dove—in the beginning. But then we added the crown. Daniel wanted it to symbolize holiness, but people thought it was a rooster crest. So they started calling it a chicken instead of a dove.”

Construction began in 1992—the process of getting legal permission ate up four years—and the team used handmade cement, bricks, local sand, and scrap metal to build and fill in the dove’s frame. But the project was plagued by problems from the start.

According to Alamsjah, a major newspaper in Indonesia ran a report on him in 1996, stating that a Christian man was building a church in a Muslim neighborhood. Local officials, spurred by the rush of complaints that followed the article, tried unsuccessfully to withdraw Alamsjah’s building license.

“I tried telling them that it wasn’t for just Christians,” Alamsjah says. “I was making rooms for Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, Catholics, everyone—it was designed to be inclusive.” But complaints were constantly being filed—the stack of reports in the Borobudur district police’s office from the 1990s about Alamsjah are so numerous that they’re too heavy for a person to carry on their own.

Beyond conflict with the community, there were also financial issues. In 2000, a lack of funds forced Alamsjah to quit the project in the middle of construction. The second and third floors hadn’t been started at all, and half of the 12 underground prayer rooms were mere holes in the ground. Alamsjah says he couldn’t afford to tile the floor, so visitors would either stand or sit down on the dirt.

Without a caretaker, the chicken quickly fell into disrepair. The weeds around the structure grew back, and vandals snuck in to hang out and scribble on the walls. Once in a while, curious tourists would stop by, eager to see the huge chicken for themselves. Richard Lomanta, a Jakartan who traveled there in 2008 when it was abandoned, says, “Everyone I knew called it the chicken church, even back then. Just look at it—it looks nothing like a dove.”

Alamsjah had switched careers at this point and now managed a rehabilitation center nearby. He told some of his employees to stay near the church and collect entrance fees. A few people would stop by each week, but the number barely reached 100 per month. For nearly two decades, it seemed that the church was fated to be reclaimed by nature.

Fifteen years after the project was halted, however, the chicken church suddenly went viral on international media. The Daily Mail and the Huffington Post both released features about it on July 13, 2015, and a year later, it served as a shooting site for the sequel of the Indonesian cult classic film, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (What’s the Deal With Love).

The recognition spurred the arrival of a flock of tourists: up to 2,000 a week, according to Alamsjah’s ticket records. The proceeds from the nominal entrance fee (Rp. 10,000, or less than USD $1 per person) gave Alamsjah enough money to resume construction.

“I was so relieved,” Alamsjah says. “The locals saw how popular the site was, and they began to benefit as well [from the tourism].”

These days, the chicken church is no longer abandoned. The renovations made in the last two years include jeweled tiles; paneled windows; a small, paved access road; and work on the underground prayer rooms, which are nearly finished. Displays in the main hall (the body of the chicken) document the project’s growth from a divine dream to a full-fledged poultry temple. So many tourists come each year that Alamsjah even built a small cafe inside the chicken’s rear (it sells traditional Indonesian snacks and coffee).

“You know, everyone said I was crazy,” Alamsjah says. “In the 90s, I kept rereading that [Bible] verse, trying to find the courage to continue. My children were very angry at me. I had to keep telling them, this isn’t my plan. This is God’s plan. It’s been 30 years, and I’m glad I continued—thousands of visitors come each year to pray or to reflect on their lives, and my children finally respect what I’ve accomplished.”

#southeast asia #indonesia #Gereja Ayam #Architecture #Religion #Christianity

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euroman1945-blog · 6 years ago

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The Daily Thistle

The Daily Thistle – News From Scotland

Saturday 29th September 2018

"Madainn Mhath” …Fellow Scot, I hope the day brings joy to you…. The heavens are full of twinkling lights this morning.. Stars for as far as you can see, a thick belt much like a rope stretches across the sky, the "Milky Way" in all its glory... what an amazing sight.. I watch with awe as a meteor strikes the Earth's atmosphere at 35,000 mph and start to heat becoming incandescent as it descends towards the planet.. then as fast as it came, it vanishes from sight, burnt to nothing but gas …..

NEW DOG CAFE SET TO OPEN IN EDINBURGH…. Cafe Voltaire, a hangout space part of Cabaret Voltaire on Blair Street, will host a new event on Sundays from 12pm-6pm aimed specifically at dogs, and their owners. Brainchild of dog-lover Abi Meek, the weekly Dug Cafe will welcome anyone who wants to relax in a carefree canine environment, with proceeds of special events going to charity, the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home. She said: “I am a dog owner myself and discovered that plenty of premises in Edinburgh are dog-friendly however, finding somewhere that is set up especially for dogs are few and far between. “Creating a relaxing environment for every breed of dog to socialise seemed perfect for Cafe Voltaire, which is an extremely cosy and quirky space serving up coffees, cake and cocktails.” Abi said the spacious cafe will be kitted out with relaxing areas full of toys and comfortable beanbags where people and dogs can lounge, play and even sleep. “As the venue is heavily music-orientated we will be playing soft soul and chill-out music to complete the vibe,” Abi explained. “Following on in the evening there will be live acoustic music being played until the late hours of the evening. A complete dog menu will also be on offer featuring pupacinos, dog beer, pupcakes and doggy pizza. Humans are well catered for with cakes, coffees, pizza and alcohol. “There will also be photo opportunities and dog competitions being held in order to raise money for the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home as well as a pre-loved toy donation bucket so other dogs can enjoy them.”

NAVY VETERANS’ SHOCK AT BEING BOOTED OUT OF SCOTTISH WETHERSPOON’S…. A group of Royal Navy veterans were left disgusted after being kicked out of an Edinburgh Wetherspoon pub during a reunion event. Around 25 communication veterans who served around the world on HMS Ark Royal (RO9) travelled to the Capital from all corners of the UK to catch up with lost shipmates, some of whom have not seen one another for more than 40 years. The group decided to meet at The Standing Order on George Street for a day of reminiscing, food and drink with people arriving from lunchtime. But the veterans were astounded when security staff ordered them to leave the premises at around 10.30pm claiming one member of the team giving the reason that “you’ve been here a long time”. Meanwhile other members of the group were refused re-entry. Alan Willis, 62, who attended from south London, said: “We were all absolutely astounded. We are extremely disappointed we were ejected from the pub and the reasons still are not clear. “One bouncer stated ‘you have to leave because you’ve been here a long time’ while another guy said ‘you may have had too much to drink’. “At no time was there any rowdy behaviour, no drunkenness, no foul language, no abusive behaviour, no loud voices or shouting, no upset, anger or disagreements and certainly no complaints from other users of the pub. We are just a bunch of 60+ year-old veterans spending in excess of £100+ per round on drinks and food.” The baffled veterans, some serving in the Falklands and Northern Ireland, regrouped at a nearby pub and felt there was a lack of respect to those who fought for their country.

TOURISTS RISK ERODING ISLAND BEAUTY SPOTS AS THEY CREATE PERFECT INSTAGRAM PICTURES…. Tourists visiting island beauty spots are putting them at risk of erosion by building rock formations – so they can post snaps on Instagram, conservationists have said. Stacked pyramids of stones have appeared on Unesco-listed beaches on Orkney, and at the Fairy Glen on the Isle of Skye – which recently featured in the blockbuster film The BFG. Stone stacking, which enthusiasts describe as “meditative” and “artistic”, can also be seen on Iona, Inner Hebrides. The trend has prompted concerns by residents and environmentalists that they could speed up erosion and destroy the habitat of wildlife living on the islands. Dog-walker Claire Irons, 53, spotted at least 50 of the rock formations at the Fairy Glen on Uig, Isle of Skye. The area earned its name due to a distinctive group of round grassy hills, with ponds between them. It is just not right – people should go there just to see the surroundings, not to build a pile of stones. It is causing an erosion problem CLAIRE IRONS Concerned the rocks might topple and crush her Border terrier, Treacle, Mrs Irons confronted tourists and told them to stop – but was told she was spoiling their fun. Mrs Irons said: “It’s the first time I’ve noticed it, we don’t tend to go up that way in summer. “There’s normally so many tourists around. “When I went up on a dog walk, I was amazed – you couldn’t walk on the path. “It is tourists rather than locals who do it.” Having lived on the island for five years, Mrs Irons said she was concerned that the structure of stone walls was being destroyed by tour groups. Mrs Irons added: “It is causing an erosion problem, the rocks are being taken from the surroundings and being taken from walls. It is a whole geological area. “They tend to go to the coastal bit, that’s where the rock formations are. “It is just not right – people should go there just to see the surroundings, not to build a pile of stones. “It is on a croft, where sheep graze. “I could be a bit cynical and suggest they go in on minibus tours and they need something to do.” The dog owner was concerned that a rock could topple and hit her seven-and-a-half-year-old Border terrier. She said: “Since the BFG was filmed here it has been on the film trail. “People come to Skye and they have got a list of things to do – one of them is to follow the ‘Fairy Glen’. “It’s free, that’s why people go there. “It’s been promoted more – when I first came here it wasn’t on the map. “It has crept up in the past three years.” Founder of environmental campaign group Blue Planet Society, John Hourston, believes social media including Instagram and Facebook is fuelling the problem. Mr Hourston said: “When I saw the photograph I was astounded – this is a new level. For that to be on the Isle of Skye, which you associate with isolation, is absolutely shocking. Without a doubt it is having an impact on ecology. “The photo epitomises the desecration of the natural environment. “We are talking about a base of people, backpackers and adventurers, who should have a concept of ‘leave no trace’. “The overpowering urge is to prove they’ve been there on Instagram or social media.” He said the problem was not isolated to Skye but seemed to be prevalent in Scotland, including Orkney where new structures were popping up beside neolithic formations. The beach at Skara Brae, designated a Unesco World Heritage Site.

ABERDONIANS CANNOT BOARD ABERDONIAN IN ABERDEEN…. Rail passengers in Aberdeen will not be able to board the Aberdonian steam train named after their city. A new service between Edinburgh and the city launches in March next year, but all journeys will start and finish in the capital. A new steam train service between Edinburgh and the North-east launches in March next year. Picture: Ian Georgeson North-east Labour MSP, Lewis Macdonaldsaid yesterday: “I am sure The Aberdonian steam train will be a great success, but it’s a pity that, under current plans, passengers can’t get on board in Aberdeen. I hope the operators of the new service will be able to issue single tickets both ways, as well as a return excursion from Edinburgh, so that Aberdonians can travel with The Aberdonian without having to go to Edinburgh first.” The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, which will operate the services, admitted that anybody who wants to use the trains will have to make their way to Edinburgh to get on board. And once they have been on the return trip, they will have to make their way back to Aberdeen. Five trains will run in 2019, with the potential for expansion in the following years, and the scheme has the support of Network Rail. The initiative has been assisted by the installation of a new £86,000 turntable in Aberdeen by the Ferryhill Railway Heritage Trust. But its chairman, Jon Tyler, admitted yesterday there was still plenty of work to be done before services could be run from the city. He said: “I suppose it’s just a case of demand. If a charter train could be linked into an existing itinerary, say for the proposed cruise ship visits [to the new Aberdeen Harbour], it might be possible to do it in the future. “What you have to remember is that all the main steam locomotives and rolling stock are based down south, so they would need to make extra journeys at the beginning and end if these were to start from Aberdeen.

EMPTY DUNDEE FACTORY SET TO BECOME NEW COMIC MUSEUM…. For more than a half a century it was where millions of Beano, Dandy, The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals were made. Now a vast empty printworks in Dundee is set to become home to a comic museum under plans for a £17.5 million transformation over the next decade. The present empty site where the comics and annuals were produced. Picture: Contributed Live music events, visual art exhibitions, theatre productions, festivals and conferences would also be staged in the historic West Ward Works. Work is set to get under way within months on the first phase of a project expected to create 1,100 jobs and boost Dundee’s economy by more than £50m over ten years. The project’s backers hope it will be one of the biggest cultural projects to benefit from support from a ‘Tay Cities Deal’ between the UK and Scottish governments, which is hoped to be approved within the next few months. Under a proposed timetable for the project, the first permanent occupants could be in by early next year and the first major phase of work completed by 2020. Workshops, studios and offices for artists, cultural organisations, videogame developers and other creative industries are planned as part of the development. It is thought up to 300 people could end up working in the building, which is close to both the Verdant Works – the award-winning attraction celebrating the city’s history of textile production – and Dundee University’s main campus. The two-storey comic museum at West Ward Works would showcase highlights from the archives of publishers DC Thomson, which still owns the building. Other permanent features would include a civic square, “monumental sculptures” and a permanent cafe-bar and restaurant. A charitable trust was set up last year to pursue the plans for West Ward Works, which operated from 1949 to 2010. Project director David Cook said: “The V&A is fantastic and has already had a huge impact on Dundee, but it’s the start, not the end of a process. This is really about what happens next and we hope it will be very much seen as something complementary to the V&A. We’ve spent the last year working on an architectural masterplan and a ten-year vision for the building. “The main focus of West Ward Works will be as a cultural hub. As well as the comic museum, one side of the building will have space for major exhibitions, live music, festivals, events and conferences. The other will be a working and making campus. “The comic centre would explore Dundee’s role in the story of the comic book, including the titles produced in the city and the people who worked on them. It was originally proposed for the waterfront, but this is now the preferred location.

On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today,

Our look at Scotland today is of Dogs enjoying their pupacinos at Edinburgh’s new dog café…. What’s that Bella You want to go….

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Saturday 29th September 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus #Scotland #News #Spain

#scotland #news #Bella #coffee #Robert McAngus #RobertMcAngus

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sarahzipp · 5 years ago

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Author’s note: This post was written in the summer of 2017. It’s taken me nearly three years to grow the courage to post it publicly. Time heals all wounds! I hope you enjoy.

Waving goodbye to Amsterdam, our home for 3 years.

Did you know – moving a family of four and two pets to a foreign country is hard. In fact, it’s a giant logistical nightmare. I did. I learned that lesson, I learned it so hard 3 years ago moving to the Netherlands and muddling through immigration paperwork and not having a bank account because we don’t have a BSN yet (it’s like a social security number) and we can’t paid and we can’t get a BSNt….and so on and on and on. It’s a doom loop. It’s a doom loop in Dutch. But moving abroad has become like childbirth to me, after a couple of years I forget the pain and do it again. And there’s a lot of crying. And nobody sleeps.

But this time it would be in English, and therefore much easier, right? We’re only moving about an hour’s flight away, how bad can it be? Besides, we’re seasoned expats, wiser and more experienced now. Step 1 – book flights. Several times a day flights buzz between Holland and Scotland. They’re cheap and plentiful. No problem! Wait, what? We can’t fly the dog on EasyJet or any of the quick jumpers into the UK. Hmmmm. Look, a fairy! I mean, look – a ferry! They have a kennel. Perfect for a multi-species move. Yes yes yes! Let’s move by ferry. How cool and adventurous. It’d be uber Zipp-like to move to a foreign country by ferry. We shall invade Scotland by sea! Neat-o.

Our previous experience with boats in Amsterdam gave us undue confidence. What could possibly go wrong?

So, we just book the tickets, 2 cabins for us + my mom (who so graciously/foolishly agreed to come visit/help us not commit acts of homicide while we pack and move). Check. Next we book the dog into the pet hotel. Check. Great. Now just notify them we are bringing Kitty as a carry-on (like we did on the plane when we moved to A’dam). Wait, huh? Why is it not allowing us to add the cat. Try it again. What if we depart from Rotterdam? Ugh. Call them. Sprek je Engels? Huh? We can’t have the cat on board without a car? But we don’t want to keep the car. We want to sell it so we can buy a UK car with a right-side-of-the-car-steering-wheel when we get there. It’s going to be difficult enough unlearning how to drive American-like in the UK. Oh, shut the front door! Are we really going to keep an ailing French mini-van with a passenger-side window that won’t roll down and a steering wheel on the wrong side of the car for a 5lb cat? Yes. Yes, that is exactly what we are going to do. Because life. Because family expatting is a series of maddening choices and ridiculous adaptations. It’s a relentless state of absurdity. Because that’s how Zipps do. No creature left behind. Check.

Ok, transport of humans and pets secured. Now what about our stuff? Step 2 – pack up and go. This time around, in the most adulting moment of my life thus far, we hired actual professional movers to pack up our shit. Why not? My employer is paying relocation expenses. Well done, Dr. Fancy Pants. I thought we were well organised. We laughed at how much we’d accumulated in 3 years. Wasn’t it just yesterday we packed ALL of our belongings into 9 Army duffle bags and boarded the plane to Amsterdam? Yeah, we moved our entire family across the Atlantic packed into 9 bags. Nothing more. And one half of those bags was my Ph.D. fieldwork papers. (Fun tip – we precisely weighed each bag by using the scale at the vet’s office where we went approximately 743 times trying to get the appropriate Pet Passport for the dog). Now, the movers handed me the inventory list – 100 boxes. 100 boxes? WTH? No matter, it was all out of sight, out of mind for now. See you on the flipside, boxes of crap. We’re down to the bare minimum. T-minus 9 days to departure. Just a few more issues to tidy up, then it’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy our final week in the lovely city of Amsterdam (stay tuned for a post, eventually to be written, on my deep, warm and conflicted feelings about life in the ‘dam and saying goodbye to my favourite city in the world).

So, we calmly went about packing up our Dutch lives. Er, rather, we scrambled every last minute, failing to find more than a few fleeting moments of peace in our last days there. We sold stuff on a thousand different marketplaces. We patched holes and fretted over which dishes were ours and which came with the apartment, etc. because our skeevy landlord will try to cheat us (separating expats from their security deposits is a hobby of Dutch landlords). I remember the feeling 3 years ago, whilst scrambling to pack up our American lives. Just get to the airport. Once we get checked in at the airport, we can relax. Breath. Panic. Breath. Repeat.

Delierious with joy over are good choices, smart planning and simple lifestyle. Also pictured: cat that almost ruined everything, twice.

We tried, desperately, to capture the final bike rides and boat rides on camera. Fleeting moments of exquisite presence. We tried to celebrate, laugh, hug, cry and properly say goodbye to our family of expats. We tried to make space for our girls to spend those final, fleeting days with their buddies. Good god, we have been through some shit with these people over the past 3 years. Expat friendships, for big and little ones, are bonded in a crucible. Never forget this place. This stuff has been magical. Breath. Have presence. Enjoy? Pack, organise, DO SOMETHING. Did you cancel the internet service? Pay the parking ticket? How do we forward the mail? Notify the Belastingdienst? Sprek je Engels?

And that’s when we noticed the cat was missing. Yes, the cat. The cat that caused us to keep the car. The car that caused us to pay a shit ton more for the ferry. The ferry that will take us to Scotland. The Scotland that will distill the whisky. The whisky that will taste so good when we drink it. But I digress . . . the next few hours were a furious chaos of packing and loading and searching for the fecking cat. The children are weeping for the cat. My mom is organizing a search party while I cooly ignore this tangent of madness, because I am confident the cat is simply hiding. “The cat is missing, mom. Start acting like it!” my sweet youngest daughter screams at me and slams the door. I ignore her and discreetly throw out bags of forgotten little toy scraps that no one will remember so long as they aren’t seen during the throwing out process. Hours later, the cat is found hiding under a bed. I smugly chastise my panicked family. They fail to thank me for my calm resolve.

In spite all of our diligent #adulting, expensive movers and good intentions, here we are, literally running from the apartment with armloads of shit dumped out from random drawers whilst the landlord arrived from the other side of the building for our final check out.

It was like a scene from a Benny Hill movie, I’m sure. Cut to scene – exterior of building, black and white at 1.5 speed: Zipp parents frantically scrambling and stumbling out the front door, arms laden with useless plastic items, while the Landlord calmly strolls in the back door, clipboard and magnifying glass in hand. Cut to shot of kids, pets and granny in the car screaming, crying and flailing wildly. Cut to Aaron opening driver door, pointing forward confidently and saying: Onward march – take to the seas! (in the captions). Can you hear the music?

People overuse the term, “stuffed in like a can of sardines.” This is not one of those times. We stuffed said crap into every nook and cranny of our van. So, there we were; 4 Zipps, my mom, our old dog with bad gas and a cat. Everyone but the driver had items crammed under and around her feet as well as on her lap/between her body and the door or other passenger. I am not exaggerating. It felt difficult to breath in there. When we finally pulled up to the ferry door, I yelled at my children – “act natural, pretend like you have plenty of room! And for God’s sake, don’t mention the head lice!” I thought we might be over the weight limit or something. I knew we were technically one centimeter over the height limit, although I was sure the massive weight load was compressing us down at least that much.

We love our pets, Nana is losing her mind!

Jonah (the dog) smells funny

Pipsqueak the Mighty

Maybe if the kids just smile at the check in guy they’ll let us go without any questions. I really don’t know, the whole thing was so sketchy because we weren’t sure if our car was too tall with the roof carrier on top and we were still recovering from some confusion regarding the pets on board (Fun Fact – Our 70lb geriatric labrador was perched up on a stack of luggage in the back of the van so high he could not get out on his own accord. So while we were waiting in line for the ferry (for hours) I had to unload and load him in “gently” whilst containing the stack of threatening-to-spill-out luggage with one knee. It was a long line. He had to get checked in too. My “gentle” level decreased with each outing). For once the gods smiled upon us and no one asked questions. We rolled in and were literally the last car on our platform. After a brief game of where-the-hell-is-the-cat-that-required-us-to-bring-a-wrong-side-of-the-road-driving-car-to-the-UK?, we deboarded the van and checked into our cabins.

My mom has never in 12 years of grandmothering ever chosen to not spend more time with her grandkids. But that night, with her head bent in (what I think was a bit of shame or guilt) she asked if she could have the key to a cabin and stay alone. Without her grandbabies. Yes mom, save yourself. We broke the Na-na. My mom has never before or since rejected a moment’s time with her dear little grandchildren. I rejected the urge to jump overboard.

Ferry of Doom or Ferry of Freedom?

But we made it. We were on the ferry. Breathe. Deep sigh of relief. Enjoy the ride. It was fun and adventurous to travel by ferry. I highly recommend it. 15+ hours later, with minimal sleep and a deep sense of relief mixed with sadness, we calmly exited the ferry. Just a wee three hour drive to our new home. Left, left, left. Remember to drive on the left, honey. We inched forward in an endless procession of vehicles exiting the ferry. Last in, last out.

That’s when Aaron turned to me, panicked face – “oh shit, we’re out of gas!” In the mayhem getting to the ferry, we forgot to fill up. OMG. We cannot run out of gas on a ferry or in the border patrol line. No exaggeration at all, we were on E. It gets worse. When we finally got off the ferry, there was a line of cars snaking its way to the border gate. We would never make it. This was a trail of tears, eeking forward a car’s length every 5 minutes. It was a minimum hour wait and we had a maximum 15 minutes of fuel.

One last time, I un-gently unpacked the dog from the back of the van to walk him. A border agent passed and I tearfully pleaded our case. “Well, we don’t need a broken down vehicle holding up this line.” He was so kind, really un-Dutch in his kindness and willingness to help. Within minutes, we were ushered around the line to front. We pulled up to the border entrance window. Wait, oops. The driver is on the wrong side. Ha ha ha! I was in the passenger seat. Let me just roll down the window to hand you the passports…oh, yeah. The window-roller-downer is broken. Ha ha ha. Aaron, if you just pull up a tad, I can open the door. Oops, sorry everyone in line behind us! Here ya go, border patrol lady. I stepped out and handed the agent our clutch of passports. “Your Visas haven’t yet been processed, so you’ll need to re-enter another time.” Wait, what now? We can’t come in? We chatted. We worked it out. Kindness and understanding from her and her colleagues that I cannot understate. Sorted, as the Scottish say. She let us through, although I’m not sure we entered 100% legally.

Bumbling and fumbling, we crossed the finish line to begin again. Stay left, keep the rubber side down and journey onward. Love, trust and (Gaelic) pixiedust.

Welcome to the United Kingdom. Mixed emotions.

Zipps invade Scotland by sea Author's note: This post was written in the summer of 2017. It's taken me nearly three years to grow the courage to post it publicly.

#Dutch #Family #Moving #Scotland #travel

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cutiecrates · 5 years ago

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Cutie Reviews: NMNL Oct 19

For this month Tokyo Catch has been running a promotion, where if you spent enough money to equal or value past 600 points, you receive a free Crane Game ticket per-day. I was disappointed to learn these couldn’t be stacked, but I figured may as well get use out of them by practicing. Now, I only found out about this like a week ago, and would you believe the other day I actually won something in one try?! I was completely stunned, I really wasn’t expecting that to happen.

I won’t spoil what it is though, when it comes in the mail I’ll take a pic :3 I’ll give you a hint though, it’s Pokemon related~

Meanwhile, I’m sure you see the 2 boxes here, right? If you’re new to the blog or missed the explanation for this “incident”- basically, Tokyo Treat accidentally sent me 2 of the same box (the copy came about a month later I think). I contacted them about this and they told me it was a mistake on behalf of their database, but I was free to keep it. So they are the same, but some variations are different.

“Are you ready to celebrate Halloween? In Japan, everone loves dressing up and even though scary and spooky looks are popular, so are the cute and colorful ones. That’s why we’ve included makeup, skincare, and more inspired by Harujuku, the trendiest place in Tokyo! We hope you’re excited for this month’s spooky beauty box!“

Contest

This month, the contest was based on Pumpkin-themed products for the face; such as eye shadow, a sleeping pack, and some duo pads for cleansing.

Glam Gift

Meanwhile, Kuromi has returned in the form of the special box in NMNL with a little of everything. I love the pouch and hand cream ♥

Horoscope

Of course, for Halloween this months featured “characters you should dress-up as for Halloween“. Which one did you get from this list?

Aries: Sailor Moon Taurus: Marilyn Monroe Gemini: Maleficent Cancer: Cruella de Vil Leo: Merida Virgo: Hermione Granger Libra: Hello Kitty Scorpio: Wednesday Adams Sagittarius: Harley Quin Capricorn: Elsa Aquarius: Zombie Alice Pisces: Ursula

I was so excited to get Hello Kitty ♥ You guys know how much I love her, although, I do wish they had included more anime/manga/video game characters.

Acupressure Face Mask

This is a great item if you’re going to be spending Halloween indoors or want to work on your glowing complexion. All you do is put it on for 1 minute a day and rub over the pressure points (I could be wrong, but the box has a picture of someone doing it), then you take it off. It has two sets of straps for a comfortable fit.

This is a product by Lucky Wink, the same people who made those adorably massage kitty pads we got a couple months back. Because I love cats I really like the concept behind these items, and I really like to use the kitty paws. I’m not 100% sure how I feel about this because it actually kind of hurts a little (I use the tighter straps though, if I use the loose ones I don’t feel like it does anything), and the skin around my eyes feel a bit tightened afterwards. But at the same time, I don’t hate it, and it looks like it has been having some effect on the skin. I also like that it doesn’t feel inconvenient to use.

Pumpkin Rejuvenate Mask & Bling Cat Eye Patch

We are lucky to get 2, really cute face masks this month. First up is this natural mask by Esfolio, made from pumpkin (and several other plants) to improve skin elasticity and glow, while leaving out harmful items like MIT, CMIT, parabens, mineral oil (I actually thought that was supposed to be good), and silicone.

I really like this one! It smells a little like flowery pumpkin (its a very faint pumpkin smell), and even though I wiped off most of the product, it adheres to the skin amazingly. This is always something I look for in a face mask because I find they work a lot better than the other ones- the ones I usually have to lay back for while using to make sure they stay on. With winter still in the process of passing, my skin has been needing something like this as of late, and its been feeling pretty nice since I used it a few days ago.

This is suggested as a “1 a day mask“ worn for 15-20 minutes. If you can find it I would recommend picking up a few.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Our other mask is once again for the eyes, and shaped like a cat :3 perfect for Halloween. By Tony Moly (a brand I really like!), these masks will moisturize, soften, and brighten the skin around your eyes, it’s the purrfect partner for the acupressure mask~

This one has a strong lotion-ish scent I found to be pleasant, and it’s kept on the same amount of time as the previous mask, 15-20 minutes. I decided to use this after the acupressure mask and it felt so soothing, I really liked it. My eyes were feeling tired and tight by that point, and I felt like they were more awake and comfortable afterwards.

I would recommend both of these masks, they both earned S+ (which is even better than an A) in my books!

Nail Stickers

Our next item is by a cute (patent pending) nail sticker pack from the brand Mew Girl. As you can see, this is our first variant in the box too; my original came with the juicy orange sheet, the copy got pinky flowers. Besides these 2, there was 5 other sheets we could get featuring their own funky, colorful, or sweet high quality stickers.

What I think is really fun is that not only do we get the little stickers, but we also have a sticker of the sheet name, and the frame image is also its own sticker, so you could use it for a journal, or just to draw a fun picture or add some flare to an item if you wanted.

The stickers are easy to peel and I really like them, the only issue I have is that I had to pretty much destroy the clear wrapping over one of the sheets just to get a closer look at it. I really don’t know why it was so hard considering how delicately I was doing it, but it was like glued to it, so it ripped apart with little effort. I think it will be okay though, because I keep my nail stuff in something away from all the dust and cat hair.

I plan on using them very soon when I do my nails; so keep an eye out for that in some upcoming pictures ;3

Happy Halloween Bath Powder

After a long night of enjoying the holiday or to take your mind off of things, we get this packet filled with a bright orange bath powder. It’s moisturizing for the skin and includes extracts of peach and vitamin E, and includes a delicious aroma of milk and Japanese tea.

Honestly, I don’t get that smell at all. To me it smells exactly like... have you ever tried those “healthy alternative fizzy water drink machines” where you add flavoring?. It smells like the orange soda flavor; I could pinpoint the scent immediately, but I really like it.

For as vibrant as this product is, there isn’t any sort of skin stainage after using it (at least none I could see, I only used a little of it in the sink, but I kept my hand in it a long time), and my skin felt pretty smooth and soft. You also get a lot of the powder and the scent lasts a good while afterwards.

Fate Grand Order x Sanrio makeup palette

I think I said this in the last review, but while I’m not big on crossovers, I really like any that involve Hello Kitty or Sanrio :D I was really intrigued, and excited, when I saw this fun item. As you can tell, both boxes came with Merlin, but there was also Mash Kyrielight, and Gilgamesh. I know nothing about this series, but I think out of the 3 choices (namely the palette colors), I definitely would have chose Merlin so I’m glad I got this one. But I kinda wish maybe I got 2 different ones.

I’ll just say now that I don’t know FGO, I heard of it but I never checked it out or anything. So I know nothing about this character, but they look interesting. I really wish we got more makeup items based on game/anime/manga series~

I love how this looks like a book, it’s so cute. I also like how the packaging has a little window on top, to demonstrate the colors inside. I didn’t include a demonstration pic like normal because the product is extremely light, so it didn’t show up well in the picture. My observations include:

Lips - the product barely added color (and I tried to apply a good amount of it). But it is smooth, it isn’t greasy like most lip x cheek products.

Cheeks - much more visible, you only need a little to blend for a rosy cheek look. It feels very light and again no grease.

Eye-shadow - extremely light, the two darker shades are just barely visible, but you get a love shimmer and its perfect if you like soft, natural shades. Again, it’s very light feeling too.

Keeping this in mind, I like this product. Not only because of the cuteness factor, but because I’m someone who prefers the shimmery softness and natural/cute pink hues, so it’s a pretty good palette for me. The makeup is light enough to avoid feeling like its being caked on too.

Pop Devil Color Treatment

Not gonna lie, this item confused me a bit; but I love its pastel coloring and cute character design. This came in 3 variations based on Korean trending colors at the time: ash pink, ash lilac, and ash violet.

Okay, so what confused me is that this is described as being a hair colorant while treating the hair as well. According to the book, you just apply it to damp hair and leave it in 5-15 minutes, then wash it out really well. As far as I know this does not color your hair. I’ve tried it multiple times and saw no difference, but to be fair to the product I don’t know if you’re supposed to be use the ENTIRE thing in once, or if there’s something we’re missing in the instructions.

However, as a treatment item, the hair I tested it on (I did test both colors btw) feels really smooth and soft, and its shinier; it just feels a little bit more healthy than it did prior to using it. It has a strong smell though (I can’t really describe it) and by the 10 minute mark of letting it set, I was beginning to feel a little out of it. The scent lingers after you wash it (as of now it’s been almost 4 hours), but its much more bearable by now.

Momocos Fruit Gloss

This is our final item, and if you’ve been here before you might recognize the pink and blue tube. Because a few months back in KiraKira Crate, we were given the Momocos Fruit Gloss :3 I REALLY like it, it’s one of my favorites to frequent because the wand feels nice, its smooth on the lips, and it smells wonderful~

For this month, besides the Cherry one, we could also get the Mango gloss, Orange, or Peach. Because I already had cherry, I sorta wish I got 2 different ones because I’d love to be one step closer to having a full collection (I’m sure its on the Japan Haul website tho, so I’ll probably be doing it soon enough ;3). But at the same time, it doesn’t hurt to have a spare. By now mine seems so dull in comparison, and the colors have began mixing.

However... I think this new one might also be broken somewhere. When I opened the box I saw spillage in it, and the tube is a bit sticky. I can’t find any sort of damage and it was sealed- but somehow it came out. What’s also funny is that the wand has a gradient, while my other one is vibrant pink.

The mango one is equally delicious in scent and taste, but I feel like out of the whole line it would be my least favorite. It’s not as good as cherry, and I’m pretty sure I will like the other 2 more... maybe when I get them I’ll do a small blog comparing them.

♥ Cutie Ranking ♥

Content - 4.5 out of 5. I loved everything, and all of the items work and only a couple of them are one-time uses, which is another quality I like. But I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get anything that was... mysterious, spooky, fun, like our prior Halloween makeup boxes. I also wish we got more variety as to where the items are used, like before.

Theme: 2.5 out of 5. Sadly I feel like this suffered. We honestly only got a couple items that bring to mind Halloween, while the rest just sort of... accent it. Like people link Cats with Halloween, but these items don’t make me think of Halloween, they make me think of cats.

Total Rank: 8 out of 10. The items are really good and I love each one, but I’m missing the variety. I like “all over beauty“, why should only my face feel good? The theme was spot-on for the month of October, but the items weren’t. As a side note though, since my Birthday is in October, I like how I got a lot of items that involve things I like. I would strongly recommend this box, unless you wanted something with a stronger Halloween vibe.

♥ Cutie Scale ♥

Palette - As sheer as the product is, I really like it. It’s very sweet looking, and the packaging is super-cute~

Eye Mask - It felt so good and it smells even better.

Bath Powder - I was a bit shocked by the vibrant (almost blood colored) colorant, but it smells yummy and it felt really nice on the skin.

Pumpkin Mask - It smelled good and it clung to the skin perfectly, which doesn’t happen often with face masks for me. I kinda want to get another one.

Acupressure Mask - It kinda hurts a bit to use, but like I said, I don’t hate it enough to not want to use it again.

Lip Gloss - As much as I like this brand, and the products; considering one made a mess (but its still usable) and I’m not extremely crazy about the mango one... its not my favorite.

Hair Treatment - It feels really nice in the hair, but unless I missed something it won’t actually change your hair color or tint or anything. It was kind of a letdown.

Nail Stickers - I just feel like I’m less-likely to use this one. I really like them though.

#cutie reviews #nmnl

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